ASTRONOMY of the BRAHMINS. 149- 



been defcribed *, The folar year is divided, according to them, 

 into twelve unequal months, each of which is the timethat the 

 fun takes to move through one fign, or 30°, of the ecliptic. 

 Thus, Any, or June, when the fun is in the third fign, and 

 his motion floweft, confifls of 31'^, 36'^, 38', and Margogy, 

 or December, when he is in the ninth fign, and his mo- 

 tion quickeft, confifts only of 29*^, 20 '^, 53' -j". The 

 lengths of thefe months, exprefled in natural days, are con- 

 tained in a table, which, therefore, involves in it the place of 

 the fun's apogee, and the equation of his centre. The former 

 feems tn be 77" from the beginning of the zodiac, and the lat- 

 ter about 2°, 10', nearly as in the preceding tables. In their 

 calculations, they alfo employ an aftronomical day, which is 

 different from the natural, being the time that the fun takes to 

 move over one degree of the ecliptic ; and of which days there 

 are juft 360 in a year J. 



18. These tables go far back into antiquity. Their e- 

 poch coincides with the famous era of the Calyougham, that 

 is, with the beginning of the year 3102 before Christ. 

 When the Brahmins of Tirvalore would calculate the place of 

 the fun for a given time, they begin by reducing into days the 

 interval between that time, and the commencement of the 

 Calyougham, multiplying the years by ;i6^'^, 6^, 12', 30"; 

 and taking away 2'^, 3''^ 32', 30", the aftronomical epoch 

 having begun that much later than the civil ||. They next 

 find, by means of certain divifions, when the year current be- 

 gan, 



* Tirvalore is a fmall town on the Coromandel coaft, about I2 G. miles weft of Ne- 

 gapatnam, in Lat. 10°, 44', and eaft Long, from Greenwich, 79°, 42', by Rennel's 

 map. From the obfervations of the Brahmins, M. le Gentil makes its Lat. to be 

 10°, 42', 13'. (Mem. Acad. Scien. II. P. 184.) The meridian of Tirvalore nearly 

 touches the weft fide of Ceylon, and therefore may be fuppoled to coincide with the firit 

 meridian, as laid down by Father du Champ. There is no redaftion of Longitude em- 

 ployed in the methods of Tirvalore, 



f Thefe are Indian hours, &c. 



t Mem. Acad, des Scien. II. P. 187. Aft. InJienne, p. 76, &c, 



II The Indian hours are here reduced to European. 



