History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c99.1803

v7.c99.1803

his Tetrabiblos remained supreme for 1400 years and has even now great authority for believers in Astrology 551, held geocentric theory and so had to adopt theory of eccentric orbits and epicycles and yet could predict eclipses correctly, 633–34, is concerned in Tetrabiblos with rāśis (signs of the Zodiac) and rarely, if at all, with nakṣatras 561; in his 'Geography of India' (about 150 A. D.) refers to Ptolemaios, king of Baithan (Paithan) as ruler in his day 842-43, much of Greek literature on astronomy and astrology disappeared owing to works of P. 481, 514, speaks of male and female signs and of *sthira* and *dvidēha* as Bṛhajjātaka does 568, several discrepancies in essential matters between Ptolemy's work and Hindu astronomical works 520, 530, two points in which Varāhamihira differs from P viz he does not mention the countries governed by rāśis but by nakṣatras and Varāha confines himself to parts of Bhāratavarṣa, while P deals with all countries then known, 530, wrote about 150 A D and based his Almagest on the observations of Hipparchus 514