Veá¹ÂvÃÂroha is a work in Sanskrit composed by MÃÂdhava of SangamagrÃÂma ( â ), the founder of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics. It is a work in 74 verses describing methods for the computation of the true positions of the Moon at intervals of about half an hour for various days in an anomalistic cycle. This work is an elaboration of an earlier and shorter work of MÃÂdhava himself titled SphutacandrÃÂpti. Veá¹ÂvÃÂroha is the most popular astronomical work of MÃÂdhava.
The title Veá¹ÂvÃÂroha literally means 'Bamboo Climbing' (Veá¹Âu 'bamboo' + ÃÂroha 'climbing') and it is indicative of the computational procedure expounded in the text. The computational scheme is like climbing a bamboo tree, going up and up step by step at measured equal heights.
It is dated 1403 CE. Acyuta Piá¹£ÃÂrati (1550âÂÂ1621), another prominent mathematician/astronomer of the Kerala school, has composed a Malayalam commentary on Veá¹ÂvÃÂroha. This astronomical treatise is of a type generally described as Karaá¹Âa texts in India. Such works are characterized by the fact that they are compilations of computational methods of practical astronomy.
The novelty and ingenuity of the method attracted the attention of several of the followers of MÃÂdhava and they composed similar texts thereby creating a genre of works in Indian mathematical tradition collectively referred to as âÂÂveá¹ÂvÃÂroha textsâÂÂ. These include Drik-veá¹ÂvÃÂrohakriya of unknown authorship of epoch 1695 and Veá¹ÂvÃÂrohastaka of Putuman SomÃÂyaji.
In the technical terminology of astronomy, the ingenuity introduced by MÃÂdhava in Veá¹ÂvÃÂroha can be explained thus: MÃÂdhava has endeavored to compute the true longitude of the Moon by making use of the true motions rather than the epicyclic astronomy of the Aryabhata tradition. He made use of the anomalistic revolutions for computing the true positions of the Moon using the successive true daily velocity specified in CandravÃÂkyas (Table of Moon-mnemonics) for easy memorization and use.
Veá¹ÂvÃÂroha has been studied from a modern perspective and the process is explained using the properties of periodic functions.