Editing Pingala (section)

{{Short description|3rd–2nd century BC Indian mathematician and poet}}
{{For|the subtle energy channel described in yoga|Nadi (yoga)}}
{{Infobox scholar
| image       =
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| name             = Pingala
| birth_date       = unclear, 3rd or 2nd century BCE<ref name=plofker55/>
| era              = [[Maurya period|Maurya]] or post-Maurya
| main_interests   = [[Sanskrit prosody]], [[Indian mathematics]], [[Sanskrit grammar]]
| notable_ideas    = ''[[Fibonacci number#History|mātrāmeru]]'', [[Binary number#History|binary numeral system]].
| major_works      = Author of the  "''{{IAST|Chandaḥśāstra}}''" (also called ''Pingala-sutras''), the earliest known treatise on [[Sanskrit prosody]]. Creator of Pingala's formula.
| influences       =
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[[Acharya]] '''Pingala'''<ref>{{cite journal|title=The So-called Fibonacci Numbers in Ancient and Medieval India|last=Singh|first=Parmanand|url=http://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/~dg/sdarticle.pdf|journal=[[Historia Mathematica]]|year=1985|publisher=[[Academic Press]]|volume=12|issue=3|page=232|doi=10.1016/0315-0860(85)90021-7|access-date=2018-11-29|archive-date=2019-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724230820/http://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/~dg/sdarticle.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> ({{Langx|sa|पिङ्गल|translit=Piṅgala}}; c. 3rd{{En dash}}2nd century [[Common Era|BCE]])<ref name=plofker55>{{cite book|first=Kim|last=Plofker|author-link=Kim Plofker|title=Mathematics in India|title-link= Mathematics in India (book) |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DHvThPNp9yMC&pg=PA55 55–56] |year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-12067-6}}</ref> was an ancient Indian poet and [[Indian mathematics|mathematician]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pingala – Timeline of Mathematics|url=https://mathigon.org/timeline/pingala|access-date=2021-08-21|website=Mathigon|language=en}}</ref> and the author of the ''{{IAST|Chandaḥśāstra}}'' ({{Langx|sa|छन्दःशास्त्र|lit=A Treatise on Prosody}}), also called the ''Pingala-sutras'' ({{Langx|sa|पिङ्गलसूत्राः|lit=Pingala's Threads of Knowledge|translit=Piṅgalasūtrāḥ}}), the earliest known treatise on [[Sanskrit prosody]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Vaman Shivaram Apte|title=Sanskrit Prosody and Important Literary and Geographical Names in the Ancient History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ArxvCxV1l4C&pg=PA648|year=1970|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0045-8|pages=648–649}}</ref>

The ''{{IAST|Chandaḥśāstra}}'' is a work of eight chapters in the late [[Sūtra]] style, not fully comprehensible without a commentary. It has been dated to the last few centuries BCE.<ref>R. Hall, ''Mathematics of Poetry'', has "c. 200 BC"</ref><ref>[[Klaus Mylius|Mylius]] (1983:68) considers the Chandas-shāstra as "very late" within the Vedānga corpus.</ref> In the 10th century CE, [[Halayudha]] wrote a commentary elaborating on the ''{{IAST|Chandaḥśāstra}}''. According to some historians [[Maharishi|Maharshi]] Pingala was the brother of [[Pāṇini]], the famous [[Vyākaraṇa|Sanskrit grammarian]], considered the first [[Linguistic description|descriptive linguist]]''.<ref name="FPencyclo">[[Pāṇini#FPencyclo|François & Ponsonnet (2013: 184)]].</ref>'' Another think tank identifies him as [[Patanjali]], the 2nd century CE scholar who authored Mahabhashya.