Beginnings of Indian and Chinese Calendrical Astronomy

Journal of the American Oriental Society 134 (1):107 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Calendrical astronomy had a parallel but separate development in China and in India. Both were eventually lunisolar and utilized circumpolar stars, which made Ursa Major and the pole star ideologically important. Initially the Early Harappans could orient their towns according to cardinal directions and the sun probably symbolized the king. Their calendar was heliacal with Aldebaran as the new year star. Indus Civilization created the lunisolar calendar, the nakṣatras, started the new year with the Pleiades, used the gnomon, and knew planets. “Bull of Heaven” and “Sky Garment” were borrowings from Mesopotamia. The paper also deals with the heavenly crocodile and its connection with crocodile cult, the Śunaḥśepa legend, and God Varuṇa’s heavenly banyan tree, which is connected with the pole star’s Dravidian name and its function in Purāṇic cosmology.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,885

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-06-30

Downloads
43 (#566,335)

6 months
11 (#316,917)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references