Astronomy and Cosmology

Author(s): L C Jain
Publisher: Rajasthan Prakrit Bharti Sansthan Jaipur

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VEDĀNGA JYOTISA
The next group of literature comes under the Vedārgas comprising of Sikşā, kalpa, vyā karana, nirukta, chandah and jyotişa. The joytişa is found in recensions of the Rga and the Yajurvedas : Arc-jyotişa and Yajuşa-jyotişa, The Atharva-Jyotişa, astrological in character belongs to a later date, These works take the winter solstice at the time of Sun and Moon's conjunction as the first point of the Dhanişthā (a point of the ecliptic lying 193° 20' east of the star Zeta Piscium). The epoch might be 1400 B, C. From the lengths of the day and night at summer solstice, viz. 36 and 34 ghatis, it may be inferred that the author belonged to a place in latitude 35° north (near north of Kashmir, in India). 30 According to Shukla, the Vedānga-Jyotişa is not a work on astronomy, but it is essentially a five-year perpetual celendar meant for prediction of the times for religious purposes, and that the Vedānga calendar had two main defects. Actually there are 1826-2819 civil days in a 5 solar year period (yuga), and not 1830 days (as supposed in the Vedānga Jyotişa), therefore, after every new cycle, the winter solstice fell about 4 days earlier.
Moreover, as there are 1830.8964 days in a period of 62 lunar months and not 1830 as supposed in the text, a deficit of one tithi approximately in a period of 5 solar years resulted, 31
JAINA TRADITION
The Jain school is said to have tradition of twenty-four tirthařkaras, Mahāvīra was the last. The name of the first tirtharkara, Rşabhadeva, appears in Vedic literature, Bhagavat purā ņa and even in Shiva mahāpurāņa. Dr. H. L. Jain presumes that there was a parallel Sramaņa tradition to the Vedic tradition. The ascetics of the former were called Munis and those of the later as Rşis, and that there could have an exchange of knowledge between both the traditions. 32 The historicity of Pārsvanātha
30. Cf. Shukla, K. S., Astronomy in India before Aryabhaţa-I, paper read
at B. G. P., Lucknow. Cf. also Renoy, L., and Filliozat, J.-L'Inde classique, École Française d'Extrême-orient, Hanoi, 1953; they find the text to be of c. 400 B. C., but the astronomical elements belong to the
period of the Samhitās. Cf. also, Dixit, op. cit., p. 126. et seq. 31. The Vedāniga calendar consisted of 61 civil, 62 lunar, and 67 sidereal
months. A solar day, reckoned from sun rise to another, the year consisted of 366 civil days. This calendar commenced on the first
tithi of the white half of the month Māgha. 32. Cf. Bhāratiya Saņskrti men Jaina Dharma kā Yogadāna, Bhopal,
1962, pp. 11 et seq.
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