Extraordinary knowledge in the ancient Surya Siddhanta
The Surya Siddhanta itself claims that it was first spoken by Surya, the Sun God, and
he shared it with Maya Danava, 2 million years ago. He is proficient in mechanistic science.
He passed that on through sages, demigods and demons over many years until it reached
the Earth. The Surya Siddhanta was first written down around 1500 BCE
Varahamihira of the 6th Century AD revised the scripture. Bhaskaracarya of the 12th Century
modified it, and added Siddhanta Siromani. Then in around 1860 Reverend Ebenezer Burgess
translated that work into English. Afterwards, Bimal Prasad Dutta translated the 12th century
text into Bengali. He was an expert in Vedic astronomy and astrology, but later changed
direction and became Bhaktissidhanta Sarasvati Thakur, focusing on Krishna bhakti.
Note that in all Vedic scriptures, the Earth is placed at the centre. But that s just relative
motion in space. The value of an ancient yojana sometimes differs.
The Bhagavat Purana s value is about 8 miles. But in the Surya Siddhanta is about 5 miles,
so we will be working with that.
Now the Surya Siddhanta 1.59 describes the diameter of the earth as 1600 yojanas. That
works out at about 8000 miles. That s very close to the modern estimate, which is 7928
miles. From that the Surya Siddhanta explains how you can find the circumference of the
Earth. Now, from figures in the Surya Siddhanta about
planetary motion seen from earth, the following information can be drawn:
Days taken by the planets to make one full cycle around the Earth. Compare: The Sun s
cycle of course corresponds to a year. 365.26 days for the Surya Siddhanta. Exactly the
same figure for the modern. The moon has 27 days point 322 for the Surya Siddhanta. That
s a month of course very similar for the modern as well. Mercury: 87.97 for Surya Siddhanta.
For modern figure, extremely similar figure there. And for Venus, 224.7 days for both
modern and the Surya Siddhanta. Mars: 687 days for both. Jupiter: 4332.3 for
Surya Siddhanta. Very similar figure for the modern. These similarities goes also for Saturn
and Rahu. I will get more into Rahu however soon.
Now let s look at the moon. Chapters 4 to 6 of the Surya Siddhanta present
rules for calculating the times of the solar and lunar eclipses. They re based on the same
theory of eclipses in modern astronomy, and they re no less accurate. The Surya Siddhanta
agrees that solar eclipses are caused by the passage of the Moon in front of the Sun. In
fact there s only one notable difference from the modern view: The solar eclipse in the
Surya Siddhanta includes a separate planet, Rahu.
Now Rahu is said to be an immortal form of a demon s head. That however is not essential
to the calculations of the Surya Siddhanta. Rahu is included most probably because Vedic
astrologers needed a system that will tell them where this inauspicious planet will be
on people s charts. Now let s look at the diameters of the planets.
This is a fascinating section. First of all if we look at the modern version of the orbit
of the moon. For example here: 2160 miles for the moon s diameter and nearly about one
and a half million miles distance for its orbit path. According to Surya Siddhanta of
course, it s very similar. For example, just a bit larger a bit further away for the Surya
Siddhanta. Average distance from the Earth for Surya Siddhanta is 258,000 miles, whilst
for the modern its about 238,900 miles. Very similar figures - not much difference.
Calculating the diameters of the planets. The Surya Siddhanta 7.13 reads The diameters
upon the Moon s orbit of Mars, Saturn, Mercury; Jupiter and Venus are reduced to 150 miles
187.5 miles, 225 miles; 262.5 miles and 300 miles. That s of course figures converted
from yojanas. Now in the 12th chapter of the Surya Siddhanta we also look at the orbital
distances from the Earth of these respective planets. This is what we get. If you get one
point of a triangle from the centre of the Earth, extend two sides of that triangle up
to the diameter of the Moon and put in there the aforementioned figure you get what we
call the reduced diameter of that planet. Extend those lines past that point and go
to the orbital circumference of that planet mentioned in chapter 12. And here you actually
get the diameter of the planet, a very similar figure to the modern estimates as you ll see.
The greater reduced diameter on the Moon s orbit, the greater the orbital distances,
will lead to a greater size of the planet. So lets compare now the Surya Siddhanta to
the modern. Diameter of Mars. Surya Siddhanta: 3771.7
miles. Modern: 4191. Quite similar. Saturn: 73,882 miles. The modern, just slightly
less at 72,000 miles. Mercury: Surya Siddhanta, just over 3000 miles
in diameter. Modern, 3100 miles. Similar. Now if the figure for Jupiter is doubled it
fits in very well. Perhaps the Surya Siddhanta was referring to its radius instead of its
diameter. This could be down to the poetic nature of the verse or simply human error.
Look very similar figures there. Both over 83,000 miles across. The same radius into
diameter formula also applies to Venus: again a similar figure.
Look all the planets together there, for a size comparison. One big happy family.
Distances of the planets from the Sun. Now one ASTRONOMICAL Unit called an AU (not astrological
as I have written here). And it means the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In
modern, that s about 93 million miles. However the Surya Siddhanta appears to under estimate
the size and distance of the Sun. The modern Sun is much larger and further away. However,
in the Bhagavat Purana s 5th Canto we find reference to the geocentric (earth-centred)
orbit of the Sun ranging anything from just over 86 million miles to over 100 million
miles away. The average of those two figures for the Sun s orbit is actually just over
93 million miles. The Bhagavat Purana gives a distance of about 120 million miles from
the Earth to the Manosattara Mountain, but that is not the Earth-Sun distance. Rather,
it is a parameter occupied by demigods that supervise the Earth.
Here s the orbit of Venus from an Earth centred point of view. The average distance from the
Earth to Venus would therefore be about here. It is the average distance that is calculated
for this following section. Using figures from the Surya Siddhanta one can calculate
the ASTRONOMICAL Unit distance between the Sun and each planet in the solar system (up
to Saturn). Let s look at that. There is of course would be one AU between the Sun and
the Earth here. But let s make a comparison with the other planets.
Surya Siddhanta: 0.368 for Mercury. Modern 0.39. Quite similar. Venus for the Surya Siddhanta
0.725, and the modern is 0.72. For Mars very similar figures also, an average 1.53.
Surya Siddhana: 5.07 for Jupiter. Modern figure is 5.2. And Surya Siddhanta s measurement
for the distance of Saturn: 9.11, and modern: 9.55. A remarkable comparison there.
The purpose of this presentation is to show that knowledge of modern style astronomy was
known to sages of ancient India, who certainly had advanced mathematical capability. Evidently
they also knew things such as the diameters of the planets which would have required powerful
telescopes or even mystical methods. The ancient Vedic civilisation was not only spiritually
advanced, but it was a lot more scientifically astute than what modern historians realise.
Thanks for watching and please share.