On Friday, August 21, 2026, IIT Alumni Centre, Bengaluru (IITACB) and The National Academy of Sciences – India(NASI) bring together two distinguished scholars for an evening that moves from the world of ancient manuscripts to the mathematical ideas that led from the circle to infinity.
Prof. Diwakar Acharya, Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at the University of Oxford, will speak on:
Beyond Digitisation: Realising the Promise of Indic Manuscript Heritage through Descriptive Cataloguing and Critical Text Editing.
Prof. Acharya will explore how rigorous scholarship, critical editing and digital humanities can help recover lost works, trace intellectual networks and unlock the knowledge held within India’s manuscript traditions.
The evening will also mark the launch of: The Elusive Ratio and the Advent of Calculus in India
Following the launch, Prof. K Ramasubramanian, Professor-in-Charge, Centre for Traditional Indian Knowledge and Skills, IIT Bombay, will take us on a mathematical journey: From the Circle to Infinity: India’s Journey Towards Calculus.
The story of calculus is often told through Newton and Leibniz. But centuries earlier, Indian mathematicians were developing sophisticated methods for geometry, trigonometry, approximation and the infinite. Tracing the work of Āryabhaṭa, Bhāskara, Mādhava and the Kerala school, Prof. Ramasubramanian will explore how the quest for increasingly precise planetary calculations led to ingenious mathematical techniques and, eventually, infinite series that anticipate important ideas in calculus.
The evening will also feature fireside conversations and audience Q&A with both speakers, offering an opportunity to go beyond the lectures and into the questions they raise.
Two scholars. Two extraordinary journeys. One larger question: What can we discover when we look again at the knowledge we inherited?
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IIT Alumni Centre Bengaluru, Bommasandra - 📅Friday, 21 August 2026
- 🕓4:00 PM onwards
