History of Science and Technology in Ancient India- Astronomy Science and Society

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Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (b. 1919-d. 1993) is MA, D Litt of the Calcutta University, D. Sc honoris causa of the Academy of Sciences of Moscow and the Brst Indian Member of the German Academy of Sciences, Berlin. Professor Chattopadhyaya taught Philosophy in the "City College, Calcutta for about three decades. He was a visiting Professor at several universities in India and abroad. I He is about the only contemporary Philosopher and writer of India whose works are extensively translated almost in every major Indian and foreign languages including German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese etc His published works in Bengali and English total over 56 or more including some of the extraordinary books for children and poems written by him, besides his prodigious editorial work like that of Rgveda in Bengali, Lama Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India in English, the Indological quarterly Indian Studies: Past & Present (since 1959) and the two volumes of Studies in the History of Science in India, etc Besides being elected 'National Fellow of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, member of the National Commission of the History of Science in India, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.

The present work is intended to be the first part of the concluding volume of our studies in the History of Science and Technology in Ancient India-the project being sponsored by NISTADS/ CSIR whose support is much appreciated. Its first two volumes were published in 1986 and 1991 with subtitles 1. The Beginnings and 2. Formation of the Theoretical Fundamentals of Natural Science. The subject matter of the present part being the study of the heavenly bodies the subtitle chosen for it is simply "ASTRONOMY.

But astronomy not having been my field of special study. I thought it was judicious to request my friend. Apurba Kumar Chakravarty, who, with his mathematical equipments had been studying Indian astronomical texts for years. His main interest is in the calendrical calculations following from the astronomical works. This will be evident from his contribution. It was substantially on his help that I depended regarding the astronomical analyses in our first volume, and, as was only expected, my request received favourable response from him. He has sketched a brief outline of the subject. This forms the main body of the present work. What are added to it are at best matters of elegance.

There exists a fair amount of the descriptive account of Indian astronomical literature already written. Readers Interested in such an account will certainly find Bharatiya Jyotish Sastra by Sankar Balakrishna Dikshit highly rewarding. The book was originally written in the Marathi language. But M.N. Saha, while working in Calender Reform Committee, found the book most useful, and. thanks to the initiative taken by him, the book is now available also in English. Such works being already there, no attempt is made here to prepare another descriptive account of the relevant literature. As has already been said, Chakravarty's special Interest is in the calendrical system on which he understandably concentrates.

The Astronomical literature that comes down to us developed in India in four distinct phases. The first phase covers a period from an unknown antiquity, though eventually taken up by the Vedic priests and continued up to the Asokan period.

In this first phase as represented by Vedanga Jyotisa. the scope of astronomy was limited to devising a calendar based on very crude astronomical data and the priests used this calendar to determine the auspicious times for performing sacrifices and make advance estimation of new and full moons for observing fasts. Their requirements were to ascertain auspicious luni-solar-stellar conjunctions, lunar elongation for finding tithis i.e. one-thirtieth part of a lunation and this study did not cover any allround astronomy. Such a state continued till the time of the Mauryan Emperor Asoka. We have references to the name of one astronomer, Lagadha, ostensibly the author of the Vedanga Jyotisa belonging to this period.

The second phase began with the infiltration of the Sakas in north India by the 2nd century B.C. They Imported Greek astronomy to India, remodelled the earlier Vedic calendar, and Introduced a dating system. This second phase was short-lived and ended by the third century A.D. or nearabout, after the fall of the Kusana Empire.

But a section of the Sakas and Kusanas continued to take interest in astronomical studies. They blended Greek and Indian astronomy of the Vedanga Jyotisa School. Perhaps local astronomers also joined them. Through this blending astronomical studies entered its third phase in India.