ब्राह्मस्फुटसिद्धान्त (ब्रह्मगुप्त - शून्य, कुट्टक, बीजगणित एवं सम्पूर्ण २१ अध्याय सान्वय सटीक)

CHAPTER I Astronomy in Ancient Nations Brahmagupta's great works like the Khaṇḍakhādyaka and the Brāhma-sphuṭa-siddhānta took astronomy to Arabs through whom it spread to many countries of Europe. Al Beruni records this testimony in his great book on India.. It is doubtful that astronomy had its birth in Greece and China. From remote ages China, India, Greece, Arabia and Egypt developed the entire system in close cooperation. This knowledge must have spread from their common cradle home where man for the first time developed his culture and civilisation. In this chapter we pro- pose to give a review of astronomy as developed in many of these ancient lands, especially Arabia, people of which land came in close contacts with India much before any recorded time. Dawn of Astronomy The earliest man must have been the primitive astro- nomer. The striking spectacles presented to him by the varied appearances of a sky covered with thousands of twinkling and non-twinkling objects of different degrees of brightness, apparently revolving round the Earth, and the daily changing phases of the Moon must have raised strange feelings of the most primitive man also. Then he must have in course of time observed the bright morning and evening stars, and at a considerably late stage the comets and shooting stars and then on occasions eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. These phenomena not only raised feelings of admiration, but in different sections of human society often feelings of superstitious alarm. By and by stars became guides for the traveller by land and sea. In the midst of these observations, one discovered various cycles : cycle of day and night, cycle of seasons and cycle of other details. Then there was a striking observation of the tides in a sea changing with the phases of the Moon.