ASTRONOMT of the BRAHMINS. 145 



From the epoch above mentioned, the mean place of the fun 

 for any other time is deduced, on the fuppofition that in 800 

 years, there are contained 292,207 days*. This fuppofition in- 

 volves in it the length of the fydereal year, or the time that 

 the fun takes to return to the beginning of the moveable zo- 

 diac, and makes it confift of 365^. 6h. 12', 36" f. From 

 this, in order to find the tropical year, or that which regulates 

 the feafons, we muft take away 2 1', 55", as the time which the 

 fun takes to move over the 54", that the ftars are fuppofed to 

 have advanced in the year ; there will remain 365 d. 5 h, 50', 

 41", which is the length of the tropical year that is involved, 

 not only in the tables of Siam, but likewife, very nearly, in all 

 the reft %. This determination of the length of the year is but 

 1', 53", greater than that of De la Caille, which is a degree 

 of accuracy beyond what is to be found in the more ancient 

 tables of our ailronomy. 



II. The next thing with which rhefe tables prefent us, is a 

 corredHon of the fun's mean place, which correfponds to what 

 we call the equation of his centre, or the inequality arifing 

 from the eccentricity of his orbit, in confequence of which, he 

 is alternately retarded and accelerated, his true place being, for 

 one half of the year, left behind the mean, and, for the other, 

 advanced before it. The point where the fun is placed, when 

 his motion is floweft, we call his apogee, becaufe his diftance 

 from the earth is then greateft ; but the Indian aftronomy, 

 which is filent with refpedl to theory, treats this point as no- 

 thing more than what it appears to be, a point, viz. in the 

 heavens, where the fun's motion is the floweft poflible, and 

 about go" diftant from that, where his greateft inequali- 

 ty takes place. This greateft inequality is here made to 



be 



♦ Aft. Ind. p. 7. § 6. 



+ Mem. Acad. Scien. torn. 8. p. 32S. 



t Aft. Ind. p. 124. The tables of Tirvalore make the year 6 " lefs. 



