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Bharatiya Jyotihshastra (History of Indian Astronomy), translated by R. V. Vaidya v2.c12.s2.t85: Living Authors of Astronomical Works

Bhāratīya Jyotiḥśāstra (History of Indian Astronomy), translated by R. V. Vaidya v2.c12.s2.t85

Language
English

Living Authors of Astronomical Works

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1. Venkaṭeś Bāpūjī Ketkar :— (Birth date :—Friday, the 14th lunar day of the bright half of Pauṣa, Śaka 1775).

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∗ This has been printed by Ananta Kṛṣṇa, the son of the Śāstrī, who has given in it, the biography of Kṛṣṇaśāstrī. The above account has been given on the basis of the biography as well as the information collected by the author.

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He is a Ṛgvedī Citpāvan Brāhmaṇa belonging to Gārgya gotra. He is working as a teacher in the Education Department in this province since 1874 A.D. He has been the Head Master of the English High School, at Bagalkot, for the last several years. He received most of his education at Belgaon. His father also was a good astronomer. He had rendered into Sanskrit Keropant's Planetary Tables, but it was not printed. For the last five or six generations the family had been living at Paiṭhaṇ. But Bāpū left the place for Nargundās and later on shifted to Rāmdurgās. He had the patronage of the Chief of that State.

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Veṅkateś compiled a very useful work in Sanskrit, entitled "Jyotirgaṇita" about Śaka 1812. He has adopted in it, Śaka 1800 as the epochal year. This has been compiled on the basis of those French works which are being used in compiling the Nautical Almanac. The planets' places, calculated with the help of this work, are very accurate, in fact they are correct within 1' as compared with those of the Nautical Almanac. Never before has such a work been compiled in this province, not even in our country. This work has adopted for the length of the year the correct value of the sidereal year viz. 365d-15-22-53 and 50''.2 (the actual value) as the annual rate of precession. Assuming Zeeta Piscium to be the junction star of Revatī, he has given its sā yana longitude, or in other words, the ayanāmśa for the Śaka year 1800 as 18° 10' 25''. The author had suggested to him to adopt for the ayanāmśa a figure approximately equal to that of the Grahalāghava. A star whose longitude would be equal to it could have been adopted as the initial point. But even Ketkar has come to realise the fact that the ayanāmśas can be nearly equal to those of Grahalāghava, by assuming 180° as the longitude of the star Citrā (Spica). In short, if he had assumed 22° as the aproximate ayanāmśa for Śaka 1800, the author feels that Ketkar's work would have easily come into general use. The work mainly consists of four parts. The first contains the calculation of the almanac. The epochal positions are all given for the moment of the true Aries Ingress. The second part treats of the calculation of the places of planets. It includes the mean and true longitudes of planets, the right ascension, longitudes of star etc., heliacal rising and setting of celestial bodies, and other subjects. The third contains the calculation of phenomena like eclipses, conjunctions, elevtaion of moon's cusps. The fourth contains the calculation of the ascendant etc. required in the case of three problems. The treatment of each subject has, everywhere in the book, adhered to the following order :-Method, example, tables and then the theory. The work contains tables for almost all calculations, and the calculators who do not understand the use of trigonometry and longarithms can easily make calculations from the book. Keropant's almanac can be compiled with the help of this Book. This book has not been printed as yet.

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(2) Bāl Gaṅgādhar Ṭilak

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(Date of birth :-Wednesday, the 6th lunar day of the dark half of Āṣāḍna of Śaka 1778, the ascending sign being Cancer.). He is familiar not only in this country but even in foreign lands. He was for many years the Chief Professor of mathematics and astronomy in the Fargusan College.

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He wrote a book in English entitled *ORION*, in 1893 A:D. (Śaka 1815) in which he has discussed in an accurate and elaborate manner the question of date of the Vedas and shown that some of the Vedic hymns were compiled when the vernal equinox was situated in the Orion group of stars, that is, about 4000 years B.S.

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(3) Vināyak Pāndurang Khānāpurkar :—(Birth in Śaka 1780).

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He was a Rigvedi Deśastha Brāhmana, belonging to Jamadagnya gotra and a resident of Khānāpur, in Sātārā district. He has studied Sanskrit, astronomy and other subjects in the orthodox manner and also European mathematics and astronomy under the guidance of Keropant Nānā Chatre and Rāoji Moreśwar Devakule. An Association known as the Veda-Śāstrottejak-sabhā was started in Poona from Śaka 1796 and he was examined by the Association in the subjects of Indian Astronomy and Sanskrit Grammar.

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He has compiled a *tājak* work, entitled *Vaināyakeeya Dwādaśādhyāyī*, by which the annual reading of a horoscope can be given with ease. He has similarly written the following books in Sanskrit :—The *Kundasār*; the *Ardhakānda*, a versified Sanskrit translation, of the general enunciations of all theorems in the two parts of Euclid's Geometry, and the *Siddhāntasār*. In the last named work, he has explained the question of the movement of earth etc. according to the modern European view. He has translated into Marāthi, Bhāskara's *Līlāvatī*, *Bīja* and *Golādhyāya*, adding an explanation of the theory and he is at present translating the *Ganitādhyāya*. These works are not yet printed.

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(4) Sudhākara Dwivedī :—(Date of birth :—Monday, the 4th lunar day of the bright half of Caitra, Śaka 1782).

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He is at present the Head Teacher of mathematics and astronomy at the Sanskrit College, Vārānasī. He was appointed in the place of Pandit Bāpūdeva, after his retirement in Śaka 1811. He was formerly the Chairman of the Library Committee in the same College. The title of Mahāmahopādhyāya has been conferred on him by the British Government.

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The following are the Sanskrit works compiled by him:—(1) The *Dirghavrittalakshana* (śaka 1800). The author described in details the properties of the ellipse, along with its theory; (2) the *Vicitra Praśna* (Interesting problems), Sabhang, in Śaka 1801. This contains 20 difficult problems in mathematics, along with their solutions; (3) the *Vāstava Candra Śrngonnati-sādhana*. After pointing out the defects in the calculation of the elevation of the moon's cusps by the methods advocated by Lalla, Bhāskara, Jñyānarāja, Ganeśa, Kamalākara and Bāpūdeva, he has given in this, the correct method of calculating it accurately with the modern methods of European astronomy. This contains 92 verses; (4) the *Dyucara Cāra* (Śaka 1804). This contains a discussion of the orbital paths of planets according to modern European astronomy; (5) *Pinda-Prabhākar* (Śaka 1807). This is a work devoted to the subject of house building; (6) the *Bhābhramarekhānirūpana*. This is devoted to the consideration of the subject of "Sūci-Chedana" corresponding to a given shadow; (7) the *Dharābhrama*: It considers the diurnal rotation of the earth; (8) the *Grahana Karana*. This describes the method of calculating an eclipse; (9) the *Golīya* Rekhāgaṇita i.e. Spherical Geometry; (10) A Sanskrit translation of the 6th, 11th and 12th books of Euclid, in verse form, and (11) the Gaṇaka Taraṅgiṇī (Śaka 1812). It contains a history of Indian astronomers. It was, in the beginning, published in Paṇḍit, a monthly journal of Vārāṇasī. It was published separately in book form later on in Śaka 1814 and contains 124 pages of octavo size. Most of the remaining works have been printed. The following are the commentaries edited or written by Sudhākara :—He edited the Yantrarāja in Śaka 1804, along with the commentary, Pratibhā Bodhak, dated Śaka 1795, as also the commentary by Malayendusūri. He published Bhāskara's Līlāvatī, with a new theory and certain special features in Śaka 1800. He also published Bhāskara's "Bīja" with a new commentary. He wrote a commentary, "Vāsanā Vibhūṣaṇa" on Karaṇa Kutūhala, which was printed in Śaka 1803. He wrote in Śaka 1810, a commentary named "Pañcasiddhāntikā Prakāśa" on Vārāha's Pañcasiddhāntikā. The work containing the commentary, along with an English translation of the original by Dr. G. Thibaut, the then Principal of Vārāṇasī Sanskrit College, was published in 1889 A. D. All these commentaries are written in Sanskrit. In addition to these, he edited and published the 'Chādak Nirṇaya' by Kṛṣṇa, "Siddhāntatattva-viveka" by Kamalākara and "Dhīvṛddhida tantra" by Lalla, in the Śaka years, 1806, 1807 and 1808, respectively. He is at present engaged in getting the revised edition of the Bṛhat Saṃhitā with Utpal Ṭīkā through the press. He has compiled a work, "Bhāṣā bodhaka", in Sanskrit, about (the teaching of) a language. He has written two books in Hindi, on Mathematics, entitled Calan Kalan i.e. Calculus, and has also compiled a Hindi Grammar.

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The Gaṇaka Taraṅgiṇī by Dvivedī is on the whole a useful work. From this and from all his other works his profound knowledge of Indian and European mathematics and astronomy becomes evident. Still, he has, at places, passed some baseless and fantastic remarks in the Gaṇaka Taraṅgiṇī such as the following :—‘Āryabhaṭa introduced the system of denoting numbers, by a new code with a view to keeping secret the numbers of revolutions and other elements which he secured through the favour of some Greek scholar whom he revered as a deity’, or ‘Bhāskarācārya has described the origin of jya at the end of his work, without explaining the underlying theory. It can be surmised from this that he learnt from some Greek traveller only the method and not its theory’. He has the ability to compile a work in Sanskrit on the lines of the French works, which are being used in compiling the English Nautical Alamanac. It is desirable that he should compile one himself.

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FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT AUTHORS AND WORKS BELONGING TO PERIODS PRIOR TO ŚAKA 950

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After about 250 pages of the present work were printed, the author came across two or three books not seen before, which contains information about some astronomical works and he proposes to give here extra information collected from them. Mahomed of Ghazni had brought to India a Muslim scholar, named, ABU AL REHAN MOHOMED BIN AHMED AL BERUṆI. He was born at Khiva in 973 A. D. He became a Minister to the King of that State. Later on, the province was conquered by MAHMUD and BERUṆI was brought to India, as a man under surveillance. Beruṇi lived in India from 1017 to 1031 A. D. He wrote a work in Arabic, entitled INDICA, about the year 1031-32 A. D. (i.e. Śaka 953). It contains a description of several sciences then known in India. Beruni had learnt Sanskrit and had studied several works written in Sanskrit. He had paid special attention to astronomy and translated some astronomical works into Arabic. Edward C. Sachau, a Berlin Professor has translated his work, "Indica" into English. It has been published in two volumes. The author gives the information gathered mainly from this work about authors who lived before Śaka 950.

Cites (11)