Astronomy & Mathematics: - Amazing Work by Sanatan Sages & Seers
Indian tradition of Mathematics and Astronomy is most amazing and
least recalled and taught in India's education system. Courtesy Macaulay
missionary academia, which ensured great work is erased and forgotten
systematically. How was this possible?
Gazing through the naked eye and through prolonged observation of
nature and astronomical motion was the adopted methodology. Yes many would
disagree. And It would certainly sound unbelievable to the generation who uses
calculators for making small multiplication calculations.
It is our failure that these discoveries of Number system, Hindu
decimal system, planetary motion and the other endless scientific discoveries
have not been summarized for our generations. Who made it possible? All this
work has been documented in great ancient Language Sanskrit, whose grammar was
conceptualized by Panini.
Panini (5th Century BC): - Sanskrit was a language
in which all the narration of Hindu Sanatan Seers and Sages were documented.
Panini, a great Scholar of Sanskrit codified this language. Unbelievable
Panini!!! Born in Gandhara along the bank of the Indus River, he penned a
marvel called “Astadhyayi”. Medieval times, His legacies were
systematically erased and no wonder the Bank of Indus sank into perennial
brutality and violence thereafter. Imagine the loss.
Aryabhata (5th Century
AD): Author of the masterpiece on Astronomy Aryabhatiyam and Arya-siddhanta.
Books par excellence for its invention and path breaking calculation. He
explained for the first time about the rotation of Earth on its own axis.
His amazing example about “Just as a man in a boat moving
forward sees the stationary objects (on either side of the river) as moving
backwards has no match in the scientific world.”
Decimal system of numbers, the modern
calculation are based upon the Great Aryabhata work on his invention of Zero
and its position while doing computation.
Varahamihira (6th Century AD): - Amazing work
about motion and planetary calculation. His book Brihat Samhita
explains in detail about Earth being Spherical in Shape and its rotation along
with its axis around the Sun. He further narrated the circumference of earth
and the position of the two poles. North Poles and South Poles were identified
and explained in detail.
He accurately estimated the circumference of the earth as 3200
yojanas. Furthermore, each Yojana is estimated to be 12-15 km, which translates
into nearly 38,000 km to 45,000 km, which is almost accurate to the current
estimates. Earth’s circumference is the distance around Earth and it
is measured around the Equator, it is 40,075.017 km.
Brahmagupta, (7th Century AD.) another Great
Astronomer measured the accurate circumference of earth and documented the same
in his book Khandakhadyaka. Further his work still counts and
reverberates in modern mathematics as Brahmagupta-Fibonacci identity,
Brahmagupta's interpolation formula, Brahmagupta's formula.
Bhaskara first: - 7th Century AD. A mathematician
who wrote commentary on Aryabhata work. He was a wizard in number and its
computation. His Hindu decimal system, calculation with respect to angle and
distance later on known as Sin X and pell equations were the greatest of
contribution. He also authored two books named as Mahabhaskariya and
Labhubhaskariya.
Deva (8th Century AD), another less known and
talked ancient astronomer, too had documented the accurate measurement of the
Earth’s circumference. Importantly all these works by great ancient Scientists
were done independently in different geography and time zones. He is further
credited with having measured the distance between Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) and
Lanka (Sri Lanka). He documented it to be nearly 200 yojanas, approximately
3,000 km nearly accurate from present measurement.
Lalla: An 8th century AD, mathematician and
astrologer documented his finding that the Earth travelled from west to
east. And if anyone viewed it from the north pole star
Polaris, Earth turns left, i.e., counterclockwise. Lallas’s
documentation on Earth’s rotation on its axis and the direction of its rotation
is very important work.
The actual translation of Lalla Works is as explained “To (the
gods) at the North Pole, it appears to move from the left to the right and (the
demons) at the South Pole from the right to the left. Traditionally Indian
astronomers identified the North Pole as habitation of Devta/ God and South
Poles as habitation of Asur/ Demon.
Bhaskarcharya also known as Bhaskara II in 12th century
AD: - The author of Siddhanta Siromani, another masterpiece on Astronomical
calculation. His work on measuring circumference of the Earth
documents it’s to be of 4967 yojana along with its diameter 1581. Bhaskara II
employed the calculation using Angle distance, which later on frequently termed
as trigonometry.
Makkibhatta (14th Century AD) was another marvel
mathematician of contemporary India. His scholarly work is Ganitabhūsana,
whose only few chapters survive today and is available in original
form. And he too computed and narrated about Earth rotation on its own
axis from west to east.
Nilakantha 15th Century AD from Kerala, another
astronomer had in a separate study made an accurate measurement of the earth’s
diameter is around 1050 yojans, i.e., 12,000 km. His contributions on
trigonometric function and infinite series were exemplary.
Kamalakara (17th Century AD): Another great
mathematician who lived in the city of Varanasi in the 17th Century
AD, was first to write insightful details about earthquakes within the Earth
Crust. His detailed work about the earth interiors and balance between
temperature and density of earth interior had been an outstanding work. He
documented his findings in his book titled Siddhanta Tattva Viveka.
And all this happened centuries ahead of Europeans having nascent
ideas about Planetary Science.
This small article on the genius of Indian ancient work on
astronomy and mathematics cannot encapsulate the wonder we had.
Do refer to a great compilation where over 3000 verses from
different original work has been traced and compiled on this
Subject. Read the Sourcebook on Indian Astronomy, by BV
Subbarayappa and KV Sarma for more comprehensive learning.
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