1830.] 



Dr. G. Tliihant — On the SilryiprajnapH. 



191 



with the information given about the position of the nakshatrafs in the 

 Siddhantas, we find that the Surj'aprajiiapti agrees with the latter with 

 regard to five out of tlie six nakshatras said always to stand soutlx of the 

 moon (Mrigasiras, i^rdra, A'slesha, Hasta, Mula), the latitude of all of them 

 considerably exceeding the highest latitude the moon ever reaches. The 

 case lies differently with regard to Pushya, which according to the Siddhan- 

 tas lies in the ecliptic, so that it almost appears as if the Pushya of the 

 Suryaprajnapti were an altogether different asterism. From among the 

 twelve nakshatras said to stand always north of the moon ten (Abhijit, 

 S'ravana, S'ravislitha, Purva-Bhadrapada, Uttara-Bhadrapada, Asvini, 

 Bharani, Purva-Phalguni, Uttara-Phalguni, Svati) may be identified with, 

 the nakshatras of the Siddhantas whose latitudes — excluding Abhijit — vary 

 from 9° to about 39" north. Strange it is only that these nakshatras occupy- 

 ing a zone of about 21° breadth are said to be in one and the same circle 

 of the moon, and still stranger that Abhijit too is classed among them, the 

 latitude of the latter — if identical with the Abhijit of tlie Siddhantas — ex- 

 ceeding the latitudes of the other nakshatras, with which it is here thrown 

 into one class, by about 30°. The S'atabhishaj and Revati of the Siddhan- 

 tas are situated in and close to the ecliptic ; here too therefore we might 

 doubt if the Suryaprajnapti denotes by these two names the same stars as 

 the Siddhantas. The remaining nakshatras may be identified with those 

 of the Siddhantas, the latitude of none of the latter much exceeding tlie 

 greatest latitude reached by the moon ; a considerable margin must of 

 course be allowed for the inaccuracy of the observations on which the state- 

 ments of the Suryaprajiiapti are based. Quite unfounded is the statement 

 about the moon alwaj's passing right through Jyeshtha ; it looks as if it had 

 originated at some period when one of the moon's nodes had about the 

 same longitude as that asterism. 



The order of succession of the nakshatras is treated in X. 1. Of 

 five different pratipattis regarding this point the author details only one, 

 viz., that one according to which Krittika stands first. The author of the 

 Suryaprajnapti for his part calls Abhijit the first nakshatra, since accord- 

 ing to his system at the beginning of the yuga on the day of the summer 

 solstice early in the morning the moon which is full at that time stands in 

 Abhijit. He therefore altogether abandons the principle, sometimes fol- 

 lowed, according to which the enumeration of the nakshatras begins with 

 that nakshatra in which the sun stands on the day of the vernal equi- 

 nox ; if he too had chosen this principle he would of course have begun 

 his enumeration with Asvini. It may here be mentioned by the way that 

 the Suryaprajiiapti does not occupy itself at all with the equinoxes, 

 the name of which is not even mentioned in the whole work. 



We now proceed' to consider some specimens of the numerous cal- 



