Poetry and Math: the Lilavati Contest Winners

The Institute for the Advancement of Vedic Mathematics (IAVM) recently announced the winners of the third Lilavati Contest, and three students from the Philippines showed their literary and mathematical prowess. Leo Antonio Policarpio and John Andrei Martinez placed first and third respectively in the Age Category 14-16; while Thaniea Jaye Flores placed first in the Open Category.

‘Lilavati’ was the name of the beloved daughter of famous Indian mathematician Bhaksara II, and also the title of his treatise on math, which he wrote in 1150AD. Unlike your boring math textbook, Bhaksara II’s book was written in poetic prose.

IAVM started the Lilavati Contest in 2021 to encourage both adults and children to write poems, riddles, and puzzles with math as their central theme, which helps build creativity in Math. Creativity, after all, is crucial in math to help you find different ways to see, think of, and solve math problems.

Below are the winning entries of the Filipino students.