Page 651 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

4 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • VEDIC CHRONOLOGY

in 1903, that in contrast with the prai e bestowed by Garga on
Yawanas vidently Greeks-for their proficiency in astrology
we find, the Greek writers of the first century of the Chri tian
era, holding a very high opinion about Indian Astronomy; and
that in the life of Appollonius of Tyana his biographer repre-
sents him as learning many things from the Sages of India espe-
cially matter of astronomy. This shows that there was borrow-
ing on both sides and that Whitney's bias against the ancient
Indian astronomers was entirely unfounded.
The whole of the above discussion was related and confined
only to the po t-Vedic astronomical works. But the next que tion
that arose nece sitated an inquiry into the astronomical state-
ments contained in the Vedic Works themselves. In 1840 and the
following years, the well-known French astronomer, J. B. Biot,
published a number of articles in the journal des Savants ( subse-
quently also published in the form of a separate book in 1859 ),
in which he endeavoured to prove that the Indian system of Nak-
~hatra must have been borrowed from the Chinese, because in
the first place the antiquity of the Chinese system was fully auth-
enticated by reliable ancient texts, going back to 2357 B. C. when
the vernal equinox was in Mao ( i. e. Indian Krittikas ), and
secondly because from the practical astronomical point of view
the stars in the Chinese system of Sieu ( ak!?hatras ) were
mathematically best suited for the purpose for which they were
used viz., to ob erve meridian passage of equinoctial and solsti-
tial points, as well as that of certain circumpolar tars. These
stars, he maintained, were originally 24 in number to which 4
more corresponding to the two solstitial and two equinoctial
points of the time were added, in about 1100 B. C., thus increa -
ing the total number of Sieu to 28. Most of these stars are the
same in the Chinese and the Indian system· but they were un-
suited to measure the equal distances between the successive
daily positions of the moon, which is the purpose for wbich they
were u ed in India. Biot, therefore, conclud d that the priority
of discovery must belong to that place, where the system is found
to be best suited to the use made thereof, viz., to China; and
that Indians must have borrowed the same at some later date
and used it awkwardly for their purpose. The authority which
naturally belonged to the opinion of so great an astronomer as
Biot led some Sanskrit scholars of the time to adopt his