There were two great observatories in ancient India

Ujjain- Where the brightest minds gathered. Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara I & II, Vateshwara, all worked here

Mahodayapuram-Designed by Sankaranarayan~860AD, it boasted of many named instruments

But not one brick remains..
The Avanti observatory was the single most important institution in the history of science.

Everything from the first trigonometric tables to heliocentric periods to principles of latitude & longitude determination came from here.

The zero degree meridian passed though Ujjain.
With the path breaking results from Ujjain, Indian trade & agriculture thrived with accurate navigation & calendars.

Soon Arabs & Europeans acquired the techniques. Ujjain was destroyed and forgotten.

Only Maharaja Jai Singh II remembered. He rebuilt a small observatory in 1725
The Tabqãt-i-Nãsirî by Abû Umr records the destruction of Ujjain by Iltutmish

There was a great bronze statue of Samraj Vikramaditya who founded the Vikrama era(57 BCE)used by astronomers.

Very likely it stood in the observatory

It was broken & taken to Delhi to be dishonoured
Bhaskara became the head of the observatory. He died in 1185 CE.

We are lucky the Turks destroyed Ujjain only in 1233 CE

If he had died in their attack, science would have suffered a terrible blow. Even Madhava may not have invented calculus without the foundation laid by him.
The Aryabhata school of mathematicians were obsessed(for good reason)with trigonometric tables

Aryabhata's sine-difference table was precise to the 1st minute.
Varahamihira~575 CE improved it
Vateshvara~904 CE pushed its precision to the 2nd minute

The story continued in Kerala
The most ardent followers of Aryabhata were in Kerala, where multiple commentaries were produced. But the works of most early Kerala mathematicians are lost, partly or fully.

Haridatta~683CE
Govindaswami~830CE
Sankaranarayana~869CE
Jayadeva~950CE
Udayadivakara~1073CE
Govindaswami worked for Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara(844-883 CE) the Chera emperor of Kerala, ruling from Mahodayapuram.

He attempted to improve the table to the 3rd minute-achieved by his distant successor Madhava
And he discovered the so called Newton-Gauss interpolation(2nd order)
Govindaswami's disciple was Sankaranarayana. This visionary man built a grand observatory in Mahodayapuram, south India's first.

Known as the 'Ravi Varma Yantra Valayam', it was spectacular, fully equipped with the best of instruments-
Rasi Chakra
Jalesa Sutra
Golayantra etc
Sankaranarayana took time keeping very seriously.

At the passing of every Ghatika(24 mins) or half a muhurta as notified from the Yantravalayam, the soldiery were trained to ring a series of bells(kootu) all over Mahodayapuram to inform the public of the correct time.
When not being plundered by Sakas, Afghans, Turks or Huns, Indians were destroying each other.

Mahodayapuram was captured & burnt down by the Cholas under Rajendra Chola in the first half of the 11th century.

By the end of that century, Rama Varma shifted the capital to Kollam
Read-
Cultural foundations by CKR
Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology & Medicine by H Selin
History of Kerala school of Hindu Astronomy by K.V Sharma
www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk
Kerala state Gazetteer Vol II by K. R Nair
Historical geography of Valluvanad by R Varier

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More from @JoeAgneya

Nov 7, 2021
In one of his works, Adi Shankara asks a question way beyond his time-

'When you close your eyes and imagine things, how are those images formed? An image needs light. What is the source of light for imagination?'
It is highly likely the Buddhist Vijnanavadins had already examined this question. They were obsessed with the problem of mental images.

If this question can be properly answered, we may have a key to unravel the mind-brain enigma: One of the greatest mysteries of the universe.
Even real life things you see with your eyes are mere images projected in the occipital lobe. You are actually 'seeing' with the back of your head!

What about mental images? Is some 'light' involved? Are neurons producing it? How? What is the physical link of neuron & thought?
Read 4 tweets
Nov 1, 2021
"When the Bodhisattva Avalokiteswara
was coursing in the deep Prajna Paramita
he perceived that all five skandhas are empty

O Sariputra,
form does not differ from void,
for form is void, and the void form
The same is true of feelings,
perceptions, volition and consciousness
O Sariputra,
All dharmas are marked with voidness
They are non-arising, non ceasing,
Neither tainted nor pure
They do not increase, do not decrease

Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, feelings,
perceptions, volition or consciousness
There is no ignorance or ending of ignorance
There is no truth to suffering,
No causes of suffering or ending to suffering
There is no truth of the path

There is no wisdom
There is no attainment whatsoever
For there is nothing to be attained,
The bodhisattva has no obstruction
Read 5 tweets
Oct 24, 2021
Sir,

-Law of the hypotenuse was stated by Baudhayana~1800 BCE

-Logarithm(base 2, 3 & 4) was first investigated by Jain mathematician Virasena~800 CE

-Calculus was invented by Madhava(1400 CE)
Without which most of the other equations are impossible.

Please endorse these facts
The rationale for dating Baudhayana to ~1800 BCE is that he was near contemporary to the well known Indo-Iranian schism which happened around 2000-1800 BCE.
The contributions by Bhaskara which benefitted the west but is still unacknowledged-
Read 4 tweets
Sep 20, 2021
Brazen double standards of the western historian

Otto Neugebauer(1899–1990) is regarded as the foremost historian of science. His guiding principle is this-Unlike soft sciences, it is UNLIKELY that complicated mathematical models can be replicated by two cultures independently.
His student is the famous David Pingree. This man's life mission was the subordination of the Siddhanta tradition of India under the purported primacy of the Greek. His conclusions & fantasies are rampantly circulated as mainstream history,even among Indians. How does he do this?
1. Use Neugebauer's law to argue that the similarities between the Ptolemaic and Siddhanta astronomy is because of flow of knowledge.

2. Use this as 'proof' of Greek primacy.

3. Claim that Aryabhatta and Varahamihira learned astronomy & trigonometry from Hipparchus & Ptolemy!
Read 11 tweets
Sep 14, 2021
Kautilyan Economics

-State shall constantly expand & hunt new capital
-Economic activity=revenue & prosperity
-Keep private sector out of critical areas
-Free trade & foreign goods benefit citizens
-Centralization & standardization
-Low taxes~20%

The Father of Economic thought
In an ideal world Adam Smith & Karl Marx should be compared to Kautilya. Not the other way around. This is not one man's ideas. This is most ancient statecraft & accumulated wisdom inherited from one of the three cradles of civilization-Sindhu-Saraswathy.
Why should India-and the world-be perpetually stuck in the violent 'Socialism vs Capitalism' paradigm? Why are the complexities & possibilities of the world restricted like this ? Why should the standards and definitions be immutably fixed in their colonial forms?
Read 4 tweets
Sep 9, 2021
LEVEL 1: The Buddha

"There is an unoriginated, uncompounded, unformed. Otherwise, O mendicants, there is no escape from the world of the originated, compounded and formed"
Udana VIII.3

Buddha realized his ethical precepts collapse without assuming an anchor, a Thing-in-Itself.
He thus endorsed the prevailing notions of dhamma & Karma almost in toto. Thus, he failed to make any distinction between faith & philosophy. But he left behind a powerful concept for his successors to build on-

"Bhava-nirodha nibbānaṃ"- "To withdraw from the Flux, is nirvana"
"All are impermanent-body, perception, thoughts & consciousness."

Buddha does not accept the "Self" elaborately described in the upanishads as the "Thing". Even 'consciousness' does not escape flux.

Then what is the "Thing-in-itself"?
Buddha answers only by Silence & Negations
Read 11 tweets

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