ASTRONOMY of the BRAHMINS. 167 



blance to the Ptolemaic, the Tychonic, or the Copernican fy- 

 ftem. 



39. These tables, though their radical places are for the year 

 149 1 of our era, have an obvious reference to the great epoch of the 

 Calyougham. For if we calculate the places of the planets from 

 them, for the beginning of the aftronomical year, at that epoch, 

 we find them all in conjunction v?ith the fun in the beginning 

 of the moveable zodiac, their common longitude being 10', 6° *. 

 According to our tables, there was, at that time, a conjuncftion 

 of all the planets, except Venus, with the fun ; but they were, 

 by no means, fo near to one another as the Indian aftronomy 

 reprefents. It is true, that the exadl time of a conjundlion 

 cannot be determined by dire(5l obfervation : but this does not 

 amount to an entire vindication of the tables ; and there is rea- 

 fon to fufpedt, that fome fuperftitious notions, concerning the 

 beginning of the Calyougham, and the figns by which nature 

 muft have diftinguifhed fo great an epoch, has, in this inftance 

 at leaft, perverted the aftronomy of the Brahmins. There are^ 

 however, fome coincidences between this part of their aftro- 

 nomy, and the theory of gravity, which muft not be for- 

 gotten. 



40. The firft of thefe refpedls the aphelion of Jupiter, 

 which, in the tables, is fuppofed to have a retrograde motion 

 of 15° in 200,000 years f, and to have been, at the epoch of 

 1491, in longitude 5% 21°, 40', 30", from the beginning of 

 the zodiac. It follows, therefore, that in the year 3102 before 

 Christ, the longitude of Jupiter's aphelion was 3^, 27°, o', 

 reckoned from the equinox. Now, the fame, computed from 

 M. DE LA Lande's tables, is only 3-', 16°, 48', 58"; fo that 

 there would feem to be an error of more than 10° in the tables 

 of the Brahmins. But, if it be confidered, that Jupiter's orbit 



is 



• Aft. Ind. p. 181. 

 + Ibid. p. 184. § 13. 



