Kamalakara

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Kamalakara (* around 1610 in Benares , † around 1700) was an Indian astronomer and mathematician.

He came from a Brahmin family of astronomers who had their origins in Golagrama near Pathri on the banks of the Godavari in Maharashtra . His great-grandfather Divakara was a student of the astronomer Ganesa from Nandod and moved to Benares. His sons were also astronomers who commented on Ganesa's work. The father of Kamalakara (Nrsimha, born 1586) had next to Kamalakara the sons Divakara (born 1606) and Ranganatha, who were also well-known astronomers in Benares. He learned Divakara from his older brother.

Kamalakara was next to Munishvara (Munisvara Visvarupa), with whom he was in a bitter feud, the leading astronomer of his time in Benares. He combined traditional Indian astronomy with western influence, mediated by Islamic astronomers (especially Ulugh Beg ), especially the physics of Aristotle and the astronomy of Ptolemy .

Kamalakara wrote a Manorama commentary on the Grahalaghava of Ganesa and the Vasanabhasya commentary on the Surya Siddhanta (one of the oldest Indian astronomical works). He is best known for his astronomical work Siddhantatattvaviveka (in 15 chapters) from 1658 and a later addition to it Sesavasana .

He gave addition theorems for sine and cosine for the exact calculation of sine tables.

literature

  • David Pingree in Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  • the Siddhantatattvaviveka was published from 1880 to 1885 by Sudhakara Dvivedi in five volumes in the Benares Sanskrit Series with commentary (with the Sesavasana as an appendix in volume 5). The second edition edited by Muralidhara Jha in Benares 1924 to 1935. Another edition was published in 1929 in Lucknow by Ganghadara Misra
  • Padmākara Dvivedin: Kamalākarabhaṭṭa. In: Proceedings of the Benares Mathematical Society. Volume 2, 1920, pp. 67-80

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Radha Charan Gupta : Kamalakara's mathematics and construction of Kundas. In: Ganita Bharati. Volume 20, No. 1-4, 1998, pp. 8-24, Addition and subtraction theorems for the sine and the cosine in medieval India. In: Indian J. History Sci. Volume 9, No. 2, 1974, pp. 164-177, Sines and cosines of multiple arcs as given by Kamalakara. In: Indian J. History Sci. Volume 9, No. 2, 1974, pp. 143-150, Sines of sub-multiple arcs as found in the Siddhanta-tattva-viveka. In: Ranchi Univ. Math. J. Vol. 5, 1974, pp. 21-27
personal data
SURNAME Kamalakara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian astronomer and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH around 1610
PLACE OF BIRTH Benares
DATE OF DEATH 17th century or 18th century