Sanskrit Astronomical Tables

by Clemency Montelle, Kim Plofker

Overview

This groundbreaking volume provides an up-to-date, accessible guide to Sanskrit astronomical tables and their analysis. It begins with an overview of Indian mathematical astronomy and its literature, including table texts, in the context of history of pre-modern astronomy. It then discusses the primary mathematical astronomy content of table texts and the attempted taxonomy of this genre before diving into the broad outlines of their representation in the Sanskrit scientific manuscript corpus. Finally, the authors survey the major categories of individual tables compiled in these texts, complete with brief analyses of some of the methods for constructing and using them, and then chronicle the evolution of the table-text genre and the impacts of its changing role on the discipline of Sanskrit jyotiṣa. There are also three appendices: one inventories all the identified individual works in the genre currently known to the authors; one provides reference information about the details of all the notational, calendric, astronomical, and other classification systems invoked in the study; and one serves as a glossary of the relevant Sanskrit terms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319970363
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	03/08/2019
Series:	Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences
Edition description:	1st ed. 2018
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. Content and Classification of Table Texts.- 3. Table-Text Manuscripts.- 4. Elements of Table Texts.- 5. The Evolution of the Table-Text Genre.- 6. Further Explorations.- Appendices.

Editorial Reviews

This is an extremely well-written and useful book. Thanks to its systematic approach and the very readable introductory chapter it has to offer something for every reader interested in one of the numerous aspects of Sanskrit mathematical astronomy.” (Benno van Dalen, zbMATH 1459.01001, 2021)

“The book is rich in various technical details from mathematical astronomy that serious students and researchers would benefit from. There is nevertheless a good deal of material that would be accessible to a wider class of readers. … The book under review will no doubt inspire further studies on the topic, serving in particular as a source of technical support for them, and thereby expand the horizons of thetopic.” (S. G. Dani, Mathematical Reviews, April, 2020)

“The authors and the publisher are to be congratulated for bringing to the market and our reference shelves a thorough, well-organized, deeply-researched, and beautifully presented book. … I am by no means qualified to comment on the particulars of the authors’ analyses of the manuscripts they examined. I can say that I enjoyed reading the book and that it broadened my thinking about what mathematics is and what mathematicians do.” (Scott Guthery, MAA Reviews, August 24, 2019)

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