The History of Indian Literature c9.229.3

c9.229.3

while a second—the Pauliśa-Siddhánta—is expressly stated by Albírúní† to have been composed by Paulus al Yúnání, and is accordingly, perhaps, to be regarded as a translation of the Εἰσαγωγή of Paulus Alexandrinus.²⁷⁷ The astronomers and astronomical works just instanced—Garga, Maya, the Romaka-Siddhánta, and the Paulíśa-Siddhánta—are, it is true, known to us only through isolated quotations; and it might still be open to doubt, perhaps, whether in their case the presence of Greek influence can really be established; although the assertion, for instance, that Pulíśa, in opposition to Áryabhaṭa,²⁷⁸ began the day at midnight, is of itself pretty conclusive as to his Western origin. But all doubt disappears when we look at the great mass of Greek words employed in his writings by Varáha-Mihira, to whom Indian astronomers assigned, in Albírúní's day, as they still do in our own,∗ the date 504 a.d.—employed, too, in a way which clearly indicates that they had long been in current use. Nay, one of his works—the Horá-Sástra—even bears a Greek title (from ὥρη); and in it he not only gives the entire list of the Greek names of the zodiacal signs and planets,† but he also directly employs several of the latter—namely, *Ára*, *Ásphujit*, and *Koṇa*—side by side with the Indian names, and just as frequently as he does these. The signs of the zodiac, on the contrary, he usually designates by their Sanskrit names, which are translated from the Greek.