SYSTEMS OF ASTRONOMY. 203 



there were about 1300 years, during which a great 

 number of copies of the Crishi Pay^asara might have 

 been written in diiferent parts oi India; yet no copy 

 has been ever yet seen, that does not contain the 

 passages alluded to. But independent of this fact, 

 (which is a strong proof of the whole being a mo- 

 dern forgery) the style of Para's a ra, according to 

 Sir William Joxes, resembles that of the P\'da, 

 whereas that of the Crishi Parasara has not the 

 most distant similitude ; and, according to the in- 

 formation which I received respecting it, was com- 

 posed by a pandit, not a great many years ago, at 

 Nuddea. We know to a certainty, that books have 

 been ushered into the world under different titles, 

 as if written by different people, and at different 

 periods immensely distant from each other, though 

 composed by one person only. Of this we have an 

 instance in the five Siddhdntas of Vara'ha. 



Tlie most candid part of the Hindus, indeed, will 

 acknowledge, that literary forgeries are thus fre- 

 quently committed; yet, at the same time, they en- 

 deavour to palliate it by saying, that men are under 

 the necessity of doing so, in consequence of the de- 

 pravity of the age we live in, which can relish no- 

 thing but what is supposed to bear the stamp or 

 appearance of antiquity. Hence, they say, learned 

 men are sometimes under the necessity of fathering 

 their works on the sages of antiquity, to obtain a 

 due respect and attention to their precepts, which, 

 otherwise, would not be attended to. And with 

 respect to modern names or expressions occurring in 

 such books, they are considered by the generality 

 of the Hindus, rather as indubitable proofs of the 

 gift of prophecy, which they firmly believe their an- 

 cient sages possessed, than as marks of forgery or 

 interpolation. Hence every species of literary im- 

 position may be committed without the smallest 

 danger of^^detection. S 



