________________
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH.
VOLUME XVII.-1888.
THE TWELVE-YEAR CYCLE OF JUPITER. BY SHANKAR BALKRISHNA DIKSHIT; BOMBAY EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT. M HE names of the saihvatsaras, or years, of to understand, not the daily rising of Jupiter,
1 the Twelve-Year Cycle of Jupiter, are but his heliacal rising. Jupiter becomes indetermined in accordance with the following visible for some days before and after his conrole in the Brihat-Sarihitá of Varahamihira, | junction with the sun. The sun's daily motion adhyâya viii. verse 1;
is faster than that of Jupiter. So, when the Nakshatrêņa sah=8dayam
sun in his course comes near Jupiter, the latter apagachchhati yêna dévapati-mantri' becomes invisible, on the west side of the tat-samjñam vaktavya
horizon; and he is then said to set. He varsham mása-kramèņwaiva 11
remains from twenty-five to thirty-one days "With whatever nakshatra (Jupiter) the in this state of invisibility. And, when he is counsellor of (Indra) the lord of the gods left behind by the sun, he again becomes attains (his) rising, the year is to be spoken visible, in the east; and then he is said to rise. of (as) having the appellation of that (naksha. Generally, in India, when the interval between tra), in accordance with the order of the the daily settings or risings of the sun and months."
Jupiter amounts to forty-four minutes (of Here, by the word udaya, 'rising,' we have time), then the so-called setting or rising of
ho ronding But the connakshatr with
whattains
1 The reading that I give is from an old manuscript in my possession. But the commentator, Utpala, explains the verse with the reading nakshatrina sah-odavam astam va yêna yati Bura-mantri," with whatever nakshatra (Jupiter) the counsellor of the gods attains Chia) rising or Betting. It is curious that the text. in my manuscript copy, stands as given above. The oopyists, however far they might go wrong in ordinary transoribing, could not, unless intentionally, turn the letters H a a r, if they were original at all, into ya Tegra 1991. And Utpala himself gives the note-Riahiputr.ddibhiḥudaya-nakshatra-mdaa. sarjña-kramina varshan jñataryam ity-uktam," it is said by Rishiputra and others, that the year is to be known according to the order of the name of the month of the nakshatra of the rising (of Jupiter).". Also, of the other authorities to be mentioned and treated fully in a continuation of this article, amounting to not less than ten, which I find giving the rule of naming the years of the cycle according to the risings of Jupiter. all, except the serya-Siddhanta, make each year take ita name from only the rising of the planet; not from
its setting. In the Surya-Siddhanta, riv. 17, the text in -Kárttik-adini varshini Guror ast-6dayat tath—"80 the years Karttika and the others (that follow), (are to be named) from the setting or rising of Jupiter." But there also, the commentator, Ranganatha, remarksidinim udaya-varsha-vyavahari gana kair ganyaté, -"at the present time, the practice of (naming) the year by the rising, is taken into account by astronomers." - The reading in the text above, is the one adopted by Kern, in bis edition of the Brihat-Samhita, p. 47. His translation (Jour. R. 48. Soc. N. 8. Vol. V. p. 45) is "each year (during which Jupiter completes & twelfth part of his revolution) has to bear the name of the lunar mansion in which he rimos: the years follow each other in the game order ak the lunar months. Both in his " Various Readings," p. 6, and in the note to his translation, he notioes the reading sah=0dayam astash va yena ati sura-mantri. But he points out that "the comparison of the MSS. leaves little doubt that this reading is a correction, suggested by the remark of Utpala, that, in ose the planet should set in one and rise in another nakshatra, only that name must be taken which agrees with the order of the month.-J. F. F.
