In der Feldmessung bestimmte man die Nord-S ud-Richtung mit Hilfe von Gnomon und Indischem Kreis.

Dabei wird die Nord-S ud-Linie zur Halbierenden des Winkels zweier gleich langer Schatten am selben Tag. Das Verfahren wurde erstmals von Vitruvius I, 6 lter; zu seiner Geschichte ausf erw ahnt, ist aber sicherlich a uhrlich Schmidt 1 , S. 197 202, zur Namensgebung Wiedemann, Kreis 2 , S. 252: ,,Bekanntlich ist zuerst nicht der Almagest des Ptolem aus den Arabern durch eine Ubersetzung zug anglich gemacht worden, sondern die indische Siddhanta unter al-Mans ur (754 775), w ahrend das bertragen zuerst genannte Werk erst unter al-Mam un (813 833) in das Arabische u wurde. Hierin mag der Grund liegen, da` e das (...) Instrument (...) den Namen indischer Kreis tr agt, obgleich er den Griechen wohlbekannt war." Auch der Astronom Oinopides, ein Zeitgenosse des Horodotos, experimentierte mit dem Gnomon. vgl. Heath 3 I, S. 78 und Boehme 4 .
Karlheinz Schaldach, Die antiken Sonnenuhren Griechenlands, 2006, S. 21 Anm. 3.

Figure 2.1 Determining the east-west line with shadows cast by a stake.

The preliminary step for altar constructions is the drawing of a baseline running east and west. We do not know for sure how this was accomplished in the time of the early Sulba-s utra authors, but the later K aty ayana- sulba-s utra prescribes using the shadows of a gnomon or vertical rod set up on a at surface, as follows: Fixing a stake on level [ground and] drawing around [it] a circle with a cord xed to the stake, one sets two stakes where the [morning and afternoon] shadow of the stake tip falls [on the circle]. That [line between the two] is the east-west line. Making two loops [at the ends] of a doubled cord, xing the two loops on the [east and west] stakes, [and] stretching [the cord] southward in the middle, [x
1

3 4

Fritz Schmidt, Geschichte der geod atischen Instrumente und Verfahren im Altertum und Mittelalter, 1935 (ND Stuttgart 1988). Eilhard Wiedemann, ,,Uber den indischen Kreis, in: Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften 10 (1912), S. 252 255. Thomas L. Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics, 2 Bde., Oxford 1921 (ND New York 1981) Harald Boehme, ,,Oinopides Astronomie und Geometrie, in: Mathematik im Wandel 2 (Mathematikgeschichte und Unterricht III, Hildesheim/Berlin 2001), S. 40 54.

Der indische Kreis another] stake there; likewise [stretching it] northward: that is the north-south line. (K aSS 1.2) The rst part of the procedure is illustrated in gure 2.1, where the base of the gnomon is at the point O in the center of a circle drawn on the ground. 5 At some time in the morning the gnomon will cast a shadow OM whose tip falls on the circle at point M, and at some time in the afternoon the gnomon will cast a shadow OA that likewise touches the circle. The line between points A and M will run approximately east-west. Then a cord is attached to stakes at the east and west points, and its midpoint is pulled southward, creating an isosceles triangle whose base is the east-west line. Another triangle is made in the same way by stretching the cord northward. The line connecting the tips of the two triangles is a perpendicular bisector running north and south.
Kim Plofker, Mathematics in India, Princeton and Oxford, 2009, p. 19.

Figure 1. Finding the cardinal direction (Neugebauer 1971).

The procedure to determine the cardinal directions is illustrated in Fig. 1. G is the foot of the gnomon. The path of the end of the shadow enters and leaves a circle, center G, at W and E. Then the line EW is in the eastwest direction. With E, W as centers, circular arcs are drawn intersecting at N, S. Then NS, the perpendicular bisector of EW, is in the northsouth direction and intersects the circle at N and S, the north and south points. The east and west points, E and W can be found by the same procedure since they are on the perpendicular bisector of NS. This method depends on the symmetry of the shadow path about the north-south line. It does not take into account the small change in the declination of the sun during the day. Brahmagupta prescribed a correction for this error in the Brahmasphuta Siddh ant . a. This method of nding the cardinal directions, described in the Pan casiddh ant a (written . ik in AD 505 by Var ahamihira), is found in a much earlier treatise, the Sulbas utra, which contains mathematical topics related to the construction of sacricial altars. The Pan casiddh ant a also has an approximate method for nding the meridian direction . ik from any three positions of the shadow. This method assumes that the path of the shadow is a circle, whereas in India, it is a hyperbola.
5

Note that the text itself is purely verbal and contains no diagrams. This gure and all the remaining gures and tables in this chapter are just modern constructs to help explain the mathematical rules.

Der indische Kreis Neugebauer, O. and D. Pingree: The Pan casiddh ant a of Var ahamihira. Copenha. ik gen: Munksgaard, 1970.1972.
George Abraham, Gnomon in India, in: Helaine Selin (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Heidelberg: Springer, 22008, p. 1035f.