298 HINDOO ASTRONOMY. 



some ingenious devices by which the labour was abridged, 

 and, at last, to the important invention of logarithms. The 

 Indians had a like or even greater stimulus to their inge- 

 nuity ; but it does not appear to have led to any abbrevia- 

 tion"or simplification of their calculations. 



Those curious in such matters may see a specimen of the 

 calculation of an Indian eclipse in the second volume of the 

 Asiatic Researches, — also in Delambre's Astronomie An- 

 cimne, vol. i. From the whole operation Delambre has 

 drawn the following conclusions : — 



1 . The computation of an eclipse by the Indian tables is 

 an operation of excessive length. 



2. These ancient tables are very inaccurate ; although, if 

 we believe Bailly, they were deduced from observations 

 made at very long intervals, and for that reason ought to 

 have oiven the mean motions of the planets with consider- 

 able precision. 



3. There are three other Indian tables, more modern, 

 which give errors of 28™, SI-", and 12'», in the time of 

 eclipses ; and errors of from 12'" to 20'°, and even to 32", in 

 the time of their duration. 



4. The calculations of the Hindoos are less geometrical 

 than those of the Greeks, and, like theirs, they depend on 

 excentrics and epicycles, which are disfigured by empirical 

 suppositions. 



5. The Indian tables can be of no use in correctmg tho 

 mean motions of the planets, although Bailly believed that 

 they might be so employed. 



6. It is a remarkable circmnstance that the Indian theories 

 of astronomy make no mention of observations or even of 

 an instrument ; but, indeed, there is no proof that the 

 theories were really formed by the Indians ; moreover, we 

 cannot place the least confidence in them, because we are 

 entirely unacquainted with the principles of their founda- 

 tion, and have no means of estimating the errors that may 

 have been committed in making the observations. If we 

 judge of them by those wliich we know to have been made 

 1600 or 1800 years ago, the Indian observations must have 

 been very indifferent, or even utterly worthless. 



7. Lastly, the knowledge which the Indians had of astron- 

 omy is greatly inferior to that of the Greeks. 



The Indian methods of calculation are altogether differ- 



