Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c4.25

c4.25

Two Sanskrit texts have preserved for us what remains of Greco-Babylonian astronomy in India. Sphujidhvaja (269/70) describes some aspects of it in the last chapter (79) of the Yavanajātaka,¹⁰ a text based in large part on the translation of a Greek text from Alexandria made by Yavaneśvara in 149/150; Sphujidhvaja (YJ 79, 3) refers to a *siddhānta* by Vasiṣṭha. Varāhamihira in the sixth century summarized in his Pañcasiddhāntikā¹¹ a Vasiṣṭhasiddhānta whose epoch is 3 December 499 (PS 2; and, probably, 17, 1–60), a Romakasiddhānta (*siddhānta* of the Romans) of the third or fourth century (PS 1, 9–10 and 15; and 8), and a Pauliśasiddhānta (*siddhānta* of Paulus ?) of the same period (PS 1, 11–13; 3; and 17, 64–80). The last two *siddhāntas* were known to Varāhamihira in recensions produced by Lāṭadeva; his epoch for them was 21 March 505. The original version of the Romakasiddhānta was probably the one used by Bhāskara (629) in his Bhāṣya on A (pp. 183, 186 and 202).