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

ALGEBRA GOES TO EUROPE FROM INDIA 195 having been followed in the tract of emendation, after a sufficient interval to make further correction requisite, by Durgāsinha and Mihira; who were again succeeded after a further interval by Brahmagupta, son of Jiṣṇu. In short, says Colebrooke, Āryabhaṭa was founder of one of the sets of Indian astronomers, as Puliśa, an author likewise anterior to both Varāhamihira and Brahmagupta, was of another : which were distingui- shed by names derived from the discriminative tenets respecting the commencement of planetary motions at sunrise according to the first, but at midnight accord- ing to the latter, on the meridian of Laṅkā, at the beginning of the great astronomical cycle. A third sect began the astronomical day, as well as the great period, at noon. Āryabhaṭa’s name accompanied the intimation which the Arab astronomers (under the Abbasside Khalifs, as it would appear,) received, that three distinct astro-

• nomical systems were current among the Hindus of those days : and it is but slightly corrupted, certainly not at all disguised, in the Arabic representation of it Arjabahar, or rather Arjabhar, (corrupted form of Āryabhaṭa). The two other systems were, first, Brahmagupta’s Siddhānta which was the one they became best acquainted with, and to which they apply the denomination of the sind-hind; and second, that of Arca, the Sun, which they write Arcand a corruption still prevalent in the vulgar Hindi. Āryabhaṭa appears to have had more correct notions of the true explanation of celestial phenomena than Brahmagupta himself, so says Colebrooke; who in a few instances, correcting errors of his predecessor, but oftener deviating from that predecessor’s juster views, has been followed by the herd of modern Hindu astro- nomers, in a system not improved, but deteriorated, since the time of the more ancient author. Considering the proficiency of Āryabhaṭa in astronomi- cal science, and adverting to the fact of his having