542 Analysis of the Purdnas. [Dec. 



the Mat si/ a which assigns twice that amount or 24,000 Slokas to the 

 Vdyu Parana. 



A number of chapters then follow, appropriated to Pauranic geo- 

 graphy, the description of mount Meru and the residence of the gods, 

 the seven continents and the divisions of the universe above and below 

 the earth ; considerable portions of these chapters have been translated 

 by the late Colonel Wilford. The Pauranic system is here very fully, 

 and upon the whole, distinctly detailed. The chief difficulties that 

 occur being perhaps rather the fault of the transcript than of the ori- 

 ginal work. 



The same remark applies to the chapters that follow, in which the as- 

 tronomy of the Purdnas is detailed with the same minuteness as the geo- 

 graphy: on these two topics, therefore, the Vdyu Purdna is a valuable au- 

 thority. 



Some of this astronomy is rather unusual, the relative sizes and situa- 

 tions of the planets, their cars, their steeds, and other appurtenances, and 

 their revolving round Dhruva or the pole, to which they are attached by 

 cords of air, as the potter's wheel turns on its pivot, are in all the ordinary 

 strain ; but we have a statement regarding the length of a Yuga, and the 

 commencement of the solar year, which are not conformable to received 

 notions, or the actual state of things. 



It is said, for instance, that a Yuga consists of five years ; what kind 

 of Yuga is intended is not specified. Bentley (A. R. VIII. 227), cites 

 the Graha Manjari for a Mahd Yuga of five years, and in his last 

 work on the ancient astronomy of the Hindus he refers the construction 

 of a cycle of five years to what he considers, the first period of Hindu 

 astronomy, or from B. C. 1181 to 961. 



This cycle it is said begins when the sun is in Sravana, and it is 

 again stated that Sravana is the first of the Nakshatras, and Magha 

 the first of the months ; according to the authority just cited.such could 

 have been the case only between the years 204 B. C. and A. D. 44. 

 when the year began with the month Magha. If Mr. Bentley is correct, 

 this portion of the Purdna at least, is of considerable antiquity what- 

 ever may be the date of the rest (AncientHindu Astronomy, p. 271.) Mr. 

 Bentley also adds that, the mode of computation by which the com- 

 mencement of the year was made to begin with a different month and 

 asterism, was entirely laid aside by the Hindu astronomers subsequent 

 to A. D. 538. 



The same chapter contains a description of the Sisumard, which is 

 interpreted by Mr. Davis to typify the celestial sphere (A.R. II. 402.) 

 The description is to a similar effect with that which he has translated 



