Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c11.11

c11.11

Whatever the fate of the maṭha and its library after the fall of Devagiri in 1312, the region was particularly fertile in producing families of jyotiṣīs who were proud to preserve their lineages. One center of activity was Pārthapura on the Godāvarī, which has been identified with Pathri in the Parbhani District some eighty miles southeast of Devagiri, whose Muslim lord ruled the area for much of the medieval period. In Pārthapura flourished from about 1300⁶ the family that produced Jñānarāja, Sūryadāsa, and others (see Table 9). In keeping with the traditions of the region, several members of this family wrote works dependent on those of Bhāskara; their family library clearly contained copies of his opera. We are lucky to have a partial genealogy of the descendents of Sūryadāsa provided by one of them in 1895.⁷ Sūryadāsa’s great-grandson in this lineage was a Gopāla, who lived from 1623 till 1668. He is not identical with the father of Vireśvara (see Table 10), a fellow resident of Pārthapura, since Vireśvara was old enough to comment on Bhāskara’s L in 1639; but he may be a cousin (perhaps once or several times removed). Some of the manuscripts belonging to this family could be ascertained by a careful examination of their works; whether or not Vireśvara had access to the same library might be then determined by reading his commentaries and other treatises.