Earth's daily rotation and shadow theory of eclipses (Aryabhata)
Rotación diaria de la Tierra y eclipses por sombras (Aryabhata)
- Date
- 499 · confidence high
- Place
- Kusumapura (Pataliputra, today Patna), Bihar, India
- Credited to
- Aryabhata
- People
- 👤 Aryabhata476–550
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The Aryabhatiya holds that the apparent turning of the sky is due to the rotation of the Earth, like the riverbank that seems to move for someone in a boat, and explains eclipses by the shadow of the Earth and Moon rather than by demons. It also gives a very precise length for the sidereal day.
Heraclides Ponticus had already proposed Earth's rotation in the 4th century BCE; later commentators such as Brahmagupta rejected Aryabhata's idea.
What it led to
- mathematical astronomy of the siddhantas
- prediction of eclipses in the Indian tradition
- later debate among Indian astronomers on rotation