Halayudha

Halāyudha wrote the , a commentary on Pingala's Chandaḥśāstra, was an Indian Mathematician and poet who lived and worked in the 10th century. The Chandaḥśāstra by the Indian lyricist Piṅgala somewhat crypically describes a method of arranging two types of syllables to form metres of various lengths and counting them; as interpreted and elaborated by Halāyudha his "method of pyramidal expansion" for counting metres is equivalent to Pascal's triangle.

Biography

Halayudha originally resided at the Rashtrakuta capital Manyakheta, now located in Karnataka, where he wrote under the patronage of emperor Krishna III. His Kavi-Rahasya eulogizes Krishna III. Later, he migrated to Ujjain in the Paramara kingdom. There, he composed Mṛta-Sañjīvanī in honour of the Paramara king Munja.

Works

Halayudha composed the following works:Kavi-Rahasya, a book on poeticsMṛta-Sañjīvanī, a commentary on Pingala's Chandaḥ-śāstraAbhidhana-ratna-mala, a lexiconHalāyudha Kośa, a dictionary