INTRODUCTION.

terrestrial latitude. The mode of treatment of these questions is no doubt Varâha Mihira’s A 6th-century Indian astronomer and polymath own, as also the interesting criticisms passed on some astronomical schools. In the same way the fourteenth chapter, which is chiefly engaged in showing how certain results may be obtained not only by calculation but more directly by observation and the inspection of certain mechanical contrivances, appears, on the whole, to be Varâha Mihira’s own, although the more scientific of his five Siddhântas Siddhânta: A comprehensive Sanskrit treatise on astronomy no doubt treated of those topics in a similar manner. The same remarks apply to the fifteenth chapter which is even more distinctly individualistic, and contains interesting references to other astronomers. I am more doubtful about the position of chapter IV. which in the colophon A statement at the end of a manuscript providing details about its authorship or production is merely counted as such, without any special designation. The matter of the chapter corresponds to what in the best known astronomical works is set forth in the so-called tripras'nâdhikâra The chapter dealing with the "three problems" of time, place, and direction, with the addition, however, of rules for calculating the table of sines (which ordinarily are given in the spashtâdhikâra The chapter on the computation of true planetary positions). It is not improbable that here also Varâha Mihira sums up, in his own fashion, whatever he found of value in the corresponding chapters of the Romaka, Paulis'a and Sûrya Siddhântas. On the other hand, as the fourth chapter follows and precedes chapters specially devoted to the Paulis'a Siddhânta, it is not impossible that its contents are meant to sum up the teaching of that Siddhânta only. The decision in this case is however of no very great importance, as the rules given in the fourth chapter on the whole closely agree with the general Siddhânta doctrine.

Among the chapters not yet discussed we first notice the sixth chapter which the colophon states to treat of solar eclipses according to the Paulis'a Siddhânta. I see no reason for rejecting this statement; for although the text of the chapter itself does not refer to the Paulis'a Siddhânta, it most probably actually bases on the teaching of this latter work, since the two other chapters (VII and VIII) which teach the theory of solar eclipses certainly refer to the Sûrya and Romaka Siddhântas. From this again it follows with great probability that also the sixth chapter, which treats of lunar eclipses, represents the teaching of the Paulis'a Siddhânta; and if so, then likewise the fifth chapter merely designated as Sas'idars'anam Literally "The Sight of the Moon," referring to the calculation of the moon's appearance or phases. These assumptions are confirmed by the fact that these three chapters treat only of the calculation of eclipses in the narrower sense, to the exclusion of all preliminary operations, such as the ascertainment of the mean and true longitudes etc. of sun and moon, so that an introductory chapter setting forth those latter topics is required. Now, a chapter of this nature is supplied by the third one of the Pañchasiddhântikâ The "Five Astronomical Treatises" compiled by Varâha Mihira which gives rules for finding the mean and true places of the sun (and of the moon?) and for similar operations, and