Bh?skara (also known as Bh?skar?ch?rya ("Bh?skara, the teacher"), and as Bhaskara II to avoid confusion with Bh?skara I) (1114–1185), was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Bijapur in Karnataka.
Bh?skara and his works represent a significant contribution to mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the 12th century. He has been called the greatest mathematician of medieval India. His main work Siddh?nta Shiromani, (Sanskrit for "Crown of Treatises") is divided into four parts called Lil?vat?, B?jaga?ita, Grahaga?ita and Gol?dhy?ya, which are also sometimes considered four independent works. These four sections deal with arithmetic, algebra, mathematics of the planets, and spheres respectively. He also wrote another treatise named Kara?a Kaut?hala.
Bh?skara's work on calculus predates Newton and Leibniz by over half a millennium. He is particularly known in the discovery of the principles of differential calculus and its application to astronomical problems and computations. While Newton and Leibniz have been credited with differential and integral calculus, there is strong evidence to suggest that Bh?skara was a pioneer in some of the principles of differential calculus. He was perhaps the first to conceive the differential coefficient and differential calculus.
On 20 November 1981 the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Bhaskara II satellite honouring the mathematician and astronomer. Wikipedia