Performing Multiplications Beyond the Text of Some Sanskrit Mathematical Commentaries

Résumé En

Sanskrit mathematical commentaries contain many different kinds of performance, some of which are embedded in the lists of the solved examples they almost always contain. The resolutions of problems contained in these lists of solved examples include representations of a working surface on which computations would have been carried out or diagrams drawn. This chapter discusses how the execution of multiplications can be reconstructed with the help of these representations. I examine how these representations appear in manuscripts and editions of these texts. I also reflect on the material objects on which and with which these multiplications may have been performed. The discussion is based on Pṛthūdaka's (fl. 850) commentary on the Theoretical Treatise of the Corrected Brāhma School (Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta 628), the anonymous undated commentary on Śrīdhara's (c. 800) Board Mathematics (Pāṭīgaṇita) 1 and An Introductory Commentary on Arithmetics to Awaken the Young (Bālabodhāṅkavṛtti), Śambhudāsa's (1428/1429) Old-Gujarātī commentary on the anonymous and undated Sanskrit Twenty-five Rules (Pañcaviṃśatikā).