Critical Analysis of AlgorithMS in Vakya School of Astronomy

Abstract

In ancient Indian astronomy, many different and unique methods were created to study and understand the position of the planetary bodies in the solar system. One of the initial works regarding this was carried out by the famous Indian mathematician and astronomer Āryabhaṭa I and his disciples like Bhāskara I. Some of their texts are Āryabhaṭīya, Mahābhāskarīya and Laghubhāskar̄iya. These are called siddhāntic texts. Later, some methodologies were developed from these texts which were more time-efficient and with less complex calculations to locate the position of planets at a given point of time. One of the texts with such algorithms is Vākyakarana. In this thesis, we want to trace the origin of astronomical algorithms mentioned in Vākyakarana by doing the numerical analysis of algorithms pertaining to planetary longitudes in Āryabhaṭīya, Mahābhāskarīya and Laghubhāskar̄iya. This will enable us to understand the theoretical basis of the mathematical principles laid down in the text Vākyakarana. The analysis has been done by using modern mathematical and programming techniques with the help of tools like Python for Scientific Computing.