(1828-1880 CE), a shrIvaiShNava-brAhmaNa, Hindu astronomer who was rooted in tradition yet learned, adopted and spread modern astronomy, [MT]
- coming from a traditional astronomer family he sought to do modern astronomy and was an autodidact in this regard; reduced to supporting himself as a coolie for the Sāhibs but at age of 18 he was appointed to the British observatory of Madras,
- gave several public lectures in Chennai to attempt to increase the awareness of Hindus on modern astronomy and the importance of first hand and meticulous observations
- “discussed the importance of modern astronomy with the ācarya of the Sriperumbudur śrīvaiṣṇava maṭha and convinced him to adopt a modern astronomical almanac, "
- “demonstrated to his Vedic ritualist friends, Venkateshvara Dikshita and Sundaresha Shrautin, that the astronomical tables of the traditional astronomers of Andhra and Dramiḍa were otiose and that they badly mis-predicted basic astronomical events which are central to Vaidika rituals”
- “during the solar eclipse of August 18, 1868 RA was able to demonstrate his predictions: He got the eclipse time correct with an error of 12 seconds using calculations done by his hand while the traditional astronomers performed dismally with a whopping 24 minute error. This had a strong effect and many traditional Hindus now switched over to his side. He then demolished the most recalcitrant traditional astronomers in a sadas of brāhmaṇa-s of the Dramiḍa country. Seeing this the Śaṃkara maṭha sent out a circular stating that the Vedic ritualists Venkateshvara Dikshita and Sundaresha Shrautin were correct in adopting modern theory and techniques for their rituals. His efforts were paralleled by those of Ketkar in Maharashtra and Venkatakrishna Raya in Andhra to get the Hindus to use modern astronomical calculations.”
- was the first modern Hindu to realize the importance of variable stars
- “RA and Pogson also discovered the May 1863 eruption of U Scorpii that led to the discovery of the recurrent nova which erupts as matter from a companion star falls on a white dwarf in a binary system. RA along with Muthusvami Pillai also captured the fading of R Coronae Borealis in 1863 CE.”
- he and Muthusvami Pillai managed a local saving fund, “dravya-siddhi”, for Hindus