CHAPTER XXVII.                           279

less northern or southern latitude. The whole of this
motion is caused by the wind, which makes the spheres
revolve, and compels the planets aud the other stars to
rise in the east and to set in the west. This, however,
is only an accidens. As for the essentia rei, the motions
of the heavenly bodies are directed towards the east,
from Alsharatdn towards Albutain, the latter lying east
of the former. But if the inquirer does not know the
lunar stations, and is not capable of procuring for him- Page 140.
self by their help an idea of this eastward motion, let
him observe the moon herself, how she moves away from
the sun once and a second time; how she then comes
near him, till she finally joins him. This will give him
an idea of the second motion."

Brahmagupta says: " The sphere has been created Quotations

• 1    1                                             • -1 •                      -111                             f ■'°'^

as moving with the greatest rapidity possible about two Brahma-

1           •?                      Ti^-iT                  1           ^           gupta and

poles without ever slackening, and the stars nave been Balabhadra.
created where there is no Batn-h'dt nor Sharatdn, i.e. on
the frontier between them, which is the vernal equinox."

Balabhadra, the commentator, says: "The whole
world hangs on two poles, and moves in a circular
motion, which begins with a kalpct and ends with a
kalpa. But people must not therefore say that the
world, on account of the continuity of its motion, is
without beginning and without end."

Brahmagupta says: " The place without latitude
(Niraksha), divided into sixty ghatikd, is the horizon
for the inhabitants of Meru, There east is west; and
behind that place (beyond the equator) towards the
south is Vadavamukha and the ocean which surrounds
it. When the spheres and the stars revolve, the meri¬
dian becomes an horizon common to the Devas (in
the north) and the Daityas (in the south), which they
see together. But the direction of the motion appears
to them as different. The motion which the angels see
as a motion to the right, the Daityas see as one to the
left, and vice versd, just as a man who has a thing on his