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{{Short description|Indian mathematician (c. 750 – 690 BC)}}
{{Others}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Refimprove|article|date=January 2008}}

'''Manava''' (c. 750 BC &ndash; 690 BC) is an author of the [[Hindu]] [[Geometry|geometric]] text of ''[[Sulba Sutras]].''

The Manava [[Sulbasutra]] is not the oldest (the one by [[Baudhayana]] is older), nor is it one of the most important, there being at least three Sulbasutras which are considered more important. Historians place his lifetime at around 750 BC.

Manava would have not have been a mathematician in the sense that we would understand it today. Nor was he a scribe who simply copied manuscripts like [[Ahmes]]. He would certainly have been a man of very considerable learning but probably not interested in mathematics for its own sake, merely interested in using it for religious purposes. Undoubtedly he wrote the ''Sulbasutra'' to provide rules for religious rites and it would appear almost a certainty that Manava himself would be a [[Hindu]] priest.

The mathematics given in the ''Sulbasutras'' is there to enable accurate construction of altars needed for sacrifices. It is clear from the writing that Manava, as well as being a priest, must have been a skilled craftsman.

Manava's ''Sulbasutra,'' like all the ''Sulbasutras,'' contained approximate constructions of circles from rectangles, and squares from circles, which can be thought of as giving approximate values of π. There appear therefore different values of π throughout the ''Sulbasutra,'' essentially every construction involving circles leads to a different such approximation. The paper of R.C. Gupta is concerned with an interpretation of verses 11.14 and 11.15 of Manava's work which give π = 25/8 = 3.125.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gupta |first1=R.C. |date=July 1988 |title=New Indian Values of π from the Mānava Súlba Sūtra |journal=Centaurus |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=114–125 |doi= 10.1111/j.1600-0498.1988.tb00682.x |bibcode=1988Cent...31..114G }}</ref><ref>{{cite arXiv |title=Some constructions in the Mānava Śulvasūtra |last=Dani |first=S.G. |date=1 August 2019 |class=math.HO |eprint = 1908.00440}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{MacTutor Biography|id=Manava}}

{{Indian mathematics}}
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[[Category:Ancient Indian mathematicians]]
[[Category:Geometers]]
[[Category:750s BC births]]
[[Category:690s BC deaths]]
[[Category:7th-century BC mathematicians]]
[[Category:Ancient Indian mathematical works]]


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