[world-vedic] VEDIC MATH

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The Times of India - Friday 16 July 1999

Via VNN

By Sanghamitra Chakraborty

 

NEW DELHI: Want to be a Shakuntala Devi? Say, in about an hour? Try

this. It's fast and it's handy. You can solve a mathematical problem

before your teacher can say Euclid. No, it's not a palm-top computer.

It's Vedic math.

 

Hidden under centuries of debris, Vedic mathematics, once born out of

India's long and glorious mathematical heritage, is now back by a

process of reverse brain drain. Bharati Krishna Tirthaji, the former

Shankaracharya of Puri, who delved into ancient Vedic texts and

established the techniques of this system through a pioneering work,

Vedic Mathematics, took it to the United Kingdom in 1960s. There it was

hailed as a new alternative system of mathematics and is now taught in

some schools, MBA courses and to economics students.

 

Vedic mathematics is a unique system of calculations based on simple

rules and principles, with which any mathematical problem - be it

arithmetic, algebra, geometry or trigonometry - can be solved orally.

It is termed Vedic because it was derived from the ancient Vedic texts.

 

The basis of this system are sutras - 16 one-line aphorisms originally

written in Sanskrit - which can be easily memorised. Once you have

learnt them by heart, you can solve any long problem using the sutras

orally, like Shakuntala Devi often does.

 

Dr L M Singhvi, the former High Commissioner of India in the UK, who

endorses this system wholeheartedly, describes a sutra rather cogently:

''A single sutra would generally encompass a varied and wide range of

particular applications and may be likened to a programmed chip of our

computer age.''

 

For instance, if you want to calculate the square of 35, you will have

to use the Ekadhikena Purvena sutra. Its literal meaning: by one more

than the one before. The rule says since the first digit is 3 and the

second one is 5, you will first have to multiply 3 (3 +1), that is 3X4

, which is equal to 12 and then multiply 5 with 5, which is 25. The

answer is 1225. Now, you can try multiplication of all numbers ending

with five using this method. Similarly, other sutras lay down such

handy rules to arrive at answers.

 

A Delhi-based forum called International Research Foundation for Vedic

Mathematics and Indian Heritage, which promotes value-based education,

is organizing lectures on Vedic math in Delhi schools through this

week. Students of Cambridge School, Amity International, DAV Public

School, Tagore International and others will attend lectures by the

Nagpur-based expert, Dr N K Jain Chowdhury.

 

Explains R P Jain, convener of the forum: ''It is already being used by

many IIT students in place of calculators.'' Since examinations are the

cornerstone of a student's life, this may well become the new mantra

for generation Y.