A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c10.s8.149

c10.s8.149

Nārāyaṇan Iḷayatu was a member of the Chāntampiḷḷi family in Maccāṭ near Cochin. He was a gifted poet, author of several poems in Sanskrit and Malayalam and a resourceful astrologer whose predictions have developed into legends.¹ He was patronised by the royal house of Cochin, especially by Śaktan Thampurāṇ. In Jyotiṣa, he wrote the Jyotiṣabhāṣāvali, called also Maccāṭṭu-Bhāṣa, being an introduction to astrology, and the Jātakadeśaratna,² based on the Jātadeśamārga of Putumana Somayāji.³