CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN INDIA. lOl 



I always conceived, that there was only one sage 

 of the name of Yavanacharya, who was consi- 

 dered as a foreigner; but having consulted lately 

 several learned astronomers, they informed me, that 

 there were no less than five who are considered as 

 foreigners. Their names are C'hatta, C'hutta, 

 Ro'maca, Hilla'ja, andDisHANA ; these, it is said, 

 were Ydvanas or Greeks. They certainly have very 

 little resemblance with any Greek proper names, 

 which we are acquainted with. Be this as it may, 

 they are all supposed to have returned to their na- 

 tive country, with an intention to end their days at 

 Mecca. From this circumstance, I SHspect that they 

 were Greeks from the famous university of Alexan- 

 dria, and Mecca was at a very early period a famous 

 place of worship. Guy Patin mentions a medal of 

 Antoninus, in which it is called Moca the sacred, 

 the inviolable, and using its own laws : and of this I 

 took notice in my essay on Semi ram is. The uni- 

 versity at Alexandria was in a flourishing state, from 

 the time of the Ptolemies to the fourth and fifth 

 centuries, and even till the time of Muhamed. 

 Hindus often visited that famous city ; for Ptolemy 

 conversed with several in the third century, who ap- 

 pear to have been well-informed men. 



These five foreign astronomers wrote many books, 

 but few remain ; and the reason, in ;the very words 

 of my learned friends, is, that the substance of these 

 treatises having been incorporated into more .recent 

 tracts, they were of course neglected, and afterwards 

 lost. This acknowledgment from Bydhmens surprised 

 me not a little ; but I find that astronomers in gene- 

 ral, and learned physicians, are much more tractable 

 and conversable than the other Hindus, 



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