260 G. Thibaut —Vardlia Mihird’s PancJiasiddJidntihd. [No. 2, 
Hindu system before we have succeeded in tracing the single steps of 
the gradual transformation by which it arose from its Greek prototype, 
and in assigning the reasons of the many important points of divergence 
of the two. Whether this task will ever be accomplished completely is 
doubtful. The chief obstacles in the way of success are the loss of 
several of the most important early Siddhantas which, as their names 
indicate, were specially connected with Western science, and the uncer¬ 
tainty whether the form in which the preserved Siddhantas have come 
down to us is the original one or has, in the course of time, undergone 
alterations. All we can do is to study with the greatest possible care 
those astronomical books which may to a certain extent make up for 
the mentioned loss, and enable us to gain some insight into the genesis 
and original condition of what we may call—in order to distinguish it 
from earlier and greatly inferior attempts—Scientific Hindu Astronomy. 
Among the works belonging to that class by far the most important 
is the so-called Panchasiddhantika by Varaha Mihira. References to 
this treatise which—as its name implies—is founded on five Siddhantas, 
were occasionally made by European scholars from the first time when 
Hindu Astronomy began to attract attention. Manuscripts of the work 
itself indeed were not forthcoming for a long time, and the important 
quotations made from it by Colebrooke and subsequent writers, among 
whom Professor Kern is to be mentioned in the first place, were taken 
from later astronomical books, chiefly from the Commentary on Varaha 
Mihira’s Brihat-Samhita by Bhattotpala who in many places endeavours 
to render his explanations of the latter work more lucid by extracting 
corresponding passages from the Panchasiddhantikaj. These quotations 
were, however, amply sufficient to show the extraordinary importance 
which the treatise in question possesses for the history of Indian astronomy, 
and it was therefore most welcome news to all students of Sanskrit when 
Dr. Buhler, whose sagacity and activity in tracing and rescuing from 
destruction really valuable Sanskrit books stand in no need of further 
praise, was able to announce in 1874 the discovery of a complete manu¬ 
script of the Panchasiddhantika. A second somewhat more correct 
manuscript of the work was later on discovered by the same scholar. 
Both manuscripts were purchased for the Bombay Government. 
Nothing could now be more desirable than an early edition and 
translation of the entire Panchasiddhantika; but unfortunately there 
are considerable obstacles in the way of a speedy realization of such a 
wish. In the first place, the two available manuscripts are exceedingly, 
in more than one case, hopelessly incorrect. In the second place, the 
text, even if presented in a correct and trustworthy shape, offers to the 
interpreter unusually great difficulties whose special nature will be set 
