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Techkriti 2013

Cosmology Presentation

Rahul, Saurabh, Rama Prasad, Pranjul

16 March, 2013

1 Overview of Presentation

1. What is cosmology? Human is a curious creature, he wants to understand and make sense of the

things that are around him, DIFFERENT FROM ASTRONOMY IN THE SENSE THAT ITS DEALS

WITH THE MEASUREMENT OF THE STARS IN THE SKY THEIR MOVEMENT AS A FUNCTION OF

TIME, BUT COSMOLOGY ITSELF DEALS WITH THEIR VERY EXISTENCE

a) Etymology: (Cosmo + Logos) study of cosmos, the universe we are in its existence time evolu-

tion etc.

b) History of development

i. Geocentric approach: maintained by ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle, later given

as a working model by Ptolemy in the form of epicycles, but because of some observations

like retrograde motion of planets like mars etc. a more simple model was soughtii. Heliocentric approach: it has been said that that Copercinus was the first person to start

this paradigm but history shows that this ideas was prevailing before him too

c) Galileo Galili: Observations and not dialects must be the basis of science, he observed the

moons of Jupiter Ganimide, Europa etc. orbitting Jupiter but not Earth, so according to him

it proves the Heliocentric model.

2. Modern viewpoint: Cosmological principle was put forward, so that GTR equations

R1

2gR=

8G

c4T (1.1)

could be solved[1], which is the assumption that universe when the length scales like megaparsecs

are considered is

a) Isotropic: it looks the same in all directions

b) Homogeneous: it looks the same at every place

If it was only isotropy then the center of the universe would have made sense, but because of

homegeneity considered there can be no center of the universe. In case of isotropy there could have

been only one center, but because of homogeneity this cant be possible. So accoriding to modern

theories universe doesnt have a center at all.

3. An observation can be made that all motion is relative due to which one cant tell for example the

real path of the ball dropped from a train for an observer in the train it would be a straight line

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but for an observer outside it would be a parabola, but both of them given the initial conditions will

lead to the same conclusions as to what point the ball will hit the ground. Its not the case that the

observations of the trains observer are more real than the one on the platform for example. How to

decide what is a good theory or model1, these are the criterions[2]

4. Vedic model also has these capabilities (somewhat)!! Before that here are some of the salient features

of the model

2 Summary Study

Introduction

1. Mahmud a muslim king emplyed Alberuni who completed a book on Hindus in A.D. 1000, almost

half of his book is concerned with the information related to Hindu astronomy and cosmology

2. Sources of Indian astronomy: mainly concerned with the calculation of planets at any desired time

a) Puran. as such as Matsya,Vayu or Bhagavat

b) Jyotis.a sastra, one of their important division is siddhantas which include the work of Indian

mathematicians like Aryabhat.a, Brahmagupta etc. They have the enormous information related

to distances, sizes etc. but have little information about their origin and the cause of their

motion

3. Because of his incomprehensibility of the scriptures he criticize them claimin the superiority of his

own Muslim tradition

4. One probles deals with that of the relation between the sizes ofBhu-Man. d. ala and that of the Earth

5. The apparent contradictions between the empirical findings and the Vedic model can be reconciledby developing a proper understanding of space, time and matter and by following a different sort of

appraoch to describe and thinking about reality.

6. Both things the siddantas and the Puranas are an integral part for studying the cosmology, nothing

cant be left; because the siddhantas are a part of Puranic literature, to reject them means that we

are claiming that siddhantas are products of Greek genius from whom Indian priests borrowed the

stuff.

7. Vedic cosmology presents the description of the universe in which not everything isnt describable

but only that part is present which is comprehensible by a human

8. Quantum theory says about the wave and particle aspects of matter both of which cant be reconciled

together in classical physics, to unite them together one must go to a higher dimensional level of

mathematical abstraction

9. May be the universe is beyond our 3-D world and is itself of higher dimensions.

10. Arya and Siddhanta siromani were the names of the works by Aryabhata and Bhaskaracarya

11. Some of the topics covered in Surya Siddhanta are as follows:

a) computation of mean and true positions of the planets in the sky

b) determination of the latitude and the longitudes

1This term needs some explanation, realism must be explained!!

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c) prediction of partial and full solar and lunar eclipsed

d) prediction of conjunction of stars and other planets

e) calculation of rising and setting times of planets and stars

f) calcualtion of moons phases etc.....

Solar System According to Surya Siddhanta

This helps one to calculate the positions of sun, moon, mars, mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn

given their positions at any particular time

In the surya siddhanta the information is given in terms of divya-yuga which is equal to 4,320,000

years and is same as the time the earth takes to revolve around the sun according to the geocentric

model

According to Surya Siddhanta ther eare 1,577,917,828 solar days2 per divya-yuga

Ascending node of the moon is the point of intersection of the line and motion of the moon when it

moves from southern to northern hemisphere

Surya Siddhanta says that Rahu lies in the direction of moons ascending node

Opinion of Western Scholars

The siddhantas do not acknowledge any foreign influence due to which Western scholars accuse

them of chauvinism

We may claim that genuine traditions of astronmy exited both in India and eastern mediterranean

and that the charge of unacknowledged cultural borrowing are unwarranted

Vedic Calender and Astrology

Siddhantas contain the procedures of calculating the sterrial positions but if it is true that the Vedas

are quite older than them and if the Siddhantas have been derived from them then Vedas must also

have this sort of information

The Starting Date of Kali-Yuga

At the start of the Kali-Yuga the seven planets were all aligned with the star piscium, this is called

as Revati and is used as zero point in measuring celestial longitudes, at that time Rahus positionwas 180 from this star

According to this the Kali Yuga started on 18 Feb 3102 BCE.

Where as some refer to this date as 3101 BCE.

For observing the heavens Indians also had some elaborate machinary for example in Banaras we

had a structure about which two Englishmen claimed to be 200 years old in 1772

2solar day is the time from sun rise to sunrise

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Distances and Sizes of the Planets

The procedure for calculating the sizes of the planets was encoded in a verse of the seventh chapter

of the surya siddhanta

Method similar to that of Eratosthenes was used by Indian astronomers to calculate the radius of theEarth

Theyve also measured the sizes of different planets but there is quite devaition from the modern

measured values

The Size of the Universe

Srimad Bhagavatam says 500,000,000 yojanas to be the diameter of the universe which is same as

4,000,000,000 miles

Surya Siddhanta (SS) 12.90 says that circumference of the universe in which suns rays spread is

18,712,080,864,000,000 yojanas

2.1 Vedic Physics the Nature of Space, Time and Matter

The thesis of this chapter is that the realm of modern physics is too limited to accomodate many phe-

nomenon that occur with in this universe.

Extending our physical world view

The sloka 3.26.34 is a potential candidate of great scientific research work

The sum of atomic numbers of Cu and Sn leads to the atomic number of Au

The Position of Krsna

Descartes and Newton held the position that space is 3D something absolute in which all the materil

events take place

Notion of higher dimensional space may be used to bridge the gaps between modern thinking and

Vedic literature

Because God has access to many points simultaneously therefore the space in which He resides must

be of higher dimension such that this kind of simultaneous access is possible

There is a hierarchy of dimensional levels with in the universe and beings on one particular level

can operate with in a larger continuum than beings on lower levels

Does that mean that whatever is not visible to us lies in some hidden dimension, as some of the

dimensions of the string theory are hidden?

2.2 Vedic Cosmography

Material cosmos are an unlimited ocean situated with in a small part of the unlimited spiritual world

Bhu Mandala or the eartly planetary system is a flat disc with a diameter of 4109 miles

Bhagavatam describes the topography of earths surface by depicting the mountains, rivers etc. that

on the cosmic scale

Detailed sketches of the structure of the Bhu-Mandala and that of inner most dvipa the Jambudvipa.

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2.3 Origins Magazine

Scientists attempt to udnerstand the origin of the universe in physical terms is based on three

assumptions

all phenomenon can be completely explained in terms of the natural laws expressed in thelanguage of mathematics

physical laws apply everywhere and at all times

fundamental natural laws are simple

The dreaded singularity cant be explained

3 Some of the obvious questions

1. What is the classification of Vedic literature that deals with astronomy, cosmology etc?

2. What does switching in the interpretation of the cycles 1 and 2 imply in case of table 3 and table 4

of the book

3. Is it possible that they had taken precession of earth into account for their pancangas.

4. How were the measurements done? Many a times it has been seen that they are measuring the

circumference, how can you measure this thing directly, and why would you even do so?

4 Way of Reasoning the stuff

Indologists claimed that Vedic literature is a total fraud by say invoking the Aryan Invasion theory

References

[1] Cosmology, Coles, Lucchin, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 3

[2] The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking, L. Mlodinow, Bantam Books Publications pp. 68-69

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