Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c9.66

c9.66

longitude of Jupiter's aphelion was 3ˢ, 27°, 0', reckoned from the equinox. Now, the same, computed from M. De La Lande's tables, is only 3ˢ, 16°, 48', 58"; so that there would seem to be an error of more than 10° in the tables of the Brahmins. But, if it be considered, that Jupiter's orbit is subject to great disturbances, from the action of Saturn, which M. De La Lande does not profess to have taken into account, we will be inclined to appeal once more to M. De La Grange's formulas, before we pass sentence against the Indian astronomy.⁶²