An Eminent Indian Scientist and Thinker - Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar

An Eminent Indian Scientist and Thinker - Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar

We, Indians often forget the name of our very own astronomer, who predicted the existence of Brahma: Pluto and dedicated his life to do the research on almanac system of timekeeping - Shri. Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar.

The family of Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar was originally from a small village called "Ketaki Bivali", near Chiplun, situated in the Konkan belt of Maharashtra. This was the period when Sambhaji Maharaj was assassinated and the Mughals had established their stronghold in Maharashtra. Due to the fights and the Bhalerāī raids, Venkatesh Ketkar's ancestors settled in Paithan which was known back then as the hub of education, moneylending and textile business. The ancestral business of the Ketkar family was of the zari and textiles work. 

On January 15th, 1815, Bapu Shashtri Ketkar (father of Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar) was born with great intelligence and at a very early age, he had mastered the art of grammar and astronomy. Bapu Shashtri was also a music lover and migrated to Thanjavur to study Rudraveena. Along with music he kept his love for astronomy alive and wrote several research papers in this course. 

On 2nd February 1884, there was a revelation, a multitalented personality was born to Shri. Bapu Shastri Ketkar - Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar. God revealed to us the Indian astronomer and a revolutionized thinker of all times who shall always be remembered and looked up to as an eminent Indian scientist who drastically evolved the field of astronomy and Pañcānga (the research of Almanac and Hindu calender). 

At the age of 16, Venkatesh Ketkar lost his father and he had to face dire financial difficulties. He was studying English in a school called ‘Sardar’ in Belgaum. He used to get a scholarship of three rupees per month. He had to spend the night in someone else's verandah and saw a very dark and tough period in his life where he was barely able to make both the ends meet.

Even though, he had these distractions all around him, he did not let that overpower his studies and passed the matriculation examination in 1874 and secured the third place. For this achievement, he was felicitated with the ‘Bai Manik Bairamji Jijibhoy Award’. He was unable to carry forward his studies due to financial conditions, but at the age of 21, he accepted the teaching profession and serviced in a school of Bagalkot for 25 years. He retired from this job in 1911 but the retirement was only from the job. He never retired from actual research work and astronomy discoveries. A few of his important research papers were 'Bhagavad Gita', 'Kalnirnay', 'Chronology of Aryans', 'Estimation of Shivaji Maharaj's Birth date', 'Āryabhata and Kuttaka Mathematics'. He was a personality who was highly self-esteemed and full of determination even after ups and down. He was highly assertive with a sense of pride. He was always adamant about his own point of view and would convince all the others about his thoughts. He used to write research books, but never ever in the pages of life will we ever read that he asked for favours to get his books published. He was a calm and serious leading light who was very straightforward and fair witted. Ketkar's love for his subject, consistent thinking and self-esteem were his undisputed qualities. He was a polyglot and was fluent in many languages like English, French, Sanskrit and Hindi. He had a gift of intense intelligence, and scientific approach. His mind was full of curiosity about space and astronomy. Because of this interest he decided to study this further and acquired knowledge in the fields of spherical geometry, algebraic geometry, trigonometry statistics, other complex mathematics and the Newton's ‘Principia Mathematica’. 

The most significant discoveries of Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar was the prediction about the existence of Brahma (modern name Pluto) before its actual discovery. The period of revolution of Brahma was 242 years as predicted by Venkatesh Ketkar and after the discovery of Pluto, scientists have estimated the period of revolution of Pluto as 247.7 years which is quite near to the prediction made by him. Combining all of his hardwork, intelligence and love for mathematics, he became an eminent personality not only in astronomy but in Mathematics too. He was an avid reader and read sanskrit texts, scientific and spiritual books and literature. He was also a renowned writer and wrote books on almanac and literacy.

He had a love for music, drawing maps and sketching. He was very fine at sculpting and making Ganesh idols. In his free time, he used to repair watches. He adhered to the principles of moral duty taught by his father and walked on his fingerprints his whole life. 

He used to wear a traditional attire of a white dhoti, a white shirt, a black coat, a headgear, a scarf, spectacles and a tilak on his forehead. He lived a simple, content, composed life with a high thinking and brilliance and was highly respected among the society.

Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar worked tirelessly and diligently for 56 consecutive years, turning his back to all worldly pleasures and was never fascinated by any worldly attachments and materialistic objects. After struggling with dementia and illness for a year, on Wednesday, July 30, he said to his son, "Look, now only one, two and three." No one understood what he meant. After three days, on Sunday, August 3, 1930, at 10.30 at night, Venkatesh Ketkar breathed his last at Bijapur. 

VB Ketkar's mastery of astronomy was so irreplaceable, that his death had caused irreparable damage to the Aryan Astronomy.  I feel that it is our duty to disperse the work and life story of Venkatesh Bapuji Ketkar, the greatest thinker of all the times.