Astronomy in Focus - XXX Proceedings IAU Symposium No. XXX, 2018 M. T. Lago, ed. c  International Astronomical Union 2020 doi:10.1017/S1743921319004010 Stone Inscriptions from South Asia as Sources of Astronomical Records B. S. Shylaja Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore, 560001, India email: shylaja.jnp@gmail.com Abstract. Stone inscriptions from all over India provide records of eclipses, solstices and planetary conjunctions. Extending the study to South Asia, to include Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Thailand, threw light on many new aspects such as evolution of calendars independently from the influence of Indian system of time measurement as early as the 3 rd Century BCE. Many interesting records of planetary conjunctions are available. One record from Cambodia hints at a possible sighting of the 1054 supernova, while another from Thailand suggests a pre-planetary nebula event. Keywords. History of Astronomy, planets, eclipses 1. Introduction Stone inscriptions were engraved to leave a permanent record of donations and grants given by the kings, their feudatories, chiefs, and village headmen. A good number of them record the heroic deeds of soldiers and commoners fighting enemies, or wild animals during hunting. In some cases they mark the self-immolation of ascetics, widows, and devotees. They also carry accurate records of the date in whatever local system, and show details of the positions of the Sun and Moon. Those details were written in different languages, and thus serve as important documents on celestial events. The Archaeological Survey of India undertook the publication of these records (as Epigraphia Indica), and also the regional versions (as Epigraphia Carnatica), resulting in the South Indian Inscriptions. More than 40 volumes are now available, each averaging about 200 inscriptions (Shylaja & Geetha 2016a). The most important aspect of this study for astronomers is the recordings of the visibility of the totality of solar eclipses. Five such records have been used, in order to place a limit on the path of totality and therefore on the range of ΔT , the variation of the rotation period of the Earth. In one case it has been possible to link a record with one from China (Tanikawa et al. 2019). 2. Inscriptions from South Asia The influence of Indian culture and Sanskrit were widespread in S and SE Asia, so this type of documentation might well be expected outside India. Documentation and translations of inscriptions from several countries were carried out during the colonial era. This paper summarized the results, based on a limited number of records and references. Sri Lanka. The majority of inscriptions from Sri Lanka were the edicts of Buddha. It is estimated (though no specific dates are mentioned) that they date back to 3 rd Century BCE when King Ashoka spread the messages of the Buddha across SE Asia. The earliest dated record corresponds to 183 CE. The languages used were mostly Sanskrit and Pali. The method of reckoning the year is BE (Buddha Era); the name of the month and the 176 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743921319004010 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.89.159.179, on 21 Mar 2022 at 16:47:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at