Meo Motos of #88 Planets ation ists which bheas positions entered as an elemenk ony triting in १mount. The aos8 apsis and pode, however, were treated in a different DEnnex. The distance from the initial point of the sphere, as shown by the able. was too great to be disregarded. They were accordingly exempted from the general law of a conjunction once in 1,000,000 yeas and a७ch a number of revolutions as a£signed to them as should make their positions at the epoch come out, whe one a quadrant, the other half x&v©k¢tion, in advance of the initial point of whe sphere. we c© ow see why the deduction spoken of above (v. 24), for biome appy in onetion, needed to be made. In order to bring all the planetas to a position of mean conjunction at the epoch, the time previously elapsed must be an exact multiple of the lesser period of 1,030,000 years, or the quarter-gs; in order to give its proper position to the moon's apsis, that time aut contain a certain number of whole Ages, which are the periods of conjunctiox of the latter with the planets, hogether with a remainder of bbree quarte:Ages; for the moon's node, in like manner, k must contain १ verईin number of half-Ages, with a remainder of one quarter-Age. Noत bhe whole numbe¥ of yeams elapsed between the beginning of the Eon and bhat of the current iron Age is equal to 1828 quarter-Ages, with an odd surplus of 8684,000 years : ttom it subtract an amount of time which &bal contain this surpos, together with three, Seven, eleven, ifteen, or ३he like (any number exeeding by three a multiple of four), quarter-Agee, and the remainder' will fulfil the conditions of the problem. The deduc fion actually made is of fifteen periods + the surplus. This deduction is a clear indication that, as remarked abova (undex ५. ), the astronomical system was compelled to adapt ibsel to an al १eady established Puranic chronology It could, indeed, fix the previously undetermined epoea of the cormencement of $he Iron Age, but it could not alter the arrangement of the preceding periods. It is evidenk that, with whatever accuzacy ;he mean positions of the planets may, at a given time, be ascertained by observation by the Hindu astronomers, bheir false assumption of a conjunction at the epoch of°802 B.C. must introduce an element of error into their detezmination of the planetary motions, 'The annual amount of thax error may indeed be 8ball owing to the remokeness of the epoch, and the great number of years among which the errors of assumed position a¥e divided, yet it must in ima grow tdd an amount not to be ignored ot neglecbed even by observers so incccurate, and theorists so unscrupulous, as bhe Hindus. This is ac. 6ually the case with the elements of the Sirya-Siddhanta; bhe positions of bhe planets, as calculated by bherm for the presen» ime, are in some cases meaEly 9° form bhe true places. ‘The laber astronomers of India, however, have known how to deal with such difficulties w26bout abrogating their ancient textbooks. As the stry-Siddhanta is a} present eraployea is
