﻿OF THE HINDUS. 241 



" ranee, or with intent to deceive — That, having 

 • slated the revolutions of the planets different from 

 u the account revealed by Swya 9 they must certainly 

 " have been in error — That Brahnagupta could not 

 " have counted the revolutions from the beginning of 

 " the Culpa : neither could he from the mean mo- 

 " tion of the planets have so determined them. — He 

 " was a mortal, and therefore could not count the re- 

 " volutions. — Although the rule of proportion shouid 

 <e be granted to have served his purpose for the revo- 

 " lutions of the planets, yet it certainly could not for 

 " those of their Mandochcha. because it was not within 

 •* the term of a man's life to determine the mean mo- 

 '• tion of the Mandochcha ; and this assertion is justi- 

 *' fled by the opinion of Bhascaracharya. But the rule 

 " of proportion could not have answered even for the 

 '• planets; for, although their mean motion be ob- 

 " served one day, and again the next, how can a man 

 ** be certain of the exact time elapsed between the two 

 11 observations ? And if there be the smallest error in 

 " the elapsed time, the rule of proportion cannot 

 " answer for such great periods. An error of the 

 " io-millionth part of a second (Vicala) in one day, 

 ** amounts to forty degrees* in the computation of a 

 " Calf a -, and the mistake of i-tenth of a respiration in 

 " one Saura year, makes a difference in the same pe- 

 " riod of 20000 days. That it is therefore evident, 

 " Brahmaguptah motive for directing the planetary 

 " motions to be computed as commencing with the 

 ** Calpa, was to deceive mankind, and that he had 

 t( not the authority of the Munis, because he differs 

 " from the Surya Siddhanta, Brahma Siddhanta^Soma 

 " Siddhanla ; from Vasishtha, and other Munis. 



The error would be more than 43' 



