jyotiSha in china

Source: TW

The Tang dynasty capital was home to 3 major clans of Indian astronomers:

瞿曇 - Gautama , 拘摩羅 - Kumāra , 迦 葉 - Kāśyapa some of whom were settled in China for multiple generations while maintaining their Indian identities & translating key Indian astronomical works .

The most famous such astronomer was Gautama Siddha (瞿昙悉达), a 3rd gen Sino-Indian. The Book of Tang records that Siddha was ordered to translate the Navagraha system (九執曆) into Chinese. His work - 开元占经 survives and includes explanations of Indian numerals & place-value. n 1977 a stele was found in Xi’an documenting the Gautama family’s presence in Tang China for at least 110 years, serving the Tang court for 4 generations. Siddha’s grandfather (瞿昙逸) was likely a Brahmin immigrant, while his father and brothers also served in the Tang Court. Gautama Siddha is also recorded as having worked on repairing an iron armillary sphere made by Chao Chong(晁崇) of the Northern Wei Dynasty (713). Perhaps the earliest Indians to work on such a machine.