HistoriCity: Celestial our bodies and Indias contributions to historic astronomy

The tantalising chance of discovering traces of life elsewhere within the universe has for a very long time remained in human consciousness. In India, the primary probes into astronomy started with questions comparable to these requested within the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, written by Lagadha and mentioned to be the earliest astronomical textual content in India, wherein the creator describes a lunisolar calendrical system. Similarly, the Rig Veda’s Nasadiya Sukta—usually described because the origin hymn—asks questions that proceed to confound us. It asks: “There was neither non-existence nor existence then; Neither the realm of area, nor the sky which is past; What stirred? Where? In whose safety?”

One can simply think about the elite and mental class of historic Indians making an attempt to make sense of celestial phenomena like capturing stars, comets, thunder and lightning, and never least the eclipses, which proceed to fascinate each the religious and the superstitious amongst us. The waning and waxing of the moon, and the rising and setting of the solar, which decided a lot about pre-modern life, can’t be taken with no consideration both. These pure phenomena will need to have sparked the earliest inquiries.

It is barely pure that the Rig Vedic questions have been extra elementary than these requested by fashionable astronauts and scientists right this moment. However, with out fashionable tools or scientific understanding, historic Indians have been in a position to determine varied planets by their attribute colors, observe constellations, and anthropomorphise them. All this was achieved by the point we entered the Common Era, i.e., round 2,000 years in the past.

The lunar zodiac—or nakshatra—stays a relentless in Indian astronomical texts from the Vedic interval and continues to information non secular observances, together with festivals and different auspicious dates related to myriad rituals.

Aryabhata: India’s Mathematical Genius

The Common Era marks the start of fast astronomy improvement —not simply in India, however internationally. Aryabhata launched a various set of time items, comparable to yuga, kalpa, and manvantara. In his solely surviving work, the Aryabhatiya, there may be proof of the idea of ‘zero’ or void, together with indeterminate equations (kuttaka) and ideas of mensuration. The textual content additionally presents strategies to calculate planetary positions and introduces the idea of a seven-day week. He precisely calculated the worth of pi as 3.1416—the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Aryabhata, who lived within the early sixth century CE, laid the muse for later students comparable to Brahmagupta and Varāhamihira to additional advance Indian astronomy.

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The Aryabhatiya was translated into Arabic within the eighth century, which finally contributed to the event of algorithmic arithmetic by the works of Al-Khwarizmi. By the time of Al-Biruni within the eleventh century, it was well-known amongst up to date scientists internationally that Aryabhata had postulated that the Earth rotates on its axis. India’s contribution to the trendy numeral system is but to be absolutely acknowledged. As James Evans wrote in The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy: “Our numerals are typically referred to as ‘Arabic,’ however ‘Indian’ or ‘Hindu-Arabic’ could be extra acceptable.”

Ancient Observatories

Burzahom, close to Srinagar, is Kashmir’s earliest recognized human settlement, relationship from 8000 BCE to 1000 BCE. Excavated in 1935, the positioning revealed three levels of the Neolithic interval. More curiously, proof exhibits that historic inhabitants understood astronomy and should have recorded a supernova. Owing to its cultural and scientific worth, the positioning is at present on UNESCO’s tentative record for World Heritage Site standing.

Mudumal, a prehistoric website of megalithic menhirs (upright stones) in Telangana, dates again roughly 3,500 to 4,000 years. It options, amongst different exceptional menhir alignments, a bunch of cup-marked stones organized within the sample of the Ursa Major constellation. In Hindu mythology, this is named Saptarishi, or the Seven Sages, carefully linked to the North Star. The website contains 80 giant menhirs and a pair of,000 aligned stones unfold over 80 acres, a lot of which align with the solar throughout solstices. It is believed to be certainly one of India’s oldest recognized astronomical observatories.

The Surya Mandir or Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha, constructed within the thirteenth century CE, displays the excellence of Kalinga structure. It pays homage to Surya, the solar god, who’s depicted as traversing the sky in a chariot drawn by horses. The temple is alleged to have been constructed in order that the primary rays of the rising solar fall upon the primary idol of solar god. Moreover, the 24 wheels of the chariot additionally operate as sundials, casting shadows that point out the time of day.

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Apart from the Jantar Mantars inbuilt New Delhi, Jaipur, Varanasi, and different cities—which operate as sundials and observatories—one other prehistoric megalithic circle deserves point out: Junapani, about 10 kilometers northwest of Maharashtra’s Nagpur. These 150 stone circles, that are sepulchral in nature (referring to funerary practices), are mentioned to have been erected between 1000 BCE and 300 CE. Some of those circles are cup-marked, suggesting they served a directional or guiding goal, probably indicating the path of the winter solstice dawn.

HistoriCity is a column by creator Valay Singh that narrates the story of a metropolis that’s within the information, by going again to its documented historical past, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are private.