Bronze bust of Aryabhatta unveiled at UNESCO Headquarters

In Uncategorized
April 8, 2016

Union Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani unveiled a bronze bust of the ancient Indian mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata, which is a gift from India, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Smriti Irani was attending the high-level segment of the ‘International Conference on the Zero‘. The event was held at UNESCO headquarters to celebrate the rich and remarkable history of mathematics in collaboration with India.

Irani participated in the high level segment, the Leaders’ Forum, held at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris on November 16-17, 2015 as a part of the 38th session of the UNESCO General Conference.
During this visit, the Minister also held a meeting with the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, to discuss the full range of India’s cooperation with the organization.
As a follow up to the discussions held during the bilateral meeting, for the first time, both the leaders issued Joint Statement on the occasion of the National Mathematics Day, i.e. 22nd December, which is the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the great Indian intellectual and mathematician. Both the leaders agreed to organize in 2016 a Conference on ‘Zero’ at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Did You Know?

Aryabhata was the first of the major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy.
Aryabhata is the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy, some of which are lost.
His major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical literature and has survived to modern times. The mathematical part of theAryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry, and spherical trigonometry. It also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums-of-power series, and a table of sines.
India’s first satellite Aryabhata and the lunar crater Aryabhata are named in his honour. An Institute for conducting research in astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric sciences is the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) near Nainital, India.