206 



Dr. 6. Thibaut — On the SuryaprajnapU. 



[No. 4, 



tal period and the advantage is of course altogether on the side of the 

 Chinese. On the whole the Tcheou-pei is much superior to works of the 

 stamp of the Siiryaprajiiapti, as in midst of all the fantastical and unfound- 

 ed ideas it contains there are found some positive elements, observations of 

 stars which admit of control etc., features altogether absent in the Surya- 

 prajnapti. But in spite of these points of difference the similarities of the 

 two works remain striking, especially if we take as one member of the 

 comparison not the Suryaprajiiapti itself but some hypothetical older work 

 of the same class, less elevate and more moolerate in the statement of 

 dimensions, figures etc. That such works if not existent at present must 

 have existed at same earlier period is manifest from the remarks the Surya- 

 prajiiapti in many places makes about the opinions of other teachers, 

 several of which have been extracted above. That two different chronolo- 

 gical periods, the quinquennial yuga and so called Metanic cycle, from the 

 foundation of the two systems does after all not interfere very much with 

 their similarity. We might imagine the Jainas adopting the more correct . 

 cycle of nineteen years instead of the quinquennial one and work out all 

 the new details necessitated by such a change, calculate all the places of 

 moon and full moon during nineteen years instead of five etc., nevertheless 

 the new system would immediately suggest the idea of the old one. An 

 essential feature in the resemblance of the Chinese and the Hindu system 

 is more over the circumstance of both limiting themselves to the treatment 

 of a certain number of topics. The following paragraph of the Tcheou- 

 pei (p. 603) which shortly states the questions to be treated in the work, 

 might with hardly any change be taken as a summary of the contents of 

 the Suryaprajiiapti. 



" I have heard people speak of the knowledge of the great man. I 

 have heard it said that he knows the height and the size of the sun, the 

 extent which his light illuminates, the quantity by which he moves in the 

 course of one day, the quantity be which he recedes and approaches, the 

 extent which the eye of man embraces, the position of the four extreme 

 (cardinal) points, the divisions of the stars arranged in order, the breadth 

 and length of the sky and the earth." 



The question whether the similarity of the two systems justifies us in 

 assuming a historical connexion between the two or would be an interest- 

 ing one, but cannot be treated in this place, especially as its solution could 

 only be attempted together with the solution of a number of cognate 

 problems. 



