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Teaching of Astronomy in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

H.S. Gurm
H.S. Gurm*
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy & Space Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147002, India

Extract

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Studies of the skies have dominated intellectual activities since ancient man. In this respect, India has a very long tradition of such recorded activity, covering the observations of celestial bodies both as a science and as mythology (Gurm, 1980). The first half of the Christian era witnessed the evolution of spherical astronomy as a part of the study of mathematics (algebra and trigonometry) and its application to astrology. The evolution of spherical astronomy culminated in the concrete manifestation in the northern parts of India in the form of Jantar-Mantars by Raja Jai Singh (Mayer, 1979) in the early eighteenth century. Interestingly, spherical astronomy remained one of the most important activities in the study of astronomy during the British period too. Some of the older treatises on this subject during the nineteenth century were written in the Offices of the Survey of India.

Type
13. Developing Countries
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 105: The Teaching of Astronomy , 1990 , pp. 389 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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