Chapter 14: Astronomical Topics

The modes of measuring time (mam) are nine, namely those of Brahma, of the gods, of the Fathers, of Prajapati, of Jupiter* and solar ( sdura ), civil (sdvana), lunar, and sidereal time.

Of four modes, namely solar, lunar, sidereal, and civil time, practical use is made among men ; by that of Jupiter is to be determined the year of the cycle of sixty years ; of the rest, no use is ever made. This chapter contains the reply of the sun's incarnation to the last of the questions addressed to him by the original recipient of his revelation (see above, xii. 8). The word mdna y which gives it its title of mdnd- dhydya, and which we have translated “ mode of measuring or reckoning time, * ’ literally means simply “ measure it is the same term which we have already (iv. 2-8) seen applied to designate the measured disks of the sun and moon.

By solar (sdura) time are determined the measure of the day and night, the shadagitimukhas , the solstice (ayana) t the equinox (vishuvat), and the propitious period of the sun’s entrance into a sign (sankr&nti). The adjective saura, which we translate “ solar," is a secondary derivative from stirya, " sun." It is applied to those divisions of time which are dependent on and determined by the sun’s actual motion along the ecliptic. The “ day and night " measured by it are probably those of the gods and demons respectively; see above, xii. 48-50. The solar year, as already noticed (note to i. 12-13), is sidereal, not tropical; it commences

Beginning with Libra, the shadagitimukha is at the end of the periods of eighty-six (sJiadagiti) days, in succession : there are four of them, occurring in the signs of double character ( dvisva - bhdva) ;

Namely, at the twenty-sixth degree of Sagittarius, at the twenty-second of Pisces, at the eighteenth degree of Gemini, and at the fourteenth of Virgo.

From the latter point, the sixteen days of Virgo which remain are suitable for sacrifices : anything given to the Fathers (pitaras) in them is inexhaustible. We have not been able to find anywhere any explanation of this curious division of the sun's path into arcs of 86°, commencing from the autumnal equinox, and leaving an odd remnant of 16° at the end of Virgo. The commentary offers nothing whatever in elucidation of their character and significance. The epithet “ of double character ” ( dvhvabhdva ) belongs to the four signs mentioned in verse 6; judging from the connection in which it is applied to them by Varaha-Mihira (Laghujataka, i. 8, in Weber’s Indische Studien, ii. 278), it designates them as either variable ( cara ) or fixed ( sthira ), in some astrological sense. The term shadagUimukha is composed of shadagiii , ” eighty-six,” and mukha, ** mouth, face, begin- ning.” We do not understand the meaning of the compound well enough to venture to translate it.

In the midst of the zodiac ( bhacakra ) are the two equinoxes (vishuvat), situated upon the same diameter ( sama -

Between these are, in each case, two entrances (sankranti) ; from the immediateness of the entrance are to be known the two feet ot Vishnu.

From the sun’s entrance (sankranti) into Capricorn, six months are his northern progress (uttardyana) ; so likewise, from the beginning of Cancer, six months are his southern progress (dakshindyana ) .

Thence also are reckoned the seasons (rtu) y the cool season (giqira) and the rest, each prevailing through two signs. These twelve, commencing with Aries, are the months; of them is made up the year. The commentator explains samasutraga , like samasutrastha above (xii. 52), to mean situated at opposite extremities of the same diameter of the earth, or antipodal to one another. The technical term for the sun’s entrance into a sign of the zodi ic is, as noticed .already, sanlcrdnti (the commentary also presents the equivalent word sankramana ); of these there take place two between each equinox and the preceding or following solstice. The latter half of verse 8 is quite obscure. The commentator appears to understand it as signifying that, in each quadrant, the entrance (sankranti) immediately following the solstice or equinox is styled “ Vishnu’s feet.” In the earliest Hindu mythology, Vishnu is the sun, especially considered as occupying successive- ly the three stations of the orient horizon, the meridian, and the Occident horizon; and the threo steps by which he strides through the sky are his only distinctive characteristic. These three steps, then, appear under various forms in the later Vaishnava mythology, and there is plainly some reference to them in this designation of the sun’s entrances into the signs. It would seem easiest,. and most natural to recognize in the three signs inter- vening between each equinox and solstice Vishnu’s three steps, and to regard the two intermediate entrances as the marks of his feet; this may possibly be the figure intended to be conveyed by the language of the text. The word rtu means originally and literally any determined period of time, a ” season ” in the most general sense of the term; but it has also been employed from very early times to designate the various divisions of the year. They were anciently reckoned as three, five, six, or seven; but the prevailing division, and the only one in use in later times, is that into six seasons, named (^iepra, Vasanta, Grishma, Varsha, Qarad, and Hemanta, which may be represented by cool season, spring, summer,

Multiply the number of minutes in the sun’s measure (mdha) by sixty, and divide by his daily motion : a time equal to half the result, in nadis, is propitious before the sun’s entrance; into a sign ( sankrdnti ), and likewise after it. The propitious influences referred to above, in verse 3, as attending upon the sun’s entrance into a sign, are regarded as enduring so long as any part of his disk is upon the point of separation between the two signs. This time is found by the following proportion : as the sun’s actual daily motion, in minutes, is to a day, or sixty nadis, so is the measure of his disk, in minutes, to the time which it will occupy in passing the point referred to.

As the moon, setting out from the sun, moves from day to day eastward, that is the lunar method of reckoning time (mdna) : a lunar day ( tithi ) is to be regarded as corresponding to twelve degrees of motion.

The lunar day ( tithi ), the karana, the general cere- monies, marriage, shaving, and the performance of vows, fastings, and pilgrimages, are determined by lunar time.

Of thirty lunar days is composed the lunar month, which is declared to be a day and a night of the Fathers : the end of the month and of the half-month (palcsha) are at their mid-day and midnight respectively. For the tithi, or lunar day, see above, ii. 66 : for the karana, see ii. 67-69. For the month considered as the day of the pitaras, or manes of the departed, see note to xii. 73-77. Manu (i. 66) pronounces the day of the Fathers to be the dark half -month, or the fortnight from full moon to new moon, and their night to be the light half -month, or the fortnight from new moon to full moon. With this mode of division might be n^ade to accord that stated in the latter part of verse 14, by rendering madhye “ between,” instead of ‘‘at the middle point of ” : we have tz^flat^d according to the directions of the commentator.

. The constant revolution, of the circle, <?f a^terisms (bhacahra) is called a sidereal day. The months are to b$ know#

To the months Karttika etc., belong, as concerns the conjunction (samayoga) , the asterisms Krttika etc., two by two : but three months, namely the last, the next to the last, and the fifth, have triple' asterisms. The subject of sidereal time, although one of prominent importance in the present treatise, since the subdivision of the day is regulated entirely by it, is here very summarily dismissed with half a verse, while we find appended to it in the same passage matters with which it has nothing properly to do. We have already (note to i. 48-51) had occasion to notice that the months are regarded as having received their names from the asterisms (nakshatra) in which the moon became full during their continuance. According to Sir William Jones (As. lies. ii. 296), it is asserted by the Hindus “ that, when their lunar year was arranged by former astronomers, the moon w'as at the full in each month on the very day when it entered the nakshatra , from which that month is denominated." Whether this assertion is strictly true admits of much doubt. Our text does not imply any such claim : it only declares that the month is to be called by the name of that asterism with which the moon is in conjunction (yoga) at the end of the parvan : this latter word might mean either half of a lunar month, but is evidently to be understood here, as explained by the com- mentary, of the light half (qulda paksha) alone, so that the end of the parvan (parvdnta) is equivalent to the end of the day of full moon (purnimdnta), or to the moment of opposition in longitude. Now it is evident that, owing to the incommensurability of the oimes of revolution of the sun and moon, as also to the revolution of the moon’s line of apsides, full moon is liable to occur in succession in all the asterisms, and at all points of the zodiac; so that although, at the time when, the system of names for the«months originated and established itself, they were doubtless strictly applicable, they would not long continue to be so. Instead, how- ever, of being* compelled to alter continually the nomenclature of the year, we are allowed, by verse 16, to call a month Karttika in which the full of the moon takes place either in Krttika or in Kohini, and so on; the twenty - sevpn asterisms being distributed among the twelve months as evenly as the nature of the case admits. At what period these names were first introduced into use is unknown. It must have been, of course, posterior to the establishment of the system of asterisms, but it was probably not much later, as the names are found in some of the earlier texts which contain those of the nakshatras them-

In Vaiyaklia etc., a conjunction (yoga) in the dark half-month ( krshna ), on the fifteenth lunar day ( tithi ), determines in like manner the years Karttika etc. of Jupiter, from his heliacal setting ( asta ) and rising ( udaya ). We have already, in an early part of the treatise (i. 55), made ac- quaintance with a cycle of the planet Jupiter, composed of sixty years; in this verse we have introduced to our notice a second one, containing twelve years, or corresponding to a single sidereal revolution of the planet. The principle upon which its nomenclature is based is very evident. Jupiter’s revolution is treated as if, like that of the sun, it determined a year, and the twelve parts, each quite nearly equalling a solar year (see note to i. 55), into which it is divided, are, by the same analogy, accounted as months, and accordingly receive the names of the solar months. The appellations thus applied to the years, in their order, we are directed *to determine by the asterism { makshatra ) in which the planet is found to be at the time of its disappearance in the sun’s rays, and its disengagement from them: for it would, of course, set and rise heliacally twelve times in each revolu- tion, and each time about a month later than before. The name of the year, however, will not agree with that of the month in which the rising and setting occur, but will be the opposite of it, or six months farther forward or backward, since the month is named from the asterism with which tfie sun is in opposition, but the year of the cycle from that with which he is in conjunction. The terms in which the rule of the text is stated are not altogether unambiguous : there is *no expressed grammatical connection between the two halves of the verse, and we are compelled to

Likewise the removal of uncleanness from child-bearing etc., and the regents of days, months, and years : the mean motion of the planets, too, is computed by civil time. The term sdvana we have translated “ civil,” as being a convenient way of distinguishing this from the other kinds of time, and as being very properly applicable to the day as reckoned in practical use from sunrise to sunrise : in the more general sense, as denoting the mode of reckoning the mean motions of the planets, and the regency of successive periods, sdvana corresponds to what we call ” mean solar ” time. The word itself seems to be a derivative from savana, ” libation,” the three daily savanas, or the sunrise, noon, and sunset libations, being determined by this reckoning.

The mutually opposed day and night of the gods (sura) and demons (as ara), which has been already explained, is time of the gods, ‘being measured by the completion of the sun’s revolution.

The space of a Patriarchate (manvantara) is styled time of Prajiipati : in it is no distinction of day from night. An iEon (kalpa) is called time of Brahma. It may well be said that the mode of reckoning by time of the gods has been already explained : the length of a day of the gods, with the method of' its determination, has been stated and dwelt upon, in almost identical language, over and over again (see i. 13-14; xii. 45-i50, 67, 74; and the interpolated verse after xiv. 3), almost as if it were so new and striking an idea as to demand and bear repeated inculcation. For the Patriarchate ( manvantara ), or period of 308,448,000 years, see above, i. 18 1 this ie the only allusion to it as a unit of time which tfie treatise contains. For the iEon (kalpa), of 4,320,000,000 years, as constituting a day of Brahma, see above, i. 20. *' The remaining verses are simply the conclusion of the treatise,

Thus hath been told thee that supreme mystery, lofty < and wonderful, that sacred knowledge (brahman), most exalted, pure, all guilt destroying ;

And the highest knowledge of the heaven, the stars, and the planets hath been exhibited : he who knoweth it thoroughly obtaineth in the worlds of the sun etc. an everlasting place.

With these words, taking leave of Maya, and being suit- ably worshipped by him, the part of the' sun ascended to heaven, and entered his own disk.

So then Maya, having personally learned from the sun that divine knowledge, regarded himself as having attained his desire, and as purified from sin.

(JJatabhishaj. A Aquarii, etc.

And be graciously bestowed upon them the grand system of the planets, of mysteries in the world the most wonderful, and equal to the Scripture (brahman). The Surya-Siddhanta, in the form in which it is here presented, as accepted by Itanganatha and fixed by his commentary, contains exactly five hundred verses. This number, of course, cannot plausibly be looked upon as altogether accidental : no one will question that the treatise has been intentionally wrought into its present compass. We have often found occasion above to point out indications, more or less distinct and unequivocal, of alterations and interpolations; and although in some cases our suspicions may not prove well-founded, there can be no reason- able doubt that the text of the treatise has undergone since its origin not unimportant extension and modification. Any farther consideration of this point we reserve for the general historical summary to be presented at the end of the Appendix.