Visiting associate professor Toke L. Knudsen
Mathematical historian Toke Lindegaard Knudsen is employed as associate professor from 1 February to 31 July 2016. He will be associated with the GAMP section.
Toke holds two bachelor degrees from the University of Copenhagen, one in Mathematics and one in Indology. He also holds a master degree (cand.scient.) in Mathematics from the University of Copenhagen (2000) and a PhD in History of Mathematics from Brown University (2008). He is currently on sabbatical from his position as associate professor at the State University of New York at Oneonta.
Toke’s research focuses on astronomy and mathematics in ancient and medieval India. While at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, he will work on a critical edition and English translation of the Bījagaṇita of Jñānarāja, a Sanskrit text on mathematics from about 1500 CE.
In addition, Toke has received a Marie Curie Research Fellowship. The 212,195 € grant will be hosted at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen. The project’s supervisor is the Indologist and historian of India science, Kenneth Zysk.
The title of Toke’s project is “Cosmology, Astronomy, and Religion in Medieval India.” The project will analyze the primary Sanskrit sources mentioned by the astronomer and mathematician Jñānarāja in his medieval treatise, the Siddhāntasundara.
Jñānarāja endeavored to create a synthesis between the scientific and religious cosmological models presented in the Sanskrit texts, models that are essentially incompatible. The research project will, through earlier sources, investigate why it was felt necessary to create such a synthesis at this point in the history of Indian astronomy.
You can find Toke in office 04.2.08
A page of a manuscript by Jñānarājas Bījagaṇita. The manuscript is located in Scindia Oriental Institute, Ujjain, India.