Aryabhatt (Elder)

[george9252]

"It was Ptolemy's theory of 'epycycles' which was adopted by the
Roman Catholic Church."

Do you really mean that, Richard? You can't mean that the RC Church
"adopted" Ptolemy's theory of epicycles as official RC doctrine. If it had,
then, even today, the RC Church would insist that its adherents accept the
Ptolemaic theory. It doesn't.

Just for the record, I am not a Roman Catholic.

George Cronk
Philosophy & Religion
Bergen Community College (NJ)


----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Quick <richard_quick at QUICK2001.FREESERVE.CO.UK>
To: <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: Aryabhatt (Elder)


> On Tue, 28 Sep 1999 15:06:03 CEST, Kailash Srivastava
> <se224141 at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> >Let me introduce myself.
> >
> >My name is Kailash Srivastava and I come from India. I live in Sweden and
> >work for a multinational company. By profession, I am a research engineer
> >and have a PhD degree in electrical engineering.
> >
> >I have recently got interested in reading about ancient India's
> achievements
> >with respect to science and technology. I usually get some questions
which
> I
> >can not answere. Usually, news groups like soc.cultre.indian etc. do not
> >appear to be a serious place for my questions. I am not sure if this is
> >right place for me but I am sure there are people knowledgeble enough to
> >answer my stupid questions.
> >
> >My first question is on Aryabhatt (elder).
> >
> >I read in "India's Contribution to World Culture" that AryaBhatt was the
> >first to propound heliocentric theory of gravitation much before
> Copernicus.
> >However, I do not find such reference anywhere else including MS-Encarta.
> He
> >also gave various mathematical formulas that too do not find a place
> >anywhere.
> >
> >What are the possible reasons for this?
> >
> >This is all for time being.
> >
> >Thanx/Kailash
> >
> >______________________________________________________
> >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>
> Some of the Ancient Greeks, including Aristarchus of Samos, Philolaus of
> Tarentum & Heraclides of Pontus, placed the Earth and other planets in
> motion around the Sun, with the earth spinning daily on it's axis.  This
> was well before either Aryabhatt or Copernicus. This idea, however, was
> rejected by the people in favor of Aristotle's geocentric theory.
>
> Claudius Ptolemy wrote in Almagest around 140 AD that the Earth was
> motionless because constant gales would sweep across it if it were in
> motion. It was Ptolemy's theory of 'epycycles' which was adopted by the
> Roman Catholic Church.
>
> Copernicus aparantly knew of the work of the Greeks.