A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c9.s5.14

c9.s5.14

Astronomy being a practical science, progress in that discipline is incumbant no less on practical observation than on computational skill. Several works including the *Golaḍīpikā* I of Parameśvara and the *Bhadradīpa* of Iṭakramañceri Nampūtiri contain sections on the construction and use of the armillary sphere. The commentaries of Parameśvara and Nīlakaṇṭha Somayājī carry references to their lifelong astronomical observations. By far the most interesting treatise in this line is the *Grahaparīkṣākrama* of Nīlakaṇṭha Somayājī, in about two hundred verses. There is also a detailed Malayalam commentary on this work. An equally interesting, though possibly, very late, work is *Nazhikamaṇiyuṭe yukti*, in Malayalam, which is a detailed exposition of the working of the pendulum clock.