Haridatta
Encyclopedia
Haridatta was an astronomer
-mathematician
of Kerala
, India
, who is believed to be the promulgator of the Parahita system of astronomical computations. This system of computations is widely popular in Kerala
and Tamil Nadu
. According to legends, Haridatta promulgated the Parahita
system on the occasion of the Mamankam held in the year 683 CE. Mamankam was a 12-yearly festival held in Thirunnavaya on the banks of the Bharathapuzha river.
The distinctive contribution of Harfidatta, apart from his resolving the Aryabhatiya
calculations and using the Katapayadi system
of numerals is the corrections he introduced to the values of the mean and true positions, the velocity, etc., of the moon and other planets as obtained from Aryabhata
's constants. This correction is called the Sakabda-samskara since it applied from the date of Aryabhata
in the Saka era 444, at which date his constants gave accurate results.
by Aryabhata
. Haridatta introduced the following simplificattions.
The system was called Parahita meaning suitable for the common man because it simplified astronomical computations and made it accessible for practice even for ordinary persons.
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
-mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, who is believed to be the promulgator of the Parahita system of astronomical computations. This system of computations is widely popular in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
and Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. According to legends, Haridatta promulgated the Parahita
Parahita
Parahita is a system of astronomy prevalent in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India. It was introduced by the Kerala astronomer Haridatta, .Nilakanthan Somayaji , in his DrkkaraNa, relates how Parahita was created based...
system on the occasion of the Mamankam held in the year 683 CE. Mamankam was a 12-yearly festival held in Thirunnavaya on the banks of the Bharathapuzha river.
The distinctive contribution of Harfidatta, apart from his resolving the Aryabhatiya
Aryabhatiya
Āryabhaṭīya or Āryabhaṭīyaṃ, a Sanskrit astronomical treatise, is the magnum opus and only extant work of the 5th century Indian mathematician, Āryabhaṭa.- Structure and style:...
calculations and using the Katapayadi system
Katapayadi system
Kaṭapayādi system of numerical notation is an ancient Indian system to depict letters to numerals for easy remembrance of numbers as words or verses...
of numerals is the corrections he introduced to the values of the mean and true positions, the velocity, etc., of the moon and other planets as obtained from Aryabhata
Aryabhata
Aryabhata was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy...
's constants. This correction is called the Sakabda-samskara since it applied from the date of Aryabhata
Aryabhata
Aryabhata was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy...
in the Saka era 444, at which date his constants gave accurate results.
Parahita system
The Parahita system of computations introduced by Haridatta was a simplification of the system propounded in AryabhatiyaAryabhatiya
Āryabhaṭīya or Āryabhaṭīyaṃ, a Sanskrit astronomical treatise, is the magnum opus and only extant work of the 5th century Indian mathematician, Āryabhaṭa.- Structure and style:...
by Aryabhata
Aryabhata
Aryabhata was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy...
. Haridatta introduced the following simplificattions.
The system was called Parahita meaning suitable for the common man because it simplified astronomical computations and made it accessible for practice even for ordinary persons.
- Haridatta dispensed with the numerical symbolism used by Aryabhata and replaced it with the more flexible Katapayadi systemKatapayadi systemKaṭapayādi system of numerical notation is an ancient Indian system to depict letters to numerals for easy remembrance of numbers as words or verses...
. In this system, letters are used to represent digits and these letters are then used to invent meaningful words and sentences to denote specific numbers. These words and sentences could be remembered with much less effort. - Computations in Indian astronomy involved long numbers representing various parameters associated with the several celestial objects which are applicable for a Mahayuga, a period of 4,320,000 years. To avoid computations with these large numbers, Haridatta introduced a smaller YugaYugaYuga in Hindu philosophy is the name of an 'epoch' or 'era' within a cycle of four ages. These are the Satya Yuga, the Treta Yuga, the Dvapara Yuga, and finally the Kali Yuga. According to Hindu cosmology, life in the universe is created, destroyed once every 4.1 to 8.2 billion years, which is...
, called a Dhijagannupura-yuga, of 576 years or 210,389 days (which 1/7500 th part of a Mahyuga) and accurately determined the zero corrections for this sub-Yuga for the mean motion of the several planets. These corrections were then used to compute the mean planets for any given date.
Works of Haridatta
Scholars have been able to identify only two works as authored by Haridatta. One of them, titled Grahacaranibandhana, is the basic manual of computations of the Parahita system of astronomy. This was unearthed by K.V. Sarma and was published in 1954. The other work titled Mahamarganibandhana is no longer extant.See also
- Indian astronomy
- Indian mathematicsIndian mathematicsIndian mathematics emerged in the Indian subcontinent from 1200 BCE until the end of the 18th century. In the classical period of Indian mathematics , important contributions were made by scholars like Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara II. The decimal number system in use today was first...
- Indian mathematicians
- History of mathematicsHistory of mathematicsThe area of study known as the history of mathematics is primarily an investigation into the origin of discoveries in mathematics and, to a lesser extent, an investigation into the mathematical methods and notation of the past....