Jagannatha Samrat

Who was Jagannatha Samrat?

Paṇḍita Jagannātha Samrāṭ was an Indian astronomer and mathematician who served in the court of Jai Singh II of Amber, and was also his guru.

Jagannātha, whose father's name was Gaṇeśa, and grandfather's Viṭṭhala was from a Vedic family originally from Maharashtra.

As suggested by Jai Singh, he learned Arabic and Persian, in order to study Islamic astronomy. Having become proficient in these languages, he translated texts in these languages into Sanskrit. These translations include:

Rekhā-gaṇita, a translation of Euclid's Elements made from Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's Arabic recension of the same. For this work, he had to coin more than a hundred Sanskrit mathematical terms

Siddhānta-sāra-kaustubha, a translation of Ptolemy's Almagest from Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's Arabic version

His original works include:

‍ Siddhānta-samrāṭ, which describes astronomical instruments, their design and construction, and observations. It also describes the use of these observations in correcting parameters and preparing almanacs.