Astronomy in Ancient India

 

 

Astronomy is the study of celestial objects, their motions, their positions, and properties. It is considered as oldest science after medicine. The clear starry night has always amazed humans.

The presence of astronomy in India can be seen since prehistoric times. Earlier it was used to predict auspicious dates for special events and religious festivals.

The beginning of astronomy can be traced back to Vedas- Rigveda and Yajurveda. Earlier astronomy was called Jyotisha. The Vedangna Jyotisa is the earliest available Indian Astronomy textbook. The accepted period for this book is between 12^th and 14^th century B.C. In today’s world, the word Jyotisha is used for predictive astrology or pseudo-science. But still it must deal with Sun, moons, planets, nakshatras, etc.  Have you ever wondered, how astrology books claim to predict positions of celestial bodies?

Mathematics was always a part of Jyotisa, which calculated the positions of celestial bodies in Vedic period. But it’s over utilization for religious predictions, hindered its development as science and became obsolete to modern world.

 

Vedanga Jyotisa 

Vedanga Jyotisa contains the record of essential astronomical knowledge needed by the people of Ancient India for day to day life. This book has two parts-

1.   Rigveda Jyotisa- This contains 36 verses.
2.   Yajurveda Jyotisa- This contains 44 verses.

The people of that era had good knowledge of planetary systems and some other celestial bodies. The planet Jupiter is mentioned as Brihaspati, Venus as Sukra or Vena in Rigveda. Apart from this, the sidereal period of moon, 27.3 days was well known during those days.

This book contains details of Nakshatras (Stars) and its groups (constellations). The brightest star in its group ware called as Nakshatras. The Rigveda Samhita mentions five Nakshatras and the Taittiriya Samhita mentions all 28 Nakshatras including Abhijit (Vega).

Picture- Vega star Position

                                                        

In vedanga Jyotisa, the calendarial items like seasons, solstices, the visuvas (equinoxes), the revolution of Sun and Moon as observed from earth, the length of longest day and the shortest night, etc is mentioned in detail.

Later on, Siddhantas or established theories were developed which were used for astronomical studies. At this time period, decimal system was introduced in Mathematics which helped astronomers to make precise calculations of celestial phenomenon.

In India, there were 18 well established Siddhantas- Surya, Paitamaha, Vyasa, Vasistha, Atri, Parasara, Kasyapa, Narada, Gargyan, Marici, Manu, Angira, Lomasa, Paulisa, Cyavana, Yavana, Bhrgu and Saunaka.