Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, Series A v2.c10.230

v2.c10.230

*KAMALĀKARA* (fl. 1658). Kamalākara traces his ancestry back through a long line of astronomers to a Mahārāṣṭra Brāhmaṇa, Rāma of the Bhāradvājagotra, who lived in Golagrāma on the west bank of the Godāvarī (near Pathri, Mahārāṣṭra) in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Rāma's son was Bhaṭṭācārya, his son Divākara of Golagrāma who was a pupil of Gaṇeśa of Nandigrāma (b. 1507) and who moved the family to Benares, Divākara's son Kṛṣṇa, his son Nṛsiṃha (b. 1586), and Nṛsiṃha's son Kamalākara who was born in *ca.* 1610 in Benares. Kamalākara's brothers Divākara (b. 1606) and Raṅganātha were also noted astronomers in Benares in the middle of the seventeenth century. Kamalākara studied astronomy under his elder brother Divākara and became the leading rival of Munīśvara Viśvarūpa (b. 1603). He combined traditional Indian astronomy with elements of Aristotelian physics, Euclidean geometry, and Ptolemaic astronomy as presented by Islamic scientists, and especially Ulugh Beg (1394–1449); see B. Datta [1932e] 9–11. Following a family tradition he composed a commentary on the *Sūryasiddhānta* as well as writing independent treatises on astronomy and astrology. See S. Dvivedin [1892] 98–99; S. B. Dikshit [1896] 287–288; and P. Dvivedin [1920].