[Aryabhatt Astrology Software Free Download Full Version
Julia Heaslet
This article aims at providing a thorough (but not verse by verse) exposition of most important topics of and problems related to Surya Siddhanta in its relation to modern physical astronomy and its true or faulty interpretations by commentators, together with its use in astrology. Concrete proofs are provided in this article concerning many cardinal problems in the field of ancient astronomy.
In ancient India 18 original theoreticians were frequently mentioned in the field of theoretical astronomy known as SIDDHANTA , but Varah Mihir could get tangible proofs of only five, which he mentioned in his Panch-siddhantika ('Of Five Theories'), among which Surya Siddhanta was the only theory which was complete in itself and therefore highly regarded by Varah Mihir as the most accurate among all theories about heavens.
In India, the practical formulae of Surya Siddhanta are orally preserved and are regarded as sacrosanct by traditional scholars of this field, and are never fully published, because it is believed that the practical method of using this text ought to be given only to worthy persons, who do not make a living out of it (-Manusmriti, Mahabharata). No commentator has ever published the practical methods of making actual planetary computations from ancient Surya Siddhantic formulae. These modern commentators themselves did not know these ancient formulae. The Makaranda Tables (with zero date of AD 1478) are Surya Siddhantic, made from some approximate formulae of Surya Siddhanta, which implies that Makarandacharya possessed the approximate formulae and made the tables made from those formulae, but did not made public those formulae. There is error in mean Mars of Makaranda because either Makarandacharya forgot to undertake beej-samskara (see later sections and the page on beeja corrections) in Mars, while the Surya Siddhantic commentary of Aryabhata contained beej corrections for Mars too as corroborated by Graha Laghava. The Surya Siddhantic commentary of Aryabhata was therefore the only reliable commentary of Surya Siddhanta for at least over a millenium which had any practical utility for theoreticians and almanac-makers. This was the real reason behind immense prestige accorded to Aryabhata, but this Aryabhata was different from Aryabhata I or Aryabhata II, as Al Beruni rightly believed. Unfortunately, this excellent Surya Siddhantic commentary by Aryabhata was lost during or after 16th century, and now most of people wrongly believe that this Aryabhata was the same as the author of Aryabhatiya. All other ancient and modern commentaries of Surya Siddhanta are useless as far as their utility for actual computations is concerned, and all of them contain incomplete formulae of making true planets, but the author of Grahalaghava (Ganesh Daivajna,1519 AD) explicitly mentions that he used the beej corrections of Aryabhata for outer planets,whose value tally with those of Surya Siddhantic tables of Makarandacharya and not with those of Aryabhatiya. This topic is discussed in the section 'Siddhantic Beej Samskaara'.
Author of Aryabhatiya was not a follower of Surya Siddhanta, and differs from the latter in all major practical aspects, e.g, number of revolutions per mahayuga, sizes of epicycles, sequence of corrections to be made in the mean planet to get true one, etc. Aryabhatiya was widely criticised by supporters of canonical astronomy in India, especially by Brahmagupta and his followers. It is noteworthy that the philosophical and astronomical or astrological statements made by epic and puranic authors of India conform to Surya Siddhantic views . Hence, Surya Siddhanta is the sole book which can be said to constitute the bedrock of India's traditional astronomical/astrological mathematics. Other traditional text are are either incomplete or inconherent.
Recently, many governmental and non-governmental organisations in India have started publishing annual almanacs based upon a freely distributed Surya Siddhantic software (Vinay Jha, 2006). It is still claimed by many astrologers of India that predictions based upon Surya Siddhanta are absolutely perfect. In 2006, a book was published in Hindi in which all major constants of modern astronomy were mathematically deduced, by means of theorems, from Surya Siddhanta! But the author stated that Surya Siddhantic planets occupy different positions in heaven than material planets (Vinay Jha, 2006),which amounts to stating that there are at least two universes, one phenomenal universe of matter open to human senses (bhoo-loka), and the other noumenal universe of gods (bhuva-loka) who are presiding deities of material planets of phenomenal world (martya-loka or the world of mortals). Surya Siddhanta is said to describe this noumenal world, whose planetary deities control the destinies of creatures living in the material world. Any attempt to confuse Surya Siddhanta with the phenomenal world leads to misinterpretation of this mystic text (Surya Siddhanta is described as a secret text in its last stanza, whose knowledge is said to be equivalent to Brahma-jnana or omniscience,i.e., "rahasyam-brahma-sammitam"!). Indian astrologers used to worship Surya Siddhanta till the first half of 20th century (Pt Sudhakar Dwivedi mentions this practice in the introduction to his commentary of Surya Siddhanta),when Western scholars and modernised scholars of India started criticizing Surya Siddhanta as an outdated and inaccurate text and gradually its worth declined. None of these commentators of Surya Siddhanta possessed any knowledge of the formulae of Surya Siddhanta, yet they posed as experts of this text and wrote worthless commentaries, which fail to elucidate how to compute actual positions of Surya Siddhantic planets according to ancient methods (proofs of this fact are provided in subsequent sections).
The problem with Surya Siddhanta is that its masters preserved its practical formulae and crucial concepts as closely guarded secrets, because the text itself ordered so. No attempt was ever made to refute the false commentaries of ignorants, because supporters of Surya Siddhanta believe that it is futile to argue in favour of a divine Non-Sensory Universe during a materialistic Kali Age. This article provides proofs showing that there were genuine scholars of Surya Siddhanta, e.g., Aryabhata the Elder (prior to the author of Aryabhatiya) in ancient India and Makarandacharya in mediaeval India. After Aryabhata, no one tried to write down any genuine commentary of Surya Siddhanta showing practical methods of computations. The lost Surya Siddhantic commentary by Aryabhata the Elder was the source of those practical manuals of almanac making in India for millenia which followed Vedic-Puranic tradition (see the section "Lost Surya Siddhantic Commentary of Aryabhata: New Lights").
Surya Siddhantic 'Sun' is stated to be a deity, only 5.5 million kilometres from Earth (physical sun is 149.6 million kms away). A deity cannot be seen by ordinary senses, argue the proponents of Surya Siddhanta. The only proof of Surya Siddhanta is astrological prediction based upon it, which are held to be perfect. Since astrology based upon modern astrononomy has already accepted to be a pseudoscience by mainstream scientists, Surya Siddhantic astrology needs to be tested by scientists. Another proof of Surya Siddhanta is a series of secret theorems which show that major constants of modern astronomy can be accurately deduced from Surya Siddhantic notions and equations (see the section "Deduction of Modern Astronomical Constants from Surya Siddhanta"). Some of these Surya Siddhantic or Vedic theorems suggest solutions of many unresolved cardinal problems of modern astronomy, and therefore deserve serious attention.
The problem with western commentators is that Surya Siddhantic system has many similarities with that of Almagest, on account of which Surya Siddhanta is declared to be influenced by Almagest. But detailed investigation of Surya Siddhantic system does not support this view. There seems to be a long history of distortions through translations, which may place original Surya Siddhanta in distant prehistory. Many secret ideas of Surya Siddhanta were indirectly exported to Greece, but could not be fitted into the general framework of Western astronomy and were subsequently forgotten.
The concept of Philolaus that Earth and all heavenly bodies revolve round a central fire which could never be seen since there was a counter earth between the earth and this fire was related to Puranic and Surya Siddhantic tradition of a heavenly Meru which was away from the centre of Earth and was related to a terrestrial Mt Meru (see the section "Meru: Centre of All 14 Universes").
The idea of trepidation originated from Surya Siddhanta, in which 360 was multiplied with 30% to get 108, which had four parts of 27 each, in both positive and negative phases. Some prehistoric translator erroneously multiplied this 27 with 30% again and deduced the maximum value of trepidation to be 8 only, which was current in Greece and Europe till 15th century AD, when modern astronomy proved that material universe does not manifest any to and fro oscillation or trepidation of equinoxes at all. But Surya Siddhantic system cannot work without trepidation ( = ayanamsha ), and Indian astrology will die if ayanaamsha is removed. If astrology has any merit at all, it must be based upon Surya Siddhantic system , because this system has a complete and coherent system as well as a complete parallel universe of gods who regulate the destinies of living creatures. Those commentators who confuse Surya Siddhantic planets to be same as material planets observed by astronomers declare this text to be imprecise, and such commentators do not even try to test the validity of Surya Siddhantic system for astrology based upon Parashara. There are many facets of Surya Siddhantic system which were highly esteemed by ancients but are now regarded to be false notions,e.g., the idea of trepidation or of Meru as Centre of Cosmos. Therefore, no serious attempt is made to understand the original logic behind such ideas which captured their imagination for millenia. Such exotic ideas are discussed in detail in subsequent sections, and they prove to be right provided we do not judge them out of context.
795a8134c1