122 



G. Tlilbaut — On tlie Suri/aprajnapti. 



[No. 3, 



of wlncli is 315,089 yojanas long, passes in one muhiirta through 5,251 |^ 

 yojanas. On the following day both suns travel in the second circle which 

 is somewhat larger than the first one, and consequently the suns having to 

 describe a larger space in the same time, i. e., during the duration of a 

 nycthemeron travel somewhat faster, pass in one muhiirta through 5,251 

 I4- yojanas. Thus day after day the speed of the two suns is increasing in 

 accordance with the continually increasing extent of the diurnal circles, 

 until on the day of the winter solstice both suns travelling in the outmost 

 circle pass through 5,305 \^ yojanas in one muhiirta. Beginning from this 

 day their speed diminishes as they are again approaching the innermost 

 circle, until on the day of the next summer solstice their rate of sj^eed is 

 again at its minimum. In connexion with this discussion of the swiftness 

 of the sun, the Siiryaprajiiapti treats of the question of the distance from 

 which the light of the sun becomes visible to the inhabitants of the Bhara- 

 ta-varsha. By this distance we have, however, to understand not the dis- 

 tance of the sun from the Bharata-varsha in a straight line, but rather that 

 part of the sun's daily circle which lies between the point of the sun's 

 rising and the meridian. It is well known, saj's the Commentator, that the 

 sun becomes visible to the eye of man at a distance equal to half of the 

 extent (kshetra) over which he travels during the whole day, i. e., at the 

 time of his rising, his distance from us (=:from our meridian, although this 

 is not expressly stated in the Siiryaprajiiapti) is half of the arc which he 

 describes during the whole day. The length of this arc has to be 

 measured simply by the time which the sun takes to travel through it. 

 Thus, for instance, on the longest day the sun is visible to the inliabltants of 

 the Bharata-varsha during eighteen muhiirtas out of thirty ; from the 

 moment of his rising he will therefore take nine muhiirtas to come up to 

 the point straight in front of us (to the meridian). Now we have seen 

 before that on the longest day the sun travels over 5,251 |^ yojanas in one 

 muhiirta ; consequently he travels in nine muhiirtas over 47,263 fi yojanas. 

 This therefore is the distance — expressed as an arc of the diurnal circle 

 — at which he becomes visible to the eye of man. On the shortest 

 day on the other hand the sun is visible for twelve muhiirtas only ; we have 

 therefore to mtiltiply the amount of his motion in one muhiirta by six in 

 order to find the distance at which he first appears to the eye of man on 

 that day. 



Regarding the swiftness of the sun four otlier opinions are recorded 

 by the author of the Siiryaprajiiapti. According to some teachers, the sun 

 travels in one muluirta over six thousand yojanas, and as far as it appears 

 this rate of motion is the same in whatever circle the sun is moving. How 

 these teachers accounted for the fact of the sun taking the same time to 

 travel through a large circle as through a small one is not explained. Tlie 



