Page:The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus.djvu/96

80 than this conception of "momentary" motion—Bháskara, Siddhánta-Siromani, Ganitádhyáya, Gatisphutiprakarana; cf. also am, ibid.; cf. also Goládhyáya, Tátkálikí-karana-vásaná-prakarana, where Bháskara points out that the mode of computing adopted by the Ácháryya (Brahmagupta) is a rough simplification. The idea of resolved components of motion was familiar to the astronomers (cf. ibid.). I may add en passant that Bháskara's formula for the computation of a table of sines also implies his use of the principle of the Differential Calculus.

Measures of Weight and Capacity.—The Amarakosha mentions measures of three kinds—weight, length, and capacity.

The Krishnala (Guñjá, Raktiká, the black-and-red berry of the shrub Abrus Precatorius) was employed as a natural measure of weight. Eighty Krishnala berries on the average weigh 105 grains Troy, and this must be taken as the basis of our computation, though in current practice eighty Krishnalas are taken to be equivalent to 210 grains. One Krishnala was supposed to weigh as much as three medium-sized barley seeds, one of the latter as much as six white mustard seeds , one white mustard as much as three Raji mustard seeds , one of these seeds as much as three Likshas, and one Liksha as much as eight Rajas or Trasarenus.

We now come to conventional measures. One gold Máshá was the weight of five Krishnalas of gold, one Suvarna or Tolá weighed as much as sixteen Máshás,