Indian Antiquary Vol 19

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 62

54
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1890.
I must state here that the fifth verse of the ninth chapter of the Panchasiddhántiká, containing the mean motion and the ksh@paka of Bahy, or the moon's ascending node, according to the original Súrya-Siddhanta, is so corrapt in my copy that I have not been able to make out its sense. But, seeing that all the other numbers of the revolutions of the planets in the Khandakhádya and the original Súrya-Siddhanta agree exactly, I have given, in the accompanying Table, the number of revolutions of Rahu, derived from the former, as belonging to the latter; and the kahepaka is as calculated from this number.
I would also invite the attention of antiquarians to another interesting point. At present only one work is known to have been composed by the first Aryabhata; it has been published by Dr. Kern; it contains 118 verses in the Aryâ metre; and it is called the Aryabhatiya or (first) Arya-Siddhanta 26 In it, the Kaliyuga is made to commence at sunrise at Lanka. Bat Varahamihira says:
लंकार्धरात्रसमये दिनप्रवृत्ति जगाद चार्यभटः।
TU: TT Tretary Watei | Panchasiddhántiká, chapter ziv. " Aryabhata declared the day to begin at midnight at Laoka ; again he declared (it to begin) at sunrise at Lanka.” And from this one expects that the same Aryabhata must have written another work, in which the ahargana is to be counted from the midnight. Now, I have stated above that the elements derived from the Khandakhadya, with the commencement of the Kaliyuga at midnight, exactly correspond with those of the original Súryu-Siddhanta ; and this last work differs considerably from the published work of the first Aryabhata, the difference being described above. But in the Khandakhádya, Brahmagupta, while alluding nowhere to the original Súrya-Siddhanta, often states that he has followed (the first) Åryabhata. For example, he says at the outset: -
प्रणिपत्य महादेव जगदुत्पत्तिस्थितिप्रलयहेतुं ।
THI Carregeak li Khandakhadya, chapter i. " Having saluted Mahadeva, who is the cause of the creation, the existence, and the destruction of the world, I proclaim the Khandakhadyaka, producing results agreeing with (those of) the Achárya Aryabhata." At another place he says : -
THETAT: | 7 || Khandakhádya, chapter i. " (The mean places of the planets thus arrived at are) equal to the mean (places of the planets calculated) for midnight according to Aryabhata." From these circumstances it necessarily follows that the first Aryabhata must have composed a work, in addition to his known AryaSiddhanta (Aryabhatiya), which exactly corresponded with the original Súrya-Siddhanta ; and it must be this now unknown work of Aryabhata which Brahmagupta followed in composing his Khandakhádya. This point is corroborated by the following remarks of Varuna, a commentator on the Khandakhúdya, who in the introduction to his commentary on the second Part (Uttara) of the Khandakhadya says,
fa re
hce, - " what is not stated here in the Uttara (the latter part of the Khandakhádya), should be stated i.e. taken) from the Karaņa of Aryabhata." And from this it appears that the first Aryabhata had composed a Karana. And, if the wording of Varahamihira in the above verse is to be taken literally, Aryabhata first composed this Karaṇa in which the ahargana was to be counted from midnight, and afterwards wrote the known Tantra or Siddhanta which has been published. It is but natural that the Karana-work, which was in fact an imitation of the original SúryaSiddhanta, should have been composed first; and it must have been followed by the Siddhanta or Aryabhatiya, which is an independent work.
» See ante, Vol. XVII. p. 312, note 1.
?? It is clear from bis Brahma-Siddhanta that Brahmagupta was also well aoquainted with Aryabhata's Siddhanta known to us at present.
*The Baka years 968,962, 984, 966 and 967, are used by him in his examples; and therefore the date of his commentary seems to be about A.D. 1040.