β Scribed by Christoph J. Scriba
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The internationally renowned historian of mathematics, Radha Charan Gupta, celebrated his 60th birthday on October 26, 1995. According to custom in his native India, this implies official retirement from his post as Professor of Mathematics at the Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) in Mesra, Ranchi. His many friends, as well as the many colleagues who have been in contact with him, realize, however, that ''retirement'' and ''official retirement'' are two different things; they look forward to benefitting from the continuing labors of this active and productive historian of mathematics toward the promotion of the discipline both in his native country and on an international level.
Born in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, Gupta graduated from Lucknow University in 1955. Two years later, he passed the M.Sc. examination (with a major in mathematics) in the first rank, and in 1965, he earned a diploma in mechanical engineering, both from the School of Careers in London. Ranchi University awarded him a Ph.D. for his research in the history of mathematics in 1971. His achievements were further acknowledged in 1986 with an honorary doctorate in the history of science from the World University (U.S.A.).
After teaching at Lucknow Christian College for a year, he joined the staff of the Birla Institute of Technology in 1958. He served there in the ranks of first assistant professor and then associate professor prior to his promotion to full professor of mathematics in 1982. Beginning in 1979, he was Professor-in-charge of the Research Center for the History of Science at BIT. R. C. Gupta has traveled widely in India and abroad and has given presentations of his research before many audiences. In 1977, he addressed the British Society for the History of Mathematics when he attended the XVth International Congress on the History of Science in Edinburgh. Three years later, he lectured in Germany, the United States, and Canada. He also participated in the XVIIth International Congress of Mathematicians in Berkeley, California in 1985.
In his several hundred papers-among them a series of 16 popular articles, entitled ''Glimpses of Ancient Indian Mathematics''-Gupta has always striven to deepen and broaden our knowledge and understanding of the development of mathematics on the Indian subcontinent. He is thus a successor to his compatriots,
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