Introduction
0.1 Introduction
The Kuttakarasiromani ('Crest-Jewel of Pulverizer', abbr. K) of Devaraja is a commentary on the last two verses of the second chapter, Ganita, of the Aryabhatiya (A.D. 499, abbr. AB), which provide a general solution to linear indeterminate equations, the solution which was later called 'pulverizer' (kuttakara or simply kutta or kuttaka). It was edited twice together with the author's own commentary, Mahalakṣmimuktavali³ ('Pearl-Necklace for the Great Goddess Laksmi', abbr. M), by K. Sesacarya in 1929-32 and by B. D. Apate in 1944. As far as I know, this text has not been studied so far. Nor has Devaraja's date been determined precisely until now, although he obviously postdates Bhaskara II, from whose Lilavati (A.D. 1150, abbr. L) he quotes six stanzas. In the next section, I propose to determine his date on the basis of astronomical evidence.
0.2 Author
According to the first verse of the main work (K 1.1) and the colophon of each chapter of the commentary, Devaraja was the son of Varadaraja, also known as Varadarya, of the Atrigotra, who was well versed in all the three branches (ganita or tantra, hora or jataka, and samhita) of the astral science (jyotiḥsastra) and was known by the title Siddhantavallabha ('a lover of the established astronomical doctrine'). Devaraja seems to have lived and worked in South India since all the ten manuscripts of the work noticed so far are from this region (nine manuscripts from Mysore and one from Tanjore). More-over, both names, Varadaraja and Devaraja, are epithets of Visņu in South India (particularly in Tamilnadu), where the god is depicted with two wives Sridevi (also known as Lakṣmi and Rama) and Bhumidevi (also known as Dharani). Devaraja, the author of the K and M, commences the main work with a salutation to these two goddesses (K 1.1) and the commentary with a salutation to Visnu (M 1.1). Therefore it is likely that Devaraja and his father belonged to the Srīvaisnava sect and were the followers of Ramanuja. Among the Srīvaisņavas, it was customary to add the suffix acarya to personal names. Devaraja in fact calls his father Varadarajacarya in the colophon of each chapter of the commentary.
His date can be inferred from some examples given in the commentary. The problems given in the first three astronomical examples of Chapter 2 (M 2.17, 2.18, and 2.20) refer to the day whose ahargana or the 'day-collection' (the number of civil days that elapsed since the epoch of the current Kaliyuga, Friday 18 February 3102 BC) is 1670812, which corresponds to Monday 26 July 1473 AD. This date must be close to the date of the composition of the commentary. Therefore, we can safely say that he flourished in the latter half of the fifteenth century and that he was a contemporary of Nilakantha Somasutvan (b. 1444 and d. after 1542), the famous astronomer of Kerala.
