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

286 ARABIC AND INDIAN DIVISIONS OF THE ZODIAC (Libra),Vṛścika (Scorpio), Dhanu, (Sagittarius), Makara, (Capri- corn), Kumbha (Aquarius), Mīna (pisces), Meṣa (Aries), Vṛṣa (Taurus), Mithuna (Gemini), Karka (Cancer), and Siṁha (Leo) were not used for Rāśis or signs in the Vedic times]. I shall con- clude this description with a passage from Colebrooke : The result of comparison shows, I hope satis- factorily, that the Indian asterisms, which mark the divisions of the ecliptic, generally consist of nearly the same stars, which constitute the lunar mansions of the Arabians : but in a few instances, they essentially differ. The Hindus have likewise adopted the divi- sion of the ecliptic and zodiac into twelve signs or constellations, agreeing in figure and designation with those of the Greeks; and differing merely in the place of the constellations, which are carried on the Indian sphere a few degrees further west than on the Grecian. That the Hindus took the hint of this mode of dividing the ecliptic from the Greeks, is not perha- ps altogether improbable; but if such be the origin of it they have not implicitly received the arrangement suggested to them, but have reconciled and adapted it to their own ancient distribution of the ecliptic into twenty-seven parts. In like manner, they may have either received or given the hint of an armillary sphere as an instrument for astronomical observation ; but certainly they have not copied the instrument which was described by Ptolemy, for the construction differs considerably. Names, Shapes, and Number of the Stars of the Nakṣatras The Muhūrta-cintāmaṇi provides a list of shapes associated to the nakṣatras (MuC. II. 59-60), In this list we are giving the number of stars as indicated by Varāhamihira, Brahmagupta and Lalla. The identification given here is as indicated by E. Burgess, in his Translation of the Sūrya-Siddhānta 1935, p. 378. (Calcutta). This table has been reproduced here from the Mahābhāskarīya of Bhāskara I, edited by K.S. Shukla.