Birth

Aryabhatta was born in Kusumapura (close to Patliputra in Magadha, or modern Patna in Bihar). Many are of the view that he was born in the south of India especially Kerala and lived in Magadha at the time of the Gupta rulers; time which is known as the golden age of India. His first name "Arya" implied north while Bhatta is a typical north Indian name even found today specially among the "Bania" (or trader) community in Bihar.

Kusumapura became one of the two major mathematical centres of India,the other being Ujjain. Both are in the north but Kusumapura is on the Ganges and is the more northerly. Pataliputra, being the capital of the Gupta empire at the time of Aryabhata, was the centre of a communications network which allowed learning from other parts of the world to reach it easily, and also allowed the mathematical and astronomical advances made by Aryabhata and his school to reach across India and also eventually into the Islamic world