Short Preface

Those who know the astronomical siddhantas authoritative treatises in this world are familiar with the Siddhanta Shiromani of the illustrious Bhaskaracharya, which, accompanied by the Vasanabhashya Commentary on Underlying Principles, is compiled with excellent and varied proofs. However, observing the ease of modern Western mathematics, it is understood that even those well-versed in these principles—like bees hovering around the lotus of Bhaskara’s literature—are often merely circling; thus, having obtained a particle of knowledge from my revered guru, I have examined the Vasanavarttika Exegesis on Principles and the Marichi Ray of Light at his command.

In truth, who among the learned does not acknowledge that the Marichi of Munishwara A renowned commentator carries the true quality of a jewel in the Siddhanta Shiromani? Furthermore, after Bhaskaracharya, the astronomer Munishwara, skilled in logic, literature, and the arts, was the only one whose intellectual prowess was so great that he dared to critique the Siddhanta Shiromani—a work of good subject matter—by composing his own Siddhanta Tattva Viveka Discrimination of the Truth of Astronomical Treatises in the form of a refutation. Because the Marichi and the independent work Siddhanta Sarvabhauma remain unprinted, the scholarship of Bhaskara and Munishwara has remained somewhat obscured.

In the Siddhantas, the works of many masters like Aryabhata, Lalla, Varahamihira, Brahmagupta, Shridhara, Padmanabha, and Keshava remain unprinted and rare. Among those that are printed and accessible, the Siddhanta Shiromani shines like a crest-jewel, acting as a banner of Bhaskara's merit.

First, the Siddhanta Shiromani with the Vasanabhashya was published in Calcutta by Pandit Jivananda. It was later printed at the Medical Hall Press by the world-renowned Mahamahopadhyaya Pandit Bapudeva Shastri, who included many ancient authoritative citations and added his own explanatory circles diagrams integrated with the strength of Western mathematics. Later, his students...