Karana-kutuhala (IAST: Karaṇakutūhala) is a 1183 CE Sanskrit-language book on jyotisha (astrology and astronomy) by Bhaskara II, a mathematician-astronomer from present-day India.
Date and authorship
Bhaskara II wrote Karana-kutuhala (literally, "Calculation of Astronomical Wonders") in 1183 CE.
Alternative titles for Karana-kutuhala include Karaṇakutūhalam, Khetakarma, Graha-gama-kutuhala, Brahma-tulya, and Vidagdha-buddhi-vallabha. As the name suggests, the book is a karana text, that is, a concise exposition of astronomy. Bhaskara's Karana-kutuhala was followed by Indian astronomers for several centuries, during which no other karana text was produced, until Ganesha composed Graha-laghava or Siddhanta-rahasya in the early 16th century.
The text was popular in west and north-west India, and survives in form of over 150 manuscripts.
Contents
Karana-kutuhala condenses and approximates many computational formulae from Bhaskara's earlier work, the Siddhanta Shiromani, in accordance with the Brahma-paksha sunrise-epoch astronomical school. It uses the epoch of sunrise on 23-24 February 1183 of the Julian calendar (1 Chaitra Shaka 1105).
The text contains following chapters:
Nabhoga-madhya-sadhana Sphuta-kriya Tri-prashna Sashanka-parva-sadhana Ravi-graha-sadhana Grahodayashta-sadhana Shrngonnatipra-sadhana Grahottha-yoga-sadhana Pata-sadhana Ravindu-parva-sambhava Niradarka-vichara
Commentaries and derivative texts
Several later writers composed commentaries on the Karana-kutuhala. These include:
Brahma-tulya-bhashya (c. 1370) by Ekanatha, at Mahandanagara, probably in west India Narmadi (c. 1400) by Padmanabha, probably in west India Karana-kutuhala-tika (before 1462) by Sodhala Brahma-tulyodaharana (1612) by Vishvanatha, at Varanasi Ganaka-kumuda-kaumudi (1621) by Sumati-harsha Gani, near Vindhyadri Karana-kutuhala-tika (before 1658) by Chandi-dasa
Brahmatulya-sarani (literally "Tables of/for the Brahmatulya"), an anonymous Sanskrit text from the 16th or the 17th century, contains astronomical tables and versified instructions based primarily on the Karana-kutuhala.
A critical edition of the text by Madhava Shastri Purohita, with Sumati-harsha's commentary, was published in 1901.
References
External links Karaṇa-kutūhala (1991), Sanskrit text with two Sanskrit commentaries (Sumatiharsa's Ganaka-kumuda-kaumudi and Sudhakar Dwivedi's Vasanavi-bhushana) and a Hindi translation by Satyendra Mishra