504 On the use of the Siddhdntas 



VII. — On the Use of the Siddhdntas in the Work of Native Education. 



By Lancelot Wilkinson, Esq. Bomb. C. £., Ast. Res. at Bhopdl. 



May I request that you will be so kind as to give insertion in your 

 Journal to the accompanying few verses, extracted from the Goladhyaya, 

 or Treatise on the Globes, by Bhaskar A'charya, Hindu Astronomer, 

 who flourished about 800 years ago. 



In order to make the tenor of the arguments here used by Bhaskar 

 A'charya intelligible to readers generally, it may be proper in the first 

 place, briefly to notice the popular belief and tenets entertained with 

 regard to the earth and the system of the world, (for to these subjects 

 my remarks will be confined,) by the two grand classes of Hindus here, 

 so boldly and ably exposed by this celebrated Astronomer. 



The Hindus of India seem to have been at the time when he 

 wrote, as at the present day, divided into three grand classes; viz. 1st, 

 the Jains or Bauddhas, followers of the Bauddha Sutras ; 2nd, the 

 followers of the Brahmanical or Puranic system ; and 3rd, the jyotishis 

 or followers of the Siddhantas or Astronomical system. 



The Jains at that time maintained, and still maintain, that the earth 

 is a flat plane of immense extent ; that the central portion of it, called 

 Jambudwip, is surrounded by innumerable seas and islands, which 

 encompass it in the form of belts ; that the earth now is, and has been, 

 since its first creation, falling downwards in space ; that there are two 

 suns, two moons, and two sets of corresponding planets and constella- 

 tions ; viz. 1st, for the use of that part of the earth lying to the north 

 of the mountain Meru, believed to be in the centre of Jambudwip ; and 

 the other for the use of the southern half of the world. The moon 

 they believe to be above the sun, but only 80 yojans* ; Mercu- 

 ry, four yojans beyond the moon ; and Venus, to be three yojans 

 beyond Mercury, The Jain banyas, scattered through the cities 

 and towns of Rajputana, Malwa, Guzerat, and the north-west pro- 

 vinces of Hindusthan, profess this belief. The opulent Marwari 

 merchants and bankers, whom we find established at the three presi- 

 dencies, and in all the large cities of India, are also chiefly of this per- 

 suasion. Their Gurus are the Jattis ; the Sarangis are also a stricter 



sect of Jains. 



2nd. The followers of the Purans believe in a system very little 

 different from that of the Jains. They also maintain that the earth 

 is a circular plane, having the golden mountain Meru in its centre ; 

 that it is 50 crores of yojans in superficial diameter ; that Jambu- 

 dwip (which immediately surrounds Meru, and which we inhabit) is 



* A yojan is four c6s. 



