﻿©F THE HINDUS. 227 



difficulty was at length surmounted ; and a computa- 

 tion of the above-mentioned eclipse, not merely on 

 the principles, but strictly by the rules, of the Surya 

 Siddhanta, is what I propose now to present you with, 

 after such preliminary observations as may be neces- 

 sary to make it intelligible. 



I suppose it sufficiently well known, that the Hindu 

 division of the ecliptic into signs, degrees, &c. is the 

 same as ours ; that their astronomical year is sydereal, 

 or containing that space of time in which the sun, de- 

 parting from a star, returns to the same ; that it com- 

 mences on the instant of his entering the sign Aries ; or 

 Tather the Hindu constellation Mesha * ; that each as- 

 tronomical month contains as many even days and 

 fractional parts as he stays in each sign j and that the 

 civil differs from the astronomical account of time 

 only in rejecting those fractions, and beginning the 

 year and month at sunrise, instead ot the intermediate 

 instant of the artificial day or night. Hence arises the 

 unequal portion of time assigned to each month de- 

 pendent on the situation of the sun's apsis, and the 

 distance of the vernal equinoctial colure from the 

 beginning of Mesha in the Hindu sphere; and by 

 these means they avoid those errors which E-urofieat&j 

 from a different method of adjusting their calendar by 

 intercalary days, have been subject zo. An explana- 

 tion of these matters would lead me beyond my pre- 

 sent intention, which is to give a general account only" 

 of the method by which the Hindus compute -eclipses,, 

 and thereby to show, that a late French author was too 

 hasty in asserting generally that they determine them 



* Or, to be more particular, on his entering the Nacsbatra, or 

 lunar mansion {jisiuim). There were formerly only twenty-seven 

 Nacshatras: a 28th {Abbijit) has been since added, taken out of the 

 2 1st and 22d, named Uttarasbara and Sravana. Trese three in 

 their order comprehend io°, 5 , and it? 40' of the Zodiac : the 

 rest comprehend 13 20' each. 



Vol. II. Q_ 



