The southern stars identified in Indian astronomical catalogues

Abstract

In our effort to decipher the words and identify the stars as cited in the text Sarvasiddhāntarāja by Nityānanda of 15th century, we have found that most of the stars near the ecliptic belt are easily identifiable. The coordinate system used is Dhruvaka and Vikṣepa, which differ from the currently used ecliptic longitude–latitude and Right Ascension–declination coordinates. Most of the stars studied hitherto (Pai & Shylaja 2016, 2019; Shylaja & Pai Curr Sci 2018a, 2018b, 2019) were all in the northern hemisphere. It may be recalled that the name of the zodiacal sign (Pai & Shylaja 2016) for a group includes stars with all declinations – both north and south. For example, the group of Meṣa includes the stars of Andromeda. The only two southern stars that were mentioned in the group of Gemini are Sirius and Canopus. Here, we study the stars grouped under Libra and Scorpio, which includes bright stars in the southern hemisphere. The confusion about the Dhruvaka (east–west coordinates) is discussed.