1862.] A Letter from Archdeacon Pratt. 49 



A Letter from Archdeacon Pratt on Colebrooke's determination 

 of the date of the Vedas. 



Calcutta, March 2\st, 1862. 



My dear Professor Cowell, — In reply to your question, How 

 did Colebrooke deduce the age of the Vedas from the passage which 

 he quotes from the Jyotish or Vedic Calendar in his Essays (vol. i. 

 p. 110) ? I beg to send j^ou the following remarks. 



In that passage it is stated that the Winter Solstice was, at the 

 time the Vedas were written, at the beginning of S'ravishtha or Dba- 

 nishtha, and the Summer Solstice at the middle of As'lesha. 



Now the Hindoos divided the Zodiac into 27 equal parts called 

 Lunar Mansions, of '13° 20' each. Their names are 

 3. As'wini 10. Magna 19. Miila 



2. Bharani 31. P. Phalguni 20. P. A'shadha 



3. Krittika 32. U. Phalguni 21. U. A'shadha 



4. Rohini 13. Hasta 22. S'ravana 



5. Mrigas'iras 34. Chitra, 23. Dhanishtha 



6. A'rdra 35. Swati 24. S'atabhisha 



7. Punarvasu 36. Vis'akha, 25. P. Bhadrapada 



8. Pushya 17. Anuradha 26. U. Bhadrapada 



9. As'lesha 18. Jyeshtha 27. Bevati. 



The position of these Lunar Mansions among the stars is deter- 

 mined by the stars themselves and not by the sun, and is therefore 

 unaffected by the precession of the equinoxes. If, therefore, we can 

 determine their position at any one epoch, we know their position for 

 all time. The Hindoo books furnish us with the requisite informa- 

 tion. In the translation of the Surya Siddhanta published in the 

 Bibliotheca Indica, Chap. VIII. p. 62, you will find that the conspi- 

 cuous star Begulus, or a Leonis, is placed by the Hindoo Astro- 

 nomers at 4 signs, 9 degrees from the beginning of these Lunar Man- 

 sions (or Asterisms, as they are there called). As 4 signs equal one- 

 third of the whole zodiac, they equal 9 lunar mansions. Hence the 

 position of Begulus is 9° in Magha the 10th lunar mansion. 



But by the Jyotish, the Summer Solstice was in the middle of 

 As'lesha.;, the 9th lunar mansion, at the epoch of the Vedas : there- 

 fore Begulus was half a lunar mansion + 9°, that is, 15° 40', east of 

 the Summer Solstice at that time. 



H 



