Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c14.7

c14.7

5. Epicycles: The hypothesis of the epicycles in accounting for the motions of the planets and in calculating their true places was the greatest generalization of Hipparchus. This was discovered by the Hindus also. But according to Burgess, "the difference in the develpoment of this theory in the Greek and the Hindu systems of astronomy precludes the idea that one of these peoples derived more than a hint respecting it from the other."