THRISSUR: After years of wait, the government has finally set up the Madhava Knowledge Centre in Mathematics at Irinjalakuda as a tribute to Sangama Grama Madhavan, to explore the contribution of the legendary mathematician. The centre will be managed by Kerala State Higher Education Council.
On Wednesday, Higher Education Minister R Bindhu inaugurated the centre. the institute has been started at Irinjalakuda as a unit of the Kerala Consortium Centre, one of the ten Centres of Excellence established by KSHEC.
“The centre will act as a platform to promote advanced study and inter-disciplinary engagement with the rich mathematical heritage of Kerala, particularly the works of Sangama Grama Madhavan and the Kerala School of Mathematics,” said a research officer at the KSHEC.
The centre plans to establish research fellowships and visiting scholar programmes to support experts working in the fields of mathematics, history of mathematics, Sanskrit and related disciplines.
In the speech, the minister noted that a permanent facility was proposed for the Madhava Knowledge Centre at the Irinjalakkuda Education Hub, where it would be developed into a facility with academic space, digital library and a museum on mathematical heritage of Kerala.
According to historians, Sangama Grama Madhavan who lived in Irinjadapilly in Irinjalakkuda during the 14th century, is considered as the father of Kerala School of Mathematics.
Among the contributions made by Madhavan, a prominent one is the calculation of the value of Pi to 13 decimals. He also discovered the infinite series for trigonometric functions like Sine and Cosine. The ancient Gregory Theory was later renamed as Madhava Gregory as he had already decoded the arc-tangent function.
Researchers says many texts mentioned by disciples of Madhava remain missing and efforts are needed to find them.