Yukio Ohashi obituary by Michio Yano

[Nagaraj Paturi]

The following was sent to me by Sri Shivraj Singh:

One stalwart Japanese scholar on Indian astronomy, Dr Yukio Ohashi,  passed away recently and his obituary was published in Indian Journal of History of Science in its latest edition. I have attached it. It can also be found on IJHS website Latest issue.

  Ohashi's signal contribution was in highlighting the errors of Pingree about Vedang Jyotish. Please see this passage from Dr Yano's attachment:
"Concerning (1) Ôhashi made a significant contribution in the study of JyotiṣaVedāṅga, criticizing David Pingree.2 Pingree thought that the number of civil days in the five year cycle (yuga) is 1825, in other words, a solar year consists of 365 days, and that this was borrowed from Egypt or Mesopotamia. But Ôhashi argued that a yuga consists of 1830 civil days and therefore a solar year is 366 days, which is purely of Indian origin. Ôhashi also rejected Pingree’s idea of Mesopotamian origin of the ratio 2 : 3 of the shortest and longest day time found in the JyotiṣaVedāṅga and other old Sanskrit texts. He showed that the ratio was derived not from the interpolation from the observation of the solstices but from the extrapolation from the observation around the equinoxes. As a result he concluded that the latitude of the Jyotiṣa-Vedāṅga is about 27-29∘ north.3"

Can you please post this obit to Indology list and also pose a question: why is Pingree's thesis of "Mesopotamian origin of the ratio 2 : 3 of the shortest and longest day time " is still in vogue despite Ohashi convincingly proving it to be of Indian origin?

[venkat veeraraghavan]

May Dr. Yukio Ohashi attain sadgati and may Indians wake up and take ownership of their heritage.

It is tiresome to read that we still accept unchallenged the unexamined stupidity of occidental parochialism.