Nama

Sungguhpun terdapat kecenderungan bagi salah mengeja sebagai "Aryabhatta" menurut analogi dengan nama-nama lain yang mempunyai akhiran "bhatta", namanya secara sesuai dieja Aryabhata: tiap teks astronomi mengeja namanya oleh itu,[1] termasuk rujukan Brahmagupta padanya "dalam lebih daripada seratus tempat mengikut nama".[2] Lebih lanjutnya, dalam kebanyakan contoh "Aryabhatta" tidak muatkan meter juga.[1]

Kelahiran

Aryabhata menyebut dalam Aryabhatiya bahawa ia dikarang 3,600 tahun ke dalam Kali Yuga, ketika dia berusia 23 tahun. Ini bersamaan dengan 499 AM, dan bermakna bahawa dia dilahirkan pada 476 AM.[1]

Aryabhata tidak memberikan maklumat tentang tempat kelahirannya. Satu-satunya maklumat datang dari Bhāskara I, yang menggambarkan wAryabhata sebagai āśmakīya, "seseorang yang datangnya dari negeri aśmaka." Sungguhpun aśmaka pada adalnya terletak di barat laut India, ia dibukti ramai bahawa, ketika zaman Buddha, satu cabang suku Aśmaka menetap di kawasan antara sungai Narmada dan sungai Godavari, di selatan Gujarat–Utara kawasan Maharashtra tengah India. Aryabhata dipercayai dilahirka di sana.[1][3] Bagaimanapun, teks awal Buddha menggambarkan Ashmaka sebelai lebih jauh keselatan, di dakshinapath atau Deccan, sementara teks lain menggambarkan Ashmakas sebagai menentang Alexander, yang akan meletakkan mereka lebih jauh ke utara.[3]

Karya

It is fairly certain that, at some point, he went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and that he lived there for some time.[4] Both Hindu and Buddhist tradition, as well as Bhāskara I (CE 629), identify Kusumapura as Pāṭaliputra, modern Patna.[1] A verse mentions that Aryabhata was the head of an institution (kulapa) at Kusumapura, and, because the university of Nalanda was in Pataliputra at the time and had an astronomical observatory, it is speculated that Aryabhata might have been the head of the Nalanda university as well.[1]

Hipotesis Kerala

It has also been suggested that aśmaka (Sanskrit for "stone") might be the region in Kerala that is now known as Koṭuṅṅallūr, based on the belief that it was earlier known as Koṭum-Kal-l-ūr ("city of hard stones"); however, old records show that the city was actually Koṭum-kol-ūr ("city of strict governance").[1] It is also claimed that the fact that several commentaries on the Aryabhatiya have come from Kerala suggest that it was Aryabhata's main place of life and activity. But K. V. Sarma, the authority on Kerala's astronomical tradition,[5] disagrees and cites many commentaries that have come from outside Kerala and the Aryasiddhanta's being completely unknown in Kerala.[1] In recent (2007) papers, K. Chandra Hari uses a discrepancy in Aryabhata's astronomical values to deduce that he carried out his calculations from a place in Kerala at the same meridian as Ujjayini, possibly Chamravattam (10°N51, 75°E45) in central Kerala. He further hypothesizes that Asmaka was the Jain country surrounding Shravanabelagola, taking its name from the stone monoliths there.[5][6][7]

Aryabhata mentions "Lanka" on several occasions in the Aryabhatiya, but his "Lanka" is an abstraction, standing for a point on the equator at the same longitude as his Ujjayini.[8][9][10][11][12][13]