VOL. LXXX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, 743 



been, of all branches of study, that which the Hindoos cultivated with the least 

 care, and we regret to find the periods marked by the revolutions of the heavenly 

 bodies, of which other nations have availed themselves to ascertain and record 

 the important events in human affairs, by them unprofitably applied to the 

 dreams of their mythology. The unremitted labour of ages has been devoted 

 to perfecting the calculation of the lunar motions, in which their correctness is 

 surpassed only by the European improvements ol" very modern times ; but, by a 

 strange perversion, the accuracy thence acquired in their prediction of eclipses, 

 appears to have no other object than that of administering to an idle supersti- 

 tion, which it ought to destroy. Though the fabulous exceedingly prevails in 

 all the ancient documents hitherto introduced to our knowledge, and in none 

 more conspicuously than those which contain the genealogies and reigns of their 

 early kings, yet we are not hastily to conclude, that this people are destitute of 

 records of true history. The portion of their literary stores which we have had 

 opportunity to examine is comparatively small. Perseverance may discover 

 annals, more or less ancient, whose present obscurity is perhaps occasioned by 

 that very circumstance which constitutes their real value — the want of the 

 miraculous. Some authentic monuments have already been elucidated by the 

 learned skill of a gentleman, now a member of the r. s. Facts will accumulate 

 by degrees, and acquire authority by mutually bearing on each other; and the 

 Hindoos, like many other nations of the world, may hereafter be indebted to 

 strangers, more enlightened by philosophy than themselves, for a rational 

 history of their own country. 



In different parts of India, and even in one and the same part, we observe 

 various chronological eras referred to, as well in their astronomical treatises, as 

 in their political and private writings. These being productive of confusion, if 

 not clearly understood and discriminated, it is intended here to exhibit such a 

 comparative statement of their respective commencements and coincidences as 

 may tend to remove this Impediment to the progress of historical knowledge. 

 The present purpose does not lead to attempt a discussion of what may be 

 termed the factitious periods of Hindoo computation, or to explain the nature 

 and duration of the 4 ages, or Yoogs, which this speculative people, in the 

 wanton exercise of numerical power, have portioned out from the boundless 

 region of time. The 3 former of these divisions, even though the progressive 

 numbers assigned to them should be admitted as the result of astronomical com- 

 bination, can be presumed to have but little reference to practical chronology, 

 which seems to trace its origin no higher than the commencement of the 4th, 

 or present age, denominated the Kalee Yoog. This constitutes the principal 

 era here to be attended to, and comprehends within it these that follow j the era 



