SAMANTA CHANDRASEKHARA: THE PRACTICAL ASTRONOMER OF ODISHA
SAMANTA CHANDRASEKHARA: THE PRACTICAL ASTRONOMER OF ODISHA Nikunja Bihari Sahu Samanta Chandrasekhara (1855-1904), a legendary astronomer of Odisha who lived and worked in a purely Hindu orthodox style during the British colonial period under the constraints of poverty and hardship contributed significantly to the field of astronomy. He extended and enriched the scope of Indian astronomy by virtue of his practical observations of the night sky and corrected many anomalies in the existing astronomical and astrological calculations. He is considered as the last link in the chain of India’s long list of classical astronomers such as Aryabhatta-1 of Kusumapura (born in 476 A.D.), Varahamihira of Ujjaini (born in503 A.D.), Brahmagupta of Bhillamala or Bhinmal in Rajasthan (born in 598 A.D.) and Bhaskara-II of Bijayapura or Bijapur in Karnataka (born in 1114 A.D.). Rather than being dogmatic in ...