Mahendra Dayashankar Gor Sūri was a 14th century Jain astronomer who wrote the first Indian treatise on the astrolabe called Yantraraja. He was a pupil of Madana Suri and came from a family of eight children. As a Jain, he would have been influenced by Islamic astronomy which was becoming prevalent in India at the time. His treatise on the astrolabe in 1370 was based on Islamic concepts and values rather than traditional Indian astronomy.
2. Mahendra Dayashankar Gor Sūri is
the 14th century Jain astronomer who
wrote the Yantraraja, the
first Indian treatise on
the astrolabe.[1] He was a pupil of
Madana Suri. His father was
Dayashankar and mother was Vimla.
Dayashankar and Vimla had eight
children, four sons and four daughters.
3. a woman by the name of Urmila and
had four daughters. Mahendra Suri was
a Jain. Jainism began around the sixth
century BC and he religion had a
strong influence on mathematics
particularly in the last couple of
centuries BC. By the time of Mahendra
Suri, however, Jainism had lost support
as a national
4. religion and was much less vigorous. It
had been influenced by Islam and in
particular Islamic astronomy came to
form a part of the background.
However, Pingree in [4] writes that this
filtering of Islamic astronomy into Indian
culture was:- ... not allowed to affect in
any way
5. The structure of the traditional science.
Mahendra Suri was a pupil of Madana
Suri. He is famed as the first person to
write a Sanskrit treatise on the
astrolabe. Ohashi writes in [3] of the
early history of the astrolabe in the
Delhi Sultanate in India:- The astrolabe
was introduced into India at the time of
6. Firuz Shah Tughluq (reign AD 1351 -
88), and Mahendra Suri wrote the first
Sanskrit treatise on the astrolabe
entitled Yantraraja (AD 1370). The Delh
Sultanate was established around 1200
and from that time on Muslim culture
flourished in India. The ideas of Islamic
astronomy began to appear
7. in works in the Sanskrit language and it
is the Islamic ideas on the astrolabe
which Mahendra Suri wrote on in his
famous text. It is clear from the various
references in the text and also from the
particular values that Mahendra Suri
uses for the angle of the ecliptic etc.
that his work is based on Islamic rather
than traditional Indian astronomy
![Mahendra Dayashankar Gor Sūri is
the 14th century Jain astronomer who
wrote the Yantraraja, the
first Indian treatise on
the astrolabe.[1] He was a pupil of
Madana Suri. His father was
Dayashankar and mother was Vimla.
Dayashankar and Vimla had eight
children, four sons and four daughters.](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)