[ 14 ] Win of the country. Arab influence and, latterly, the contact with Europeans, did not benefit the science much. It was during the reign of Jayasimha of Jayapura, so late as the 17th century, that the Arabic Almagest and Euclid were translated into San- skrit, and it was he at whose instance five observatories were built at various places in Northern India. The long chain of astronomers was snapped agunder for a period of at least four hundred years. No doubt, there were astronomer, as there are now, and some of them may have for a time enjoyed a reputation, however local in character. But they have hardly left any permanent mark on the progress of the acience. Will it be estimating this work too highly if we regard. Chandrasekhara as forming a link in the long chain ? Be that, as it may, it is a most gratifying thing that Chandrasekhara has not laboured in vain. His work has already exercised an influr. ence upon Hindu astronomy, and hence upon Hindu society, I say upon Hindu society, to which a correct knowledge of the ever-changing positions of the heavenly bodies is neither a matter for the inquisitive, nor one which may be safely let alone. For, Hindu life is nothing if not a routine of religious practices, due observance of which necessitates a knowledge of the positions of the planets and the stars. Indeed, a correct almanac is an in dispensable equipment of every Hindu household. All religious observances and rites are regulated by the almanac, and some of these require very accurate determinations. For instance, a Hindu must know the exact moment when a particular position ends and another begins. ri Digitized by Google
