﻿ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. 4°3 



" multitude of stars." It is necessary to remark, that, 

 although the sisumara be generally described as the 

 s hog or porpoise, which we frequently have seen 

 ing in the Ganges, yet susmar, which seems de- 

 rived from the Sanscrit, means in Persian a large 

 / zard". The passage just exhibited may neverthe- 

 less relate to an animal of the cetaceous order, and 

 possibly to the dolphin of the antients. Before I leave 

 the sphere of the Hindus, I cannot help mentioning a 

 singular fact : — In the Sanscrit language Ricsha means 

 a constellation, and a bear, so that Maharcsha may de- 

 note .either a great bear or a great asterism. Etymo- 

 logist 1 may, perhaps, derive the Megas arctos of the 

 Greeks from an Indian compound ill understood ; but 

 I will only observe, with the wild American, that a 

 bear with a 'very long tail could never have occurred 

 to the imagination of any one who had seen the ani- 

 mal. I may be permitted to add, on the subject or 

 the Indian Zodiac, that, if I have erred in a former 

 essay, where the longitude of the lunar mansions is 

 computed from the first star in our constellation of 

 the Ram, I have been led into an error by the very 

 learned and ingenious M. Bailly, who relied, I pre- 

 sume, on the authority of M. Le Gentil. The origin of 

 the Hindu Zodiac, according to the Surya Siddhanta 9 

 must be nearly v 19 21' 54", in our sphere, and 

 the longitude of Chitra, or the Spike, must of v course 

 be 199° 21' 54" from the vernal equinox; but since 

 it is difficult by that computation to arrange the 

 twenty-seven mansions and their several stars, as they 

 are delineated and enumerated in the RetnamaJa, I 

 must for the present suppose with M. Bailly, that the 

 Zodiac of the H'mdus had two origins, one constant 

 and the other variable ; and a farther inquiry into the 

 subject must be reserved for a season of retirement 

 and leisure. 



Vol, II. D d 



