History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.377

v7.c94.377

Their end was the 'greater glory of God', which meant to them the conversion of peoples and kingdoms to Roman Catholicism. Their means included incitements to assassination and to war. It has been mentioned above (p. 483) how Galileo was persecuted for espousing the Copernican theory in astronomy. Not much difference is made to religion whether the Sun revolves round the earth or the earth round the sun. In this connection it may be pointed out that Āryabhata (born in 476 A. D.) appears to have held the view that the stars did not revolve round the earth, but the latter revolved round itself and gave the illustration of a man sitting in a moving boat feeling that it is the stationary objects on the banks that rush past in the opposite direction.²⁴²⁵ The Pañcasiddhāntikā (13. 6) of Varāhamihira refers to this view and rejects it, not on the ground that it is opposed to the Veda, but on the ground that, if that view were correct, hawks and other birds flying high up in the sky would not be able to come back to their nests without fail. He did not know that the atmosphere also goes with the earth. This was more than eleven hundred years before Galileo and there is nothing to show that Āryabhata suffered in the least for his views For Āryabhata's view vide 'Aryabhatīyam' by W. E. Clark (Chicago, 1930) p 64. As observed by Archibald Robertson the history of the Rationalist movement in Europe is to a very great extent the history of a fight for the right to hold and propagate opinions unpopular for the time being and the growth of religious toleration in Europe has in fact gone hand in hand with the decay of traditional religious beliefs. Reason arrives at different conclusions on the same matter in different ages and even in the same age what appears reasonable to one group or people is held to be unreasonable by another people. Vide Robert Bridges' 'Testament of Beauty' Book I lines 465-470 on what is reasonable. Millions of people saw fruits falling from tree tops to the earth, but it was only the intuition and logic of Newton that enabled him to formulate the laws of gravitation.