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NOVEMBER, 1882.]
the effect that as each period of 170 solar years is equal to 172 Jovian years, the names of Asvayuja and Chaitra must each be once omitted. The amount of this correction shows that the 12-year cycle of Jupiter was intimately connected with the 60-year cycle in which one name was omitted after every 85th year. Garga's words are:--
Yugani dvâdaśâbdâni tatra tâni Vrihaspati, Tatra Savana Saurabhyam Sâvonobdo nirudhyate;
Evam Asvayujam cha eva Chaitram cha eva Vrihaspati,
INITIAL POINT OF THE GUPTA ERA.
Samvatsaro nâsyate saptalyabda satedhike." This Brihaspati cycle consists of twelve years:
"Thus both Asvayuja and Chaitra of Brihaspati are expunged in a period of 170 years."
If the above passage quoted from Garga by Utpala, the commentator of Varshamihira's Brihatsamhita, could be taken as it stands and could be translated as it has been by Gene. ral Cunningham, everything maintained above would fall to the ground. For whatever the real age of the Garga Samhitá may be, it is certainly considerably older than the Siddhantas. Prof. Kern (preface to Brihat Samhitá p. 39) places it approximately in the first century before Christ, and I see no particular objection to this assumption. It would thus appear that even before the Christian era two Jovian years in 170, i. e. one Jovian year in about 85" were omitted, and consequently no objection could be raised to Gen. Cunningham carrying his table back to the year 8 A. C.
Having for a considerable time been engaged in collecting materials tending to throw light on the early history of Indian astronomy and chronology, and being acquainted with the hitherto known parts of the Garga Samhitá, I was at once struck by the above passage from Garga as being hardly reconcileable with what is known from other sources about the doctrines of this authority. Of this the most important point is that Garga taught the doctrine of the quinquennial cycle comprising 60 solar, 61 Sâvana and 62 lunar months, the length of the whole cycle amounting to 1830 Savana days, so that one solar year would consist of 366 Sâvana days. This doctrine is clearly and explicitly stated in the tragments of Garga preserved in the commentary on the Jyotisha-Vedánga, and printed in the edition of the latter work by Prof. Weber (pp. 40-43). The Jyotisha-Vedánga itself maintains the same doctrine (cf. my contributions to the explanation
323
of the Jyotisha-Vedanga, Journal. As. Soc. of Bengal for 1877). As far as our present knowledge goes, this doctrine, grossly erroneous as it is, generally prevailed in India before the influence of Greek astronomy began to make itself felt, and seems to have been immediately succeeded by the infinitely more perfect system of the Siddhantas (a circumstance, by the way, which would furnish another proof of the doctrine of the Siddhânta system not being of native Indian growth; were such proofs still needed at present).
The Sanskrit-text of the above passage I give exactly as it is found in Gen. Cunningham's text; some mistakes it would be easy to correct but the whole passage is so
Now, as we have seen above, the 85 years period of omission depends altogether on the accurate knowledge of the length of the solar year, combined with an equally accurate acquaintance with the length of Jupiter's revolution.
But as Garga did not possess the former knowledge (what his opinion of the length of Jupiter's revolution was we do not know) it is impossible to believe that he should have hit on the right period of omission of Jupiter-years unless we have recourse to the quite improbable hypothesis of the error of his mistake regarding the length of the solar year being neutralized by an exactly counterbalancing mistake with regard to the length of Jupiter's revolution. The passage as given by Gen. Cunningham thus-apart from its very inaccurate form-is suspicious on à priori considerations, and I therefore proceeded to ascertain its genuine form by recourse to the manuscripts. The only MS. of Bhattotpala's commentary of which I could avail myself (one belonging to the Benares College and very incorrect, as are all MSS. of Bhaṭṭotpala I have seen) gives the passage in a form only slightly dif ferent from the one given by Gen. Cunningham:
तथा च गर्ग आह ।
युगानि यानि तच तानि बृहस्पतेः । तत्र सावन सौराभ्यां सावनाब्दो निरुच्यते ।। एवमाश्वयुजं चैव चैत्रं चैव बृहस्पतिः । संवत्सरो नाशयते सप्तते ऽब्दशते ऽधिके ।।
I thereupon turned to the available manuscripts found by Dr. Bühler and belonging to the Bombay of the Garga Samhitá itself [the complete MS. Government (A), and two fragments (B and C)belonging to the Benares College, both containing the Brihaspati-chdra], and there I found a very different text.
A. reads:
युगानि द्वादशाकी पञ्च तानि बृहस्पतेः तत्र सावनसीराणां सावनौ व्यतिरिच्यते ।। gergade herent
संवत्सरी नाशयते विंशद्वर्षगतेन वा ।।
corrupt that I prefer not to alter it.
Correctly the amount is 22 years in 1875, or one on an average in 85
years.
