Return of vedic maths

The return of Vedic maths is evident but there is this question of where exactly it returned from. Though the computational system is widely believed or perceived to be from ancient Vedic scriptures, there is no visible evidence to support that claim.

In the 1960s, Tirthaji Maharaj, who was the Shankaracharya of Puri at that time, said that he had found some verses in the Atharvaveda that led to astonishing methods of calculations.

It was he who wrote the first compilation that came to be called Vedic mathematics. Not everybody believes that the seer, who himself had a strong background in maths, had indeed found an old treasure. The material that the holy man claimed was part of the Vedas was a set of 16 cryptic Sanskrit verses that could mean anything.

For example, one of the "formulae" is Ekadhikena Purvena. When translated, it simply means, "By one more than the previous one".

But Tirtha Maharaj interpreted it in various ways and formed entertaining methods of easy multiplication. The entire Sanskrit text of what is called Vedic maths is not more than fifty words.

"It is a mystery how people do not notice such simple things," says SG Dani, a professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research who believes that the whole saleable system of Vedic Maths is in reality just a set of interpretations of one man.

Dani once said in a public letter signed by several noted academics, that Vedic Maths is, "neither Vedic nor maths".

But whatever be its origins, nobody denies that the Shankaracharya is saving boys and girls a lot of time in their CAT practice tests. They may not escape the endless cycle of rebirths but may escape the cycle of retests.