210 OV THE HINDU 



for they principally arise from the nature of the 

 artificial system adopted by the author, which did 

 not admit of a nearer approach to truth ; in order 

 to explain which, it is necessary to he observed, 

 tliat in the Hindu artificial systems, the astronomers 

 fix on a point of time back as an epoch, at which 

 they assume the planets, &c. to have been in a line 

 of mean conjunction in the beginning of Aries in 

 the Hindu sphere. But as no period can be found, 

 at which the planets were actually in a line of 

 mean conjunction, it must be obvious, that the mo- 

 tions requisite to give the mean places of the 

 planets when the system is framed, commencing 

 from any such assumed epoch of mean conjunction, 

 must deviate more or less from the truth. For, 

 the mean motions o*f such of the planets, as were 

 actually passed the position assumed, will come out 

 greater, and those that fell short of it less than the 

 truth, in proportion to the diftierences between the 

 real and assumed mean places. 



Thus : — suppose n, to be the number of years 

 expired from the assumed epoch of mean conjunc- 

 tion at the time the s}'stem is framed, and let iM, 

 be the real mean annual motion of a planet dadnceA 

 from observations or otherwise; then M x n, would 

 be the mean place of the planet at the end of?/ years 

 from the epoch of assumed mean conjunction, pro- 

 vided the planet was in the position assumed. But 

 if 7J/ X n, was found to exceed or fall short of the 

 real mean place of the planet at the cm\ of n years, 

 then, it is evident, that the planet was not in the 

 position assumed at the epoch, and the moticn must 

 be encreascd or diminished accordingly, so as to 

 make it give the real mean position of the planet ; 

 — for instance, suppose thatil/xw, fell short of 

 the real position of the planet at the end of ?2 years, 

 by the quantity d, — then, J/+-^, would be the 



