Lilavati & Marya - Study in Contrasts

Lilavati was the daughter of the noted Indian mathematician Bhaskaracharya, who wrote a celebrated text in her name. Lilavati remained a spinster but a very bright woman as many of the concepts in his book are fondly addressed to her as "Oh, Lilavati, you intelligent girl" & evidently understood by her. The book contains 13 chapters dealing with arithmetic, geometry & a method of solving indeterminate equations.

In contrast, Princess Marya, a character in Tolstoy's "War & Peace", was also living with her father, the old Prince Bolkonsky, in his country estate. He himself took care of her education, & taught her algebra & geometry. But she had no aptitude & her father would fly into a rage. But later he would calm down & tell her to persevere as mathematics was a great pursuit.

Later Marya married Nikolai Rostov & had 4 children.