Makaranda or Makarandācārya or Makaranda Anandakanda () was an
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
, calendrist, and
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
astrologer
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
who lived in Kāśī (
Varanasi
Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.*
*
*
* The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...
) and wrote an astronomical work called the Makaranda sāriṇī (मकरन्द सारिणी) which included tables for the calculation of the
planetary movements.
Makaranda followed the Saurapaksa tradition or school of astronomy (related to the
Saura calendar). The
tables in the work make use of a
sexagesimal
Sexagesimal, also known as base 60, is a numeral system with 60 (number), sixty as its radix, base. It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, was passed down to the ancient Babylonians, and is still used—in a modified fo ...
system for the units of time. The tables were used widely in
Bihar
Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...
and
Bengal
Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...
and were the basis for at least twenty later commentaries, as noted by
David Pingree
David Edwin Pingree (January 2, 1933 – November 11, 2005) was an American historian of mathematics in the ancient world. He was a University Professor and Professor of History of Mathematics and Classics at Brown University.
Life
Pingree gra ...
and
Kim Plofker
Kim Leslie Plofker (born November 25, 1964) is an American historian of mathematics, specializing in Indian mathematics.
Education and career
Born in Chennai, India, Plofker received her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Haverford College. She ...
.
References
External links
Incomplete manuscript leaves of Makaranda(
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
)
Scan of edition by Diwakar Manu
{{Authority control
15th-century Indian astronomers