Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

1
CommentGo Back

Download

Translation of the Sûrya-Siddhânta, A Text-Book of Hindu Astronomy; With Notes, and an
Appendix
Author(s): Ebenezer Burgess
Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 6 (1858 - 1860), pp. 141-498
Published by: American Oriental Society
Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/592174

Accessed: 28/10/2009 08:49

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aos.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of

the American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

ARTICLE

III.

TRANSLATION

OFTHE

SURYA-SIDDHANTA,

ATEXT-BOOKOFHINDUASTRONOMY;

WITHNOTES,

AND AN APPENDIX.

BYREV.EBENEZER

BURGESS,

FORMERLY MISSIONARY OF THE A. B. C. F. M. ININDIA,

ASSISTED

BY THECOMMITTEE

OFPUBLICATION.

Presentedto theSocietyMay17,1858.

INTRODUCTORYNOTE.

Soonaftermyentrance upon themissionaryfield,in theMaratha

countryofwesternIndia,intheyear1839,my attentionwasdirected

to thepreparation, inthe Marathilanguage, of anastronomicaltext-

book for schools.I was thusled toastudy of the Hindu science of

astronomy, as exhibitedinthe nativetext-books, andto anexamination

of what had been writtenrespectingitby Europeanscholars. Iat

once foundmyself, on theonehand,highly interestedby thesubject

itself,and,onthe other, somewhat embarrassedfor want of asatisfactory introduction to it.Acomprehensive exhibition of theHindu system had nowhere been made.TheAstronomie Indienne ofBailly, thefirst ex- tendedworkupon itssubject,hadlong beenacknowledged to befounded

uponinsufficientdata, to containa greatlyexaggeratedestimate of the

antiquity and valueof theHinduastronomy, and tohavebeenwritten

forthepurpose ofsupportingan untenabletheory. Thearticles inthe

AsiaticResearches,byDavis,Colebrooke,andBentley, whichwerethe first, asthey stillremain the mostimportant, sources ofknowledgere- specting the matters withwhichtheydeal,relate onlytoparticular pointsinthesystem, ofespecial prominenceandinterest.Bentley's

volume on Hinduastronomy ismainly occupied withanendeavorto ascertain theage of theprincipalastronomicaltreatises, and theepochs of astronomicaldiscovery andprogress,andis,moreover, eveninthese

respects,anexceedinglyunsafe guide. Thetreatment ofthesubjectby

Delambre,inhisHistoryof AncientAstronomy,beingfoundedonly

E.Burgess,etc.,

uponBaillyand the earliest oftheessays intheAsiaticResearches,

partakes,ofcourse, ofthe incompletenessofhisauthorities. Works

of value have beenpublishedin Indiaalso, intowhichmore or less of Hinduastronomyenters,as Warren's KalaSankalita,Jervis'sWeights Measuresand CoinsofIndia,Hoisington'sOrientalAstronomer,and thelike;butthese, too,give, for the mostpart,hardly more thanthe

practical processes employedinparts of thesystem,andtheyare, like

manyof the authoritiesalreadymentioned,onlywithdifficulty accessi-

ble.Inshort,there wasnothing inexistence whichshowed the world howmuch and howlittlethe Hindusknowofastronomy, as also their mode ofpresentingthesubjectin itstotality,theintermixture intheir science of old ideas withnew, ofastronomywithastrology, ofobserva- tionand mathematical deductionwitharbitrarytheory,mythology,

cosmogony,and pureimagination.Itseemed to methatnothingwould

so wellsupply thedeficiency asthetranslation and detailedexplication

of acompletetreatise of Hinduastronomy:and this work Iaccord-

inglyundertookto execute.

Among the differentSiddhantas, ortext-booksofastronomy,existing

in Indiain the Sanskritlanguage, noneappeared better suited to my

purposethan theSfirya-Siddhanta. That it isone of the mosthighly esteemed,best known, and mostfrequentlyemployed, ofall, must be evident toany one who has noticed how much oftener thanany other

it is referred toasauthorityin the variouspapers on theHindu astron-

omy.Infact, the science aspractised inmodernIndia isinthe greater partfoundedupon itsdataandprocesses. In thelists ofSiddhantas givenby native authorities it is almost invariablymentionedsecond, the

Brahma-Siddhantabeingplaced first: the latter enjoys thispreminence,

perhaps,mainlyonaccount of itsname;it is, atanyrate,compara-

tively rareand little known. Forcompleteness, simplicity,andconcise-

nesscombined,theSfrya-Siddhantaisbelieved not to besurpassedby

any other. Itisalso moreeasily obtainable.Ingeneral, it isdifficult,

withoutofficialinfluenceor exorbitantpay, togain possessionof texts which are rare andheldinhigh esteem.Duringmy stayinIndia, I was able toprocure copiesof only three astronomical treatises besides theSirva-SiddhAnta;theCakalya-Sanhith of theBrahma-Siddhanta, theSiddhanta-9iromani ofBhaskara, and theGraha-LIghava, of which thetwolatter have also beenprinted at Calcutta. Of theSfrya- SiddhantaIobtainedthreecopies, twoof themgivingthe textalone, and the third also thecommentaryentitledGfdharthaprak&:aka, by

Ranganatha,of which the date is unknown to me.Thelatter manu- script agrees in allrespects with theedition oftheSfrya-SiddhAnta, accompaniedby thesamecommentary, of which thepublication,inthe

seriesentitled BibliothecaIndica, has been commencedinIndiaby anAmericanscholar,and a member ofthisSociety, Prof. Fitz-Edward Hall ofBenares; tothisI have alsohadaccess,although not untilmy workwasnearlycompleted.

Myfirstrough draft of the translation andnotes wasmade while I

was stillinIndia, with the aid ofBrahmans who werefamiliar with the Sanskritand well versedinHindu astronomical science. In a fewpoints alsoIreceivedhelp fromthe nativeProfessorof Mathematicsinthe