174 
in A.D. 499 according to other authorities, (v. Prinsep. I.e. 
p. 79.) " Indeed it appears that Brahma-gupta was pre- 
ceded by other astronomers, and particularly by one named 
Aryabhatta, deserving of notice here, as having advocated 
the doctrine of the earth's diurnal revolution on its axis, 
and who fixed the length of the sidereal year at 365 days 
C hours 12' and 30". These doctrines of Aryabhatta (called 
Arjebahar by the Arabs) render it a very interesting point 
to determine his age, that we may ascertain whether he 
borrowed this philosophical idea from the sages of Greece, 
or whether Pythagoras, who was undoubtedly well versed 
in the learning of the East, borrowed it himself from the 
Indians. But at present we have not sufficient data to 
decide this question, which is worthy of all the attention of 
Sanscrit scholars.'" v. from Asiat. Res. xii. p. 221 and 227 ; 
History of Astronomy. L. U. K. p. 11 and 12; where the 
arguments for and the objections against the antiquity of 
Indian astronomy are fairly adduced. 
Sir W. Jones has affirmed it as improbable, that the 
Brahmins should have borrowed from other nations, espe- 
cially the Greeks, whom they despised in particular; quoting 
a proverb, which he says they have, that no base creature 
can be lower than a Yavan ; which is their term for an 
Ionian or Greek. But in his third Discourse, he states 
that " the philosopher whose works are said to include a 
system of the universe, founded on the principle of attrac- 
tion and the central position of the sun, is named Yavan 
Acharya, because he had travelled, we are told, into Ionia. 
If this be true, he might have been one of those who 
conversed with Pythagoras. This at least is undeniable, 
that a work on astronomy in Sanscrit, bears the title of 
Yavan Jatica, which may signify the Ionic sect." This 
work I do not find elsewhere mentioned, but Mr. Colebrooke 
quotes a very curious passage from Varaha-mihira, where 
