Astronomy & Cosmology
Knowledge of precession (ayanamsa)
c. 6th-12th c. CESiddhanta astronomersSiddhanta textsPan-Indian / unspecified
500 CE
Accounted for the slow drift of the equinoxes in calendars and star positions.
- Dated
- 500 CE–1199
- As scholars put it
- c. 6th-12th c. CE
- Originator
- Siddhanta astronomers
- Source text
- Siddhanta texts
- Region
- Pan-Indian / unspecified
- Discipline
- Astronomy & Cosmology
- Evidence
- Documented
- Confidence
- Medium
- Verification
- Reference-cited
Meanwhile in the West
Hipparchus described precession around 130 BCE.
Fair to say
Not the first discovery of precession; Indian values and models were independent in detail.
Path to modern innovation
Still used in sidereal calendar systems.
References
- 1Plofker (2009)
Further reading
Corrections and additional sources: edit IND-271 on GitHub.