Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, Series A v2.c10.408

v2.c10.408

KAVĪNDRĀCĀRYA SARASVATĪ (fl. ca. 1600/75). Kavīndrācārya, whose original name seems to have been Kṛṣṇa, was a sannyāsin originally from Puṇyabhūmi on the banks of the Godāvarī. He persuaded Shāh Jahān (1628–1658) to raise the pilgrim tax on Hindus, at least at Kāśī and Prayāga; for this the Benares paṇḍitas composed verses in his honor, which were assembled into the Kavīndracandrodaya by his librarian Kavīndra Kṛṣṇa (fl. ca. 1625/75). Kavīndrācārya has been discussed at length by P. K. Gode [1940c]; V. Raghavan [1940]; K. M. K. Sarma [1943b]; P. K. Gode [1946/47]; and V. G. Rahurkar [A2. 1955] and [A2. 1956]. His magnificent library apparently was one of the sources of the Kavīndrācāryasūcīpatra (see Kavīndrācārya in the list of catalogues and P. K. Gode [1943/44] and [A2. 1945]). Kavīndrācārya is praised as an authority on jyotiṣa; a commentary of his on Śrīpati (fl. 1040) may be referred to in Kavīndracandrodaya 198, a verse by Bhānabhaṭṭa: