Historical View of Hindu Astronomy

The early part of Astronomy among the Hindus is involved in great obscurity. It is extremely difficult to say who the person were that first began the science, more so the means employed by them. The earliest known facts are the formation of the lunar mansions, for, without a division of the star system or some fixed points in the Lunar system, no observations on the position of the coloures or Heavenly bodies could be recorded with any degree of accuracy. A serious and systematic study of this science was started by the author in 1799, when he presented a paper “on the antiquity of the Surya Siddhanta and the formation of the Astronomical Cycles their in contained” The observations and conclusions of John Bently in this volume were eye-openers to the Indian and foreign scholars and induced them to make fresh inroads for the proper study of this most ancient science. The present book is divided into two parts, the Ancient Astronomy and the Modern Astronomy, and is subdivided into various sections viz; the early Hindu Astronomy, Tropical Lunar, Mansions, the Birth of Saturn, the month Kartika, the Zodical constellations from astronomical viewpoint, the Lunisolar period, the Third astronomical period, Hindu history divided into periods, Tables of the four Ages, Table of the Lunar Asterisms, Aries, Taurus, systems of Varaha, Revolutions of the planets, the Arya Siddhanta of Aryabhatta, the Latitude and Longitude of the Stars, Geometry of Aryabhatta and Bhaskara, the Pancha Sidhantika, the Varaha Mihirs etc. etc., besides many interesting and valuable observations. The Appendixs on the “Hindu Table of Equations,” “Remarks on the Chinese Astronomy” and “Translations of certain Hieroglyphics” are extremely valuable from the antiquity point of view.