In a technical section of an astrological text (Balabhadra's Hāyanaratna) I just came across the expression iti prāñcaḥ, which I don't recall seeing before and couldn't find in Tubb and Boose's otherwise excellent Scholastic Sanskrit. Am I right in thinking that it means something like 'so say earlier [authors]'?

A quick web search for the phrase returned seven hits, one of which (Annambhaṭṭa's Tarksaṃgraha) does seem to contrast prāñcaḥ with navīnāḥ, in support of my conjecture; but the others were inconclusive. An old blog post showed that at least I'm not alone in wondering about it.

Any clarifications or corrections would be much appreciated.

Martin Gansten