366                        ALBERUNPS INDIA.

demon. Now the king and his people began to fight
with Narasirhha, who let them do so, for it was day¬
time. But when it was towards evening and they were
in the sariidhi or twilight, therefore neither in the day
nor in the night, then Narasirhha caught the king,
raised him into the air, and killed him there ; therefore
not on earth nor in heaven. The prince was taken out
of the fire and ruled in his place.
Samdhi            Hindu astrologers require the two samdhi, because

astrology,    thcii somc of the zodiacal signs exercise the most power-
hira quoted, ful influence, as we shall explain hereafter in the proper
place.    They make use of them in a rather superficial
way, simply reckoning the time of each sctmdhi as one
muhvlrta —two ghati = 4.S minntes.    However, Varaha¬
mihira, excellent astronomer as he is, always only used
day and night, aud did not allow himself to follow the
opinion of the crowd regarding the sariidhi.    He ex¬
plained the samdJii as that which it really is, viz. as
the moment when the centre of the body of the sun
Page 185.     stands   exactly over  the  horizontal   circle,   and   this
moment he establishes to be the time of the greatest
power of certain zodiacal signs.
Onthe            Besides the two sctmdhi of the natural day, astrono-

theyear-haif moTS  and   othcr pcoplc  assumc   still   other  samdhis,
bination°™" which do uot TCst OU a law of nature nor on observa-
cession^of'^^' tion, but simply on some hypothesis.    So they attribute
noxS'^'"     a sariidhi to each ayana, i.e. to each of the year-halves
oisaMhf. ^ in which the sun ascends and descends (v. chap, xxxvii.),
a samdhi of seven days before its real beginning.    On
this subject I have an idea which is certainly possible,
and   even   rather likely,  viz.  that   this   theory  is  of
recent origin, not of ancient date, and that it has been
brought forward about 1300 of Alexander ( = A.D. 989),
when   the   Hindus  found   out   that  the  real   solstice
precedes the solstice of their calculation.    For Puh-
jala, the author of the Small Mdnasa, says that in the
year 854 of the Sakakala the real solstice preceded his