Aryabhatta - Contributions To Astronomy
Aryabhatta - Contributions To Astronomy
Aryabhatta - Contributions To Astronomy
Aryabhata's system of astronomy was called the audAyaka system, in which days are reckoned
from uday, dawn at lanka or "equator". Some of his later writings on astronomy, which apparently
proposed a second model (or ardha-rAtrikA, midnight) are lost but can be partly reconstructed
from the discussion in Brahmagupta'skhanDakhAdyaka. In some texts, he seems to ascribe the
apparent motions of the heavens to the Earth's rotation. He may have believed that the planet's
orbits aselliptical rather than circular.[22][23]
Eclipses
Solar and lunar eclipses were scientifically explained by Aryabhata. He states that the Moon and
planets shine by reflected sunlight. Instead of the prevailing cosmogony in which eclipses were
caused by Rahu and Ketu (identified as the pseudo-planetary lunar nodes), he explains eclipses
in terms of shadows cast by and falling on Earth. Thus, the lunar eclipse occurs when the moon
enters into the Earth's shadow (verse gola.37). He discusses at length the size and extent of the
Earth's shadow (verses gola.3848) and then provides the computation and the size of the
eclipsed part during an eclipse. Later Indian astronomers improved on the calculations, but
Aryabhata's methods provided the core. His computational paradigm was so accurate that 18thcentury scientist Guillaume Le Gentil, during a visit to Pondicherry, India, found the Indian
computations of the duration of the lunar eclipse of 30 August 1765 to be short by 41 seconds,
whereas his charts (by Tobias Mayer, 1752) were long by 68 seconds.[8]
Sidereal periods
Considered in modern English units of time, Aryabhata calculated the sidereal rotation (the
rotation of the earth referencing the fixed stars) as 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds;[29] the
modern value is 23:56:4.091. Similarly, his value for the length of the sidereal year at 365 days, 6
hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds (365.25858 days)[30] is an error of 3 minutes and 20 seconds
over the length of a year (365.25636 days).[31]
Heliocentrism
As mentioned, Aryabhata advocated an astronomical model in which the Earth turns on its own
axis. His model also gave corrections (the gra anomaly) for the speeds of the planets in the sky
in terms of the mean speed of the sun. Thus, it has been suggested that Aryabhata's calculations
were based on an underlyingheliocentric model, in which the planets orbit the Sun,[32][33][34] though
this has been rebutted.[35] It has also been suggested that aspects of Aryabhata's system may
have been derived from an earlier, likely pre-Ptolemaic Greek, heliocentric model of which Indian
astronomers were unaware,[36] though the evidence is scant.[37]The general consensus is that a
synodic anomaly (depending on the position of the sun) does not imply a physically heliocentric
orbit (such corrections being also present in late Babylonian astronomical texts), and that
Aryabhata's system was not explicitly heliocentric.[38]
Legacy
Aryabhata's work was of great influence in the Indian astronomical tradition and influenced
several neighbouring cultures through translations. The Arabic translation during the Islamic
Golden Age (c. 820 CE), was particularly influential. Some of his results are cited by Al-
Khwarizmi and in the 10th century Al-Biruni stated that Aryabhata's followers believed that the
Earth rotated on its axis.
His definitions of sine (jya), cosine (kojya), versine (utkrama-jya), and inverse sine (otkram jya)
influenced the birth of trigonometry. He was also the first to specify sine and versine (1 cos x)
tables, in 3.75 intervals from 0 to 90, to an accuracy of 4 decimal places.
In fact, modern names "sine" and "cosine" are mistranscriptions of the words jya and kojya as
introduced by Aryabhata. As mentioned, they were translated as jiba and kojiba in Arabic and
then misunderstood by Gerard of Cremona while translating an Arabic geometry text to Latin. He
assumed that jiba was the Arabic word jaib, which means "fold in a garment", L. sinus (c.
1150).[39]
Aryabhata's astronomical calculation methods were also very influential. Along with the
trigonometric tables, they came to be widely used in the Islamic world and used to compute
many Arabic astronomical tables (zijes). In particular, the astronomical tables in the work of
the Arabic Spain scientist Al-Zarqali (11th century) were translated into Latin as the Tables of
Toledo (12th century) and remained the most accurate ephemeris used in Europe for centuries.
Calendric calculations devised by Aryabhata and his followers have been in continuous use in
India for the practical purposes of fixing the Panchangam (the Hindu calendar). In the Islamic
world, they formed the basis of the Jalali calendar introduced in 1073 CE by a group of
astronomers including Omar Khayyam,[40] versions of which (modified in 1925) are the national
calendars in use in Iran and Afghanistan today. The dates of the Jalali calendar are based on
actual solar transit, as in Aryabhata and earlier Siddhanta calendars. This type of calendar
requires an ephemeris for calculating dates. Although dates were difficult to compute, seasonal
errors were less in the Jalali calendar than in the Gregorian calendar.
Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU), Patna has been established by Government of Bihar for
the development and management of educational infrastructure related to technical, medical,
management and allied professional education in his honour. The university is governed by Bihar
State University Act 2008.
India's first satellite Aryabhata and the lunar crater Aryabhata are named in his honour. An
Institute for conducting research in astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric sciences is
the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) near Nainital, India. The
inter-school Aryabhata Maths Competition is also named after him,[41] as is Bacillus aryabhata, a
species of bacteria discovered by ISRO scientists in 2009.[42]