COMPUTATION OF TIME. 287 



Indian months are derived from twelve of the asterisms, in 

 the usual form of patronymics; for their pauranics (poeti- 

 cal fabulists), who reduce all nature to a system of em- 

 blematical mythology, suppose a celestial nymph to preside 

 over each of the constellations, and feign that the god 

 Soma, or Lunus, having wedded twelve of them, became 

 the father of twelve genii or months, who are named after 

 their several mothers ; but the jyautishicas (the astrono- 

 mers) give a more rational account of the matter ; they say 

 that when the lunar year was arranged by former astrono- 

 mers the moon was at the full in each month of the year, 

 on the very day when it entered the nacshatra, — from which 

 that month is denominated. The names of the months 

 are, — 



1. Aswini. 4. Pa-usha. 7. Chaitra. 10. Ashara. 



2. Cartica. 5. Ma^ha. 8. Vaisacha. 11. Sravana. 



3. Margojirsha. 6. Phalguna. 9. Jyaishtha. 12. Bhadra. 



From the two different accounts of the origin of the 

 months it is easy to understand that the history of astronomy, 

 as delivered by the Indian poets, must be a tissue of ab- 

 surdities. Indeed there is an entire want of that soberness 

 of description and precision of language which characterize 

 the science of the nations of Europe. 



It appears from the astronomical tables that the ancient 

 Hindoos knew that the intersection of the equator and 

 ecliptic is not always in the same point, but that it is con- 

 stantly retrograding on the ecliptic in a direction contrary 

 to the order of the signs, thereby producing an apparent 

 motion of all the stars eastward from the equinoctial point ; 

 so that the time between the vernal equinoxes in two suc- 

 ceeding years is less than the time in which the sun moves 

 round the ecliptic. This difference, called the precession 

 of the equinoxes, the modern Hindoos reckon to be fifty- ; 

 •' four seconds in a year ; so that the period of a complete 

 ' revolution of the equinoctial points will be about 24,000 

 years. The precession is, indeed, about four seconds less 

 than they suppose ; but Sir W. Jones believed that the old 

 Indian astronomers had made a more accurate calculation, 

 but concealed their knowledge from the people with a view 

 to impose on them in regard to the antiquity of their nation- 

 Sesides the Indian tables already noticed the astroooisy of 



