English
It is certainly true, that as the Hindus become more and more acquainted with the European languages, writings, and arts and sciences, they are thereby enabled to give a view of the Euro- pean sciences in Sanscrit, and father them on some of their own ancient ss^es, if they think, that by so dping, they will exalt themselves in the eyes of the world, by making them believe that their forefathers were the persons from whom the arts and sciences, even in their present improved state, originally sprung. But to return. The next thing that attracts at- tention in the spurious Arya Siddhanta is the com:- mencing of the Kalpa^ or grand period, with Tkurs- dajfy instead of Smiday^ which is entirely contrary to all the Hindu books that give regular systems. This, most probably, may be owing to an ignorance of the method of constructing a regular system; for to a person acquainted with the process, it is as easy to make Sunday the first day of the Katpa, as any other day : but Sunday being the first day <rf the week, it is natural that it should be the first day of the Kalpa, and is so given in all the books of astronomy that I have seen, except the spurious Arya Sid- dhanta. The Kalpa, by this book, begins at sunrise, 1986120000 years before the heginning oi KaliYuga. In this number of years there are 725447570625 days complete, which, divided by 7, give 103635367232 weeks, and one day over: therefore, as the Kali Yuga began with Friday, the Kalpa began on Thursday. The system, in every point of view, is imperfect : it gives no revolutions for computing the places of Digitized by Google 182 THE MODERN ASTRONOMY the aphelia and nodes of the planets, nor any rule for determining the precession of the equinoxes for any particular period of time required ; thus showing a want of knowledge in the requisites for forming a complete system. But though he neither gives the revolutions of the nodes nor apsides, he gives the positions of the aphelia of the planets, which however are computed from the numbers given in the genuine Arya Siddhanta (Section III.) : this completely overturns the whole machinery, and shows it to be modern, in spite of all the art and cimning that had been employed in the forgery. Beside the decisive fact here mentioned, there are other circumstances in the book, that would also show that it is of a late date ; for the author ex- hibits his knowledge in modern improvements. For instance, he gives the ratio, or proportion of the diameter of a circle to its circumference, as 20000 to 62832; that is, as 10000 to 31416, or 1 to 3.146; the multiplying it by 20000 was evidently to dis- guise it. This proportion of the diameter to the cir- cumference, was totally unknown in the days of the genuine Aryabhatta, and is in fact the very same as given by Bhaskara Acharya, in another form, in the Lilavati. It also states the diameter of the eaith, 1 050 ycoans. of the sun, 4410 of the moon, 315 of Venus, 65 of Jupiter, 3220 of Mercury, 2140 of Saturn, 1615 of Mars, 65 of Meru, 1 And the orbit of the wind, 3375 Digitized by VjiOOQ IC OF THE HINDUS. 183 with Other particulars, of no interest or value to the astronomer. It contains about 20 small leaves, and goes by the name of the Laghu, or small Atya Sid- dhanta. The genuine Arya Siddhanta contains 40 leaves or more, exclusivje of the part that is lost. It would be needless to waste any more time in going over its contents : what has been shown must be perfectly sufficient to convince any man of com- mon sense of its being a downright modem forgery, intended to supersede the genuine Arya Siddhanta. There is, however, one passage in it which deserves to be noticed, as it will be of use hereafter m showing other forgeries to be brought forward. The passage relates to Brahma Gupta, whom he mentions in quoting the Brahma Siddhanta, and stands thus : — m^A\ iwepft Si 5itct*^h h^^ i i?wf%incnnmifir iriiff n He also quotes from the Surya Siddhanta; but in so doing there is no inconsistency ; for the genuine Aryabhatta was long posterior to the times of either of these works. The principal forgery consists in the attempt to falsify the epoch of Aryabhatta, by throwing him back into antiquity, and in suppressing, for that purpose, the genuine Arya Siddhanta. PULISA SIDDHANTA. There is another work, called the Pulisa Siddhanta, which is said to have been written in opposition to the doctrines contained in the spurious Arya Sid- dhanta. It gives the same number of revolutions to the planets as the spurious Arya Siddhanta, except Digitized by Google 184 THE MODERN ASTRONOMY for Mercury, which it makes 17937000, instead of 17937020; andfor Jupiter 364220, instead of 364224, which, however, may arise from miscopying. The number ot days given by Pulisa, as he is called, for a Maha Vuga, or 4320000 years, is 1577917800, which divided by 4, gives 394479450 in 1080000 years ; and these being divided by 7, give 56354207 weeks, and one day over : hence the system, in respect of commencement and cycles, is the same with the Surya Siddhanta. And as the length of the year is 365^*^" 15^*- 31' 30", it must commence at mid- night, in order that, in reckoning from the beginning of the Kali Vuga , it may agree, at least nearly so, with the Sutya Siddhanta in respect to the moon's place, &c. For if it was to begin at sunrise, then at the end of the year 3600 of the Kali Vuga, it would diflFer from the Surya Siddhanta by nearly six hours ; and the error in the moon's place would be proportional to that diflFerence, because the revolutions of the moon given in the Pulisa Siddhanta are the same with those given in the Surt/a Siddhanta. This Pulisa also fol- lows the spurious Arya Siddhanta, in adopting the same proportion of the diameter of a circle to its cir- cumference, viz. 1 to 3.146, which he employs in computing the diameters of the orbits of the planets. Thus, the circumference of the orbit of Venus being 2664632 yojans, the diameter will be 848176, and the semidiameter 424088, as given in Bhattotpala's quotations : so that, though the Pulisa Siddhanta be feigned to be written in opposition to the spurious Arya Siddhanta, it is only like one impostor attacking another, as by mutual consent, on some trivial pointy but with a view of supporting him in that which is the main object of both — imposition in respect of time. Bhattotpala, or the person who assumes that Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 181 name, whom I have shown to have lived about the middle of last century, I believe was the author of this PuUsa Siddhanta; for he seems to show the same partiality to it, in exhibiting its system, as Aryabhatta had done in respect to the Parasara Siddhanta^ which was doubtless his work. The fact is, that literary forgeries are now so com- mon in India, that we can hardly know what book is genuine, and what not: perhaps there is not one book in a hundred, nay, probably in a thousand, that is not a forgery, in some point of view or other ; and even those that are allowed or supposed to be genuine, are found to be full of interpolations, to^ answer some particular ends : nor need we be sur- prised at all this, when we consider the facilities tliey have for forgeries, as well as their own general inclination and interest in following that profession ; for to give the appearance of antiquity to their books and authors increases their value, at least in the eyes of some. Their universal propensity to forgeries, ever since the introduction of the modem system of astronomy and immense periods of years in A. D. 538, are but too well known to require any further elucidation than those already given. They are under no restraint of laws, human or divine, and subject to no punishment, even if detected in the most flagrant literary impositions. THE SPURIOUS BRAHMA SIDDHANTA, AND BRAHMA SIDDHANTA SPHUTA. We come now to notice another forgery — the Brahma Siddhanta Sphuta^y the author of which I * This spnrioag prodaciion was foaod bj Mr. Colebrooke on the shelf of his library, as he himself declared, without knowing he had it. He could not know B B Digitized by Google 182 THE MODERN^ ASTRONOMY believe I know. The object of this forgery was to throw Varaha Mihira, who lived about the time of Akber, back into antiquity, by placing him before the time of Brahma Gupta, who is supposed to have been the author oi the Brahma Siddhanta, framed about the year A.D. 538,.