History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.849

v6.c82.849

Having described at some length the five angas in a pañcānga, a few words must be said about Hindu calendars, though it has been already declared above that purely astronomical matters will not be elaborated in this work In the continent of India there are numerous pañcāṅgas in vogue and there is something like anarchy in this sphere. Hardly any two pañcāṅgas agree completely. Many educated Indians have been demanding that such matters as eclipses, the times of which can be noted by anyone, should be accurately predicted by the almanacs and that our ancient methods of calculating the motions of heavenly bodies should be brought in line with modern accurate calculations based upon observations. This is just what scientific astronomers like Varāhamihira would have done if they were living in modern times. At the end of his two works Varāha makes a very candid but solemn request¹¹²⁶ 'whatever in this work comes to be unscientific while it is being used or on account of defects in the mss, or whatever may have been badly executed by me or insufficiently done or not done at all, that should be corrected by learned men, leaving aside all passion (jealousy), and after acquiring (knowledge) from the lips of well-read men'. Some almanac-makers follow the Nautical Almanac tables as to eclipses and the like and set out other matters according to the old tables. As already stated there are three main schools of astronomers in India, (1) the school that follows the Sūrya-siddhānta (and is called Saurapakṣa), (2) the second follows the Brahma-siddhānta (and is called Brāhmapakṣa), (3) the third follows the Āryasiddhānta (and is styled Āryapakṣa). There are two main points of difference between these, viz. (1) the length of the year, (2) the number of revolutions of the sun, the moon and the planets in a certain period such as a mahāyuga. The difference in the length of the year among the siddhāntas is very small viz. a few *vipalas* (a *vipala* being 1/60th part of a *pala*, which again is 1/60th of a *ghaṭikā* that is equal to 24 minutes). The length of the year according to the Sūryasiddhānta is 365 days 15 ghaṭīs, 31.523 *palas*, while the interval in time between two successive returns of the sun to the vernal equinox (called the tropical year) is only 365 days, 14 ghaṭīs and 31.972 palas and the correct sideral (nākṣatra) year is 365 days, 15 ghaṭīs, 22 palas and 53 vipalas (vide C. R. C. Report p. 240 in hours, minutes and seconds and Dikshit's History ed. of 1931 pp. 159, 440). The result is that if one follows the Sūryasiddhānta, the starting point of Hindu astronomers is at present more than 23 degrees to the east of the correct vernal equinox point. This difference is called the *ayanāṁśa*.