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Hindu Astronomy is one of the ancient astronomical systems of the world.

The astronomy and the astrology of India is based upon sidereal calculations. The sidereal astronomy is based upon the stars and the sidereal period is the time that it takes the object to make one full orbit around the Sun, relative to the stars. This is considered to be an object's true orbital period.

In discussions of Hindu astronomy, it should be cleanly disambiguated whether actual ancient astronomical (or astrological, a distinction that did not exist in pre-modern India any more than in pre-modern Europe) treatises are discussed, or if archaeoastronomical claims are distilled from alleged codes or statements taken from the Vedas.

Hindu astrology

In Hindu Astronomy, the vernal equinox (the First Point of Aries) is often calculated at 23° from 0° Aries (1950 CE), i.e. about 7° Pisces (Frawley 1991:148). The constellation that marks this vernal equinox is the Uttarabhadra.

In the time of the Puranas, the vernal equinox was marked by the Ashwini constellation (beginning of Aries), which gives a date of about 300-500 CE. The Vishnu Purana (2.8.63) states that the equinoxes occur when the Sun enters Aries and Libra, and that when the sun enters Capricorn, his northern course (from winter to summer solstice) commences, and the southern course when he enters Cancer.

In the Suryasiddhanta, the rate of precession is set at at 54" (it actually is 50.3"), which is much more accurate than the number calculated by the Greeks (Frawley 1991:148).

The Hindus use a system of 27 or 28 Nakshatras (lunar constellations) to calculate a month. Each month can be divided into 30 lunar tithis (days). There are usually 360 or 366 days in a year.

Hindu astronomical treatises:

• Suryasiddhanta

Archaeoastronomical claims

The Hindu astronomer Varahamihira, Garga (quoted by Somakara), the Mahabharata and the Vedanga Jyothish refer to the nakshatra Dhanishta (Shravishta) and thus to an ancient calendar that would have been used in 1280 BCE (see Frawley 1991: 152 ff.). The Kaushitaki Brahmana and possibly the Atharvaveda refer to a similar calendar (Frawley 1991). The Atharvaveda, the Tandya Mahabrahmana and Laughakshi (quoted by Somakara) may show knowledge of an earlier calendar, but still in the Magha constellation (Frawley 1991).

The Shatapatha Brahmana has the Krttikas (the Pleiades) "do not swerve from the east". This would have been the case with precision at some point between the 24th and 21st centuries BC, but was still true to within less than 10 degrees (viz., to the East of East by north) around 800 BC, the assumed date of the text's composition.

The Atharvaveda, the Taittiriya Brahmana, the Shatapatha Brahmana, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad and the Vishnu Purana show such a constellation in the Krittika (Frawley 1991).

Notes

1. ŚBM 2.1.2.1a: kṛttikāsvagnī ādadhīta; the emphasis on "due east" is due to the 14th c. commentary by Sayana.
2. Texts of the Brahmana period do only distinguish intermediate directions, viz. eighths of the compass, and the rising of the Pleiades fell into the Eastern eighth until well after the Vedic period. See also Michael Witzel, The Pleiades and the Bears viewed from inside the Vedic texts, EVJS Vol. 5 (1999), issue 2 (December) : Witzel speculates that the reference may be based on centuries old priestly traditions of times when the Pleiades were even closer to due East.

Literature

• David Frawley. 1991. Gods, Sages, and Kings, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-910261-37-7
• Tilak, Bal Gangadhar: The Orion or Researches into the antiquities of the Vedas, The arctic home in the vedas.
• Kak, Subhash: The astronomical code of the Rgveda
• Sri Yukteswar Giri. The holy science. Los Angeles, Ca: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1984.
• Koenraad Elst: Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate. 1999.

See also

• Aryabhata
• Yuga
• Indian mathematics
• Jyotish (Vedic astrology)
• Vedic timekeeping
• Hindu calendar
• Chinese astronomy
• Hindu cosmology
• History of astronomy
• The Astronomical Code of the Rigveda

External links

• Online course material for InSIGHT, a workshop on traditional Indian sciences for school children conducted by the Computer Science department of Anna University, Chennai, India.
• http://www.bharatvani.org/books/ait/ch22.htm
• http://www.sanskrit.org/Astronomy/Astronomy%20Index.htm
• http://www.jqjacobs.net/astro/aryabhata.html

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