Article:
Indian Cosmology - Reflections in Religion and Metaphysics
By A. K. Chakravarty
Published by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi - 1995

The exact origin of astronomical studies in India is not known to us though it is fairly clear that it eventually formed part of ancient Vedic people. The earliest text on this subject now available, Vedanga Jyotisa, aims at determining the most suitable time for performing a yajna in consideration of the luni-solar-stellar situation at that time. The subject was based on so crude astronomical parameters that its failure could not escape the notice of any sky-watcher, till then it was never questioned by anybody perhaps because of its association with religious yajnas. This scheme of astronomy survived for some 2000 years.

In later India, these parameters were scraped, scope of astronomy was extended to include natural phenomena, like, eclipses, identification of planets and formulations of their motions, etc., till then astronomers often invoked metaphysics to explain cosmological facts. It occurs to us that the general people of that period in that class-ridden society was more interested in earning punyaphala through religious functions than acquiring pure knowledge. Astronomers could not or did not ignore this sentiment and so, to honour this sentiment, they found it necessary to blend religion and metaphysics with cosmology in an astronomical background. Science in ancient times had to be supplemented by speculative materials and was thus mixed up with myths and metaphysics.

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Image:
Jain Cosmology
Watercolour
Published: [18--?]

Credit: Wellcome Library, London