NŪR UD-DĪN JAHĀNGĪR AND FATHER KIRWITZER: THE INDEPENDENT DISCOVERY OF THEGREAT COMETS OF NOVEMBER 1618 AND THE FIRST ASTRONOMICAL USE OFTHE TELESCOPE IN INDIA

Abstract

The year 1618 in astronomy was a unique one in that it presented three bright cometary apparitions in quick succession. The comets created a sensation, and belonged to an era when Galileo's telescopic observations had created a paradigm shift in our perception of the heavens and Johannes Kepler was introducing a fundamental change in mathematical astronomy by redefining orbits of planets around the Sun. This paper is an account of the observations of two of the three great comets of 1618, made from India. This turned out to be a unique occasion because these same targets of opportunity were followed independently by astronomers from two very different ‗schools', and their observations were recorded quantitatively. Jahāngīr, the fourth Mughal Emperor of India, recorded in the <italic>Tūzūk-i Jahāngīrī</italic> (<italic>The Memoirs of Jahāngīr</italic>), the appearance of two comets during a Royal journey from the town of Dohad in Gujarat to Agra, the capital city of the Empire, in the thirteenth year of his accession. From the recorded dates, Jahāngīr turns out to be an independent discoverer of two great comets that appeared one after the other in November 1618. Meanwhile, Father Venceslaus Kirwitzer and fellow Jesuits observed these comets from Goa, and their first observations also correspond to the discovery dates of the comets. These same comets also were followed by Father Antonius Rubinus from Cochin. Fr. Kirwitzer collated and published these observations in 1620 in a short treatise where he states that he also viewed these comets with a 'tubo optico'. This is the first recorded use of a telescope in India.