Jyeṣṭhadeva

Jyeṣṭhadeva
Bornc. 1500
Diedc. 1575 (aged 74–75)
OccupationAstronomer-mathematician
Known forAuthorship of Yuktibhāṣā
Notable workYuktibhāṣā, Drkkarana
RelativesParangngottu (Sanskritised as Parakroda) family
Notes
Pupil of Damodara, contemporary of Nilakantha Somayaji, teacher of Achyuta Pisharati

Jyeṣṭhadeva (c. 1500 – c. 1575) was an astronomer-mathematician of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama (c. 1350 – c. 1425). He is best known as the author of Yuktibhāṣā, a commentary in Malayalam of Tantrasamgraha by Nilakantha Somayaji (1444–1544). In Yuktibhāṣā, Jyeṣṭhadeva had given complete proofs and rationale of the statements in Tantrasamgraha. This was unusual for traditional Indian mathematicians of the time.The Yuktibhāṣā is now believed to contain derivations of Taylor and Infinite series expansions for certain trigonometric functions. However, it did not combine several ideas under the unifying concepts of the derivative and the integral, show the connection between the two, or turn calculus into the powerful problem-solving tool we have today. Jyeṣṭhadeva also authored Drk-karana, a treatise on astronomical observations.

According to K. V. Sarma, the name "Jyeṣṭhadeva" is most probably the Sanskritised form of his personal name in the local language Malayalam.