HINDOO MATHEMATICS. 



307 



astronomy could only have the magnitude assigned to them 

 a lon<r time before our era. For example, it would be neces- 

 sary to go back 6000 years to give the equation of the sun s 

 centre the value it has in the tables ; but, independently ot 

 the errors of their determinations, it must be observed that 

 they have considered the inequalities of the sun and moon 

 only in relation to eclipses, in which the annual equation oi 

 the moon unites with the equation of the sun s centre, and 

 increases it by a quantity nearly equal to the difierence ol 

 its true value from that of the Indians, hevera! elements, 

 such as the equations of the centre of Jupiter and Mars, are 

 ver>- different in the Indian tables from what they ought to 

 be at the first epoch. The whole structure of the tables, 

 and especially the impossibility of the conjunction which 

 they suppose," prove that they have been formed, or at least 

 rectilied, in modern times." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Hindoo Mathematics. 



division of the Circumference of the Circle-Ratio of the Diameter to 

 the CMr?umference-Tables of Sines and Versed Sines-Mathematical 

 TreS-Iccount of the Origin of the -Lilavati-Its Contents- 

 Knowledge of Algebra. 



There is another subject of inquiry intimately connected 

 with the astronomy of India ; this is their knowledge of 

 the mathematical sciences. Here there is not so much 

 room for the exercise of that disposition to exaggeration in 

 respect of dates which so eminently distinguishes their as- 

 tronomical systems. It is true, that part of their geometry, 

 which is contained in the Surya Siddhanta, which pro- 

 fesses to have been a revelation delivered four millions of 

 years aao in the golden age of the Indian mythologists, 

 when rnan was incomparably better than he is at Present, 

 when his stature exceeded twenty-one cubits, and his lite 

 extended to ten thousand years, is involved in the absurdity 



