Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c9.27

c9.27

In the seventeenth century *praśna* was the subject of a number of treatises, many of which cannot be securely dated. Among these are to be included the Praśnajñāna of Brahmārka,²⁴ of which the earliest dated manuscript was copied in 1622, and the Jñānamañjarī of Ṛṣiśarman,²⁵ of which the earliest dated manuscript was copied in 1646. Probably to be included in this group is the Praśnatattva²⁶ of Cakrapāṇi,²⁷ whose floruit lies between 1514, the year in which Vibhākara composed his Praśnakaumudī which Cakrapāṇi cites (10, 18), and 1800, the year in which the earliest dated manuscript of the Praśnatattva was copied. Other texts on *praśna* written in the seventeenth century include: the Praśnabhairava²⁸ composed by Gaṅgādhara, the author also of works on *jātaka*, *koṣṭhaka*, *muhūrta*, and *tājika*, at Kāśī in 1629; the Praśnapradīpa written by Mahādeva, the author of the Muhūrtadīpaka, in Kaccha in 1647; the Praśnamārga²⁹ composed by Nātha,³⁰ a member of the Panakkāṭṭu³¹ family of Iṭakkāṭ in Kerala, in 1650 (the author wrote his own *ṭīkā* on this, the Durgamārthaprakāśinī); and the Praśnaśiromaṇi³² composed by that Rudramaṇi Tripāṭhin who wrote the Ramalenduprakāśa in 1682.