A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c10.s2.13

c10.s2.13

Vararuci is the father figure in the astronomical tradition of Kerala. He is supposed to have lived in the first half of the 4th century, this date having been arrived at on the basis of the dates of birth and death of his eldest son Meḷattoḷ Agnihotri, which are given, according to tradition, in the Kali chronograms yajñasthānam surakṣyam (12,70,701) and purudhiḥ samāśryaḥ (12,57,921) which fall, respectively, in A.D. 343 and 378. The manuscript tradition of the land ascribes to Vararuci the authorship of the 248 Candra-vākyas ('moon-sentences'), popularly called Vararuci-vākyas, beginning with gir naḥ śreyaḥ, and also the promulgation of the kaṭapayādi notation of depicting numbers which has been used in the composition of the said Vakyas.¹