पाटीगणित (श्रीधराचार्य - प्राचीन संस्कृत टीका एवं प्रो. कृपाशंकर शुक्ल सविस्तार व्याख्या)

viii INTRODUCTION
has been given by Skandasena and others under the name of
bhâgamâtâ.”¹
(3) “This method (of multiplication) by parts is taught
by Skandasena and others. In like manner the other methods
of multiplication such as tatstha and kapâṭa-sandhi, taught by the
same authors, may be inferred by the students’ own ingenuity.”²
These references to Skandasena are of great historical
importance, as they show that the methods of multiplication
known as kapâṭa-sandhi (‘door-junction method’), tatstha, and
khaṇḍa (‘multiplication by parts’), as well as the mixed fractions
called bhâgamâtâ occurred also in early works on Hindu pâṭî-
gaṇita. We also learn that the geometrical interpretation of an
arithmetic series with the help of a series-figure which has been
explained in detail in Śrîdharâcârya’s Pâṭîgaṇita (See Rules
79-84) is due to Skandasena or some earlier mathematician
and not to Śrîdharâcârya.
The works of the mathematicians Skandasena and others
mentioned by Pṛthûdakasvâmî are lost, and we are not in a
position to say anything regarding them with definiteness.
We have, however, recently discovered the following lines in a
palm-leaf manuscript of a work on mathematics, entitled
Gaṇitâvalî, which indicate that the works of Skandasena and
other early writers were generally found to be difficult and
unintelligible by the people :
स्कन्दसेनादिभिर्यानि कृतानि निखिलं पुरा ।
अतिगूढानि शास्त्राणि दुर्बोधानि बहु .. .... ॥
व्यवहारो न तैः सर्वैरधुना दृश्यते क्वचित् ।
तस्माद्विहाय·दुर्बोधान् विधीन् चाव्यवहारिकान् ॥
व्यवहारोऽद्यापि लोके तान् वक्ष्याम्यनुपूर्वशः ।³
¹ एवमिहाचार्येण पञ्चजातय एवोक्ताः । यत षष्ठीति तदात्मकैवातो गतार्थेति कृत्वा
नोक्ता । स्कन्दसेनादिभिस्तस्या नाम कृतं भागमातेति । See Pṛthûdakasvâmî’s comm.
on BrSpSi, xii. 9
² See Pṛthûdakasvâmî’s comm. on BrSpSi, xii. 55.
³ See A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Collections
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta (1945), p. 80, Ms. No. 6924,
Gaṇitâvalî, verses 9-11 (i).