312 HINDOO MATHEMATICS. 



excepting their science. Lilavati was the name of the au- 

 thor's (Bhascara's) daughter, concerning whom it appeared, 

 from the qualities of the ascendant at her birth, that she 

 was destined to pass her life unmarried, and without chil- 

 dren. Her father thought he had discovered a lucky hour 

 for contracting her in marriage, that she might be firmly 

 connected and have progeny; and when the hour ap- 

 proached, he brought his daughter and her intended hus- 

 band near him. He left the hour-cup on the vessel of water, 

 and kept in attendance a time-knowing astrologer, m order 

 that, when the cup should subside in the water, these two 

 precious jewels should be united. But as the intended mar- 

 riage was not according to destiny, it happened that the girl, 

 from a curiosity natural to young persons, looked into the 

 cup to observe the water coming in at the hole, when by 

 chance a pearl, separated from her bridal-dress, fell into the 

 cup, and rolling down to the hole, stopped the influx of the 

 water ; so the astrologer waited in expectation of the prom- 

 ised hour. When the operation of the cup had thus been 

 delayed beyond all moderate time, the father was m con- 

 sternation,— and, examining the cup, found that the hole 

 was closed, and the long-expected hour past. Bhascara, 

 thus greatly disappointed, said to his unfortunate daughter, 

 " I will write a book of your name, which shall remain to 

 the latest times,— for a good name is a second hfe, and the 

 groundwork of eternal existence." . , , 



The Lilamli treats of arithmetic, and contains not only 

 the common rules of that science,— there reckoned eight m 

 number,— but the application of these rules to various ques- 

 tions on interest, barter, mixtures, combinations, permuta- 

 tions, the sums of progressions, indeterminate problems, 

 and, lastly, of the mensuration of surfaces and solids. All 

 this is done in verse, and the language, even when most 

 technical, is often highly figurative. The question is usually 

 proposed with enigmatical conciseness, next the rule for 

 computation is given in terms somewhat less obscure, i he 

 example follows ; but it is not until this has been studied 

 that all obscurity is removed. No demonstration nor reason- 

 ing is subjoined ; but the rules are found to be exact, and 

 nearly as simple as in the present state of analytical mves- 

 tiffation. The numeral results are readily deduced ; and it 

 they be compared with the earliest specimens of Greek cal- 



