Indian astronomy reached China with the expansion of Buddhism during the Later Han (25–220 CE)
Sylvie Cauville of the Centre for Computer-aided Egyptological Research at Utrecht University and Éric Aubourg dated the Dendera Zodiac to 50 BC through an examination of the configuration it shows of the five planets known to the Egyptians, a configuration that occurs once every thousand years, and the identification of two eclipses. The solar eclipse indicates the date of March 7, 51 BC: it is represented by a circle containing the goddess Isis liking an animal (wild boar) by the tail. The lunar eclipse indicates the date of September 25, 52 BC: it is represented by an Eye of Horus locked into a circle.
Claudius Ptolemy (/ˈtɒləmi/; Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, Klaudios Ptolemaios, [kláwdios ptolɛmɛ́ːos]; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus; c. AD 90 – c. 168) was a Greco-Egyptian writer of Alexandria, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology.[1][2] He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Greek, and held Roman citizenship.
The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China is most commonly thought to have started in the late 2nd or the 1st century CE, though the literary sources are all open to question. The first documented translation efforts by foreign Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin. In the 2nd century CE, Mahayana Sutras spread to China, and then to Korea and Japan, and were translated into Chinese. During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.
The development of Chinese astrology is tied to that of astronomy, which came to flourish during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD). During the Han period the familiar elements of traditional Chinese culture - the Yin-Yang philosophy, theory of the 5 elements, Heaven and Earth, Confucian morality - were brought together to formalize the philosophical principles of Chinese medicine and divination, astrology and alchemy.
The Pauliśa Siddhānta (literally, "The scientific-treatise of Pauliśa Muni") refers to multiple Indian astronomical treatises, at least one of which is based on a Western source. "Siddhānta" literally means "doctrine" or "tradition". It is often mistakenly thought to be a single work and attributed to Paul of Alexandria (c. 378 CE).[1] However, this notion has been rejected by other scholars in the field, notably by David Pingree who stated that "...the identification of Paulus Alexandrinus with the author of the Pauliśa Siddhānta is totally false". Similarly, K. V. Sarma writes that it is from a Greek source, known only as Pauliśa. The earlier Pauliśa-siddhānta dates from the third or fourth century, and the later Pauliśa-siddhānta from the eighth century. It follows the Yavanajātaka ("Saying of the Greek") as an example of the transmission of Western astronomical knowledge (especially the Alexandrian school) to India during the first centuries of our era. The Pauliśa Siddhānta was particularly influential on the work of the Indian astronomer Varāhamihira. It was considered as one of "The Five Astronomical Canons" in India in the 5th century.
Further translation of Indian works on astronomy was completed in China by the Three Kingdoms era (220–265 CE)
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[5] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[5] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2). (circa 500 BCE). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda",[7] itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these facts, which over time have been forgotten and presumably then in purely oral form. Importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24. According to Pargiter,[8] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[10] Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.[11]
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[5] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[5] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2). (circa 500 BCE). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda",[7] itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these facts, which over time have been forgotten and presumably then in purely oral form. Importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24. According to Pargiter,[8] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[10] Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.
The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to the cultures and cosmological ideas of Syria, Babylon, Persia and central Asia. Greek overtook cuneiform script as the international language of intellectual communication and part of this process was the transmission of astrology from Cuneiform to Greek. Sometime around 280 BCE, Berossus, a priest of Bel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island of Kos in order to teach astrology and Babylonian culture to the Greeks. With this, what Campion calls, ‘the innovative energy’ in astrology moved west to the Hellenistic world of Greece and Egypt. According to Campion, the astrology that arrived from the East was marked by its complexity, with different forms of astrology emerging. By the 1st century BCE two varieties of astrology were in existence, one that required the reading of horoscopes in order to establish precise details about the past, present and future, the other being theurgic, meaning literally ‘god-work’, and emphasised the soul’s ascent to the stars. While they were not mutually exclusive, the former sought information about the life, while the latter was concerned with personal transformation, where astrology served as a form of dialogue with the divine.
The Hammat Synagogue from 4th c. Tiberias.
The Ptolemaic Kingdom (/ˌtɒləˈmeɪ.ɪk/; Greek: Πτολεμαϊκὴ βασιλεία, Ptolemaïkḕ Basileía)[2] was a Hellenistic kingdom in Egypt. It was ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty that Ptolemy I Soter founded after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC—which ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BC.
After the occupation by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, Egypt came under Greek rule and influence. The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander after the conquest and during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, the scholars of Alexandria were prolific writers. It was in 'Alexandrian Egypt' that Babylonian astrology was mixed with the Egyptian tradition of Decanic astrology to create Horoscopic astrology. This contained the Babylonian zodiac with its system of planetary exaltations, the triplicities of the signs and the importance of eclipses. Along with this it incorporated the Egyptian concept of dividing the zodiac into thirty-six decans of ten degrees each, with an emphasis on the rising decan, the Greek system of planetary Gods, sign rulership and four elements.
Mesopotamia conquered by Alexander. Cuneiform literature still copied and preserved in the temples and scholarly libraries. The laste cuneiform tablets were made in the first century of the Christian era. Depictions of constellation figures fro Uruk
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[5] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[5] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2). (circa 500 BCE). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda",[7] itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these facts, which over time have been forgotten and presumably then in purely oral form. Importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24. According to Pargiter,[8] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[10] Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[5] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[5] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2). (circa 500 BCE). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda",[7] itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these facts, which over time have been forgotten and presumably then in purely oral form. Importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24. According to Pargiter,[8] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[10] Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.
Indian astronomy was influenced by Greek astronomy beginning in the 4th century BCE and through the early centuries of the Common Era, for example by the Yavanajataka and the Romaka Siddhanta, a Sanskrit translation of a Greek text disseminated from the 2nd century. The Yavanajātaka ("Sayings of the Greeks") was translated from Greek to Sanskrit by Yavaneśvara during the 2nd century CE, under the patronage of the Western Satrap Saka king Rudradaman I, and is considered the first Indian astrological treatise in the Sanskrit language. However the only version that survives is the later verse version of Sphujidhvaja which dates to AD 270.
The Zodiac mosaic (Severus Synagogue): One of the most important archaeological findings in the Jewish history. This was a grand synagogue, dated to the Byzantine period (5th C), and named after its builder (Severus), who is mentioned in an inscription in one of its rooms. On its floor is a well preserved colorful mosaic floor, illustrating a Zodiac, inscriptions, and symbols. The photo shows the view of the mosaic floor. In is composed of three panels
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[5] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[5] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2). (circa 500 BCE). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda",[7] itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these facts, which over time have been forgotten and presumably then in purely oral form. Importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24. According to Pargiter,[8] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[10] Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[5] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[5] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2). (circa 500 BCE). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda",[7] itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these facts, which over time have been forgotten and presumably then in purely oral form. Importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24. According to Pargiter,[8] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[10] Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.
Born prob. Ashmaka 476 CE Died550 CE, Aryabhata (Sanskrit: आर्यभट; IAST: Āryabhaṭa) or Aryabhata I was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His works include the Āryabhaṭīya (499 CE, when he was 23 years old) and the Arya-siddhanta. The works of Aryabhata dealt with mainly mathematics and astronomy.
Varāhamihira (Devanagari: वराहमिहिर) (505–587 CE), also called Varaha or Mihir, was an Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer who lived in Ujjain. He was the first one to mention in his work Pañcasiddhāntikā that the ayanamsa, or the shifting of the equinox, is 50.32 seconds. He was also an astrologer. He wrote on all the three main branches of Jyotisha astrology: Brihat Jataka - is considered as one of the five main treatises on Hindu astrology on horoscopy; Laghu Jataka - also known as 'Swalpa Jataka'; Samasa Samhita - also known as 'Lagu Samhita' or 'Swalpa Samhita'; Brihat Yogayatra - also known as 'Mahayatra' or 'Yakshaswamedhiya yatra'; Yoga Yatra - also known as 'Swalpa yatra'; Tikkani Yatra; Brihat Vivaha Patal; Lagu Vivaha Patal - also known as 'Swalpa Vivaha Patal'; Lagna Varahi; Kutuhala Manjari; Daivajna Vallabha (apocryphal). Varahamihira's main work is the book Pañcasiddhāntikā (or Pancha-Siddhantika, "[Treatise] on the Five [Astronomical] Canons) dated ca. 575 CE gives us information about older Indian texts which are now lost. The work is a treatise on mathematical astronomy and it summarises five earlier astronomical treatises, namely the Surya Siddhanta, Romaka Siddhanta, Paulisa Siddhanta, Vasishtha Siddhanta and Paitamaha Siddhantas. It is a compendium of Vedanga Jyotisha as well as Hellenistic astronomy (including Greek, Egyptian and Roman elements).
Beth Alpha dates to about 520 C.E
Dominance of Aramaic language, Creation of zodiac, First horoscopes
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[5] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[5] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2). (circa 500 BCE). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda",[7] itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these facts, which over time have been forgotten and presumably then in purely oral form. Importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24. According to Pargiter,[8] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[10] Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.
Brahmagupta (Sanskrit: ब्रह्मगुप्त) (598–c.670 CE) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer who wrote two important works on Mathematics and Astronomy: the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (Extensive Treatise of Brahma) (628), a theoretical treatise, and the Khaṇḍakhādyaka, a more practical text. There are reasons to believe that Brahmagupta originated from Bhinmal. Brahmagupta was the first to give rules to compute with zero. The texts composed by Brahmagupta were composed in elliptic verse, as was common practice in Indian mathematics, and consequently has a poetic ring to it.
The Horāshastra is a composite work of 71 chapters, of which the first part (chapters 1–51) dates to the 7th to early 8th centuries and the second part (chapters 52–71) to the later 8th century.
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[5] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[5] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2). (circa 500 BCE). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda",[7] itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these facts, which over time have been forgotten and presumably then in purely oral form. Importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24. According to Pargiter,[8] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[10] Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.
The most detailed incorporation of Indian astronomy occurred during the Tang Dynasty (618–907) when a number of Chinese scholars—such as Yi Xing— were versed both in Indian and Chinese astronomy.
End of Ziggurat construction, spoken Akkadian dying out, VR 46, Gu-text, Astrological diaries
Bhāskara I (629 CE) authored the astronomical works Mahabhaskariya (Great Book of Bhaskara), Laghubhaskariya (Small Book of Bhaskara), and the Aryabhatiyabhashya (629 CE)—a commentary on the Āryabhatīya. Hayashi (2008) writes 'Planetary longitudes, heliacal rising and setting of the planets, conjunctions among the planets and stars, solar and lunar eclipses, and the phases of the Moon are among the topics Bhaskara discusses in his astronomical treatises.'
King Ashurbanipal (ca. 668-627 B.C.) was the ruler of ancient Assyria at the height of Assyrian military and cultural accomplishments. He is known in Greek writings as Sardanapalus and as Asnappeer or Osnapper in the Bible.
The work referred to by the title Surya Siddhanta has been repeatedly recast. There may have been an early work under that title dating back to the Buddhist Age of India (3rd century BC). The work as preserved and edited by Burgess (1860) dates to the Middle Ages. Utpala, a 10th-century commentator of Varahamihira, quotes six shlokas of the Surya Siddhanta of his day, not one of which is to be found in the text now known as the Surya Siddhanta. The present version was modified by Bhaskaracharya during the Middle Ages.[citation needed] The present Surya Siddhanta may nevertheless be considered a direct descendant of the text available to Varahamihira.But considering its relationship with Vedanga Jothisha, this book should have been written well before the Buddhist age i.e., around 700 BCE
The period of assimilation and syncretisation of earlier Hellenistic, Indian, and Sassanid astronomy. The first astronomical texts that were translated into Arabic were of Indian and Persian origin. The most notable of the texts was Zij al-Sindhind,[n 1] an 8th-century Indian astronomical work that was translated by Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari and Yaqub ibn Tariq after 770 CE under the supervision of an Indian astronomer who visited the court of caliph Al-Mansur in 770. Another text translated was the Zij al-Shah, a collection of astronomical tables (based on Indian parameters) compiled in Sasanid Persia over two centuries. Fragments of texts during this period indicate that Arabs adopted the sine function (inherited from India) in place of the chords of arc used in Greek trigonometry.[11]
Gautama Siddha, (fl. 8th century) astronomer, astrologer and compiler of Indian descent, known for leading the compilation of the Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era during the Tang Dynasty. He was born in Chang'an, and his family was originally from India, according to a tomb stele uncovered in 1977 in Xi'an. The Gautama family had probably settled in China over many generations, and might have been present in China prior even to the foundation of the Tang Dynasty. He was most notable for his translation of Navagraha calendar into Chinese. He also introduced Indian numerals with zero (〇) in 718 in China as a replacement of counting rods.
A system of Indian astronomy was recorded in China as Jiuzhi-li (718 CE), the author of which was an Indian by the name of Qutan Xida—a translation of Devanagari Gotama Siddha—the director of the Tang dynasty's national astronomical observatory.
Lalla (c. 720–790 CE) was an Indian mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer who belonged to a family of astronomers. His most famous work was titled Śiṣya-dhī-vṛddhida-tantra, or "Treatise which expands the intellect of students." This text is one of the first major Sanskrit astronomical texts known from the period following the 7th-century works of Brahmagupta and Bhāskara I. Lalla's other works such as his text, " Jyotiṣaratnakośa" or "Treasury of Jewels", is his treatise on catarchic astrology. This work is one of the earliest known Sanskrit astrological works for determining auspicious and inauspicious times. No edition of this text has ever been published while the known manuscripts are incomplete. In his work, Lalla drew on his predecessors Āryabhaṭa, Brahmagupta, and Bhāskara I. In turn, he influenced later generations of astronomers, including Śrīpati, Vaṭeśvara, and Bhāskara II (who later wrote a commentary on the Śiṣyadhīvṛddhidatantra).His works include Jyotiṣaratnakośa, one of the most popular astronomy book in India for 300 years; A commentary on Brahmagupta's Khandakhadyaka, now lost; orks at cartoon chynals
Abu Macshar al-Balkhi (787–886)
Abū Maʿshar, Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī (also known as al-Falakī or Ibn Balkhī, Latinized as Albumasar, Albusar, or Albuxar) (10 August 787 in Balkh, Khurasan – 9 March 886 in Wāsiṭ, Iraq), was a Persian astrologer, astronomer, and Islamic philosopher, thought to be the greatest astrologer of the Abbasid court in Baghdad. He wrote a number of practical manuals on astrology that profoundly influenced Muslim intellectual history and, through translations, that of western Europe and Byzantium.
The Sārāvalī of Kalyāṇavarman is a foundational compilation of Indian astrology, dating to ca. 800 CE, somewhat post-dating the Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra An English translation was published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari in 1961 (in two volumes. 1983 reprint by Renjan Publications).
During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.
Abu Bakr al-Hassan ibn al-Khasib, also al-Khaseb, Albubather in Latin, was a Persian physician and astrologer of the 9th century. He wrote in Persian and Arabic and is best known by his work De nativitatibus which was translated into Latin by Canonicus Salio in Padua 1218, and was also translated into Hebrew.
This period of vigorous investigation, in which the superiority of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy was accepted and significant contributions made to it. However, Dallal notes that the use of parameters, sources and calculation methods from different scientific traditions made the Ptolemaic tradition "receptive right from the beginning to the possibility of observational refinement and mathematical restructuring". Astronomical research was greatly supported by the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun through The House of Wisdom. Baghdad and Damascus became the centers of such activity. The caliphs not only supported this work financially, but endowed the work with formal prestige. The first major Muslim work of astronomy was Zij al-Sindh by al-Khwarizmi in 830. The work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. The work is significant as it introduced Ptolemaic concepts into Islamic sciences. This work also marks the turning point in Islamic astronomy. Hitherto, Muslim astronomers had adopted a primarily research approach to the field, translating works of others and learning already discovered knowledge. Al-Khwarizmi's work marked the beginning of nontraditional methods of study and calculations. In 850, al-Farghani wrote Kitab fi Jawani (meaning "A compendium of the science of stars"). The book primarily gave a summary of Ptolemic cosmography. However, it also corrected Ptolemy based on findings of earlier Arab astronomers. Al-Farghani gave revised values for the obliquity of the ecliptic, the precessional movement of the apogees of the sun and the moon, and the circumference of the earth. The book was widely circulated through the Muslim world, and even translated into Latin.
Vaṭeśvara (वटेश्वर) (born 880), a tenth-century Indian mathematician from Kashmir who presented several trigonometric identities. He was the author (at the age of 24) of Vaṭeśvara-siddhānta written in 904 AD, a treatise focusing on astronomy and applied mathematics.
Use of first coins, rise of the Aramaic language and a syllabic writing system, earliest copies of Mul.Apin, State Archives of Assyria, Weidner Star-text that describes the constellation figures. Records of eclipses, Religion dominated by demonic powers in the underworld
Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. There have been many attempts to unravel its historical growth and compositional layers. The oldest preserved parts of the text are thought to be not much older than around 400 BCE, though the origins of the epic probably fall between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. The text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE). The title may be translated as "the great tale of the Bhārata dynasty". According to the Mahabharata itself, the tale is extended from a shorter version of 24,000 verses called simply Bhārata.
Kalyana Varma, the famous author Saravali belonged to the 10th century AD. He was the king of a place called Vyaghrapada, believed to be somewhere in Madhya Pradesh. From the verses in this work it is obvious that he has studied the works of Parashara, Varahamihira and Yavana etc before him, and as he felt that they were too brief, he decided to elaborate the principles. Saravali indeed is a monumental work and the study of it is a must for the serious students of astrology.
'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Persian: عبدالرحمن صوفی) (December 9, 903. Rey, Iran – May 25, 986. Shiraz, Iran) was a Persian Muslim astronomer also known as 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi, or 'Abd al-Rahman Abu al-Husayn, 'Abdul Rahman Sufi, 'Abdurrahman Sufi and known in the west as Azophi. The lunar crater Azophi and the minor planet 12621 Alsufi are named after him. Al-Sufi published his famous Book of Fixed Stars in 964, describing much of his work, both in textual descriptions and pictures. Biruni reports that his work on the ecliptic was carried out in Shiraz. He identified the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is visible from Yemen, though not from Isfahan; it was not seen by Europeans until Magellan's voyage in the 16th century. He also made the earliest recorded observation of the Andromeda Galaxy in 964 AD; describing it as a "small cloud". These were the first galaxies other than the Milky Way to be observed from Earth. He observed that the ecliptic plane is inclined with respect to the celestial equator and more accurately calculated the length of the tropical year. He observed and described the stars, their positions, their magnitudes and their colour, setting out his results constellation by constellation. For each constellation, he provided two drawings, one from the outside of a celestial globe, and the other from the inside (as seen from the earth). Al-Sufi also wrote about the astrolabe, finding numerous additional uses for it : he described over 1000 different uses, in areas as diverse as astronomy, astrology, horoscopes, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, Qibla, Salat prayer, etc.
Abū al-Rayhān Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bīrūnī (born 4/5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm, died 13 December 1048 in Ghazni) known as Alberonius in Latin and Al-Biruni in English, was a Persian Muslim scholar and polymath from the Khwarezm region. Al-Biruni is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of the medieval Islamic era and was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist. He was conversant in Khwarezmian, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and also knew Greek, Hebrew and Syriac. He spent a large part of his life in Ghazni in modern-day Afghanistan, capital of the Ghaznavid dynasty which was based in what is now central-eastern Afghanistan. In 1017 he traveled to the Indian subcontinent and became the most important interpreter of Indian science to the Islamic world. He is given the titles the "founder of Indology". He was an impartial writer on custom and creeds of various nations, and was given the title al-Ustadh ("The Master") for his remarkable description of early 11th-century India. He also made contributions to Earth sciences, and is regarded as the "father of geodesy" for his important contributions to that field, along with his significant contributions to geography. Ninety-five of 146 books known to have been written by Bīrūnī, were devoted to astronomy, mathematics, and related subjects like mathematical geography.[16] Biruni's major work on astrology[17] is primarily an astronomical and mathematical text, only the last chapter concerns astrological prognostication. His endorsement of astrology is limited, in so far as he condemns horary astrology[18] as 'sorcery'.
Abu'l Hasan Ali ibn Ridwan Al-Misri (c. 988 - c. 1061) was an Egyptian Muslim physician, astrologer and astronomer, born in Giza. He was a commentator on ancient Greek medicine, and in particular on Galen; his commentary on Galen's Ars Parva was translated by Gerardo Cremonese. However, he is better known for providing the most detailed description of the supernova now known as SN 1006, the brightest stellar event in recorded history, which he observed in the year 1006. This was written in a commentary on Ptolemy's work Tetrabiblos.
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