Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c4.s3.50

c4.s3.50

As in the case of Bhāskara’s SŚB, the KK of Bhāskara was followed by several centuries during which no new member of the genre was produced. However, in the early sixteenth century Gaṇeśa¹⁵² at Nandigrāma in Gujarāt wrote the Grahalāghava¹⁵³ or Siddhāntarahasya, apparently based on the Grahakautuka composed in 1496 by his father, Keśava;¹⁵⁴ the epoch of the GL is 18 March 1520. A commentator on the GL, Mallāri, states that Gaṇeśa observed the planets and chose the correct parameters from the Brāhmapakṣa, the Āryapakṣa, and the Saurapakṣa; this story obviously conflicts with the alleged relation of the GL to Keśava’s Grahakautuka. In fact, the mean motions of the planets (given for dhruvāṅkas of 4,016 days) and their equations are unique to the Gaṇeśapakṣa, of which the GL is the first text as yet available (I have not been able to consult any manuscript of the Grahakautuka). The Gaṇeśapakṣa soon competed with the Brāhmapakṣa in West and Northwest India. Commentaries on it were composed by Gaṇeśa’s nephew and pupil Nṛsiṃha,¹⁵⁵ who was born at Nandigrāma in 1548 (Harṣakaumudī); by Mallāri,¹⁵⁶ the son of Gaṇeśa’s pupil, Divākara, at Golagrāma on the Godāvarī between 1575 and 1600 (Ṭīkā); by Gaṅgādhara¹⁵⁷ in 1586, probably at Ṭāpara north of Devagiri, his father Nārāyaṇa’s residence (Manoramā); by Viśvanātha at Kāśī in 1612 (Siddhāntarahasyodāharaṇa); by Nārāyaṇa¹⁵⁸ at Kāśī before 1635 (Udāhṛti); and by Kamalākara¹⁵⁹ before 1662 (Manoramā). There are many tables based on the GL, many using the ends of the various dhruvāṅkas as their epochs.¹⁶⁰