Vijayanandi (940-1010) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer whose most famous work was the Karanatilaka. We should note that there was another astronomer named Vijayanandi who was mentioned by Varahamihira in one of his works. Since Varahamihira wrote around 550 and the Karanatilaka was written around 966, there must be two astronomers both named "Vijayanandi".
The Karanatilaka has not survived in its original form but we know of the text through an Arabic translation by al-Biruni. It is a work in fourteen chapters covering the standard topics of Indian astronomy.
It deals with the topics of:
- units of time measurement;
- mean and true longitudes of the sun and moon;
- the length of daylight;
- mean longitudes of the five planets;
- true longitudes of the five planets;
- the three problems of diurnal rotation;
- lunar eclipses, solar eclipses;
- the projection of eclipses;
- first visibility of the planets;
- conjunctions of the planets with each other and with fixed stars;
- the moon's crescent;
- the patas of the moon and sun.
Like other Indian astronomers, Vijayanandi made contributions to trigonometry and it appears that his calculation of the periods was computed by using tables of sines and versed sines. It is significant that accuracy was need in trigonometric tables to give accurate astronomical theories and this motivated many of the Indian mathematicians to produce more accurate methods of approximating entries in tables.
Courtesy:Internet
1 comment:
I dont know who you are but your blog will prove very useful for me as i compile material on Indic mathematicians from antiquity to the present day. Curently i have 150 names in my list (for more than half i know very little) your list will considerably augment mine.
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