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

ARABIC AND INDIAN DIVISIONS OF THE ZODIAC 285 is in 26° or 27°N and 337° E. which probably indicates the bright star in the head of Andromeda, and the other star to be the one in the extremity of the wing of Pegasus (γ Pegasi). This exactly agrees with the twenty-seventh lunar mansion of Arabs named as Muakkher. Ulugh Beg assigns those stars to it. 28. Revatī, the twenty-eighth nakṣatra, comprises thirty- two stars figured as a tabor. The principal star is the southern- most one, it has no latitude, and two of them assert no longitude, but some make it ten minutes short of the origin of the ecliptic, viz. 359° 50'. This clearly marks the star on the ecliptic in the string of the Fishes (ζ Piscium). The ascertainment of this star is important in regard to the adjustment of the Hindu sphere. The Arabic name for this mansion is Risha, signifying a cord. But the constellation as described by Jauhari and cited by Golius, consists of a multitude of stars in the shape of a fish and termed Betnu'lhūt; in the navel of which is the lunar mansion. Moham- mad of Tīzīn alse makes this lunar mansion to be the same with Betnu'lhūt, which appears, however, to be the bright star in the girdle of Andromeda (β Andromedae) though others describe it as the northern fish, extending, however, to the horns of Ram. The lunar mansion and the Indian asterism, therefore, are not reconcileable in this last instance. I leave it to the readers to draw an inference as to the concurrence of the divisions of zodiac in Indian and Arabian systems. I would personally agree with Sir William Jones that the agreements are by chance. Arabs derived the idea of dividing zodiac in 27 or 28 mansions from Indians, or may have got it from Greeks, and then they proceeded in their own way for details. I do not agree with those scholars who sometimes state that the Hindus took the hint of dividing the ecliptic from Greeks. The Atharvaveda devotes a number of Suktas or hymns on Nakṣatras, and I have shown elsewhere that inspired by these hymns, Gārgya was the first Ṛṣi who detailed out the nakṣatras. This happened much before Greeks developed even their first notions of astronomy. While the concept of 27 nakṣatras is Vedic and most ancient and of purely Indian origin the concept of 12 Rāśis (signs) or twelve constellations is proba- bly inspired from Greeks. [The names Kanyā, (virgo), Tulā