Karanapaddhati

Karanapaddhati
AuthorPuthumana Somayaji
LanguageSanskrit
SubjectAstronomy/Mathematics
Publication date
1733 CE (?)
Publication placeIndia

Karanapaddhati is an astronomical treatise in Sanskrit attributed to Puthumana Somayaji, an astronomer-mathematician of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics. The period of composition of the work is uncertain. C.M. Whish, a civil servant of the East India Company, brought this work to the attention of European scholars for the first time in a paper published in 1834.[1] The book is divided into ten chapters and is in the form of verses in Sanskrit. The sixth chapter contains series expansions for the value of the mathematical constant π, and expansions for the trigonometric sine, cosine and inverse tangent functions.[2]

  1. ^ Charles Whish (1834), "On the Hindu Quadrature of the circle and the infinite series of the proportion of the circumference to the diameter exhibited in the four Sastras, the Tantra Sahgraham, Yucti Bhasha, Carana Padhati and Sadratnamala", Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 3 (3), Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 509–523, doi:10.1017/S0950473700001221, JSTOR 25581775
  2. ^ Datta, Bibhutibhushan; A.N. Singh (1993). "Uses of series in India". Indian Journal of History of Science. 28 (3): 103–129.