________________
98
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1895.
consideration, 'a thousand years would not be too long a period to cover all the uncertainties involved." He, with full justice I think, lays special stress on the fact that there is absolutely no proof of the old boundary lines of the nakshatras having been the same as those acknowledged in later Hindu nstronomy, and of the insignificant star, Piscium, baving from the beginning marked the eastern limit of Revati;10 and that hence in all our backward calculations we have no reliable point to start from. Where on the ecliptic is the beginning of Sravishyhás, iu which, according to the Védánga, the sun is when turning towards the north P The constellation Śravishthâs has a considerable northern latitude, and the sun, therefore, can never actually be in the consellation, nor can the heliacal rising of the constellation indicate the place of the sun in the ecliptic to those who do not possess a very advanced astronomical and mathematical knowledge. The Jyotisha Védánga (v. 6) says that the yuga begins when sun and moon ascend the sky together with Sravishțhás; which certainly seems to mean that the sun at the beginning of the yuga rises together with the constellation Gravishtbils : analogously Garga - as quoted by Somákara - teaches that the utlaráyana begins when sun and moon rise together with Srarishthås. At the same time those two anthorities clearly mean to say that, at the beginning of the yuga, the sun is at the beginning of that subdivision of his path, which is called Sravishthâs after the constellation That when the sun is at the first point of that subdivision it does not rise together with the constellation - owing to the northern latitude of the latter - they are evidently quite un. aware of. Whore, under these circumstances, is the fixed point which we require to star from in our calculations P Professor B. G. Tilak (in his third chapter) contends that it is more natural to suppose that in the earliest days of civilization tbe motions of the sun and the moon were determined with reference to known fixed stars, rather than to artificial subdivisions of the zodiac. This is no doubt true; bat in Indian literature there appears to be from the very beginning a most confusing mixing up of constellations and divisions of ecliptic Artificial systems, like that represented by the Jyotisha Védánga, appear to have been estab Jished very early: I have no doubt that at the time, when the aathor of the 19th book of the Kaushitaki Brahmana could say that the sun always turns towards the north on the new moon of Màgha, there already existed a fully worked out calendaric scheme, most probably very similar to that of the Védánga. It appears probable that such a scheme, was known at the time already when the months first received their names from the nakshatras in which the moon was fall. We must here clearly distinguish between minuteness and accuracy of astronomical observation on the one hand, and of arithmetical calculation on the other hand. The former cannot be presupposed for an early period - they, in fact, never existed in India ; but there stands nothing in the way of our admitting that the Hindus at a very early period already were capable of devising a, purely theoretical, subdivision of the sun's and moon's path into twenty-seven equal parts, and accurately calculating the places occupied in those parts by the two heavenly bodies in all seasons and months of the year. There is no valid reason, in fact, to deny that what is actually done in the Jyotisha Védánga and the Sürya Prajnapti of the Jainas could be done at a much earlier period already. Each artificial scheme of that type, of course, requires, at least, one observation which provides a starting point for all calculations ; such as the place of the winter solstice in the Vedanga and of the summer solstice in the Súrya Prajiiapti. Bat what that original observation really was in each case is a matter of doubt. The system of the Jyotisha Vélanga, e. g., is probably based on some observation however imperfectly made, of the place of the winter solstice; but it is, at any rate, not impossible that something else was originally observed, e. g., the place of the summer Bolstice and that the corresponding winter solstice was thence calculated according to the general principles of the system.
• Whitney, the Lunar Zodiac, p. 384. 16 Compare on this point the introduction to my and Pa.. Sudhakara Drivedi'. Kdition of the Panchasiddhantikt, !
p. lir.
