Aryabhata

Aryabhata, also Aryabhatta (476-550?), Hindu astronomer and mathematician, born in Pātaliputra (modern Patna, India). He was known to the Arabs as Arjehir, and his writings had considerable influence on Arabic science. Aryabhata held that the earth rotates on its axis, and he gave the correct explanation of eclipses of the sun and the moon. In mathematics he solved the quadratic equation, although many of his geometric formulas were incorrect. His only extant work is the Aryabhatiya, a series of astronomical and mathematical rules and propositions, written in Sanskrit verse.