Page:Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata, English translation.djvu/31



A. Having paid reverence to Brahman, who is one (in causality, as the creator of the universe, but) many (in his manifestations), the true deity, the Supreme Spirit, Aryabhata sets forth three things: mathematics [ganita], the reckoning of time [kalakriyaa], and the sphere [gola].

Baidyanath suggests that satya devata may denote Sarasvati, the goddess of learning. For this I can find no support, and therefore follow the commentator Paramesvara in translating "the true deity," God in the highest sense of the word, as referring to Prajapati, Pitamaha, Svayambhu, the lower individuahzed Brahman, who is so called as being the creator of the universe and above all the other gods. Then this lower Brahman is identified with the higher Brahman as being only an individuafized manifestation of the latter. As Paramesvara remarks, the use of the word kam seems to indicate that Aryabhata based his work on the old Pitamahasiddhanta. Support for this view is found in the concluding stanza of our text (IV, 50), dryabhatiyam namna purvam svayambhuvam sada sad yat. However, as shown by Thibaut and Kharegat, there is a close connection between Aryabhata and the old Suryasiddhanta. At Rh