The Great Compilation

A different opinion regarding the Ayana The precession of the equinoxes, or the shifting of the celestial equator has been recorded—according to that view, "the cycle should move forward by twenty-four degrees," meaning the Ayana cycle moves 24 degrees in both directions. In his later work, the Dashagitika, he refuted this opinion and upheld the strength of the ancient view. From the two opinions he published, it is inferred that by writing 24 degrees, he was indicating the estimated limit of the Ayana during his own time. Therefore, it is known that he was born when the Ayana cycle had advanced 24 degrees from the western point. During the time of Varaha Varahamihira, the 6th-century astronomer and the author of the Surya Siddhanta, the Ayana cycle had advanced 27 degrees from the western point; thus, in Aryabhata's time, the Ayana cycle was 3 degrees west of Aries. For this reason, he was born 215 years before Varaha, or 9 years before the Shaka era The Shaka era began in 78 CE; this places Aryabhata around 69 CE by this specific calculation. Mr. Apurva Chandra says that Aryabhata lived sixteen centuries after Yudhishthira. Mr. Colebrooke is of the opinion that Aryabhata was a contemporary of Diophantus, the inventor of Greek algebra. Diophantus was born sometime around 319 CE. The honorable Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Poona, having published the book titled Orion (referring to the constellations Mrigashira and Ardra), used Vedic evidence to show that the theory of a shifting Ayana cycle is mathematically incorrect.

The Garga Samhita is also an ancient text of astronomy. Varaha frequently mentions the name of this text in his Brihat Samhita. Professor Kern, the English translator of the Brihat Samhita, quoted passages from the Garga Samhita and wrote that it was composed 44 years before the Christian era. That passage is as follows:—

Then, having attacked Saketa, as well as the Panchalas and Mathura,

The Greeks original: "Yavana" of wicked prowess will reach the City of the Flower-Standard Pataliputra/Patna.

Then, having reached the Flower-City Pushpapura, while the famous mud likely referring to a period of chaos or "muddied" social order is beneficial,

All the provinces will undoubtedly be in turmoil.

The wicked Greeks term: Yavana - originally referring to Ionians/Greeks, later used for various foreign invaders will attack Saketa, Panchala, and Mathura and go to Pataliputra (Patna). Upon reaching Kusumapura Another name for Pataliputra, they will loot it and lay it to waste. Mr. Kern says that the invasion of Saketa took place 144 years before the Christian era, during the time of the Bactrian King Menander. Therefore, the author of the Garga Samhita lived only after this invasion. Whatever Garga wrote regarding the Ayana, it is known that he took the subject from Parashara, because both expressed the same opinion when describing the auspicious and inauspicious effects of the Ayana.