Sanscrit Writing and Language. ~ 139 



games (depending on the day of full Moon next after every fourth summer 

 solstice) above four hundred years before the Christian era. The Indian astro- 

 nomers, I admit, may possibly have discovered this cyele by their own sagacity ; 

 but there is evidently a much greater likelihood, that they learned it from the 

 same source as that from which they got the twelve divisions of the Ecliptic with 

 their names, as also the names of the days of the week. 



I shall refer to Mr. Bentley's essays only on one point more, the importance 

 of which will be perceived from the following extracts. " Two of the most 

 ancient Hindu systems now known, and which in early times were applied to the 

 purposes of chronology, are contained in an astronomical work entitled the 

 Graha Munjari. This work is extremely valuable, as it enables us to fix, with 

 precision, the real periods of Hindu history, with their respective durations ; and 

 to show from thence the alterations that have since taken place by the introduction 

 of new systems." — Asiatic liesear. vol. viii, p. 224. "Now if we transfer the 

 names, &c. in the four ages of the first system of the Graha Munjari, to the 

 Sati/a, Treta, Dwapar, and Cali yugas [that is, to the golden, silver, brazen, 

 and iron ages] above mentioned [of Brahma Gupta's system], and those in the 

 Manwantaras* of the second system to the Manwantaras of the same name in 

 this [third system] ; then we shall have the periods of the Hindu history, accord- 

 ing to modern notions, founded on the system of Brahma Gupta." — Ibidem, 

 p. 237. " The Cali yuga, or iron age [of the first system], began in the year 

 B. C. 1004."— Ibidem, p. 225. 



Thus it appears that our author has not only convicted the Brahmans of the 

 grossest falsehood in the claims to antiquity which they have set up for their 

 records; but he has also pointed out the actual way in which those claims were 

 gradually extended. The Cali yuga of Brahma Gupta is fixed two thousand 

 and ninety-eight years earlier than that of the first system of the Graha Munjari ; 

 of course by transferring the dates of events from the one system to the other, 

 and by giving them a corresponding position in reference to the Cali yugas of 

 each, they are thrown farther back into antiquity in the later chronicle by more 



* " The Calpa [of each system] is divided into lesser periods of years, called Manwantaras 

 and Yugas ; the intention of which seems to be, to assist the memory in calculating the years ex- 

 pired of the system j at least they answer no other purpose at present." — Asiatic Bes. vol. vi, not 

 in p. 546. 



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