Spherical Earth – who knew it First?

Who had discovered that Earth is a sphere?

Our books teach us that it was Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo. They all belong to 16^th & 17^th century AD What was ancient India's Knowledge in this regard? Don't they know that earth was round? Yes, they do . Indians knew this fact for ages, even from ancient times.

Here are a few references to substantiate this fact...

The renowned Indian Astronomer Aryabhatta (476 AD) had said

• “Bhūgolaħ sarvo vŗttaħ” - the earth is round from all sides

  (Aryabhattiyam, Golapada, sixth sloka)

  He had also accurately calculated the diameter of the Earth.

  (Aryabhattiyam, Chapter 1-sloka five)

  Another Indian Astronomer Varahamihirä (6^th century AD) in his text “Pancha Sidhanthika” said as under

• Paňca mahābhūtamayastrārāgaņa paňjare mahigolah

  (“Pancha Sidhanthika” 13Chapter – sloka1)

The “Spherical” Earth that is made up of Pancha Bhutas (five elements) is hanging in the space studded by twinkling stars like an iron ball hanging in a cage.

Let us observe this Vedic Mantra of Rigveda.

• Cakrācāsaħ pariņaham pŗthivyā (Rig veda 1.33.8)

It says “people who reside on the surface of the Earth's circumference”

There are many Vedic verses ; many of them proclaim the spherical shape of the Earth.

Surya Sidhantha, an ancient Indian Astronomical text reveals that

• Madhye samantāņđasya bhūgolo vyomni tisthati (12^th Ch- 32 Sloka)

“ In the midst of Universe (Brahmanda), the spherical earth stands firm in the space.”

Bhaskarachrya(11^th Century AD), the famous Mathmatician, in his book “Leelavathi” answers a question posed by the little girl Leelavathi.

• “What your eyes see is not reality. Earth is not flat as you see it. It is a sphere . If you draw a very big circle and look a the one fourth of its circumference, you see it as a straight line. But in true sense it is a circle. Similarly earth is spherical in shape.”

Aryabhattiyam the book written by Aryabhatta had been translated into Latin during 13^th century. This book would have influenced the Western Astronomers. Aryabhatta had explained in his book the reason for eclipse.

• Chādayati śaśi sūryam śaśinam mahati ca bhūchhāyā

  (Aryabhattiyam, Golapada, sloka 37)

“When moon shadows the sun , solar eclipse occurs, when earth shadows the moon, lunar eclipse occurs.”

He had also calculated the accurate occurrences of the eclipses; number of days Earth takes to revolve round the Sun(365 days six hours 12 minutes and 30 seconds) and number of hours that earth takes to revolve around itself (23 hours, 56minutes,4.1 seconds).

Even today in most of the Indian languages the term “Geography” means BHUGOLA SASTRA. The very word “Bhugola” means sperical earth. This shows that ages ago Indians knew that earth was sperical in shape.