Consider the following statements about science in medieval South India : 1. The Katapayadi system of numerals, which was invented by Vararuchi of Kerala, the author of Chandra Vakyas, was used for calculating the position of Moon on any day of the year. 2. Achyuta Pisharati (1550 – 1621) wrote Uparagakriyakrama, a text on eclipses. 3. Ravi Varma of Mahodayapuram set up an observatory and is also said to have inaugurated the Kollam era. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 and 3 only
- (b)3 only
- (c)1 and 2 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — D, 1, 2 and 3. Statement 1 describes the Katapayadi system, the Indian scheme that turns consonants into digits so that numbers can be carried inside verse; the tradition credits Vararuchi of Kerala with it, and his Chandravakyas — a set of mnemonic sentences encoding the Moon's daily longitudes — are the classic application, used to compute the Moon's position for any day. Statement 2 is documented: Achyuta Pisharati, who lived from about 1550 to 1621, wrote Uparagakriyakrama, a four-chapter treatise on lunar and solar eclipses, composed in 1593. Statement 3 belongs to the traditional history of Kerala, which associates Ravi Varma of Mahodayapuram with an observatory and with the inauguration of the Kollam era in 825 CE; the stem itself hedges it with 'is said to have'. The key accepts all three, so the answer is (d).
- (a)1 and 3 only — Drops the best-documented of the three. Uparagakriyakrama is firmly attributed to Achyuta Pisharati and is a treatise on eclipses.
- (b)3 only — Rejects both the Katapayadi statement and the Achyuta Pisharati statement, each of which is standard in histories of Kerala mathematics and astronomy.
- (c)1 and 2 only — The most defensible wrong answer, because the Kollam era's origin is genuinely debated. The key nevertheless accepts statement 3, which the stem had already softened with 'is said to have'.
Kerala carried a continuous tradition of mathematical astronomy from roughly the ninth century to the seventeenth, with Sangamagrama Madhava, Parameshvara, Nilakantha Somayaji, Jyeshthadeva and Achyuta Pisharati as its best-known names. Its practical output was calendrical: tables and mnemonic verses for predicting the positions of the Sun and Moon and the timing of eclipses, which temple ritual required. The Katapayadi scheme, which assigns digits to consonants, let those numbers be stored inside memorable Sanskrit and Malayalam verse.
This is a three-statement item where two claims are textual and one is traditional, and the honest thing is to separate them. The Achyuta Pisharati statement can be checked against the list of his works. The Katapayadi attribution to Vararuchi and the Chandravakyas is the standard account in histories of the Kerala school, though the oldest surviving dated use of the system is in Haridatta's Grahacharanibandhana of 683 CE. Statement 3 is where modern scholarship diverges from the traditional account: the Kollam era is dated to 825 CE, but its origin has more than one explanation in the literature, and the observatory at Mahodayapuram belongs to tradition rather than to any surviving record. The official key marks all three correct, so that is the answer to give — while a careful student should know that the third rests on tradition, which is why the paper wrote 'is said to have'.
- The Katapayadi system encodes digits as consonants so that numerical data can be carried in verse.
- The Chandravakyas are mnemonic sentences giving the Moon's longitudes, traditionally ascribed to Vararuchi of Kerala.
- The oldest surviving dated use of Katapayadi is in Haridatta's Grahacharanibandhana of 683 CE.
- Achyuta Pisharati (c. 1550 to 7 July 1621) wrote Uparagakriyakrama, a four-chapter treatise on lunar and solar eclipses, in 1593.
- The Kollam era begins in 825 CE; the traditional Kerala account links its inauguration to Ravi Varma of Mahodayapuram, while modern scholarship offers competing explanations.
Two textual claims and one traditional one — the key accepts all three.
- Treating the traditional Kerala account of the Kollam era as settled history; the key accepts it, but the scholarship is divided.
- Confusing Vararuchi, credited with the Chandravakyas, with Varahamihira, the sixth-century author of the Panchasiddhantika.
- Assuming the Kerala school was purely theoretical; its output was calendrical and driven by temple ritual.
As a three-statement item on named texts and authors of the Kerala school, or as an author-to-work matching question.
Consider the following statements about Sawai Jai Singh's astronomical work : 1. He learnt of the accuracy of European observations, and obtained de La Hire's tables from which he reproduced a refraction table. 2. His astronomers also developed a telescope of their own to observe the lunar phases of Venus. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(a) 1 only
The other half of the history-of-Indian-astronomy syllabus. That item tests the eighteenth-century observatory tradition at Jaipur; this one tests the Kerala tradition of computation and eclipse prediction that preceded it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Katapayadi system in Indian mathematics is a method of
- (a)measuring land area
- (b)representing numbers by consonants so that they can be carried in verse
- (c)predicting monsoon rainfall
- (d)constructing sacrificial altars
Answer(b) representing numbers by consonants so that they can be carried in verse — which is how the Chandravakyas store the Moon's longitudes.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Uparagakriyakrama, a treatise on lunar and solar eclipses, was written by
- (a)Nilakantha Somayaji
- (b)Achyuta Pisharati
- (c)Parameshvara
- (d)Jyeshthadeva
Answer(b) Achyuta Pisharati — who lived from about 1550 to 1621 and composed the four-chapter work in 1593.