[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Science, technology and education](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science) › [Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981) › c4.s5.15 # Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c4.s5.15 Jyotiḥśāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c4.s5.15 - **Language:** English ### [c4.s5.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c4.s5.15) Before turning to the most important school of Kerala astronomers, I should mention the first text in a genre, the tantra, cultivated exclusively in south India. A tantra is like a karaṇa in its emphasis on pragmatic solutions to particular astronomical problems—sometimes only to those that were regarded as needing a special treatment. But since it follows the Āryapakṣa, in which there is a mean conjunction of all the planets at the beginning of the current Kaliyuga (6 A.M. at Laṅkā on 18 February—3101), a tantra uses that date as its epoch rather than a date closer in time to the author’s. - [Previous: c4.s5.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c4.s5.14) - [Next: c4.s5.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c4.s5.16) - [Up: c4.s5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c4.s5) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c4.s5.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c4.s5.15) · Pramāṇa