A thread on Acharya Pingala's contribution to the "evolution of Zero" .

Acharya Pingala was the first scholar who explicitly mentioned Shunya (i.e zero) in his work. Acharya Pingala was born in 3rd/4th century BC (around 2500 years ago). According to few ancient texts he was believed to be the younger brother of Maharshi Panini.

Pingala was a great mathematician. While reciting Veda, Pingala observed that these shlikas were in definite meters. He analysed them mathematically in his book Chandshastra. He stated that there are 7 prominent meteres used in veda which could be classified as following.

Gayatri- 24 syllables

Usnik- 28 syllables

Anustuv - 32 syllables

Brahti- 36 syllables

Pankiti - 40 syllable

Tristubh -44 syllables

Jagati -48 syllables

He also defined pada and said that one fourth part of each metere was called pada.

Pingala further used Shunya & Dvi to arrange these verses in a meter. While defining Shunya he wrote :
“Gayatri Chanda's one pada has 6 syllables. When the number is halved it becomes 3. Remove one from three and make it half to get 1. Remove one from it, thus Zero is gotten "

Above Sutra can be explained in simple terms as:

In Gayatri Chanda there are 24 letters.

Divide 24 by 2, its divisible so write dvi and remainder is 12,

divide 12 by 2, its divisible so write dvi and remainder is 6

divide 6 by 2, its divisible so write dvi and remainder is 3

divide 3 by 2, its not divisible so write shunya and subtract 1 from it which gives 2.

divide 2 by 2, its divisible so write dvi and remainder is 1

divide 1 by 2, not divisible so write shunya and subtract 1 from it which gives nothing.

So According to Pingala, Gayatri Chanda could be written as

"dvi dvi dvi shunya dvi shunya"

It was also the earliest reference of binary system in the world, a modified version of which we use in computer programming now a days.

More about Pingala's binary system later.

#IndiaThatIsBharat #ForgottenIndia #History #Vedic #maths @narendramodi @smritiirani @rsprasad @Swamy39