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A Concise History of Science in India c6.s2.t2: Some Ancient Astronomers of this Period

A Concise History of Science in India c6.s2.t2

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Some Ancient Astronomers of this Period

c6.s2.t2.1

Varāhamihira, in his *Bṛhatsaṃhitā*, has recorded the names of a large number of astronomers of this period. Some of them are Garga, Parāśara, Kāśyapa, Nārada, Pitāmaha, Sūrya, Puliśa, Vasiṣṭha, Romaka, Viṣṇugupta, Asita-Devala, Ṛṣiputra, Bhṛgu, Maya, Bādarāyaṇa, Nagnajit and so on. Most of them are mentioned only in name. Passages attributed to some of them are quoted particularly by Varāha's commentator Utpala, but the works of the majority of them are no longer extant. The teachings of Pitāmaha, Sūrya, Puliśa, Vasiṣṭha and Romaka have been summarized by Varāha in his *Pañcasiddhāntikā* about which we shall speak later. Among the others, the most important are Garga and Parāśara, both of whom compiled *saṃhitās* known after their names. The astronomical knowledge presented in these *saṃhitās* is more or less the same as found in the *Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa*. It is, therefore, no wonder that Somākara, the commentator of the *Jyotiṣa*, quotes extensively from Garga in his exposition of the *Jyotiṣa*.

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Garga is also important from the viewpoint of his frequent references to the Greeks (*yavana*), and to the excellence of the astronomical science as studied among their savants. ‘The Greeks are indeed *mlecchas*, but amongst them this science (astronomy)’, writes Garga, ‘is well established; therefore even they are honoured as *Ṛṣis*.’ From his references to the fiercely fighting Greeks who penetrated into the heart of Hindusthan (*madhyadeśa*), Kern concluded that Garga lived probably during the period of conquests of the Bactrian Greeks (third to second century b.c.). Parāśara who figures prominently in some of the *Purāṇas* is probably posterior to Garga.

c6.s2.t2.3

a Thibaut (2), pp. 411-37.

c6.s2.t2.4

b Shamashastry has interpreted such divisions as giving a method of ascertaining readily *parvatithis* and *nakṣatras* (*see* his edition of the *Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa*, Mysore, 1936).

Cites (2)