This article was written as a reaction to several publications in the Netherlands on methods of mental calculation, which have been presented as “Vedic mathematics.”The adjective”Vedic”suggests that these methods date back to the ancient Vedic period before 500 BCE.1 In this article I will first give two examples of genuine Vedic mathematics. After a brief intermezzo on the decimal position system and decimal fractions, the so called “Vedic”methods of mental calculation will be identified as the inventions of a twentieth-century Guru. More information on the subject can be found in[3]. The March2003 issue of ? in the Sky also includes an article on Vedic Mathematics. It was written by Jeganathan Sriskandarajah from Madison Area Technical College. The Vedas The Veda sareancient religious and philosophical scriptur es that originated in India in the Vedic period. These texts were composed in an Indo-European language that was the prede- cessorofSanskrit. Initially the Vedaswere transmitted orally, but later on they were recorded in writing. The word Veda has the same root as the Dutch word “weten,”the German”wis- sen” (meaning: to know), and the English “witness,”"unwitting”and” to with.”The Vedic texts refer to rituals and fire-altars. Rules for the precise construction of these altars are given in the ´ Sulba-s¯utra’s (rules for the measuring cord), which also belong to the authentic Vedic literature. Some of these sutras deal with the geometric knowledge that is nec- essaryforthe construction of brick altars of different shapes and sizes. Examples of Vedic Mathematics The following four sutras are taken from the Baudh¯ayana- ´sulbas¯utra, which was composed before 500 BCE. The text and translation are adapted from the edition of Sen and Bag, which is based on old Indian manuscripts in Benares, Munich, London and Ujjain. In this work, the sutras are stated without further explanation and without proof. I will not provide * This article was translated and revised by the author from an original version published in Dutch in the Nieuwe Wiskrantvol. 23 no. 3 (March 2004), pp. 49-52. † Jan Hogendijk teaches mathematics in Utrecht (Netherlands) and history of mathematics….

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