उत्पत्तिः
- Vitatha Bārhaspatya (Bharadvāja) was adopted by Bharata Dauhṣanti upon destruction of his properly Kṣatra progeny (thus B -> an unstable B/K). Vitatha had several sons/grandsons including Garga who became a proper B (B/K -> B, stabilised) while one son/grandson, Bṛhatkṣatra, incidentally very much true to his name, became a proper K (B/K -> K, stabilised in the other direction).
- साक्षात्-सुशीला-भारद्वाजयोः पुत्र इति केचित्।
- भरद्वाजः → मन्युः → बृहत्क्षत्रः → जयः → गर्गः इत्यन्ये।
चरित्रम्
- यादवगुरुः, नन्दगुरुः
- जौतिषिः
- धर्मशास्त्र-कृत्
- तद्गोत्रजा गार्गी वाचक्नवि
अर्वाचीनाः
नीलकण्ठः सोमयाजी
- (1444-1550)
- From the scanty biographical details given in the colophon of his commentary on the Ganita section of the Aryabhatiya and from a Malayalam work, Laghuramayanam, we learn that he was a Namputiri (Keḷallūr-illam), Ashvalayana Rigvedi of the Garga gotra and hailed from Silkundapura or Srikundagrama (Malayalam, Tr-k-kanti-yur) near Tirur in South Malabar, a place which in medieval times rose to be an important seat of Sanskrit learning, specially astronomy and mathematics.
- As to his teachers, besides Damodara (son of parameshvara), he mentions another preceptor, Ravi, versed in Vedanta. In his Siddhanta-darpana he refers to these two teachers.
- Of the several works penned by Nilakantha, special mention may be madeof Golasara (Essence of the Sphere), Siddhanta-darpana (Mirror of Astronomy), Candracchaya-ganita (Computations of the Moon‘s Shadow), Tantrasangraha (Collection of Astronomical Works), and Aryabhatiya-bhasya (Commentary on the Aryabhatiya).
- Nīlakaṇtha emphasized the need to accurately record use and observations, while critically examining and refining past theories (see jyotiSha notes).
- Nīlakaṇtha’s greatest contribution to the world was his geoheliocentric cosmological model, which said the planets orbit the sun which in turn orbits the earth, one step ahead of the dominant geocentric view that had prevailed for millenia. The same model would be proposed by Tycho Brahe 200 years later.
- Somayājī’s calculations on planetary orbit around the sun stayed the most accurate until Kepler published his work centuries later. It must be mentioned that his guru, Parameshvara was notable for providing 55 years worth of observed experimental data on eclipses which was made use of by Somayājī.