306 HINDOO ASTRONOMY. 



but no actual observations. Their armillary sphere, with a 

 terrestrial globe in its centre, and all their planetary orbits, 

 resemble the furniture of a cabinet rather than instruments 

 intended for real observations. With their obUquity of 24°, 

 their ignorance of refraction, the errors which they would 

 no doubt make on the altitude of the pole, it is not easy to 

 see how they could find with any accuracy the longitude and 

 latitude of the stars. They have only designated twenty- 

 seven, that is, one in each nacshatra, and their positions are 

 only given in degrees. •- 



We believe enough has been now said on the Indian as- 

 tronomy. The opinions which we have followed are those 

 of Sir William Jones, Messrs. Davis, Bentley, and Cole- 

 brooke, as delivered in the Asiatic Researches, and which 

 have been adopted by Delambre, — a high authority in the 

 history of astronomy. On a subject which has been so 

 much contested, it will no doubt be highly satisfactory to 

 have also the opinion of the celebrated Laplace, the author 

 of the Micamque Celeste. He says, " The Indian tables 

 suppose an astronomy considerably advanced ; but all tends 

 to produce a belief that it is not of high antiquity. Here I 

 differ, with much regret, from the opinion of an illustrious 

 and unfortunate friend. • . . The Indian tables have two 

 principal epochs, one 3102 years before our era, the other 

 1491. These epochs are connected by the motions of the 

 sun, the moon, and the planets, in such a manner, that de- 

 parting from the position which the Indian tables assign to 

 the stars, at the second epoch, and returning to the first, by 

 means of these tables we find the general conjunction which 

 is supposed at that epoch. The celebrated philosopher to 

 whom I have alluded (Bailly), has sought to establish in his 

 Indian Astronomy that this first epoch was founded on ob- 

 servations ; but, notwithstanding his proofs, exhibited with 

 that clearness which he knew so well how to spread over 

 the most abstract subject, I consider it as very probable that 

 it has been imagined in order to give a common origin in 

 the zodiac to the celestial motions. Our latest astronomical 

 tables, improved by a comparison of theory with a great 

 number of very precise observations, do not allow to admit 

 the supposed conjunction in the Indian tables. They even 

 present differences much greater than the errors of which 

 they are susceptible. Indeed, some elements of the Indian 



