Paṇḍita Jagannātha (1652–1744), who bore the title “Samrāṭ”, writer on astronomy and mathematics, and designer of astronomical instruments, was the religious preceptor and collaborator in astronomical pursuits of Jai Singh Sawai (1688–1744), the astronomer‐prince of Jaipur in Rajasthan. Born into a Vedic family, the son of Gaṇeśa, Jagannātha was attached to the court of Jai Singh from an early age and assisted his patron in all his social, religious, and scientific activities.
At Jai Singh's behest, Jagannātha mastered Arabic and Persian, the two foreign languages prevalent in the Mughal court, which he utilized in the study of Islamic astronomy and put to beneficial use translating into Sanskrit texts in those languages for his patron. In this way, Jagannātha produced his Rekhāgaṇita and Siddhāntasārakaustubha, which are translations of Euclid's Elements of Geometry and Ptolemy's Almagest, respectively, from their Arabic versions by Naṣīr al‐Dīn al‐ṭūsī. It is interesting that in the...
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References
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Sarma, K.V. (2008). Jagannātha Samrāṭ. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9573
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