﻿39- A SUFPLFMENT TO THE ESSAY 



" have happened ; and the proof arises from ocular 

 " demonstrations; that is, by observing the remote 

 " object and its marks at the rising or setting of the 

 " sun, or by the marks in a large graduated circle, 

 •* or the shadow's ingress and egress. The: sun, by 

 " turning back without having reached Macara, de- 

 " stroys the south and the west; by turning back 

 <c without having reached Careata, the north and 

 " east. By returning when he has just p ssed the 

 " winter solstitial point, he makes wea'th secure and 

 " grain abundant, since, he moves thus according to 

 " nature ; but the sun, by moving unnaturally, ex- 

 " cites terror." 



Now the Hindu astronomers agree, that the ist of 

 January 1790, was in the year 4891 of the Caliyuga, 

 or their fourth period ; at the beginning of which, they 

 say, the equinoctial points were in the first degrees of 

 Mesha and Tula ; but they are also of opinion; that 

 the vernal equinox oscillates from the third of Mina to 

 the twenty-seventh of Mesha, and back again in 7200 

 years, which they divide into four padas, and conse- 

 quently that it moves in the two intermediate padas 

 from the first to the twenty-seventh of Mesha and back 

 again in 3600 years; the colure cutting their ecliptic 

 in the first of Mesha, which coincides with the first 

 of Asvchi, at the beginning of every such oscilla- 

 tory period. Varaha, surnamed Mihira, or the Sun, 

 from his knowledge of astronomy, and usually distin- 

 guished by the title of Ac.harya, or teacher of the 

 Veda, lived, confessedly, when the Caliyuga was far 

 advanced ; and, since by actual observation he found 

 the solstitial points in the first degrees of Carcata and 

 Macara, the equinoctial points were at the same time 

 in the first of Mesha and Tula ; he lived, therefore, in 

 the year 3600 of the fourth Indian period, or 1291 

 years before the ist of January 1790, that is, about the 

 year 499 of our era. This date corresponds with the 



