Introduction

A close look at the nuances involved in constructing knowledge regarding astronomy between c. 1830 and c. 1860 has elucidated the manner in which Indians could participate in modern science. This practical engagement was not only striking with respect to the broader context in which modern Western astronomy was instituted in India, with its apparent emphasis on European exclusivity, but was also quite different from the practical engagement which some of the Orientalists had at one point imagined being possible. It was not about expressly dovetailing the paradigms of Western and Siddhantic astronomy. Rather, it was rooted in collective constructions of knowledge. While the colonial constraints on the possibilities associated with this practical engagement have been considered, there is a need now to think about the place of astronomy within colleges in India in this period, the better to understand how educational schemas could influence the engagement between Europeans and Indians. With regards to the institutions under focus here, the most significant were Elphinstone College in Bombay, the Poona Sanskrit College, Hindu College in Calcutta and the Benares Sanskrit College. As for the main educational approaches with regards to astronomy, there is a need to revisit the relatively well-known case of Lancelot Wilkinson (1805–41), but there is also important material associated with Arthur Bedford Orlebar and the ‘Bombay Group’, as they might be called.