Bharatiya Jyotihshastra (History of Indian Astronomy), translated by R. V. Vaidya v2.c12.s10.65

v2.c12.s10.65

Sir WILLIAM JONES has made a comparative study** of the nakṣatra system of the Arabs and the Hindus; but WHITNEY remarks, “but it is incomplete and crude, and the inferences drawn therefrom are neither reliable nor important,” and JONES has made the comparison not with respect to nakṣatras only but with respect to nakṣatras related to signs; and he has expressed the view that the Hindus have borrowed the system of nakṣatras and rāśis, not from the Greeks, but from the Chaldeans. The opinion of WHITNEY*** has already been stated to be that the Chaldeans had no nakṣatra system. COLEBROOKE has made a detailed comparision**** of the Hindu and Arabian system of nakṣatras and rāśis. But neither Colebrooke nor any other scholar holds that the Hindus adopted the system from the Arabs. Colebrooke †says that it was the Arabs who borrowed it from the Hindus and it is evident from the information given on pages 187 and 188 before. MAX MULLER ‡says that the system of nakṣatras spread into all countries from BABYLONIA. WEBER also observes that the Hindus borrowed it either from the Babyloneans or from the Chaldeans. But MAX MULLER had not made a detailed study of the question and examined its pros & cons; it has been pointed out above ††that, according to Whitney †‡the views of neither of them are acceptable. In short, this discussion and the arguments advanced on page 130 of pt. I prove beyond all question that our people have established the nakṣatra system quite independently.