different Nakshatras. This Sutra would incline us to believe that Varahamihira was not aware of precession.

It does indicate that he used the Tropical Zodiac, but did he do so on purpose, or by accident? In Brihat Jataka, Varahamihira makes direct relationships between the Rasis and Nakshatras in chapter 1 Sutra 4: In the celestial Chakra the Rasis commencing from Aries and Asvinni are each formed by nine padas of Nakshatras. 4 Here Varahamihira relates the beginning of Aries to Asvinni, which refers to the Sidereal Zodiac, or, if he had no knowledge of precession, to the Tropical Zodiac. Varahamihiras works have apparent contradictions. Perhaps this can be explained by his views changing over the years, in which case, which were his latter views. It seems that Brihat Jataka was written before Panchasiddhantika, which was written before Brihat Samhita. In any case, it is not clear enough to determine whether Varahamihira believed in the tropical or Sidereal Zodiac. There is more evidence that he was not aware of precession. And there is no doubt that he used the Tropical Zodiac, but he may have done so believing that he used the Sidereal Zodiac, since at his time the 1st point of Aries was relatively aligned with the 1st point of Asvini. THE GREEKS The Greeks themselves where aware of precession at this time, evidence of which is in Ptolemys Almegast, which was the astronomical bible of the western world from the second century AD onwards until the time of Kepler. This time period of from 100-600 AD is the crucial time, for during this time the vernal equinox in its precession arrived at the first degree of Asvini, which only happens once every 24,000 years. This is the period during which the sidereal and Tropical Zodiacs could, and obviously did, become confused.