Munishvara or Munīśvara Viśvarūpa (born 1603) was an Indian
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
who wrote several commentaries including one on astronomy, the ''Siddhanta Sarvabhauma'' (1646), which included descriptions of astronomical instruments such as the ''pratoda yantra''. Another commentary he wrote was the ''Lilavativivruti''. Very little is known about him other than that he came from a family of astronomers including his father Ranganatha who wrote a commentary called the ''Gụ̄hārthaprakaśa/Gūḍhārthaprakāśikā,'' a commentary on the ''
Suryasiddhanta
The ''Surya Siddhanta'' (; ) is a Sanskrit treatise in Indian astronomy dated to 4th to 5th century,Menso Folkerts, Craig G. Fraser, Jeremy John Gray, John L. Berggren, Wilbur R. Knorr (2017)Mathematics Encyclopaedia Britannica, Quote: "(...) i ...
''. His grandfather Ballala had his origins in
Dadhigrama
Dadhigrama was a village on the banks of the Payosni river in Vidarbha where a school of mathematics and astronomy flourished during the 14th to 19th centuries CE.
Some of the well-known members of the school were Cintāmani, a Brahmana of th ...
in
Vidharba
Vidarbha (Pronunciation: id̪əɾbʱə is a geographical region in the west Indian state of Maharashtra. Forming the eastern part of the state, it comprises Amravati and Nagpur divisions. As per the 2011 Census, the region had a population ...
and had moved to
Benares
Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges, Ganges river in North India, northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hinduism, Hindu world.*
*
*
* The city ...
. Ballala had several sons who wrote commentaries on astronomy and mathematics. Munisvara's ''Siddhantasarvabhauma'' had the patronage of
Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan I, (Shahab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram; 5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also called Shah Jahan the Magnificent, was the Emperor of Hindustan from 1628 until his deposition in 1658. As the fifth Mughal emperor, his reign marked the ...
like his paternal uncle Krishna Daivagna did. He was opposed to fellow mathematician
Kamalakara
Kamalakara (1616 – 1700) was an Indian astronomer and mathematician, came from a learned family of scholars from Golagrama, a village situated in Maharashtra State near Partha-puri (Pathari) on the northern bank of the river Godāvarī. His ...
, whose brother also wrote a critique of Munisvara's bhangi-vibhangi method for
planetary motions. He was also opposed to the adoption of some mathematical ideas in
spherical trigonometry
Spherical trigonometry is the branch of spherical geometry that deals with the metrical relationships between the edge (geometry), sides and angles of spherical triangles, traditionally expressed using trigonometric functions. On the sphere, ge ...
from
Arab scholars
Arab scientists and scholars from the Muslim World, including Al-Andalus (Spain), who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age, include the following. The list consists primarily of scholars during the Middle Ages.
Both th ...
. An edition of his ''Siddhanta Sarvabhauma'' was published in the Princess of Wales
Sarasvati Bhavana Granthamala
Sārasvati Bhavana Granthamala (previously known as Sarasvati Bhavana Texts) is a series of editions of Sanskrit scholarly texts. The publication of the series began in 1920, on behalf of Sarasvati Bhawan, the Library of the Government Sanskri ...
series edited by
Gopinath Kaviraj
Gopinath Kaviraj (7 September 1887 – 12 June 1976) was an Indian Sanskrit scholar, Indologist and philosopher. First appointed in 1914 a librarian, he was the Principal of Government Sanskrit College, Varanasi from 1923 to 1937. He was also ...
. Munisvara's book had twelve chapters in two parts. The second part had notes on astronomical instruments. He was a follower of
Bhaskara II.
See also
*
Kṛṣṇa Daivajña
Kṛṣṇa Daivajña was a 16th-17th century Indian astrologer-astronomer-mathematician from Varanasi patronized by the Mughal Emperors, Mughal Emperor Jahangir. As a mathematician Kṛṣṇa Daivajña is best known for his elaborate commentary ...
References
External links
Manuscript version of Siddhant Sarvabhauma (1627)from the
Asiatic Society of Bombay
The Asiatic Society of Mumbai (formerly ''Asiatic Society of Bombay'') is a learned society in the field of Asian studies based in Mumbai, India. It can trace its origin to the Literary Society of Bombay which first met in Mumbai on 26 November 1 ...
*
Manuscript from the Raghunath Temple, Jammu
Siddhanta Sarvabhauma - Saraswati Bhavan - (Part 1)(Part 2)
17th-century Indian mathematicians
{{Asia-mathematician-stub