Hindu Astronomy

The ancient Hindus were well aware of many astronomical secrets even thousands of years back, which the modern science discovered recently. Some of these astronomical facts present in the ancient Hindu scriptures are discussed here, in this article.

Even before 5/6 centuries, the western world was thinking that the world was flat. The sailors had fears that they would fall into the abyss if they happen to go beyond certain long distance in the seas. The sailors like, Vascodigama, captain Cook, Columbus, etc., - broke this fear, when they went on an expeditions finding new lands and thereby proved the Earth is not flat. 

But, even thousands of years back, the Hindus were aware that the Earth is like a sphere. In the book, surya siddhanth [Surya treatise] written around at least TWO thousand years back, it has been mentioned that, ‘Bhoogolo vyomni thistathi’. This implies that - “situated in the space, the Earth is like a sphere”.

In another scripture, Aarya Bhatiyam – it has been mentioned that, Bhoogolo sarvatho vruthaha. It means that – the Earth is like a sphere.

Not only this, the Indian scriptures had mentioned the radius of the Earth too. They knew well that the solar and lunar eclipses are only due to the passage of the Moon and the Earth respectively and this is mentioned in the book - Aarya Bhatiyam – as - chadayati sasi suryam sasinam mahathi cha bhoochaya.

In many ancient scriptures and Vedic hymns, the distances of the Earth to the Moon and the Sun were also mentioned. For example, in the recent writing, the Hanuman Chalisa [the hymn on the monkey headed god], written by the saint, Thulasi Das, 6/7 centuries back, it is mentioned that; juga sahasra jojana para bhānū.

The distance between the Earth and the Sun is given in the stanza, concerned.

juga sahasra jojana para bhānū।

juga means - 12000 years
sahastra means - 1000 
yojana means - 8 miles

(juga*sahastra*yojana) = 96000000
converting to kilo meters = 96000000 * 1.6 = 153600000 km.

  

This is almost equal to the modern estimates of the astronomers of this century. But, it’s all known to the Hindus even thousands of years back.

Here, only the primitive astronomical facts are presented from the ancient Hindu scriptures, some of the more advanced facts were already presented in the earlier articles on this site and some more will be presented later.