19^ 0\ THE HINDU » 



" Surya SiddJtanta^ involves points of tlie utmost 

 "importance; no less, indeed, than whether the 

 " whole of the Sanscrit literature shall ])e consider- 

 " ed as the spurious production of a recent age, or 

 " genuine monuments of primeval times. We shall 

 " endeavour to do justice to his formidable attack 

 *•' on the Indian gymnosophists. 



" The Surya Siddhanta is generally helieved to be 

 " the most ancient astronomical treatise the Hindus 

 *'have; and, according to their notions, v/as re- 

 "■ ceived by divine revelation 2,164,89.9 years ago. 

 " But the mean result of calculations, from ten dif- 

 " ferent data afforded by that work, and on its 

 " own principles of assmning the position of the 

 *' heavenly bodies to have been accurately observed 

 " at the time it was written, gives onl}' 731 for the 

 " date of its composition, or the year of our Lord 

 " 1068. But, independent of all calculations, an 

 " astronomical work, entitled the Bhasu-otee^ was 

 '' composed 700 years ago by Sotoxund, who, ac- 

 " cording to Hindu accounts, was a pupil of Va- 

 " ra'ha Mi h IRA. The commentary on this trea- 

 '' tise declares, that Vara'ma was the author of the 

 " Surya Siddhanta. Therefore any Hi)idu work, in 

 " which the name of Vara'ha is mentioned, must 

 " evidently be modern, and this circumstance alone 

 *' totally destroys the pretended antiquity of many 

 •' of the Purans and other books, which, through 

 " the artifices of the Brdhminical tribe, have been 

 '' hitherto deemed the most ancient in existence. 

 ** Now all the other astronomical works Mr. Be\t- 

 " LEY has seen, adopt the S3'stem in the Surya 

 ^'Siddhanta by Vara'ha*. 



* This must he a misrepresentation of the Reviewer, see page 54^, 

 547, of VoJ. ^'I. v.liere I Kavc mentioned and dcbcribed othef 

 s\btems. J. B. 



