Parahitta System of Haridatta

Parahita system of Haridattga was one of the important interpretations which were developed in Kerala to understand the Aryabhata I`s theory of astronomy. Haridatta, a well known astronomer and astrologer, born in 683 CE believed in creating some theories which are more accessible to the common man who could easily read it. Parahita system of Haridatta introduced an occasion of known as Mamankam which was to commence after every twelve years which is famous for being a religio- educational festival which shall give access to every common man to understand the difficult theories of Hindu Astronomy. Parahita system is a system of revision which was introduced in Kerala to revise the difficult versions of Hindu Astronomy and make it more readable by the common man. Commonly known as Parahitaganita this system is a full fledged version of theoretical treatises which was introduced by Haridatta. Haridatta replaced the complicated numerical symbolism of Aryabhata with a new system called Katapayadi system which was more flexible. In this system for better understanding letters were introduced which were later on transformed into meaningful words and sentences instead of numericals which only complicated the understanding of the verses. These words and sentences could be remembered more easily which has been stored in local verses.

Parahita System of Haridatta proved to be more effective when it was included to calculate number of years in a Yuga. In order to avoid complicated calculations Haridatta introduced small number of numericals which can set the correct value of Zero without any complicated calculations. Accordingly to avoid large calculations Haridatta introduced smaller yugas which is known as Dhijagannupura-yuga of 576 years and 210,389 days which divides the Mahayuga into 1/7500th part. These were also used to calculate the mean location of the planets. Parahita system also included calculations which could rightly estimate the Kali Yuga which made it even more relevant.

Thus, Parahita system of Haridatta is another important system of computation which was introduced in Kerala which was more accessible to the common man with more accuracy. This marks a period of revisionism in the Kerala school of Astronomy and Mathematics.