Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian

National Science Academy), Chap.1

1
Historical perspective
India,

as can be expected from an ancient culture, has a long astronomical

tradition. The oldest astronomical text in India is the Vedanga Jyotisha (astronomy as
part of the Vedas), one part of which is attributed to Lagadha. It is dated about 1400 BC
on the basis of the statement in the book that the winter solstice took place at the star
group Shravishtha (Alpha Delphini). A later astronomer of the same school is Garga
who is placed at about 450 BC on the basis of his observation that `the sun is found
turning [north] without reaching the Shravishthas. The earliest interest in astronomy
was in observing equinoxes and solstices for ritualistic purposes, in making rather inexact
luni-solar calendars, and in observing starts (Nakshatras) as a guide to the motion of the
moon and the sun.

Siddhantic astronomy
The development of mathematical, or Siddhantic, astronomy came about as a
result of interaction with Greece in the Post-Alexandrian period. (Siddhantha literally
means the established end). The leading figure in the modernization was Aryabhata I,
who was born in AD 476 and completed his influential work, Aryabhatiya, in AD 499.
The main occupation of Indian astronomers for the next thousand years and more was the
calculation of geocentric planetary orbits and developing algorithms for the solution of
the mathematical equations that arose in the process. Illustrious names in Indian
astronomy following Aryabhata are Latadeva (505) who was Aryabhatas direct pupil;
Varahamihira (c.505) a compiler rather than a researcher, and an expert on omens;
Bhaskara I (c.574); Aryabhatas bte noire Bharmagupta (b.598) whose works were later
translated in Arabic; Lalla (c.638 or c.768); Manjula or Munjala (932); Shripati (1039);
and Bhaskara II (b.1114), the last of the celebrated astronomers (Table I).
There was also a host of commentators including such well-known names as
Prithudaka (864) in Kannauj, Bhattotpala (966) in Kashmir, and Parameshvara (13801460) in Kerala, who were astronomers in their own right. There ware also a
number
of
astronomers
whose
own
work

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

is not extant, but they are cited by others. There is an Indian astronomer Kanaka who is
unknown to Indian sources but appears in the Arabic bibliographic tradition as Kanak alHindi. He is said to have been a member of the embassy that was sent from Sind to
Baghdad to prepare Zij al-Sindhind (translation of Brahmaguptas Brahma-sphutasiddhanta). In the absence of any reliable information on him, a large number of legends
have grown around him, making him a personification of the transmission of science
from India to the Arabs.
In addition to the Siddhantas there are in Sanskrit and allied languages books
called Karanas. If Siddhantas are the text books, Karans are the made-easy books (Table
2). They give practical rules for carrying out computations. A noteworthy feature is the
Karanas choose a contemporaneous epoch rather than follow the Siddhantas in starting
from a Kalpa or a Yuga. As early as about AD 1000, A1 Biruni (973-1048) noted that
there were innumerable Karana works. One of the most influential has been Ganesha
Daivajnas Graha-laghava (1520). Karana activity continued right up to the 19th century,
and was even sponsored by the British. There are tertiary texts also associated with
Siddhantas and Karanas. They are the Koshtakas or Saranis, which provided ready-made
specialist astronomical tables for use by astrologers and almanac makers.
Work on observational aspects has been rather limited. Parameshvara made
eclipse observations from 1393 to 1432, and later Achyuta Pisharati (c.1550-1621), also
in Kerala, (c.1730-1800) wrote a four-chapter treatise Uparagakriyakrama on lunar and
solar eclipses. In the 18th century Nandarama Mishra (c.1730-1800) prepared a Karana
work, Grahana-paddhati, on eclipses.
The Siddhantic school was mildly influenced by the British presence in India.
Indian assistants at British Indian observatories tried to update Siddhantic elements.
Kero Lakshman Chhatre(1824-84) started his career at Colaba Observatory in 1851,
became the professor or mathematics and natural science at Poona College in1865, and
was made a Rao Bahadur in 1877 two years before his retirement. In 1860 he brought
out in Marathi a handbook Graha-sadhanachi-koshtake, based on the 1808 work of R.S.
Vince. An assistant at Madras Observatory, Chintamani Ragoonatha Charry (1828-80),
completed his Tamil work Jyotisha-chintamani, and also on almanac, called Drig-ganitapanchanga, based on the Nautical Almanac. Many young men from families with
tradition of Sanskrit studies took to modern astronomy. A school teacher Venkatesh
Bapuji Ketkar (1854-1930) compiled a modern astronomical almanac Jyotir-ganita in
Sanskrit, with the year 1875 as the epoch. Ketkar is however better known in India for
his published prediction (1911) of the existence of a planet beyond Neptune.
It is a matter of historical curiosity that the last of the classical Siddhantic astronomers

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Table 1. Important Siddhantas

Year

Author1

Place

Work2

b.476

Aryabhata I

Patna

Aryabhata-siddhanta
Aryabhatiya (499)

c.505

Latadeva

c.620-700

Brahmagupta*

Bhillamala, Rajasthan

Brahma-sphutasiddhanta(628)

fl.629

Bhaskara I

Valabhi, Gujarat

Maha-bhaskariya (629)
Laghu-Bhaskaria

8th cent

Lalla

Dasapura, Malwa

Shishya-dhi-vriddhida (748)

c.800

Anon.

b.880

Vateshvara

c.953

Aryabhata II

c.1000-1050

Shripati*

Rohinikhand, S. of
Ujjain

Siddhanta-shekhara

b.1114

Bhaskara II*

Vijjalavida, Bijapur

Siddhanta-shiromani (1150)

b.1444

Nilakantha Somayaji

Kundapura, Kerala

Tantra-sangraha

c.1475-1525

Jnanaraja

Parthapura, Godavari

Siddhanta-sundra (1503)

c.1550-1621

Achyuta Pisharati*

Kerala

Sphuta-nirnaya-tanta

C.1600-1660

Nityananda

Kurukshetra

Siddhanta-sindhu (1628)
Siddhanta-raja (1639)

b.1603

Munishvara

Varanasi

Siddhanta-sarvabhauma
(1646)

b.1610

Kamalakara

Varanasi

Siddhanta-tattva-viveka
(1658)

1835-1904

Chandrashekhar
Simha

Khandapara, Orissa

Siddhanta darpana (1894)

1.
2.

Redactions of Saura-,
Romaka-, Paulishasiddhantas

Surya-siddhanta
Vatangara, N.Gujarat

Vateshvara-siddhanta (904)
Maha-siddhanta

Asterisk denotes appearance in Table 2 also.

The number in bracket after the work is the year of its composition or the epoch
chosen for computations.

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Table 2. Important Karanas

Year

Author1

Place

Work2

505

Varahamihira

Ujjain

Pancha-siddhanta

c.620-700

Brahmagupta*

Bhillamala, Rajasthan

Khanda-khadyaka (665)

c.650-700

Haridatta

Kerala

Graha-chara-nibandhana (683)

c.650-700

Devacharya

Ketala

Karana-ratna (689)

c.900-950

Manjula (or Munjala)

Prakashpattana

Laghu-manasa (932)

c.1000-1050

Shripati*

c.1050-1110

Brahmadeva

Mathura

Karana-prakasha (1092)

c.1060-1110

Shantananda

Puri, Orissa

Bhasvati-karana (1099)

b.1114

Bhaskara II*

Vijjalavida, Bijapur

Karana-kutuhala (1183)

c.1280-1350

Rasina, Godavari

Mahadevi (1316)

13-14th cent.

Chakreshvara
Mahadeva
Vararuchi

Kerla

Vakya-karana (1282/1306)

1367

Mahadeva

Trymbak, Godavari

Kamadheni-karana

1375

Ishvara

Karana-kantirave

1417

Damodara

Bhata-tulya

c.1450-1510

Keshava

c.1475-1550

Chitrabhanu

c.1500-1560

Shankara Variyar

Kerala

Karana-sara

b.1507

Ganesha Daivajna

Nandgaon, Maharashtra

Graha-Laghava (1520)

c.1540-1600

Dinakara

c.1550-1621

Achyuta Pisharti*

Kundapura, Kerala

Karanottama (1593)

c.1500-1620

Ramachandra Bhata

Delhi

Rama-vinoda (1590)

c.1550-1620

Vishnu

Golagram, Godavari

Suryapaksha-sharana-karana
(1608)

c.1589

Dhundhiraja

Parthapura, Godavari

Graha-mani

c.1590-1650

Nagesha

Gujarat

Graha-prabodha (1619)

Dhi-kotida-karana (1039)

Nandgaon, Maharashtra

Graha-kautuka (1496)
Karanamrita (1530)

Kheta-siddhi (1578)
Chandraki (1578)

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Year

Author1

Place

Work2

c.1600-1660

Krishna

Konkana

Karana-kaustubha (1653)

c.1650-1720

Jatadhara

Sarhind, Punjab

Phatteshaha-prakasha 1704)

c.1660-1740

Putumana Somayaji

Shivapura, Kerala

Karana-padhati

c.1730-1800

Nandarama Mishra

Kamyaka-vana

Grahana-paddhati (1763)

c.1740-1800

Shankara

Dvarka, Gujarat

Karana-vaishnava (1760)

c.1750-1800

Manirama

c.1781

Bhula

Narmada

Brahma-siddhanta-sara

c.1800-1839

Shankara Varma

Katattanadu, Kerala

Sad-ratna-mala (1823)

c.1800-1850

Jyotiraj

Nepal

Jyotiraja-karana (1832)

1.
2.

Graha-ganita-chintamani
(1714)

Asterisk denotes appearance in Table 1 also.

The number in bracket after the work is the year of its composition or the epoch
chosen for computations.

lived right into the present century. Samanta Chandrasekhara Simha (1835-1904) was
born in a princely family in the small village of Khandapara in western Orissa.
Introduced to the ancient Siddhantic literature in the family library, he soon noticed that
the predictions did not match observations. Following instructions in the old texts, he
made his own instruments. His main instrument was a tangent-staff, made out of two
wooden rods joined together in a shape of a T. The shorter rod was notched and pierced
with holes at distances equal to the tangents of angles formed at the free extremity of the
other rod. Calling it Mana-yantra (measuring instrument) he used it with a precision
which was more due to his innate abilities rather than the instruments. Using Bhaskara
II as his role model he then set out in 1894 to write on palm leaf his Siddhanta-darpana,
consisting of 2284 shlokas of his own composition to which were added another 216
called from old Siddhantas, especially Bhaskara IIs Siddhanta-shiromani and Suryasiddhanta.
Throughout the Siddhantic period instruments and observations played second
fiddle to computations. Observational results were not explicitly recorded, the
description of astronomical instruments was condensed in a single chapter, Yantraadhyaya. Although Bhaskara II is credited with devising a rather versatile instrument,
Phalaka-yantra, there is not gainsaying the fact that observational astronomy came to tits
own only in the medieval times thanks to Indias interaction with central and west Asia.

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Zij astronomy
This phase of post-Siddhantic world astronomy may be called Zij astronomy,
because the main occupation of its astronomers was the preparation of Zijes that is
astronomical tables. Zijes fall into three categories: (i) Zij-e-Rashadi (direct tables) based
on actual observations; (ii) Zij-e-Hisabi (calculated tables) obtained by correcting
observational tables for erfrors, precession, etc.; and (iii) Zij-e-Tashil (simplified tables)
which were simplified versions of other tables, for example, for the moon alone. The Zij
period began in the 9th Century of Baghdad with the translation of Brahmaguptas
Sanskrit works into Arabic, and essentially came to an end in India, with the compilation
of Zij-e-Muhammad Shahi in 1728 by Raja Jai Singh Sawai.
Siddhantic and Zij
astronomies flourished simultaneously.
Zij astronomy made its debut in India under the patronage of King Ferozshah
Tughlaq who ruled at Delhi from 1351 to 1388. Arabic and Persian Zijes were copied
and commented upon. Several books on astronomy were written during his reign, and
astrolabes constructed. On this orders, an astrolabe was placed on the highest tower in
his capital Ferozabad (in Delhi). In addition, Ferozshah also took steps to Sanskritize
instrumentation astronomy. On his orders, Mahendra Suri, head astronomer at the royal
court, prepared in 1370 Yantra-raja , a monograph on astrolabe. This was the first
Sanskrit work exclusively devoted to instrumentation, and was the subject to many later
commentaries. Table 3 lists Sanskrit texts exclusively devoted to astronomical
instruments.
From 18th century, we have Raja Jai Singh Sawais treatise on instruments,
Yantra-prakara, essentially completed before 1`724, with some additions made up to
1729 In 1732, his astronomer Jagannatha translated Nasir al Din al Tusis (1201-74)
Arabic recension of Ptolemys Almagest into Sanskrit under the title Samrata-siddhanta,
To it, he added a supplement describing various instruments. Jai Singh went on to
establish a number of (pre-telescopic) masonry observatories. The Delhi Observatory set
up during 1721-24 was followed by a bigger one at his new capital Jaipur (1728-34). He
built smaller ones at Mathura, Ujjain and Varanasi between 1723 and 1734. (All dates
are estimates). The Varanasi Observatory was housed in an already existing building; it
is probable that Jai Singh renovated an old observatory. Jai Singhs instruments and
observations have been extensively dealt with in the literature.
Jai Singhs edifice of science did not survive for long. In 1745, two years after Jai
Singhs death, Emperor Muhammad Shah invited Father Andre Strobel to come to Delhi
and take charge of the Observatory. He declined. In 1764 the Observatory was severally
vandalized, when Javahar Singh, son of Suraj Mal, the Jat Raja of Bharatpur, Plundered
Delhi. More than 150 years later,

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Table 3
Year

Author1
(Place)

Work

Instrument

1370

Mahendra Suri (Delhi)

Yantraraja

Astrolabe

c.1400

Padmanabha

Yantra-Kiranavali

Astrolabe Dhruva-bhramana-yantra

1428

Ramchandra (Sitapur,
U.P.)

Yantra-prakasha

Misc.

15th cent.

Hema (Gujarat)

Kasha-yantra

Cylindrical sundial

b.1507

Ganesha Daivajna

Pratoda-yantra

Cylindrical sundial

Sudhiranjana-yantra

Graduated strip

c.1550-1650

Chakradhara
(Godavari)

Yantra-chintamani

Quadrant

1572

Bhudhara (Kampilya)

Turiya-yantraprakasha

Quadrant

c.1580-1640

Jambusara
(Gujarat)

Yantra-shiromani
(1615)

Misc.

Fl.1720

Dadabhai Bhatta

Turiya-yantropatti

Based on Chakradharas work

1688-1743

Jai
Singh
(Jaipur)

Yantra-prakara
Yantra-rajarachana

Misc.
Astrolabe

c.1690-1750

Jagannatha (Jaipur)

Samrata-siddhanta
(1732)

Tr. Of Almagest with suppl. on

instruments

c.1700-1760

Lakshmipati

Dhruva-bhramanayantra
Samrata-yantra

c.1700-

Nayansukha
Upadhyaya

Yantra-raja-risalabhisa-baba or Yantraraja-vicharavimshadhyay

Astrolabe (Tr. Of MS by Nasir at Din

al Tusi, 13th cent., Iran)

c.1750-1810

Nandarama
Mishra
(Kamyakavana,
Rajasthan)

Yantra-sara (1772)

Misc.

c.1750-1810

Mathuranatha Shukla
(Varanasi)

Yantra-raja-ghatana
(1782)

Astrolabe

c.1736-1811

Chintamani dikshit

Golananda (1800)

Misc.

Vishrama

Sawai

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

the then Maharaja of Jaipur perfunctorily renovated the Observatory to give it a

presentable look at the time of 1911 Delhi darbar of King George V. (The Delhi and
Jaipur Observatories are now in a rather dilapidated state and no more than popular
tourist spots.
Perhaps the most telling commentary on Jai Singhs dedicated but largely
irrelevant scientific enterprise comes from the rather disconcerting fact that his grandson
converted Jaipur Observatory into a gun factory and used his ancestral 400kg astrolable
for target practice.
Advent of modern astronomy
Modern astronomy came to India in tow with the Europeans. The earliest
recorded used the telescope in India was rather a typical; it was in the field of pure
astronomy rather than applied. The observer was an Englishman, Jeremiah Shakerley
(1626-c.1655). He was one of the earliest followers of Kepler and viewed the 1651
transit of Mercury from Surat in west India. He could however time neither the ingress
nor the egress.
His observation therefore was of no scientific use and remains a
curiosity. More representative of the things to come was the work of the Jesuit priest
Father Jean Richaud (1633-93) who in 1689 discovered from Pondicherry that the bright
star Alpha Centauri is in fact double.
Early use of telescopic astronomy by the Europeans as a geographical aid in India
was desultory, sporadic and often motivated by personal curiosity. The 1761 and 1769
transits of Venus were perceived as a continuation of the ongoing rivalry between
Finance and England, and brought many instruments and a general awareness of
astronomy of colonial India. What however led to the institutionalization of modern
astronomy in India was not the love of stars, but rather the fear of the Coromandel coast.
Rocky and full of shoals, and devastated by two monsoons a year, Indias east coast
became the graveyard of many a sailing ship. It survey literally became a matter of life
and death for the British. Accordingly, a well-equipped, trained surveyor astronomer
Michael Topping (1747-96) was brought to Madras in 1785.
Madras Observatory (1786)
Next year, perhaps more by design than chance, there came up at Egmore in
Madras a small private observatory. Its founder was William Petrie (d.1816), an

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

enlightened and influential company officer, who

later officiated as the governor of Madras for a
few months. It was used by Topping as a
reference meridian and on Petries persuasion
was taken over by the company in 1790. Two
years later the Observatory moved to its own
campus at Nungambakkam in Madras, where
some of its old remnants can still be seen. A
hundred years later, in 1899, astronomical
activity was shifted to Kodaikanal, and the
Madras
Observatory became
a
purely
meteorological observatory.
One of the
instruments that Petrie bequeathed to the
Observatory was a pendulum clock by John
Shelton. Believed to be made for the 1769 transit
of Venus and identical to the one used by Captain
James Cook in his voyages, it is still ticking at
Kodaikanal, a witness to the advent and growth
of modern astronomy in India.

In the early years Madras Observatory not

only provided the reference meridian for the
work of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of
India (GTS) but also manpower and instruments.
Increasing overseas involvement of Britain
required familiarity with the southern skies.
Accordingly, in 1843, after 13 years of
painstaking work with the newly acquired transit
instrument and mural quadrant (both by Dollond
and with 4 inch aperture telescopes), Thomas
Glanville Taylor (1804-48), former assistant at
Greenwich, produced the celebrated Madras
Catalogue of about 11000 southern stars. It was
hailed by the Astronomer Royal Sir, George
Biddell Airy as the greatest catalogue of modern
times. (It was revised in 1901.)

10

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

11

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

12

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

13

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

In 1850, the Observatory acquired its first fixed extra-meridional instrument, a 6

inch aperture lens telescope by Lerebours & Secretan of Paris. It was used by Captain
William Stephan Jacob (1813-62) to show that the recently discovered crepe ring of
Saturn was in fact translucent. (The same discovery was independently made a little later
by William Lassel at Malta using a 20 inch reflector). The only other telescope at
Madras, an inch lens equatorial by Troughton & Simms, was ordered in 1861. (Both
these telescopes are now at Kodaikanal.)
The Madras Observatory had already become redundant as far as utilitarian
astronomy was concerned. And when observatories came up in South Africa and
Australia, even the British astronomers lost interest. Norman Robert Pogsons (1829-91)
30years uninterrupted stint from 1861 till his death is a traffic testimony to the wasted
opportunities at Madras. H was the first astronomer at Madras who did not have any
surveying connection. His own neurosis was matched by the Astronomer Royals
imperiousness. Left to himself Pogson would have liked to extent Argelanders survey to
the southern skies and work on his variable star atlas. Instead, he was forced to carry on
routine, drab, irrelevant observations of transits year after year, which he most obstinately
refused to reduce and publish. No new instruments were ordered during Pogsons long
tenure. What kept the Observatory in working order was the help given by the
workshops established by the governments public works department for its own use.
Watching the GTS and the Madras Observatory at work, two native rulers came
forward to extend patronage to modern astronomy. It is not that they strove to update the
elements of traditional astronomy in the light of new developments in the west or wanted
their subjects to learn new astronomy. Instead, they simply funded British efforts. When
the Nawab of Oudh (correctly Avadh, eastern Uttar Pradesh) decided in 1831 to set up an
observatory he asked the governor general to send one of his GTS officers (Major James
Dowling Herbert 1791-1833) as the director. As befit a Nawabs whim, Lucknow
Observatory was equipped with the best instruments money could buy, but closed down
as soon as the novelty and the instruments were off. The Observatory, reduced as well as
unreduced, were eaten by ants. Thus ended a first class, though unproductive,
observatory which need not have been set up in the first place. Circumstances attending
the Trivandrum Observatory were slightly different. Here the initiative came from the
British men of science, whom the King gladly obliged. The Observatory was established
in 1837 with John Caldecott (1813-47) as the astronomer. Astronomy met the same fate
as a t Lucknow. But thanks to Trivandrums proximity to the magnetic equator and to
Madras presidency, the Observatory could do sustained work in the fields of magnetism
and meteorology under John Allan Broun (1817-79), on the lines suggested by the British
Association for the Advancement of Science.

14

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Advent of physical astronomy

While positional astronomy was slugging it out at Madras, there was taking shape
in Europe the new science of physical astronomy of astrophysics. Spectroscopic and
photographic techniques were used in the Indian observations of the solar eclipses of
1868, 1871and 1872, which attracted observers from Europe also. The French
astrophysicist Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen (1824-1907) observing the total solar eclipse of
1868 from Guntur (now in Andhra Pradesh) detected a spectral line due to a new element,
aptly names helium by the independent co-discoverer Joseph Norman Lockyer (18361920). During his post-eclipse stay at Simla, Janssen created the first spectrohelioscope,
which facilitated daily examination of the sun. It was the transit of Venus of 9 December
1874 that led to institutionalization of astrophysics in India. This time the state had no
major stake in the new astronomy. The initiative and the pressure came from the
European solar physicists who wanted the benefit of Indias sunny days for their research.
The government was interested in the work as it was told that a study of the sun would
help predict the failure of monsoons, then as now Indias life-line.
Dehra Dun Observatory (1878-1925)
When India-based Col. James Francis Tennant (later Lieut.- Gen. and President of
the Royal Astronomical Society) requested the government for setting up a solar physics
observatory with the instruments already in India for the 1874 transit, he was turned
down. The government was however more responsive when Lockyer used his equation
with Lord Salisbury, the secretary of state for India. Salisbury wrote to the viceroy on 28
September 1877: Having considered the suggestions made by Mr. Lockyer, and viewing
that a study of the conditions of the suns disc in relation to terrestrial phenomenon has
become an important part of physical investigation, I have thought it desirable to assent
to the employment for a limited period of a person qualified to obtain photographs of the
suns disc by the aid of the instrument now in India for transit of Venus observation.
Accordingly, starting from early 1878 solar photographs were regularly taken at Dehra
Dun under the auspices of Survey of India, and sent to England every week. Dehra Dun
continued solar photography till 1925,but more out of a sense of duty than enthusiasm.
The larger of the two photoheliographs fell into disuse, and in 1898 Lockyer was stung
by on the spot discovery that the dome has been taken possession of by bees.
St Xaviers College Observatory, Calcutta (1879)
Sunny India caught the attention of astronomers in the continent also. The Italian
transit-of-Venus team led by Professor P. Tacchini of Palermo Observatory stationed
itself in Bengal, its Chief instrument being the spectroscope, `an instrument not

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Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

recognized in the equipment of any of the English parties. A co-opted member of the
Italian team was the Belgian Jesuit Father Eugene Lafont (1837-1908) professor of
science at St. Xaviers College, who though no researcher himself was an inspiring
educator and science communicator. The College provided education to sons of
Europeans, Anglo-Indians, rajas, zamindars, and Indian men of note. Lafont therefore
`secured great influence among these classes which he put to good use in the service of
science. Tacchini suggested to Lafont the advisability of erecting a Solar Observatory in
Calcutta, in order to supplement the Observations made in Europe, by filling up the gaps
caused in the series of solar records by bad weather. Lafont soon collected a sum of Rs.
21000 through donations, including Rs 7000 from the Lieut.-Governor or Bengal, ` and in
a couple of years the present spacious dome was constructed and fitted with a splendid 9
Refractor by Steinhill of Munich to which was adapted a large striking work, thanks to
the customary thoroughness and dedication of the Jesuit men of science. At about the
same time there came up at Poona a research observatory for entirely different reasons.
Takhtasingji Observatory, Poona (1888-1912)
This was the most personalized of all observatories. In spite of its name, it was
owned by the Bombay government and was set up for one man, Kavasji Dadabhai
Naegamvala (1857-1938). Naegamvala was a brilliant student. In January 1878, he
passed his M.A. examination in physics and chemistry in first class from Elphinstone
College, Bombay, and was awarded the chancellors gold medal, the highest honour of
the Bombay University. He returned to the college in 1882 to fill the newly created post
of lecturer in experimental physics at a salary of Rs. 250 p.m. When the Maharaja of
Bhavnagar visited Elphinstone College in October 1882, Naegamvala represented to him
for a donation so that a spectroscopic laboratory could be started at the college.
8.
The government matched the royal gift of Rs. 5000 with an equivalent grant and
sent Naegamvala to England to finalize the equipment `in consultation with the
Committee on Solar Physics and best makers of spectroscopic apparatus. While in
England Naegamvala boldly jettisoned laboratory spectroscopy in favour of the celestial.
`By advice of the Astronomer Royal, he allotted the bulk of the funds at his disposal to
the purchase of a Reflector Telescope which would be the largest in India. (This 20 inch
Grubb telescope remained the largest in India for eight decades, even if half its time was
spent in the boxes). In view of the better credentials of Poona as an astronomical site, the
Observatory
and
Naegamvala
were
transferred
in
1888
to

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Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

17

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

The College of Science (now College of Engineering) there. Naegamvala was a member
of the British scientific team that went to Norway in 1896 to observe the total solar
eclipse. For the 1898 eclipse that was visible from India, Naegamvala was given a sum
of Rs 5000 by the government to match an equivalent sum raised through donations,
ranging from Rs 100 to Rs. 500. (Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata contributed Rs 250.) The
eclipse brought Sir Norman Lockyer and the Astronomer Royal, Sir W.H.M.Christie, to
India who were asked by the Government of India to report on the observatories here.
The best thing that could have happened to Naegamvala was his discovery by
Lockyer. Lockyer in his report paid glowing tributes to Naegamvala `who, so far as I
know, is the only person in India practically familiar with solar physic work. On
Lockyers recommendation, Naegamvala was relieved of teaching duties and appointed
full-time director of the Observatory. He was asked to send data regularly to Lockyer. If
Lockyer had had his way, he would have appointed Naegamvala as the director of the
proposed Solar Physics Observatory at Kodaikanal in place of the Madras Astronomer
Charles Michie Smith about whose capabilities Lockyer had a very low opinion.
Naegamvala did not go to Kodaikanal, but in 1912 all his equipment was sent there, when
the Poona Observatory was closed down on his retirement.
Kodaikanal Observatory (1899)
Although the question of upgrading the astronomical facilities at Madras had been
brought up off and on in the British quarters, it was only after the death of Pogson in
1891 that the matter was taken up in earnest. It was finally decided in 1893 to establish a
solar physics observatory at Kodaikanal in the Palani hills of south India with Michie
Smith as the director. All astronomical activity was shifted from Madras to Kodaikanal,
and the new observatory was transferred from Madras government to the charge of the
imperial governments India Meteorological Department.
To start the Observatory, Greenwich sent (on permanent loan) a photoheliograph,
one of the five identical ones made by John Henry Dallmeyer for the 1874 transit-ofVenus expeditions. The 6 inch refracting telescope by Lerebours and Secretan of the
1850 vintage was remodeled and installed for daily photography of the sun. (This must
be one of the oldest telescopes still in scientific use.) The arrival of John Evershed in
1907 (as assistant director to begin with) heralded the Observatorys golden age.
Choosing to come to India, no doubt to work in solitary splendour, Evershed made
Kodaikanal into a world-class, state-of-the art observatory. He put the newly acquired
spectroheliograph into working order, made a prismatic camera using the prisms he had
brought with him, and assembled a number of spectrographs. In 1911 he finally

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Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

constructed an auxiliary spectroheliograph and bolted it to the existing instrument so that

now the sun could be photographed not only in the light of calcium K spectral line but
also in hydrogen alpha. In 1909, Evershed made the important discovery of radial flow
of gases in sunspots (the Evershed effect). After Eversheds retirement in 1923, the
Observatory slowly fell behind times, and became routine-work oriented. It assiduously
took solar pictures every day (weather permitting) and exchanged them with other
observatories the world over, building in the process an enviable collection of solar
pictures that now spans eight complete solar cycles.
Nizamiah Observatory (1901)
The positional astronomy slot that fell vacant in 1899 with the winding up of the
Madras Observatory was filled by the Nizamiah (Nizams) Observatory at Hyderabad.
Its founder was a rich England-educated nobleman, Nawab Zafar Jung. The Nawab
purchased a small telescope and set up an Observatory at his estate at Phisalbanda in
Hyderabad. Very far-sightedly, in 1901, he took the Nizams permission to name the
Observatory the Nizamiah and made sure that it would be taken over by the government
on his own death.
He subsequently acquired a 15 inch aperture Grubb
refractor...Curiously, he also obtained an 8 inch aperture astronomical camera, or
astrograph, which later became the Observatorys chief instrument. Zafar Jung died in
1907 and as planned his Observatory was taken over by the government. Thus ironically
the formal establishment of the Observatory had to await the founders death.
The next year the Observatory was formally inducted into an ambitious, on-going,
international programme, called Carte-du-Ciel, or astrographic chart and catalogue. The
aim of this programme was to photographically map the whole sky by assigning various
celestial zones to 18 different observatories around the world. The Nizamiah was asked
to take over from Santiago Observatory in Chile, which had defaulted on the (17 to 23
S) zone assigned to it. Finally the Observatory also ended up doing the Potsdam zone 36
to 39 N. In the meantime (March 1908) Arthur Brunel Chatwood, B.Sc., had been
brought from England as the director on a monthly salary of Rs 1000 (about 1200 a
year). Chatwoods tenure was far from a success. He did not go beyond the installation
of the astrograph at the new site of Begumpet, and quit in 1914, unlamented.
Astrographic work could be taken up in earnest only in 1914 with the arrival of
Robert John Pocock (1889-1918). Pocock was the protg of the influential Oxford
professor Herbert Hall Turner (1861-1930) and came direct from Oxford, armed with a
special grant. The first usable plate was taken on 9 December 1914, and the first volume
of results published in 1917. When the work finally ended in 1946, a total of 7,63,542

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Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

stars had been observed, and 12 volumes

published. These data were in turn used by the
Observatory astronomers to extract information
on proper motion of stars and on double stars.
Pocock was the last European director of
the Observatory. On his untimely death in 1918
he was succeeded by his erstwhile assistant [Rao
Sahib] Theralandoor Panchapagesha Bhaskaran
(1889-1950), who however had to wait for four
years before getting the formal appointment.
Bhaskaran was a foundation fellow of the Indian
National Science Academy (INSA) established in
1935 under the name National Institute of Science
of India (The name was changed in 1970.) In the
Academy records his name appears as T.P.
Bhaskara Shastri.
Apart from the astrographic work, Nizamiah had other smaller irons in the fire.
The 15 inch Grubb refractor was at long last install in 1922 and used for visual
observations of variable stars as well as of lunar occultations sun also received some
attention, thanks to a Hale spectrohelioscope acquired in 1939. Observatory also did
some community service. It kept standard time and prepared government calendars in
Urdu and English.
Indian response
Just as the British needed (modern) science in India, they needed Indians also.
Accordingly, the `natives were introduced to English education. As the scientific
content to administration increased, the natives graduated from being clerks and writers
to become doctors and engineers, and finally scientists. In January 1876, Dr Mahendra
Lal Sircar collaboration with Fr. Lafont, generated support among Indians as well as in
government for setting up at Calcutta the rather oddly named Indian Association for the
Cultivation of Science (IACS). It was the scientific wing of the Indian Association,
which was a political organization.

20

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

of educated Indians and a precursor of the Indian National Congress. Its aim was to
enable the Natives of India to cultivate Science in all its departments with a view to its
advancement by original research. A rich benefactor (Kumar Kanti Chandra Singh
Bahadur) presented IACS with a valuable 7 inch aperture Merz-Browning equatorial
telescope in 1880. It however had to wait for more than 30 years to find a user.
Observational astronomy simply failed to take off under Indian auspices.
Appearance of comet Halley in 1910 activated astronomy buffs at Calcutta, who
set up an Astronomical Society of India. There were 192 original members including not
only men of science but also informed laypersons and Christian missionaries. In addition,
there were some rich Indian patrons. The first President was Bengals accountant general
Herbert Gerald Tomkins (1869-1934), who remained the Societys driving force during
its decade-long existence. It is not clear whether the Society was formally wound up or
simply became defunct. The last available issue of the Societys Journal is dated June
1920. (The name of the Society was reused 53 years later while setting up a new Society
at Hyderabad in 1973).
An active member f the Society was Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman (1888-1970),
the young deputy accountant general and part-time researcher at IACS who quit his

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Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

lucrative government job to take up the newly created Palit professorship of physics at
Calcutta University. He served the Society variously as its business secretary, librarian,
and director of the variable star section, and contributed to the Journal as well s to the
discussions. He installed the 7 inch telescope of the IACS and put it to use. Raman
maintained a life-long interest in, and enthusiasm for, astronomy. Another member of the
Society was a subjudge, Nagendra Nath Dhar (1857-1929), who made optics for
telescopes at his workshop at Hooghly and discussed his techniques at the Society
meetings.
The most dedicated observer of the time worked outside the pale of the astronomical
society. Born in a zamindar family at a small village Bagchar in Jessore district (now in
Bangladesh) Radha Gobinda Chandra (1878-1975) left school after failing three times in
matriculation examination and took up a job as a poddar (coin tester) at the collectorate
at a salary of Rs.15 monthly. His introduction to astronomy came from a Bengali text and
practical acquaintance with the sky from his scientific apprenticeship to a lawyer
(Kalinath Mukherjee) who was editing a star atlas. He observed comet Halley through
binoculars and in 1912 purchased a 3 inch lens telescope from London for 13 pounds. He
became a regular observer of variable stars and a member of the American Association of
Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), which in 1926 gave him a 6 inch aperture telescope,
originally belonging to AAVSOs patron and friend Charles W.Elmer. Chandra certainly
made good use of it, communicating a total of 37215 trained-eye observations up to 1954,
when he finally retired from observing. The value of his prodigious work lies in the fact
that he worked at a longitude far from that of most observers, greatly improving the
temporal completeness of the observational records for the stars he observed. Chandra
was asked to pass on the AAVSO telescope to Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu (1927-82)
then at Naini Tal. The Elmer-Chandra telescope, one of the very few American
telescopes in British India (if not the only one), is now at Kavalur.
A rather atypical scientific enterprise in the 19th century British India was a private
astronomical and meteorological observatory at Daba Gardens. Vizagapatnam
(Vishakhapatnam, now Andhra Pradesh). It was established in 1841 at his residence by a
rich zamindar Gode Venkata Juggarow (1819-56), who had earlier gone to Madras to
take tuition from the astronomer Thomas Glanville Taylor. On Juggarows death the
zamindari and the Observatory passed on to his son-in-law Ankitam Venkata Nursing
Row (1827-92) who resigned his job as a deputy collector with the east India company to
look after his wifes estate. He furnished the Observatory (in 1874) with a 6 inch Cooke
equatorial, a transit circle, and a sidereal clock. He communicated his observations of
solar eclipses, transits of Venus and Mercury, and comets to British astronomers and the
Royal Astronomical Society. He obtained equipment for celestial photography but

22

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Died before he could install it. He

was also the honorary meteorological
reporter to the government of India
for Vizagapatam. His son Raja A.V.
Jugga Rao Bahadur (d.1921) served
as the Vice-President of Astronomical
Society of India for a year 1911-12.
the Observatory seems to have closed
down afterwards. (The side is now
occupied by Dolphin hotel).
In passing, we may notice a
small telescope with an unusual
history. In 1938, the infamous Adolf
Hitler presented a 5 inch aperture
Zeiss telescope to the Rana of Nepal.
In 1961, his son, the new Rana,
passed on the telescope to the Everest
hero Tenzing Norgay, who in turn
donated it to the Himalayan
Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling,
which he headed.
Although the Indian response
to observational astronomy was rather
lackluster, it was pathbreaking in the
field of theoretical astrophysics.
While the well-placed Calcuttan
astronomy enthusiasts were forming
their Society, unknown to them a
bright lad in the backwaters of east
Bengal was making his acquaintance
with astronomy. Meghnad Saha
(1893-1955) wrote an essay on comet
Halley in Bengali for the Dacca
College magazine. As lecturers in
physics in the Calcutta University
Saha and Satyendranath Bose (18941974) brought out in 1920 an English
translation of Einsteins papers on
relativity. Reviewing it, the science
magazine Nature wrote on 26 August
1922: Provided it is studied with care,
the translation will nevertheless be of
service to those who are unfamiliar

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Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

with German, and wish to grapple with the pioneer works on these subjects, some of
which are rather inaccessible. Stimulated by Agnes Clarkes popular books on
astrophysics, Saha published in 1920 his epoch-making work on the theory of hightemperature ionization and its application to stellar atmospheres. Sahas demonstration
that the spectra of far-off celestial objects can be simply understood in terms of laws of
nature as we know them on earth transformed the whole universe into a terrestrial
laboratory and laid the foundation of modern astrophysics. In 1923, Saha moved to
Allahabad University as professor of physics where he set up a school of astrophysics,
training outstanding students like Daulat Singh Kothari (1906-93). Saha was the first one
to point out (in 1937) the need to make astronomical observations from outside the
earths atmosphere. He returned to Calcutta in 1938 as Palit professor. Saha and Bose,
like Raman, were the foundation fellows of INSA. Saha became its President during
1937-38, Bose during 1949-50, whereas Kothari held the post during 1973-74.
At Madras, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (b. 1910) for the first time applied the
theory of special relativity to the problems of stellar structure and obtained preliminary
results on what after his rigorous work at University of Cambridge came to be known as
the Chandrasekhar mass limit. Chandrasekhar belated by received the physics Nobel
prize in 1983.
Curiously, unlike the Indian physicists, pioneering relativists were trained abroad.
Nikhil Ranjan Sen (1894-1963), a class fellow of Saha and Bose, joined as a lecturer in
applied mathematics at Calcutta in 1917. He obtained his D.Sc. in 1921, but went to
Berlin where he obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Von Laue. Sens was
the first Indian doctorate in relativity and he joined INSA as a foundation fellow. Vishnu
Vasudeva Narlikar (1908-91) obtained his B.Sc. in 1928 from the Royal Institute of
Science, Bombay, and left for Cambridge University for higher studies, thanks to
financial assistance from Bombay University, Kolhapur state, and the J.N. Tata
endowment. He passed the Mathematics Tripos with distinction in 1930 and went on to
win the Rayleigh prize for his astronomical researches. Spurning an offer to go to
California Institute of Technology, U.S.A., he accepted an invitation from Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya, the Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, and came to
Banaras as the head of the mathematics department in 1932, where he remained for the
next 28 years. He trained and guided a large number of students including Prahlad
Chunilal Vaidya (b.1918), the author of the well-known Vaidya metric (1943) for the
gravitational field of a radiating star. In 1955 came Amal Kumar Raychaudhuris
(b.1923) equation that has played a crucial role in investigation of singularity in
relativistic cosmology.
In 1938, B. Datt from Sens group gave the solution for a gravitationally
collapsing spherical ball of dust. This solution was published in 1938 in Zeitschrift fuer
Physik, volume 108, page 314. It precedes the more commonly known solution of
Oppenheimer and Snyder. In 1947, S.Datta Majumdar (University of Calcutta) published
a class of exact solutions of Einsteins equations for the case of an electrostatic field with
or without spherical symmetry; these are now known as the Datta Majumdar-Papapetrou
solutions.
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Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

By the time the second world war came to an end it was clear that the British rule
in India would soon be over. Plans were therefore afoot to set the scientific agenda for the
future. It is not very well known that during 1943-45 Indian government made sincere
efforts to bring Subramanyan Chandrasekhar from Chicago to Kodaikanal. He was
offered a salary three times the usual. Chandrasekhar however was unwilling to be placed
in charge of the routine work of any observatory and would prefer to have a job in
University. Although Meghnad Saha felt that Dr. Chandrasekhar ought to return to
India to train our own boys, this was not to be. Daulat Singh Kothari was then sounded,
but he expressed preference to continue as the Head of Department of Physics in Delhi
University.
Twenty years previously, the British Director General of Observatories had
offered to Saha the number two position under Evershed at Kodaikanal. Now, in
December 1945, Saha led a five-member Committee including the Indian DirectorGeneral of Observatories to Kodaikanal to prepare a plan for Astronomical and
astrophysical observatories in India. The Saha Committee proposed updating of
astronomical facilities including, as a part of a long-range plan, the establishment in
Northern India of an astronomical observatory provided with a large sized telescope for
special stellar work. The Saha report came in handy 20 years later when Bappu
successfully pleaded for a stellar spectroscopic observatory at Kavalur in Jawadi Hills,
Tamil Nadu. (the Observatory has since been named after Bappu.) As a follow-up of
Sahas report, and on his own initiative, in 1955 a National Almanac Unit (renamed
Positional Astronomy Centre in 1979) was set up at Calcutta with a view to helping the
traditional almanac makers update their astronomical elements.
The year 1945 also saw the establishment of Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research at Bombay. Its founder was Homi Jahangir Bhabha (1909-66), a brilliant
physicist who shared Jawaharlal Nehrus vision of a scientific India as well as his
aristocratic background. Additionally, he was related to the wealthy and enlightened
industrial family of the Tatas. (Sir Dorab Tata was married to Bhabhas paternal aunt
Meharbai in 1898). An important item on Tata Institutes agenda was experimental
research on cosmic rays, in which Bhabha was personally interested. The scientific
ballooning in course of time led to the advent of space astronomies in India. It was also
with Bhabhas support that radio astronomy was successfully introduced in the 1960s by
Govind Swarup (b.1929).

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Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

26

Kochhar, Rajesh & Narlikar, Jayant (1995) Astronomy in India: A Perspective (New Delhi: Indian
National Science Academy), Chap.1

Critique
We can single out three cosmic events from the past two centuries and use them
as benchmarks in discussing the advent and growth of modern astronomy in India. The
1769 transit of Venus took place at a time when England and France were engaged in
bitter rivalry over India. This brought positional astronomy to India as a navigational and
geographical aid. The 1874 transit of Venus saw India firmly in the British grip. The new
science of physical astronomy was taking shape, and the British scientific activity was
commensurate with its economic and political status. Solar physics came to India because
the British astronomers wanted data from sunny India, and because the government was
given to understand that a study of the sun would help predict the failure of monsoons.
Interestingly, the work plan prepared by the Royal Society for Kodaikanal Observatory in
1901 makes no mention of the solar-terrestrial connection. By the time comet Halley
appeared in 1910, Indias new middles class had become politically assertive and
scientifically ambitious. While the Indians on their own remained mere dabblers in
observational astronomy, they made original contribution in the fields of theoretical
astrophysics and relativity, in which they no doubt felt more at home.
At the time of independence in 1947, India could boast of only two, rather
outdated, observatories: central governments Solar Physics Observatory at Kodaikanal
which stood where Evershed had brought it in 1911, and Osmania Universitys nonteaching Nizamiah Observatory with equipment of still earlier vintage. Saha Committees
rather pious recommendation for upgradation of the astronomical facilities was on record,
but there was nobody at hand to drive home the advantage. Bhabhas nascent Institute
was still housed in his aunts mansion, but was poised for take off in a big way. And
finally there were a number of universities which would multiply but fail to keep the
early promise.

27