844 HINDU i ASTRONOMERS 



Sinha andLAD'-'HACHARYA may be here fpecificd. But the Bra'hme-Jii* 

 d'hdnta and the works of AVyaphat't a. are what principally engages 

 Brahmegupta's -attention: and the five Sidd'hdriias have been the. parti- 

 cular fuJbjeQ of Vara'hamihir a's labors. He appears to have been ante- 

 rior to Brahmegupta, being. aelually cited by him among other writers? 

 . who fc. errors are expqfed and corre&ed. 



4 



"Va'ra'hamihira,' con ftantly quoted as the author of. theVdrdhi-fan* 

 hitd and Pancha-Jzdd'kdnticd, muft.be judged from thofe works, which 

 are undoubtedly his by -the unanimous content of the learned, . and' by 

 the teftimony of the ancient fcholiaft BhatVotpaj^a .The minor 



works, afcribed to the fame author, may have been eompofed . -in 

 later times, and the, name, of a,celebrated author. have been affixed, to 

 them, according to a practice, which is but too common, in India as 

 in many other countries. The JitacdrHavd for example, which has 

 been attributed to him, may not improbably.be the work of a dif- 

 ferent aujthpr. At ieafl I am not apprized of any collateral evidence 

 (fuch \ as quotations from it in books of fome antiquity) to fupport it$ 

 geouioepefsa as a work of Va'r.a'hamihsra 8 s,, 



In the Vdrdhi'-fankiid, this, author has not followed the fyftem which 

 is taught ' in the Surya-fidd'hdnta* For inflance his rule for finding the 

 year of .the cycle of Go years, founded on the mean motions of Jupiter^ 

 fhows that he. employed a different number from that., which the 

 Surya-fidd'hdnta furai flies ; viz. 364224. resolutions in a yuga, soilcad 

 of 364200; and it appears from a quotation of the fcholiaft, that 

 A'&yabh at Va is the authority for that number of revolutions ofjupiter. 



Before the age of; Va'ra'hamihira and Brahmegupta 9 , and,.fub= 



..fequently to that of Gaslga 9 a number of iiluftrious aftronopacis 



