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cated by the fact that the calculated tithi was longer than the actual one and hence the error was rectified through the direct observation of the phenomenon of eclipse formation.
d. Some western scholars! agree that astronomical references found in
Mahābhārata could not have entered in before Hipparchus (C. 150 B.C) and therefore they ascribe Mahābhārata to a period near the advent of the Christian era, but such references are related to Jaina astronomical development of the post-Vedanga pre-Siddhāntic period. For example, the Vedānga Jyotişa Dhanişthădio system of nak satras was changed into Sravaņādi system as found in Mahābhārata before the Jaina's Abhijitādi system? was held in esteem.
In the context of these arguments, suffice it to say that Mahābhārata contains much that belongs to the intermediate period when the Jaina astronomical system was gaining over Vedānga Jyotişa. There has been a tradition15 in ancient India that astronomical computations were based on the sidereal system over many centuries before any rectification was made for the error into the calculated and observed phenomena. On the basis of Dhanişthàdi system of nak satras, Vedānga Jyotişa is generally ascribed to about 14th century B.C.1 Whereas Jaina texts contain much that belongs to about 5th/6th century B.C.19 when the Jaina School of astronomy has gained a vigorous momentum under the celebrity of Lord Mabāvira. Therefore the notion of Sravaņādi system may be assigned an intermediate period of about first millenium B.C. The date of the painted greyware as also of the discovery of Iron, both associated with the Aryans, have been put around 1000 B.C. by archaeologists. K. L. Daftary on analysing the astronomical data as found in Mahābhārata has given its date to be about 1200 B.C. Of course, there is always a possibility of difference of 200 or 300 years in such astronomical calculations, whereas the general precession takes about a thousand years to cross over the zodiacal stretch of a nakşatra. However astronomical evidences are quite dependab'e as they are confirmable in the mathematical texture in relation to one another. However a similar difference of a few hundred years also creeps into the method of carbon dating of an event.
Besides, the fact that nak yatras are chiefly given to be 27 in number in Mahābhārata, except a passing reference to the 28th naksatral whereas Jainas astronomical computations are solely dependable on the system of 28 nak satras.? Obviously Mahābhārata should be assigned a period in between Vedānga Jyotişa and Jaina astronomy, but attention may he
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