Sankara Varman (1774–1839) was an

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either o ...

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 ...

belonging to the

Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics The Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics or the Kerala school was a school of Indian mathematics, mathematics and Indian astronomy, astronomy founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama in Kingdom of Tanur, Tirur, Malappuram district, Malappuram, K ...

. He is best known as the author of Sadratnamala, a treatise on astronomy and mathematics, composed in 1819. Sankara Varman is considered as the last notable figure in the long line of illustrious astronomers and mathematicians in the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics beginning with

Madhava of Sangamagrama Iriññāttappiḷḷi Mādhavan known as Mādhava of Sangamagrāma () was an Indian mathematician and astronomer from the town believed to be present-day Kallettumkara, Aloor Panchayath, Irinjalakuda in Thrissur District, Kerala, India. He i ...

. Sadratnamala was composed in the traditional style followed by members of the Kerala school at a time when India had been introduced to the western style of mathematics and of writing books in mathematics. One of Varman's contribution to mathematics was his computation of the value of the mathematical constant π correct to 17 decimal places.

Biographical sketch

Varman was born as a younger prince in the principality of Katattanad, in

North Malabar North Malabar refers to the geographic area of southwest India covering the state of Kerala's present day Kasaragod, Kannur, and Wayanad districts, and the taluks of Vatakara, Koyilandy, and Thamarassery in the Kozhikode District of Kerala and th ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...

, in the year 1774. He had two elder brothers, the eldest being Raja Udaya varma, the ruler of the principality, and second one being Rama Varma, the crown prince. Local people referred to Varman as Appu Thampuran. Katattanad principality was under the suzerainty of the

Zamorin The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edited ...

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...

. The family deity of Sankara Varman was Goddess

Parvati Parvati ( sa, पार्वती, ), Uma ( sa, उमा, ) or Gauri ( sa, गौरी, ) is the Hindu goddess of power, energy, nourishment, harmony, love, beauty, devotion, and motherhood. She is a physical representation of Mahadevi ...

installed in the temple of Lokamalayarkavu and he was also a devotee of Lord

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...

. Varman completed the composition of Sadratnamala in 1819. He also wrote a

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

commentary on Sadratnamala. Two versions of the text of Sadratnamala and their commentaries have been discovered. A critical examination of the manuscripts suggests that both are written by Varman, one being a revision of the other. During the invasion of Malabar by Tipu Sultan/Hyder Ali during 1766 - 1781, many people including members of royal families fled Malabar and took shelter in

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. A ...

. This brought the principality of Katattanad also into close contact with the

Royal Family. Varman was especially attached to Maharaja

Swati Tirunal ( ml, സ്വാതി തിരുനാള്‍ രാമവർമ്മ) (16 April 1813 – 26 December 1846) was the Maharaja of the Kingdom of Travancore. He is also considered as a brilliant music composer and is credited with over 4 ...

(1813–47). Varman was an astute

astrologer Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

. There is a

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

that he predicted the time of his own death as being in 1839, the year in which he died.

Whish's acquaintance

Varman was a close acquaintance of

C.M. Whish Charles Matthew Whish (1794–1833) was an English civil servant in the Madras Establishment of the East India Company. Whish was the first to bring to the notice of the western mathematical scholarship the achievements of the Kerala school of ...

a civil servant of

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

attached to its Madras establishment. Whish spoke of him and his work thus: "The author of Sadratnamalah is SANCARA VARMA, the younger brother of the present Raja of Cadattanada near Tellicherry, a very intelligent man and acute mathematician. This work, which is a complete system of Hindu astronomy, is comprehended in two hundred and eleven verses of different measures, and abounds with fluxional forms and series, to be found in no work of foreign or other Indian countries." Whish was the first to bring to the notice of the western mathematical scholarship the achievements of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varman, Sankara Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics Hindu astronomy 19th-century Indian astronomers 1774 births 1839 deaths People from Kozhikode district 18th-century Indian mathematicians 19th-century Indian mathematicians 18th-century Indian astronomers Scientists from Kerala