Education in Ancient India c13.s1.7

c13.s1.7

A concrete Instance and its Moral: Under such circumstances, there was not much scope left for research and originality in those matters where opinions were expressed in sacred texts. A concrete case may be given to illustrate the point. In the infancy of astronomy, the eclipses were explained by the mythological stories about Rāhu and Ketu attacking and temporarily overpowering the moon and the sun. It was an evil day for the advance of astronomy when this mythological version got a canonical sanction by its inclusion in the Purāṇas. Hindu astronomers like Āryabhaṭa, Brahmagupta, Varāhamihira and Bhāskarācārya knew the true causes of eclipses, but felt powerless to carry vigorous propaganda to explode their popular and mythological explanation canonised by the Purāṇas. Nay, Brahmagupta, with a view to win cheap popularity, went to the extent of advocating that the popular view was correct, when he knew full well that such was not the case. In Chapter I of his Brahma-siddhānta, he gives both the popular and scientific theories about the eclipses, but advocates the cause of the former. "Some people think that the eclipse is not caused by the Head (of Rāhu or Ketu). This, however, is a foolish idea. The Veda, which is the word of God from the mouth of Brahman, says that the Head eclipses, likewise Manusmṛiti and Garga-saṃhitā".¹ What is, however, most lamentable is that Brahmagupta, who knew full well the real cause of eclipses, should have proceeded to condemn Āryabhaṭa, Varāhamihira, Śrīsheṇa and Viṣṇuchandra for expounding the unorthodox but scientific theory that eclipses are caused by the shadow of the earth. It is important to note that Brahmagupta becomes guilty of intellectual and moral dishonesty because he was anxious to win cheap popularity by supporting the popular view that what was contained in the Vedas and Manusmṛiti could not be untrue. It is interesting to note that Varāhamihira first combats the Rāhu-Ketu theory,¹ but then immediately succumbs to it.² Āryabhaṭa alone has perhaps the moral courage to be consistent with his intellectual convictions. But he also only hints that the popular theory is wrong, but does not dare to attack it openly.³ If the Rāhu-Ketu theory of eclipses has continued to retain its hold over the popular Hindu mind for the last 1500 years and more, inspite of the scientific discovery of the true cause of eclipses, the reason is that Hindu scholarship of later times was too much in the leading strings of religion to carry on active propaganda against its hypothses. Similarly astronomers continued to subscribe to the view that the constellation of the Great Bear moves from one lunar mansion to another in a hundred years, even when they had discovered that such was not the case. The discontinuance of dissection in the medical training and the abandonment of agriculture by the Brahmanas, Buddhists and Jains are also to be attributed to the hold of the progressively puritanical notions over the popular mind.⁴