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

Introduction xv
of the first degree. He enjoyed a wide reputation
which can only be explained by supposing that he
was an original observe and made improvements
upon older astronomy.
Hindu astronomy was then passing through the
state of childhood, and a few years later, we find
Varaha-mihira of Avanti (Ujjayini), adoring the court
of Vikramaditya the Great, about whom many a tale
of adventure and narrow escape from death has
been recounted. Varaha's encyclopaedic knowledge
made him famous. But he is remembered more as
a compiler than as an original worker. His
astronomical compilation, named Panchasiddha-
ntika was written about the Saka year 427 (505 A.D.)
Next, the name of Brahmagupta, son of Jishnu,
introduces an important chapter in the history of
Sanskrit astronomy. He wrote his work,
Brahmasphuta-siddhanta in Saka 550 (628 A.D.) at
the age of thirty, somewhere near Rewa. He was a
practical astronomer, and made several corrections
in the older astronomy. Indeed, the form in which
we find Hindu astronomy at the present day, dates
from him. He was a consummate algebraist, from
whom the Arabs got their knowledge of the science.
An indeterminate equation of the second degree, of
which he gives solution, was a prize problem in
Europe as late as the 17th century.
But the fame of Bhaskar born in the Saka year
1036 (1114 A.D.), near the Sahyadri (Western
Ghats), threw all his predecessors into the shade.
He is a glory to us, a wonder among Europeans.
His great work Siddhanta-Siromani, is one of the
standard treaties of the present day. He appears to
have made use of the Differential Calculus.