A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c10.s6.49

c10.s6.49

Nārāyaṇa, disciple of another Nārāyaṇa and Citrabhānu, ardent admirer of Nilakaṇṭha Somayāji and highly devoted to Subrahmaṇya, an esteemed associate of Nīlakaṇṭha, was an original thinker and highly informed commentator. He wrote, in A.D. 1529, an instructive commentary called *Laghuvivṛti* on *Pañcabodha* IV.¹ His *Uparaga-kriyākrama* in five chapters is a detailed exposition of eclipse computation. He also wrote two commentaries on the *Līlāvatī*, one short and the other nearly five times as long, both called *Kriyākramakarī* and *Karmadīpikā* (called also *Karmapradīpa* and *Karmapradīpikā* according to the exigencies of the metre of the verses containing these names).² The longer *Kriyākramakarī* is especially valuable to the historian of Kerala astronomy and mathematics for the profuse references it contains to earlier authors and authorities, some of which are now lost, and for the theories and procedures enunciated in that commentary.³