390                        ALBERUNPS INDIA.

Garga, the ancient, the primeval one, that the Great
Bear stood in Magha, the tenth lunar station, when
Yudhishthira ruled the earth, and the Sakakala was
2526 years after this. The Great Bear remains in each
lunar station 600 years, and it rises in the north-east.
He (of the Seven Rishis) who then rules the east is
Marici; west of him is Vasishtha, then Angiras, Atri,
Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and near Vasishtha there is a
chaste woman called Arundhati."

As these names are sometimes confounded with each
other, we shall try to identify them with the corre¬
sponding stars in the Great Bear :—

Marici is the 27th star of this constellation.

Vasishtha ,,   26th         ,,

Angiras      ,,   25th         ,,

Atri            ,,   i8th

Kratu         ,,   i6th         ,,

Pulaha       ,,   17th         ,,

Pulastya    ,,   19th         ,,

Criticisms        Thcsc stars occupy in our time, i.e. in the 9=^ 2nd year

Oil Cirff'i                                 ^                                                                                                                .^ -J              tj

of the Sakakala, the space between i|° of Leo and \i\°
of Spica (Virgo). According to the peculiar motion of the
fixed stars, as we know it, the same stars occupied at
the time of Yudhishthira the space between 87!° Gemini
and 2o|° of Cancer,
Page 196..          According to the motion of the fixed stars, as adopted

by the ancient astronomers and Ptolemy, these stars
occupied at that time the space between 26 J° of Gemini
and 8f° of Leo, and the here-mentioned lunar station
(Magha) occupied the space between 0-800 minutes
in Leo,

Therefore it would be much more suitable in the
present time to represent the Seven Rishis as standing
in Magha than in the time of Yudhishthira. And if
the Hindus identify Magha with the Heart of the Lion,
we can only say that this constellation at that time
stood in the first degrees of Cancer.