Da?abala

astronomy.

Da?abala, the son of Vairocana and member of a family from Vallabh? in Saur???ra, was a Buddhist with ?aivite leanings. He wrote two works on astronomy, both of which belong to the Br?hmapak?a (see Essay IV), as modified by the R?jam?g?n?ka (written 1042) of his contemporary, the Param?ra monarch Bhojar?ja (fl. ca. 999–1056).

The Cint?man?is?ra?ik? was written in ?aka 977 (a. d. 1055), while Bhoja was still in power. It contains six sections:

1. On tithis (sixty-two verses)
2. On nak?atras (nineteen verses)
3. On yogas (twenty-one verses)
4. On diverse subjects (thirty-six verses)
5. On san?kr?ntis (four verses)
6. On the sixty-year cycle of Jupiter (sixteen verses).

There is a commentary on it written by Mah?deva, the son of L??iga, also a Gujar?t?, in ?aka 1180 a. d. 1258).

Da?abala’s second work, the Kara?akamalam?rta??a, was written in ?aka 980 (a. d. 1058). It contains ten chapters with 270 verses:

1. On mean motions
2. On true longitudes
3. On the three questions relating to the diurnal motion
4. On lunar eclipses
5. On solar eclipses
6. On heliacal risings and settings
7. On the lunar crescent
8. On the mah?p?tas
9. On conjunctions of the planets
10. On intercalary months and the sixty-year cycle of Jupiter.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Cint?ma?is?ra?ik? has been edited by D. D. Kosambi in Journal of Oriental Research, 19 (1952), supp. The Kara?akamalamärta??a is known only from the description in ?. B. D?k?ita. Bh?rat?ya Jyoti???stra (Poona, 1896: repr., 1931), pp. 239–240.

David Pingree

Daśabala (Skt.; Pāli, dasabala). The ten powers of a Buddha which confer knowledge on him of: (i) what is possible and impossible; (ii) the consequence of actions (vipāka); (iii) the abilities of other beings; (iv) the direction of their lives; (v) the constituents of manifest appearances; (vi) the paths leading to the different domains of existence; (vii) those leading to purity and impurity; (viii) the states of meditation (samādhi) and absorptions (dhyāna); (ix) deaths and reappearances; (x) the eradication of all defilements (the three destructive poisons, Skt., āśrava Pāli, āsava: of desire, kāma, of becoming in manifest form, bhāva, and of ignorance, avidyā/avijja).