ASTRONOMY of the BRAHMINS. 153 



modern aftronomy, if not perfedlly accurate, at leaft fo exadt 

 as to reprefent the celeftial motions, without any fenfible error, 

 even for a period more remote than the Calyougham ; and this, 

 confidering the multitude of obfervations on which our aftro- 

 nomy is founded, the great antiquity of fome of thofe obTer- 

 vations, and the extreme accuracy of the reft, together with 

 the affiftance derived from the theory of phyfical caufes, may 

 furely be aflumed as a very reafonable poftulatum. We begin 

 with the examination of the mean motions. 



22. The Brahmins place the beginning of their moveable 

 zodiac, at the time of their epoch, 54° before the vernal equi- 

 nox, or in the longitude of 10^, 6°, according to our method 

 of reckoning. Now, M. le Gentil brought with him a deli- 

 neation of the Indian zodiac, from which the places of the 

 ftars in it may be afcertained with tolerable exadlnefs *. In 

 particular, it appears, that Aldebaran, or the firft ftar of Tau- 

 rus, is placed in the laft degree of the fourth conftellation, or 

 53°, id, diftant from the beginning of the zodiac. Alde- 

 baran was therefore 40' before the point of the vernal equinox, 

 according to the Indian aftronomy, in the year 3 1 02 before Ch r i s t. 

 But the fame ftar,by the beft modern obfervations, was, in the year 

 1750, in longitude, 2^, 6°, 17', 47" ; and had it gone forward, 

 according to the prefent rate of the preceflion of the equinoxes, 

 50" y annually, it muft have been, at the era of the Calyougham, 

 I °, 32', before the equinox. But this refult is to be corrected, 

 in confequence of the inequality in the preceflion, difcovered 

 by M. DE LA Grange f, by the addition of 1°, 45', 22", to 

 the longitude of Aldebaran, which gives the longitude of that 

 ftar 13' from the vernal equinox, at the. time of the Calyoug- 

 ham, agreeing, within ^2)y with the determination of the In- 

 dian aftronomy J. 

 Vol. II. « This 



* Mem. Acad. Scien. 1772, II. P. 214. Aft. Ind. p. 129. 

 f Mem. Acad, de Berlin, 1782, p. 287. Aft. Ind. p. 144. 

 t Aft. Ind. p. 130. 



