﻿OF THE HINDUS. 1 t$ 



w of Plshnu; six hundred thousand such, hours make 

 " a period of Riulra ; and a million of Rudras 

 ** (or /ioo quadrillions five hundred and ninety-two 

 iC thousand trillions of lunar years) are but a second 

 " to the Supreme Being." The Hindu theologians 

 deny the conclusion of the stanza to be orthodox: 

 " Tithe'" they say, " exists not at all with God'" and 

 they advise astronomers to mind their own business, 

 without meddling with theology. The astronomical 

 verse, however, will answer our present purpose ; for 

 it shows, in the first place, that cyphers are added 

 at pleasure to swell the periods ; and, if we take ten 

 cyphers from a Rudra, or divide by ten thousand 

 millions, we shall have a period of 259200000 years, 

 which, divided by 60 (the usual divisor of time 

 among the Hindus) will give 4320000, or a Great 

 Age, which we find subdivided in the proportion of 

 4, 3, 2, 1, from the notion of -virtue decreasing 

 arithmetically in the golden, silver, copper, and ear- 

 then ages. But, should it be thought improbable 

 that the Indian astronomers in very early times had 

 made more accurate observations than those of Alex- 

 andria, Bagdad, or Maraghah, and still more im- 

 probable that they should have relapsed with appa- 

 rent cause into error, we may suppose that they 

 formed their divine age by an arbitrary multiplication 

 of 24000 by 1 80, according to Le Gentil, or of 2 i 600 

 by 200, according to the comment on the Stay a Sid- 

 dhanta. Now, as it is hardly possible that such 

 coincidences should be accidental, we may hold it 

 nearly demonstrated, that the period of a divine age 

 was at first merely astronomical, and may conse- 

 quently reject it from our present inquiry into the 

 historical or civil chronology of India. Let us, how- 

 ever, proceed to the avowed opinions of the Hindus, 

 and see, when we have ascertained their system, whe- 

 ther we can reconcile it to the course of nature and 

 the common sense of mankind. 



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