518 On the Use of the Siddhdntas [Oct. 



Verse 30th. If this blessed earth were like tbe surface of a looking glass an ex- 

 tended plane, why should not the sun, even when removed to a distance from the 

 earth, as at night, (the Pur£ns assert that it revolves in a horizontal circle, as it 

 does when seen from the poles,) still be visible in every part of its revolution to 

 men, as well as to the gods ? 



Verse 31st. If (the intervention of) Meru causes night, why is not this moun- 

 tain, wben between us and the sun, visibly developed to our eyes ? Let it be 

 granted that this Meru is, as is stated in the Purans, situated to the north, pray 

 tell me why should the sun ever rise at all in the south, as it does when it hai 

 southern declination ? 



Verse 32nd. The fact is, that one hundredth part of the circumference of the 

 earth is or may be assumed to be a plane. The earth is an excessively large body; 

 a man is immeasurably smaller ; and hence it is, that to him, as he stands on its 

 surface, the whole earth has the appearance of being a plane. 



'g^t^KrasrxrTfr^^T im fa^w v?<§'- sirm! n ^ 11 



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Verse 33rd. The measurement of the circumference of the earth is easily and 

 correctly ascertained by the simple rule of proportion, in this way — there is a town 

 situated to the south ; you are residing in another lying due north of it ; ascer- 

 tain the distance between the two, and the difference of their latitudes ; then say 

 if the number of degrees (difference of latitudes) give this distance, what will the 

 whole circumference of 360 degrees give ? 



Verse 34th. Oujain, for instance, is ascertained by calculation to be distance 

 from the equator, where there is no latitude, yL part of the whole circumference 

 of the earth — this distance multiplied by 16, will be the measurement of the cir- 

 cumference of the earth : what reason then is there in asserting such an immense 

 magnitude of the earth ? 



Verse 35th. By assuming as true this circumference thus ascertained, the cal- 

 culations of the position of the moon's cusps, the conjunctions of the planets, 

 eclipses, the times of the rising and setting of the planets, and the lengths of the 

 shadows of the gnomon, and the like, correspond with the observed facts. By 

 assuming any other circumference, no such correspondence is found to exist. 

 The truth of the above-mentioned measurement of the earth is thus plainly esta- 

 blished by the law of " rule and exception" set forth in the Nyaya Suastri. 



