Jyeṣṭhadeva

Jyeṣṭhadeva was an astronomer and mathematician of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics, active in southern India in the sixteenth century. A Nambudiri of the Parangngottu family, he was born around 1500, and references in his own works suggest that he lived until about 1610. He was a pupil of Damodara and a younger contemporary of Nilakantha Somayaji, and he in turn taught Acyuta Piṣāraṭi. He is best known for the Yuktibhāṣā, a commentary on Nilakantha Somayaji's Tantrasamgraha that is unusual for setting out complete proofs and the reasoning behind its results. It is written in prose in Malayalam, the language of the local people, rather than in Sanskrit verse. He also composed the Drk-karana, a treatise on astronomical computations.