Page 177 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

162 SAMAGRA TILAK - . 2 • THE ORION

mind, we can, I am sure, discover sufficient traces of the inter-
mediate changes in the Vedic works. Thus we find that of all
the ancient nations the Hindus alone had well nigh accurately
determined the rate of the motion of the precession <~f the equi-
noxes. Hipparchus considered it to be not less thlfh 36", while
the "actual motion at present is 50.25" per year. Ptolemy adopted,
as observed by Prof. Whitney, the minimum of 36" determined
by Hipparchus; and it is evident that the Hindu astronomers ~o
fixed the rate at 54" per year could not have borrowed it from
the Greeks. Prof. Whitney is at a loss to understand: how the
Hindus succeeded in arriving at a determination of the rate of
motion, so much more accurate than was made by the great Greek
astronomer and he observes that it might be a "lucky hit on their
part. ••• But why should they try to hit, even luckily, when they
could have easily borrowed it from the Greeks ? I am therefore
disposed to think that it was independently and almost correctly
discovered by the Hindus long before other nations could do so,
though we cannot exactly fix the period when it was done; and
that there were sufficient materials for the purpose in the old
literature of India.
Let us next see what traditions about the intermediate stages
have been preserved. First of all I refer to the tradition of Rudra
killing Prajapati, the god of time, for receding towards his daughter
Rohi:pi. The Aitareya Bri.hma:pa ( iii. 33 ) describes this conduct
of PrajApati as akrita or unprecedented and such as deserved to
be severely noticed by the gods. Can we not herein discover the
fact that the sun was gradually receding towards Rohi:pi, by the
precession of the equinoxes ? The ancient priests, who observed
the fact as they watched the Nak!hatras at the commencement of
the year, could not account for the change and they rightly and
honestly believed that it was a great calamity that the sun or Pra-
japati should thus follow an unprecedented course. I have
previously referred to a verse from Garga, t which says that if
the Uttaraya:pa commenced otherwise than from the asterism of
Dhani,htha it foretold a great danger; and we may suppose that
the Vedic Aryas similarly believed that if the sun ceased to
commence the year from Orion, it was an unprecedented calamity.

• See Whitney's r:otes to the Surya Slddhlnta, iii. 13, 105.
i" See .<1p·.r, Ch~p~er 11, p. 15.