ON THE ASTRONOMICAL REMAINS OF ARYABHATT’S TIME AT ERAN, MADHYA PRADESH
BY
ANAND M. SHARAN
PROFESSOR
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
E-MAIL:
AND
MEERA DASS
INTACH,
NOVEMBER 23, 2007
NOMENCLATURE
Garuda Eagle
Nakshatras Asterisms
Varaha Boer
Vahana Vehicle
ABSTRACT
The present work
shows that in the Aryabhatt’s time, the Gupta Era
astronomers had expressed, in accurate terms, the
earth’s motion around the sun in terms of the physical models. They had
integrated the field of astronomy with religion. Their religion was the Vaishnavite form of Hinduism. This work also shows, for the
first time, that they had the integration of Puranic
stories into astronomy. This way, one can get a picture of Aryabhatt’s
thinking about astronomy and that - It was not
merely an abstract form of mathematics.
This work also clears the confusion that prevails amongst many mathematicians
or astronomers about the place where Aryabhatt I
lived. Many believed that he lived in Kerala which is not correct.
1. HISTORY OF ERAN
Eran has important place in the ancient history of
The archaeological site at Eran has revealed several
Gupta inscriptions, and coins [ Fleet, 1888; Hearle 1994; Cunningham, 1871 ]. Chandragupta II spent
considerable amount of time in the
Eran was an important place at the time of Buddhagupta when the Hunas were
attacking the Gupta kingdoms. The famous Indian mathematician /
astronomer Aryabhatt I was born in 476 AD during the rule of Buddhagupta. The remains in this part of the country at
various places like Udayagiri, Eran
etc show that the Gupta kings were Hindus and they worshipped Vishnu in
different forms.
The Gupta Era has been well known for its fine art and architecture as well as
for astronomy. They consider the beginning of the Siddhantic
Astronomy in the year 408 AD [ Abhayankar,
and Siddharth, 1993; Sharan,
2004 ]. The famous Vikram Samvat
( Era ) had its beginnings in the Chandragupta II’s time when the astronomers in his court did the back
calculations to estimate the transition of the Equinox from Aries to Pisces to
have taken place in 57 BC, and started counting the years from that time. Aryabhatt is also some times referred to as Aryabhatt I, was an
astronomer who made contributions based on the traditions of the earlier
astronomers. During this era, the school of astronomy was shifted from the
capital Pataliputra to
ARYABHATT I
There have been great mathematicians / astronomers in ancient
2. THE CITY AND THE KINGDOM WHERE ARYABHATT I LIVED
Aryabhatt lived in Kusumpur
which is modern
Amongst the Gupta kings was Buddhagupta who ruled
between 475 to 493 AD, and then Bhanugupta 493- 510
AD. Aryabhatt lived between 476 to
550 AD, and wrote his famous book called Aryabhatiya
in 499 AD.
3. THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF ARYABHATT I
Aryabhatiya created by Aryabhatt
I in 499 AD was a brilliant contribution to the
Indian mathematics / astronomy. In the first two sections of Aryabhattiya, mathematics is dealt with whereas in the
last two – astrology ( jyotish
) is described. In the first section of the book, he has described the method
of denoting big decimal numbers by the alphabets.
Aryabhatiya covers topics in arithmetic, algebra,
plane trigonometry and spherical trigonometry. He also worked on indeterminate
equations of algebra. He was the first to use verse-sine functions
in trigonometry. He calculated the value of pi correct up to four
decimal places.
Regarding astronomical contributions of Aryabhatt I -
Aryabhatiya is an astronomy text. Aryabhata I gave a systematic treatment of the position of
the planets in space. He believed that the apparent rotation of the heavens was
due to the axial rotation ( spin ) of the Earth.
This is a quite remarkable view regarding the geometry
of space.
Aryabhata I gave the
radius of the planetary orbits in terms of the radius of the Earth / Sun orbit
as essentially their periods of rotation around the Sun. He believed that the
Moon and planets shine by the reflected sunlight, and
incredibly, he believed that the orbits of the planets were
ellipses. He correctly explained the causes of eclipses of the Sun and the
Moon. The Indian belief up to that time was that eclipses were caused by a
demon called Rahu. His value for the length of the
year at 365 days 6 hours 12 minutes 30 seconds was a slight
overestimate since the true value is less than 365 days 6 hours.
Aryabhatiya is a small astronomical treatise
written with 118 verses giving a summary of Hindu mathematics up to that time.
Its mathematical section contains 33 verses giving 66 mathematical rules
without proof. The Aryabhatiya contains the
following:
Introduction
10 verses,
Mathematics
33 verses,
Reckoning of Time and
25 verses
Planetary Models
Sphere and Eclipses
50 verses
Total
118 verses
4. MONUMENTAL REMAINS FROM THE ARYABHATT’S TIME
All the topics
mentioned in the Aryabhatia above
appear to be too abstract, and we get very little picture or visualizations of
astronomy in Aryabhatt’s time. The intent of this
work is to introduce, for the first time, how he or other astronomers thought
in his time.
To illustrate how the astronomical concepts were expressed in terms of physical
models [regrettably, Kaye( 1985) , has
expressed that the Hindus did not build models or instruments ] ,
Fig. 1 shows statues of Varaha ( Boar ) Vishnu on the
left, and the standing Vishnu on the right. The actual layout of the
compound is shown in the Fig. 7. In Fig. 2, one can see the bottom of the
Garuda ( Eagle ) pillar and facing it is the
statue of standing Vishnu ( please refer to Fig. 7 also ). In the Hindu
mythology, the Garuda is supposed to be the vehicle (Vahana ) of Vishnu.
The actual standing statue of Vishnu is shown in Fig. 3. It is a very tall
statue of about 10 feet, and some idea about its
height can be obtained from Fig. 1 where two persons are standing near the
statue.
The close up view of the Varaha Vishnu can be seen in
Fig. 4 where it has been pointed out that this Vishnu is wearing a garland made
up of 27 asterisms called Nakshatras in Hinduism.
Each of these Nakshatras are represented by beautiful
women, and the concept of this representation of the Nakshatras
as the 27 queens of the moon is mentioned in the Harivamsa
Purana [ http://www.astro.indiatimes.com/planets/Moon.htm
].
Fig 5 shows the Garuda facing the standing Vishnu. The top fraction of
this pillar is shown in Fig. 6 where one can clearly note the presence of an
inverted bell which is reed-like striations. Such a top part can also be found on many pillars in this area and
also, it is present on the Delhi Iron Pillar which is supposed to have
been taken away from a place called Udayagiri not far
from Eran. This Udayagiri
site is also an astronomical site [ Sharan,
Balasubramanium, 2004 ; Balasubramanium,
2000; Balasubramanium, 2002 ].
Finally, Fig. 7 shows the layout of this compound where these statues are
located at. This figure shows that the standing Vishnu as well as the Varaha Vishnu are not facing East but are facing North East
at an angle equal to approximately the latitude of Eran
( approximately 24 degrees as stated earlier in the Introduction ). They
are looking at the sunrise of a particular day called
the Summer Solstice ( Dakshinayaya ). This is the
largest angle - North of East , the sun makes at
sunrise.
After this date, the sun rises at smaller angles than this latitude angle, in a
continuous manner until the Equinox day when it will rise due East. After that,
it will move towards the South each day, and on the Winter Solstice ( Uttarayana ) day, it will
rise South of East at an angle equal to the latitude of Eran.
5. CONCLUSIONS
In this work a brief
history of Eran and its location was discussed first.
It was shown that Eran has had rich history in the
times of the Imperial Guptas. The contributions
of the Gupta Period towards fine arts, and astronomy was dealt with, and
it was shown that the Guptas practiced the Hindu
religion and erected many statues in form of Varaha
Vishnu. During the Gupta Period, Madhya Pradesh became an important center and
where Chandragupta II made his second capital at
At Eran, several monuments were built where the
astronomical concepts were expressed in terms of statues of Vishnu, and Varaha Vishnu wearing a garland of the 27 Nakshatras. These Nakshatras were
shown as beautiful women. Such concepts of the Nakshatras
being the 27 queens of the Moon was taken from
the Harivamsa Purana.
Finally, the statues of Vishnu looking at the sunrise of the Summer Solstice ( Dakshinayana )
was expressed in a very subtle and sublime manner, and not known to the
historians / astronomers to this date.
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