The Sun Treatise

The work was prepared and handed over to the Institute. Shri Shrikrishna Srivastava, a retired judge and son of the late Mahavir Prasad Srivastava, took a personal interest in this endeavor. Dr. Shivgopal Mishra, the General Secretary of the Science Council Vigyan Parishad, carried out the proof-correction of the entire text himself with great diligence and devotion. The original Sanskrit text of the Surya Siddhanta The Sun Doctrine, a foundational astronomical treatise is provided here based on the version edited by Professor Kripashankar Shukla of Lucknow University. We also received significant assistance in refining the text from our senior member, Pandit Omkarnath Sharma. We are grateful to all of them.

The late Shri Srivastava had written an extensive introduction (43 pages long) for the book, which was published with the final volume in 1940. Regrettably, this introduction could not be included in its entirety in the current edition. We are providing only some essential portions of it here. The late Shri Srivastava also provided extremely useful material on Indian astronomy in the book "Saral Vigyansagar" The Simple Ocean of Science, 1946, published by the Science Council of Prayag. It would be excellent if that material could be published separately.

The late Shri Mahavir Prasad Srivastava dedicated this scientific commentary Vigyan-Bhashya to his late, revered father. The words of the dedication were: "In holy memory of my respected father, at whose feet I learned my first lesson in mathematics."

Dr. Ratnakumari Swadhyay Sansthan,
Prayag
15 March 1982