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Studies in the History of Natural Sciences  2021, Vol. 40 Issue (1): 91-104    DOI:
ARTICLES     
The Reason for Setting the Intercalary Month and the Method for Determining the Positions of the Sun and Moon in the Vedic Calendar
LÜ Peng, JI Zhigang
School of History and Culture of Science, School of Marxism, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
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Abstract  The Vedic calendar, called the Vedāngajyotisa, is a mathematical astronomy system that appeared in about the 9th century BC in India. Different from the Indian Siddhānta astronomy, which is greatly influenced by Greek astronomy, Vedāngajyotisa astronomy is intimately related to Vedic ritual, and can be regarded as Indian native astronomy. Studies on the Vedic calendar began at the end of the 19th century, nevertheless many questions remain unanswered, such as the reasons for, and the detail of, the setting intercalary month, the derivation and verification of the calculation of determining the positions of the sun and the moon, etc. Based on the Sanskrit texts and commentary given by Dvivedin, a Pandit at the beginning of the 20th century, this paper explains what the Vedic calendar is by means of the concept of the four measures of time, and then discusses the above-mentioned outstanding questions. The setting of the intercalary month is related to the Indian traditional naming of months, while the correspondence of bhāmśas to naksatras, which is for determining the positions of the sun and the moon, can be derived from and verified by the trairāśika (Rule of Three) and the kuttaka (Pulverizer) method. Actually, the Vedāngajyotisa is an idealized calendar, for it emphasizes mathematical structure and calculation instead of real observation of the heaven bodies.

Key words： Vedic calendar      setting of the intercalary month      determining the positions of Sun and Moon      kuttaka method     
Received: 10 June 2019      Published: 27 January 2022
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LÜ Peng
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LÜ Peng, JI Zhigang. The Reason for Setting the Intercalary Month and the Method for Determining the Positions of the Sun and Moon in the Vedic Calendar. Studies in the History of Natural Sciences, 2021, 40(1): 91-104.

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http://www.shns.ac.cn/     OR     http://www.shns.ac.cn/Y2021/V40/I1/91

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