102 ORIGIN AND DECLINE OF THE 



Whatever may be our opinion about these five 

 strangers, their names, and their country ; yet from 

 such an acknowledgment, and more particularly so 

 from Hindus, we may rest assured, that there is 

 some truth in it. The Hindus reckon three and twen- 

 ty famous astronomers, eighteen of whom were na- 

 tives of India ; and the five others, foreigners. These 

 they insist were natives of Arabia : and if so, they 

 were called Yavanacharyas, not because they were of 

 Grecian extraction: but because they were skilled in 

 the learning of the Greeks. Indeed their names, 

 or rather surnames, appear to be Arabic. Hallage, 

 and Cathan are names well known to Arabian' 

 writers: and Ejsn-Dissan is the name of a famous 

 impostor born at Edessus. Of Romaca or the 

 Mle'ch'ha'vata'ra, I took particular notice before, 

 and DisHAN is the name of Omar in several copies 

 of Raghu-na'tha's list; and it was he who first 

 cstablislied the era of Muhamed in the year of 

 Christ 638, and for this reason, they supposed him 

 also to be a great astronomer, as well as Romaca. 



There is another astronomer, called Cangha or 

 Can'gham, and Cangheh, whom the Hindus sup- 

 pose to have been a foreigner ; yet Muselman writers 

 say, that he was a Hindu, and perhaps he lived on the 

 western frontiers of India. By D'Herbelot he is 

 called Cancah-al-Hindi, Kenker, Kencar and 

 Cangha. He wrote a treatise on astrology, in Hindi 

 or rather Sanscrit, which was translated into Arabic, 

 and is said to be extant. He is perhaps the same 

 with Mangheh, who, according to D'Herbelot, 

 made so conspicuous a figure at the court of Harun- 

 al-Rashid, about the year 808, as a physician. The 

 famous Dandamis or Dama-Damis is unknown to 



