Subject: Re: [HM] Indian astronomy and mathematics
From: Kim Plofker (Kim_Plofker@Brown.edu)
Date: Mon Feb 14 2000 - 22:29:53 EST
Subject: _Jyotisavedanga_ and other early Indian astronomy
Milo Gardner said:
> Is there anyone out thatere that would like to add details to Dinesh's
> 1350 BC, or earlier date, or other contents of the Vedanga Jyotisa?
As you've probably guessed, this date is considered quite a bit too
early by the people I've been calling "conservative" historians of
Indian science: that is, those who aren't convinced by what
Dinesh Maheshwari has described as "internal astronomical evidence"
used to support a chronology for Vedic texts going back to the
fourth or fifth millennium BCE. Just to present the other side of
the discussion, here's a sketch of some "conservative" conclusions about
the _Jyotisavedanga_ or _Vedangajyotisa_ (for more detail, see
D. Pingree, "The Mesopotamian Origin of Early Indian Mathematical
Astronomy," _Journal for the History of Astronomy_ iv (1973), 1--12):
- Its older and shorter version (the Rk-recension) originated probably
about the fifth or fourth century BCE, and the Yajur-recension is
somewhat later.
- Its content is heavily influenced by Mesopotamian astronomical methods.
The reasons adduced for them include the following:
- The Sanskrit of the _Jyotisavedanga_, post-Vedic but pre-classical,
indicates that it's contemporary with the later Brahmanas, which
"conservative" chronology assigns to about the middle of the first
millennium BCE.
- The necessary avenue of transmission is provided by the Achaemenid Empire,
extending from Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley region during this period.
- The _Jyotisavedanga_ makes reference to an instrument known from earlier
Babylonian astronomy, the clepsydra or out-flowing water-clock.
(D. Maheshwari is right in saying that there is a sinking-bowl
water-clock that's Indian in origin, but there exists also an
older instrument, the nadikayantra or water-clock with an out-flowing
tube, similar to the Babylon clepsydra. Such a clock is described
in, e.g., the _Arthasastra_ dating from around the turn of this era. See
S. R. Sarma, "Astronomical Instruments in Mughal Miniatures," _Studien
zur Indologie und Iranistik_, Band 16/17, Reinbek 1992, 235--276.)
- The _Jyotisavedanga_ refers to a linear zig-zag function for obtaining
the seasonally variable amount of water to be used in the water-clock
(verse 7 of the Rk-recension), just as Babylonian texts do. Another
linear zig-zag function for the changing length of daylight, also
attested in Mesopotamia, appears in verse 22.
- The same verse 7 gives a longest/shortest day ratio of 3:2, a value very
common in Babylonian texts from the seventh century BCE onward, but not
applicable in most of India.
- The "internal astronomical evidence" in favor of a much earlier dating
is not convincing enough to outweigh the above inferences. While verses
5 and 6 place the winter solstice at the constellation Dhanistha, which
would indeed occur in the early second millennium BCE, we have no
certainty that the author of the _Jyotisavedanga_ used exactly the same
position for that constellation as is now assigned to it, nor that he
determined the exact location of the winter solstice as precisely as we
now expect.
- References to astronomy in other early texts (including the _Arthasastra_
and the older _Paitamahasiddhanta_ of 80 CE) make use of these same
Mesopotamian-attested techniques, as well as another instrument known in
Mesopotamia, the gnomon, and Babylonian-style linear zig-zag functions for
the changing length of its shadow.
This brings me to a rather puzzling set of statements by Dinesh
Maheshwari in another recent post:
> BTW, it is also interesting that one of the most important Vedic
> astronomical treatises, _SuryaSiddhanta_ is named after the Sun
> ("Surya" means Sun in Sanskrit) and not the earth. [...]
> And that when the summaries of the five surviving siddhantas (of the
> 18 from the ancient Vedic times, as corroborated by references to them
> in the later commentaries, 13 are deemed to be lost) were written down
> in the early part of the first millennium CE that there was some ambiguity
> (perhaps due to some Hellenic influence, for instance we know that the
> Greek Zodiac names were used in India for a brief period after which
> they reverted back to the Sanskrit names "implying" the
> dominant constellation in the 12 lunar months used in Vedic times).
Is this intended as a reference to the _Pancasiddhantika_
("Five Siddhantas") of Varahamihira, dating from the sixth
century CE? It seems _very_ strange to me to see these works
called "Vedic" (except perhaps in the wider sense of "Veda" as
embracing all knowledge). Varahamihira's five siddhantas are
the following:
- the "old" _Paitamahasiddhanta_, whose epoch is given as 11 January
80 CE;
- the _Vasisthasiddhanta_, older than the third century CE but after
the _Jyotisavedanga_;
- the _Romakasiddhanta_, whose title refers to the Romaka (Rome) of
that western empire, and which mentions Yavanapura ("city of
westerners"), that is, Alexandria;
- the _Paulisasiddhanta_;
- the _Suryasiddhanta_ ascribed to Latadeva, a pupil of Aryabhata.
(See O. Neugebauer and D. Pingree, _The Pancasiddhantika of Varahamihira_,
Copenhagen 1970, for more detail.) These works do reveal apparent
Graeco-Babylonian and Greek influence from the early first millennium CE;
I know of no reason to infer that they are "survivals" from "ancient
Vedic times." I'm also puzzled by the reference to "reversion" to
Sanskrit zodiac names. It's true that the Sanskrit _transliterations_ of Greek
names for zodiacal signs were not systematically used outside of
early-first-millennium-CE astrological texts, but the Sanskrit names for
zodiacal signs used in astronomy after (and sometimes before)
that period are equally related in _meaning_ to the names of the
Babylonian/Greek signs: Sanskrit "tula"="scales" is Libra, "dhanus"="bow"
is Sagittarius, "mithuna"="couple" is Gemini, and so forth. These names
are much more common in Sanskrit astronomical treatises than the
identification of zodiacal signs by Vedic month-names, which is what
DM seems to be describing.
With best wishes,
Kim Plofker
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