six stanzas there is a benediction wishing progressive prosperity to the rule of this king. The results of modern Indian epigraphical research show that this king Amōghavarṣa Nṛupatuṅga reigned from A.D.814 or 815 to A.D. 577 or 878.[*] Since it appears probable that the author of the Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha was in some way attached to the court of this Rāṣṭrakūta king Amōghavarsa Nṛupatuṅga, we may consider the work to belong to the middle of the ninth century of the Christian era. It is now generally accepted that, among well-known early Indian mathematicians Āryabhata, lived in the fifth, Varāhamihira in the sixth, Brahmagupta in the seventh and Bhaskaracarya, in the twelfth century of the Christian era; and chronologically, therefore, Mahāvīrācārya comes between Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracarya . This in itself is a point of historical noteworthiness ; and the further fact that the author of the Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha belonged to the Kanarese speaking portion of South India in his days and was a Jaina in religion is calculated to give an additional importance to the historical value of his work . Like the other mathematicians mentioned above, Mahāvīrācārya was not primarily an astronomer, although he knew well and has himself remarked about the usefulness of mathematics for the study of astronomy. The study of mathematics seems to have been popular among Jaina scholars; it forms, in fact, one of their four anuyōgas or auxiliary sciences indirectly serviceable for the attainment of the salvation of soul-liberation known as mōksa.
A comparison of the Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha , with the corresponding portions in the Brahmasphuṭa-siddhānta of
^* Vide Nilgunā Inscription of the time of Amōgovarsa I, A.D. 806; edited by J.F.Fleet, PH.D., C.I.E., in Epigraphic Indica, vol. VI, pp. 98–108,
