235 HINDU ASTRONOMERS 



Without entering at prefent into any difqu'fition pq tl ! s fufcjecl, 

 or d fcuTng the accuracy of the pr< mif s ; but rcctdii g g.i mially to 

 the po(ition, \ hit the date of a.fVt of agronomical tables, or of a fyflem 

 for the computation , of the phces of planets, is deducible from the 

 afcertainment of a time when that fyftero or fet of tables .gave re halts 

 neareft to the truth; and granting that the date abovemenjioned ap- 

 proximates within certain limits to fuch an afcert^ipment ,• I fluli 

 merely obfe rye, &hat fuppofing the dates otherwise irreconcilable, Aill 

 the book, which we nowhaye under the name o5 4 Sur.ya, or Saura* 

 SiJcihanta,, may have been, and probably was, modernifed from a 

 more ancient trealife of the fame name,, ttihedaiej, work .borrowing, its., 

 title from an earlier performance of.a d'fferenLauthor. We have an 

 inftance of, this pra£lice in the kindred, cafe of the Rrahmzfidd'hantai.,. 

 for. we are, acquainted with no.lefs than, three agronomical, treatifes 

 beiring this title ; one extracted from the V/Jhn'u dhexmottarcL^ .another 

 termed the, Sac dyj^ and,, the third the. Sphuiji-fidd'hdntaoi Br.ahme- 

 gupta ^..and an equal number of traces entitled VtiJllhfhaJidd'bantj may- 

 be traced in the quotations of authors.; one, by, Vish.n 'u grand r a ; 

 another termed LtJghu-vafijllia, which from its name fhould. be an, 

 abridgment: and the third, apparently an ample treatife, diftinguifhed 

 as the Vridd'ha-vafijktlk.a.. This folutjon, of th® objeclian alfa is, entire- 

 ly compatible with the tenor of the references to the Saura, which 

 have beep yelremajked in the works of Br ahmeguhta and Va'sa'ha- 

 mihir a J, none of them being relative to points that furnifh argument, 

 for concluding the age of the, book from internal, evidence. 



At all events; whatever may be thought of the Surya-JiddVianta, we 

 have the authority of a quotation from AryabhatVa, to fhow, thafc 

 the Hindus had ascertained the quantity of the preceflTion more CQr- 

 redly than Ptqlem x l and had accpunted for it by a motion in libra-, 



