Born Tṛkkaṇṭiyūr, (Kerala, India), 1550
Died (Kerala, India), 7 July 1621
Acyuta Piṣāraṭi was a prominent figure in the annals of the medieval period. He was a versatile scholar and an original thinker who enunciated, for the first time in Indian astronomy, the correction called “reduction to the ecliptic” of the true positions of the planets. Acyuta hailed from Kerala, the narrow strip of land on the west coast of south India, and was part of a long line of astronomers who were related to each other as teacher and disciple or as father and son. Acyuta's teacher was Jyeṣṭhadeva, author of the Yuktibhāṣā, an analytical work on mathematics and astronomy based on the Tantrasan‐graha of Nīlakaṇṭha Somayāji.
Among Acyuta's works on astronomy, the Sphuṭanirṇaya (The Accurate Determination of the True Positions of the Planets) is the most important. Divided into six chapters, the work shows the step‐by‐step reductions of the positions of the planets from their mean to true places, for an...
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Selected References
Chattopadhyay, Anjana (2002). “Acyuta.” In Biographical Dictionary of Indian Scientists: From Ancient to Contemporary. p. 11, New Delhi: Rupa.
Pingree, David (1970). “Acyuta Pisārati.” In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie. Vol. 1, pp. 48–49. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
——— (1978). “History of Mathematical Astronomy in India.” In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie. Vol. 15 (Suppl. 1), pp. 533–633. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Sarma, Ke Ve (1972). A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute.
——— (ed.) (1974). Sphutanirnayatantram. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute.
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Sarma, K.V. (2007). Acyuta Piṣāraṭi. In: Hockey, T., et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_14
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