Person: Manava
Manava was the author of one of the Sulbasutras: documents containing some of the earliest Indian mathematics.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- The Manava Sulbasutra is not the oldest (the one by Baudhayana is older) nor is it one of the most important, there being at least three Sulbasutras which are considered more important.
- We do not know Manava's dates accurately enough to even guess at a life span for him, which is why we have given the same approximate birth year as death year.
- Manava would have not have been a mathematician in the sense that we would understand it today.
- Undoubtedly he wrote the Sulbasutra to provide rules for religious rites and it would appear an almost certainty that Manava himself would be a Vedic priest.
- It is clear from the writing that Manava, as well as being a priest, must have been a skilled craftsman.
- Manava's Sulbasutra, like all the Sulbasutras, contained approximate constructions of circles from rectangles, and squares from circles, which can be thought of as giving approximate values of π.
Born about 750 BC, India. Died about 690 BC, India.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Ancient Indian, Origin India
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
