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