सिद्धान्तशिरोमणि: गणिताध्याय (भास्कराचार्य - ग्रहगणित, मध्यमाधिकार व स्पष्टाधिकार सटीक)

97 first premise was not correct. According to them, some astronomers having observed the daily motions of the pla- nets or what is the same the sidereal periods of the planets to a sufficiently good approximation calculated back or extrapolated a date on which these planets should have been in conjunction at the Zero-point of the Zodiac. The extra-polated date was naturally wrong to some extent be- cause the sidereal periods found could not but be correct only to a particular degree of approximation. Thus a little alteration in the number of sidereal revolutions alone or the number of days in a Mahayuga made to suit the obser- ved positions at a particular epoch would be only a tinker- ing of the problem and not a true solution. Thus Hindu Astronomy could be saved and its methods could still be followed provided instead of trying to presume a date at which all the planets were in conjunction (No doubt in the long bosom of time, such a presumption also could not be ruled out) correctly observed positions of the planets by the help of modern instruments were taken as the basis of an epoch and thereafter using more correct values of the constants such as the sidereal revolutions, maximum equa- tions of centre and maximum Sīghraphala, obliquity of the ecliptic etc. The second defect cited above thus being removed, and the original premise being changed, the methods of calculation still hold good and there would be no necessity to be going on with tinkerings of the problem. The Bīja-correction which we are commenting upon was rightly criticised by Kamalākara as irrational though he himself fanatically tried to uphold Surya Siddhānta. Even today there are a good number of the traditional Hindu Astronomers who do hold that the Sūrya Siddhānta was revealed to Maya at the end of Kṛtayuga in spite of the fact that scholars like M. M. Sudhākara Dvivedi pronoun- ced that it was an extra-polated work shortly after the time of Brahma-Guptāchārya. It is interesting to note that Bhāskara, a very rational astronomer, had before him the verse “त्रिंशत्कृत्वो युगे भानां चक्रं प्राक् परिलम्बते” of the 13