Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c13.27

c13.27

His name accompanied the intimation which the Arab astronomers (under the Abbasside Khalifs, as it would appear) received, that three distinct astronomical systems were current among the Hindus of those days: and it is but slightly corrupted, certainly not at all disguised, in the Arabic representation of it *Arjabahar*, or rather *Arjabhar*.31 The two other systems were, first, Brahmegupta’s *Siddhanta*, which was the one they became best acquainted with, and to which they apply the denomination of the *sind-hind*; and second, that of *Arca* the sun, which they write *Arcand*, a corruption still prevalent in the vulgar *Hindi*.32