ASTRONOMY: EXCURSIONS INTO THE PAST

Mayank Vahia

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai

FOCUS

•We work on ORIGIN OF ASTRONOMY

India and elsewhere.

•We hope that this will provide a window

to the intellectual growth of Indian

civilisation.

2

PROGRESS

• After:

• More than 40 papers,

• 7 international conferences,

• 5 Indian conferences,

• 3 books,

• 2 Ph D’s and several student projects,

• 2 dozen collaborators,

• 5 reviews,

• 1 externally funded project later,

We think we have made some progress in bringing a framework under

which work can be classified and compared.

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Initial phase

Settlement astronomy

Astronomy of civilisation

Technology driven astronomy

4

RELATION TO OTHER FIELDS

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We have created a narrative of interaction of astronomy with other intellectual

activities inspired by the painting above (Hebber) in TIFR Collection.

Science

Architecture

Myths

Religion

Human

intellectual

growth

Art

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The web of human intellectual activity

Science

Art

Architecture

Myths

Religion

Biology

Maths

Astronomy

Performing Arts

Visual Arts

Heroes

Natural Forces

Gods

Moral

Sepulchral

Residential

METHOD AND APPROACH

• Study of ancient astronomy is a study of a

wide range of human intellectual growth.

•Our work has involved:

• Field work and survey of sites,

• Literature survey, data collection and data

analysis,

• Evaluation of evidence,

• Collaborations with other institutions,

• Simulations. 8

OTHER ISSUES

• We also studied related topics. This included:

• Studies of Indus Script and Civilisation,

• Simulations of movement of people,

• Setting up of experimental setup to understand,

composition of the material evidence.

• We are involved in setting up a major experimental

facility for Carbon dating using an Atomic Mass

Spectroscopy.

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SOME OF OUR STUDIES

• Rock art.

• Ancient Megaliths including:

• Classical megaliths,

• Stone circles,

• Inscriptions,

• Temples.

• Ancient myths and tribal astronomy.

• Ancient manuscripts including Sanskrit literature for records

of astronomical observations.

• Simulations of Ancient structures.10

ROCK ART AND ARCHITECTURE STUDIES

• Rock art in Kashmir shows the earliest record of supernova.

• Stone circles of Nagpur region and cup-marks on suggest

specific directions are being marked.

• We have studied several Megalithic sites in South India and

shown them to have relation to astronomy and could have

been observatories.

• Location and arrangement of important caves of Ajanta which

was decided by their directional significance.

• Markendeya temple in Kashmir which has interesting

directional significance.11

MONTH

1 Winter Solstice: December

2/12

3/11

4/10 Equinox: March/ September

5/ 9

6/8

7 Summer Solstice: June

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Observatory at Dholavira

HARAPPAN CIVILISATION AND HARAPPAN CULTURE

• Harappan civilisation was a Bronze Age Civilisation.

• We have identified an astronomical in Dholavira.

• We have shown that the symmetries and designs created by

the Harappans are not easy to create and would have required

significant amount of understanding of geometry and

technology.

• We have also worked on Harappan script.

• We worked on the organisation and art of Harappan

Civilisation.

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HARAPPAN SCRIPT

• We have worked extensively on Indus Script.

• Starting with entirely computational, model

independent studies, we have been able to

demonstrate that:

• Indus Script is highly structured,

• The rules of writing are very well defined,

• Writing style admits of enough flexibility to permit coding

of information in a manner similar to other writing systems.

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STUDIES OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE

• We have studies astronomical references in ancient

literature.

• This has allowed us to track records like records of

Mars in Taurus, Saptarshi calendar.

• Accuracy of astronomical formulation of

Varahamihira.

• Date some of the ancient events.

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ANCIENT RECORDS OF ECLIPSES

• Catalogued ~1000 eclipse records from 400 AD to 1800 AD.

• Comparing the path of eclipse as derived from multiple

observations in India with the simulation by NASA suggests

that there are significant deviations. These could be:

• The records may have been made by calculations rather than

observations.

• Due to genuine problems with our understanding of the Earth Moon

system.

• The work is now being extended by creating a comprehensive

Asian catalogue of eclipses in collaboration with Korean,

Chinese and Japanese colleagues.16

CONTRADICTIONS

A.R.70

(1941;

137)

Rachanapall

e,

Anantapur

Dist.,

Andhra

Pradesh

Chalukya

of

Kalyana,

Jagadeka

malladeva

II

1024 A.D.,

Jun 9

Partial

Solar

eclipse

A.R.452

(1959;

93)

Chitapur

Tq.,

Gulbarga

Dist.,

Karnataka

Chalukya

of

Kalyana,

Tribhuvan

amalla,

1024 A.D.,

Jun 9

Partial

Solar

eclipse

A.R.553

(1958;

80)

Hirekerur

Tq.,

Dharwar

Dist.,

Karnataka

Chalukya

of

Kalyana,

Jagadeka

malladeva

II

1024 A.D.,

Jun 9

Partial

Solar

eclipse

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TRIBAL ASTRONOMY

• We have studied the astronomy of 3 ancient tribes of

Central India.

• These are Gond, Kolams and Banjras.

• Even though that cohabit the same region and often

the same village, their astronomical traditions are

completely different from each other.

• They are also very different from conventional

beliefs.

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PLEIADES IN DIFFERENT CULTURES

Banjaras: A

piece of

Jewellery Kolams: A flock of

birds

Gonds: A handful of stones thrown at

the bird sitting where Orion lies. 19

SIMULATIONS AND NETWORK STUDIES

• We have used a host of statistical analysis and computational

techniques to understand:

• Network of parameters that organise a civilisation,

• Time evolution of the complexity of Harappan culture,

• Distribution of Harappan sites over time and space,

• Understand how an ancient astronomical observatory can be detected.

• We have also created a generalised model of movement of

population across Euro Asia. This model which assumes a

certain functional affinity of population to water and flat land

allows us to calculate how people move across terrains.

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EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITY

• Mobile XRF facility to study rare element composition

in various archaeological objects. The facility has

been used to study ancient coins, bones, potteries

etc.

• Setting up a Carbon AMS facility for carbon studied.

These will allow:

• Create a carbon calibration map for India

• Date ancient objects containing organic matter

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INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

• We have been involved in 2 international collaborations:

• The first one is in South China where local researchers found an

ancient site that seemed promising. Hence an international team

consisting of American, Australian, Chinese, British and Indian

researchers to evaluate the site.

• The second one is an attempt to create a comprehensive

database of eclipse records in Asia to understand the subtleties

of the Earth Moon system in collaboration with our Japanese

Colleagues.23

EVOLUTION OF SCIENCE

• As an aside I have been studying the evolution of science.

• Evolution of science can be divided into 3 different phases:

• Ad hoc method of early human.

• Pragmatic approach of early formal studies.

• Axiomatic approach of modern science.

• Each of these methods had their style, contents and insights.

• We speculate that with the increase in complexity of modern

science, the axiomatic approach is reaching its limit and the

emerging trends in science are beginning to approach they

style of pragmatic approach.24

MY COLLABORATORS

• We have worked with more than 2 dozen researchers but the primary

members of the work presented here involve:

• Nisha Yadav

• Shrikant Janawlekar

• Srikumar Menon

• Aniket Sule

• Riza Abbas

• Rajesh Rao

• B V Subbarayappa

• B S Shylaja

Etc.25

THANK YOU

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