Hello chap-ga,
Thank you for this very interesting question.
Master Ramchandra (or Ramachandra), who lived from 1821 until 1880 was
an educator and a polymath (ie someone who was interested in, studied,
and knew about a lot of different subjects).
His birthplace was near Delhi, in a town called Panipat. He belonged
to a middle-class but poor family that belonged to the Kayasth
(writer) caste. His father had a job with the East India Company. He
died when Ramachandra was nine years old. The little boy was taught
at home by his mother for the next two years. After that he went to an
English school. The school did not teach maths, so he taught himself.
When he was 11, he was married off to a girl called Sita, who was
deaf and dumb. After finishing his studies, Ramachandra became a
teacher of science at Delhi College (today called the Zakir Hussain
College). While at the school, he established two magazines. The
second one started in 1846 and appeared weekly. It contained a column
by Ramachandra about new scientific discoveries and inventions.
In 1852, Ramachadra became a Christian, and as a result had to leave
his mother, wife, children and brothers. His caste turned against him
and used him as an example of the bad things that could happen when
young people were taught the English language. When the mutiny
against British rule broke out in 1857, Ramachandra was in danger of
his life because his conversion meant that he was seen as a traitor to
the faith of his people and an accomplice of the British. His life was
spared due to the intervention of some of his students. He joined the
British army as a translator. Later in 1857, he moved to Roorkee where
he became the headmaster of the Thompson College of Civil Engineering.
However, he did not stay long, and the following year returned to
Delhi to become the headmaster of Delhi District School. After eight
years, he retired due to ill health. The Maharaja (ruler) of Patiala
hired him as a tutor and in 1870 promoted him to be Director of the
Department of Public Instruction and awarded him a jagir (the right to
collect and keep taxes from people living in a defined area).
Ramachandra died in August 1880, when he was only 59 years old.
All his life, Ramachandra was passionate about making knowledge
available in his native Urdu language. He was influenced by the
headmaster of the first school where he taught, who had started
translating European scientific works into Urdu. Ramachandra wrote in
Urdu about very many subjects, including theology, politics,
geography, geology, history, science and also wrote short biographies
of famous people from around the world. He also translated scientific
and mathematical textbooks from English to Urdu to make them more
approachable for his students.
Algebra was one of Ramachandra’s main interests. The main reason was
because he wanted to develop further a subject which had its roots way
back in Indian history. Indian mathematics first appeared in the Vedic
literature, which is 4000 years old. In the period between 1000 BC and
1000 AD, Indian mathematicians had built on these foundations to set
out the beginnings of the techniques of algebra. The techniques were
elaborated on in the 5th century AD in order to simplify astronomical
calculations. They were later refined by the Arabs, who brought
algebra to the West, which is why the name we use for this branch of
mathematics comes from the Arabic “Al-Jabr” meaning “the reunion of
broken parts”. Ramachandra thought of a way to use algebra to solve
all types of problems that involve maxima and minima and published a
book on the subject: “A Treatise on the Problems of Maxima and Minima”
(Dehli 1850). Ramachandra took as the starting point for his Treatise
the “Bija-Ganita” by Bhaskaracharya, which was written in the 12th
century. The English mathematician Augustas De Morgan was so
impressed that he arranged for the book to be published again in
London in 1859. In the Introduction, De Morgan described the
objective of the Treatise: “Ramachandra's problem _ I think it ought
to go by that name, for I cannot find it was ever current as an
exercise of ingenuity in Europe _ is to find the maximum or minimum
without introducing the concept of differentiation.” In 1863, a
second book “A specimen of a New Method of the Differential Calculus”
was published in Calcutta.
Sources: MASTER RAMACHANDRA (1821-1880) Little-known Polymath and
Educationist http://www.vigyanprasar.com/dream/nov99/article2.htm
“Science in British India” by R K Kochhar
http://nistads.res.in/contents/people/rkk/papers/ScienceinBritishIndia-II.pdf.
If you want to find out more about how algebra and other mathematical
ideas originated in India, have a look at: Ancient India's
Contribution to Mathematics
http://india.coolatlanta.com/GreatPages/sudheer/maths.html
Search strategy on Google: 1. Ramachandra, maxima 2. India, algebra |
