Subject: Re: [HM] base 60, Indian, Babylonian or Sumerian?
From: Dinesh Maheshwari (dsm@cypress.com)
Date: Mon Feb 07 2000 - 22:38:48 EST
Milo Gardner writes :
> What are the dates involved?
The article "Exegesis of Hindu Cosmological Time Cycles" by Dwight
William Johnson refers to Rig Veda 1.164.48 and Rig Veda 1.164.1-5.
The RigVeda dates to definitely PRIOR to 2600BC by geological
events and around 4300-4000BC by internal astronomical event dating.
"Vedanga Jyotisha" (VJ), again referred to in the aforementioned article,
is a manual on astronomy and is available in two recensions : the
older VJ (OVJ) has 36 verses and the latter VJ (LVJ) has 43 verses.
The LVJ has an internal astronomical event date of 1550BC-1350BC; the
OVJ has to be prior to that.
(Both, OVJ as well as LVJ, have references to sidereal year.)
> I would like to propose that since Indian/Vedic time and astronomy was
> indeed base 60, and not base 10, that a dating to 1500 BC is easily
> achieved.
It is important to note that the sexagesimal system was used for keeping
time and in astronomy, while the decimal system was simultaneously in use
for other numbers/computations (e.g. the presence of decimal numbers in
the Vedas).
> That is, it is clear that the Babylonian Water Clock, and its watches
> of the night were used in India.
The Babylonian, Egyptian and the Greek water clocks have the "clepsydra"
design where-in the water flowed out from the top vessel at a fixed rate
into an outer vessel. The water clocks used in India consisted of a wide
shallow brass bowl with a hole in the base, placed in a larger container
full of water. The time it took for the empty bowl to fill and sink (about
20 minutes) was used as a unit of measuring time. This type of water clock
was used even as late as the time of BhaskaraII [1114-1185]. It is recorded
that his daughter Lilavati was bending over a water clock when a pearl
dropped unnoticed from her wedding dress and plugged up the hole in the
wide shallow brass bowl on the day of her wedding. Given that the two water
clock designs are entirely different, one cannot infer that one was derived
from the other and it appears that the two water clock systems developed
independently.
> When did Indians first calculate sidereal time? In Egypt a confirmed
> date of 1100 BC, the reign of Ramsside should be considered
> to be moved back a few centuries.
Please see dating on Rig-Veda and VedangaJyotisha above.
Best Regards,
Dinesh Maheshwari
--
Dinesh Maheshwari
Advanced Design Methods
Cypress Semiconductor
San Jose, CA , USA
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