The village is said to be where Aryabhatta, the most renowned Indian astronomer of antiquity, observed the heavens. Some believe that he invented the concept of “zero” here. He also made some of the earliest accurate predictions of when eclipses would occur.
Across the country millions had gathered. For the most part predictions of disaster did not come true, although a woman aged 65 was killed in a stampede at Varanasi, a city on the banks of the Ganges, where devout Hindus had gathered to bathe.
Thousands had also gathered at the ancient Altar of the Sun in Beijing, while hundreds of millions poured into streets across China to gaze as the sky darkened from the west of the country and along a track that followed the Yangtze River before slipping out to sea from Shanghai.
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