Madhava
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Madhava: Another name of Vishnu
Madhava is another name for Vishnu and appears as the 72nd, 167th and 735th names in the Vishnu sahasranama.
- According to Adi Sankara' s commentary on the Vishnu sahasranama, Madhava means the consort of Ma, or Mahalaksmi, the Mother of the universe. Alternatively, it means on who is fit to be known through Madhu-vidya or can mean One who is the Lord of "Ma" or knowledge.
Additionally, it means One who was born in the clan of Madhu. Reference: Cited from Sri Vishnu Sahasranama, commentary by Sri Sankaracharya, trasnlated by Swami Tapasyananda, available at Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. available at India web site: http://www.sriramakrishnamath.org and US site: http://www.vedanta.com.
Madhava: a Mathematician
Madhava (माधव) of Sangamagrama (1350-1425) was a major mathematician of the Kerala school who is considered the father of mathematical analysis for having taken the decisive step from the finite procedures of ancient mathematics to treat their limit-passage to infinity, which is the kernel of modern classical analysis.
He invented the series popularly attributed to James Gregory, three centuries before Gregory. Using this series he gave a value of the number pi:3.14159265359 - correct to 11 decimals. His techniques were expanded upon by the mathematicians of the Kerala school which made major inroads into Calculus that were not repeated anywhere in the world until the 17th century by Newton and Leibnitz (who are popularly known as the inventors of calculus).
See also
External link
- Madhava's mathematical contributions
- Neither Newton nor Leibnitz - The Pre-History of Calculus and Celestial Mechanics in Medieval Kerala