Star's stories on palm leaves

We know that mathematics is the language of physics in many senses. In ancient days mathematics was a sub branch under astronomy. Astronomy deals with outer earth and movement of planets, today what we call it as space science. Space science in ancient India was much developed without telescope and satellite or spaceships. Let’s see who carried these developments in their shoulders.

                                     Mathematics and India relation is like birds and their nests. We can say this fact with confidence with some magnificent examples of modern mathematician who enlightened infinity darkness with their scientific results they are Ramanujan, C.R Rao, K.S Chandrasekharan and many more. As I mentioned mathematics is an integral part of astronomy, so ancient Indian mathematicians were also very good space scientist. In this field no one in the world was advanced than India in that time. Many civilisations became great following Indian theories.

                                  In my first or second blog I mentioned that science relates its branch with every subject even arts subjects. Today I am discussing help of mathematics in the field of astronomy, which is purely not an arts subject but considered as an arts subject. With the help of mathematics and without the help of computer ancient sages measured planet distance, size, radius of planetary path, time period of rotation etc. Astronomy finds its way in mathematics and mathematics finds its application in astronomy. Applying trigonometry, area, circumference, theorems ancient scientists found many knowledge about universe.

                                

From the title of the topic we can deduce the fact that before the discovery of paper Indians use palm leaves to write anything, we can relate it with our ‘Jataka’ which were made according to our birth date and time. Let’s find out more such information about past time which is use still now. Our old records which we call ‘Pothi’ had many advanced information about space science in poems or stories. For example, the earth is round was mentioned in many spiritual poems, moon surface is black and consist of rocks which we found after NASA’s research that were already described in scriptures, the zodiac signs are based on the arrangement of stars. Here we can discus much more this type of information but let’s come to some information of scientists in ancient India who were involved in this journey.

                            Do you know what is first artificial satellite made by ISRO? The answer is ARYABHAT which was named in tribute for the great wisdom of ancient India. Here comes our first scientist of our story, who creates the compendium named ‘Aryabhatiya’ in which he described all his readings and theories of astronomy. He was first to describe that earth also rotates in his own axis. He gave the actual readings of date and time of solar and lunar eclipses. He also describes about the luminosity. An interesting writing in Rig ved about solar eclipse is quoted here:-

                                  "O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light (moon), and then earth gets scared by sudden darkness."

  Here we can mark the writing that in rig ved it was said that moon did not have its own light, and the eclipses are due to the cosmological phenomenon when moon comes in front of sun. Aryabhata also gave the heliocentric model of solar system. He developed many instruments which helped him to calculate the actual distance of planets and planetary motion. His mathematical knowledge was so vast that his theories, readings, table enlighten many further mathematician knowledge. He was first to calculate the value of pie to two decimal and he knows that pie is an irrational number. If we discuss his contributions in the field of astronomy and mathematics then a book of thousand pages can be written.

 

 

                           Everyone knows who gave the digit Zero. But do you know who made popular the use and equation of zero, here comes our next scientist named Brahmagupt. His calculation and observations elaborate the story and future of zero. His contribution towards mathematics was more than contribution towards astronomy but he described the most important law of physics. He was the first to describe about Gravitational force, in his book he introduced gravity as GURUTWAKARSHAN and wrote its significance. He described many observation and theories of Aryabhata in mathematical way. He also used to calculate celestial distances, lunar eclipse duration and date, angle of inclination between celestial bodies and its significances. He was the first to describe that lunar is partially bright and also gave reason for that. He gave new insights to the algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Many formula and equations derived in recent years were already given by him.  His works and books were described by bhaskara II. He was the gem of mathematics. The historian of science George Sarton called Brahmagupta "one of the greatest scientists of his race and the greatest of his time." His writings on later stages translated to Arabic languages and create new relation called Hindu-Arabic relation or Indo-Arabic relation.

                           Do you know what is the most famous system and from where modern numerals derived? The answer is Hindu-Arabic decimal system. Bhaskara I was the first to introduce this decimal system later on translation into Arabic texture it gained many fame and got popular worldwide.  He also wrote two books on astronomy ‘Mahabhaskariya’ and ‘Laghubhaskariya’. He was the great mathematician in his time. He introduced many formulas, tables, short formulas in mathematics. He also had a keen interest in astronomy. He described longitudes of planets, the conjunctions among the planets and stars, solar and lunar eclipses, and rising and setting of planets. Another scientist also had name Bhaskara to avoid confusion we named him bhaskara II. Bhaskara II carried Brahmagupta’s works into next level. He was the first to calculate the very approximate value of earth’s rotation around the sun that is 365.2588 which was only 3.5 minute differ from current reading. His astronomical text ‘shidhanta shiromani’ was written in two parts the first on astronomy and second part on sphere. He discovers the path of planets, true longitudes calculate lunar eclipses, planetary mean motion, astronomical instruments, calculate seasons. He also had vast knowledge about engineering. For the great achievement and knowledge of bhaskara II ISRO launched a satellite on his name.  

                         We discussed the season calculations were made by bhaskara II but what about weather forecasting? Here comes our meteorologist Varahamihira. He was among the navaratnas in king vikramaditya’s kingdom. His works were discovered from his book ‘Brihat samhita’. In his book he wrote about architecture, temples, planetary motions, eclipses, timekeeping, astrology, seasons, cloud formation, rainfall, agriculture, mathematics, gemology, perfumes and many other topics. His readings and weather predictions are too much accurate. His other works were based on astronomy, cloud formation, wind movement, effect of sun and moon on weather, planetary motion. He also guessed the presence of water on mars which were later confirmed by NASA and ISRO. In brihat samhita he described the possibility presence of water and iron on mars. He also learned Greek language and praised them for being well trained in science.

                      While discussing about next scientist I feel pleasure and proud same time because he is from my native state that is Odisha. He is none other than pathani samanta. His real name was Mahamahopadhyaya Chandrasekhara Singha Harichandana Mahapatra Samanta. He was not from ancient India but his works were remarkable at that time. His readings and calculation were a bit different from ancient readings. . He used to measure the height of any object with a Bamboo from a far distance. He was the first to calculate the transit of Venus. He wrote the book Sidhant Darpan. He also invented Sundial which gave the correct time at any instant of time when there is sun present. Astronomers and astrophysicists both in India and beyond have praised his work, earning him the moniker "Indian Tycho." He was the last torch bearer of the Indian traditional astronomy.

                     After reading the whole blog we can definitely say that these ancient scientist proved that why our civilisation is most advanced. Everyone may think that India is surrounded by superstitions and illogical rituals but these scientists prove all wrong. Our temples also bears science and the written information on stones are proving of that. Surya mandir situated in Puri district is one of the magnificent examples of scientific use. The analogy of clock and the wheels of surya mandir is one of the examples. Stay tuned with hungry researcher for more such information.

                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                              Hungry and foolish