Sanskrit Astronomical Tables

Sanskrit Astronomical Tables
Author: Clemency Montelle
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2019-03-07
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3319970372

This groundbreaking volume provides an up-to-date, accessible guide to Sanskrit astronomical tables and their analysis. It begins with an overview of Indian mathematical astronomy and its literature, including table texts, in the context of history of pre-modern astronomy. It then discusses the primary mathematical astronomy content of table texts and the attempted taxonomy of this genre before diving into the broad outlines of their representation in the Sanskrit scientific manuscript corpus. Finally, the authors survey the major categories of individual tables compiled in these texts, complete with brief analyses of some of the methods for constructing and using them, and then chronicle the evolution of the table-text genre and the impacts of its changing role on the discipline of Sanskrit jyotiṣa. There are also three appendices: one inventories all the identified individual works in the genre currently known to the authors; one provides reference information about the details of all the notational, calendric, astronomical, and other classification systems invoked in the study; and one serves as a glossary of the relevant Sanskrit terms.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Astronomical Manuscripts Preserved at the Maharaja Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur, India

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Astronomical Manuscripts Preserved at the Maharaja Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur, India
Author: Mahārājā Mānasiṃha Pustaka Prakāśa
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2003
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9780871692504

This catalogue of the astronomical manuscripts preserved at the Maharaja Man Singh Museum provides a substantial part of the foundation for an extensive & penetrating analysis of the astronomical activities of Saw Jayasimha Maharaja from 1700 to 1743. Jayasimha collected Sanskrit manuscripts of traditional Indian astronomy, acquired Arabic & Persian manuscripts representative of the Muslim interpretation of Ptolemaic astronomy, built five observatories at which he employed both Hindu & Muslim observers, & produced a set of astronomical tables in Persian based on the Latin tables of Philippe de La Hire.

The Sanskrit Astronomical Table Text Brahmatulyasāraṇī

The Sanskrit Astronomical Table Text Brahmatulyasāraṇī
Author: Anuj Misra
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2020-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004432221

A timely exploration of the numerical tables genre in pre-modern science, focusing on the previously unpublished 17th-century Indian astronomical table text Brahmatulyasāraṇī. Includes critical edition, English translation, and thorough technical/ historical commentary analysing the content and background of the work.

Sawai Jai Singh and His Astronomy

Sawai Jai Singh and His Astronomy
Author: Virendra Nath Sharma
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Total Pages: 378
Release: 1995
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9788120812567

Sawai Jai Singh the statesman astronomer of 18th century India designed astronomical instruments of masonry and stone, built observatories prepared a Zij or a text for astronomical calculations and sent a fact-finding scientific mission to Europe. His high precision instruments were designed to measure time and angles to the very limit of naked eye observing.

The Growth and Development of Astronomy and Astrophysics in India and the Asia-Pacific Region

The Growth and Development of Astronomy and Astrophysics in India and the Asia-Pacific Region
Author: Wayne Orchiston
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 566
Release: 2019-06-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811336458

This book discusses the study of astronomy in different cultures, applied historical astronomy and history of multi-wavelength astronomy, and the genesis of recent research. It contains peer-reviewed papers gathered from the International Conference on Oriental Astronomy 9 (ICOA-9) held at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune, India. It covers the areas like megalithic and other prehistoric astronomy, astronomical records in ancient texts, astronomical myths and architecture, astronomical themes in numismatics and rock art, ancient astronomers and their instruments, star maps and star catalogues, historical records and observations of astronomical events, calendars, calendrical science and chronology, the relation between astronomy and mathematics, and maritime astronomy. This book will be a valuable complement to a future generation of students and researchers who develop an interest in the field of Asian and circum-Pacific history of astronomy.

Learning With Spheres

Learning With Spheres
Author: Anuj Misra
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2022-09-01
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0429015062

This book provides, for the very first time, a critical edition and an English translation (accompanied by critical notes and technical analyses) of the chapter on spheres (golādhyāya) from Nityānanda’s Sarvasiddhāntarāja, a Sanskrit astronomical text written in seventeenth-century Mughal India. Readers will learn how terrestrial and celestial phenomena were understood by early modern Sanskrit astronomers using spherical geometry. The technical discussions in this book, supported by the critically edited Sanskrit text and geometric diagrams, offer an opportunity for historians of the astral sciences to understand developments in astronomy in seventeenth-century Mughal India from a more nuanced perspective. These are supplemented through explorations of modernity, mathematics, and mythology and how they thrived within Sanskrit astronomical discourse at the courts of the Mughal emperors. This book will be of interest to historians and philosophers of science, in particular those interested in the history of non-Western astral sciences. The book will be a valuable resource for scholars studying the general history of Sanskrit astronomy in the Indian subcontinent as well as those interested in the technical aspects of Sanskrit and Indo-Persian astronomy in Mughal India.

In Synchrony with the Heavens, Volume 2 Instruments of Mass Calculation

In Synchrony with the Heavens, Volume 2 Instruments of Mass Calculation
Author: David King
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 1142
Release: 2005-06-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9047406753

This is the first investigation of one of the main interests of astronomy in Islamic civilization, namely, timekeeping by the sun and stars and the regulation of the astronomically-defined times of Muslim prayer. The study is based on over 500 medieval astronomical manuscripts first identified by the author, now preserved in libraries all over the world and originally from the entire Islamic world from the Maghrib to Central Asia and the Yemen. The materials presented provide new insights into the early development of the prayer ritual in Islam. They also call into question the popular notion that religion could not inspire serious scientific activity. Only one of the hundreds of astronomical tables discussed here was known in medieval Europe, which is one reason why the entire corpus has remained unknown until the present. A second volume, also to be published by Brill, deals with astronomical instruments for timekeeping and other computing devices.