Preface

The more ancient a branch of knowledge or a race is, the more shrouded in darkness its earliest history remains. The ancient civilization of the Indo-Aryans—their knowledge, intellect, discernment, and the antiquity of their religious institutions—has been proved beyond dispute by numerous evidences. Even today, the evolutionoriginal: "vikash"; here referring to the unfolding or discovery of historical layers of various archaeological elements before the public continues to be unanimously honored as a source of traditional pride. Nevertheless, a continuous and factual understanding of the ancient state of sciences, arts, and skills, and their gradual progress or decline, remains nearly impossible. In many instances, one must be satisfied with mere conjecture. As with other sciences, the history of Astronomyoriginal: "Jyotish-shastra"; the traditional Indian science of celestial observation and time-keeping suffers the same fate. This is because countless "jewels" among manuscripts can no longer be traced. Many that do exist in domestic or foreign royal libraries remain inaccessible to the general public. One gains only a nominal knowledge of them by scanning through vast catalogs.

The most ancient text of the Indo-Aryans is the RigvedaThe oldest of the four Vedas, the foundational scriptures of Hinduism. In the Vedas, the SamhitasThe core ritual hymns of the Vedas, and the Aranyakas"Forest Books" containing philosophical interpretations of rituals, discussions of astronomy are found in the form of aphorisms as the context requires. Ancient and modern commentators have detailed these in various ways, and there has been no lack of arbitrary attempts to harmonize ancient and modern scientific thoughts. The primary objective of this was, and remains, to show that our ancestral sages and seers were seers of the three periods of timeoriginal: "Trikaldarshi"; those who can perceive the past, present, and future;