Kamalakara

Kamalakara (1616 – 1700) was an Indian astronomer and mathematician. He came from a learned family of scholars from Golagrama, a village in Maharashtra State near Partha-puri (Pathari) on the northern bank of the river Godāvarī. His father, Nrsimha, was born in 1586. Two of Kamalakara's three brothers were also astronomers and mathematicians. Divakara, born in 1606, was the eldest of the brothers and Ranganatha was youngest. Kamalākara learnt astronomy from his elder brother Divākara, who compiled five works on astronomy. His family later moved to Vārāṇasī.

==Major works== Kamalākara's major work, "Siddhāntatattvaviveka", was compiled in Varanasi in about 1658, and was published by Sudhakar Dwivedi in the Vārāṇasī series. This work consists of 13 chapters in 3,024 verses. It deals with the topics of: units of time measurement, mean motions of the planets, true longitudes of the planets, the three problems of diurnal rotation, diameters and distances of the planets, the Earth's shadow, the Moon's crescent, risings and settings, syzygies, lunar and solar eclipses, planetary transits across the Sun's disk, the patas of the Moon and Sun; the "great problems", along with a conclusion. His other works include Śeṣavāsanā and Sauravāsanā. Kamalākara was bitterly opposed to Munishvara, the author of Siddhāntasārvabhauma.