V6L. LXXX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 747 



inencement of our year and theirs, the number of their year must be increased 

 by 1, and the subtraction or addition then made. 



The Kalee Yoog, or principal chronological era, began in the year before speci- 

 fied, when the sun's mean place was in the first point of the constellation Aries 

 of the Hindoo zodiac; which happened on the 18th of February, at sunrise, 

 under their first meridian, called the meridian of Lanka. At that period, it is 

 said to be asserted by their astronomers, that the sun, moon, and all the planets, 

 were in conjunction, according to their mean places. The reality of this fact, 

 but with considerable modification, has received a respectable sanction from the 

 writings of an ingenious and celebrated member of the French Academy of Sci- 

 ences, who concludes, that the actual observation of this rare phenomenon, by 

 the Hindoos of that day, was the occasion of its establishment as an astrono- 

 mical epoch. Though M. Bailly has supported this opinion with his usual powers 

 of reasoning, and though abundant circumstances tend to prove their early skill 

 in this science, and some parts of the mathematics connected with it, yet we are 

 constrained to question the verity or possibility of the observation, and to con- 

 clude rather that the supposed conjunction was, at a later period, sought for as 

 an epoch, and calculated retrospectively. That it was widely miscalculated too, 

 is sufficiently evident from the computation which M. Bailly himself has given 

 of the longitudes of the planets at that time, when there was a difference of no 

 less than 73° between the places of Mercury and Venus. But 15 days after, 

 when the sun and moon were in opposition, and the planets far enough from the 

 sun to be visible, he computes that all, excepting Venus, were comprehended 

 within a space of 17°; and on this he grounds his supposition of an actual ob- 

 servation. 



Calculating from the rules lai4 down by the Brahmans, as given by M. Le 

 Gentil, it appears, that 4891 mean years of this era expired on Monday, 12th 

 April, 1790, at 4-1-^ and that the true place of the sun came to the first of Aries, 

 and consequently that the 4892d year, or 489 1 complete as the Hindoos express 

 it, actually began on the 10th, at 1^; or on Sunday, 11th April, in their civil 

 way of reckoning. Thus we see that, during this long period of time, the Hindoo 

 account has lost on the Julian 42 days, allowing for the change that took place 

 in our stile. The year of the former exceeding the latter by 12™ 30^, falls con- 

 tinually later and later on our old stile year, at the rate of a day in about 1 1 5 

 years; and from this the commencement of any future year may be readily com- 

 puted. The annual irregularity observable, which is independent of the almost 

 imperceptible change, arises only from our mode of intercalating a day at the 

 end of every 4th year, to compensate the fractions that have accumulated during 

 that time. The Hindoo astronomical year, admitting of no intercalation, can- 

 not presence an annual correspondence, but began at nearly the same time, with 



5 c 2 



