Aryabhata,
also called Aryabhata
I or Aryabhata
the Elder, (born 476, possibly Ashmaka or Kusumapura, India),
astronomer and the earliest Indian mathematician whose work and
history are available to modern scholars.
Aryabhata's
definitions for cosine, sine, inverse sine, verse sine gave birth to
Trigonometry. He was one of the first mathematicians to determine sine and
versine (1-cosx) tables from 0 to 90 degrees in the interval of 3.75 degrees to
an accuracy of 4 decimal places.
The modern names of
Trigonometric functions, sine and cosine are derived from the Sanskrit words
“jya” and “Kojya” which were introduced by him.
The geocentric model of the solar system was described by Aryabhata,
scientifically explaining the solar and lunar eclipses. He also estimated
the length of the year to be 365 days 6 hours 12 minutes 30 seconds which only
deviates from today’s calculations by 3 minutes 20 seconds.