The corpus, every claim citable.

Aryabhata gives π ≈ 62832/20000 = 3.1416 in Aryabhatiya II.10 (the Ganitapada). Crucially, the Sanskrit word for "approximately" he uses is *āsanna* — "near, approaching but not reaching." This is the earliest explicit acknowledgement in any tradition that π is an irrational constant that can only be approximated, predating Lambert's 1761 formal proof by ~1,262 years.

The Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata · 499