>From another group
*Arjuna’s Arrows and Algebra !* *Bhāskarāchārya (1114 -1185 CE), has been called the greatest mathematician of medieval India.* He was born in Karnataka, and is *considered the progenitor of Differential Calculus - 500 years before Newton and Leibniz !* *Bhāskarāchārya wrote at least four mathematical treatises in Sanskrit.* *One of them, titled Leelavati, contains many algebra-related teasers, which have become the subject of significant research by scholars.* *These teasers are in the form of shlokas which pose the problems.* *The shlokas need to be interpreted correctly to decipher the meaning in order to find the solution.* *Take a look at the shloka displayed below.* *पार्थ: कर्णवधाय मार्गणगणं क्रुद्धो रणे संदधे तस्यार्धेन निवार्य तच्छरगणं मूलैश्चतुभिर्हयान् |* *शल्यं षड्भिरथेषुभिस्त्रिभिरपि च्छत्रं ध्वजं कार्मुकम् चिच्छेदास्य शिरः शरेण कति ते यानर्जुनः संदधे ७६* *The direct meaning of this shloka is a question formulated as follows:* *During the battle between Arjuna and Karna in the Mahabharata, Arjuna released some arrows. Of the released arrows :* 👉 *Half were consumed in stopping the arrows coming from Karna* 👉 *4 times the squareroot of the arrows were consumed to control the horses of Karna's chariot* 👉 *6 were for gaining control over Shalya, the charioteer of Karna. (Shalya was the maternal uncle of Nakula and Sahadeva)* 👉 *3 were used to take on the umbrella and flag of the chariot and the bow of Karna.* 👉 *Finally Karna was killed by a single arrow.* *So how many arrows were released by Arjuna in the battle ?* *Basic algebra easily yields the answer to this question, if the equation is formulated correctly.* *Let the total number of arrows be X. The statements above can be reduced to the algebraic form* *X = X/2 + 4√X + 6 + 3 + 1* *Solving the above, we get the value of X=100 for the total number of arrows shot by Arjuna.* *However, the fun is not just in getting the algebra right. There is so much hidden information in this shloka. If we pause to think a little deeper about the hidden meanings :* 👉 *Even for an atirathi like Arjuna, it took as many as 50 arrows to stop the arrows of Karna - it tells us about the skills of Karna.* 👉 *That the horses needed 40 arrows to immobilize the chariot tells us about the kind of training given to the horses in the battle field.* 👉 *When even the horses needed 40 arrows, that Shalya the charioteer surrendered with just 6 tells us that he is favouring Arjuna.* 👉 *3 arrows to take the chariot and the bow shows the helplessness of Karna.* 👉 *Once everything is in control the enemy should vanquished in just a single arrow.* *So the rules and skills required to win such a battle operationally are :* 👉 *Firstly, stop the enemy fire-power ;* 👉 *Second, immobilize the enemy by taking on his mobility- the horses and the driver ;* 👉 *Thirdly signal to him his helplessness by destroying the carriage,* 👉 *And finally eliminate the enemy himself.* *If we analyze the same shloka on the spiritual side :* 👉 *To attain ultimate liberation, firstly one needs to control over his / her personal desires, this being a very difficult task, thus takes 50 arrows.* 👉 *Then take control over 5 senses and sensual pleasures indicated by the horses. The 40 arrows needed to do this indicate the difficulty of the task.* 👉 *Gaining control over 5 senses will lead one to the control over the consciousness (manas, thought, ego) indicated by the driver.* 👉 *If all the foregoing are done, achieving the ultimate liberation (moksha) should be relatively easy.* 👉 *This is the greatness of our ancestors in sanatana dharma - Vidya integrated with Values.* 👉 *Just a single shloka includes so much of knowledge !* 👈 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.. Sent from my iPhone -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/B3FEE122-CBA7-42A0-BF8E-F3C8F0C8FAB2%40gmail.com.
