Hyderabad: When the carving of the Great Bear constellation on a stone, made around 500 BC at Mudumala village in Mahbubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh were discovered, scientists were suitably astounded.
They began to wonder how ancient Indian astrologers could tell exactly how stars and constellations were grouped without the help of modern devices such as the telescope.
The mystery was unravelled when scientists discovered an ancient sky map in Hyderabad.
The sky map, which is probably the oldest in Asia, was carved out by megalithic Indians with astounding accuracy.
The map represents the seven stars also known as the saptarishi mandal, which have for ages been used to pinpoint the North (for the Pole star, located above the North Pole lies opposite the Ursa Major or the Great Bear).
According to Reader, Department of History, Central University Hyderabad, Dr K P Rao, "The discovery of the sky map indicates that from olden days itself the Indians had adequate knowledge of Astronomical science. In fact they used this knowledge to construct monuments based on the directions denoted by stars and constellations."
According to Historians, this is the only sky map to be unearthed in India, probably even South Asia.
Over ages the stone which has the sky map carved on it, is being protected by the local folk.
Eighty menhirs (standing stones) and several hundred smaller stones surround the map. There is a local folklore, which talks about how these stones are cursed men and cattle.
"With this belief the local people do not even dare to cause any damage to the stones and so the sky map remained intact over ages," says Dr Rao.
A detailed study revealed that the megalithic Indians had good knowledge of solar trajectories and the sky map was used to determine the calendar and the seasons with precise information about sun rise-sun set with exact directions.
This information was expected to be used predominantly for agricultural operations.
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