Madhava of Sangamagrama

Madhava (* 1350 in Sangamagramma at Cochin in Kerala, † 1425) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. He is the founder of the Kerala school of mathematicians and astronomers in South India.

Madhava is considered the discoverer of the first infinite series (apart from geometric series ), especially infinite series for the arc tangent, sine and cosine ( according to the Maclaurin series ), which were only rediscovered 250 years later by James Gregory and Isaac Newton in Europe. Madhava (who in 1400 found ) so that, inter alia as accurate values ​​for Pi and values ​​for sines.

From him, although no mathematical texts are (just some astronomical texts), his discoveries, however, are preserved in later works of Nilakantha Somayaji ( 1444-1544 ) and Jyesthadeva ( Yutikbhasa ) and the Mahajyanayana prakara (method of calculation of sine, 16th century).

Among his pupils was Parameshvara.