MakarandasÃÂriá¹Âi is a Sanskrit astronomical table text composed by the Indian astronomer-mathematician Makaranda (c.1438-1478) hailing from Varanasi. In the Sanskrit astronomical literature such table texts are referred to as sÃÂriá¹Âi-s or koá¹£á¹Âhaka-s. (The word sÃÂriá¹Âi may be loosely translated as âÂÂstream, path, lineâÂÂ.) It is one of the most popular such texts ever composed in Sanskrit.
MakarandasÃÂriá¹Âi follows the Saurapaká¹£a. This is the midnight-epoch system embodied in a recension of the Sà «ryasiddhÃÂnta dating to around the eighth century. This is reflected in the choices of the values of the fundamental parameters, like the values of the celestial bodiesâ revolution-numbers and consequent mean velocities. Another unique feature of MakarandasÃÂriá¹Âi is the use of vegetation-themed Sanskrit technical terms for its various tables. The table giving the mean position increments has been called vÃÂá¹Âikà(garden) and the table giving calendar day/time for mean time unit has been called guccha (blossom, flower). There are tables named valli-s (creeper) and saurabhaá¹Â-s (fragrance, perfume). In comparison to most other sÃÂriá¹Âi-s or koá¹£á¹ÂhakÃÂ-s, MakarandasÃÂriá¹Âi has no accompanying set of verses except for an invocatory stanza at the beginning of the text.
Among other things, the book has tables relating to the following:
There are a large number of commentaries on MakarandasÃÂriá¹Âi in circulation. These commentaries provide detailed instructions on how to use the tables sometimes with elaborate worked examples. The following is only a partial list of these commentaries.