TRICONOMErRl' nf the BRJ'HMINS. 'tcs; 



nerally received, aibout 1140 years before the Chriftiaii xra * .; 

 and HipPARCHUS invented trigonometry 130 years before' the 

 fame sera. Even among the Greeks, therefore, an interval, cj: 

 at leaft 1000 years, elapfed from the find obfervations in aftro- 

 nomy, to the invention of trigonometry; and w^e have farely 

 no reafon to fuppofe, that the progrefs of knovrledge has beeii 

 more rapid in other countries. 



A THOUSAND years therefore muft be added to the age of the 

 Surya Siddhanta, which we fuppofe here to be 2000 before 

 Christ, in order that we may reach the origin of the fciences 

 in Hindoftan, and this brings us v^ery nearly to the celebrated 

 sra of the Caly Yug, to which M. Ba illy has already refenxd 

 the conftruftion of the aftronomical tables of that country. 

 And here, I cannot help obferving, in juftice to an author, of 

 whofe talents and genius the world has been fo unfeafonably 

 and fo cruelly deprived, that his opinions, with refpecfh to this 

 asra, appear to have been often mifunderflood. It cei'tainly 

 was not his intention to affert, that the Caly Yug was a real 

 xra, confidered with refpe<fl to the mythology of India, or even 

 that at fo remote a period the religion of Brahma had an exifl- 

 ence. The religiotis and civil inflitutions of Hindoftan, as they 

 now exift, may be all poflerior to this date, and their antiquity is 

 probably to be determined from principles that are not the ob- 

 jecfls of aftronomical difcufTion. All, I think, therefore, that 

 M. B a ILLY meant to affirm, and certainly all that is necefTary 

 to his fyftem, is, that the Caly Yug, or the year 3I02 before our 

 xra, marks a point in the duration of the world, before which 



N the 



* The fphere of Chiron and Musjeus was conftrufled, according to Newton, 

 about the year 936 before Christ, (Newton's Chron. chap. i. § 30). According 

 to the fyftem generally received, the ancient fphere, defcribed by Eucoxus, was 

 conftrufted about 1350 years before Christ, (Dr Pi.ayfair's Chronol'^y, p. 37). 

 The medium is 1143. 



