Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c9.30

c9.30

18. These tables go far back into antiquity. Their epoch coincides with the famous era of the Calyougham, that is, with the beginning of the year 3102 before Christ. When the Brahmins of Tirvalore would calculate the place of the sun for a given time, they begin by reducing into days the interval between that time, and the commencement of the Calyougham, multiplying the years by 365ᵈ, 6ʰ, 12', 30"; and taking away 2ᵈ, 3ʰ, 32', 30", the astronomical epoch having begun that much later than the civil.²⁶ They next find, by means of certain divisions, when the year current began, or how many days have elapsed since the beginning of it, and then, by the table of the duration of months, they reduce these days into astronomical months, days, etc., which is the same with the signs, degrees and minutes of the sun’s longitude from the beginning of the Zodiac. The sun’s longitude, therefore, is found.