Jain Journal 1983 07

SR No.: 520071
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 47
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 11

JULY, 1983
3. Order of Vithis (Lanes)
By inspection (see table No. 2), it is evident that order of vithis (lanes), according to BBS, follows an arrangement of vithis in the descending order of their numbers of days of heliacal invisibility of Venus in inferior combustion. Vaiśvānara vithi tops the list. This order is partly violated in case of heliacal invisibility of Venus in superior combustion. By dint of several observational implications of the phenomena of heliacal combustion of Venus, it may be envisaged that the phenomena of inferior combustion could be studied more accurately than the phenomena of superior combustion. Thus in order to divulge the secrets of this theory of kinematical studies of Venus, it seems plausible to depend more on the data relevant to inferior combustion of Venus than on the data of its superior combustion.
Besides, the period of 8 years less 2 days may conveniently be used for Venus; after this period longitude of Venus decreases by 2° nearly.11 This period is equivalent to five synodic periods of Venus (synodic period of Venus 583.921 days).12 So only five vithis (lanes) occur in an eight year cycle of Venus and their mid-points (exact conjunctions of Sun and Venus) will be located equidistantly along the ecliptic and forming a regular pentagon with an arc length
a
360° 5
=
P
11
We may call a a mean 'basic interval' or a mean stop. This arc a is not the distance between consecutive conjunctions in actual order of occurrence of vithis, which is given by the mean synodic arc.
72°
Now as the regular pentagon of mid-points of vithis of Venus retrogrades with an angular velocity of 2° an 8-year cycle of Venus, so any vertex (corresponding to mid-point of a particular vithi of Venus) retrogrades through a in a period P such that
7
8
2° =288 years
a years
(: a
72°)
This suggests that Venus happens to be again in conjunction with Sun at the same place among the stars after a period of 288 years. Con
See Lahiri, N. C. (1972), Advanced Emphemeris for Hundred Years from 1951 to 2050 A.D., 2nd edition, p. 116.
12 See Lahiri, N. C. (1975), Indian Emphemeris, p. 7.