﻿398 A SUFPLEMENT TO THE E5SAY 



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its rise before the regular precession of the cardi- 

 nal points had been observed ; but we may also re- 

 mark, that some of the lunar mansions were considered 

 as inauspicious, and others as fortunate ; thus Menu, 

 the first Indian lawgiver, ordains, that certain rites 

 shall be performed under the influence of a happy 

 JSacshatra ; and, where he forbids any female name 

 to be taken from a constellation, the most learned 

 commentator gives Ardra and Revati as examples 

 of ill-omened names, appearing by design to skip 

 over others that must first have occurred to him. 

 Whether Dhanishfha and Aslesha were inauspicious 

 or prosperous, I have not learned j but, whatever 

 might be the ground of Varaha'% astrological rule, we 

 may collect from his astronomy, which was grounded 

 oh observation, that the solstice had receded at least 

 2 3 20' between his time and that of Parasara ; for, 

 though it refers its position to the signs, instead of the 

 lunar mansions, yet all the Pandits with whom 1 have 

 conversed on the subject, unanimously assert, that 

 the first degrees of Mesha and Aswini are coincident. 

 Since the two ancient sages name only the lunar aste- 

 risms, it is probable, that the solar division of the 

 Zodiac into twelve signs was not generally used in 

 their days j and we know from the comment on the 

 Surya Sidahanta, that the lunar month, by which all 

 religious ceremonies are still regulated, was in use be- 

 fore the solar. When M. Bailly asks " Why the 

 " Hindus established the beginning of the precession, 

 (i according to their ideas of it, in the year of Christ 

 " 409 ?" to which his calculations also had led him, we 

 answer, Because in that year the vernal equinox was 

 found by observation in the origin of their ecliptic; 

 and since they were of opinion that it must have had 

 the same position in the first year of the Caliyuga, they 

 were induced by their erroneous theory to fix the 

 beginning of their fourth period 3600 years before 

 the time of Varaha, and to account for Parasara\ 

 observation, by, supposing an utpata, or prodigy. 



