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Dissemination of mathematics, History of mathematics
On the construction of the Śrī Yantra
Alessandro Chiodo1
1 Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu — Paris Rive Gauche, Sorbonne Université, UMR 7586 C.N.R.S., 4 Pl. Jussieu,75252 Paris cedex, France
Comptes Rendus. Mathématique, Volume 359 (2021) no. 4, pp. 377-397.

The Śrī Yantra (or Śrī Cakra) is a sacred diagram of Tantric Hinduism. Its study stimulated a vast effort of specialists from different fields. In mathematics, its construction sets an elementary and nontrivial problem. In this note, we work out a straightedge and compass method for constructing concurrent models of Śrī Yantras. The question is equivalent to the circle-line-point problem of Apollonious.

Le śrīyantra (ou śrīcakra) est un diagramme sacré dans les traditions hindoues tantriques. Il a fait l’objet de nombreuses études dans différentes disciplines. En mathématiques, sa construction pose un problème élémentaire et non trivial. Dans cette note, on fournit une méthode de construction à la règle et au compas. La question est équivalente à celle d’un problème d’Apollonius qui consiste à trouver un cercle tangent à un cercle donné, à une droite donnée et passant par un point donné.

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DOI: 10.5802/crmath.163

Alessandro Chiodo 1

1 Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu — Paris Rive Gauche, Sorbonne Université, UMR 7586 C.N.R.S., 4 Pl. Jussieu,75252 Paris cedex, France
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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Alessandro Chiodo. On the construction of the Śrī Yantra. Comptes Rendus. Mathématique, Volume 359 (2021) no. 4, pp. 377-397. doi : 10.5802/crmath.163. https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/mathematique/articles/10.5802/crmath.163/

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