ARYABHATTA - BRILLIANT MATHEMATICIAN

Children, do you know who first found out the diameter of the earth? Of course Copernicus, you might say and laugh! But you will be surprised to know that centuries earlier this and many other mathematical and scientific discoveries were made in India…by Aryabhatta, one of the greatest mathematicians of ancient India. While the world thinks that the determination of square root, spherical nature of the earth and the revolution of the earth were put up by western scientists and mathematicians like Cantanew, Galileo, Kepler respectively in the 15th and 16th centuries, actually these were already introduced by Aryabhatta in 476AD - a thousand years earlier!! He showed great interest in Mathematics even in his childhood and at the age of 23 he wrote his brilliant work Aryabhatteeyam. He discovered the concept of zero, worked out the value of II (pi) as 3.1416, said the earth was round and rotated around its own axis, creating day and night and that the moon was dark and shone only because of sunlight reflecting on it - all this when the rest of the world had not even given all this a serious thought or made any correct conclusions! His genius has placed him on top of the list of ancient world mathematicians. He became the head of the famous Nalanda Univerity. The Indian Government named its first Satellite launched in 1975 Aryabhatta.

Goswami Tulsidas (1527-1623 A.D.)

One of the greatest of devotional and mystic poets of the world He was great devotee pf Shri. Rama. It was his wife who transformed him. Enamoured by his wife he followed her to his-in-laws place in the midst of a thunder storm. Way, to reach her, he used a snake as a rope! His wife said "If you have at least a wee bit of this love which you have in me, on the Lord, you would have reached Him long ago". He became a mendicant and had the vision of Sri. Rama. He was a great scholar and his famous literary works the Tulsi Ramayana and the Vinaya Patrika.

Kalidasa (350-600 AD)

Kalidasa was the greatest of Sanskrit poets and dramatists. It is believed that he was a person of very poor mental powers, almost a dunce. The princess of the land was brilliant but would test the intelligence of every prince who came to marry her and often put many of them to shame. She was finally tricked into marrying Kalidasa by some clever pundits who wanted to teach her a lesson. Later the shock she received made her turn to God in great pain. Moved by her suffering, Kalidasa also begged Goddess Kali for Her mercy. In a great moment of compassion, the Mother Goddess appeared before him as a vision. He asked for the boon of knowledge and was blessed with vast knowledge, great scholarship and wisdom. He was not only proficient in Sanskrit but also excelled in other branched of knowledge like astronomy, arts, sciences etc. He became one of the 'nine gems' in the court of King Vikramaditya. His famous works in Sanskrit are Raghuvamsha, Shakuntalam and Meghadoota which are admired, studied and quoted for their literary value.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE - POET SAINT

Do you know who composed our national anthem 'Jana gana mana'? It was Rabindranath Tagore, the most famous man of letters that modern India has ever produced. He was so many things rolled into one. He was a poet, playwright, painter, philosopher, educationist, freedom fighter and an actor. In 1913 he became the first Indian Nobel laureate when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for Gitanjali. He spent the entire prize money on building Shantiniketan, an educational institute where spiritual and material knowledge achieved a superb blend. Tagore had a great love of humanity. He shaped his life on the inspired teachings of the Upanishads and Sri Buddha.