पृष्ठम्:ब्राह्मस्फुटसिद्धान्त भाग १.pdf/४४

CHAPTER I
Astronomy in Ancient
Nations
Brahmagupta's great works like the Khandakhadyaka and
the Brahma-sphuṭa-siddhanta took astronomy to Arabs through
whom it spread to many countries of Europe. Al Beruni records
this testimony in his great book on India. It is doubtful that
astronomy had its birth in Greece and Chine. From remote ages
China, India, Greece, Arabia and Egypt developed the entire
system in close cooperation. This knowledge must have spread
from their common cradle home where man for the first time
developed his culture and civilisation. In this chapter we pro-
pose to give a review of a stronomy as developed in many of
these ancient lands, especially Arabia, people of which land
came in close contacts with India much before any recorded
time.
Dawn of Astronomy
The earliest man must have been the primitive astro"
nomer. The striking spectacles presented to him by the varied
appearances of a sky covered with thousands of twinkling
and non-twinkling objects of different degrees of brightness,
apparently revolving round the Earth, and the daily changing
phases of the Moon must have raised strange feelings of
the most primitive man also. Then he must have in course
of time observed the bright morning and evening stars, and at
a considerably late stage the comets and shooting stars and then
on occasions eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. These phenomena
not only raised feelings of admiration, but in different sections of
human society often feelings of superstitious alarm. By and
by stars became guides for the traveller by land and sea. In
the midst of these observations, one discovered various cycles:
cycle of day and night, cycle of seasons and cycle of other
details. Then there was a striking observation of the tides in a
sea changing with the phases of the Moon,