Al-Bīrūnī’s India, Chapter 14

This article provides an English translation of Chapter 14 of al-Bīrūnī's Kitāb taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind. The whole book was translated by E. Sachau (as Alberuni's India) more tha 100 years ago. Thanks to the recent works by David Pingree, especially the Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, we can offer many improvements and additions to Sachau's translation. We focused our attention to Chapter 14 of the same book where we find much interesting information about the history of Indian astronomy and mathematics. In the Appendix we have compared the table of contents of the Brāhmasphutasiddhānta as reported by al-Bīrūnī (in Arabic) and those given in Dvivedin's Sanskrit text.

Concept of Time in Indian Astronomy

Time is an important tool for mankind. We follow it with clocks and calendars. It is very important to measure time, as it keeps track of the age of people, animals and anything around us. Measuring time is always relative and not absolute.The need for fixing proper time for performing rituals urged the astronomical quest in India..Astronomy is a science which plays a vital role in our day to day life.The Hindu Calendar is called Pañcāṅga. Pañcāṅga is a tool for knowing the movement and position of various celestial objects. It is used to calculate the auspicious timings of any day for performing the rituals.It is based on the positions of Sun and Moon.Calculation and measurement of time had been a need and an enigma for man from time immemorial. As time passed man used various methods and devices for its measurement. Man keeps improving upon his methods and devices.