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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
( 610 )
or at the perigee. The editor has worked out the halfyears from the winter-solstice as the beginning of the year.
Half-year from Half-year from Year.
W. solstice to S. solstice to
S. solstice. W. solstice. 4000 B.C...
187 days 178.24 days 3000 B.C... .. 186.75 days
178.49 days 2000 B.C. ..
.. 186.10 days 179.14 days 1000 B.C...
. 185.20 days 180.04 days That these two halves were taken as of equal duration is also repeated in the Vedāngajyotisa, where it states the tithis of the first days of the sun's northerly and southerly courses. If the winter-solstice day was correctly determined, the summer-solstice day could never be estimated correctly and vice versa. The fact that the sun's motion is unequal was not discovered by the Vedic Hindus, still less were they aware of the circumstances which produce these inequalities. This is a brief survey of the knowledge of astronomy which the Vedic Hindus cared to develop among themselves. The Vedic calendar was purely of a luni-solar character. The other planets were also discovered by the Vedic Hindus which were perhaps Jupiter and Venus or Venā. In the Pāndava times (about 2449 B.C.) Mercury was discovered as the son of Moon, Mars known as a paruşa or cruel planet but not given a name, Saturn was also discovered about the same time but perhaps sometimes confounded with Jupiter. In the Vasisthasiddhānta, as summarized by Varāhamihira in the last chapter of his Pañcasiddhāntikā, are given the courses (cāras) of the five planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Mercury. It describes some methods for the calculation of the
1 There was no knowledge among the Vedic Hindus about the moon's nodes and no idea of the inequalities in the motion of the moon.
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