514 On the Use of the Siddhdntas [Oct. 



works here set forth, and give to the native public, translations in 

 the vernacular languages, with such corrections, improvements, 

 and additions, as will place the Hindus at once in possession 

 of all the recent discoveries of Europeans. At no place have more 

 elementary scientific works been translated and printed than at Bom- 

 bay, chiefly under the superintendence of the late zealous and accom- 

 plished Secretary to the Bombay Education Society, Major George 

 Jervis of the Engineers ; but the usefulness of his labours is much de- 

 tracted from, by his omission to make use of the terms, and mathema- 

 tical phraseology, perfectly well understood by scientific Hindus, if not 

 by brahmans generally, and by substituting others of his own coining, 

 which must be wholly unknown to them. The term Sparsha Rekha, 

 (for the tangent,) and several others for lines, &c, which the Hindus 

 have never used or known, are in themselves highly appropriate and 

 unobjectionable. 



18th. I now beg to draw your particular attention to the original 

 extracts, which appear to me most curious, and calculated to prove to 

 others as it has done to myself, most valuable and useful. 



In the first three verses Bha'skar A cha'rya, after statingthe earth to 

 be a sphere poised in space, exposes in a most rational and forcible man- 

 ner, the Puranic doctrine of its being supported by the grand serpent 

 Shesha, or any material thing. 



In the 24th and 25th verses, our author shews, that he had got a 

 glimpse of the. true nature of attraction and gravity ; he then proceeds 

 in the 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th verses, to expose in his own way (not 

 altogether philosophical), the Jain articles of belief, that the earth is 

 perpetually falling in space, and that there are two suns, two moons, 

 and two sets of constellations. 



In the 30th, 31st, and 32nd verses, by a very rational argument, the 

 modern Brahmanical belief of the earth's flatness is exploded ; he ridi- 

 cules the idea of their immense mountain of gold, called Meru, and 

 accounts for the apparent flatness of the earth. 



In the 33rd, 34th, and 35th verses, he gives succinct general directions 

 for the measurement of an arc of the meridian, and thence deduces the 

 real magnitude of the earth, deriding the absurdity of the dimensions 

 alleged in the Purans. 



In the 36th verse, he shews such a limited knowledge of geography, 

 as would entail a whipping on any boy of eight years of age in Europe ; 

 but in the three last verses, he shews that he, 800 years ago, had such 

 a perfect knowledge and conviction of the consequences resulting from 

 admitting the spherical form of the earth, viz. of the existence of anti- 



