Brahmadeva

(fl. ca. 1092)

astronomy.

Brahmadeva was the son of Candrabudha (or Śrīcandra, or Candrabhaṭṭa), a Brāhmana of Mathurā (or Madhurā). The epoch date of his only work, the Karaṇaprakāśa, is Thursday, 11 March 1092. The work contains nine chapters:

1. On the mean longitudes of the planets.
2. On tithis and so on.
3. On the true longitudes of the star–planets.
4. On the three problems relating to diurnal motion.
5. On lunar eclipses.
6. On solar eclipses.
7. On heliacal risings and settings.
8. On the lunar crescent.
9. On planetary conjunctions and latitudes.

The work is based on the Āryabhaṭīya of Āryabhaṭa I, with modifications proposed by Lalla (see Essay V). It was particularly popular in Madras, Mysore, and Mahārāṣṭra.

There are commentaries on the Karaṇaprakāśa by Amareśa in the Kaṇṇada language (Karnṇāṭabhāṣ´āvyākhāna); by Brahmaśarman (Vyākhyā); by Dāmodara, the pupil of Padmanābha (fl. ca. 1575) (Vṛrtti); by Govinda, the son of Viśvanātha Tāmbe (Vivṛtti); by Sampatkumāra (Vyākhyā); and by Śrīnivāsa Yajvan (Prabhā, ca, 1275). There also exist an Udāharana, once (probably erroneously) ascribed to Viśvanātha of Benares (fl. 1612–1630), and a Sadvāsanā by Sudhākara Dvivedin, who published the Karaṇaprakāśa along with this commentary as the twenty–thrid work in the Chowkhambā Sanskrit Series (Benares, 1899).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Additional works concerning Brahmadeva are Ś. B. Dīkṣita, Bhāratīya Jyotiḥśāstra (Poona, 1896; repr. Poona, 1931), pp. 240–243; and Sudhākara Dvivedin Gaṇakatan¯rangiṇī (Benares, 1933: repr. from The Pandit, n.s. 14 [1892]), pp. 31–33.

David Pingree