INDIC STUDIES FOUNDATION

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A BOOK PROPOSAL
AIMS OF THE BOOK

What ist he book about

The tentative title of the book is

THE ORIGINS OF ASTRONOMY, THE CALENDAR AND TIME

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The book is primarily about the history of Calendrical Astronomy in the Indian subcontinent and other
civilizations of Antiquity. However since most astronomical activity in the ancient worlda was related
to the calendar, it could for all practical purposes serve as a history of astronomy as well as the
calendar. Since the concept of time and cosmogony is intimately related to these topics, the book can
also be regarded as a history of time. The focus of the book is the contribution of the Indian
subcontinent over the millennia to this topic. We plan the content to include the relevant episteme from
the other ancient civilization to , so that it will become clearer that the ancients of the Indic world did
not merely construct a pale replica of earlier efforts by the Greeks and the Babylonians. In fact we will
demonstrate that the Greeks were nowhere in the picture when the first results started pouring out of
the Vedanga Jyotish

Brief Description

In a few paragraphs, describe the work. Be sure to include what you consider to be

the outstanding, distinctive, or unique features of the work. This narrative description should

explain the proposed book's purpose, themes, arguments, scope

contribution to scholarship,

and place in the literature. Please state your argument concisely and clearly.

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 Why I wrote this book
As I was researching the history of mathematics, it dawned on me that a lot of the numerical techniques used in
Engineering had their antecedents in the work of ancient Indic mathematicians. Till then I was focusing on Greek
mathematics. But apart from the work of pseudo Euclid (who used little or no Algebra) and the work on conic
sections by Apollonius, I did not find the Greek effort particularly rich in algorithms. It took many years for me to
realize that most of the Algebra, Analytical geometry and Trigonometry, we deal with in High school and even at an
undergraduate level, did not have its roots in the Occident. My desire to learn more about the Indic contribution
continued to be hampered by lack of adequate texts on history of ancient Mathematics in the English language.
While the situation was slightly better in French and German, the trail was very cold by the time you went back
beyond 1400 CE and could not pick up any of the threads in the work of the Greeks. I came to the realization that
there was very little extant of the Greek work in mathematics and this is even more true in the case of Astronomy.
No European text could explain in a satisfactory manner why there was no progress in the sciences in Europe
between the beginning of the common era and 1400 CE other than saying that the Church played a big part in
structuring the content and extent of education. What is particularly galling is that the Occidental admits that all
Greek work was lost to Europe, but he credits the Indic with getting their hands on the Greek work, even though
these works were presumably lost at a very early time. It seems even more likely that whatever Greek texts that
existed at that time became rapidly obsolete and were no longer reproduced because there was no longer any need
for them.

The stonewalling of the Indic contribution is of relatively recent origin and has strong parallels in the effort to
emasculate the Indic tradition, and it is only after I read extensively in the Indology literature , did I realize that the
whole pattern of denigration of the Indic past was a concerted effort to reduce the Indic civilization to an ‘also ran’
category.

Typical of recent books is one by Glen Van Brummelen 1 on the Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth. This
book is better than most since it mentions India and devotes a full chapter to India. But it makes the obligatory bow
to the notion that India is a secondary source of developments when he titles the very first section in this chapter
“Transmission from Babylon and Greece”. There is absolutely no evidence given of this vaunted transmission and
yet we are asked to accept this statement unquestioningly. He then goes on to say that much of the origin is
controversial and is marred by national pride. This is indeed a strange remark to make. It is accepted that the
English should have pride in the achievements of Sir Isaac Newton but this would hardly be regarded as an issue in
evaluating the work of Newton. Then he goes on to say that “There seems little doubt that the spark for
Trigonometry came from importing of some Pre-Ptolemaic version of Greek mathematical astronomy”. The casual
manner with which he makes this categorical assertion, and which denies the Indic civilization the originality of its
contribution in Trigonometry is stunning in its certitude and hubris. He then goes on to cite Pingree as a starting
point. All I can say is that, the Indics have a proverb that translates “In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is
King”.

There is one final point to be made. Nowhere does he mention that there is an equal likelihood (and in my opinion a
far greater one that it was the Greeks who learnt Mathematics and Geometry from the Indics). I amplify on the
possibilities of this in the chapter on transmissions. The refusal to entertain such a possibility is a telling
commentary on the lack of objectivity and I would go so far as to say that there is not even an attempt at such
objectivity.

1
Glen van Brummelen, 2009, Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

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I regard this book to be primarily a pedagogical text, despite the fact that I have glossed over important derivations
I believe like the Commentators of Indic antiquity in the proper understanding of what we already know. The
choice of material to include in the book always presents a dilemma. The scope of Ancient Indic Mathematics and
Astronomy is so large that it would need several volumes to provide an exhaustive encyclopedic coverage. The
alarming increase in the size of the book forced me to make difficult choices. However, we are planning a sequel to
this text which will contain many of the missing topics as well as amplify on the main principles of the astronomy of
the solar system as practiced by the ancients.

The time line for this study is a rather large one dating from the compositions of the Veda (6000 BCE), through the
Sūtra period, the Pre-siddhāntic period, the Jaina contributions up to the Siddhāntic era, and finally ending with the
Keplerian Newtonian formulations (17th century CE).

I would like to think that the book would be of interest to a wide range of people. It should be of interest to the
layman, as it provides a lot of reference material on History and the Calendar. It could serve as a textbook in a
course on the history of Astronomy. It would serve as an excellent introduction for amateur astronomers and last
but not least it could serve as a reference for graduate level research.

Part of the reason I wrote this book is to influence all my readers, regardless of their ethnicity, ideology, or
geography to adopt a more global perspective on matters relating to History and philosophy of the sciences. Under
such a perspective, few would feel compelled to defend or attack a viewpoint if the extent of the antiquity was the
sole issue at stake. But the yearning for a competitive antiquity is not restricted to those of a particular ethnicity. It
appears to be a predominant factor when a more aggressive and authoritarian civilization subjugates a people with
a more advanced episteme. Time and again, this pattern of behavior has been the norm, where the aggressor has
adopted the Epistemes of the subjugated people, after devoting a massive effort to absorb the knowledge, and
once he is fairly confident that he has been successful in this endeavor, he will turn around and assert precisely the
opposite, that in fact it is the subjugated civilization that has borrowed the episteme and the resulting knowledge.

Keep in mind that antiquity affects many factors that have a bearing on the sense of uniqueness that a people have
of them and a sense that continuity and longevity of a civilization bestows a modicum of a sense of wellbeing. A
loss of epistemic continuity that is now being experienced in the Indian subcontinent has long term consequences
for the manner in which the Indics will look upon themselves. Civilization is a fragile thing, if I may paraphrase Will
Durant, the great historian who compiled the monumental Story of Civilization over a thirty year period, and it does
not take much to obliterate a civilization. All it takes is an utterly ruthless individual who by the force of his
personality, ideas and incredible energy, can compel a sufficiently large populace to do his bidding and you may
rest assured that such an Individual will raise again. So how will the Indics handle such a situation in the future?
Well for one thing, defeat under such circumstances is not an option and surely, the Indics will not get a third
chance, when the patient was in comatose condition after the last 2 rounds. A decay of a civilization can also occur
through sheer apathy and ignorance, when large sections of the populace remain happily oblivious of the past in a
massive exhibition of epistemic amnesia. This is all the more sad when it occurs as a consequence of public policy
adopted by the democratic representatives of an elected government and legislature.

This book is not about the glories of a bygone era, where one bemoans the ephemeral nature of an enlightened
past. It is a recounting of the irreversible nature of the changes that take place when a civilization is subjugated. Its
traditions are ridiculed. Its history is rewritten, its language is driven into oblivion and any attempt to combat this
assault albeit in a non-violent and scholarly manner marks the individual as a fundamentalist. The calendar,
astronomy, and the story of time combine to make a fascinating chapter in the story of the Homo Sapiens, but it is
the larger Civilizational canvas that I hope the reader will focus on.

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What do I take away from the writing of this book? My faith in the universality of the human spirit. If there is one
thing above all that I treasure from this experience is that the love of science and mathematics does not recognize
man made geographies, boundaries, ethnic classifications, language, social strata or economics. It is for this reason
I find that the current Eurocentric emphasis in the Occident which persists among authors even to this day to be a
anathema and to be of a particularly egregious nature with which I have little sympathy and have no tolerance
whatsoever.

What are its main aims & themes

It is rare to find amongst the plethora of books on Astronomy and in particular the General history of
astronomy, much mention of the Indic contribution. Let us take 2 examples , The history and practice of
ancient astronomy by James Evans, Oxford University Press and the Cambridge Concise history of
Astronomy by Michael Hoskin published by the Cambridge university Press. Neither of these books
makes mention of India although the Cambridge history does mention the Jundishapur school in
ancient Persia. This is truly astonishing when we juxtapose the contents of the Census of the Exact
Sciences in Sanskrit(CESS) compiled by the late David Pingree of Brown University in 5 volumes and
try to reconcile the studied indifference on the part of Occidental historians of science and astronomy
with the voluminous literature that exists in India on the sciences of antiquity in ancient India . So
extensive was the literature that Davis Pingree found it necessary to catalogue all the thousands of
books that he was familiar with. Our aim therefore is to bring to the attention of the reader not only in
India but throughout the world a small fraction of the results contained in this vast literature. But the
story is more than just a recounting of discoveries . It is now clear that there has been a massive theft of
intellectual property beginning in the 16th century when Christopher Clavius, the Principal of the
Collegio Romano, sent a posse of 60 to 70 Jesuits to Malabar in 1560 CE to learn the intricacies of the
Indian calendar and associated episteme including accurate trigonometric tables. So successful were
they that the Gregorian calendar was fixed shortly thereafter during the calendar reform of 1582 CE .
What causes us to label this as theft of intellectual property ? It is in our opinion a valid inference wh en
all reference to the source of a particular episteme has been carefully expunged from the record. It is
interesting that the renaissance and the enlightenment in Europe occurred after the Reconquista in
Spain and the discovery of Sanskrit

We will tell the story of the Indic contribution much of it from the mouths of Occidentals , a small band
of whom has kept the flame of truth and integrity alive. It is a fact that their pronouncements are
rarely quoted in the conventional accounts of the History of Astronomy. In most accounts of the History
of Astronomy there is little or no mention of the Indic contribution.

Distinguishing Features and Rationale for the book

There are several features that make the book unique. There is our scrupulous adherence to the notion
that a particular school of Astronomy should not be excluded because it does not belong to the favored
club of Astronomers in Antiquity, namely the Greeks and the Babylonians. While we have focused on
Hindu astronomy, we have made mention of other contributions and explicate the differences between
them

The book is profusely illustrated because Astronomy involves visualization of objects and their motions
on a celestial sphere and the pictures help facilitate the process of visualization .

There is an extensive discussion of the Nakshatra system , a system of enumerating the signposts in the
sky to determine the location of the sun and the moon . We have included a table of dates which
shows the date at which an astronomical event (Vernal Equinox, Autumnal equinox, Summer solstice,

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Winter solstice ) occurs in a particular nakshatra. This is an extremely good reference table which gives
us the date of the actual event that was mentioned in the Rig Veda and other ancient texts .

A Synopsis of the Book

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER I THE CELESTIAL SPHERE

While astronomy is one of the oldest sciences in antiquity it does not necessarily mean that the concepts are easily
grasped, When we talk about the history of Astronomy, we need to be fully cognizant of the vocabulary and the
fundamental precepts of the geometry of the skies. This is what this chapter sets out to do. It is essentially
Astronomy 101. What makes this introduction unique is that it lays out this vocabulary in both English and
Sanskrit,the language in which most texts were written in antiquity

CHAPTER II THE NAKŞATRA SYSTEM – THE VEDIC LUNAR MANSIONS (MANZIL)

This chapter is decription of the nakşatra system. The origin of the Indian Nakşatra system has been a subject of
much speculation amongst Indologists in the west. Such has been the case since Sir William Jones discovered the
treasures hidden in the vast literature of the ancient Indic in the Sanskrit language. The main ingredients used by
the ancient Indic in developing an episteme for positional astronomy are the motions of the Sun and the Moon
relative to the Nakşatras. Ever since the occidental belatedly recognized the central role of Sanskrit amongst the
IE family of languages, thanks to the insatiable curiosity of Sir William Jones , there has also been the recognition
that the Nakşatra system was a unique contribution of the Indians and it is the same Sir William who recognized
immediately the significance of the Nakşatra system not merely because of their Astronomic utility but also
because they provided a clue to the antiquity of the astronomical data that the Indic had amassed.

CHAPTER III A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY

The approach to determining the antiquity of the texts uses astronomical observations of the sky. This has not
been adequately pursued in the Occident, even though the initial work was done over a hundred years ago by
Jacobi and Tilak

CHAPTER IV JAINA ASTRONOMY AND THE SIDDHĀNTIC ERA

More work needs to be done in the area of Jaina astonomy

CHAPTER V KERALA SCHOOL OF ASTRONOMY

CHAPTER VI THE INDIAN NATIONAL CALENDAR (INC) Error! Bookmark not defined.

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CHAPTER VII ARCHEO-ASTRONOMY AND ASTRO-CHRONOLOGY

CHAPTER VIII ASTRONOMY OF THE ANCIENTS

CHAPTER IX THE REALITY OF KNOWLEDGE TRANSMISSION

The main reason for writing this book is that the real story of the Indic contribution to Astronomy has yet to be told
in the text books of the west. Few books give a coherent account of the Indic odyssey as it unfolds from the mists
of antiquity to the pioneering work of Astrophysicist Chandrasekhar on the nature of the universe. If they do
mention it at all, it is merely to say that they borrowed everything from Greece or Babylon. When challenged, the
mathematician in the west will quote one of the 3 or 4 Occidental historians of Mathematics (e.g. Toomer, Van der
Waerden or David Pingree) as their authoritative source. Rarely will they mention a Primary source in Sanskrit,
because they are not familiar with the literature in Sanskrit and they do not trust the Indics to tell the true story.
They prefer to get the story from an Occidental who may not have read a single book in its Sanskrit original rather
than get it from an Indic 2 . The net result is a book filled with clichés where the content is already degraded from
multiple levels of interpretation and inadvertent filtering of the original source

CHAPTER X A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE ON CALENDARS

This chapter strives to emphasize that Astronomy was not merely a playground for the Greeks and Babylonians,
but was a major object of study for most of the civilizations of antiquity

CHAPTER XI BIOGRAPHIES OF SELECTED INDIC SAVANTS

This is self explanatory but we wish to point out that the number and scholarship of indic savants is staggering and
that the chioice of savants to elaborate on was extremely difficult

CHAPTER XII EPILOGUE

These are the conclusions of the book

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A GLO-PEDIA

A comprehensive glossary of several hundred words is included

APPENDIX B MAPS

APPENDIX C SANSKRIT ALPHABET AND PRONOUNCIATION

APPENDIX D THE VEDIC EPISTEME

APPENDIX E WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD SAID ABOUT THE INDIC CONTRIBUTIONS

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I am reminded of the Parable of the Lost Coin. This is the story of the man looking for a lost coin in a well lighted
area, when he knows he has lost it in a darker area of the garden. When asked why he was looking for it where he
certainly couldn’t find it, the man replied “But it is better lighted here and I can see what i am looking for.”-,.
Clearly the Parable of the lost coin is entirely apropos here

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APPENDIX F ABBREVIATIONS OF RESOURCE MATERIALS

APPENDIX G PRIMARY AND OTHER SOURCES IN THE INDIC SCIENCES

APENDIX H SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX I SANSKRIT MANUSCRIPTS IN INDIA

APPENDIX J ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES IN INDIA

APPENDIX K SANSKRIT MANUSCRIPTS OUTSIDE INDIA

APPENDIX L COMPARATIVE TIMELINE OF GREECE,SOUTH & WEST ASIA

APPENDIX M PROPOSED CHRONOLOGY

APPENDIX N DYNASTIC LISTS OF THE MAGADHA EMPIRES

APPENDIX O SELECT TOPICS IN ANCIENT INDIAN MATHEMATICS & ASTRONOMY

APPENDIX P INDEX

APPENDIX Q CITATIONS

The Target Market

The book will have appeal in the following markets

As a text book on Ancient astronomy or A History of Astronomy

As a general purpose coffee table book for those curious about the subject

As a reference work for researches on the history of astronomy.

The book does not assume a prior level of expertise in the field of mathematics and astronomy, although
it does require a mind capable of absorbing new concepts and an advanced Level high school
proficiency in Mathematics

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We plan to provide supplementary material to facilitate the adoption of the book as a text

What courses would the book be used on?

Ancient Astronomy, History of Astronomy. Archaeo Astronomy, History of Mathematics

Is it a research monograph that will sell primarily to academic

libraries?

I have tried to avoid making it solely a research monograph and have tried to make it accessible to the
general reader who has knowledge of high school algebra and trigonometry. There is no question that
the book will be very valuable to researchers in the history and Philosophy of mathematics

Is the subject area of the proposal widely taught, or

researched?
I believe it is widely taught. The history of astronomy has a special place in the evolution of the species,
since astronomy is the oldest of the sciences that the homo sapien tackled. The vast laboratory that was
available in the skies afforded the patient observer with ample rewards in devising a clock and a
calendar that in turn permitted the planning o f crops for agriculture. Astronomy has benefited from the
long gestation period of several millennia to attain its present position as one of the most mature f the
sciences. Our goal in writing this book is to wean the Occidental away from the notion that the legacy of
the Ancients is one that is solely restricted to the Greeks and the Babylonians and that the Indic had a
major role in the development of this episteme along with the Babylonians , the Chinese , the Egyptians
and the Persians almost all of whom can claim precedence over the Greeks. This is in stark contrast to
the treatment f the subject today, where the Occidental not only has given undue precedence to Greek
contributions but has taken a proprietary interest in Greek civilization as the one that is most closely
related to the modern European civilization despite the fact that most scientific discoveries were made
either in Asia minor in present day Turkey in what was then called Ionia or in Alexandria during the
Grecian colonization of Pharonic Egypt. There were few if any savants in Hellenic Greece. But
regardless of the area of Greece whence the discoveries originated, it is a stretch to assume that the
Pagan Greece of antiquity had much in common with the monolithic Christian culture that permeates
the occidental world today.

Would this subject have international appeal outside your home country? If so,
where?
It will have wide appeal because there are several references to the work of the Greeks and the Babylonians

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 A list of the main competing books
There is currently no book that competes with this book in its totality. Some books contain some of the material but
there is no book that covers the range of material that this book covers

James Evans,History and practice of ancient astronomy Oxford University Press , 1998

Cambridge Concise history of Astronomy by Michael Hoskin published by the Cambridge

university Press, 1999

B V Subbarayappa The tradition o f Astronomy in India Jyotishastra, Centre for the

study of civilizations, 2008

Kim Plofker , Mathematics in India, 2009

Outline - A detailed outline of the book will be prepared, including the chapters being submitted for review. The
entire manuscript is available for review

What portion or percentage of the material is now complete?

The Book is completed

Roughly how many thousand words in length will your book be?
I am currently estimating that the book will be 258,000 words long.

Does this include references and footnotes? Yes

Will the book include photographs, line drawings, cases, questions, problems, glossaries, bibliography,
references, appendices, etc.? all the bold categories will be included

How many tables, diagrams or illustrations will there be (roughly)? 40 tables, 40

diagrams

Approximately how many photographs do you plan to include? 20

Approximately how many line drawings (charts, graphs, diagrams, etc. ) will you
need
20

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Do you plan to include material requiring permission (text, music, lyrics,
illustrations)? To what extent? Have you started the permissions request
process?yes, maybe 5

Do you plan to class-test the material in your own or other sections of the
course? (Any material distributed to students should be protected by copyright
notice on the material.) at present this is not in plan , but we are considering a 5 day short
course

When do you expect to have a complete manuscript?

4Q2010 It is ready now

INDIC STUDIES FOUNDATION

A Curiculum Vitae
WWW.INDICSTUDIES.US

Kosla Vepa is a member of the Global Indic Diaspora, originally a native of Andhra Pradesh state in
India and has had the good fortune to have been brought up and have had his education in various
parts of India including, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. He matriculated from Andhra
University in 1955. Among the schools which he has attended are St.Xaviers College, Bombay,
Karnatak University, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the University of Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada. His highest degree is a PhD in the area of Engineering Mechanics. His professional and
technical interests include successful research and development engineering experience in the
Information technology, aero‐engine and energy industries across the globe and an abiding interest
in the history of the Mathematical sciences in antiquity.

Currently Dr. Vepa has significant interests in a wide variety of subjects including ontological
principles in science and philosophy, Ancient Indian history, Vedas and Vedanta, Mathematical
Sciences in India during antiquity, the growth and evolution of civilizations, Geopolitics of the Indian
subcontinent, to name a few. His major activity is to further the aims and objectives of the Indic
Studies Foundation, stated in the link below and to further the progress towards an accurate
rendering of the narrative of the Story of the Civilization of the Indic peoples.

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When he finds time he pursues his hobbies of photography and astronomy, Dr. Vepa resides in the
San Francisco Bay Area

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 PUBLICATIONS AND ESSAYS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Indic Studies Foundation

Astronomical Dating of Events & Select Vignettes from Indian history, Lulu.com
The Societal Stockholm Syndrome
India and the Great Game
What’s in a name the indian Identity
Debate on the origin of the Vedics India
US Missile defense
Indo‐US relations (circa 1999)
A prolegomena to A History of the Indic Civilization
Vedic Mathematicians in ancient India PartI
Vedic Mathematicians in ancient India PartII
Vedic Mathematicians in ancient India PartIII
The South Asia File , Published by Low Price Publications, Delhi Book
The Dhaarmik Traditions ,Lulu.com
Souvenir Volume of ICIH 2009, Low Price Publications
The Pernicious Effects of The Misinterpreted Greek Synchronism, Presented at ICIH 2009
The Colonial paradigm of Indian history, Presented at Waves, 2008, Orlando, Florida
Why are
History and
chronology
important ,
presented
at HEC 2007
Book
Indology
and
Indologists
– a study of people and their motives Ancient Indic contributions to the Exact Sciences – manuscript

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in preparation
PhD Thesis
The Indic Mathematical tradition, The Hindu Renaissance, Vol.IV no. IV, pp 19
Paper presented at the HEC 2006 in Los Angeles, Ca , Nov.2006
Source Book (Anthology) of Mathematics and Astronomy from Indic Antiquity (under construction)
The story of the 3 periodicities,Astronomy, the Indian Calendar and Time, a Historical
perspective

More at websites www.indicstudies.us , www.vepa.us/dir00 , www.kaushal42.blogspot.com ,

http://www.scribd.com/KoslaVepa

’S Π & ΤΗΕ INGENIOUS SINE TABLE I II

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