What was the contribution of Odisha’s Pathani Samanta to science and astronomy field of India?
The genius Chandra Sekhar Singh Samanta, popularly known as Pathani Samanta in Odisha was born in 1835 at Khandapada in Odisha. He hailed from a royal family and he had many achievements to his name.
Firstly, he was a naked eye astronomer and he used to measure the position and speed of heavenly bodies by self-made bamboo sticks. The self-made bamboo sticks could easily rival even the complex telescopes of today’s era in their accuracy. He used to wake up all night and observe the motion of all the planets around the sky. The details of these self-made bamboo instruments featured in the 20th chapter of “Siddhanta Darpan” (his monumental astronomical treatise).
I can quote two such accuracies of Pathani Samanta that can easily rival modern telescopes/computers. Pathani Samanta quoted that the time required for earth to complete one revolution around Sun is 365.25843 days while modern computers put the figure at 365.25636 days. Apart from this Pathani Samanta calculated that the inclination of the orbit of Moon’s around earth is 5 Degree 09 minutes while modern computers put it at 5 degree 08 minutes and 33 seconds. (Reference:- Samanta Panjika [Image attached below])
In one instance, he had calculated exactly the height of a mountain from a far off distance in Odisha when asked by a British officer. In another instance, he had accurately calculated the distance from Khandapada (his birth place) to the Jagannath Temple, Puri.
Secondly, he was the one who had calculated the irregularities of Moon’s motion when it orbits around the earth which no astronomer in India had calculated till then. To make it more clear, he proved that Moon’s motion when it orbits around 27 Nakshatras (starting from Aswini and ending with Revati) is not uniform even though every Nakshatra occupies 13 Degrees 20 minutes in the open sky. Therefore, Moon slows down while transiting in Rohini Nakshatra compared to other Nakshatras.
Thirdly, he had compiled all his astronomical findings in a treatise titled “Siddhanta Darpana’ which was published in 1899 and which is used to prepare the almanacs or the Hindu Panchang/ Panji/ Panjika in Odisha even till date. Even the Almanacs prepared by Pathani Samanta is till date used in the Jagannath Temple in Puri (which is one of the Char Dhams of Hindus). The Siddhanta is one of the important part of Jyotish (Astrology) and is the foundation of Jyotish studies since it has to do with the Astronomical part of Jyotish (Astrology). Below is the image of Samanta Panjika for this year which I have and this is based on “Siddhanth Darpan”:-
Because of his astronomical and astrological achievements, the British Govt. had conferred him the title of “Mahamahopadhyay” in 1893 and the King of Puri had conferred him the title of “Harichandan Mahapatra”. The planetarium in Bhubaneswar is named after him.
He passed away in 1904 at Puri at the age of 69.
