ब्राह्मस्फुटसिद्धान्त (ब्रह्मगुप्त - शून्य, कुट्टक, बीजगणित एवं सम्पूर्ण २१ अध्याय सान्वय सटीक)

CHAPTER IX
Brahmagupta as an
Algebraist
Ancient Indian name for algebra is Bījagaṇita where
bīja means element or analysis and gaṇita stands for the science
of calculation. As early as 860 A.D., Pṛthūdaka Svāmī used this
epithet for algebra in his commentary. Brahmagupta calls
algebra as Kuṭṭakagaṇita or merely kuṭṭaka, a term which was
later on used for "pulveriser" which deals with that special sec-
tion of algebra which is connected with indeterminate equations
of the first degree. Algebra is often also known as avyakta-
gaṇita or the calculations with unknowns, in contrast to arith-
metic which was known as vyakta-gaṇita or the calculations with
knowns.
Algebra goes to Europe from India
In the history of mathematical sciences, as Colebrooke
rightly remarks, it has long been a question to whom the inven-
tion of algebraic analysis is due. There is no doubt that Europe
got algebra from Arabs mediately or immediately. But the
Arabs themselves scarcely pretend to the discovery of algebra.
Colebrooke says that they were not in general inventors but
scholars during the short period of their successful culture of the
sciences; and the germ at least of the algebraic analysis is to be
found among the Greeks in an age not precisely determined, but
more than probably anterior to the earliest dawn of civilisation
among the Arabs; and this science in a more advanced state
subsisted among the Hindus prior to the earliest disclosure of it
by the Arabians to modern Europe. (Colebrooke: Disserta-
tion on the Algebra of the Hindus)¹.
Colebrooke based his observations on the texts he could
procure for his studies. These were: Bhāskara II's Bījagaṇita or
Vījagaṇita (1150 A.D.) and Līlāvatī (1150 A.D.), the Gaṇitādhyāya
and Kuṭṭakādhyāya of Brahmagupta in his famous treatise the
Brahma Siddhānta or rather the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (628

1. Colebrooke, H. T., Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II, 1872, p. 418.