an outlook to the early history and development in cosmology/Astronomy in Vedic era and its influence to the present age

1. THE EASTERN
COSMOLOGY
SUNIL LAUDARI
TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY
JUNE 26th ‘13

2. CONTENTS
1. VEDIC ASTRONOMY
2. INDUS VALLEY /HARAPPAN
ASTRONOMY
3. TIME SCALE and DISTANCE
MEASUREMENT
4. EARLY NEPALESE CONTRIBUTIONS

3. VEDIC COSMOLOGY/PHILOSOPHY
 Approx. 2000-4000 BC
 Also known as the Eye of the Vedas, Jyotirveda the
“Science of Light.”
 Important Book on astronomy- Vedas, Jyotish,
Garun Puran, Rigveda, Brahmanda Puranas, Surya
Siddhanta, Aranyakas Upanishads Bhagavata
Geeta

4. COMPONENTS OF THE
UNIVERSE(PANCHATATWO)
earth
water
Space
fire air

5. THE VEDIC BIGBANG SENARIO
 "This beginningless
and endless time cycle
(Kal-Chakra) moves
externally like a
perpetual flow in which
beings take birth and
die but there is never
birth or death for this”
-Mahabharat
 "All embodied beings
emanate from the
Unmanifest at the
commencement of
Brahma’s day; at the
commencement of his
night, they merge in the
same subtle body of
Brahma, known as the
Unmanifest”
-Bhagwad Gita

6.  The earth is spherical and the sun is the main
source of energy-Garun Purana
 Proposed Oscillatory universe, a cosmic cycle
between expansion and contraction from a point
called bindu –Rig Veda
 Surya Siddhanta about3000 bc based on
geocentric theory which is the basis of NEPALI
CALENDAR

7.  The word used for the universe is Brahmanda
which contains two words Brahma+Anda
 Brha=expanding, Anda=egg
 Thus Brahmanda means expanding egg according
to Matsyapurana
 The universe collapsed seven times before
becoming steady such that the strength of
fundamental forces got adjusted
 ‘Which has born first and which later ? How were
they born ? who knows? They hold the universe by
their strength and always keep rotating like a
wheel…….. Rigveda
 Visnu is shown as holding cakra in the hand. Cakra
is a wheel. As Visnu is identified with the Universe.
We can easily understand that cakra represents
rotation of the Universe.

8. THE CONCEPT OF ZERO & ROLE OF PLACE VALUE
 Roman Numbers are finite. These numbers are fit for
nothing else other than decorating the digits on a
clock
 Zero is derived from Sanskrit word Shunya which
means nothing
 Einstein rightly said, the entire modern science and
mathematics is based on these Hindu numerals
(also called Hindu-Arabic Numerals)

9. " When I read Bhagavad-
Gita and reflect about
how God created this
universe everything
else seems so
superfluous…… who
taught us how to count,
without which no
worthwhile scientific
discovery could have
been made”-Albert
Einstein

10.  Pythagoras is found in
the Shatapatha
Brahmanaas as well
as the Sulba Sutra, the
Indian mathematical
treatise, written
centuries before
Pythagoras was born

11. THE EPR PARADOX IN VEDIC ERA
 Nothing even the light
can travel faster than the
speed of light-S.R.
 But if the departed one is
spin up particle then its
counter is spin down
particle-Q.M.
 Ancient Vedic texts speak
about telepathy and
conversations between
people who were
geographically located far
away from each other

12. OM – THE UNIVERSAL VIBRATION AND STRING
THEORY
 The fundamental
building block of matter
is not pointlike but a
one dimensional loop-
String Theory
 the entire universe is
made up of vibrations,
and the Vedic hymn
Om symbolizes this
universal vibration

13.  "Modern physics has thus
revealed that every
subatomic particle not only
performs an energy dance,
but also is an energy dance;
a pulsating process of
creation and destruction.
The dance of Shiva is the
dancing universe, the
ceaseless flow of energy
going through an infinite
variety of patterns that melt
into one another, For the
modern physicists, then
Shiva’s dance is the dance
of subatomic matter”
 - Fritjoj Capra

14. THE E=MC2
J. Robert Oppenheimer-"If
the radiance of a thousand
suns were to burst into the
sky, that would be like the
splendor of the Mighty One.
. . . Now I am become
death, the destroyer of
worlds"-- Bhagvad Gita

15.  The Rig Veda repeatedly
asks, "How is it that
though the Sun is not
bound and is directed
downwards, it does not
fall?“ A question asked
by Isaac Newton more
than three thousand
years later
Why does not sun fall down?- Rig Veda
Why does apple fall down?-Newton

16. DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT
 Seven horses draw the
chariot of Surya“- Rig
Veda These seven
horses are the seven
colors compromising
light

17. THE SOLAR SYSTEM
ACCORDING TO THE SURYA SIDDHANTA
treats earth as a fixed point in
space, and describes the seven
traditional planets (the sun, the
moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter,
Venus, and Saturn) as moving
in orbits around the earth.
Here the ratio of distances
equals the ratio of
circumferences, since the
circumference of a circle is 2 pi
times its radius. The ratio of
distances is equal to the
distance from Venus to the sun
in AU

18. Early astronomy motion of sun moon tstars planets their altering appearances used in agriculture ritual calendar astrological prognostication
INDUS VALLEY/ HARAPPA CIVILIZATION
Early astronomy used
motion of sun, moon, stars,
planets. Their altering
appearances were used in
agriculture, ritual ,calendar
,astrological
prognostication

19. THE BAILEY AT DHOLAVIRA SLOPES UP TOWARDS THE NORTH AND HAS TWO CIRCULAR STRUCTURES
ALIGNED TO CARDINAL DIRECTIONS WITH OPENINGS IN EXACT NORTH AND EXACT WEST. THESE
TWO STRUCTURES HAVE LAYOUT, ONE OPENING IN EXACT NORTH AND THE OTHER IN EXACT EAST,
WHICH IS SIGNIFICANT IN ITSELF THE INTERPLAY OF IMAGE AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE
STRUCTURE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS ALL SEEM TO SUGGEST THAT IT IS CONSISTENT WITH BEING
AN OBSERVATORY
Dholavira people were able identify days of
solar calendar such as summer and winter
solstice and use that information to conduct
business, farming and other activities.

20. : A stone circle at Dholavira with a possible
astronomical association
Calendar stone at
Possible use of calendar stone Mohenjodaro
for astronomical obervation

21. THE ZODIAC & CONSTELLATIONS
Seven human
figure in the
seal probably
are seven
sages of the
Great Bear or
Saptarsi

22. CONSTELLATIONS

23. The ecliptic represents the apparent path of
the sun around the Earth-apparent because
in fact the sun doesn’t spin around the Earth
at all. It just looks that way.
Like a circle the ecliptic is divided into 360
degrees-and each degree is in turn divided
into 60 minutes.
The first 30 degrees of the ecliptic are Aries,
the next 30 degrees are Taurus, and so on.
The stars that are scattered like dust along
the entire length of the ecliptic form the
constellations of the zodiac

24.  The Vedic seers were also
keen observers of the sky.
They were well aware of the
motion of the Moon, the
path of the Sun, occurrence
of eclipses and solstices,
and had developed luni-solar
calendars with
methods of intercalation.
More importantly, they
formulated a stellar frame
of reference, in terms of 27
or 28 naksatras or
asterisms (star groups)
lying along or near the
ecliptic, in order to follow
the path of the Moon and
Sun

25. LUNAR MONTHS AND LUNAR MANSION
 The period from one
moon rise to the next
or from one moon set
to the next was known
as tithi(lunar day),
which is somewhat
different from our
present concept of tithi
The sidereal period is the time required
for the moon to
complete one orbit against the
background of stars.
The synodic (lunar month)
period is the time from new moon to
new moon. The
nodal period is the time required for the
moon to pass from
ascending node back to ascending
node. The sidereal period of the
nodes is the time for the ascending
node to make one revolution
with respect to the background of stars.
(This is negative since the
motion of the nodes is retrograde.)

26. LUNAR MONTHS AND LUNAR MANSION
The moon's path is divided into 27
equal parts, although the moon takes
about 27 1/3 days to complete it. Each
of these parts was called a nakshatra.

27. LUNAR MONTHS AND LUNAR MANSION
 It appears that the months
were introduced after the
fullmoon at Krittika(Pleiades).
Further Krittika was
considered as the east point
on the equator or equinox
point . The months names,
Karttika, Mrgasira , Pusya
,Magha ,etc directly follow
from the star names Krittika,
Mrgasirsa pusya magha resp.
Morever identification of
Krittika and Visakha
asterisms in opposition
indicates that possible 27 or
28 asterisms were already
known at the time of
civilization

28. THE TIME SCALE
Satyayuga =1,728,000 yrs
Tretäyuga = 1,296,000yrs
Dväparyuga =864,000yrs
Kali-yuga= 432,000 yrs
1 kalpa =Mahayuga( 4 yuga * 1000)
Compare this to
present age of
=4.32 billion years
=1 day of Brahma
2 kalpa=8.64 billion years
the earth!
=1 day and night of Brahma
1 year of Brahma=3.1104 trillion years(Mahā-
Manvantara)

29.  The Puranas describe
time units from the
infinitesimal
 truti, lasting
1/1,000,0000 of a
second to a
mahamantavara of
311 trillion years.
Nuclear time scale
to Cosmological
time scale

30. SIZE OF THE UNIVERSE
8 mile = 1 yojana
1mile=1609m
Compare
present size
The Surya-siddhanta gives the circumference of
Brahmanda or universe,:
of the
=18,712,080,864,000,000 yojanas
universe!
~1021 cm

31. EARLY NEPALESE CONTRIBUTION
 Stone hinge at tehrathum erected
in lichhavi dynasty used for time
keeping
 Umbrellas in temple of acham
used for time keeping purpose{by
measuring the shadows}
 Positions of stupas may show
some astronomical pattern
 SUMATI TANRA 576-880CE =first
astronomical book published in
Nepal
 Legendary artist Araniko
Contribution to astronomy is unclear
collaborated with another
legendary Chinese astronomer
Guo Shoujin

32. THANK YOU!