PLANETARY PULVERISER PLANETARY PULVERISER Preliminary operation to be performed on the divisor and dividend of a pulveriser: 41. The divisor (which is "the number of civil days in a yuga) and the dividend (which is "the revolution-number of the desired planet") become prime to each other on being divided by the (last non-zero) residue of the mutual division of the number of civil days in a yuga and the revolution-number of the desired planet. The operations of the pulveriser should be performed on them (i.e., on the abraded divisor and abraded dividend). So has been said. An indeterminate equation of the first degree of the type ax - C b (with x and y unknown) is known in Hindu mathematics by the name of "pulveriser (kuṭṭākāra)". In this equation, a is called the "dividend", b the "divisor", c the "interpolator", x the "multiplier", and y the "quotient". In the pulveriser contemplated in the above stanza, a = revolution-number of a planet, b- civil days in a yuga, c residue of the revolutions of the planet, 29 = y x = ahargana, and y= complete revolutions performed by the planet. The text says that as a preliminary operation to the solution of this pulveriser, a and b, i.e., civil days in a yuga and 'revolution-number of the planet, should be made prime to each other by dividing them out by their greatest common factor. That is to say, in solving a pulveriser one should always make use of abraded divisor and abraded dividend. The interpolator, i.e., the residue, should also be divided out by the same factor. This instruction is not given in the text, but it is implied that the residue should be computed for the abraded dividend and abraded divisor.
