PREFACE

The Pañcasiddhāntikā of the sixth century astronomer Varāhamihira is a major work on
mathematical astronomy of early India. The work is particularly significant for the fact that,
besides providing an insight into the level of contemporary development in the discipline, it forms
also a resumé, though uneven, of five astronomical schools, to wit, the Vāsiṣṭha, Paitāmaha, Romaka,
Pauliśa and Saura, that were in vogue in India during the early centuries of the Christian era, but
whose original texts have not came down to us and are lost on account of improved astronomical
systems having been developed in course of time.
There have appeared two earlier editions of this cryptic technical text, the first by G. Thibaut and
Sudhakar Dvivedi (Banaras, 1889) and second by O. Neugebauer and D. Pingree (Copenhagen,
1970-71). But both these editions have limitations and imperfections, even as their editors themselves
have indicated in their Introductions to the said editions. The main difficulty in gaining a proper
understanding, let alone producing a correct edition, of the Pañcasiddhāntikā has been confounded
on account of all the available manuscripts having descended from a single corrupt archetype. This
aspect of the matter cannot be better expressed than in the words of G. Thibaut in the Preface (p.v.)
to his edition of that work. He says :
“Imperfect and fragmentary as (the) text and (the) translation are, we may
assert, at any rate, that in our endeavours to overcome the quite unusual obs-
tacles which the corrupt and bare text of the Pañcasiddhāntikā opposes to the
interpreter, we have spared no trouble. The time and thought devoted to the
present volume would, I may say without exaggeration, have amply sufficed
for the editing and explaining of twenty times the amount of text presenting
only normal difficulties.”
Hence the need for a further attempt for a better edition and interpretation of this important text
on early Indian astronomy.
The present edition which is based on all the available manuscripts of the text and also external
testimonia and which takes into consideration the work of interpretation attempted in the two pre-
vious editions, presents as critical and readable a text as is possible on the basis of the above-said
material. To this is added a literal translation with explanatory words added as necessary. This is
followed by detailed explanatory notes in terms inclusive of modern mathematics, and adumbrated
with tables and diagrams. Whenever computations are involved, illustrative examples are given
and worked out. There again, most of the chapters are provided with explanatory introductions
indicating the general contents and method of approach of the matter contained in the chapters.
The above work has been a labour of love pursued by the late Prof. T.S. Kuppanna Sastry, for-
merly Professor in the Sanskrit College, Madras. A scholar in Sanskrit, a student of modern
mathematics and one fully conversant with Jyotiśśāstra, Prof. Sastry was an ideal combination of
Indian and Western schools of astronomy. And, as such, he was best fitted for the task of expoun-
ding a difficult text on Indian astronomy like the Pañcasiddhāntikā.