{"id":328,"date":"2012-06-10T20:47:03","date_gmt":"2012-06-10T18:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/?p=328"},"modified":"2012-07-28T15:37:48","modified_gmt":"2012-07-28T13:37:48","slug":"the-aryabha%e1%b9%adiya-by-aryabha%e1%b9%ada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/the-aryabha%e1%b9%adiya-by-aryabha%e1%b9%ada\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya by \u0100ryabha\u1e6da"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> was not as well known in old India as the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em>. In modern times, however, it has attracted more attention than any other Sanskrit text on astronomy. This is because, among other things, as far back as the year 499 C.E. it taught the rotation of the earth on its axis. \u0100ryabha\u1e6da made no claim to have discovered this. Rather, he simply included it in a matter-of-fact manner in his brief treatise, which purports to present the system of astronomy taught by Brahm\u0101. Despite the authority of this ancient system, other famous Indian astronomers (including Var\u0101ha-mihira and Brahmagupta) were quick to criticize \u0100ryabha\u1e6da for teaching the rotation of the earth on its axis. \u0100ryabha\u1e6da also gave another teaching, anomalous in Indian tradition, which he was criticized for. Rather than the standard 4:3:2:1 ratio for the lengths of the four yugas, he taught that they are of equal length. He gives the overall length of a mah\u0101-yuga the same as everyone else does: 4,320,000 years (chapter 1, verse 3). But the four yugas that comprise it are each 1,080,000 years in length. This gives us another method of calculation to work with. It is noteworthy that equal length yugas are also found in the Buddhist K\u0101lacakra astronomy.<\/p>\n

The \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> and the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em> agree fully on the starting point of the present kali-yuga (3102 B.C.E.), and they agree in general that the length of a kalpa or day of Brahm\u0101 is more than four billion years, while we are about two billion years into this at present. But there are some differences. The \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> says in chapter 1, verse 5 (translated by Kripa Shankar Shukla, 1976): \u201cA day of Brahm\u0101 (or a Kalpa) is equal to (a period of) 14 Manus, and (the period of one) Manu is equal to 72 yugas<\/em>. Since Thursday, the beginning of the current Kalpa, 6 Manus, 27 yugas<\/em> and 3 quarter yugas<\/em> had elapsed before the beginning of the current Kaliyuga (lit. before Bh\u0101rata).\u201d This means that a kalpa is 14 times 72 making 1008 yugas. Thus, unlike in the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em> where a kalpa is 1000 yugas or 4,320,000,000 years, in the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> a kalpa is 4,354,560,000 years. The period of a manu, consisting of 72 yugas (rather than 71 yugas as in the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em>), is 311,040,000 years. Up to the beginning of the present kali-yuga, we have:<\/p>\n

6 manus (311,040,000) equals 1,866,240,000 years, plus<\/p>\n

27 yugas (4,320,000) equals 116,640,000 years, plus<\/p>\n

3 quarter yugas (1,080,000) equals 3,240,000 years, yields<\/p>\n

1,986,120,000 years.<\/p>\n

As stated in an earlier post, the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em> gives the figure 1,953,720,000 years from the beginning of the epoch (17,064,000 years after the beginning of the kalpa) to the end of the last k\u1e5bta-yuga. Up to the beginning of the present kali-yuga we would have to add to this the 1,296,000 years of the tret\u0101-yuga and the 864,000 years of the dv\u0101para-yuga. This yields 1,955,880,000 years. So while the number of years that have elapsed in our world-period is in the same general range of two billion years, the specific numbers differ. The information given in this verse also tells us the number of years that have elapsed of our current or Vaivasvata manvantara up to the beginning of the present kali-yuga: 116,640,000 (27 times 4,320,000) plus 3,240,000 (3 times 1,080,000) equals 119,880,000 years. The information given in the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em> provides a little different result for this: 116,640,000 (27 times 4,320,000) plus 3,888,000 (1,728,000 + 1,296,000 + 864,000) equals 120,528,000 years. Perhaps a lost work by \u0100ryabha\u1e6da, known to have once existed, would shed light on the reasons for these differences.<\/p>\n

The \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> is a brief and somewhat cryptic text, consisting of only 108 verses plus its 10 (or 13) verse summary given at the beginning. The extant S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em> consists of 500 verses. As noted earlier, the old S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em> (as summarized in the Pa\u00f1casiddh\u0101ntik\u0101<\/em>) was determined to have used the astronomical constants found in a lost work by \u0100ryabha\u1e6da. Prabodh Chandra Sengupta showed the close agreement of the astronomical constants used in the old S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em> with those <\/strong>given in Brahmagupta\u2019s Kha\u1e47\u1e0da-kh\u0101dyaka<\/em>, which had been published in 1925. The source of the Kha\u1e47\u1e0da-kh\u0101dyaka<\/em>\u2019s astronomical constants, as shown by Sengupta, is a lost work by \u0100ryabha\u1e6da (\u201cAryabhata\u2019s Lost Work,\u201d Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society<\/em>, vol. 22, 1930, pp. 115-120). This was confirmed by the discovery of the Mah\u0101bh\u0101skar\u012bya<\/em> (written by an earlier Bh\u0101skara than the author of the famous Siddh\u0101nta-\u015biroma\u1e47i<\/em>), announced by Bibhutibhusan Datta (\u201cThe Two Bh\u0101skaras,\u201d Indian Historical Quarterly<\/em>, vol. 6, 1930, pp. 727-736), and first published in 1945 in the \u0100nand\u0101\u015brama Sanskrit Series, no. 126. It gives in its chapter seven the astronomical constants of the two different systems used by \u0100ryabha\u1e6da: those of the day reckoned from sunrise, used in his \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em>, and those of the day reckoned from midnight, used in his now lost work. Strangely, it is these latter astronomical constants that were used in the old and now lost version of the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Like with the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em>, there are at present three complete English translations of the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em>. The first is \u201cThe Aryabhatiyam,\u201d Translation by P. C. Sengupta, Journal of the Department of Letters<\/em>, University of Calcutta, vol. 16, 1927, pp. 1-56, also published as a separate offprint. Much supplemental material was published in separate articles by Sengupta; e.g., \u201cAryabhata: The Father of Indian Epicyclic Astronomy” (op. cit., vol. 18, 1928, pp. 1-56), and \u201cGreek and Hindu Methods in Spherical Astronomy\u201d (op. cit., vol. 21, 1931, pp. 1-25). The second translation is The \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya of \u0100ryabha\u1e6da<\/em>, Translated with Notes by Walter Eugene Clark, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. However, Clark\u2019s translation had been done about five years before its publication, with his student Baidyanath Sastri, and could not utilize Sengupta\u2019s translation (see Preface, p. xvii). Clark describes his translation made with Sastri as \u201ca preliminary study based on inadequate material,\u201d adding that: \u201cOf several passages no translation has been given or only a tentative translation has been suggested\u201d (p. vii). The third translation is \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya of \u0100ryabha\u1e6da<\/em>, Critically edited with Introduction, English Translation, Notes, Comments and Indexes, by Kripa Shankar Shukla in collaboration with K. V. Sarma, New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1976. This translation is quite the most definitive, due in no small measure to the fact that, in the interim, Bh\u0101skara I\u2019s three expository works on the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> became available: the Mah\u0101-bh\u0101skar\u012bya<\/em>, the Laghu-bh\u0101skar\u012bya<\/em>, and Bh\u0101skara\u2019s direct commentary on the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em>. Kripa Shankar Shukla writes in his Introduction to the Laghu-bh\u0101skar\u012bya<\/em> (1963, p. xxiv): \u201cIn the absence of the works of Bh\u0101skara I, many a passage in the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> of \u0100ryabha\u1e6da I would have remained obscure to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sanskrit text of the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> was first published in 1874, along with the commentary by Parame\u015bvara (called Param\u0101d\u012b\u015bvara on the title page), edited by H. Kern (Leiden: E. J. Brill). This edition was admittedly based on inadequate manuscript material (Preface, p. v: \u201cThis first edition of the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> . . . is mainly based upon two manuscripts\u201d; p. xi: \u201cIt will be understood that with the scanty, however valuable, materials at my disposal, I could not attempt to constitute the text such as the author published it.\u201d). Nonetheless, it made the text available. The \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> was then edited by K. S\u0101mba\u015biva \u015a\u0101str\u012b with the commentary by N\u012blaka\u1e47\u1e6dha-somasutvan, published in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, no. 101, 1930, and no. 110, 1931, with the third volume edited by \u015a\u016bran\u0101\u1e0d Ku\u00f1jan Pillai, no. 185, 1957. Then followed an edition in 1966 by S. V. Sohoni with a modern Sanskrit commentary and Hindi commentary, both by Baladeva Mishra (Patna, Bihar Research Society). A critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em>, prepared by K. V. Sarma, accompanied the 1976 English translation by Kripa Shankar Shukla listed above. Unlike the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta<\/em>, the text of the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> seems to be well established (Introduction, p. lxxiii: \u201cThe collation of the manuscripts did not reveal many significant variations in the text.\u201d). Two more volumes were published along with this 1976 volume, providing Sanskrit editions of important commentaries. One is the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> with the commentary of Bh\u0101skara I and Some\u015bvara, edited by Kripa Shankar Shukla (New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1976). The other is the \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya<\/em> with the commentary of S\u016bryadeva Yajvan, edited by K. V. Sarma (New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1976).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u0100ryabha\u1e6d\u012bya was not as well known in old India as the S\u016brya-siddh\u0101nta. In modern times, however, it has attracted more attention than any other Sanskrit text on astronomy. This is because, among other things, as far back as the year 499 C.E. it taught the rotation of the earth on its axis. \u0100ryabha\u1e6da made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-noteworthy-books","category-occult-chronology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}