Vol. VIII, No. 7.) The Date of Varaha Mihira’s Birth. 277 
[N.8.] 
the date of the Pafcasiddhantika there would finally remain 
the period from 505 to 587. I should, however, be unwilling 
to assign it to a later date than perhaps 530 to 540; for if its 
composition was removed by too great an interval from 505, it 
is improbable that Varaha Mihira should have kept the latter 
year as his epoch and not have introduced a more recent 
one.”’ 
The above is a concise abstract of all that has been written 
on this subject. 
written between a.p. 505 and the date of the Paficasiddhan- 
tika. Varaha Mihira adopts Saka 427 to exemplify the rules not 
only of the Romaka Siddhanta, but also those of the other four 
Siddhantas, as is fully evinced by Dr. Thibaut’s explanation of 
the origin of the ksepas used in the Surya Siddhanta. It 
is not shown that any of the Siddhantas, except the Romaka, 
or even the Romaka itself, made Saka 427 the starting-point of 
calculations. All Sanscrit scholars will admit that in the text 
figures refer us to this date. Then the question remains 
whether Saka 427 was the date of the Paficasiddhantika. 
This suggestion has been sufficiently refuted by the learned 
Dr. Thibaut, and the only one of the suggestions as to Saka 427 
that can possibly admit of any further discussion is whether 
this Saka is the date of Varaha Mihira’s birth, or of some very 
important event observed by him in his lifetime, and one which 
he desired to commemorate. Baboo JogeS Candra Raya 
starts the latter suggestion, and in his Introduction to Pandit 
Candragekhara’s Siddhantadarpana says, ‘‘ that the great popu- 
larity of Varaha Mihira leads us to suppose that the present 
system of the zodiac had its beginning in Saka 427.’’ He fur- 
ther says, ‘‘ that the Saka Year 421 or 427 appears to mark the 
beginning of the fixed zodiac.’’ Baboo Joges Candra Raya 
must have been, therefore, labouring under the mistaken idea 
that, according to Varaha Miriha, Saka 427 was the year of no 
ayanamsa or that the sun had made a complete number of 
revolutions at the end of Saka 427. It is clear that, according 
to Varaha Mihira, the sun had made a complete number of 
revolutions in Saka 421. Saka 421 Kalyabda 3600=solar years 
1955883600—solar months 23470603200. Therefore number of 
