The scene is the forecourt of a village over four hundred years ago. There is a crowd of people surrounding and watching a man. He is an Ashtavadhaini. Surrounding him are eight men each with a different problem. Each of the eight men put their problem to the Ashtavadhani and in true 20th century multiprocessing style, he solves all their problems step-by-step in a time-sharing manner. The problems put to him are not strictly problems. They range from the multiplication of a 10 digit number with another, reciting stanza 1013-1027 of the Katopanishad to composing a poem. The Ashtavadhani attends to each questioner cyclically. For instance, he might `output' the first three digits of the result to one questioner, recite stanzas 1013, 1014 for the next questioner and then compose the first two line of the poem to the third and then giving each of the other five people a piece of their solution before coming back to the first person and giving him the next three digits. If you think that this is easy, remember that the Ashtavadhani does not any paper, pencil or any material to help him. The questions are put by a random sample from the audience and can be twisted to be even more difficult - for ex., output the digits of the 20 digit number in reverse order. Right from the middle ages, the Ashtavadhanis have been a fascinating sight to see. It is a tradition passed down from father to son, from one generation to the next. They are most prevalent in Andhra Pradesh and quite a few Ashtavdahanis can still be found in the rural areas. Sadly, however, this great and ancient culture is slowly dying and it is ironic that as India plunges head forward into the Computer Revolution of the 21st century, we have forgotten the Indian Multiprocessor of the 15th century.
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