INTRODUCTION MeEE, Vra, &c.ॐ A peculiar te ature of the knowledge of astrono. my of this period w®s the idea , that the moon was more distanb than the sun , which is also noticeable in the Pers Thus from 100 to 400 A.D. we have a great gap of three hundred yeats in which astronomical knowledge fron Babylonia and (Greece came to India , The oldest sarga Sidhivity was transmitted to this country during this period and its astronomy was most probably of a little more improved type than that of the 'osistHe Sidth ita . of t]he few Siddhivika (P. 3, Sengupta, Aryabel , Ca . Iniv, Journal of Letters, Vol. XVIIE, pp. १)-45) We accordingly conclude that the earliest date of the Sayya $id{hitat, cannot be pushed up much higher than 400 A.D., while 49 A.D. WE |he date of ur most famous astronomner ॐryabhaaI Opinic.8 as to f& Dutt nnd Authorship. (३) Nityबnanda, the author of the Sidhautariju In this commentary on the Peer Sidhatik¢ MmSudhakara. Dvivedi as said that the date of composition of the Surya $i%hanfe way stated by Nityीnanka to have been the Kali cra. 3,500 years elaps©d x = 42 of Saka elapsed = 49 A.D., the time of Aryabhat) !. What were his reasons underlying his statement are 2not stated. One reason perhaps was this : That according to the modern Sry Sikkinka, the total preses. sion from the beginning of Arios a this date = 0. The process is
- In the ¥ १: Jyctic ¢here is 0 stanzu which speaks of the aigns of
the zodiac beginning with Mina or Pis€es, but is regarded as an interpolation by MmBudbkara Dvivedi. I8 is on unnumbered stanza p¢ between 4 and 8 in Bolfी.kar's edition. For a history of the formation and nuoing the signs of the zoiliac c. Boyclopaedia Britannion, History of A atronomy , Babylonian Astronomy | The leu i8 combated by 'Brahmagupta in the Brahmw»4¢t Siki।। II, ॥ It he moon were higher up than the sun, how could the phases of the noon be ०aleculated, as tire lower half of the noon presented to be earth would always bes white ?’ ॐ सूर्यथसिन्सर चनाकाखस्तु नित्यानन्देम सिद्धान्तकता कल; षत्रिंशच्छतमिते अष्ट्रगणे व्यवते निगद्यते । Phird Biddhantiki Fraditp.