﻿244 °« TI * E ASTRONOMICAL COMPUTATIONS 



4< the heavens, found some deviation, and introduced 

 t; a'correction of bija. After him, when further de- 

 " viations were observed, Ditrga Sniha, JStihira, and 

 ^ others, made corrections. After them came the 

 ".json of Jistnk and Brahmagupta, and made correc-* 

 " tions. After them Cesava settled the places of 

 " the planets ; and, sixty years after Cesava, his son 

 " Ganesa made corrections/' 



We have now, according to the Hindu system, the 

 mean motion of the planets,, their nodes and apsidesj 

 and the elapsed time since they were in conjunction 

 in th'e first of Media, with which, by the rule of pro- 

 portion, to determine their mean longitude for any 

 proposed tir&p of the present year. It is, however, 

 observed in the Sitrya Slddhanta, that to assume^ a 

 period so great is unnecessary; for use, the computa- 

 tion may be made from the beginning of the Treta 

 age, at which instant all the Gralias, or moveable 

 points in the heavens, were again in conjunction in 

 Mcsha, except the apogees and ascending nodes, 

 whicr^ must therefoi^be computed from the creation. 

 The same is true of thfl| beginning of the present Cult 

 age; for the greatest common divisor of the number 

 of days composing the Maha Yug and the planetary 

 revolutions in that period, is four, which quotes 

 . 394479457 days, or ioSoootD years ; and the Treta 

 and Divc/pap*j&Q£s contain together just that number 

 of .years. The present Hindu astronomers therefore 

 find it unnecessary to go farther back than the begin- 

 ning of the Cali Vug * in determining the mean lon- 



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* Neither do they, in computing by the formulas itvxommon 

 A;?e, go farther back than to some assigned d <te ot theiSra Saca ; < 

 but, having the planets places determined for that point of time, 

 thry compute their mean places ancLother requisites ror any pm- } 

 posed dare afterwards by tables, or by combinations"^ figures con- , 

 trived to facilitate the work : as in Grahalagbava, Siddbanta Ra- 

 basya, and m ay other books. An inquirer into Hindu astronoi 

 having access to such books only, might easily be led to x^,c~. 



