This book presents the basic fundamentals of descriptive archaeoastronomy and its application to the astronomical descriptions found in ancient Indian scriptures. Archaeoastronomy is a branch of positional astronomy that helps to determine the epochs of ancient astronomical alignments and special astronomical events. In this book, only the descriptions of special stellar alignments and events found in ancient texts can identify the antiquity of the descriptions. India possesses a large volume of ancient scriptures like Vedas and Puranas which contain many astronomical descriptions as in ancient India positional astronomy was well developed. The antiquities of these texts are determined through archaeoastronomical techniques. Major events like Mahabharata War are dated and using these dates a chronology of ancient India is determined. The astronomically determined chronology is compared with the results from various archaeological, palaeoclimatological, geological and genealogical investigations of ancient India. This introductory book interests readers interested in unveiling the mystery involved with the protohistory of this ancient civilization.

Broadens your understanding of archeoastronomy Maximizes reader insights into descriptive archeoastronomy and its applications Enriches understanding of mystery involved with the protohistory of our ancient civilization

Autorentext

Amitabha Ghosh received his Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Calcutta University in 1962, 1964 and 1969, respectively. After serving as a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at his alma mater, Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur (now an Institute of National Importance-Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur) from 1965 to 1970, Prof. Ghosh joined Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur as an Assistant Professor in January 1971. He served at the Institute as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1975 until his retirement in 2006. From 1977 to 1978, Professor Ghosh visited the RWTH Aachen as a Senior Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and subsequently visited the RWTH Aachen in the same capacity several times between then and 2012. He served as Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur from 1997 to 2002. His primary areas of research are manufacturing science, robotics, kinematics and mechanism theory and dynamics of mechanical systems. Prof. Ghosh has received many academic awards including a number of Calcutta University Gold Medals, the D.Sc. (h.c.), Distinguished Teacher award from IIT Kanpur and the Award for Excellence in Research by the National Academy of Engineering.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION.- Chapter 2. RUDIMENTS OF POSITIONAL ASTRONOMY AND ARCHAEOASTRONOMY.- Chapter 3. ASTRONOMY IN ANCIENT INDIA.-Chapter 4. DESCRIPTIVE ARCHAEOASTRONOMICAL APPROACHES.- Chapter 5. ARCHAEOASTRONOMICAL STUDY OF ANCIENT INDIAN CHRONOLOGY: DATING MAHBHRATA.- Chapter 6. CHRONOLOGY OF VEDIC AND VEDNGA PERIODS.- Chapter 7. ARCHAEOLOGICAL, GEOLOGICAL AND GENEALOGICAL INDICATIONS OF ANCIENT CHRONOLOGY.