A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c4.7

c4.7

This volume is primarily the outcome of the researches which I carried out as a University Research Scholar under the supervision of Prof. V. A. Ramaswami Sastri, concurrently with my duties as the Supervising Pandit of the Cataloguing Section of the University Oriental Manuscripts Library, Trivandrum: My intimate association, later, with the compilation of the *New Catalogus Catalogorum of Sanskrit Works and Authors* at the Madras University also proved to be of great help in my work. The thrill at discovering the thitherto unknown basic of text of the *Parahita* System of Kerala astronomy, viz., the *Grahacāranibandhana* of Haridatta (c. A. D. 650-700) and, subsequently, of the basic text of the *Dṛk* System, viz., Parameśvara's *Dṛggaṇita*, which had been proclaimed by all earlier scholars as irrevocably lost, sustained me through the heavy strain involved in examining several hundreds of palmleaf manuscripts, identifying, studying and correlating works on Jyotiṣa. Another factor which kept up the tempo of the investigations, during later years, was the flow of queries from the late savant, Vaṭakkumkūr Rajaraja Varma, who was then writing his 6-volume *History of Kerala Sanskrit literature* and 2-volume Supplement to Ulloor's *History of Kerala literature*. I cherish the privilege I had in supplying him with substantial literary information in that connection, which he has generously acknowledged at several places in his said books, particularly in the Preface to vol. I of the latter work and in the general reference he has made on pp. 508-9 of vol. VI of the former.