“Āryabhaṭa and the Foundations of Classical Indian Astronomy”, Brhat, April 14, 2026
““The adoration of the sun, of the planets, and of the stars, in common with the worship of the elements, had a principal place in their religious observances enjoined by the Vedas; and they were led constantly by piety to watch the heavenly bodies. They were particularly conversant with the most splendid of the primary planets, the period of Jupiter being introduced by them, in conjunction with those of the sun and moon, into the regulation of their calendar, sacred and civil, in the form of the celebrated cycle of sixty years.” H.T. Colebrooke, 1817.
The first Hindu writer on algebra and astronomy in the purāṇic age was Āryabhaṭa. He was born in Pātalīputra, in 476 CE, and is the author of the Āryabhaṭīya, consisting of the Gītikāpāda, the Gaṇitapāda, the Kālakriyāpāda, and the Golapāda. At the time, Pāṭaliputra in Magadha was a renowned ancient seat of learning that housed the famous University of Nālandā, which likely had an astronomical observatory. Āryabhaṭa was born the very year that the Gupta king Buddhagupta assumed power at Pāṭaliputra. More precisely, 3600 years of the Kali era came to an end on Sunday, 21 March 499 CE, at mean noon at Laṅkā or Ujjayinī, at the moment of the mean Sun’s entry into the sign Aries (madhyama-meṣa-saṃkrānti). His birth is accordingly placed at meṣa-saṃkrānti, 21 March 476 CE.
In his magnum opus, the pioneering astronomer boldly maintains the theory of the revolution of the earth on its own axis, and the true cause of solar and lunar eclipses. “As a person in a vessel, while moving forward,” says Āryabhaṭa, “sees an immovable object moving backward, in the same manner do the stars, though immovable, seem to move daily.” His other work, the Āryabhaṭa-siddhānta, survives only through citations in later literature. Varāhamihira, who followed Āryabhaṭa, distinguishes between the two by the system of day-reckoning employed: one begins the day at midnight at Laṅkā, the other at sunrise — both attributed to Āryabhaṭa……”
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