A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c10.s5.26

c10.s5.26

Vidyāmādhava, whose commentary on the *Kirātārjunīya*, is perhaps, the best exposition of that *mahakāvya*, was equally at home in Jyotiṣa. His *Muhūrtadarśana*, called also *Muhūrtamādhavīya* and *Vidyāmādhavīya*,³ is an extensive work in 15 chapters, discussing and prescribing auspicious times for all types of social and religious functions. He was a member of the Tulu brahman family of Nilamana, his village being Guṇavatī (Guṇavanta), near Gokarna, on the Arabian coast. He was the son of Nārāyaṇa, an eminent scholar attached to the court of King Mallappa. The *Muhūrtadarśna* has been extremely popular in Kerala and has six Keralite commentaries on it, two in Sanskrit and the others in Malayalam.⁴