essay on the topic ' milestones in Indian astronamy'
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Through this essay, I propose to give a brief history of Indian astronomy. There are a number of books and papers on this subject, which an average visitor to our website may not have easy access to, or time to consult. Through this portal of the Mandala we try to briefly highlight the History of Indian Science and Technology on various themes, as also review relevant books.
Astronomy, the study of celestial phenomena, has played a major role in all aspects of life in India. It was believed that it was the planetary motions, which suggested the propitious and unpropitious periods for religious observances. Planetary configurations were also believed to affect agriculture, architecture etc. As a result, there developed a science of celestial phenomena on one hand, and Astrology on the other. In this essay we try to give a glimpse of the evolution of Indian astronomy. The vast achievements of Indian astronomy are scattered through a multitude of articles and books and therefore its difficult to condense them in a few pages. Luckily, we came across an interesting essay on the history of Astronomy by Rajesh Kochhar, the famous astronomer and Indologist. He has discussed the history of Indian astronomy under the heads of the Vedic Age, the Siddhantic Astronomy, the Zij-Astronomy, underlining the Arabic influence, followed by Modern Astronomy, besides some accounts of Babylonian, Greek, Medieval and Modern Astronomy. In this brief essay we are trying to give a fair glimpse of the evolution of Indian astronomy.
This account of the history of Indian astronomy brings out three things clearly:
1) In contrast to the Western Christian-Judaic culture where the man and universe originated just about 6000 yrs ago, the Indians had the concept of deep time;
2) There was intense academic and cultural exchange among Central and West Asian countries and India, which influenced development of science too; and that
3) they were aware of Greek science too and translated Greek works in Sanskrit.
Rajesh Kochhar takes a look at the Pre-Telescopic Astronomy in India. Pre-Telescopic would mean the period that preceded the invention and the use of Telescope by Galileo in 1609. While introducing the subject he tells us that the ancient man's perception of the Universe was based on 'Seeing is believing'. Since the planetary bodies seemed to go round the earth, the earth was assumed to be the centre of the Universe. This approach is understood as the geocentric approach as opposed to the heliocentric approach which, on the contrary believes that the planetary bodies are going around the Helios - the Sun. We know that for the ancient people the seven planets: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn revolved around the earth, arranged in order of increasing geocentric distance. Beyond Saturn lay the unchanging fixed stars, stitched on the dark tapestry of the night sky, which in the ancient Indian scheme of things were observed not for their own sake but as a backdrop for the planetary motions. Such stars and star groups are called Naksatras. This perception was all changed during the medieval times when Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler helped in propounding the heliocentric concept in which the nine planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto go around the Sun - in an increasing heliocentric distance.
Kochhar points out that the ancient Indian planetary model recognised that the Moon went around the Earth. It was also correctly assumed in ancient times that a longer orbital period implied greater geocentric distance for the planet. Unfortunately, at the current level of knowledge, it is not possible to say anything about the state of astronomy in the Harappan times that preceded the Vedic Age.
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