Astronomy and Cosmology

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

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equally competent to express all these regarding non-observable events (pertaining to karmic phenomena), as well. The question is what was the source of inspiration of Yuga system in India. For what purpose their study was started from the time of Aryabhata I (c. +5th century) and continued over for several centuries ?
YUGA BHAGANA
Roger Billard 50 has tried to answer the above problem, and he opines as follows:
"For it is a mathematical method that has allowed us to go far beyond the best results of the scholarly studies in the field. Thanks to such an astronomical investigation of the Sanskrit texts and numerical data, our knowledge of Indian astronomy has just improved greatly. We do know now what was exactly the astronomical science in India and the hows and whens of its history. In particular we can see now how and why Aryabhata is the leading figure in a strange and wonderful history of astronomy.
There is no need to recall here what are the yuga or the yugabhagana, nor how the yuga prevailed on Indian astronomy. To tell the truth, with such common multiples of revolutions, of course devoid of physical meaning, and so huge periods and numbers, the Indian astronomy did look like a pure speculation, a wordy literature displaying astronomical elements of pure fancy.
Now the technical investigation of the yugabhagana has revealed that they are not entirely devoid of reality. The very yuga proceed indeed from a speculation, but I can state that every set of speculative elements or, as we shall say henceforth, every yuga canon is always based directly or indirectly upon a set of astronomical observations, and obviously, on account of the yuga, solely upon one set of astronomical observations. This being so, by a wonderful paradox, it is the very fitting of a speculation upon reality that enables us to detect now the existence, the epoch and the quality of those observations, discover now the key of Indian astronomy, find the fin mot of the question. Thanks to the instrument with which probability theory provides us, many yuga canons afford at present a never-seen means of 50. Cf. L'astronomie indienne, investigation des textes Sanskrits et des
données numeriques, Paris, 1971. Cf. also, “Āryabhata and Indian Astronomy,” I. J. H. S., Vol. 12, no. 2, Nov. 1977, pp. 207-224. Cf, also, Jaina, L, C., Aryabhaţa-I and Yativrşabha a study in Kalpa and Meru, ibid., pp. 137-146.
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