The
Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics was a school of
mathematics and
astronomy founded by
Madhava of Sangamagrama in
Kerala, India, which included among its members:
Parameshvara,
Neelakanta Somayaji,
Jyeshtadeva,
Achyuta Pisharati,
Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri and
Achyuta Panikkar. The school flourished between the 14th and 16th centuries and the original discoveries of the school seems to have ended with
Narayana Bhattathiri (1559–1632). In attempting to solve astronomical problems, the Kerala school independently created a number of important mathematics concepts. Their most important results—series expansion for trigonometric functions—were described in
Sanskrit verse in a book by Neelakanta called
Tantrasangraha, and again in a commentary on this work, called
Tantrasangraha-vakhya, of unknown authorship. The theorems were stated without proof, but proofs for the series for sine, cosine, and inverse tangent were provided a century later in the work
Yuktibhasa , written in
Malayalam, by Jyesthadeva, and also in a commentary on
Tantrasangraha.