Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.14

c12.14

**Jyotisha.** The last of the Vedāṅgas is called *Jyotisha* or Astronomy, of which the literature available is very scanty. As is always the case, the growth of this subject was due to religious requirements. The knowledge of the heavenly bodies was necessary to fix the days and hours of the Vedic sacrifices. The first impulse to astronomical studies came from the establishment of a sacred Calendar. Even in the *Brāhmaṇas* and *Āraṇyakas* we come across references to astronomical subjects, and the Vedic hymns point to observation of the moon as the measurer of time [cf. *Rv.*, viii, 3, 20; ii, 32 (phases of the moon); i, 25, 8 (intercalary or thirteenth month); *Vāja. Saṁ.*, vii, 30; xxii, 31; xxx, 10; 20 (*gaṇaka*); *Taitt. Br.*, iv, 5 (*nakshatra-darśa*)].