198 O^' THE HINDU 



That Vara'ha Mihira was the author of the 

 Surya Siddhanta, (]oes not rest upon the single au- 

 thority of the commentator on the Bhaswotee, but 

 on several undeniable facts, — it is clearly shewn by 

 the other works of Vara'ha, which bear his name, 

 one of which, the Jatacarnava, (Jatokarnovo) is 

 compared with the Surya Siddhanta, at page 573, 

 §. 72. Nay, the very circumstance to which the 

 Reviewer himself alludes above, of Vara'ha being 

 supposed to have flourished A. D. 499, ought to 

 have led him to the same conclusion. For why is 

 Vara'ha supposed to have flourished in A. D. 499? 

 Because he had fixed the vernal equinox to the be- 

 ginning of Jsw'mi in that year, and settled the rate 

 of precession to be from thence computed at 54" an- 

 nually : Now this is absolutely the case in the 

 Surya Siddhanta^ as well as in all the other works 

 of Vara'ha ; and the same system, motions, and 

 positions of the planets, given by that astronomer 

 in those works which bear his name, are likewise 

 the same in the Surya Siddhanta. But, indepen- 

 dent of all these undeniable facts, there is not a 

 Hindu astronomer, who has the smallest preten- 

 sion to the knowledge of the history of astronomy 

 in India, that does not know that Vara'ha was 

 the real author of the Surya Siddhanta, and not 

 only of that work, but also of the Brahma Sid- 

 dhanta, the S6/?ia Siddhanta, the Vasishta Siddhanta, 

 and the Paulastya Siddhanta, which are called the 

 five Siddhmitas of Vara'ha Mihira ; and in allu- 

 sion to which, one or more single works have been 

 written under the title of " Pancha Siddhanta,"" as 

 supposed to contain the essential parts of the five 

 Siddhantas of Vara'ha. 



The Hindus, in general, know very little about 

 the time in which Vara'ha flourished. Some refer 

 him to the iera of Vicramaditva, or fifty-six 

 years before- Christ, while others^ froni the cir- 



