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Measurement of Coordinates of Naksatras in Indian Astronomy


Affiliations
1 Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune 411 008, India
2 Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, High Grounds, Bengaluru 560 001, India
 

It is well known that ancient Indian calendar dwelled on the 27 nakśatra system for fixing the positions of the sun, moon and the planets. Several attempts to identify these 27 stars in the sky have yielded very precise results for stars bright enough not to be misidentified, which is not so for the fainter ones. The basis for identification is the coordinate system available in the texts. Here, we try to understand the ambiguity and offer a possible solution by using the measured coordinates, which have not been utilized for this purpose so far. This also provides clues on the techniques used for measuring the coordinates.
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  • Measurement of Coordinates of Naksatras in Indian Astronomy

Abstract Views: 452  |  PDF Views: 118

Authors

R. Venketeswara Pai
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune 411 008, India
B. S. Shylaja
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, High Grounds, Bengaluru 560 001, India

Abstract


It is well known that ancient Indian calendar dwelled on the 27 nakśatra system for fixing the positions of the sun, moon and the planets. Several attempts to identify these 27 stars in the sky have yielded very precise results for stars bright enough not to be misidentified, which is not so for the fainter ones. The basis for identification is the coordinate system available in the texts. Here, we try to understand the ambiguity and offer a possible solution by using the measured coordinates, which have not been utilized for this purpose so far. This also provides clues on the techniques used for measuring the coordinates.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv111%2Fi9%2F1551-1558