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In poetr>% little is left to us that clearly belongs to this period ; but nevertheless the earliest beginnings of later or classic Sanscrit poetry date from this Age. We know from the inscriptions of the Gupta kings that graceful and flowing versification was appreciated. Poetry was honored by kings in courts, and Samudra- gupta, the greatest of the Gupta kings, who reigned to- wards the close of the fourth century, was himself a poet, and received the title of Kaviraja from his court- poets. But it was in astronomy that the most brilliant results were achieved in the Buddhist Age. We have Digitized by Google 204 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. seen before that astronomical observations were made as early as the Vedic Age ; and that early in the Epic Age the lunar zodiac was fixed, the position of the sols- titial points marked, and other phenomena carefully observed and noted. No separate astronomical works however of these ages, or even of the Rationalistic Age, have come down to us. The oldest astronomical works of which we know anything or which have come down to us belong to the Buddhist Period. Hindu writers speak of eighteen ancient Siddhan- tas or astronomical works which are now mostly lost. They are named below : — 1. Parasara Siddhanta 10. Marichi Siddhanta 2. Garga „ II. Manu „ 3. Brahma „ 12. Angiras 4. Surya „ 13. Romaka „ 5. Vyasa „ 14. Pulisa 6. Vasishtha „ 15. Chyavana „ 7. Atri ,, 16. Yavana ,, 8. Kasyapa 17 Bhrigu „ 9. Narada „ 18. SaunakaorSoma,, * A few remarks about some of these Siddhantas will throw some light on the pursuit of the science in the Buddhist Age ; and we will only premise that the Hin- dus received much of their astronomical knowledge of this age from the Greeks, who cultivated the science with great success. Parasara, says Professor Weber, is considered to be the most ancient of Hindu astronomers, and the second Digitized by Google CHAP. XIII.] ASTRONOMY, &C. 20$ in order of time is Garga. Of Par&sara we know next to nothing, except that his name is connected with the Veda Calendar. The work which professes to contain Parasara's teachings is called the Parasara Tantra. It was held in high esteem in the Pauranik Period, and Var£hamihira often quotes from it. "To judge from very numerous quotations, the greater part, at least a large part of it is written in prose, a striking peculiarity among the works of its class. A pretty large part is in Anushtubh, and it contains also Aryas. Interesting for the geography of India is an entire chapter which Var&- hamihira, only changing the form, but leaving the matter almost intact, has given in the 14th Chapter of the Brihat Sanhitl" * As the Yavanas or Greeks are placed by Pardsara in Western India, the date of the work cannot be much earlier than the second century B.C. Of Garga we know something more, and he is one of the few Hindu writers who tell us something of the Greek invasion of India of the 2nd century B.C. He could feel respect for learned men among the Greeks, — although they were considered Mlechchhas, — and the following passage of his is well known and often quoted : " The Yavanas (Greeks) are Mlechchhas, but amongst them this science (astrology) is well established. There- fore they are honoured as Rishis, — how much more than an astrologer who is a Brahman." * Kern, Brihat San/iitd, Preface, p. 32. Digitized by Google 206 BUDDHIST FERIOD. [BOOK IV. In the historical portion of his work Garga speaks of the four Yugas, the third ending and the fourth be- ginning with the war of the Mahabharata. Further on we are told of the Sisunaga dynasty of Magadha, and then of the Maurya kings. Speaking of S£lisuka, (whom we know to be the fourth in succession from Asoka the Great) Garga says : " Then the viciously valiant Greeks, after reducing Saketa, (Oude) Panchala country and Mathura, will reach Kusumadhvaja (Patna) ; Pushpapura (Patna) being taken, all provinces will undoubtedly be in disorder." So rarely do Sanscrit writers furnish us with his- torical facts that we arc thankful to get in the astron- omy of Garga evidence of the conquest of India as far down as Patna by the Bactrian Greeks in the 2nd century B.C. Many of our readers are aware that the profound scholar Dr. Goldstucker discov- ered mention of this invasion of S&keta or Oude by the Greeks in Patanjali s work, and has thus fixed the date of Patanjali the author of the Mahabhasya and the Yoga Philosophy. But we will proceed with Garga. "The uncon- querable Yavanas (Greeks) will not remain in the middle-country. There will be a cruel, dreadful war among themselves. Then after the destruction of the Greeks at the end of the Yuga, seven powerful kings will reign in Oude." We arc then told that after the Greeks, the rapacious Sakas were the most powerful, Digitized by Google CHAP. XIII.] ASTRONOMY, &C. 207 and we have little difficulty in recognizing in them the Yu-Chi conquerors, who destroyed the kingdom of Bactria about 1 30 B. C. These new conquerors conti- nued to repeat their depredations, and the annals of Garga here come to an end. From the details given above wc would agree with Dr. Kern in placing Garga in the first century before Christ. We now proceed to the other Siddhantas, and we will first take up the five Siddhantas which are known as the Pancha-siddhdnta, and on which Vara- hamihira based his work the Pancha-siddhantika in the 6th century A.D. They are the Brahma or Paitamaha, the SArya or Saura, the Vasishtha, the Romaka and the Pu/isa. The ancient Brahma or Paitamaha Siddhanta seems to have been entirely superseded by the cele- brated work of Brahmagupta known as the Sphuta- Brahma Siddhanta. Albcruni obtained a copy of this Last work in the nth century, and speaks of it in his account of India. We have in the Introduction to this work given the 6th century as the date of Surya-Siddhanta, but that is rather the date of Varahamihira's adopting the doctrines of Surya-Siddhanta in his Pancha- Siddhantiki. The date of the original Surya-Siddhanta is (like that of the other Siddhantas) much earlier Bentley placed Surya-Siddhanta in the nth century A.D., but this absurd supposition has been completely Digitized by Google 208 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [iJOOK IV. controverted by Whitney.* At the same time it ap- pears that the original Surya-Siddh&nta has been re- peatedly recast ; we do not know the date of the origi- nal work, except that it must have been composed in the Buddhist Age ; and we do not know when the work was recast finally in the shape in which we have it now, except that it was in the Pauranik Age. Utpala, the commentator of Var&hamihira, lived in the ioth century, and quotes six slokas from the Surya- Siddhanta of his day, not one of which slokas, as Dr. Kern points out, is to be found in the present edition of the Siddh&nta. Nevertheless, "the Surya-Siddh£nta in its present edition is a lineal and legitimate descen- dant of the work mentioned by Varihamihira as one of his authorities. "f The work, as we find it now, is divided into 14 chap- ters and treats of the mean places and true places of planets, of questions on time, of the eclipses of the moon and the sun, of the conjunction of planets and stars, of the heliacal rising and setting of planets and stars, of the phases of the moon and the position of the moon's cusps, of the declination of the sun and the moon, of cosmography, of the construction of astron- omical instruments, and of the different kinds of time.J * Sdrya-Siddhdnta^ translation, p. 21. t Kern, Drihat Sanhitd. Preface, p, 46. % See Whitney's translation or Bapudeva Sastri's translation. Digitized by Google CHAP. XIII.] ASTRONOMY, &C. 209 The Vasishtha-Siddhanta was ascribed by Alberuni to Vishnu Chandra, but Brahmagupta states more cor- rectly that the ancient work was revised by Vishnu Chandra. A work pretending to be Vasishtha-Siddhanta now exists, — but it is undoubtedly a modern work. The Romaka-Siddhanta is ascribed both by Brahma- gupta and by Alberuni to Sri Sena. Of course a spurious and modern Romaka-Siddhanta exists which contains a horoscope of Jesus Christ, and an account of the kingdom of Baber, and of the conquest of Sindh b" Akbar ! ^'p.e Pulisa-Siddhanta was known to Alberuni, who obtained a copy of it, and he calls the author Paules the Greek. Professor Weber thinks that Pulisa the Greek may be identical with Paulus Alexandrinus, the author of an astrological work, the Eisagoge. Dr. Kern thinks this identification doubtful, although he has no doubt that Pulisa was a Greek. These are the five famous Siddhantas, and Dr. Kern roughly dates them half way between Garga and Vara- hamihira,— about 2 50 A. D. We now pass on to some of the remaining names out of the 18 Siddhantas in our list. There is a Naradi Sanhita now available which is quite different from the ancient Narada Siddhanta. The opening lines of the Naradi Sanhita give the names of the 18 Siddhantas which we have given in our list R. C. D., A. I.— III. 14 Digitized by Google 210 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. Kasyapa is another high authority in astronomy, often quoted by the astronomers of the Pauranik Period, and from these quotations Kasyapa's work appears to have been of the same kind as Garga Sid- dh&nta. Manu, the mythical ancestor or personification of mankind, is quoted even in the Garga-Sanhita as an authority on astrology, and of course his name finds a place in the list of the 18 Siddhdntas. It is doubtful however if such a work as Manu-Siddhdnta ever existed ; when Var&hamihira quotes Manu, he quotes the famous Institutes. Works in various other departments existed in the Buddhist Period, which are now lost to us.