सिद्धान्तदर्पण (महामहोपाध्याय सामन्त चन्द्रशेखर सिंह - नग्न-नेत्र खगोल वेध एवं गणित महाकोश)

xii सिद्धान्त दर्पण
and village of India at the present day. No doubt,
there are men who have committed to memory some
stray couplets from Siddhantas, and can perhaps
compute an almanac with the aid of tables. But, as
Bhaskara has well said, an astronomer without a
knowledge of spherics is what food is without
clarified butter, a monarchy without its monarch,
and an assembly without a speaker.
Astronomy as a science is not cultivated by
those whose business it should be to do so. They
would rather learn to read the thoughts of simple
persons and pretend to predict future events, than
dive into the mysteries of Kalpas and Yugas, for
less observe the heavens. Those that have a desire
to study the science have no means of doing it,
while those that have the means have no desire to
watch the movements of the planets. Our students
of the English colleges are busy in cramming the
answers to expected questions and our university
men are too busy to have leisure to think about the
revival of the indigenous sciences and arts of the
country. It is not strange therefore that the
mathematical science of astronomy has been
relegated to the halfread, illiterate, fortune-tellers
who are not ashamed to assume the title of
mathematician. For, the name mathematician (गणक)
has been degarded to mean only an astrologer.
In this state of indigenous sciences, it is singular
to find a man born and brought up in the recesses
of the hills of Orissa, far removed from all
educational activity and the influence of imported
western civilization, silently trading his way into
such a difficult science as mathematics. It is a unique
experience in the department of national
development to find a man really striving after