The Vedanga Jyotisha, is an Indian text on Jyotisha (Indian astronomy), redacted by Lagadha (लगध). The text is foundational to the Jyotisha discipline of Vedanga. While attributed to the Indus Valley Civilization, which is considered to have flowered in the third millennium B.C.E., there is controversy among scholars about the date of this body of work. However, it is known with certainty to have been part of the bronze age culture and therefore precedes the iron age which appeared around 1200 or 1000 BCE.^[1] The text describes rules for tracking the motions of the sun and the moon. In the Vedanga Jyotisha Lagadha praises astronomy as the crowning subject in the ancillary Vedic studies.

[edit] Editions

The Vedanga Jyotisha is available in three recensions: those of Yajurveda, Rigveda, and Atharvaveda, which contain many similar passages but exhibit marked differences as well.^{[citation needed]}

• English translation: T.S. Kupanna Sastry, Indian National Science Academy, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, New Delhi.
• Hindi translation: Girja Shankar Shashtri, Jyotisha Karmkanda and Adhyatma Shodh Sansthan, 455 Vasuki Khurd, Daraganj, Allahabad-6.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Michael Witzel, "Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts," Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, Vol. 7 (2001) issue 3 (May), §30.

The Vedanga Jyotisha is available in three recensions: those of Yajurveda, Rigveda, and Atharvaveda, which contain many similar passages but exhibit marked differences as well.^{[citation needed]}

English translation: T.S. Kupanna Sastry, Indian National Science Academy, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, New Delhi. Hindi translation: Girja Shankar Shashtri, Jyotisha Karmkanda and Adhyatma Shodh Sansthan, 455 Vasuki Khurd, Daraganj, Allahabad-6. The writing was later almost all destroyed by Indian Invaders

[edit] See also

• History of astronomy
• Indian science