Āryabhaṭa (c. 920 – c. 1000)^[1] was an Indianmathematician andastronomer, and the author of theMaha-Siddhanta. The numeral II is given to him to distinguish him from the earlier and more influentialĀryabhaṭa I. Scholars are unsure of when exactly he was born, thoughDavid Pingree dates of his main publications between 950–1100.^[1][2] The manuscripts of hisMaha-Siddhanta have been discovered fromGujarat,Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh, andBengal, so he probably lived in northern India.^[2]

Aryabhata wroteMaha-Siddhanta, also known asArya-siddhanta,Sanskrit language work containing 18 chapters. It summarizes alost work attributed to Parashara, and is probably based onShridhara's work.^[2]

The initial twelve chapters deal with topics related tomathematical astronomy and cover the topics thatIndian mathematicians of that period had already worked on. The various topics that have been included in these twelve chapters are: thelongitudes of the planets, lunar and solareclipses, the estimation of eclipses, the lunar crescent, the rising and setting of the planets, association of the planets with each other and with the stars.

The next six chapters of the book includes topics such asgeometry,geography andalgebra, which were applied to calculate the longitudes of the planets. In about twenty verses in the treatise, he gives elaborate rules to solve theindeterminate equation: by = ax + c. These rules have been applied to a number of different cases such as when c has a positive value, when c has a negative value, when the number of the quotients is an even number, when this number of quotients is an odd number, etc.

Aryabhata II also deduced a method to calculate thecube root of a number, but his method was already given by Aryabhata I, many years earlier. Indian mathematicians were very keen to give the correctsine tables since they played a vital role to calculate the planetary positions as accurately as possible. Aryabhata II played a vital role in it by constructing a sine table, which was accurate up to five decimal places.

• O'Connor, John J.;Robertson, Edmund F.,"Aryabhata II",MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,University of St Andrews

• Vagiswari, A. (2007)."Āryabhaṭa II". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.).The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. p. 64.ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)

• 10th-century Indian astronomers
• 920s births
• 1000s deaths
• 10th-century Indian mathematicians

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from July 2019
• Year of birth uncertain