1880.] 



G. Thlbaut — On the Suryaprajnapti. 



Ill 



to correspond with each other. I£ we suppose — and this seems the most like- 

 ly supposition — that each of the 27 nakshatras was curtailed by the twenty- 

 seventh part of the small jDortion assigned to Abhijit and that the reckon- 

 ing started from the beginning of Abhijit, (which according to the system 

 of the Suryajirajriapti is the first of the series, as at the beginning of the 

 yuga it is in conjunction with the moon), we may hazard an hypothesis 

 with regard to the time lying between the Vedanga and the Suryaprajiiapti, 

 or rather between the observations of the solstices recorded in the two 

 works. According to the Vedanga the winter solstice takes place in the 

 beginning of Dhanishtha, according to the Suryaprajiiapti in the beginning 

 of Abhijit (which is the place of the full moon on the day of the summer 

 solstice at the beginning of the yuga, and consequently the place of the 

 sun on the day of the winter solstice) ; the two places are there- 

 fore separated by the whole of S'ravana and Abhijit. Having, according to 

 the hypothesis stated above, reduced the extent of S'ravana ( = 13'°33) 

 by the 27th part of the extent of Abhijit, which extent is equal to about 

 4-°12, we obtain for S'ravaiia 13-°18 ; to this we add Abhijit = 4-°12 ; the 

 sum viz., 17'°3 indicates the extent of the displacement of the solstice 

 during the intervening period. Allowing seventy-two years for 1° of pre- 

 cession, the length of this period would be about 1246 years. If we there- 

 fore knew the absolute date of the Vedanga we might state the approxi- 

 I mate absolute date of the observation recorded in the Suryaprajiiapti, on 

 j the supposition always of the manner in which the two divisions of the 

 ' sphere have been adjusted to each other being the right one. But, as 

 Professor Whitney has shown, it is scarcely possible to form any satisfactory 

 conclusion with regard to the date of the Vedanga, and we therefore abstain 

 from giving a positive opinion about the date of the Suryaprajnapti. 



We now proceed to a detailed consideration of the hypothesis by which 

 i the author of the Suryaprajiiapti tries to account for the appearances pre- 

 \ sented by the various motions of the heavenly bodies, beginning with the 

 sun. 



The three different motions of the sun which he endeavours to explain 

 are firstly, the daily motion in consequence of which the sun seems to 

 approach us from the East, passes through our field of vision and finally 

 I disappears in the West ; secondly, the annual motion in consequence 

 j of which the sun seems to pass in the course of a year through the circle 

 of the nakshatras, proceeding from the West towards the East ; and thirdly 

 I the motion in declension according to which the sun ascends towards the 

 j north during one half of the year and descends towards the south during 

 j the other half. As in all systems which consider the daily motion of the 

 i sun to be real (not an appearance produced by the revolution of the earth 



