SURYASIDDHANTA, sMir'ya - sed -1ilin'ta (Skt., text-book of the sun). The. earliest Hindu astronomy that has been preserved. It is written in verse and contains fourteen chapters, furnish ing a complete system which remains the chief authority in India for the adherents of the Hindu science of astronomy. The work has been con siderably altered in content in course of time. It is probable that Greek astronomy exercised some influence over this as over the succeeding Hindu works on this science. The Saryasiddhanta has been published repeatedly in India, the best edi tion being that by Hall and Deva Sastri (Cal cutta, 1859). It has been translated into English by Deva Sastri (ib., 1860), and by Burgess and Whitney in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. vi. (New Haven, 1860). Consult Thibaut, Astronomic, Astrologic and Mathematik (Strassburg, 1899).
SU'SA (Lat., from Gk. Eoikra, Sousa, Ileb. Shfishan, Pers. Shins). The capital of the Prov ince of Susiana or Elam in Persia, a royal residence, and one of the most important cities of the ancient East. The site, 21 miles southwest of Dizful, in the modern Province of Khuzistan, is on a hill• plateau between the Ab-i-Kerkhah (the ancient Choaspes) and the Shaur (the an cient Eulieus) (Map: Persia, C 5). It is marked by the so-called tomb of Daniel, a pilgrimage shrine of repute, which in reality is a compara tively modern Mohammedan mausoleum, and by the Kaleh-i-Shus (fortress or acropolis of Susa) with ruins that cover a space of about three miles and consist of three spacious artificial platforms more than 100 feet high. The name of Susa occurs on Assyrian monuments of the time of Ashurbanipal (n.c. 668-626), who cap tured it. At first under Babylonian dominion,
it came, at the time of Cyrus, under Persian rule; and the Achiemenian kings raised it to the dignity of a metropolis of the entire Persian Empire. When Babylon had risen again to importance under Alexander and his successors, Susa gradually declined. In the Arab conquest of Persia it held out bravely for a long time, de fended by Hormuzan. During the Middle Ages it was still inhabited and known for its manufac tures of sugar. Excavations by Williams, Loftus, Churchill, Dieulafoy, and others, have revealed a citadel of semicircular form, and the remains of the extensive colonnade, with a frontage of 343 feet and a depth of 244 feet, of the great palace built by Darius Hystaspis (n.c. 521-485), and re stored by Artaxerxes Mnemon (n.c. 405-362), after having been ruined by fire in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus (n.c. 465-424). Cunei form inscriptions, friezes of lions and archers, finely colored, now in the Museum of the Louvre at Paris, and numerous other relics have been re covered. Consult: Dieulafoy, L'Aeropolc de Suse d'apres les fouilles erjeutees en 1884,1885,1886, etc. (Paris, 1890-92) ; and Billerbeek, Susa. (Berlin, 1892).
SUSA, (Lat. Segusio). A city in the Province of Turin, Italy. 32 miles by rail west of the city of Turin, on the Dora Riparia (Map: Italy, B 2). It has a triumphal arch 44 feet high, dedicated, the inscription reads, in A.D. S to Augustus. It was formerly of strategic im portance, being regarded as the key to the Alpine roads over Mont Cenis and Mont Genevre. Popu lation (commune), in 1901, 4957.