Thrikkandiyur Achutha Pisharody

An authority in Astronomy, Sanskrit grammar and Ayurveda, Achutha Pisharody lived between 1545-1621, in the period of Thunjath  Ezuthachan. He was the Preceptor (Guru) of Melpathur Narayana Bhattathirippad (Author of ‘Narayaneeyam’).

His major works are ‘Goladeepika’, ‘Jathakabharanam’, ‘Horosarochayam’, ‘Karanothamam’ in astronomy and ‘Pravesakam’ in on Sanskrit grammer.

He discovered the techniques of ‘the reduction of the ecliptic’. He authored Sphuta-nirnaya, Raasi-gola-sphuta-neeti (raasi meaning zodiac, gola meaning sphere and neeti roughly meaning rule), Karanottama (1593) and a four- chapter treatise Uparagakriyakrama on lunar and solar eclipses.

Works of Thrikkandiyoor Achutha Pisharody

1. Praveśaka.

This is an introduction to Sanskrit grammar in about six hundred anuṣṭubh stanzas. It was edited, with a commentary, by P.S. Anantanarayana Sastri, as Vol. II in Cochin Sanskrit Series (Trippunithura, 1938). The Kerala Varma Vidyamandira Grandhavali Pravesakam written by Thrikkandiyoor Achutha Pisharody to teach Melppathur Bhattathiri, which later edited with explanations by Attupurath Imbichan Gurukkal, printed in 1900 is available for free download by clicking on the name of the book above.

2.  Karaṇottama.

This is a work on astronomy in five chapters and about one hundred verses; it deals with the computation of the mean and true longitudes of the planets, with eclipses, and with the vyatūpātas of the sun and moon. Acyuta himself wrote a commentary on it. It was published as Vol. 213 of Trivandrum Sanskrit Series (Trivandrum, 1964).

3. Uparāgakriyākrama.

This is a treatise in four chapters on lunar and solar eclipses which was completed in 1593. There is a commentary on it in Malayalam.

4. Sphuṭanirṇaya.

This is a work on astronomy in six chapters, written before the Rāśigolasphuṭānūti.

5.  Chāyāṣṭaka.

This is a short astronomical text in eight verses.

6.Uparāgaviṃśati.

This is a manual in twenty verses on the computation of eclipses. It was published with a Malayalam commentary in Vol. II of the Ravivarma Sanskrit Series (Trippunithura, 1954).

7. Rāśigolasphuṭānūti.

 This work in fifty verses is concerned with the reduction of the moon’s true longitude in its own orbit to the ecliptic. Since in this work Acyuta quotes not only the Sphuṭanirṇaya but also the Uparāgakriyākrama, it is clear that the Rāśigolasphuṭānūti was written after 1593. It was edited and translated into English by K.V. Sarma as Adyar Library Series, Paper 29 (Madras, 1955); reprinted from Brahmavidyā, 18 (1954), 306–335.

8. Veṇvārohavyākhyā.

This Malayalam commentary on the Veṇvāroha of Mādhava of Sañgamāgrama (ca. 1340–1425) was written at the request of Netranārāyaṇa, a spiritual head of the Nambūtiri Brāhmaṇas. The Veṇvāroha deals with the calculation of the tithis and nakṣatras. The text and its commentary have been edited by K.V. Sarma in Vol. III of the Ravivarma Sanskrit Series (Trippunithura, 1956).

9.  Horāsāroccaya.

This is an adaptation in seven chapters of the Jātakapaddhati of Srūpati. The relationship to it of a Malayalam commentary on the Jātakapaddhati entitled Horātantraṃ Parijbhāṣa remains uncertain.

 

Further discussion of Acyuta Piṣāraṭi may be found in S. Venkitasubramonia Iyer, “Acyuta Piṣāroṭi; His Date and Works,” in JOR Madras, 22 (1952–1953), 40–46; and K. Kunjunni Raja, The Contribution of Kerala ot Sanskrit Literature (Madras, 1958), pp. 122–125, and “Astronomy and Mathematics in Kerala,” in Brahmavidyā, 27 (1963), 158–162.