Pingala

Pingala
Bornunclear, 3rd or 2nd century BCE[1]
Academic work
EraMaurya or post-Maurya
Main interestsSanskrit prosody, Indian mathematics, Sanskrit grammar
Notable worksAuthor of the "Chandaḥśāstra" (also called Pingala-sutras), the earliest known treatise on Sanskrit prosody. Creator of Pingala's formula.
Notable ideasmātrāmeru, binary numeral system.

Acharya Pingala[2] (Sanskrit: पिङ्गल, romanizedPiṅgala; c. 3rd–2nd century BCE)[1] was an ancient Indian poet and mathematician,[3] and the author of the Chhandaḥśāstra (Sanskrit: छन्दःशास्त्र, lit.'A Treatise on Prosody'), also called the Pingala-sutras (Sanskrit: पिङ्गलसूत्राः, romanizedPiṅgalasūtrāḥ, lit.'Pingala's Threads of Knowledge'), the earliest known treatise on Sanskrit prosody.[4]

The Chandaḥśāstra is a work of eight chapters in the late Sūtra style, not fully comprehensible without a commentary. It has been dated to the last few centuries BCE.[5][6] In the 10th century CE, Halayudha wrote a commentary elaborating on the Chandaḥśāstra. According to some historians Maharshi Pingala was the brother of Pāṇini, the famous Sanskrit grammarian, considered the first descriptive linguist.[7] Another think tank identifies him as Patanjali, the 2nd century CE scholar who authored Mahabhashya.

  1. ^ a b Plofker, Kim (2009). Mathematics in India. Princeton University Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-0-691-12067-6.
  2. ^ Singh, Parmanand (1985). "The So-called Fibonacci Numbers in Ancient and Medieval India" (PDF). Historia Mathematica. 12 (3). Academic Press: 232. doi:10.1016/0315-0860(85)90021-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-07-24. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  3. ^ "Pingala – Timeline of Mathematics". Mathigon. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  4. ^ Vaman Shivaram Apte (1970). Sanskrit Prosody and Important Literary and Geographical Names in the Ancient History of India. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 648–649. ISBN 978-81-208-0045-8.
  5. ^ R. Hall, Mathematics of Poetry, has "c. 200 BC"
  6. ^ Mylius (1983:68) considers the Chandas-shāstra as "very late" within the Vedānga corpus.
  7. ^ François & Ponsonnet (2013: 184).