Gravity in Surya- Siddhant

GRAVITATIONAL FIELD in Surya Siddhanta !!!

This is a very important and serious issue. SURYA SIDDHANTA of Aryabhata [4000 years ago] discusses gravitational field clearly!!

As we know, Newton discovered Gravitation. According to him and La Place, Gravitation is some attraction between two objects or bodies. In 1915, Albert Einstein proposed the idea of Gravitational Field. It was not two objects attracting one another, but it was a gravitational field. What is that? The objects distort spacetime due to their mass, and this distortion is what is perceived and measured as a “force”. In such a model one states that matter moves in certain ways in response to the curvature of spacetime.

SURPRISINGLY, 4000 years ago, Aryabhata, in his Surya Siddhanta [2nd chapter], DEFINITELY speaks of Gravitational Field. Here is the translation of the shlokas. Please read the original sanskrit, also.

1. There are invisible forms of Time in Space. These invisible forms are fast, slow, high [up] and low [down]. These forms cause the motion of planets.

2. These invisible forms are tied by threads of energy. They use their invisible hands to pull the celestial objects back and forth, depending on their mutual nearness [yathā-āsannam] towards themselves [svadik mukham].

3. A type of force called Pra-vaha [প্ৰ-বহ प्र-वह not pravāha] impels these planets etc towards their own levels. Thus, being drawn away or towards one another, the planets get the power to move [gati] in diverse ways. [please read the translation by Rev Ebenezer Burgess, a missionary who lived in India and translated in 1859].

[We are also placing before you another translation, by Rev Ebenezer Burgess, who translated Surya Siddhanta in 1859].