Sanskrit Astronomical Tables

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction

   • Clemency Montelle, Kim Plofker

   Pages 1-36

3. Content and classification of table texts

   • Clemency Montelle, Kim Plofker

   Pages 37-69

4. Table-text manuscripts

   • Clemency Montelle, Kim Plofker

   Pages 71-94

5. Elements of table texts

   • Clemency Montelle, Kim Plofker

   Pages 95-187

6. The evolution of the table-text genre

   • Clemency Montelle, Kim Plofker

   Pages 189-241

7. Further explorations

   • Clemency Montelle, Kim Plofker

   Pages 243-257

8. Back Matter

   Pages 259-308

   PDF

This groundbreaking volume provides an up-to-date, accessible guide to Sanskrit astronomical tables and their analysis. It begins with an overview of Indian mathematical astronomy and its literature, including table texts, in the context of history of pre-modern astronomy. It then discusses the primary mathematical astronomy content of table texts and the attempted taxonomy of this genre before diving into the broad outlines of their representation in the Sanskrit scientific manuscript corpus. Finally, the authors survey the major categories of individual tables compiled in these texts, complete with brief analyses of some of the methods for constructing and using them, and then chronicle the evolution of the table-text genre and the impacts of its changing role on the discipline of Sanskrit jyotiṣa. There are also three appendices: one inventories all the identified individual works in the genre currently known to the authors; one provides reference information about the details of all the notational, calendric, astronomical, and other classification systems invoked in the study; and one serves as a glossary of the relevant Sanskrit terms.

• pre-modern astronomy
• Islamic tables
• Synodic phenomena
• ecliptic declination
• lunar parallax

“This is an extremely well-written and useful book. Thanks to its systematic approach and the very readable introductory chapter it has to offer something for every reader interested in one of the numerous aspects of Sanskrit mathematical astronomy.” (Benno van Dalen, zbMATH 1459.01001, 2021)

“The book is rich in various technical details from mathematical astronomy that serious students and researchers would benefit from. There is nevertheless a good deal of material that would be accessible to a wider class of readers. … The book under review will no doubt inspire further studies on the topic, serving in particular as a source of technical support for them, and thereby expand the horizons of thetopic.” (S. G. Dani, Mathematical Reviews, April, 2020)

“The authors and the publisher are to be congratulated for bringing to the market and our reference shelves a thorough, well-organized, deeply-researched, and beautifully presented book. … I am by no means qualified to comment on the particulars of the authors’ analyses of the manuscripts they examined. I can say that I enjoyed reading the book and that it broadened my thinking about what mathematics is and what mathematicians do.” (Scott Guthery, MAA Reviews, August 24, 2019)

• Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

  Clemency Montelle

• Department of Mathematics, Union College, Schenectady, USA

  Kim Plofker

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