(49) the earliest writer of the set, makes the closest approximation to the mean. Satánanda seems to have committed an error, seeing that he assigns Saka 450 as the starting year. Madhava Miséra, 2 commentator of his, makes the same remark and suggests that the S'aka year 421 ought to be taken in calculations. • From what has been described above, the Saka year 421 or 4:27 appears to mark the beginning of the fixed zodiac. It is difficult to prefer one to the other. The S'aka year 421 is equi- valent to the year 3600 of the Kali yuga, and the fact of its being so, goes in its favour. Besides, it is the year in which Aryabhata composed his work, a work which enjoyed a wide reputation. Lalla, whose Tantra Bháskara condescended to criti- cise adopted the year 421 S'aka, and the writer of the modern Súrya-Siddbánta evidently held the same view while writing the aya námsa rule, On the other hand, the great popularity of Varáha-mihira leads us to suppose that the present system of the zodiac had its beginning in Saka 427, and I believe all the anomalies noticed before may be better explained by accepting the year. We have an authority for our view in the Pañchasiddhantiká itself. The often-quoted verse in which Varáha-mibira distinctly mentions the fact that in his time the summer solstice took place at the The copy from which the remarks are made, was printed in Benares in Samvat 1942. It is full of mistakes, but the sense is clear. It is curious to note that Satenanda, while bening bis work on the Súrya-Siddhauts, given a higher rate than what is given by the latter, Madhava Mifra tries to justify this rate by alteriathe rale "fata at gh " to "fint al Th (ofaat WIP Digitized by Google
