Bharatiya Jyotihshastra (History of Indian Astronomy), translated by R. V. Vaidya v2.c12.s5.9
Bhāratīya Jyotiḥśāstra (History of Indian Astronomy), translated by R. V. Vaidya v2.c12.s5.9
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v2.c12.s5.9.1
Descriptions of many such comets are available. The comets may have received the names Uddālaka, Kāśyapa etc. after the Ṛṣis who discovered and investigated the nature of these comets. This is just like what we find at present in the case of comets such as Enki’s comet, Halley’s comet, etc. named after European astronomers; and these descriptions appear to have been given on the basis of researches traditionally carried on through centuries. The statements of Āryabhaṭa and Brahmagupta that they determined the positions of the Sun and Moon after observing the eclipses have already been given. If the work of taking observations is carried on continuously for several years, it gives useful results; and it is not possible to do this without royal patronage. Varāhamihira has described how astronomers deserve respect. He has also written that kings should employ astronomers in their service, that some of them should be engaged in the task of taking daily observations of the sky, and that they should distribute amongst themselves different parts of the sky, and then take observations. From this and from the astronomical works, Rājamṛgāṅka Karaṇa by King Bhoja, and Karaṇa Kamala Mārtaṇḍa by King Daśabala of Vallabha dynasty which have been mentioned before and from the fact that several authors of astronomical works had the patronage of kings, as can be seen from their own account, it appears that the work of taking observations used to be carried on by royal support.
v2.c12.s5.9.2
Corrections recommended by different astronomers to be applied to the mean places of planets have been given before at several places. It is evident that these could not have been devised at random. Keśava, for one has described the observations actually taken by him (page 129). KAMALĀKARA the author of Siddhāntatattvaviveka has declared that the pole star has a shifting motion. Even in these days we come across persons who have a liking for observing things. One finds several persons who can correctly point out the planets and several stars even though they have not studied astronomy. Thus two persons who had absolutely no knowledge of English, Sanskrit and astronomy once casually told that the pole star is not stationary ; and one of them was very fond of observing stars, risings and settings of planets and their conjunctions, and he was very helpful to the author. Once a Vaidic Brāhmaṇa named Pādhye, a resident of Āgāśī, casually met the author in Poona in Śaka 1809. He had not studied any system of astronomy. Still, he chanced to state that, while most of the stars moved from east to west, some stars (those near the North Pole) move in a reverse direction, that is from west to east ; and he told that he came to know of it from his brother Nārāyaṇa Janārdan Pādhye. That brother died in Śaka 1795. At that time he was about 22 years old. He was surprisingly intelligent. There may be several such people living. The experiences related here may appear very trivial to some ;
v2.c12.s5.9.3
but man must have acquired knowledge of astronomy in the initial stages, through the efforts of such persons ; and my object in relating such experiences is to show that the habit still persists among our people. Europeans are surprised to see that while the Saura, Ārya and Brahma siddhāntas mention the numbers of revolutions and other elements of planets, no hint is anywhere given as to how these were calculated and no information of the observations taken has been recorded in them. But they do not take into considaration the conditions in ancient times and the beliefs of our people. In those times when even scripts or any means of writing, not to speak of the printing presses, were not easily available or were even non-existent and all knowledge was preserved by the tradition of being vocally imparted by the teacher to his disciples. Hence, it was but natural that only the siddhāntas which embodied the results of research survived while their sources perished. Again, nobody will now feel astonished if one predicts the time of the occurrence of an eclipse. But in ancient times a man who could predict these phenomena was naturally considered to be superhuman. If he compiled a work, he would naturally incorporate in it only the resulting principles without mentioning their preliminary forms or the means employed in arriving at them. Then in course of time, the work would possibly come to be regarded as ‘apauruṣeya’ (divine) after the author’s name is forgotten & lost ;
v2.c12.s5.9.4
and once this practice secured a firm footing, the future authors of ‘human’ works abstained from mentioning the preliminaries leading up to the final results. These were quite probably the reasons why our ancient works lack the information about the observations taken, similar to what we find recorded in Ptolemy’s works about his own observations and those taken by Hipparchus, or in the works of later western astronomers. However, some information about the individual efforts made in respect of observations has already been given and some more will be given further on.