पञ्चसिद्धान्तिका (आचार्य वराहमिहिर - सूर्य, रोमक, पौलिश, वासिष्ठ एवं पितामह सिद्धान्त)

XVI.11 XVI. SAURA : MEAN PLANETS 299 VM’s Bīja corrections 10-11. Add 17" per year to mean Mars. Deduct 10" per year from mean Jup- iter. Add 7¹/₂" per year to mean Saturn. Add 120'' per year to the śīghra (‘mean’ according to modern parlance) of Mercury. Subtract 45" per year from the śīghra (modern ‘mean’) Venus. In addition, subtract 1400" or 23' 20", constant from Jupiter’s mean. Note. 1 I follow TS’s corrections. Note 2. These corrections are obviously VM’s own, to secure agreement with observation, because VM sees the Saura used widely for almanac making, (besides himself being its follower) and uses these bīja corrections to the Saura. Being VM’s own, we cannot verify the numbers used, but we can compare these corrections with those given by the followers of the Āryabhaṭīya belonging nearly to his time. Note how close they are, and commend the tendency to observe and correct, instead of blindly following the masters. The Kerala school following the Āryabhaṭīya gives the well-known vāgbhāva correction: vāgbhāvōnāc chakābdād dhanaśatalayāhān mandavailakṣyarāgaiḥ prāptābhir liptikābhir virahitatanavaś candratattuṅgapātāḥ | śobhānīrūḍhasamvidgaṇakanarahatān māgarāptāḥ kujādyāḥ saṁyukytā jñārasaurāḥ suragurubhṛgujau vajitau bhānuvarjam || (Kaṭapayādi notation is used here.) According to this the corrections per annum are for Mars

• 11.5", for Mercury + 105", for Jupiter – 12", for Venus – 39", and for Saturn + 5". See that these compare well with VM’s. Example: Give the bīja corrections for Mars and Venus at 1,20,553 days from epoch. This is 330 years. The correction for Mars = 330 × 17" (positive) = + 1° 33' 30". The correction for Venus = 330 × 45 (negative) = – 4° 7' 30". Thus bīja-corrected mean Mars of date is 8ʳ 9° 1' 51", and bīja-corrected Venus, 2ʳ 27° 16' 20". [इति पञ्चसिद्धान्तिकायां वराहमिहिरविरचितायां सौरसिद्धान्ते मध्यमानयनं नाम षोडशोऽध्यायः ||] Thus ends Chapter Sixteen entitled ‘Saura-Siddhānta – Mean Planets’ in the Pañcasiddhāntikā composed by Varāhamihira

1. Col.: A.B.D. सूर्यसिद्धान्ते मध्यगतिः (B. शनि for गति) (D. gives this as a section colophon). C. इति सूर्यसिद्धान्ते मध्यगतिर्नाम षोडशोध्यायः