India’s first satellite launched in 1975 was named after Ārybahaṭa!
If you are wondering why then read these two statements made over 1000s of years apart!
Ārybahaṭa I, the great Indian wrote this “As a man in a boat going forward sees a stationary object moving backward just so in Sri-Lanka a man sees the stationary asterisms (stars) moving backward exactly toward the West.”
About one millennium after this Copernicus said, “For when a ship is floating calmly along, the sailors see its motion mirrored in everything outside, while on the other hand they suppose that they are stationary, together with everything on board. In that same way, the motion of the earth can unquestionably produce the impression that the entire universe is rotating.”
When you see the similarity of these statements you would realize that the fact that great minds do think alike!
Now you must also know that the observations by Ārybahaṭa I was made without any telescope or special instruments!
This is not his only contribution! He has several!
Aryabhata’s, in his work Aryabhatiya (499 CE), provided several key findings that were advanced for his time!
Aryabhata proposed that the daily rotation of the Earth on its axis causes the apparent movement of the stars, rather than the sky itself revolving around the Earth!
He gave a scientific Explanation of Eclipses and correctly explained that lunar and solar eclipses are caused by the shadows cast by the Earth and the Moon!
He also stated that the Moon and planets do not have their own light but reflect sunlight!
Another amazing thing is how you struggle to calculate the area of your house while he calculated the Earth’s circumference to be about 24,835 miles which is remarkably close to the modern value of 24,902 miles!
Finally he estimated the sidereal rotation as 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds and deduced the value of Pi to four decimal places 3.1416!
Sometimes great minds and those who can do, are not limited by instruments!
Of course some great minds are instrumental in some pretty entertaining movies like Hero and Ram Lakhan! Of course that was because growing up I was a big fan of Jaggu dada! Hero and Ram Lakhan though were super entertaining cause of Subhash Ghai!
Now stare into the sky and sleep!
Shubh ratri!
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