TY - JOUR

T1 - Calendars, Compliments, and Computations

T2 - A Comparative Survey of the Canon in the Persian Zīj of Šāh Jahān and its Sanskrit Translation, the Siddhāntasindhu

AU - Misra, Anuj

AU - Arzoumanov, Jean

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Various studies in recent times have shown how sociohistorical proclivities played an important role in the acceptance or rejection of cross-cultural ideas in Mughal scientific discourses. The cultural patronage of the Mughal courts financed the production and propagation of certain scientific texts deemed intellectually and politically expedient. Among such texts were two seventeenth-century astronomical table-texts, Mullā Farīd's Persian Zīj-i Šāh Jahānī and its Sanskrit translation in Nityānanda's Siddhāntasindhu, both produced at the court of the Mughal Emperor Šāh Jahān.In this paper, we present, for the very first time, a comparative survey of the canon (text) of these two works to reveal the intimacy between the translated Sanskrit and its Persian original. The paper includes brief biographies of both astronomers, a summary of the salient features of the canons, a description of the manuscripts utilised and our transcription and transliteration schemes, along with a detailed comparison of the individual chapters in these canons. We also provide separate appendices with discussions on select aspects from these chapters. We note that this paper forms the first part in a two-part study, with a second forthcoming paper surveying the tables in these two texts (accompanied with mathematical annotations).

AB - Various studies in recent times have shown how sociohistorical proclivities played an important role in the acceptance or rejection of cross-cultural ideas in Mughal scientific discourses. The cultural patronage of the Mughal courts financed the production and propagation of certain scientific texts deemed intellectually and politically expedient. Among such texts were two seventeenth-century astronomical table-texts, Mullā Farīd's Persian Zīj-i Šāh Jahānī and its Sanskrit translation in Nityānanda's Siddhāntasindhu, both produced at the court of the Mughal Emperor Šāh Jahān.In this paper, we present, for the very first time, a comparative survey of the canon (text) of these two works to reveal the intimacy between the translated Sanskrit and its Persian original. The paper includes brief biographies of both astronomers, a summary of the salient features of the canons, a description of the manuscripts utilised and our transcription and transliteration schemes, along with a detailed comparison of the individual chapters in these canons. We also provide separate appendices with discussions on select aspects from these chapters. We note that this paper forms the first part in a two-part study, with a second forthcoming paper surveying the tables in these two texts (accompanied with mathematical annotations).

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Sanskrit astral sciences

KW - Nityānanda

KW - Siddhāntasindhu

KW - Mullā Farīd

KW - Zīj-i Shāh Jahānī

KW - Persian astronomy

KW - Science in Mughal India

U2 - 10.18732/hssa95

DO - 10.18732/hssa95

M3 - Journal article

VL - 11

SP - 84

EP - 209

JO - History of Science in South Asia

JF - History of Science in South Asia

SN - 2369-775X

ER -