Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, Series A v2.c10.187

v2.c10.187

Kanaka is an astrologer first cited by Kalyāṇavarman (fl. ca. 800) as an authority on the genethlialogy of plants and animals in Sārāvalī 53, 1. He appears in Arabic sources as Kankah al-Hindī (for the identification see V. V. Ramana-sastrin [1930]). Al-Bīrūnī in the Chronology (ed. p. 132, trans. p. 129) states that Kankah was an astrologer at the court of Hārūn al-Rashīd (786–809). However, he attributes to this Kankah two specific predictions concerning the fall of the ʿAbbāsids and the rise of the Buwayhids of which the first was in fact made by Māshāʾallāh in ca. 810 and the second by Māshāʾallāh’s epitomiser, Ibn Hibintā, in ca. 950 (see E. S. Kennedy and D. Pingree [A2. 1971]) Ibn Hibintā in the Kitāb al-Mughnī, which contains his epitome of Māshāʾallāh, also cites a lengthy passage from Kankah. But Abū Muʿādh al-Jahānī (fl. 1079) attributes to Kankaraf (= Kanaka) the same beginning of various cycles used in astrological history as was employed by Māshāʾallāh; perhaps the two were associates.