1834.] in the work of Native Education. 505 



one lakh of yojans in width ; that this dwip is surrounded by a sea 

 of salt-water, also one lakh of yojans in width ; that this salt sea is 

 encompassed by a second dwip of two lakhs of yojans in breadth, and 

 it again by a sea of sugar-cane juice of the same width ; that five 

 other belts of alternate islands and seas (each island being of double 

 the width of its predecessor, with a sea of the same width as its adja- 

 cent island), succeed each other in regular order. The seas are of 

 fermented liquor, ghi, milk, dhaf, and sweet-water. The Purans 

 assert, that the earth is not falling in space as the Jains maintain, but 

 is supported by the great serpent Shesha. Such at last is the assertion 

 of the Bhagavata, the most popular of the Purans. In others, the task 

 of supporting the earth is allotted to the tortoise, or to the boar Varaha. 

 The Purans maintain that there is but one moon and one sun ; that 

 the moon however is at a distance from the earth double of that of 

 the sun ; that the moon was churned out of the ocean ; and is of 

 nectar ; that the sun and moon and constellations revolve horizontally 

 over the plane of the earth, appearing to set when they go behind 

 Meni, and to rise when they emerge from behind that mountain ; that 

 eclipses are formed by the monsters Rahu and Ketu laying hold of the 

 sun or moon, against whom, as well as against all the other deities of 

 heaven, they bear implacable enmity. Vyasji is believed to be the 

 author of all the Purans ; he was probably the compiler of them ; he is 

 revered as divinely inspired. Shankar A'charya, who flourished about 

 400 or 500 years ago, distinguished himself as a supporter of this system 

 and as an enemy and persecutor of the Jains ; he was also a reformer; 

 but his reforms were confined to morals, and to religious institutions 

 and sacraments. The followers of the Purans are by far the most 

 numerous of the three classes. The brahmans, generally the rajputs, 

 kaiths, and indeed the mass of the population throughout India, all 

 belong to this class. 



3rd. The jyotishis or followers of the Siddhantas believe in a sys- 

 tem widely differing from both of these. Their system is, with the 

 exception of a few inconsiderable differences, that of Ptolemy. They 

 teach the true shape and size of the earth, and the true theory of 

 eclipses. The earth they place in the centre of the universe, around 

 which revolve in order, as taught by Ptolemy, the moon, Mercury, 

 Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The irregularities in the 

 motions of the sun and moon they account for by supposing them to 

 move, as also did Ptolemy, in epicycles, whose centres revolve in their 

 circular orbits. The authors of the Siddhantas, and especially Bhaskar 

 A'charya, the author of the most recent and most popular Siddhanta, 

 called the " Siddhanta Siromani," have spared no pains to expose and 



2 T 



