Archaeoastronomy and Vedic chronology

rdf:langString Archaeoastronomy and Vedic chronology

rdf:langString The history of Indian astronomy begins with the Vedic period, Lagadha and composition of Vedanga Jyotisha (1400 BCE - 1200 BCE).Astronomical knowledge in India reached an early peak in the 5th century CE, with the Āryabhaṭīya. Its author, Aryabhata, mentions that when he turned 23 years of age, 3600 years had passed since the beginning of Kali Yuga. This date has become traditional and is still widely cited in Hindu literature to suggest the date of Kurukshetra War. Modern authors attempted to date the Vedic period based on archaeoastronomical calculations. In the 18th century William Jones tried to show, based on information gathered from Varaha Mihira, that Parashara muni lived at 1181 BCE.Hermann Jacobi has argued that in the Rigveda and Atharvaveda the sun was in Phalguni, and in the Sankhayana and Gobhila Grhyasutra the Full moon was in Bhadrapada during the summer solstice, which would have occurred at 4500-2500 BCE. Jacobi and Tilak have both argued that the names of the nakṣatras: Mūla (root), (two dividers) and Jyeṣṭha (oldest) suggest that these names originated from a time when Mula marked the beginning of the year, i.e. about 4500-2500 BCE. Tilak has also noted that the two week long pitrs period after the full moon in Bhadrapada occurred at the beginning of the pitryana, which would have been true at about 4500-2500 BCE.