Prabhakar Gondhalekar graduated in Physics from Imperial College London and obtained a Ph.D. from University of London. He is an astrophysicist with major research interest in the interstellar medium and active galactic nuclei.
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Nature has three inherent clocks: the diurnal clock marking days the lunar clock measuring months and the solar clock tracking seasons. Humanity has struggled to synchronize these clocks with various cultures developing calendars to achieve this goal.
The Vedic period calendar has long puzzled historians of science. Although the Rgveda Samhita the oldest surviving Sanskrit text mentions fundamental calendar elements (season year month and day) 19th- and 20th-century scholars failed to identify accurate synchronization methods in Vedic texts. The prevailing view held that Vedic ritualists had a rudimentary calendar that inadequately aligned the three natural clocks.
This book challenges that conclusion demonstrating that the Vaidikas developed innovative and precise schemes to synchronize these clocks and create a stable calendar. Vedanga Jyotisa a continuation of Vedic calendric science expresses calendric concepts mathematically and introduces algorithms for computing significant calendric parameters. It also describes a partial ecliptic coordinate system to define lunar and solar positions contradicting previous assumptions about irregular naksatra divisions.
