432 
Gr. Thibaut —Contributions to the 
[No. 4, 
darsapurnamasa sacrifices. Possibly the selection of the syllables is connec¬ 
ted with this point; I have, however, not succeeded in discovering the exact 
relation. 
Prof. "Weber raises the question (p. G9) if the verse explained above 
may be used for deciding whether the series of the nakshatras acknowledged 
by the author of the Jyotisha begins with Krittika or with Asvini; the ex¬ 
planation given by me precludes of course the question entirely. 
From the preceding considerations it appears that the author of the 
Jyotisha must have imagined each nakshatra as divided into one hundred 
and twenty-four parts. A further argument for this division as well as 
for a sub-division of the one hundred and twenty parts is to he drawn from 
the divisions of time which are made use of in the Jyotisha. These latter 
have been stated above ; a nycthemeron is divided into thirty muhurtas, a 
muhurta into two nadikas, a nadika into ten and a twentieth kalas, a kala 
into one hundred and twenty-four kashthas, a kashtha into five aksharas. 
The great variety of sub-divisions of time employed in Indian astronomical 
works is well known, the only invariable element appears to have been the 
division of a day into thirty muhurtas or sixty nadikas. Now, the system 
of sub-division of the nadika being left to the choice of the individual as¬ 
tronomers they will naturally have selected those fractions of the nadika 
which were to them of the comparatively greatest use in their calculations. 
What sub-divisions these are depends of course in each individual case on 
the celestial objects and motions which enter into the astronomer’s calcula¬ 
tions and on the view he takes of their relative importance. Thus we have 
seen above from Garga’s exposition of the four measures of time that he 
divided the savana day into one hundred and twenty-four lavas, conse¬ 
quently the nadika (although the latter is not mentioned in the quoted 
extracts) into lavas. This division enabled him to express the 
measure of the savana day, of the tithi and of the solar day without using 
fractions, the first comprising, as stated, 124 lavas, the second 122, the 
third 126. And the lava being sub-divided into fifteen parts (^: 
the name of this sub-division is not given) made it possible to express the 
measure of the nadika without fractions. An analogous example is the 
division of one angula into thirty-four tilas, which occurs in Baudhayana’s 
S'ulvasutra (see this Journal for 1875) and which enables us to express the 
relative length of the side and the diagonal of a square without making use 
of fractions. The same applies to the measures of time used in the Jyo¬ 
tisha. That quite a different value could be attached to the terms “ kala”, 
“ kashtha”, etc., appears among other instances from the passage of Parasara 
quoted by Bhattotpala in his commentary on Varahamihira’s Brihat Sam- 
hita, which is referred to by Prof. Weber (p. 105) ; according to it Para¬ 
sara divided the nadika into ten kalas, the kala into ten kashthas, and the 
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