PINGREE, David Edwin. New Haven, CT 2.1.1933 — Providence, RI 11.11.2005. U.S. Indologist and Historian of Science. Son of Daniel Pingree (1902–1986) and Elizabeth Maconi. Grew up in Providence and attended school there. Graduated 1950 from Phillips Academy in Andover. Studied Sanskrit, classics and mathematics, then also Arabic, at Harvard. Mainly student of Ingalls and Neugebauer. First visit to India in 1958. Ph.D. 1960 Harvard, in Classics and Sanskrit. Assistant Professor of Ancient Science at Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. From 1971 at Brown University, collaborating with O. Neugebauer (then also his successor), then Professor of History of Mathematics at Brown University in RI, from 1986 Head of Dept. of History of Mathematics. Died just before retirement. Married with Isabelle Sanchirico, one daughter.
Pingree was a famous historian of astronomy and mathematics and their cultural interrelations. He was familiar with Greek, Arabic, Iranian and Sanskrit, even with cuneiform sources. Also a specialist of manuscripts. Never used a computer.
Publications: 32 books, 240 articles, e.g.:
– Diss. Materials for the Study of the Transmission of Greek Astronomy to India. Manuscript 1960.
– “The Empires of Rudradāman and Yaśodharman: Evidence from two Astrological Geographies”, JAOS 79, 1959, 267-270; “A Greek Linear Planetary Text in India”, JAOS 79, 1959, 282-284; “Astronomy and Astrology in India and Iran”, Isis 54, 1963, 229-246; “The Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja”, JOR 31, 1961–62 (1964), 16-31; “Indian Influence on Early Sassanian and Arabic Astronomy”, JOR 33, 1963-64 (1968), 1-8 (and again in JOR 34-35, 1964-66 (1973), 118-126).
– “Sanskrit Geographical Tables”, Indian Jnl of Hist. of Science 31, 1966, 173-220.
– Sanskrit astronomical tables in the United States. 77 p. 1968; Sanskrit astronomical tables in England. 188 p. 1973.
– Edited: The Vidvajjanavallabha of Bhojaraja. 28 p. M.S. Univ. Or. Ser. Baroda 1970; The Laghukhecarasiddhi of Śrīdhara. 18 p. M.S. Univ. Or. Ser. 11. Baroda 1976; “The Kheṭamuktāval| of Nṛsiṁha”, Ingalls Vol. 1980, 143-157.
– Edited with O. Neugebauer: Varāhamihira: Pañcasiddhāntikā. 1-2. 206+154 p. 68 fig. 36 tables. Kong. Danske Vid. Selsk. Skrifter 6. København 1970-71.
– “The Mesopotamian Origin of early Indian mathematical Astronomy”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 4, 1973, 1-12; “The Beginning of Utpala’s Commentary on the Khaṇḍakhādyaka”, JAOS 93, 1973, 469-481; “The Indian and Pseudo-Indian passages in Greek and Latin astronomical and astrological texts”, Viator. Medieval and Renaissance Studies 7, 1976, 141-195; “The recovery of early Greek astronomy from India”, Journal of the History of Astronomy 7, 1976, 109-123.
– The Census of Exact Sciences in Sanskrit. Series A. Vol. 1-5. Mem. of Am. Philos. Soc. 81. Philadelphia 1970-94.
– Sphujidhvaja: Yavanajātaka. Edited, translated, and commented on. 1-2. 506+527 p. H.O.S. 48. Cambridge, Mass. 1978; Vṛddhayavanajātaka of Mīnarāja. Edited. Vol. 1. Adhy. 1–39. G.O.S. 162. Baroda 1976 (Vol. 2. Adhy. 40-71. Vol. 3. Introduction).
– “History of Mathematical Astronomy in India”, Dictionary of Scientific Biography 15, 1978, 533-633.
– “Sanskrit Evidence for the Presence of Arabs, Jews, and Persians in Western India: ca. 700–1300”, JOIB 31:1-2, 1981, 172-182; “The Śīghrasiddhi of Lakṣmīdhara”, JOIB 37:1-2, 1987, 65-81; “Classical and Byzantine astrology in Sassanian Persia”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 43, 1989, 227-239.
– Jyotiḥśāstra. Astral and Mathematical literature. 149 p. H.I.L. 6:4. Wb. 1981.
– A descriptive catalogue of the Sanskrit and other Indian manuscripts of the Chandra Shum Shere Collection in the Bodleian Library. 1. Jyotiḥśāstra. 171 p. Oxford 1985.
– The astronomical works of Daśabala. Aligarh 1988; The Grahajñāna of Asadhara together with the Gaṇitacūḍāmaṇi of Harihara. 58 p. Aligarh 1989.
– From Astral Omens to Astrology: from Babylon to Bikaner. 125 p. S.O.R. 78. Rome 1997.
– “The coining of new words to express new concepts in Sanskrit astronomy”, Fs. M. Hara 2000, 217-226; further articles.
– Edited & translated with T. Kusuba, Sharh al-Tadhkirah: Arabic astronomy in Sanskrit: Al-Birjandī on Tadhkira II, ch. 11 and its Sanskrit translation. Ld. 2002.
– A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Astronomical Manuscripts Preserved at the Maharaja Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur, India. 173 p. Memoirs of Am. Philos. Soc. 2003.
– Catalogue of the Jyotiṣa Manuscripts in the Wellcome Library: Sanskrit astral and mathematical literature. 472 p. Ld. 2004.
– Edited Greek (Hephaestion, Sidonius), Latin (with Ch. Burnett, The Liber Aristotelis of Hugo of Santalla. L. 1997), and Arabic (Abū Maṣhar) astronomical and astrological texts and, in collaboration, Akkadian (with E. Reiner, Enuma Anu Enlil: Babylonian Planetary Omens. 3. Groningen 1998; with H. Hunger, Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia. Ld. 1999).
– Pathways into the study of ancient sciences. Selected essays by David Pingree. Ed. by I. Pingree & J. M. Steele. 503 p. 2014.
Sources: Briefly in IIJ 8:4, 1965; The Brown Daily Herald 18.11.2005; *Ch. Burnett etal. (ed.), Studies in the history of exact sciences in honor of D.P. Leiden 2004; F. Conlon, IASS Newsletter 8, 2006, 61f.; Wikipedia.
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