This book presents the basic fundamentals of descriptive
archaeoastronomy and its application to the astronomical descriptions
found in ancient Indian scriptures. Archaeoastronomy is a branch of
positional astronomy that helps to determine the epochs of ancient
astronomical alignments and special astronomical events. In this book,
only the descriptions of special stellar alignments and events found in
ancient texts can identify the antiquity of the descriptions. India
possesses a large volume of ancient scriptures like Vedas and Puranas
which contain many astronomical descriptions as in ancient India
positional astronomy was well developed. The antiquities of these texts
are determined through archaeoastronomical techniques. Major events like
Mahabharata War are dated and using these dates a chronology of ancient
India is determined. The astronomically determined chronology is
compared with the results from various archaeological,
palaeoclimatological, geological and genealogical investigations of
ancient India. This introductory book interests readers interested in
unveiling the mystery involved with the protohistory of this ancient
civilization.