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

Introduction xiii
knowledge for its own sake, under difficulties
whose magnitude is no less startling than the
boldness of his attempt.
This is my apology for bringing before the
public, a Sanskrit work written entirely in the way
of our ancient Siddhantas and never meant to see
the light. It is the life-long labour of Chandrasekhara
Simha Samanta of Orissa, written in a language
which few men care to study in these days of
English education.
Modern Europe boasts of discoveries, one of
which alone would have been the glory of the past.
The science of astronomy has been developed to so
great an extent as to shed a lustre on the bright
records of original and patient researches in the
domain of Physical Science. The telescope, the
spectroscope, and last but not the least, the art of
photography, have gone hand in hand in the service
of dillgent workers. In these days of "scopes" and
"meters", it may be thought useless to put forward
the poor work of a Hindu whose education is in no
way superior to that of an astronomer of
pre-telescopic Europe. And there are men, too, who
have thought that much nonsense has already been
written about him.
Let them but calmly take stock of the present
state of Hindu astronomy. Let them find out a
couple of mathematicians, brought up wholly in
sanskrit studies, who can intelligently attack the
intricate calculations of a solar eclipse. Nor is there
any noticeable endeavour to revive the science.
What with natural apathy, and what with want of
encouragement by endowments, no addition to the
stock of the world's knowledge has been made by
my countrymen for many a long year. If in these