Jagadguru Swami Sri Bhārati Kṛṣṇa Tīrthaji Mahāraja (Sanskrit: जगद्गुरु स्वामि श्री भारती कृष्ण तीर्थजी महाराज; March, 1884 – February 2, 1960) was the Jagadguru (literally, teacher of the world; assigned to heads of Hindu mathas) of the Govardhana matha of Puri during 1925–1960. He was one of the most significant spiritual figures in Hinduism during the 20th century. He is particularly known for his book Vedic Mathematics.
Early life
Venkatraman Shastri was born in March, 1884 to P. Narasimha Shastri, originally a tehsildar at Tirunelveli in Madras Presidency. Narasimha Shastri later became the Deputy Collector of the Presidency. Venkatraman was born in a highly illustrious family. His uncle, Chandrasekhara Shastri was the Principal of the Maharaja’s College in Vizianagaram, while his great-grandfather, Justice C. Ranganath Shastri was a judge in the Madras High Court.
Educational career
Venkatraman Shastri started his educational career as a student of the National College in Trichanapalli. After that he moved to the Church Missionary Society College and eventually the Hindu College, both in Tirunelveli. He was consistently held first place in all subjects in all of his classes. Shastri passed his matriculation examination from the Madras University in January, 1899, where he also finished at the head of the class.
As a student Venkatraman was marked for his splendid brilliance, superb retentive memory and an insatiable curiosity. By deluging his teachers with piercing questions, making them uneasy, and frequently forcing them to admit ignorance he was considered a terribly mischievous student.
Although Venkatraman always scored high in subjects like mathematics, sciences and humanities, he was also proficient in languages and particularly adept in Sanskrit. According to his own testimonials, Sanskrit and oratory were his favourite subjects. Such was his mastery over the language, that he was awarded the title “Saraswati” by the Madras Sanskrit Association in July, 1899 at the age of 16. At about that time, Venkatraman was profoundly influenced by his Sanskrit guru Sri Vedam Venkatrai Shastri whom he remembered with deepest love, reverence and gratitude, with tears in his eyes.
Venkatraman won the highest place in the graduation B.A. examination in 1902. He then appeared for the M.A. Examination for the American College of Sciences, in Rochester, New York from the Bombay centre in 1903. He passed the M.A. examination in seven subjects that he had chosen – Sanskrit, philosophy, English, mathematics, history, science and another – simultaneously scoring the highest honours in all, which was perhaps an all-time world record at the time.
Venkatraman Saraswati, as he was called after receiving the title, also contributed to W. T. Stead’s Review of Reviews on topics as diverse as religion and science. During his college days, he also wrote extensively on history, sociology, philosophy, politics and literature. Reading of the latest scientific research and discoveries was his hobby throughout his life.
Mathematics
Jagadguru Swami Sri Bhārāti Kṛṣṇa Tirthaji Maharaja’s book “Vedic Mathematics” opened the floodgates of similar literature, often derived from the Swami’s 16 Sūtras themselves. His treatise is a regards speed and accuracy in basic mathematics. The Vedic Math ideal is a mental calculation and one-line notation.
The foundations of Vedic Mathematics were mentioned in the Vedas themselves and even in the Vedanta scriptures. These had lain unused for many millennia, till the Swami rediscovered them.
His book, Vedic Mathematics, comprises many algorithms. He revealed his source in the ancient Hindu Vedas. Some are intuitively reconstructed from the Atharva Veda and from Parisistas (appendix) of the Atharva Veda. “The Upaveda of Sthapatya (engineering) comprises all kinds of architectural and structural human endeavor and all visual arts (and mathematics).” His work seems to be a whole Parisistas (appendix) itself.
The ancient Sanskrit writers did not use numerals when writing big numbers but preferred to use the letters of the Sanskrit Devanāgarī alphabet. In the Vedic Sūtras the key word steps to solving many problems are given in a terse, decimal code of certain sets of rhyming syllables, within the verses of the Sūtra.[11] The fact that the alphabetic code is in the natural order and can be immediately interpreted, is clear proof that the code language was resorted not for concealment but for greater ease in verification.
The Swami had written sixteen volumes on the Vedic Mathematics field explaining all the topics of mathematical study. Alas, many advanced formula were promised but not given in his first and only book. After his 1956 life’s work manuscript on Vedic mathematics was lost in a fire at the home of a disciple, though he was going blind from cataracts, he re-wrote the manuscript in 1957 in six weeks. It was to be proofread and published in the USA but was send back to India in 1960 after his death. In 1965, this manuscript was published by Motilal Banarsidass, Varanasi, India and reprinted four times in the 1970s.
His book, Vedic Mathematics, included sixteen terse formulas for mental mathematics. For arithmetic, we are given several algorithms for whole number multiplication and division, (flag or straight) division, fraction conversion to repeating decimal numbers, calculations with measures of mixed units, summation of a series, squares and square roots (duplex method), cubes and cube roots (with expressions for a digit schedule), and divisibility (by osculation).
He gives a poem in Anusub metre, couched in the alphabetic Code-Language that has three meanings, a hymn to Lord Srī Kṛṣṇa, a hymn in praise of the Lord Shri Shankara, and the third the value of pi/10 to 32 decimal places, pi/10 = 0.31415926535897932384626433832792… with a “self-contained master-key” for extending the evaluation to any number of decimal places.
Several tests and techniques for factoring and solving certain algebraic equations with integer roots for quadratic, cubic, biquadratic, pentic equations, systems of linear equations, and systems of quadratic equations are demonstrated. For fractional expressions, a separation algorithm and fraction merger algorithms are given. Other techniques handle certain patterns of some special case algebraic equations. Just an introduction to differential and integral calculus is given.
Geometric applications are reviewed for linear equations, analytic conics, the equation for the asymptotes, and the equation to the conjugate-hyperbola. Five simple geometric proofs for the Pythagorean theorem are given. A 5-line proof of Apollonius’ theorem is given.
Advanced topics promised included the integral calculus (the center of gravity of hemispheres, conics), trigonometry, astronomy (spherical triangles, earth’s daily rotation, earth’s annual rotation about the sun and eclipses), and engineering (dynamics, statics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, applied mechanics). In his final comments he asserted that the names for “Arabic numerals, Pythagoras Theorem, and Cartesian Co-ordinates are historical misnomers.”
