Hindu Astronomy. London: Cha[rle]s Straker & Sons, Ltd., 1896.
First edition.
Octavo. xiv, [ii], 256, 277-329, [1] pp., complete with errata slip tipped in facing page 256, indicating the printer’s error in omitting 20 pages from the pagination. With 14 plates and numerous text illustrations. Blue pebbled publisher’s cloth, decorated in black & gilt. Aside from some very light rubbing to extremities, a very good uncut copy, from the library of J.E. Gould, with his ownership inscription to title as well as a modern ownership inscription to fly-leaf.
First edition. Widely considered one of the best works in the field, this work covers a variety of topics, ranging from the pre-historic observations of the Aryan tribes, the Hindu calendar, their theory of planetary motions, their astronomical instruments including the armillary sphere and the Chakra, to their mathematics. The contributions of early Hindu astronomers such as Parasa, Varaha Mihira, Aryabhaita and Garg are covered, as are some of the more important early Hindu texts on astronomy, including the Siddhantas. Of special interest are the chapters which discuss the effects of Buddhism as well as the restoration of Brahmin power. F. Leigh Gardner, in his Bibiliotheca Astrologica refers to this books as “A fine work on the subject and one of the best I know; it deals very fully with all the details.â€
Gardner, Bibliotheca Astrologica, 173
ID:
3421
$
400