1880.] 



G. Thibaut — On tlie Suryaprajnapti. 



115 



commentary, the Vasaiia, where the common names of the nakshatras 

 (Visakha, Punarvasu, Eohini, the three TJttaras ; — i^slesha, Xrdra, Svati, 

 Bharani, Jyeshtha, S'atabhishaj) are given and where Pulisa, Vasishtha, 

 Garga and others are said to be the Rishis alluded to in the text. The 

 rough mode o£ computation referred to in the beginning of the above quo- 

 tation is the one contained in v. 67 of the same chapter and agrees with 

 the rule given in the Surya Siddhanta, II, 61;. According to it, when 

 we wish to iind the place of sun or moon or one of the planets in the circle 

 of the nakshatras, we have to divide the longitude of the heavenly body ex- 

 pressed in minutes by 800 ; the quotient then shows the number of naksha- 

 tras through which the planet has already passed, and the remainder the 

 traversed part of the nakshatra in which it is at the time. This rule there- 

 fore bases on the assumption of twenty-seven nakshatras each of which 

 extends over one twenty-seventh part of the circle. Xovv, according to 

 Bhaskara, the Rishis taught that whenever greater accuracy is required, the 

 nakshatras have to be considered as being of unequal extent. In the first 

 place only fifteen of them are to be regarded as having the average extent, 

 while six exceed that amount by one half and six others remain below it 

 by one half ; and in the second place the twenty-seven nakshatras are no 

 longer to occupy the whole circle, but only that part of it which corresponds 

 to twenty-seven times the mean daily motion of the moon, while the 

 remaining part of the circle is assigned to a twenty-eighth nakshatra Abhijit. 

 Bhaskara's statements are manifestly founded on a passage met with in 

 the 14th chapter of the Sphuta Brahmasiddhanta which gives the same 

 details regarding the different extent of the nakshatras, and is introduced 

 by the following verse — • 



" The calculation of the nakshatras, which has been taught in the Paulisa, 

 llomaka, Vasishtha, Saura, Paitamaha Siddhantas, is not mentioned by 

 Aryabhata ; I therefore proceed to explain it." 

 And later on — 



The explicit statement about number and extent of the nakshatras in 

 the older period of Indian astronomy, which is contained in the two pas- 

 sages quoted from Brahmagupta aud Bhaskara, is of considerable interest. 

 If the account given by these two writers is correct and there is no reason 

 to doubt of that, it appears in the first place that the mere circumstance 

 of only twenty-seven nakshatras being mentioned in some detached frag- 

 ment of an astronomical work which we do not possess in ■ its entirety, 

 1' 



