﻿258 ON THE ASTRONOMICAL COMPUTATIONS 



principles of their own science; and, where reconcilia* 

 tion was impossible, have apologized, as well as they 

 could, for propositions necessarily established in the 

 practice of it, by observing, that certain tmngs, as 

 stated in other Sastras, " might have been so formerly, 

 " and may be so still ; but for astronomical purposes, 

 * ( astronomical rules must be followed." Others have, 

 withabolderspirit,attacked andrefutedunphilosophkal, 

 opinions. Bhascara argues, that it is more reasonable 

 to suppose the earth to be self-balanced in infinite space, 

 than that it should be supported by a series of animals, 

 with nothing assignable for tlmlast of them to rest upon ; 

 And Nerasinha, in his commentary, shows that by Rahie^ 

 and Cctit) the head and tail of the, monster, in the sense 

 they generally bear, could only be meant the position 

 of the moon's nodes and the quantity of her latitude, 

 on which eclipses do certainly depend ; but he does 

 not therefore deny the reality of Rahu and Cetu: en 

 the contrary, he says, that their actua^xistence and 

 presence in eclipses ought to be believed, and may be 

 maintained as an article of faith, without any prejudice 

 to astronomy. The following Sloca, to which a lite- 

 ral translation is annexed, was evidently written by a 

 Jyotlshy and is well known to the Pandits in gene- 

 ral : 



Viftlialanyanyasasiraniy vivadasteshu cevalam : 

 Safhalam jyotisham sastram, chandrarcai^y^f^a sac- 

 shinau. 



" Fruitless are all other Sastras ; in them is Conten- 

 tion only. Fruitful is the Joytish Sastra, where the sun 

 and moon are two witness^." 



The argument of J' araliaacharya concerning the 

 monster Rahu> might here be annexed, but, as this 



ft , .' * 



