A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c10.s2.1

c10.s2.1

Several efforts have been made before to take stock of Hindu astronomical and allied literature, including that of Kerala, though these attempts have hardly succeeded in giving any adequate idea of the extent of the literature produced in Kerala. ‘A brief bibliography of Hindu mathematics’ by G.R. Kaye¹ records but a single work from Kerala, being the commentary of Paramādiśvara (sic.) on the *Āryabhaṭīya*. The *Gaṇakatarangiṇī* or *Lives of Hindu astronomers* by Sudhakara Dvivedi mentions just four Kerala authors and two works.² ‘A consolidated list of Hindu mathematical works’ by K. Balagangadharan³ includes just 18 Kerala authors and 42 works. K.K. Raja’s well-documented paper on ‘Astronomy and mathematics in Kerala : An account of the literature’,⁴ takes into its purview only some of the more prominent authors in these two disciplines, numbering about 20, and their works, numbering about 80. S.N. Sen's *Bibliography of Sanskrit works on astronomy and mathematics*,¹ carries the documentation of just 13 Kerala authors and 47 works. The major histories of Kerala literature, viz., *Kerala Sahitya Charitram* (in 5 vols.) by Ulloor S. Parameswara Aiyar,² *Keraliya Samskrita Sahitya Charitram*, (in 6 vols.)³ and *Kerala Sahitya Charitram : Charcchayum Puraṇavum*, (in 2 vols.),⁴ both by Vaṭakkumkūr Rajaraja Varma, *Malayala Bhasha Charitram* by P. Govinda Pillai,⁵ and *Kerala Bhasha Sahitya Charitram* (in 7 vols.), by R. Narayana Panikkar,⁶ especially the first three, notice a much larger quantum of the literature, though they, too, fail to do adequate justice to the subject. In fact, more than half of the literature on Jyotiṣa produced in Kerala does not find a mention in these volumes. Moreover, the accounts given in these histories are not documented and are, mostly, distributed in their different volumes. Neither do these histories, except that of Ulloor, carry any index to help the reader in locating a work or an author dealt with therein. Under the circumstances as stated above, the wealth of material presented, in a chronological manner, in the following pages may be expected to provide a far more comprehensive account of the literary output of Kerala in the discipline of Jyotiṣa. It has been thought not necessary to repeat here the details which are available in the earlier accounts, but it was felt essential to set out all new information not noticed in therein. Therefore, in the following pages, the stress will be on new information, identifications and correlations, although, for the sake of completeness and continuity, a brief mention will be made also about currently known authors and works, for further details about which the earlier writings referred to in the footnotes might be consulted with advantage. For the documentation of the manuscripts of the works and for extracts therefrom, the annotated Inventory in the next chapter might be referred to.