VATE?VARA

(b. 880 at ?nandepura [modern Wadnagar], Gujarat, India)

astronomy.

The son of Mahadatta Bhatta, Vate?vara wrote a Vate?varasiddh?nta at the age of twenty–four (that is, in904), in which he frequently follows, but at times severely criticizes, the Br?hmasphutasiddh?nta of Brahmagupta (born 598); basically Vate?vara’s text belongs to the ?ryapaksa (see essay in Supplement). The manuscriprts of this work are exceedingly rare so that its contents beyond the first three chapters, which have been published, remain obscure; but what is known makes it clear that this is an extremely important work for understanding the development s that took place in Indian astronomy between Brahmagupta and Bh?skara II (born 1115), particularly because of Vate?vara’s explicit criticisms of his predecessors modeled on Brahmagupta’s eleventh chapter, the Tantrapar?ks?.

The only other work of Vate?vara that we known of is an astronomical handbook, Karanas?ra, which is lost in Sanskrit, but which was often cited by al–B?r?n? (born 973) in his India, his Transits, and his Al–Q?n?n al–Mas ‘?d?. From the former (Chap. 49 and 53) we learn that the epoch of the Karanas?ra was a.d. 899; this is confirmed by the Karanas?ra’s computation of the assumed motion of the Saptersis (Ursa Major) in the India (Chap. 45) and in the Q?n?n (IX, 1). Al–B?r?n?, however, calls the author of the Karanas?ra “Bat?shfar ibn Mahadatta from the city of N?garap?r,” which Sachau erroneously translates “Vitte?vara, the son of Bhadatta” (India, chap.14); the name N?garapura refers to the fact that Anandapura was the center of the N?gara Br?hmanas. There is, then, no doubt about the identity of the authors of the Vate?varasiddh?nta and of the Karanas?ra.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A first volume of an edition of the Vate?varasiddha?nta with Sanskrit and Hind? commentaries was published by Ram Swarup Sharma and Mukund Mishra (New Delhi, 1962); many errors in the commentary are corrected by T. S. Kuppanna Shastri, “The System of the Vate?vara Siddh?nta,” in Indian Journal of History of Science, 4 (1969), 135–143. See also R. N. Rai, :Sine Values of the Vate?varasiddh?nta,” ibid., 7 (1972), 1–15; and “Calculation of Ahargana, in the Vate?vara siddh?nta,” ibid., 27–37; and K. S. Shukla, “Hindu Astronomer Vate?vara and His Works,” in Ganita, 23 (1972), 2, 65–74.

David Pingree