ब्राह्मस्फुटसिद्धान्त (ब्रह्मगुप्त - शून्य, कुट्टक, बीजगणित एवं सम्पूर्ण २१ अध्याय सान्वय सटीक)

ĀRYABHAṬA & BRAHMAGUPTA CONTROVERSY 91 before the time of Varāha, is seen from Section 6 of the Table on page xii given before. This point is made clear from another consideration, viz., the star table in the modern Sūryasiddhānta, which unmistakably points to the conclusion that the longitudes of some stars, e.g., Spica etc., correspond to a time much ante- rior to that of Āryabhaṭa I. The great fame of Ārya- bhaṭa I induced Varāha, the first maker of a neo-Sūrya- siddhānta to use the elements of Āryabhaṭa's ardha- rātrika system to supplant the older materials in it. No wonder, therefore, that there is an opinion in favour of the hypothesis that Āryabhaṭa I was the author of the Sūryasiddhānta. If there were a shadow of truth in it, Varāha would have admitted it. Albe- runi indeed says that the Sūryasiddhānta was compos- ed by Lāṭa (Alberuni's India, translated by Sachau, Vol. I.p. 153). We now know that this Lāṭa or Lāṭa- deva was one of the first pupils of Āryabhaṭa I. He was the expounder of the Romaka and Paulīśa Siddhāntas as we learn from Varāhamihira's Pañcasiddhāntikā, (I.3). As Alberuni's statement is not corroborated by Varāha, we are not inclined to take it as correct. None of the earlier writers suggest that the Sūryasiddhānta was in any way modified or changed by Ārya- bhaṭa I. It has now been established beyond doubt that the same Āryabhaṭa was the author of the Aryabhaṭīya and another Tantra which is now lost. There is reason in support of hypothesis that this Tantra itself was the first work of Āryabhaṭa I and that the Aryabhaṭīya was the second work from the order in which Varāha mentions them in the Stanza quoted earlier. If this hypothesis be true, the stanza in the Aryabhaṭīya¹, which was translated by me as : “Now when sixty times sixty years and three quarter yugas also have elapsed, twenty increased by three years have elapsed since my birth.”

1. षष्ट्यब्दानां षष्टिर्यदा व्यतीतास्त्रयश्च युगपादाः । व्यधिका विंशतिरब्दास्तदेह मम जन्मनोऽतीताः ॥ —Ārya. III. 10.