508; On the Use of the Siddhdntas [Oct'.' 



8th. But how is this lost knowledge to be revived ? I shall proceed 

 to explain. In every petty hamlet, not only in Malwa, Rajputana, and 

 Berar, but throughout India, you will find the joshi or astronomer 

 and astrologer: in towns you will find many, and in large cities, even 

 hundreds. It is their business to expound the panchang, or almanac, 

 to proclaim feasts and fasts, to fix the marriage-day, to tell the times 

 of sowing and reaping ; and forewarn their flocks of unlucky days : 

 their services in short are in constant requisition. They are conjointly 

 with the Patwaris, the village school-masters. The village joshi 

 can expound, but not work out the results given in his panchang ; that 

 high qualification belongs only to the city joshi. But it must not be 

 supposed, that the power to make a panchang, requires a knowledge of 

 even the first principles or elements of his science. The utmost of his 

 knowledge is 20 verses composing the Tithi Chintamani, and 100 

 verses of a little book called the Graha Laghava, with a power of using 

 the tables attached to them. By these few verses he can not only find 

 the places of the sun, moon,, and planets, but also work out eclipses. 

 But the operation may be called purely mechanical, or an effort of me- 

 mory. He can find the equatorial gnomonic shadow, from thence de- 

 duce the latitude (or acshansha) ; he can tell you the amount of chara 

 (or ascensional difference) ; the deshantara (or distance in longitude) ; 

 the sun's declination (or kranti) : but is wholly ignorant as to what things 

 in nature are expressed by these terms. The verses of the Graha 

 Laghava and Tithi Chintamani contain only abbreviated formulae for 

 calculations ; their wording is uncouth, and to the uninitiated, more un- 

 intelligible than an enigma. But though the ingenuity displayed in 

 thus abbreviating calculations is considerable, it has had the effect; 

 above noticed of superinducing an utter neglect of the Siddhantas, in 

 which the principles of the science are so fully, and in many respects so 

 rationally, explained. I have met and cross-questioned many hundreds 

 of joshis of late years ; but in this large number, have found only two 

 men who had a rational and full acquaintance with their own system. 

 One isVAUNA'TH, purohit of theMaharao ofKotah ; the other, Jinchand, 

 a jatti of great celebrity at Ajmere, and late of Jhulai in Jypur. 

 It is singular that neither of these are professed jyotishis ; the former 

 is expounder of the Pur an s, and the latter a Guru of the Jains. 

 Oujain, once so famous for its learning, has not now a single Siddhanti 

 jyotishi to support its great name. Indeed, so general and entire is the 

 ignorance of most of the joshis of India, that you will find many of 

 them engaged conjointly with the Puranic brahmans in expounding 

 the Purans, and insisting on the flatness of the earth, and its magnitude 

 of 50 crores of yojans. in superficial diameter, as explained in them. 



