262 G. Thibaut —Vardha Mihira’s PancJiasiddhdntiJcd. [No. 2, 
wliicli they are founded, but must explain them by themselves as well as we 
can, availing ourselves of the fragmentary collateral information which 
may be derived from other sources, and must finally attempt to reconstrue 
from the karana rules the leading features of the Siddhantas on which 
they were founded. The latter part of the task is of course the most 
important, but at the same time the most difficult one, and we shall for 
the present succeed in it only very partially. Were it not that Yaraha 
Mihira has allowed himself in many points to be more circumstantial 
than ordinary karana-writers are, so that the Panchasiddhantika may in 
fact be said to occupy a kind of intermediate position between a 
karana and a Siddhanta, the task would be an altogether hopeless one. 
As it is, it remains difficult enough and only the manifest importance of 
the book can maintain the zeal of the student whose efforts at unravelling 
the sense of the obscure stanzas are foiled more than once. There are 
of course a considerable number of passages which are by no means 
difficult to understand, some entire chapters even fall under that cate¬ 
gory ; but then those chapters and passages are easy because they 
contain no matter new to us and merely restate what we already know 
from other sources. The chapters which add to our store of knowledge 
are throughout difficult, some of them so much so that there is no 
chance of their being fully understood until better manuscripts of the 
Panchasiddhantika are found. Other passages again, although difficult, 
may be explained satisfactorily. Some of this latter class, viz., those 
treating of the mean motions of the planets according to two Siddhantas 
will form the subject of this paper.* A few introductory remarks on 
the contents of the entire work and the consideration of a few specially 
interesting passages will be premised before we enter on our special 
task. 
The Panchasiddhantika appears to be divided into eighteen adhya- 
yas, although the exact number may be a matter of some doubt, as in the 
manuscripts the endings of the chapters are not very clearly marked, and 
* I may mention here that I am engaged, with the assistance of Pandit Sudha- 
kara one of the foremost Jyotishis of Benares, in preparing an edition and transla¬ 
tion of the entire Panchasiddhantika as far as the deficiencies of the manuscripts 
etc. will allow. But as it is uncertain when this task will be accomplished, I think 
it advisable to publish in the interim some of the more interesting results. I avail 
myself of this opportunity to acknowledge the very valuable assistance I have 
received from Pandit Sudhakara in preparing the present paper. He has verified 
many of my calculations and in some points tendered original suggestions which 
were most useful. I specially mention his advice to calculate the kshepa quantities 
of the Surya Siddhanta from the beginning of the Kalpa, an advice the carrying out 
of which led to most satisfactory results. 
