G. Thibaut —Contributions to the 
fNo. 4, 
421 
I proceed now to those verses winch contain statements about the posi¬ 
tion of the moon at the different periods of the year. We have at first 
to consider v. 10. 
fa* 
This verse contains an enumeration of the nakshatras (or rather of the 
divinities presiding over the nakshatras) in which the moon stands at the 
beginning of the ten ayanas of the yuga. The commentator quotes a long 
passage from Garga which contains the same statements expressed more 
lucidly and circumstantially, so that no doubt can remain about the real 
meaning of the verse. The ten nakshatras answering to the divinities 
enumerated are, according to vs. 32—34 of the Jyotisha : sravishtha, chitra, 
ardra, purva proshtliapada, anuradha, aslesha, asvayuj, purvashadha, uttara- 
phalguni, rohini. The editor of the Jyotisha had, in his remarks on our 
verse (p. 33) expressed his desire of a competent person (viz. an astrono¬ 
mer) examining the statements made in it and ascertaining whether they 
agree with the actual state of the case. The wished for examination was, 
on the request of Prof. M. Muller, made by Prof. W. P. Donkin, and his 
note on the verse is appended to Prof. M. Muller’s preface to the fourth 
volume of the large edition of the Itik-Samhita. The question was, as it 
appears, hardly of such a nature as to require the skill of a professional 
mathematician and astronomer ; at any rate before asking if the statements 
of the Jyotisha agree with reality, it ought simply to have been asked if 
they agree with or are deducible from the elements of the Jyotisha ; if this 
is strictly the case, they will of course participate in the imperfections of 
these elements and cannot possibly be in perfect harmony with reality. Prof. 
Donkin naturally proceeded in this manner. Sixty-seven sidereal revolu¬ 
tions of the moon being considered equal to five solar years, one ayana is 
27 7 
equal to 6 ^ revolutions of the moon, or G x 27 nakshatras plus = 
Yo 9 = IS t 9 q nakshatras. The moon is therefore at the end of each ayana 
18 nakshatras in advance of the place she occupied at its beginning, and 
when examining the list of the twenty-seven nakshatras we find that her 
places calculated according to this rate of progress agree with the state¬ 
ments made in the Jyotisha and by Garga. As the Jyotisha only speaks 
of the nakshatras in general without stating in what points of them the 
moon is supposed to stand, there would seem to remain some space for 
irregularities in the moon’s motion; but against such a supposition may be 
brought forward at least one of Garga’s express statements, viz. that at 
the beginning of the third dakshinayana sun and moon stand together in 
the middle of aslesha ( stwii firf^T 
) ; in the exact middle of that nakshatra the moon can only stand, 
