Abstract Details
| Name: TV Venkateswaran Affiliation: Vigyan Prasar Conference ID: ASI2015_503 Title : Raghunathachari and his 'scientific' panchanks Authors and Co-Authors : nil Abstract Type : Poster Abstract Category : Other Abstract : Chinthamani Raghunathachari, hailed as first Indian member of the Royal Astronomical Society and employee of the Madras astronomical observatory argued for reform of the traditional Indian calenders (panchanks). Displeased with the errors in the traditional panchanks, he took upon himself to publish 'scientific' panchank in various south Indian languages including Tamil around 1880s. These almanacs alluded to the traditional panchanks (calender/year book) and drew upon elements of the 'almanacs' published by the British settlers in Madras Presidency. His scientific panchanks not only provided the computation of traditional elements such as ththi, nakshtra, yog and karnam but also elaborated on stellar phenomena, particularly those which are visible to naked eye. Solar and lunar eclipses, occultation by the Moon, and planets were some of the celestial events that found its place in the panchank. Further the 'scientific' panchank of Raghunathachary also presented a comparison between the predictions of traditional panchanks of his time and his own predictions. Moon rise time, eclipse circumstances were compared to show that his predictions were much more accurate and the traditional ones differed from the actual events by many minutes. He asked his readers to use a good wrist watch to note the timing of certain events, say moon rising or eclipse circumstances and see for themselves how the traditional computations are way off the mark. Thus by recruiting the 'public' in the dispute as adjudicator, he also disrupted the 'traditional' arrangement of appeal to authority as the means of intellectual disputes and brought to fore the 'public' nature of the modern science. Convinced by the arguments advocated by Raghunathachari two major sects, Smartha of Kancheeuram and Jeers of Ahobila matt, supported the 'scientific' panchank and called for reformation. Played out in period of emergent capitalism in Madras presidency, civil time was diverging from the sacred time. The twenty four hour clock and Gregorian calender was being widely adopted for civil purposes and the panchanks were being relegated to ceremonial and sacred occasions in the native society. As time went by, even the panchanks were presented in the equivalence of twenty four hour clocks and Gregorian calender, for the ease of the users to access it and find 'appointed' time for religious and scared ceremonies. The 'scientific' panchank lost its relevance with the march of civil time solely based on twenty four hour clocks and Gregorian calender and the use of panchank limited to finding time for certain religious ceremonies. |