Measurement of coordinates of Naksatras in Indian astronomy

Abstract

It is well known that ancient Indian calendar dwelled on the 27 nak?atra system for fixing the positions of the sun, moon and the planets. Several attempts to identify these 27 stars in the sky have yielded very precise results for stars bright enough not to be misidentified, which is not so for the fainter ones. The basis for identification is the coordinate system available in the texts. Here, we try to understand the ambiguity and offer a possible solution by using the measured coordinates, which have not been utilized for this purpose so far. This also provides clues on the techniques used for measuring the coordinates.