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

ZODIAC 3 the year, the same stars are seen at corresponding hours of the night. Of course this circumstance was less conspicuous than the regular variation of the Sun's altitude in the sky as the year progresses. It is the surmise that the striking naked-eye cluster, the Pleiades, must have been one of the earliest noted star- groups, and it became the first star-group for providing the first fairly close determination of the length of the year as approxim- ately 365 days. The rising of this cluster in the evening was a mark of the coming winter to primitive man ; and the husband- man judged the time of reaping by its rising, and of ploughing by its setting in very ancient times ; Sirius, Arcturus, the Hyades and Orion were similarly equally useful to him. The passages in the Taittirīya Saṁhitā and in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa clearly indicate the confusion once created by following the concept of lunar months without further adjustments : "Now the seasons were desirous to have a share in the sacrifice among the gods and said, 'Let us share in the sacri- fice. Do not exclude us from the sacrifice ! Let us have a share in the sacrifice !' The gods, however, did not approve of this. The gods, not approving, the seasons went to the Asuras, the malignant, spiteful enemies of the gods. Those (Asuras) then throve in such a manner that they (the gods) heard of it, for even while the foremost (of the Asuras) were still ploughing and sowing, those behind them were already engaged in reaping and threshing : indeed even without tilling, the plants ripened forthwith for them. (ŚBr. I.6.1.1-3) The Zodiac It is difficult to say how much time it must have taken, but in fact, it was eventually noted that the Sun and Moon travel over very similar paths among the stars during their circuit of the sky. This led to the formation of the Zodiac and its constellations, the centre of this zone, a belt about 16° broad, being the annual path of the Sun or Ecliptic. The divi- sion into twelve parts, each corresponding to a month of the Sun's movement, was made ; and their connection with the solar course during the year was found by observations of heliacal risings or settings. These were the times of the year when certain bright stars would first be seen to rise before the Sun, or when