The Indian astronomer Brahmagupta who lived in the 7th century is credited with introducing what fundamental mathematical concept?
Brahmagupta Brahmagupta Brahmagupta () (born , died ) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. He is the author of two early works on mathematics and astronomy: the "Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta" (BSS, "correctly established doctrine of Brahma", dated 628), a theoretical treatise, and the "Khaṇḍakhādyaka" ("edible bite", dated 665), a more practical text. Brahmagupta was the first to give rules to compute with "zero". The texts composed by Brahmagupta were composed in elliptic verse in Sanskrit, as was common practice in Indian mathematics. As no proofs are given, it is not known how Brahmagupta's results were derived. Brahmagupta was born in 598 CE according
Indian mathematics derivations ("upapatti"). Bhaskara I's commentary on the ', had the following structure: Typically, for any mathematical topic, students in ancient India first memorised the "sūtras", which, as explained earlier, were "deliberately inadequate" in explanatory details (in order to pithily convey the bare-bone mathematical rules). The students then worked through the topics of the prose commentary by writing (and drawing diagrams) on chalk- and dust-boards ("i.e." boards covered with dust). The latter activity, a staple of mathematical work, was to later prompt mathematician-astronomer, Brahmagupta (fl. 7th century CE), to characterise astronomical computations as "dust work" (Sanskrit: "dhulikarman"). It is well known