Exhibition brings alive India’s glorious past in mathematics

Centuries before computers came, Indian scholars were writing poetry that doubled as mathematics. On palm-leaf manuscripts, verses carried rules of algebra, rhythms mirrored binary codes, and temple diagrams revealed geometry in stone. These ideas travelled across cultures, shaping astronomy, trade and even the algorithms we use today.

This legacy comes alive in The Mathematical Sciences: South Asia’s Contributions, an exhibition at the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi. Inaugurated on Thursday by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, the exhibition will continue till September 14 at the Art Gallery, Kamaladevi Complex.

Curated under SAMHiTA: South Asian Manuscript Histories and Textual Archive, an IIC initiative with the Centre for Traditional Indian Knowledge Systems and Skills (CTIKS), IIT Bombay, the exhibition showcases reproductions of landmark manuscripts in mathematics and astronomy, tracing how ideas developed in India were exchanged with Central Asia and Europe and applied across disciplines.

One highlight is among the oldest commentaries on Aryabhatta’s Aryabhatiya, a 5th century text that laid the foundations for trigonometry and astronomy. Another is Ganitasarasangraha, the first systematic treatise on mathematics. Also on display are translations of works by Islamic scholars al-Khwarizmi and Al-Biruni—who transmitted Indian numerals and methods westward—and astronomical tables by Nityananda Misra and Raja Sawai Jai Singh, showing the precision of early modern Indian science.

But the exhibition moves well beyond. It reveals how mathematics was part of daily life: used by accountants to keep trade records, by artisans in design and measurement, and by temple architects to achieve perfect proportions. Visitors also encounter panels showing how rhythm in Sanskrit verse anticipates binary structures, how geometry underpinned sacred architecture, and how cycles of time informed astronomical models.

In one corner, poetic meters are displayed alongside modern binary codes—bridging the ancient and the contemporary.

“Mathematics in India was never separate from culture — it was a way of seeing the world,” explained Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan, who led the opening walkthrough. The exhibition makes this visible, showing mathematics not just as abstract theory but as a living language of poetry, art, architecture and music.

Alongside the exhibition, the IIC hosted an international conference, South Asia’s Manuscript Traditions and Mathematical Contributions, where Fields Medal recipient Prof Manjul Bhargava delivered the keynote address on India’s role in shaping global mathematics. Scholars from India and abroad explored how concepts developed here were shared across regions and how they continue to resonate today.

As visitors pause before palm-leaf folios, astronomical tables and temple diagrams, the exhibition reminds them that mathematics in South Asia was never confined to numbers. It was inscribed in verse, sung in rhythms and carved in stones.