Indian binary numbers and the Katapayadi notation

Van Nooten has well summarized1 the description of binary numbers by Piṇgala Nāga in his Chandaḥśāstra2, here represented by CS. According to an old Indian tradition, Piṇgala was the younger brother of More...

Indian History in Perspective – 4: India’s Enduring Contributions to Humanity

In the previous part, we had talked about trans-oceanic international trade routes between India and eastern horn of Africa going back to almost 20,000 years, something which is at once mind-boggling, awe-inspiring More...

An Open Letter to Ananya Vajpeyi on Sanskrit

Dear Ananya, On a first look, I could have safely ignored your article published in World Policy Journal as just another leftist rant, but since you mentioned JNU and its Sanskrit center, I had to jot down some More...

Pāṇini, Xuanzang, and Tolkāppiyaṉ: Some legends and history

Pāṇini stands at the pinnacle of Hindu intellectual achievement. His sūtra-pāṭha may be considered a monument in the same league as the invention of the śūṇya-based numeral system for which the Hindus More...

Seminar on Intellectual Traditions of Ancient India: Day 3

Day 3 of the Seminar on Intellectual Traditions of Ancient India started with a talk on “Cryptographic Poetry in Sanskrit” by Professor K.S.Kannan. One elementary technique that has been put into a high More...