Thursday, November 16, 2006

Vedic Mathematics

Vedas are the knowledge houses and the pillars of our dharma and culture. Each sloka embeds meaning in a multi dimensional way. Many Rushis did research on these Vedic content and each one interpreted Vedas in their own way. (The very reason for so many Upanishads)

Unfortunately the research done by the Rushis (mostly on the spiritual fronts) is not transfered properly to the generations later.
Research was limited to the Sishya brunda and/or passed to the next generation from father to son. Which dis-integrated over a period of time.

Also our ancestors never bothered about proving something that was derived (Probably they considered its too obvious which we are not able to interpret now) and saving the content other than transferring from one mind to other.

Vedic Mathematics comes from Atharvana Veda which deals with Science. Vedic mathematics was explored by His Holiness Jagadguru Sankaracharya Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaja of Puri math. (Govardhana Matha). He explored the cryptic Vedic mysteries from Atharvana Veda.

In Sri Shankaracharya's words:

"The very word 'Veda' has a derivational meaning, i.e. the fountainhead and illimitable store-house of all knowledge. This derivation, in effect, means, connotes and implies that the Vedas should contain within themselves all the knowledge needed by mankind relating not only to the so-called 'Spiritual' matters but also to those usually described as purely 'secular', 'temporal' or 'wordly' and also to the means required by humanity as such for the achievement of all-round, complete and perfect success in all conceivable directions and that there can be no adjectival or restrictive epithet calculated to limit that knowledge down in any sphere, any direction or any respect whatsoever.
In other words, it connotes and implies that our ancient Indian Vedic lore should be all-around, complete and perfect and able to throw the fullest necessary light on all matters which any aspiring seeker after knowledge can possibly seek to be enlightened on"

There are 4 Vedas, 4 Upavedas and 6 Vedangas.
Swamiji Discovered 16 Sutras, based on which the Whole Vedic Mathematics is derived, comes under Parisistas for Atharvana Veda.

Swamiji, at an age of 20, completed MA in 7 subjects (Sanskrit, Philosophy, English, Mathematics, History and Science) which was a record at that time.

He worked as a principal before he moved to Sringeri for doing research in Vedas.
He spent 8 years reading the manu-scripts while doing thapa in the near-by forest at Sringeri, during which he wrote 16 volumes based on all these 16 sutras covering many areas of Mathematics existing now and Mathematics which is not yet known to this world.

Unfortunately these 16 volumes which he wrote were deposited in a near-by disciples house, which were lost when Swamiji wanted to collect it back after few years.

Still Swamiji mentioned that its all in his mind and can re-write the work again.
He started his work with an Introductory volume (which is the only source for Vedic Mathematics now), followed by 16 volumes which he apparently couldn't complete because his health deteriorated so badly and couldn't complete before he attained Mukthi.

I will not discuss about the 16 Sutras he derived as many are available on internet.
But would like to emphasize on the manifold and multifarious meanings of slokas in our Vedic literature. The first step in his success is to understood the Vedic Numerical code in Vedas.

Ancients, when big numbers are needed to represent, they didn't use symbols rather used the letters of Sanskrit to represent. And few numbers are so important that they needed to get it by heart.
So Sanskrit verses were written to easily by heart and remember such numbers.

heres the key which he gave:
कादि नव, टादि नव, पादि पसचक, याद्यष्तक क्ष: सून्याम

ka and the following 8 letters; ta and the following 8 letters; pa and the following 4 letters;
ya and the following seven letters; and ksa for zero.

to elaborate a bit more

The code used is as follows:
The Sanskrit consonants
ka, ta, pa, and ya all denote 1;
kha, tha, pha, and ra all represent 2;
ga, da, ba, and la all stand for 3;
Gha, dha, bha, and va all represent 4;
gna, na, ma, and sa all represent 5;
ca, ta, and sa all stand for 6;
cha, tha, and sa all denote 7;
ja, da, and ha all represent 8;
jha and dha stand for 9; and
ka means zero.

Vowels make no difference and it is left to the author to select a particular consonant or vowel at each step. This great latitude allows one to bring about additional meanings of his own choice. For example kapa, tapa, papa, and yapa all mean 11.

By a particular choice of consonants and vowels one can compose a poetic hymn with double or triple meanings. Here is an actual sutra of spiritual content, as well as secular mathematical significance:


गोपी भा ग्या माधुवरत-श्रृगी शोदधीसंधिग
खाला जीवितखाटाव गलाहालारसंधर
(I used quillpad to convert. Not able to get appropriately. so again giving in English)

gopi bhagya madhuvrata
srngiso dadhi sandhiga
khala jivita khatava
gala hala rasandara

While this verse is a petition to Lord Krishna, when learning it one can also learn the value of pi/10 (i.e. the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter divided by 10) to 32 decimal places. It has a self-contained master-key for extending the review to any number of decimal places. The translation is as follows: "O Lord anointed with the yoghurt of the milkmaids' worship (Krishna), O saviour of the fallen, O master of Shiva, please protect me."

At the same time, by application of the consonant code given above, this verse directly yields the decimal equivalent of pi divided by 10: pi/10 = 0.31415926535897932384626433832792. Thus, while offering mantric praise to Godhead in devotion, by this method one can also add to memory significant secular truths.


Some Universities which are working on Vedic Mathematics
(I searched in google to find this. Maybe there are more Universities working on this which I don't know)
http://www.floridavediccollege.edu (chk out the people working in this clge. none are Indians)
http://www.mum.edu
http://www.cuhcs.org.uk
http://www.matrixedu.org
http://www.clarku.edu

some of the papers/research work based on Vedic Mathematics.
(Only the papers which I was able to find are listed here)
* The Implementation of Vedic Algorithms in Digital Signal Processing*
* Design and analysis of a novel parallel square and cube architecture based on ancient Indian Vedic mathematics
* VLSI implementation of RSA encryption system using ancient Indian Vedic mathematics
* Vedic multiplier with fast carry optimization
* Presenting Proofs Using Logicographic Symbols
* An efficient method of elliptic curve encryption using Ancient Indian Vedic Mathematics

books:
I don't want to copy paste here. Search Vedic Mathematics in amazon.com and see how many books are available.

I would suggest you to buy the Vedic Mathematics book by Jagadguru Swami Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaja from Motilal Banarsidas publications. (A 125/- book, I guess, which the source for many books available in bookstores)

8 comments:

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The Vedic Maths Forum India
http://vedicmathsindia.blogspot.com

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http://vedicmathsindia.blogspot.com

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Anonymous said...

3 How
1 I
4 wish
1 I
5 could
9 remember
2 pi

Is there a graphical way of calculating pi? Like those vedic crosses on you-tube!

Chandrashekhar said...

Hello Sriram sir you have provided very useful info it seems you are interested in Vedic mathematics i will provide a link there you can find E books of Vedic mathematics

http://tinyurl.com/2brcqxs

Thank you very much

chandrashekhar Panakanti

Jesse said...

Hello,

gopi bhagya madhuvrata
srngiso dadhi sandhiga
khala jivita khatava
gala hala rasandara

I find this verse fascinating, but I cannot find a source. Some say it is from "Vedic Mathematics" by Swami Shri Bharati which was printed for the first time in 1965, but I can't seem to find it here:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/247802638/Vedic-Mathematics-%C5%9Ar%C4%AB-Bh%C4%81rat%C4%AB-K%C5%97%C5%9F%C5%86a-T%C4%ABrtha-Mah%C4%81r%C4%81j%C4%81

Jesse said...

found it now on page 362, but no reference to an older source