Chevalier T. Thomas Elizabeth College for Women’s Department of Mathematics IQAC in collaboration with CSIR, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India and Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, Tamil Nadu conducted the National Conference on Bridging Ancient Wisdom and Current Trends in Mathematics (BAWCTM) 2024 on February 19, 2024, at the JJK Auditorium at their College Campus, Chennai-600011.

Dr. Aditya K, Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Ms. Rajarajeswari G, Associate, Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, IIT Madras gave talks on insights from Indian Mathematical texts, Indian Astronomy and the art of calendar making in India respectively.

Dr. Aditya highlighted the unique features of Indian Mathematical texts such as the melodious presentation of concepts in poetry form and elaborated their benefits including the ease of remembrance, destressed learning process and opening new avenues of growth in the students’ holistic development. These insights could well be utilized in developing a viable alternative pedagogical framework that makes Math less intimidating, more inclusive and a joyful subject.

Ms. Rajarajeswari G spoke about the developments of Astronomy in India, their usage of Mathematics and the symbiotic relationship between the two disciplines and the intriguing art of calendar making that uses ingenious algorithms to accurately reckon time for rituals. She also shed more light about the Tamil Mathematical Text Kanakkathikaram written by Kari Nayanar, a regional work on mathematics containing several concepts from basic to advanced level. She also in the process underlined the development of mathematics across the nation and impressed upon the need to bring out more studies on vernacular mathematical works to further appreciate the broader paradigm of Indian mathematics developed by our ancestors across regions and languages.