Vaidyanatha Dikshita

Vaidyanatha Dikshita son of Venkatadri Dikshita and grandson of Anniah Dikshita,was a Brahmin belonging to the Bharadwaja Gotra. He is believed to have lived in South India either in the 14th or 15th century A.D. He was the author of Jataka Parijata, the Sanskrit treatise written in verse-format on the predictive portion of Hindu astrology. .

Not much is known about his life except for his statement in Jataka Parijata. According to Katva, Vaidyanatha lived in the 14th century in Mysore. V.Subramanya Sastri, the translator and commentator of Jataka Parijata, disagreed with the attribution of Sarvartha Chintamani to Venkatadri Dikshita, suggested that Vaidyanatha Dikshita was born between 1425 and 1450. He cited the fact that Kesava Daivajna, the author of Muhurata Tattva, a Sanskrit treatise on Hindu astrology, and a disciple of Vaidyanatha Dikshita who was born around 1456, was the father of Ganesa Daivajna, who in 1520 wrote the Sanskrit treatise on astrology entitled Graha Laghava.^[1]

Vaidyanatha also wrote Patrimargapradeepika, a textbook on calculating the birth-chart etc., and the Janamapatrika.^[2]

References