The mathematician-astronomer whose Aryabhatiya calculated the length of a year, explained eclipses, and treated the earth as rotating on its axis — centuries ahead of similar ideas elsewhere.
जन्म ४७६ ई. · born 476 CE
Born in 476 CE, likely in the region of present-day Bihar or nearby, Aryabhata composed the Aryabhatiya at the age of twenty-three, a compact text of astronomical and mathematical verses covering arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, and planetary motion.
He calculated the length of the solar year to within a small fraction of the modern value, proposed that the earth rotates on its axis to explain the apparent movement of the stars, and gave a value for pi accurate to four decimal places. India's first satellite, launched in 1975, was named Aryabhata in his honor.