The Concept In algebra, you employ letters (x, y, z) to represent numbers you do not know. Maths used to be written in lengthy, cumbersome terms. Using symbols makes it simple to express complex logic.
The Story Before math became a sea of black ink and boring variables, it was a vibrant, color-coded system in India. For centuries, the world wrote out math problems in long, exhausting sentences. Then came Bhaskara II, who decided that “Unknowns” shouldn’t be a mystery—they should be colorful. He used Kalaka (Black) for ‘x’, Nilaka (Blue) for ‘y’, and Pitaka (Yellow) for ‘z’. By using these shorthand symbols, he could balance complex equations just by moving “colors” across an equals sign. Centuries before Francois Viète introduced symbolic notation to Europe, Indian scholars were already writing the “Code of Variables” in a language that looked more like art than arithmetic.
The Timeline
| Milestone | Details |
| Western Ref. |
1591 CE (Francois Viete)
|
| Indian Source |
1150 CE (Bhaskara II – Bijaganita)
|
| Chron. Gap |
Over 400 Years
|
The Original Text
The Bijaganita (Chapter on Colours) famously records the use of ‘Kalaka nilaka…‘ to establish these colorful variables.
Fun Fact Did you know? Indian algebra was ‘colour-coded’. This helped resolve algebraic unknowns by using specific colours (like black and blue) for different variables, predating the usage of x and y in the West.
The Modern Legacy Modern science is based on the idea that symbolic notation is the language of science. Without it, writing equations like $E=mc^2$ would require a full paragraph.
