19 - "MATHS MANTRA" article from Pune Times of India.

VEDIC MATHEMATICS NEWSLETTER

ISSUE No. 19

Vedic Mathematics is becoming increasingly popular as more and more people are introduced to the beautifully unified and easy Vedic methods.
The purpose of this Newsletter is to provide information about developments in education and research and books, articles, courses, talks etc., and also to bring together those working with Vedic Mathematics.
If you are working with Vedic Mathematics - teaching it or doing research - please contact us and let us include you and some description of your work in the Newsletter. Perhaps you would like to submit an article for inclusion in a later issue or tell us about a course or talk you will be giving or have given.
If you are learning Vedic Maths, let us know how you are getting on and what you think of this system.

*****************************

This issue's article is taken, with permission, from the Pune Times of India, September 10th, 2001. It is written by Sandhya Iyer. The range of Vedic mathematics is much greater than is given credit by the author here but nevertheless the article is interesting.

"MATHS MANTRA"

The debate on whether Vedic mathematics should be accepted in mainstream academics as an annex to arithmetic, has been going on for a long time now. In fact the matter has become more contentious in the last couple of years as supporters of Vedic science have been organising workshops at schools to mobilise students towards the new mathematical pattern. The NCERT (National Centre for Education Research) however, has remained non-committal, expressing several doubts concerning its applicability.

Vedic mathematics in simple words is 'a one line formula to all arithmetical equations'. An authentic subject, it finds its origin in the Vedas. In the Atharvaveda, to be more specific, which is a field that deals with architecture and such technical sciences. However its original systematic programmer is Sri Jagadguru Shankaracharya from Govardhan Math who envisaged the arithmetical pattern. From the year 1965 when the books on Vedic mathematics were first published, the subject has been constantly besieged in controversies.

Motilal Banarsi Das, the pioneer publishers in the field of Indian culture and heritage have been staunch supporters of Vedic mathematics for a long time now. After starting modestly in 1903, the Indology publishers are now a brand name undisputedly attached to niche areas in pure sciences and pure social sciences like anthropology. Publisher and owner of Motilal Banarsi Das, R. P. Jain along with other supporters have been taking the lead to educate students in schools about Vedic mathematics, in Pune. Recently the publishers organised workshops in Vijay Vallabh School, MCA English School and Choksey School in the city area.

"Even though Vedic science originated in India, it is rather ironic that it is taught in most other countries, except India. In fact there is a separate centre for Vedic mathematics in Singapore. Considering this it is astonishing that Vedic mathematics is being dismissed so easily in India", says R. P. Jain, giving reasons for his publications long-standing support for Vedic science.

Jain also feels that the rejection has only come from scientists and mathematicians who have labelled the patterns as a 'bag of tricks' without higher applicability. He says the public response to the subject has been overwhelming with a record 20,000 copies on the subject being sold every year. "Its popularity can be compared to that of any best-selling book. The reason why we are supporting Vedic mathematics is because it has the potential to bring about a revolution in the field of maths. In Vedic mathematics there is no need to memorise tables. It does away with most of the complicated steps in an equation. Moreover it allows the brain to function in an objective manner, which helps one in making day-to-day decisions better. The pattern that we are using presently is linear and extremely difficult. The phobia that many experience towards this subject is partly due to that", explains Jain.

The most irksome factor according to Jain, is people rejecting the subject without knowing enough. The supporters of the science, as for now, would like to see the usage of Vedic mathematics as an appendix to the conventional pattern. Some experts agree upon it being an excellent method for cross-checking answers. It is also prescribed that students appearing for competitive exams study this field, as they stand to benefit immensely from Vedic mathematics.

Right now the publishers, going beyond the books, aim to promote the subject through regular workshops and seminars. "The demand should come more strongly from the public. Only then will the Government take it seriously" states Jain firmly. Anybody to volunteer for maths, at least now?

****************************

NEWS

****************************

WORKSHOP IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

The Annual conference of Mathematics Association of Victoria, Australia is on 6 and 7 December 2001. There are around 2000 teachers attending the conference. A workshop given by Madhavi Tembe will be on both days.
Contact details are
E-mail:
Website: www.mav.vic.edu.au
Telephone number: 61 3 9380 2399, Fax: 61 3 9389 0399

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

The Cosmic Computer, an excellent school course, will soon be published in India (hopefully by the end of the year). Mr R. P. Jain of Motilal Banarsidass (the publishers), recently wrote to the authors:

"Many scholars, who have closely seen & thoroughly gone over your forthcoming books in unfinished format, have been quite astonished to discover that these contain original research material so far unknown to Indian scholars. They further go on to say that once your books see the light of the day many of the narrow visions of scientists / mathematicians will be further proved baseless."

NEW VEDIC MATHS BOOK

We have received a copy of a new book called "Vedic Mathematics, Part 1", which we found to be well-written, thorough and easy to read. It covers a lot of the basic work in the original book by B. K. Tirthaji and has plenty of examples and exercises. The book is written by S. Haridas and is published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kulapati K.M. Munshi Marg, Mumbai - 400 007, India.

VM ARTICLE

James Glover, Head of mathematics at St James School, Twickenham, London has written an excellent article explaining why the name "Vedic Mathematics" is indeed most appropriate for Vedic mathematics and how rich this system has been found to be in unifying mathematics. We hope this will soon be published and we will then make it available to you through this newsletter and/or our web site.

VM WEB SITE FEATURED

The www.vedicmaths.org web site has been featured in two publications recently. In the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics October 2001 News Bulletin (UK publication) and in the Math Forum Internet News (web site at http://mathforum.org/).

Recently the average number of hits received per day rose to 134 over a 10 day period which must reflect the growing interest in Vedic Mathematics. Barbara Salmon who also has a Vedic Maths web site says there has been a definite increase in visits, and "the questions (I have received) are shifting from 'this is interesting etc.' to 'How can a learn vedic maths' - a very important step forward !!"

Apologies that the web site was unavailable for a few days at in the early part of October. Also we seem to have a slight problem with the www.vedicmaths.com site at the moment.

FROM MOTILAL BANARSIDASS (Indian publishers)

Recently Pune Branch has organised a series of Vedic Mathematics workshops in Pune and Nagpur, starting from 6th Sept.2001. In Pune 3 workshops and a Press Conference is done in presence of Shri R.P. Jain and almost about 600 students, 100 teachers and 20 principals have attended the workshops. We have received tremendous response and favorable comments from them. The comments given by them on a paper is already handed over to Shri. R.P. Jain. Times of India has already covered the news and articles on Vedic Mathematics.

In Nagpur we have done 6 workshops in different schools and a polytechnic college owned by a minister and received tremendous response. Almost 2000 students and some teachers, parents, librarians have attended the workshop. We have also taken their comments on same.

Mr. Manish Soni from Baroda and Mr. B.A. Naik from Mumbai have conducted the workshops and recommended our books to all the participants.

Looking the above response from the participants, schools, teachers, colleges, principals, we can request our other branches to do same types of workshop in other cities to celebrate our centenary.

RESEARCH IN VEDIC MATHEMATICS

We occasionally get inquiries from students and others wanting to do research in Vedic Mathematics. Mr R. P. Jain at Motilal Banarsidass would like to coordinate and help with this, so if you are in India send an email to him at giving details about yourself. If you are not in India you may wish to contact him anyway.

PRESENTATIONS IN THE U.S.A.

From Jeganathan Sriskandarajah at a US college: "I just want to let you know that some of my students here at Madison Area Technical College under my guidance gave a presentation on Hindu/Vedic Math at the 2001 Spring Meeting of the Wisconsin section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), held at St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wisconsin. The highlights of this presentation are posted on our mathclub website www.madison.tec.wi.us/is/as/math/mathclub

I'll be giving a similar presentation at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Central Regional Conference, to be held on Oct. 13, at the Hall of Fame, Monona Terrace. The details could be found on http://www.nctm.org/meetings/madison/sessions-sat.pdf. We have since heard that this presentation went very well.

VM TRAINING CLASS IN ASSAM, INDIA

There was a Vedic Mathematics training class from 4th Sept to 12th at Hojai in Assam (India). This was conducted by Vidya Bharati chapter of Assam. Vidya Bharati, Assam is introducing Vedic Maths in their schools. The participants were 70 in number and were selected out of mathematics teachers of 283 schools run by Vidya Bharati chapter of Assam. The course covered included Mitra, Number System, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Divison, Square, cube and divisibility using VM methods. Participants were so trained as to be able to guide other teachers. The training was a whole time one. There was a six hour daily routine. It was conducted under Dr. D.P.Verma of Patna assisted by Sri Devendra Rao Deshmukh of Bhopal and Sri Ram Chandra Arya of Patna.

REQUEST FOR TEACHER IN LAST NEWSLETTER

We were impressed by the response to the request for a Vedic Mathematics teacher in London. It seems such teachers are in demand and are likely to become more in demand in the future.

****************************

CORRESPONDENCE

EMAIL: I am an 18 year old student from London and hope to take a GAP year between school and university. I am keen on studying the area of Vedic Mathematics within India and would very much appreciate any advice or contact information about the subject since I am having difficulty in knowing where to start.

****************************

Your comments about this Newsletter are invited.
If you would like to send us details about your work or submit an article for inclusion please let us know on

Articles in previous issues of this Newsletter can be copied from the web site - www.vedicmaths.org:
Issue 1: An Introduction
Issue 2: "So What's so Special about Vedic Mathematics?"
Issue 3: Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji: More than a Mathematical Genius
Issue 4: The Vedic Numerical Code
Issue 5: "Mathematics of the Millennium"- Seminar in Singapore
Issue 6: The Sutras of Vedic Mathematics
Issue 7: The Vedic Square
Issue 8: The Nine Point Circle
Issue 9: The Vedic Triangle
Issue 10: Proof of Goldbach's Conjecture
Issue 11: Is Knowledge Essentially Simple?
Issue 12: Left to Right or Right to Left?
Issue 13: The Vinculum and other Devices
Issue 14: 1,2,3,4: Pythagoras and the Cosmology of Number
Issue 15: A Descriptive Preparatory Note on the Astounding Wonders of Ancient Indian Vedic
Issue 16: Vedic Matrix Issue
Issue 17: Vedic Sources of Vedic Mathematics Mathematics
Issue 18: 9 by 9 Division Table

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this Newsletter simply send an email to that effect to
Please pass a copy of this Newsletter on (unedited) to anyone you think may be interested.
Editor: Kenneth Williams

Visit the Vedic Mathematics web site at
http://www.vedicmaths.org

Email

21st October 2001

GTranslate

English Chinese (Traditional) Dutch Finnish French German Hindi Korean Russian Ukrainian