In modern Astronomy the vernal equinoctial (VE) point is taken as the starting point for measuring celestial longitudes. Due to the precession of equinoxes, the above point is receding back along the ecliptic. As a result, the longitudes of xed stars are increasing every year. In ancient India, the Hindu astronomers did not favour the idea of fixed stars changing their longitudes. In order to stabilize the zodiac, they had taken as the origin a point which is fixed on the ecliptic and as such is quite different from the VE point. This initial point being a fixed one, the longitude of stars measured from this origin remain invariable for all time. There was an epoch in the past when this initial point coincided with the VE point and thus the epoch may be called the zero-year. There is controversy over the determination of the zero-year. The reasons for the choice for the fixed zodiacal system by the Hindu astronomers as well as the epoch of zero-year have been found out on the basis of information available in various astronomical treatises of ancient India written in Sanskrit.

ABSTRACT
1. INTRODUCTION
2. REASONS FOR THE CHOICE FOR THE FIXED ZO-DIACAL SYSTEM
3. DETERMINATION FOR THE EPOCH OF THEZERO-YEAR OF THE FIXED ZODIAC
4. PRESENT ACCEPTANCE OF THE EPOCH OF THEZERO-YEAR OF THE FILXED ZODIAC
REFERENCES

• Amalendu Bandyopadhyay(M. P. Birla Institute of Fundamental Research)