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Maharishi Lagadha's Jyotishya Shastra

 Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, or Jyotiṣavedāṅga (Devanagari: वेदाङ्ग ज्योतिष), is one of earliest known Indian texts on astronomy (Jyotisha).The extant text is dated to the final centuries BCE, but it may be based on a tradition reaching back to about 700-600 BCE.

The text is foundational to Jyotisha(astronomy), one of the six Vedanga disciplines. Its author is traditionally named as Lagadha.



According to Michael Witzel, the question is "whether the description as given in the Jyotisha is also the date of the text in which it is transmitted. It is written in two recensions – Rigveda recensions and Yajurveda recensions. Rigveda recensions and Yajurveda recensions have same verses except for eight additional verses in the Yajurveda's one".

Vedanga Jyotisha has two parts: Rik and Yajur recensions. The former part contains 36 verses in Sanskrit. They deal with eclipses, a lunar calendar and units in time calculation.

Vedanga Jyotisha deals with the calculations of solar and lunar eclipses. According to Vedanga Jyotisha, the lunar month begins on a new moon day; one lunar month is 29.5 lunar days approximately; one lunar year is 12 lunar months, called lunation, and is of about 354 lunar days.


A lunar month is divided into 30 equal parts called tithi. A period of 19 lunar years is called a Lagadha era.

Lagadha Yuga begins on a new moon day which coincides with winter solstice, i.e., December 22.

He developed oral methods for calculations of ellipse, and also for elementary arithmetic.

He was the first to suggest the concept of yuga (era), a period of cycle of repeating astronomical events. 

Information about his personal life and other such details are yet to be discovered.

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