The Suryasiddhanta- The Astronomical Principles of the Text

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The Asiatic Society feels proud in publishing the Sarya-siddhanta, the much acclaimed astronomical text written in Sanskrit in between 10th and 11th Century A.D. Professor A.K. Chakravarty has done a Herculean task by arranging the contents and recasting the chapters of the text. He has moved heaven and earth to get in touch with various commentaries written on this valuable text and to develop his research-work after consulting the observations made on the Surya-siddhanta by Burgess, Swami Vijänänanda, Sudhakar Dvivedi, K. S. Sukla, as well as the relevant papers published in different journals. Sanskrit literature on Technical Science was very rich and it started from 5th-6th Century A.D. But because of its archaic nature and form, the texts in this branch can only be explained or interpreted by scholars having scientific acumen and at the same time possessing enough proficiency in Sanskrit language. Fortunately Professor Chakravarty is endowed with both the faculties for which his strenuous effort has reached a complete success. The complete text has been included in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Vol. XLII, Nos. 3-4, 2000, now it is getting the shape of a book. I believe this book will add a special glory to the Department of Publication of the Asiatic Society and scholars will certainly be benefitted by this esteemed work.

In Fig.1, let AB be an arc of a circle with centre at O and radius R = OB = OA. Draw AC perpendicular from A to OB. AC is called half chord (y-ardha or simply jya) of the are AB. It is measured in minutes (lipta), the scale being that the radius R measures 3438 and AC measures so many liptas as it is a fraction of R.

The arc AB is measured in degrees (arsas) the scale being that the whole circumference measures 360° and AB is so many degrees as it is a fraction of the circumference.