Colloquium given at Indian Institute of Astrophysics Bangalore, 25 September 2012 Rajesh Kochhar President IAU Commission 41: History of Astronomy Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali [email protected] As is well known, Unesco has a mission to safeguard and preserve world heritage sites. Towards this end, it prepares a ( continue reading… )
Indian Journal of History of Science, Vol, 45, no.2, June 2010, pp. 287-297 Rajesh Kochhar Abstract Rahu and Katu were deployed as planetary deities in the sixth century CE immediately after the mathematical theory of eclipses was propounded by Aryabhata. Their literary credentials however go back to early Vedic times. ( continue reading… )
Rajesh Kochhar Aryabhata (born AD 476) is the founder of Siddhantic astronomy which focused on developing mathematical algorithms for calculating planetary orbits and for predicting lunar and solar eclipses. His concise text, composed in AD 499 and known simply as Aryabhatiyam ( Aryabhata’s), influenced all subsequent work on the subject. ( continue reading… )