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Last edited April 14, 2026

Template:Infobox book Karana-kutuhala (IAST: Karaṇakutūhala) is a 1183 CE Sanskrit-language book on jyotisha (astrology and astronomy) by Bhaskara II, a mathematician-astronomer from present-day India.

Date and authorship

Bhaskara II wrote Karana-kutuhala (literally, "Calculation of Astronomical Wonders") in 1183 CE.[1]

Alternative titles for Karana-kutuhala include Karaṇakutūhalam, Khetakarma, Graha-gama-kutuhala, Brahma-tulya, and Vidagdha-buddhi-vallabha.[2] As the name suggests, the book is a karana text, that is, a concise exposition of astronomy. Bhaskara's Karana-kutuhala was followed by Indian astronomers for several centuries, during which no other karana text was produced, until Ganesha composed Graha-laghava or Siddhanta-rahasya in the early 16th century.[3]

The text was popular in west and north-west India,[3] and survives in form of over 150 manuscripts.[2]

Contents

Karana-kutuhala condenses and approximates many computational formulae from Bhaskara's earlier work, the Siddhanta Shiromani, in accordance with the Brahma-paksha sunrise-epoch astronomical school. It uses the epoch of sunrise on 23-24 February 1183 of the Julian calendar (1 Chaitra Shaka 1105).[4]

The text contains following chapters:[2]

  • Nabhoga-madhya-sadhana
  • Sphuta-kriya
  • Tri-prashna
  • Sashanka-parva-sadhana
  • Ravi-graha-sadhana
  • Grahodayashta-sadhana
  • Shrngonnatipra-sadhana
  • Grahottha-yoga-sadhana
  • Pata-sadhana
  • Ravindu-parva-sambhava
  • Niradarka-vichara

Commentaries and derivative texts

Several later writers composed commentaries on the Karana-kutuhala. These include:[3]

  • Brahma-tulya-bhashya (c. 1370) by Ekanatha, at Mahandanagara, probably in west India
  • Narmadi (c. 1400) by Padmanabha, probably in west India
  • Karana-kutuhala-tika (before 1462) by Sodhala
  • Brahma-tulyodaharana (1612) by Vishvanatha, at Varanasi
  • Ganaka-kumuda-kaumudi (1621) by Sumati-harsha Gani, near Vindhyadri
  • Karana-kutuhala-tika (before 1658) by Chandi-dasa

Brahmatulya-sarani (literally "Tables of/for the Brahmatulya"), an anonymous Sanskrit text from the 16th or the 17th century, contains astronomical tables and versified instructions based primarily on the Karana-kutuhala.[4]

A critical edition of the text by Madhava Shastri Purohita, with Sumati-harsha's commentary, was published in 1901.[2]

References

  1. Classics of Mathematics{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Prentice Hall(1999). ISBN 9780023183423
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit Series A{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. American Philosophical Society(1981)
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jyotiḥśāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Otto Harrassowitz(1981). ISBN 3-447-02165-9
  4. 4.0 4.1 The Sanskrit Astronomical Table Text Brahmatulyasāraṇī: Numerical Tables in Textual Scholarship{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Brill(2020). ISBN 9789004432222
  • Karaṇa-kutūhala (1991), Sanskrit text with two Sanskrit commentaries (Sumatiharsa's Ganaka-kumuda-kaumudi and Sudhakar Dwivedi's Vasanavi-bhushana) and a Hindi translation by Satyendra Mishra