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

174 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
shashṭy-abda-pûrvaḥ Prabhavaḥ sa namnâ prapadyatê bhûta-hitas tad=âbdaḥ ||.—
“when Jupiter, having come to the first (nakshatra) Dhanishṭhâ, attains (his) rising in
(the month) Mâgha, then commences that year, beneficial to beings, which is named
Prabhava, the first of the sixty years.” Now, in eighteen centuries from the beginning
of the Śaka era, the Prabhava saṁvatsara has occurred thirty times. And, by approxi-
mate calculations, I find that Varâhamihira’s assertion, though not quite correct, is
nearly so by the heliacal-rising system. Out of the thirty occasions, Jupiter rose, accord-
ing to the Amânta southern arrangement of the fortnights,¹ twenty-six times in the month
of Mâgha ; three times early in Phâlguna ; and once in Pausha, nearly at the end of
it. And, on many occasions he rose in the Dhanishṭhâ nakshatra ; and on some, in
Śravaṇa. The assertion, however, is not correct for the mean-sign system. According
to that system, at the commencement of the Prabhava saṁvatsara, which always begins
when Jupiter, by his mean longitude, enters Kumbha or Aquarius, he evidently always
stands in the middle of Dhanishṭhâ.² But the Prabhava saṁvatsara may begin, and
as a matter of fact I find by calculation that it has begun, in any of the twelve months ;
as will be shewn when I treat of the Sixty-Year Cycle. It is evident, therefore, that the
verse in question supports the heliacal-rising system. Moreover, the word udaya itself is
used in it. It might be argued that Varâhamihira’s rule (Bṛihat-Saṁhitâ, viii. 22 ;
êk-aikam abdêshu nav-âhatêshu, &c.) for finding the nakshatra of Jupiter, has reference
to his mean longitude ; and, consequently, that it gives the mean-sign system. But it
is absurd to suppose that so learned an astronomer as he, stating the rule that a saṁvatsara
is to be named from the nakshatra in which Jupiter rises, did not know that the nak-
shatra, at the time of his rising, can be determined only from his apparent longitude.
The reason why he gives a rule for finding the mean longitude only, is, in my opinion,
this : — Anyone conversant with Hindu mathematical astronomy, knows how tedious a
task it is to find the mean longitude of a planet from the ahargaṇa, or number of elapsed
days, counted from the beginning of the Kalpa or of a Yuga. But, when once it has been
found, it is much less tedious to calculate, from it, the apparent longitude by the general
rules. So, Varâhamihira, I think, gives a simple rule for finding the mean longitude of
Jupiter on a given day, and leaves to the astronomer the calculation of the apparent longi-
tude. Or, it may also be said, as the difference between the mean and the apparent
longitudes of Jupiter, on the day of his heliacal-rising, is not very much,—sometimes about
five degrees, and sometimes nearly nil, as I have found from several calculations,—
Varâhamihira gives the simple rule for rough practical purposes only ; leaving it to the
note—“cf. Davis, Asiatic Researches, Vol. III. p. 220. The word aṁśa also means ‘degree,’ but is
here rendered by ‘quarter,’ according to Utpala, who explains it by pâda.”—[J. F. F.]
¹ See page 148 above, note 1.
² The sign Kumbha commences in the middle of Dhanishṭhâ, and ends at the end of the third
quarter of Pûrvâ-Bhâdrapadâ.