Pathani Samanta Chandrasekhar (1835-1904)

 

Mahamahopadhyaya Chandra Sekhar Simha Samanta Harichandan Mohapatra, popularly in Orissa as Pathani Samanta, is an astronomer of the rank of Aryabhata, Varahamihira, Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracharya. He was born in 1835 A.D. in the princely state of Khandapara in Orissa. Away from the English education, he taught himself Sanskrit and attained scholarship in traditional Indian Astronomy. He fabricated ingenious instruments out of wooden sticks and bamboo chips and attained great accuracy in measurement. His scientific investigations are recorded in his astronomical treatise. “The Siddhanta Darpana” composed in Sanskrit Verse. This work was highly acclaimed even by the Western Press in 1899. The title of Mahamahoadhyaya was convered upon him by the British Govt. in 1893 in recognition of his contribution to astronomy. Samata Chandra Sekhar passed away in 1904. Even today most of the Oriya almanaces attribute their calculations to Samanta’s prescriptions.