Astronomy in India: A Historical Perspective (eBook)

India has a strong and ancient tradition of astronomy, which seamlessly merges with the current activities in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the country. While the younger generation of astronomers and students are reasonably familiar with the current facilities and the astronomical research, they might not have an equally good knowledge of the rich history of Indian astronomy. This particular volume, brought out as a part of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of Indian National Science Academy, concentrates on selected aspects of historical development of Indian astronomy in the form of six invited chapters. Two of the chapters - by Balachandra Rao and M.S. Sriram - cover ancient astronomy and the development of calculus in the ancient Kerela text Yuktibhasa. The other four chapters by B.V. Sreekantan, Siraj Hasan, Govind Swarup and Jayant Narlikar deal with the contemporary history of Indian astronomy covering space astronomy, optical astronomy, radio astronomy and developments in relativistic astrophysics. These chapters, written by experts in the field, provide an in-depth study of the subject and make this volume quite unique.

Thanu Padmanabhan, Distinguished Professor and Dean of Core Academic Programmes at IUCAA, Pune, is a world renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist, who has authored over 200 research papers and nine books including six graduate-level textbooks published by the Cambridge University Press. His research work has won prizes from the Gravity Research Foundation (USA) five times including the First Prize in 2008. An elected Fellow of all the three Academies of Science in India, he is currently the President of the Cosmology Commission of the International Astronomical Union and was a Sackler Distinguished Astronomer of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. He has won numerous awards including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (CSIR), The Millennium Medal (CSIR), G.D. Birla Award, INSA Vainu-Bappu Medal, Al-Khwarizmi International Award, and the Miegunah Fellowship of University of Melbourne. He received the Padma Shri, the medal of honour from the President of India, in recognition of his achievements in 2007

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India has a strong and ancient tradition of astronomy, which seamlessly merges with the current activities in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the country. While the younger generation of astronomers and students are reasonably familiar with the current facilities and the astronomical research, they might not have an equally good knowledge of the rich history of Indian astronomy. This particular volume, brought out as a part of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of Indian National Science Academy, concentrates on selected aspects of historical development of Indian astronomy in the form of six invited chapters. Two of the chapters - by Balachandra Rao and M.S. Sriram - cover ancient astronomy and the development of calculus in the ancient Kerela text Yuktibhasa. The other four chapters by B.V. Sreekantan, Siraj Hasan, Govind Swarup and Jayant Narlikar deal with the contemporary history of Indian astronomy covering space astronomy, optical astronomy, radio astronomy and developments in relativistic astrophysics. These chapters, written by experts in the field, provide an in-depth study of the subject and make this volume quite unique.