Page 654 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

INTRODUCTION 7
the antiquity of the Vedic civilization to the fifth millenium be-
fore Christ.
Such is the history of this discovery in the West. In India
the course of events which led to it was different. The Vedic texts
collected by Weber were not unknown to our old Pan~its and
the rate at which the equinoctial points retrograded is also so
accurately recorded in the ancient astronomical Siddhantas
that those who would not give any credit for accurate observa~
tions to the Hindus, e. g. Whitney, are obliged to account for it,
as found by a lucky hit, since even the Greek estimate thereof
is far wide of the mark. But it was a fixed article of faith with
these Pan~its that the Vedas were anddi (beginning-less) being
handed over orally from generation to generation, from time
immemorial, and in consequence these Vedic texts were never
used for any chronological purpose. The introduction of West-
ern education, and with it the Modern historical and critical
methods, in our schools and colleges, have altered this state of
things. Those who were educated in these methods, and espe-
cially those who had any opportunity to serve in government
"Observatories, were the first to note that Indian almanacs, which,
till then, were prepared according to the astronomical tables
based on the ancient Siddhantas and practical works like
Grahaldghava were faulty and defective, inasmuch as the calcula-
tions given therein did not fully correspond to the actual time of
occurrence of such astronomical events, as the eclipses are the
true positions of the planets. And as these almanacs were intend-
ed for the timely performance of religious, domestic ceremonies
and public festivals it soon became evident to many others that
a reform in them was needed. Thus soon after 1860, the late Prof.
Chhattre, in Poona, Chintama~i Raghunathacharya in Madras
and Pan~it Bapudevshastri in Benares came to publish new al-
manacs mostly based on the British Nautical Almanac. But when
such reform was undertaken a controversy soon arose as to
whether the tropical or the siderial sphere should be adopted.
Indian division of the zodiac into 27 parts, called divisional Nak-
~~hatras starts from a fixed point in the ecliptic; so that these
( divisional ) Nak3hatras represent fixed successive positions of
the ecliptic each extending over 13° 20', and the star after which
the division is named, called also the junction star, is situated,
not necessarily in the centre, but somewhere between the boundary