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

xvi सिद्धान्त दर्पण
With the death of Bhaskara, the living breath
of mathematical science parted from India. Repeated
invasions by a barbarous nation poured forth an
abundance of calamities and in the troubled times
the sacred muse of learning fled and hid herself
among a herd of commentators in the Deccan. In
the dark ages that followed, amidst the petty
dissensions of a host of semi-indepndent States, we
find intellectual effort at a stand-still; men were
content to chew the cud of what their predecessors
had thought and done. At last, one name of this
period is worth mentioning. This is Ganesa of
Nandigrama who wrote his Graha-laghava in Saka
1442 (1520 A.D.), a work which has been employed
as an easy hand-book of astronomy in some parts
of the country. Arab influence and, latterly, the
contact with Europeans did not benefit the science
much. It was during the reign of Jayasimha of
Jayapura so late as the 17th century, that the Arabic
Almagest and Euclid were translated into Sanskrit,
and it was he at whose instance five observatories
were built at various places in Northern India.
The long chain of astronomers was snapped
asunder for a period of at least four hundred years.
No doubt, there were astronomers, as there are
now, and some of them may have for a time enjoyed
a reputation, however local in character. But they
have hardly left any permanent mark on the
progress of the science.
Will it be estimating this work too highly if we
regard Chandrasekhara as forming a link in the long
chain ? Be that as it may, it is a most gratifying
thing that Chandrasekhara has not laboured in vain.
His work has already exercised an influence upon
Hindu astronomy, and hence upon Hindu society.