Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Mathematics and Poetry
My good friends from India, Abraham Thomas and Martin D'Mello run a poetry ring called The Wondering Minstrels. Subscribe to the group and you get a poem a day (well almost), with some level of critical analysis. What started as a little thing among old friends from India has now almost 2000 members from around the world. Today's poem is called "Mathematical Problem" by the ancient Indian mathematician, Bhaskaracharya.
Whilst making love a necklace broke.
A row of pearls mislaid.
One sixth fell to the floor.
One fifth upon the bed.
The young woman saved one third of them.
One tenth were caught by her lover.
If six pearls remained upon the string
How many pearls were there altogether?
David McKelvie's analysis of the poem partly reads thus --
I found this problem-poem in a book called The Universal History of Numbers by Georges Ifrah. In it he says: "Numerical tables, Indian astronomical and mathematical texts, as well as mystical, theological, legendary and cosmological works were nearly always written in verse. From this type of game, the Indian scholars went on to use imagery to express numbers; the choice of synonyms [for whole numbers] was almost infinite and these were used in keeping with the rules of Sanskrit versification to achieve the required effect. Thus the transcription of a numerical table or of the most arid of mathematical formulae resembled an epic poem."
This poem was originally written in 1150 by Bhaskaracharya, a mathematician and mechanic and is taken from a book he wrote called the Lilavati, filled with poetic mathematical problems.
I would highly recommend this poetry ring to anyone even moderately interested in poetry.
Whilst making love a necklace broke.
A row of pearls mislaid.
One sixth fell to the floor.
One fifth upon the bed.
The young woman saved one third of them.
One tenth were caught by her lover.
If six pearls remained upon the string
How many pearls were there altogether?
David McKelvie's analysis of the poem partly reads thus --
I found this problem-poem in a book called The Universal History of Numbers by Georges Ifrah. In it he says: "Numerical tables, Indian astronomical and mathematical texts, as well as mystical, theological, legendary and cosmological works were nearly always written in verse. From this type of game, the Indian scholars went on to use imagery to express numbers; the choice of synonyms [for whole numbers] was almost infinite and these were used in keeping with the rules of Sanskrit versification to achieve the required effect. Thus the transcription of a numerical table or of the most arid of mathematical formulae resembled an epic poem."
This poem was originally written in 1150 by Bhaskaracharya, a mathematician and mechanic and is taken from a book he wrote called the Lilavati, filled with poetic mathematical problems.
I would highly recommend this poetry ring to anyone even moderately interested in poetry.
