134 The Rev. Dr. Wall on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the 



which shows that the Hindus, at that period, could not determine the times of 

 conjunctions and oppositions of the Sun and Moon for six years together correct, 

 much less eclipses. — Vol. viii, note in p. 235. And after telling us that Brahma 

 Gupta made his Calpa, or grand cycle, commence on a Sunday, he observes : 

 " This is the first system, so far as we yet know, [for he had already proved the 

 system of Varaha to be really a later one], in which the names of the days of 

 the week and of the twelve signs [of the zodiac, each set of names exactly cor- 

 responding to the European ones] were introduced. These were probably 

 received from the West, and the first point of Aries was fixed to that point in 

 the Hindu sphere which corresponded with the instant of the vernal equinox, 

 which, in the time of Brahma Gupta, was the beginning of Aswini. This posi- 

 tion has therefore a direct reference to the actual time when the twelve signs 

 were first introduced, that is to say, near 1300 years ago; though hitherto but 

 little, if at all, attended to by writers on the Hindu astronomy, &c." — Vol. viii, 

 note in p. 236. From combining the information supplied in these two places, 

 it appears that the Indians were indebted to European instruction for their first 

 approach to accuracy in determining the celestial motions, and that this improve- 

 ment in their astronomy took place not long after they had completed their 

 alphabetic system. Now I do not urge this circumstance in proof of alphabetic 

 writing being essential to the discovery of the first elements of this science, be- 

 cause I admit, that the Hindoos had some rude knowledge of it for ages before ; 

 but, as I conceive, my theory of their owing the completion of their alphabet to 

 Europeans, derives some collateral support from its being ascertained that they 

 got instruction in another subject from the same quarter and about the same 

 time. 



Mr. Bentley speaks with hesitation of the quarter from which the Hindoos 

 learned the names of the days of the week and of the twelve divisions of the 

 ecliptic ; but had he, with the acuteness he possessed, sufficiently considered the 

 subject, he scarcely could have failed to penetrate it. Even Mr. Colebrook, 

 though by no means disposed to countenance any great reduction of the antiquity 

 of Indian science,* yet admits the probability of the Hindoos having got the 



* Although Mr. Colebrook had read the admirable astronomical articles I have been referring 

 to, previously to his writing the paper from which the ensuing quotation in the text is taken ; yet in 



