Beginnings of Heliocentrism in India - Classical Tamil Evidence

[N. Ganesan]

Beginnings of Heliocentrism in India - Classical Tamil Evidence
--------------------------------------------------------------

https://varahamihiragopu.blogspot.com/2023/04/varahamihiras-gravity-and-sphericity.html

NG wrote a comment> CiRupANaaRRuppaTai seems to talk about heliocentrism, and planets as round plates encircling the Sun!

Gopu wrote> That is amazing!!

I am thinking of three Sangam poems, PuRanAnURu, PerumpANARRuppaTai and CiRupANARRUppaTai to explain the early thoughts of Heliocentric model of the Universe in Sangam Tamil.

koL- "to grab". kOL/kOLam = sphere, planat. A. Parpola compares the words for planets in IE languages, and concludes that "graha" (cognate with "to grab" in english etc.,) is from Dravidian "kOL/kOLam". gOla "sphere" obviously is Tamil's kOLam in Sanskrit, like bali < poli/pali of Sangam literature. There are two important detailed papers on Harappan and Indian astronomy by AP worth reading.

"tiruvuDai mannaraik kaaNil tirumAlaik kaNDene" - Aazhvaar Paasuram. This thought's beginning is in PerumpaaNaaRRuppaTai. Tiraiyan, the first Chola king given by the sea waves, has Trivikrama Vishnu as his forefather. In books on Vishnu (KP Jayaswal, Nanditha, .. I forget which book) there is a similar statement from Vedic texts, kings are Vishnu's form on earth - something like that. would love to get the correct quote. Note that viL- is the root(dhAtu) source for viNDu, viTTu (viTThal), viNNu > viSNu, ultimately coming from the solar rays. Suryanarayana/Harinarayana.

PuRanAnURu talks of the king surrounded his warriors in a battlefield whirling, as the Sun surrounded by the planets.

CiRupANaaRRuppaTai nicely talks of the feast given by a king: the central, large golden plate is the Sun, and the side dishes in smaller plates are planets. Note the ancient connection of the King with Vishnu(/Sun).

will tell the exact lines from CTamil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism
"Ancient India
The Tamil classical literary work Ciṟupāṇāṟṟuppaṭai from Sangam period by Nattattaṉār uses "the sun being orbited by planets" as an analogy for food served by a king in golden plates surrounded by sides.[29][30] The Ptolemaic system was also received in Indian astronomy[citation needed]. Aryabhata (476–550), in his magnum opus Aryabhatiya (499), propounded a planetary model in which the Earth was taken to be spinning on its axis and the periods of the planets were given with respect to the Sun.[31] His immediate commentators, such as Lalla, and other later authors, rejected his innovative view about the turning Earth.[32]"

The paramount importance of the Sun, and the these Proto-Heliocentrism idea in classical Tamil fully developed in Kerala, the ancient Chera kingdom, later. As Chera kingdom supported Nambudiri immigration from North, the only survivivg Rgveda rituals are found there and Sangam literature talks about them. Detailed analysis of it from mid-20th century done by Staal, Parpola, ... In the Sangam age, Karur was the Chera capital, Muziris port connected to Karur (Vanji) via the Palghat gap - precisely the central Kerala location where Rgvedic rituals were/are fostered. These ritualists must have introduced the Solar calender with the Aries in the Zodiac as the first month of Tamil New year. This was proclaimed to be the official New Year of the Tamil Panchangam by the Chera king. Hence his title, "aaTu kOTpaaTuc Ceralaatan". aaTu = mesham = Aries, the first of the 12 Raasi cycle.
https://groups.google.com/g/santhavasantham/c/-E6P993IAz8/m/0qx1ig1BAgAJ
Seevaka ChintamaNi written near Vanji (Karur) calls the Zodiac as "kanali vaTTam" and lists Chitra month as the beginning of Tamil year.

"Medieval India
In India, Nilakantha Somayaji (1444–1544), in his Aryabhatiyabhasya, a commentary on Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya, developed a computational system for a geo-heliocentric planetary model, in which the planets orbit the Sun, which in turn orbits the Earth, similar to the system later proposed by Tycho Brahe. In the Tantrasamgraha (1501), Somayaji further revised his planetary system, which was mathematically more accurate at predicting the heliocentric orbits of the interior planets than both the Tychonic and Copernican models,[56][57] but did not propose any specific models of the universe.[58] Nilakantha's planetary system also incorporated the Earth's rotation on its axis.[59] Most astronomers of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics seem to have accepted his planetary model.[60][61]"

N. Ganesan

[lns2...@gmail.com]

Very informative. Some more data on the switch to solar calendar would be interesting. It's been a little hard to figure out which are the quotes in the article and which your own (NG's) statements. Please excuse if I make a wrong attribution.

> In books on Vishnu (KP Jayaswal, Nanditha, .. I forget which book) there is a similar statement from Vedic texts, kings are Vishnu's

>  form on earth - something like that.

Not sure if Vedic texts connected their conception of kingship to Vishnu. It seems they mainly connected it to Vedic divinities such as Indra, Varuna, Prajapati  etc.

Vishnu has been connected definitively with kingship in the Mahabharata and the various Puranas. See Suvira Jaiswal's Origin and Development of Vaishnavism (pp. 162-170).

Thanks,

Srini

[N. Ganesan]

On Thu, Apr 11, 2024 at 7:29 AM lns2...@gmail.com <lns2...@gmail.com> wrote:

Very informative. Some more data on the switch to solar calendar would be interesting. It's been a little hard to figure out which are the quotes in the article and which your own (NG's) statements. Please excuse if I make a wrong attribution.

> In books on Vishnu (KP Jayaswal, Nanditha, .. I forget which book) there is a similar statement from Vedic texts, kings are Vishnu's

>  form on earth - something like that.

Not sure if Vedic texts connected their conception of kingship to Vishnu. It seems they mainly connected it to Vedic divinities such as Indra, Varuna, Prajapati  etc.

Vishnu has been connected definitively with kingship in the Mahabharata and the various Puranas. See Suvira Jaiswal's Origin and Development of Vaishnavism (pp. 162-170).

Thanks. is there something like: "raajaa VishNu ruupena"? Definitely I've seen it in this Jaiswal's or Nanditha (Diwan C P Ramasamy Aiyar's grand-daughter) 

NG

Thanks,

Srini

On Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 7:39:23 AM UTC-4 N. Ganesan wrote:

Beginnings of Heliocentrism in India - Classical Tamil Evidence
--------------------------------------------------------------

https://varahamihiragopu.blogspot.com/2023/04/varahamihiras-gravity-and-sphericity.html

NG wrote a comment> CiRupANaaRRuppaTai seems to talk about heliocentrism, and planets as round plates encircling the Sun!

Gopu wrote> That is amazing!!

I am thinking of three Sangam poems, PuRanAnURu, PerumpANARRuppaTai and CiRupANARRUppaTai to explain the early thoughts of Heliocentric model of the Universe in Sangam Tamil.

koL- "to grab". kOL/kOLam = sphere, planat. A. Parpola compares the words for planets in IE languages, and concludes that "graha" (cognate with "to grab" in english etc.,) is from Dravidian "kOL/kOLam". gOla "sphere" obviously is Tamil's kOLam in Sanskrit, like bali < poli/pali of Sangam literature. There are two important detailed papers on Harappan and Indian astronomy by AP worth reading.

"tiruvuDai mannaraik kaaNil tirumAlaik kaNDene" - Aazhvaar Paasuram. This thought's beginning is in PerumpaaNaaRRuppaTai. Tiraiyan, the first Chola king given by the sea waves, has Trivikrama Vishnu as his forefather. In books on Vishnu (KP Jayaswal, Nanditha, .. I forget which book) there is a similar statement from Vedic texts, kings are Vishnu's form on earth - something like that. would love to get the correct quote. Note that viL- is the root(dhAtu) source for viNDu, viTTu (viTThal), viNNu > viSNu, ultimately coming from the solar rays. Suryanarayana/Harinarayana.

PuRanAnURu talks of the king surrounded his warriors in a battlefield whirling, as the Sun surrounded by the planets.

CiRupANaaRRuppaTai nicely talks of the feast given by a king: the central, large golden plate is the Sun, and the side dishes in smaller plates are planets. Note the ancient connection of the King with Vishnu(/Sun).

will tell the exact lines from CTamil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism
"Ancient India
The Tamil classical literary work Ciṟupāṇāṟṟuppaṭai from Sangam period by Nattattaṉār uses "the sun being orbited by planets" as an analogy for food served by a king in golden plates surrounded by sides.[29][30] The Ptolemaic system was also received in Indian astronomy[citation needed]. Aryabhata (476–550), in his magnum opus Aryabhatiya (499), propounded a planetary model in which the Earth was taken to be spinning on its axis and the periods of the planets were given with respect to the Sun.[31] His immediate commentators, such as Lalla, and other later authors, rejected his innovative view about the turning Earth.[32]"

The paramount importance of the Sun, and the these Proto-Heliocentrism idea in classical Tamil fully developed in Kerala, the ancient Chera kingdom, later. As Chera kingdom supported Nambudiri immigration from North, the only survivivg Rgveda rituals are found there and Sangam literature talks about them. Detailed analysis of it from mid-20th century done by Staal, Parpola, ... In the Sangam age, Karur was the Chera capital, Muziris port connected to Karur (Vanji) via the Palghat gap - precisely the central Kerala location where Rgvedic rituals were/are fostered. These ritualists must have introduced the Solar calender with the Aries in the Zodiac as the first month of Tamil New year. This was proclaimed to be the official New Year of the Tamil Panchangam by the Chera king. Hence his title, "aaTu kOTpaaTuc Ceralaatan". aaTu = mesham = Aries, the first of the 12 Raasi cycle.
https://groups.google.com/g/santhavasantham/c/-E6P993IAz8/m/0qx1ig1BAgAJ
Seevaka ChintamaNi written near Vanji (Karur) calls the Zodiac as "kanali vaTTam" and lists Chitra month as the beginning of Tamil year.

"Medieval India
In India, Nilakantha Somayaji (1444–1544), in his Aryabhatiyabhasya, a commentary on Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya, developed a computational system for a geo-heliocentric planetary model, in which the planets orbit the Sun, which in turn orbits the Earth, similar to the system later proposed by Tycho Brahe. In the Tantrasamgraha (1501), Somayaji further revised his planetary system, which was mathematically more accurate at predicting the heliocentric orbits of the interior planets than both the Tychonic and Copernican models,[56][57] but did not propose any specific models of the universe.[58] Nilakantha's planetary system also incorporated the Earth's rotation on its axis.[59] Most astronomers of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics seem to have accepted his planetary model.[60][61]"

N. Ganesan

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[Swaminathan Sankaran]

"The paramount importance of the Sun, and the these Proto-Heliocentrism idea in classical Tamil fully developed in Kerala, the ancient Chera kingdom, later. As Chera kingdom supported Nambudiri immigration from North, the only survivivg Rgveda rituals are found there and Sangam literature talks about them."

I am confused by the 'precedent - antecedent' relation here.

The Nambudiri migration from the Gujarat/Konkan region is supposed to have taken place in the Common Era, much later than the sangham era of

3 CE. Then how is it possible for a nambudiri-introduced idea to be reflected in the sangam literature?

Sankaran

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 Swaminathan Sankaran