184 The Adjustment of the Hindu Calendar. [No. 4, 



tion. The Hindu civil year differs from the astronomical as regards 

 the fractions of a day. An error, however, in exactly determining the 

 value of this fraction will, following the Hindu method, soon be so 

 accumulated as to necessitate the introduction of a correction that the 

 calculations may agree with actual phenomena. Considering the 

 backwardness of the Hindu Philosophers to profit by recent investiga- 

 tions accompanied by want of that habit of verifying calculations by 

 observations, which Bacon's philosophy alone can teach, it is natural 

 that the Hindu year will represent a state of things that does not 



really exist. 



The motion of the equinoxes in space, though observed in the 

 western world by Hipparchus so early as B. C 136, was not known to 

 the Hindus in A. C. 400, the earliest date assignable to the Surya 

 Siddhanta from the longitudes of stars there noted. A theory of 

 libration of the equinoxes 27° either side of the first point of Aries is 

 stated in certain Siddhantas, and others again calculate a complete 

 revolution of the points, but in no astronomical work of the Hindus 

 is any use made of such oscillation or motion. No work corrects its 

 calculations according to the precession of the equinoxes, though the 

 Surya Siddhanta gives a rule for determining the numerical value of the 

 same, and instructs the students to introduce the bija necessary for the 

 motion of the equinoxes. 



As stated before in reckoning civil time, fractions of a day are re- 

 jected. "When the fraction is less than 30 Ghadis (half a Hindu day) 

 the civil year or the month is reckoned as beginning one day later than 

 the astronomical. The year consisting of 365.24486231177907 days, 

 365 whole days are deducted from it, the fraction, 24486231177907 

 being carried to the next year forms 365*4897246235814 days. 

 From this again the whole number of 365 days being deducted for 

 the second year leaves a fraction to which the value for another year 

 being added gives 3657345869353371 days. This sum exceeds 

 365*5 days and therefore the year is made to commence one day later. 

 Deducting the fractional residue '73... from 366 days and the remain- 

 der -26541406466279 being again deducted from two tropical years 

 (of 7304897246235514 days) leaves 730-22431055889535. Deduct- 

 ing from the above for the 4th and 5th years (730) we carry the 

 remainder -2243105889535 of a day to the 6th year. 



