The fascination with Aditya, one of numerous names of the Sun in India, is deeply ingrained in our spiritual, cultural and architectural traditions. A deep knowledge of the solar phenomena is reflected in the architecture of many temples in the country.

   For example, the famous Konarak temple in Orissa, the Sun temple in Madheva in Gujarat and the Gavigangadhareswara temple in Bengaluru are but a few places of worship so designed that solar rays illuminate the deity regularly every year in line with the passage of the Sun. Yet amidst the garlands of worship, there were gems of rational thought that happily coexisted.

The Genius of Aryabhatta

   He held that a yuga (time slot) has 157 701 7500 days and that the Earth’s revolutions during that period number 158 223 7500 so that each revolution has 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds. The modern estimate differs only by 0.009 second; it is 23 hours, 56 minutes and....