Dinakara

(b. Gujarat, India, ca. 1550)

astronomy.

Dinakara, the son of Rāmeśvara and greatgrandson of Dunda, was a resident of Bārejya (probably Bariya [or Devgad Baria] in. Rewa Kantha, Gujarat). He belonged to the Moḍha jn̄āti (clan) of the Kauśka gotra (lineage). He composed two sets of astronomical tables (see essay in supplement); the epoch of both is Śaka 1500 (a.d. 1578). A third set of tables has as epoch Śaka 1505 (a.d. 1583).

The Kheṭakasiddhi contains tables for determining the true longitudes of the five star planets that are based on the Brahmatulya of Bhāskara II. The Canādrdrkī, which contains tables of solar and lunar motions and of weekdays, tithis, nakṣatras, and yogas, was largely influenced by the Mahādevī of Mahādeva. Dinakara in turn influenced Haridatta II. There exists an anonymous commentary on the Candrādrkī The third set of tables, the Tithisādraṇī, is also based on the parameters of the Brāhmapakṣa; its purpose is to facilitate the computation of the annual pañcān̄ga (calendar).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Kheṭakasiddhi is briefly discussed in Ś. B, Dīkṣita, Bhāratīya Jyotiḥśātra (Poona, 1896; repr. Poona, 1931), p. 277. The Candrārkī is described and analyzed in D. Pingree, “Sanskrit Astronomical Tables in the United States,” in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s. 58 (1968), 51b-53a. Both the Kheṭakasiddhi and the Tithisāraṇī are analyzed in the forthcoming Sanskrit Astronomical Tables in England by D. Pingree.

David Pingree