Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c6.53

c6.53

The popularity of the BS was great, though the vastness of the text precluded much commentarial work. The chief effort in that direction that we possess is the extremely valuable vivṛti completed by Bhaṭṭotpala in Kāśmīra in 967; based on Bhaṭṭotpala's work is the Utpalaparimala composed by Bhāskarārya Yogin⁴² at Śrīraṅga on the Kāverī in 1235. The BS with Bhaṭṭotpala's vivṛti was read by al-Bīrūnī in the Panjāb in preparation for writing his India in 1030/1031. It was translated into Persian by ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Dihlawī⁴³ for Fīrūz Shāh Tughlūq in about 1375; adhyāyas 66 and 68 were translated into Tamil anonymously;⁴⁴ and there seems to exist a paraphrase in Siṃhalese.⁴⁵ Varāhamihira himself wrote an abridgement, the Samāsasaṃhitā,⁴⁶ of which only quotations, notably in Bhaṭṭotpala's vivṛti on the BS, now survive.