A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c10.s8.68

c10.s8.68

The *Karaṇapaddhati*,² in ten chapters, is a comprehensive treatise on astronomy by an anonymous Somayāji of the Putumana or Putuvana (Skt. *Nūtanagṛha* or *Nūtanavipina*) family of Śivapuram (Trichur). The availability of manuscripts of the work in Tamil and Telugu scripts indicate its popularity in those regions as well. The work has been commented in Malayalam,³ Sanskrit and Tamil. Its date of composition is said to be given in the concluding verse of the work by the chronogram *gaṇitam etad samyak* (17,65,653) which falls in A.D. 1732.⁴ While *Karaṇapaddhati* is the best known work of the author in Jyotiṣa, it has been shown that he has written certain other works also in that discipline.⁵ In *Nyāyaratna*, he deals, in eight chapters, with certain aspects of *Sphuṭa*, *Vikṣepa*, *Chāyā*, *Viparītacchāyā*, *Grahaṇa*, *Śṛṅgonnati*, *Maudhya* and *Vyatīpāta*. The object of writing the work is expressed in its concluding verse thus :