About the author ( T. S. Kuppanna Sastry)

Professor SASTRY (1900-1982) alias Srinivasan, was born in Tirumanilayoor (near Karur, Tiruchirapalli district of Tamilnadu) to Subrahmanya Iyer and Bhagirathi Ammal. A scion of Nilakantha Diksita, the celebrated Sanskrit polymath of the sixteenth century, Professor SASTRY devoted all his time to a critical study and appreciation of almost all the Sanskrit Shastras including Ganita, Jyotisha, and modern astronomy, in boyhood he underwent training in the traditional recitation of Samavedic hymnology. Having Completed his schooling in Karur, he passed the B.A. examination as a student of the famous St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli. He worked as Headmaster of the High School at Tirumayam (erstwhile Pudukkottah State), and then joined the Maharaja's High School, Pudukkottah (later known as Brihadambal High School). Subsequently he worked as lecturer, Assistant Professor in Sanskrit at Maharaja's College, Pudukkottah. Government Arts College, Kumbhakonam and in the Madras Presidency College from where he retired in 1955. Then he taught at the Madras Sanskrit College for about five years as Professor of comparative Philology and History of Sanskrit Literature. Even after retirement he served the college as Honorary Professor of Sanskrit.

Professor SASTRY critically edited six astronomical texts. He brought out a critical edition of the Mahabhaskariya with the commentaries of Govindasvamin and Parameshvaran with annotation and indices in 1957. Again he edited the Vakyakarana, the basis of the Vakya almanacs of South India, with the commentary of Sundararaja in 1962. He also critically edited the Vedangajyotisha with translation and notes. Subsequently he critically edited the Pancasiddhantika with translation and notes.

Dr. K. V. Sarma (now Professor at the Adyar Library Research Centre) who informally collaborated with Professor SASTRY in editing the first two works mentioned above, write (in the Bio-data of Professor T.S. Kuppanna Sastry) as under:

His (Prof. Sastry's) deep understanding of Indian astronomy helped him in preparing a rational edition with detailed exposition in English of the Vedanga Jyotisha and the Pancasiddhantika, both of which are master-pieces illustrative of forensic skill in presenting distended facts to prove his point. He prepared also a book on the computation of eclipses incorporating modern corrections, but couched in such a form that it could be used by Indian almanac makers.