Introduction

Garga writes—

When the Sun reaches the end of the constellation Shravishtha original: "Shravishtha," another name for Dhanishtha during its northern course, and begins its southern course upon reaching Ashlesha, one should know that a time of great fear is at hand.

Both verses carry the same meaning: the Uttarayana The northern progress of the sun after the winter solstice occurs as the Sun travels through the end of Dhanishtha, and one should suspect great danger when the Dakshinayana The southern progress of the sun after the summer solstice begins after it travels to Ashlesha. The antiquity of Parashara’s writings is evident from the very meter of his verses.

The cyclical rotation of the Krantipata The precession of the equinoxes; the point where the celestial equator and ecliptic intersect was first revealed among Hindu astronomers by Vishnuchandra, the author of the Vasishtha Siddhanta An ancient Indian astronomical treatise. His view is that the precession completes 189,411 revolutions in one Kalpa A vast cosmic cycle of time; therefore, it is understood that according to his view, the solstice moves forward in the east by 60.06 seconds of arc original: "vikala" every year. Whether this view was taken from the books of the Greek astronomers Hipparchus and Ptolemy, or was discovered by the Aryan astronomers referring to ancient Indian scholars themselves, we cannot fully determine. However, looking at the annual motion of the solstice determined by both groups of astronomers, it appears that Vishnuchandra expressed this independently. According to Hipparchus, the equinox moves forward by one degree in approximately 85 years, and according to Ptolemy, one degree in 100 years.

Bhaskara has written—Chapter 6 of the Shiromani referring to the Siddhanta Shiromani, a major work by Bhaskaracharya:

The intersection of the equator and the ecliptic is called the Krantipata (equinox).
Its revolutions, as stated in the Surya Siddhanta, are thirty thousand in a Kalpa, moving in a reverse direction. ||17||
The movement of the solstice (Ayana-chalana) was described by Munjala and others; it is the same thing.
In their school, the revolutions in a Kalpa are 199,669. ||18||

The meeting point of the equator and the ecliptic is called the Krantipata. According to the Surya Siddhanta The "Sun Treatise," a foundational text of Indian astronomy, its revolutions in one Kalpa are thirty thousand. Ayana-chalana The shifting of the solstices/precession and Krantipata are the same thing. According to Munjala and others, there are 199,669 revolutions of the solstice in one Kalpa. Munishvara, the commentator on the Shiromani, in order to reconcile this with the Surya Siddhanta, interpreted the word "Vyasta" (reverse) as—Vi = twenty multiplied by thirty thousand, making 600,000 (six hundred thousand), but according to Munjala and others, the annual motion of the solstice is 59.09 seconds of arc.

According to some astronomers, the Ayanamsha The angular distance between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs began in the Shaka year 444. These astronomers believe that the solstice moves forward by one degree every 60 years. Their formula is as follows:—

Subtract 444 from the Shaka year and divide by 60; the result is the Ayanamsha.
This should be added to the clear Sun (Nirayana) to obtain the Sayan Sun for the purpose of calculating the ascendant and other factors.

Subtract 444 from the Shaka year and divide by 60 to obtain the Ayanamsha; by adding that to the Nirayana Ravi The sidereal Sun, the ascendant and the "ascensional difference" (Chara) of the Sayana Ravi The tropical Sun will also be found. It is estimated that later astronomers derived the above erroneous view from Bhaskaracharya’s Karanakutuhala An astronomical handbook written in 1183 CE. The Karanakutuhala was written in 1105 Shaka, and in it, eleven (11) degrees of Ayanamsha are recorded. Therefore, at the rate of one degree every 60 years, 11 degrees equal 660 years. Later astronomers subtracted 660 from 1105 Shaka to find the beginning of the precession. However, we do not consider Bhaskaracharya’s view to be correct. Bhaskara has written:—