ARYABHATTA PROFICIENCY :- ASTRONOMY & GEOMETRY

ASTRONOMY:-
Pataliputra was the birth-place of another very great man, namely, Aryabhata, the father of scientific astronomy and mathematics of the Hindus. He was born in 476 A D. and wrote his Kala-kriya (calculation of time) here at the age of 23 that is, 499 A.D.

The consonants from kato ma are valued at 1 to 25 and the eight vowels i, u, r, e,1, ai, o, ou represent multiples of 100 each. Thus ka is 1, kiis 100, ku is 10,000, kr is 10,00,000, kl is 10,00,00,000, keis 10,00,00,00,000, kai is 10,00,00,00,00,000. This is a modified form of the Greek System. One of Aryabhata's works is called DaSagZtikti from the fact that it consists of ten verses in the Gitika metre which is a modification of the Arya. His other work, the Aryasiddhantika, consists of 108 verses and is divided in three sections Kalakriyapada, Golapada and Ganitapada In these two works the extent of which does not jointly go beyond 118 verses, Aryabhata has explained the whole system of Hindu Astronomy. He is even more concise than the philosophical sutras and is in strange contrast with the astronomical Siddhantas which seem to have been written in prose and are very diffuse.
There seem to have been a conflict of Eras at the time when Aryabhata flourished. There was the Malava Era in Western Malwa, the Gupta Era known in the Gupta Empire, the Saka Era, the Kalacuri Era and soon all local and tribal eras. Not knowing in which to date his works which was meant for universal use among the Hindus he took up the Kaliyuga Era known to all.

But in subsequent ages the Saka Era was adopted by all astronomers in India. The reason is not far to seek for in India astronomy and astrology were, if not exclusively, very generally studied and professed by the Sakadvipi Brahmins or Scythian priesthood the old Magii settled in India from remote ages, or neither the Brahmins or the Buddhists favoured astrologers. Buddha has expressly excluded Astrology from Samyak Ajiva or proper livelihood.
GEOMETRY:-
ARYABHATTA was author of the Arykshiasata (800 couplets) and Dasagi-tica (ten stanzas), known by the numerous quotations of BRAHMEGUPTA, BHAT'TATPALA, and others, who cite both under these respective titles. The laghu Arya-sidd''hanta, as a work of the same author, and, perhaps, one of those above-mentioned, is several times quoted by BHA'SCARA'S commentator MUNIS'WARA. He likewise treated of Algebra, &c. under the distinct heads of Cuttaca, a problem serving for the resolution of indeterminate ones, and Vija principle of computation, or analysis in general.

From the quotations of writers on astronomy, and particularly of BRAHMEGUPTA, who in many instances cites ARYABHAT'TA to controvert his positions, (and is in general contradicted in his censure by his own scholiast PBIT'HUDACA, either correcting his quotations, or vindicating the doctrine of the earlier author), it appears, that ARYABHAT'TA affirmed the diurnal revolution of the earth on its axis; and that he accounted for it by a wind or current of aerial fluid, the extent of which, according to the orbit assigned to it by him, corresponds to an elevation of little more than a hundred miles from the surface of the earth ; that he possessed the true theory of the causes of lunar and solar eclipses, and disregarded the imaginary dark planets of the mythologists and astrologers; affirming the moon and primary planets (and even the stars) to be essentially dark, and only illumined by the sun : that he noticed the motion of the solstitial and equinoctial points, but restricted it to a regular oscillation, of which he assigned the limit and the period : that he ascribed to the epicycles, by which the motion of a planet is represented, a form varying from the circle and nearly elliptic : that he recognised a motion of the nodes and asides of all the primary planets, as well as of the moon; though in this instance, as in some others, his censurer imputes to him variance of doctrine. ‘
The magnitude of the earth, and extent of the encompassing wind, is among the instances wherein he is reproached by BRAHMEGUPTA with versatility, as not having adhered to the same position throughout his writings; but he is vindicated on this, as on most occasions, by the scholiast of his censurer. Particulars of this question, leading to rather curious matter, deserve notice.