Is Vedic Mathematics an ancient system? Set the record straight.

No — it's a 20th-century system compiled by Bharati Krishna Tirtha (1884–1960) and first published posthumously in 1965; it has essentially nothing to do with the actual mathematics of the Vedic period.

Tirtha said he derived 16 "sutras" from the Vedas between 1911–1918, but scholars (e.g. mathematician S. G. Dani) note the book shares practically nothing with Vedic-era mathematics and even uses decimal notation unknown then. Tirtha himself conceded the sutras appeared only in his own appendix, and the book's editor called the Vedic-origin claim unsupported. The techniques are genuinely useful; the "ancient" branding is a modern myth worth not repeating.