Indian Antiquary Vol 20

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

Page 48

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1891.
As far as my knowledge goes, the Hindu day in the Kaliyuga year 7924 current is said to astronomers never use the luni-solar ahargana be Friday by the Súrya-Siddhanta; this is in the sense and manner in which Warren used it. mistake; it ought to be Thursday. Also see p. 82, He seems to have been led into this misunder- line 7 from the bottom, where the civil month is standing by the fact that the number of the moon's wrongly said to be of 31 days, instead of 30. revolutions in a Mahayuga is the same in both But fortunately, in the two Chronological Tables the Súrya and the Arya-Siddhantas. Probably Warren gave the solar ahargana from the Aryahe found Tamil astronomers, - the followers of Siddhanta, and thus avoided a repetition of the the Arya-Siddhanta, - using that number of the mistake. moon's revolutions, counting their ahargana from
The time of the apparent or the mean Mêsha. sunrise, according to the rule of their authority;
Bankranti is the time when the sun's apparent or and thus he seems to have fallen into the error
mean longitude amounts to nil. Acoording to of giving, in the Second Chronological Table, the
the first Arya-Siddhanta, the apparent (spashta) luni-solar ahargana from the Súrya-Siddhanta,
Mêsha-Satkránti takes place about 2 days, 8 gh. and making it count from sunrise.
51 palas, 15 vipalas, before the mean (madhyama) There seems also another reason of this. The
Mêsha-Samkranti, and this difference is called ahargana (index) for about the end of the luni
86dhyam in Warren's work. This quantity solar Kaliyuga-Samvat 4923 current, according to
varies according to different authorities. Accord Vavilala Cuchinna's work, is computed on pages
ing to the present Súrya-Siddhanta, it is about 153-154; it is 191389, which, after division by 7,
2 days, 10 ghatis, 12 palas. But Warren used the gives 2; and, in that work, as it is counted from
Sodhyam according to the first Årya-Siddhanta, Thursday, noon, the result is Saturday, noon; even in calculations according to the Sarya. and this must have co-operated in inducing Siddhanta. Such a process, of course, is not right, Warren to give Saturday as the last feria of the
and may frequently lead to mistakes. year 4923, and must have helped to lead him to
In the third Memoir Warren gives, according the general mistake in the Second Chronological Table. Now, the ahargana according to Vavi.
to the present Súrya-Siddhanta and the Jyo. lala Cuchinna's work, is not exactly for the
tishatattva, to the method of computing the time time of the last conjunction; the mere fact that
of the commencement of a samvatsara of the it is always for noon proves this; and the further
Sixty-Year Cycle of Jupiter which is in use at calculations required to find the mean new-moon,
present in Northern India. But the time arrived stated in article 3, page 172, leave no doubt about
at by his process is always earlier than what is this. Saturday, in fact, as shewn above by me,
derived actually according to those two authoriwas not the last feria of the year in question.
ties, by about 2 days, 8 ghatis, 51 palas, 15 vipalas,
in the case of the latter authority, and by that I find that the real difference between the
amount plus the difference between the time of luni-solar ahargaņa of the Surya-Siddhanta the mean Mêsha-Sankranti of the Sarya and and that of the first Arya-Siddhantas was nil
Arya-Siddhantas in the case of the former. A in Saka-Samvat 421 expired (A. D. 499). It was
little misunderstanding, noticed in note 9 above, 6 ghatis, 24 vighatis, 56 paras, in A. D. 1600. And causes this mistake. A samvatsara of the Sixtyit will be 7 gh. 46 vi. 56 pa. in A. D. 1900. And Year Cycle as described by Warren, - which I when the mean amdvisya, according to the
have named the Sixty-Year Cycle of the meanSúrva-Siddhanta, ends within this time after sign-system, commences when Jupiter 8 mean eunrise, it will end on the previous week-day longitude amounts to a complete sign. This is according to the first Arya-Siddhanta.
clear from Warren's description of it, as well as The difference between the solar aharganas from verse 55 of the first chapter of the Súryaof the two authorities is also the same. In Siddhanta, a translation of which is given by finding the week-day and other elements also him on page 200. The Jyótishatattva rule is based from the solar ahargana calculated from the on the first Arya-Siddhanta; and according to that Sarya-Siddhanta, the same mistake may occur. Siddhanta and the Sürya-Siddhanta, Jupiter's For instance, see page 65 of the Tables, line 7 mean longitude was nil, or, in other words, he from the bottom, where the feria of the first civil was at the beginning of Mesha, at the commence
It is not properly defined in the Glossary (p. 883). I myself have not seen the work, nor have I heard of Warren does not seem to have clearly understood, much its existence, though I have found the rule quoted as lese to have always kept in view, this distinction; and belonging to it by Warren and others, in several other this seems to be at the root of most of his mistakes.
authorities. My conjecture is that the proper name is 10 Warren writes this name as Jyotishtava throughout. JyStishatattua.