324 ON THE INDIAN, &C. 



that they had not: I incline to the contraty opinion. 

 The co-incidence appears to me too exact, in most in- 

 stances, to be the eifect of chance ; in others, the 

 differences are only such, as to authorize the remark, 

 that the nation, which borrowed from the other, has 

 not copied with servility. 1 apprehend, that it must 

 have been the Arabs wiio adopted (with slight varia- 

 tions) a division of the Zodiack familiar to the Hindus. 

 This, at least, seems to be more probable than the 

 supposition, that the Indians received their system from 

 the Arabians : we know, that the Hindus have pre- 

 served the memory of a former situation of the Colures, 

 compared to constellations, which mark divisions of 

 the Zodiack in their astronomy; but no similar trace 

 remains of the use of the lunar mansions, as divisions of 

 the Zodiack, among the Arabs, in so very remote 

 times. 



It will be found, Ihat I differ much from Sir Wil- 

 liam Jones in regard to the stars constituting the 

 asterisms of Indian astronomy. On tins, it may be 

 sufficient to remind the reader, that Sir William 

 Jones stated only a conjecture founded on a considera- 

 tion of the figure of the nacshatra and the number of 

 its stars, compared with those actually situated near the 

 division of the ecliptick, to which the nacshatra £»ivcs 

 name. He was not apprized, that the Hindus them- 

 selves place some of these constellations far out of the 

 limits of tiie Zodiack. 



I SHALL examine the several nacshatras and lunar 

 mansions in their order ; previously quoting frorti the 

 Hindu astronomers, the positions assigned to the prin- 

 cipal star, termed the yogatard. This, according to 

 Brahmegupta, (as cited by Lacshmida'sa in his 

 comiiicntary on the S'lr'jmarfi,) or according to the" 

 Brnhmes'uicfhdnla (citod by Bhu'jd'h ara;, is the 

 bnghtest star of each cluster. But the Suryas'idd'hdnta 

 specifics the relativesitualion of the Yogaldrd in respect 



