Aryabhata

A 23-year-old wrote that the Earth spins, over a thousand years before Galileo faced trial for saying something similar. This article covers Aryabhata, and the text that made that claim.

The 23-Year-Old Who Said Earth Spins

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476 CE

Aryabhata’s Birth

Associated with Kusumapura, near present-day Patna

499 CE

The Aryabhatiya

Written at age 23, in 118 verses

π ≈ 3.1416

Pi Approximation

Calculated as 62832 divided by 20000

1975

The Satellite

India’s first satellite is named Aryabhata

The correction: Aryabhata used zero as a placeholder, but not an explicit symbol for it.

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Timeline

• Aryabhata was born in 476 CE, and is associated with Kusumapura, near present-day Patna.
• In 499 CE, at age 23, he composed the Aryabhatiya, a 118-verse Sanskrit text on mathematics and astronomy.
• In it, he calculated pi as approximately 3.1416, using the fraction 62832 over 20000.
• In 1975, India’s first satellite was named Aryabhata in his honour.

Must Know

• The Aryabhatiya recorded that Earth rotates on its axis, from west to east, causing the apparent movement of stars.
• Aryabhata correctly explained that the Moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight, not their own light.
• He described a place-value (decimal) system, where each position’s value increases tenfold moving left.
• He was among the first known mathematicians to work with Diophantine equations, a class of algebraic problems.
• The Aryabhatiya also correctly explained solar and lunar eclipses as shadows, rather than mythological events.

Good to Know

• Aryabhata used zero as an implicit placeholder in his numbering system, but did not use an explicit symbol for it.
• A full mathematical treatment of zero, as its own number with defined operations, came later from the mathematician Brahmagupta.
• Some sources place Aryabhata’s birthplace further south, near present-day Kerala, rather than at Kusumapura itself.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. In which year did Aryabhata compose the Aryabhatiya, at age 23?

476 CE

320 CE

1200 CE

499 CE

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Great to Know

• Crediting Aryabhata with “inventing zero” overstates his actual contribution. His real innovation was the place-value system, with zero functioning as a placeholder rather than a fully defined number.
• Explaining eclipses as shadows, not mythology, shows Aryabhata was working from observation and reasoning. This set his astronomy apart from purely religious explanations common in his era.
• Naming India’s first satellite after him, in 1975, deliberately linked a modern space programme to a much older scientific tradition, not just to contemporary engineering.
• His work shows mathematics and astronomy weren’t separate disciplines in ancient India. The same text that approximated pi also explained planetary motion and eclipses.