Govindasvāmi (or Govindasvāmin, Govindaswami) (c. 800 – c. 860) was an Indian mathematical astronomer most famous for his Bhashya, a commentary on the Mahābhāskarīya of Bhāskara I, written around 830. The commentary contains many examples illustrating the use of a Sanskrit place-value system and the construction of a sine table.

His works have been quoted extensively by Sankaranarayana (fl. 869), Udayadivakara (fl. 1073) and Nilakantha Somayaji (c. 1444-1544). Sankaranarayana was the director of the observatory founded in Mahodayapuram, the capital of the Chera kingdom, and is believed to be the student of Govindasvami. In his book, Sankaranarayana gives explanations to the insightful questions of the king Ravi Varma, then ruler of Mahodayapuram and from these references the period of Sankaranarayana is known.[citation needed]

His work Govindakriti was a sequel to Āryabhaṭīya and is lost. Other works attributed to Govindasvami includeGovinda-paddhati (on astrology) and Ganita-mukha (on mathematics). Like Govinda-kriti, these are lost, and known only from mentions and quotations by later writers such as Sankaranarayana and Udayadivakara.

See also

Further reading

  • Gupta, R. C. (1971). "Fractional Parts of Āryabhaṭa's Sines and Certain Rules Found in Govindasvāmin's Bhāṣya on the Mahābhāskarīya". Gaṇitānanda. Vol. 6. pp. 51–59. doi:. ISBN 978-981-13-1228-1.
  • Jha, S. K.; V N Jha (1991). "Computation of sine-table based on the Mahasiddhanta of Aryabhata II". J. Bihar Math. Soc. 14: 9–17.
  • Meijering, Erik (March 2002). (PDF). Proceedings of the IEEE. 90 (3): 319–342. doi:. Archived from (PDF) on 28 January 2007.
  • by George Gevarghese Joseph

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