Who among the following was the first to explain that the rotation of the earth on its axis accounts for the daily rising and setting of the sun ?

• Aryabhatta wrote Aryabhatiya and Surya Siddhanta.
• In Aryabhatiya, he wrote about Arithmetic, Geometry, Algebra and Trigonometry. 
• In the first chapter of the Aryabhatiya, he insisted that the earth rotates about its axis and that the apparent movement of the stars is a relative motion caused by the rotation of the earth.
• He gives the number of rotations of the earth in a yuga.
• In Surya Siddhanta, he explained scientifically the causes of the solar and lunar eclipses.
• Aryabhatta also founded the place value system and zero.

Key Points

• ​Varahamihira was an Indian astrologer and polymath. 
• He discovered a version of Pascal's triangle and worked on magic squares.
• He also improved the accuracy of the sine tables of Aryabhata..
• Bhaskara is also known as Bhaskara I.
• He was a known mathematician and astronomer and was born in India in the 7th century.
• He contributed majorly in Mathematics and was the first to write numbers in the Hindu decimal system with a circle for the zero.
• He also gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function in his commentary on Aryabhata's work.
• Bhaskara was honoured by the Indian Space Research Organisation by launching Bhakara I on 7 June 1979.