1834.] in the work of Native Education. 515 



podes, &c. as the priests and princes of Europe could not be persuaded 

 to entertain four or even but three hundred years ago ; and for assert- 

 ing which, they were sending our earliest philosophers to the dungeon. 



19th. I take this opportunity of informing the public of the existence 

 of a native observatory at Kotah, or rather of a valuable collection of 

 astronomical apparatus, made by the late Maharao Uhmaid Singh; and 

 posited on one of the bastions of the citadel, fitted up for their recep- 

 tion. This apparatus consists of a very splendid and large armillary 

 sphere ; of the celestial and terrestial globes, dials, gnomons, and also 

 the Raj Yantra, or astrolabe, borrowed from the Musalmans about 250 

 or 300 years ago. The axes of the globes are fixed at an elevation of 

 24° 30', the supposed altitude of the North Polar Star at Kota. But 

 the latitudes given by the native astronomers, for all the principal 

 cities of Rajputana and Malwa, are under-rated by about 40'; that of 

 Kotah is, I believe, 25° 10'. The authority of Bha'skar A'cha'rya has led 

 to this error. In the 34th verse here quoted, the latitude of Oujain is 

 stated at T ' g of 360°, which would give just 22° 30'. This accordingly 

 is always stated by Native Astronomers as its latitude, and when I have 

 stated the result not only of Dr. Hunter's but also of the celebrated 

 Raja Jay Singh's more accurate observations (vide vol. vi. Asnitic Re- 

 searches) ; this verse has always been quoted to me to prove their 

 assertions. 



The Maharao's collection contains also a Tiiriya Yantra, or quadrant, 

 with a radius on one side of 30 digits, and linear rectangular intersec- 

 tions, rising from each digit, representing their whole canon of sines, 

 cosines, and versed sines adapted to this radius. From the Maha- 

 rao's astronomer I procured a copy of the Sanscrit treatise on 

 the quadrant, called the Yantra Chintamani, by Chakradhara, son of 

 Sri W am an a, containing directions for the construction and use of 

 the instrument, with the mathematical proofs and demonstrations of 

 all the many problems which may be worked by it. The reverse side 

 of this quadrant contains the signs and degrees of the ecliptic, and an 

 hour circle, with an index- hand by which you are enabled to tell at 

 once the lagna (or horoscope), that is, the exact point or star of the 

 ecliptic, rising in the horizon at any given time. 



I am unable at the present moment to fix the date of this work, but 

 I am inclined to think that it is not of a much more ancient date than 

 the astrolabe, and that it, like the astrolabe, has been borrowed from 

 the Musalmans. 



To the European public, translations of this and the other works 

 alluded to in this letter, would be highly curious and highly valuable. 

 To enable us to communicate our greater knowledge in the sciences 

 2 u 2 



