K. Venkateswara Sarma | |
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| Born | (1919-12-22)December 22, 1919 |
| Died | January 13, 2005(2005-01-13) (aged 85) |
| Citizenship | Indian |
| Alma mater | Maharaja's College of Science and Maharaja's College of Arts, Thiruvananthapuram |
| Known for | A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History of astronomy History of mathematics |
Krishna Venkateswara Sarma[1] (1919–2005) was an Indianhistorian ofscience, particularly theastronomy andmathematics of theKerala school. He was responsible for bringing to light several of the achievements of the Kerala school.[2] He was editor of the Vishveshvaranand Indological Research Series, and published the critical edition of several source works in Sanskrit, including theAryabhatiya ofAryabhata. He was recognised as "the greatest authority on Kerala's astronomical tradition".[3]
Sarma's father, Sri S. Krishna Aiyer, was an inspector of schools. Sarma studied chemistry and physics at Maharaja's College of Science inThiruvananthapuram, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1940. He went on to study Sanskrit at the College of Arts, receiving a master's degree in 1942 fromKerala University.[4]In 1944 he began his work withpalm-leaf manuscripts atOriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library where he developed his specialties ofmanuscriptology andtextual criticism.
Sarma joined theSanskrit department of theUniversity of Madras in 1951 as research assistant in the New Catalogues Project,[5]
In 1962 he became curator of the Vishveshvaranand Research Institute,Hoshiarpur which had aA Vedic Word Concordance. Sarma took an interest in theKerala school of astronomy and mathematics and assembled abibliography. In 1965Panjab University assimilated the institute, and Sarma became a lecturer in Sanskrit with the university. He was named reader in 1972.
Sarma's bookA History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy recounted the development of astronomy associated with Kerala. In the preface ofA History, Sarma described his research "under the supervision of Prof. Ramaswami Sastri, concurrently with my duties as the Supervising Pundit of the Cataloguing Section of the University Oriental Manuscripts Library, Trivandrum. My intimate association, later, with the compilation of theNew Catalogus Cataloguum of Sanskrit Works and Authors at Madras university also proved to be of great help in my work."
Sarma became acting-director of Vishveshvaranand Research Institute in 1975, and director/professor in 1978 when he was awardedDoctor of Letters.[4]
He retired from Panjab University in 1980, but the next year accepted the position of honorary professor of Sanskrit at theAdyar Library Research Center.
He was the author of thirty-five entries in theEncyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures.[6] For example, in one article[7] he says
Sarma then provides the exceptions: five commentaries, theYuktibhasa and astronomical commentaries, andGanita-yukti-bhasa.
Sarma was the author of more than 60 books, and 145 research papers, in addition to other academic writing onSanskrit andIndology. He continued publishing well into his late eighties, his last book beingScience Texts in Sanskrit in Manuscripts Repositories ofKerala andTamil Nadu, published in 2003.[8]
He died on 13 January 2005, having just completed English translations (seeGanita-yukti-bhasa) of theYuktibhāṣā ofJyesthadeva and theTantrasangraha ofNilakantha Somayaji.[8]
A complete bibliography of the writings of K. V. Sarma on Indian culture, science and literature was compiled by S. A. S. Sarma and published by Sri Sarada Education Society Research Centre, Adyar, Chennai, in 2000. This runs to about 60 pages. The bibliography is available at the following link:
During the last decade of his life, Prof. Sarma began to convert his personal library into an institution. At first it was called Sree Sarada Education Society, but was later renamed theK. V. Sarma Research Foundation. Prof. Sarma himself was the first director, with Dr Mamata Mishra as secretary and Dr Achyuta Bhat as librarian. The foundation houses approximately 10,000 books, 2000 journals and 900 manuscripts.[10] At the time of writing (2020) the director is Prof. Siniruddha Dash, retired professor of Sanskrit at theUniversity of Madras. The foundation's president and vice-president are Prof. M. S. Sriram and Prof. M. D. Srinivas respectively.
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