L?t

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L?t?adeva

(fl. India, ca. A.D. 505),

astronomy.

L?t?adeva, a pupil of ?ryabhara I (b 476), was perhaps originally from L?t?ade?a in southern Gujarat. He is known primarily through citations in the Pañcasiddh?antik? of Var?hamihira (sixth century) and in the commentary on the Br?hmasphutasiddh?nta by Prth?dakasv?min (ca. 864); the fragments are collected in O. Neugebauer and D. Pingree, The Pañcasiddh?nti? of Var?hamihira.

L?t?adeva is said by Var?hamihira to have commented on the Romakasiddh?nta and the Pauli?asidd-h?nta, which represent Greek and Greco-Babylonian astronomical techniques in Sanskrit (see essay in Supplement); he is evidently also responsible for a revision of the S?ryasiddh?nta whereby it came to conform to the ?rddhar?trikapaksa of his teacher, ?ryabhata I. His epoch for that work was 20/21 March 505.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

All the available material concerning L?t?adeva and his works will be found in O. Neugebauer and D. Pingree, The Pañcasiddh?ntik? of Var?hamihira (Copenhagen, 1970), pt. 1, pp. 14-15.

David Pingree

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