Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c11.6

c11.6

It is clear, then, that chance has to a large extent determined what has survived of the truly immense body of material on jyotiḥśāstra that has existed in the past. As an example of this, let us examine the members of the Girinārāyaṇajñāti³ of Gujarāt, who are known primarily because much of their family library was included in the gift of manuscripts presented to the East India Company by the Gaikawar of Baroda in 1809.⁴ Many of them copied extant manuscripts (their names are followed by S), and some were authors of original works (see Table 7). Though there are several gaps at present in our knowledge of the precise relationship of several generations of this family, it is clear that they were active as scribes and authors from about 1500 till 1750; and that, if their library had not been preserved by the Gaikawar’s gift, we would not know of the Gaṇitacūḍāmaṇi of Harihara or the Grahavidyādhara of Vidyādhara (there is just one other manuscript of its Pañcāngavidyādharī besides that in the family collection), and a number of the relatively rare works would be attested by an even smaller number of extant copies.