Nīlakaṇṭha

Nila-kantha (IAST: Nīlakaṇṭha) was a 16th-century astrologer and astronomer (jyotishi or daivajña) and Sanskrit writer from the Mughal Empire of present-day India. He was a royal astrologer to emperor Akbar, and contributed to Todarananda (c. 1572 CE), an encyclopedia sponsored by Akbar's minister Todara-malla. He wrote Tajika-Nilakanthi (1587 CE), the most popular work on the Tajika astrology, and possibly compiled Prashna-tantra, a work on horary astrology, based on an earlier text.

Biography

Nilakantha came from a family of astrologer-astronomers that belonged to the Gargya-gotra (clan), and originated from Dharmapura, a town located on the banks of the Narmada River in central India. The earliest known member of this family is his grandfather, Chintamani. Nilakantha was a son of Ananta and his wife Padmamba.

Nilakantha and his brother Rama settled in Kashi, where they composed several works on astrology and astronomy. The town was under the administration of the Mughal emperor Akbar's minister Todara-malla (Todar Mal), and Nilakantha rose to the position of a royal astrologer (jyotisha-raja) in Akbar's administration. Balabhadra, a student of Rama, describes Nilakantha as "the crown jewel in the circle of astrologers",

Tajika-Nilakanthi

Nilakantha's Tajika-Nilakanthi (IAST: Tājikanīlakaṇṭhī) is a work on Tajika, the Sanskritized Perso-Arabic astrology tradition. The work contains two volumes:

Samjna-tantra (Saṃjñā-tantra), introduction to the fundamental principles and terminology of Tajika Varsha-tantra (Varṣa-tantra), a compendium of techniques for annual prognostication

These two volumes appear to have been composed as semi-independent works, and contain overlapping content, including passages repeated verbatim. Nilakantha completed the second volume of this work in 1587, and the book became the most popular work on the Tajika astrology.

In the 17th century, Vishva-natha Daivajna wrote a commentary on Prashna-tantra.