The mathematical works of Śrīdhara were very popular and made him quite famous. In spite of his great popularity, some controversies have been raised about his life, work, and time, such as whether he was a Hindu or a Jaina, and whether he wrote before or after Mahāvīra (ninth century AD). Some uncertainties exist because Śrīdhara's works are not fully extant. Often he is confused with other authors of the same name. Here we shall give views which are now generally accepted.
Like so many ancient Indian authors, Śrīdhara did not provide any information about himself in his works. Other sources have not been helpful in finding any glimpse of his personal life. So we do not know his parents or teachers, or even where he was born, educated, or worked. But some evidence shows that he was a Saivite Hindu. An example in his Pāṭīgaṇita is about the payment for the worship of the five‐faced Hindu god Śiva. He starts his Triśatikāwith a homage to the same god. However, in a manuscript which...
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Gupta, R.C. (2008). Śrīdhara. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9294
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