A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c4.1

c4.1

The present work on the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy grew out of my conviction about the sustained development of the twin disciplines of astronomy and mathematics, in that part of India, during mediaeval times, even after the period of Bhāskara II (b. A. D. 1114), from when on, it is uniformly presumed that Hindu mathematics had come to a standstill (see below, pp. 11-12). For a proper assessment of the said development, the premier requirement was an analytical and documented account of the extensive source materials on the subject, in Sanskrit and in Malayalam, as recorded, mostly, in palmleaf manuscripts Critical and comparative studies on individual topics, authors and works could follow, on the basis of the said account. And, the cumulation of such studies could be expected to set out the contribution of Kerala to Hindu astronomy, which would form a substantial chapter in the history of that discipline.