पृष्ठम्:ब्राह्मस्फुटसिद्धान्त भाग १.pdf/४५

2
ASTRONOMY IN ANCIENT NATIONS
Earliest Discoveries
We shall briefly sketch out the order of astronomical
discoveries. The first phenomena to be noted must have
been the regularly recurring dawn (for this one may refer
to the Usa Sukta of the Rgveda), the sunrise nd sunset (which
led to prataḥ and sayam, i.e. morning and evening prayers of
the Vedic times), daylight, twilight and night concerning
which we have numerous Vedic hymns. Next it led to the
measurement of a day (which was of a short duration in
winters and of a long duration in summers). The Vedic Aryans
also discovered the variations in the duration of the day along
different latitudes, and the time of sunrise in places of different
longitudes. In fact the idea of longitudes and latitudes came suffi-
ciently afterwards. Man discovered month as related to the varia
tion of light with the Moon's phases. In temperate regions, where
probably the first astronomical observations were systematically
made, the changing length of the day or the direction of the Sun
at rising or setting or the lengths of shadows cast at midday.
would show that the Sun's daily path in the sky altered through
out the year, a time interval which was already marked by the
changing vegetation. According to Sir W.C. Dampier. "attempts
were made to determine the number of months in the cycle of
the seasons in Babylonia about 4000 B. C. and in the China soon
after. About 2000 B. C. the Babylonian year settled down to
one of 360 days or twelve months, the necessary adjustments
being made from time to time by the interposition of extra-
months." In India, this concept is of even much earlier origin.
The old inspired sages like Dirghatamas discovered for the
observing man the Vedic Era and intercalation. I have
described this discovery in a special chapter on the subject in my
book the Founders of Sciences in Ancient India and a reference
may be made to the Asya Vamasya Suktam of the Rgveda. It
is impossible to assign an age to these old traditions. Round the
Yajña, developed the science of astronomy, nathematics.
anatomy and medicine in this ancient land of ours, which in
fact was the common heritage of a large number of people of
the modern world.
One might also say that a considerable period might have
well elapsed before it was noticed that at a particular season of