Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c6.s1.12

c6.s1.12

Prof Playfair observes that it is not for astronomy, even in its most perfect state, to go back 46 centuries and to ascertain the situation of the heavenly bodies at so remote a period, except with the help of lately developed Integral Calculus and the Theory of Gravitation. He finds that the positions of the planets as given in these tables is very close to the position as calculated back with the help of modern Integral Calculus and the Theory of Gravitation. All other systems of calculation, whether Chaldean or Egyptian or Greek which the Hindus might have used for their purpose gave very different results.