गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; APPENDIX II. 155
The above result is sufficient for all practical purposes. But it is further to be noted
that the tithis in our Pañchângs are intended to be given from apparent sunrise. In
practice, however, so much minuteness is not always and everywhere attempted; at least,
in the present day, in the Dekkan. For this reason, it seems, Prof. K. L. Chhatre has
not noticed this point in his method exhibited above. But I will now give the tithi
in question from apparent sunrise at Êraṇ. Without going through the process, which is
rather too complicated to be given in the present paper, I will state only the result,
that the apparent sunrise at Êraṇ, on the day in question, took place gh. 1, p. 56, before
the mean sunrise; the latitude of Êraṇ used in the process, being 24° 5'. Adding, there-
fore, gh. 1, p. 56, to the above result from mean sunrise, we get gh. 50, p. 33, reckoned
from apparent sunrise, as the time at which the given tithi, Âshâḍha śukla 12, ended at
Êraṇ on the Thursday.
Before dismissing this part of the subject, I would point out that the calculation of a
tithi, by the above method, is not of necessity absolutely accurate, according to the pre-
sent absolutely accurate European Tables of the sun and the moon. Absolute accuracy,
in this sense, could be ensured only by working from the actual places or longitudes of the
sun and the moon, to be determined in strict accordance with the method prescribed for
that purpose. The tithi obtained by the method exhibited above, will differ, sometimes by
as much as ten ghaṭîs, from that which would be obtained from the apparent places of the
sun and the moon, actually calculated from Prof. K. L. Chhatre's Tables for the sun
and the moon. The difference, however, at full-moon and new-moon will be very small,
one ghaṭî at the greatest; and it reaches its maximum on the eighth tithi of the
bright and of the dark fortnight. But, in respect of this second possible method of Prof.
K. L. Chhatre, it must be stated that we have nothing to do with it in dealing with Hindu
tithis; for the reason that, with the exception of the phala-saṁskâra, the corrections
introduced by him in finding the apparent longitude of the moon, were not taken into account
by ancient Hindu astronomers.
And, on the other hand, the method exhibited above being in close agreement
with Hindu works, it may be claimed that the tithi obtained by it will differ but very little
from the tithi obtained by the method prescribed in the Sûrya-Siddhânta and other Hindu
works. The difference¹ will amount to five or six ghaṭîs at the utmost; and that in but
very few cases.
In order, however, that no room may be left for doubt, I have also calculated
the tithi in the present example actually by the Âryabhaṭîya or Ârya-Siddhânta of the first
Âryabhaṭa, the Brahma-Siddhânta of Brahmagupta, the Sûrya-Siddhânta, the Siddhânta-
¹ See page 149 above, note 1.
u 2