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.