ASTRONOMT of the BRAHMINS. 137 



down, rendered the principles, on which they were founded, ex- 

 tremely obfcure ; and it required a commentator, as converfant 

 with agronomical calculation as the celebrated Cassini, to ex- 

 plain the meaning of this curious fragment. After that pe- 

 riod, two other fets of aftronomical tables were fent to Paris, 

 by the miffionaries in Hindostan ; but they remained un- 

 noticed, till the return of M. le Gentil from India, where he 

 had been to obferve the tranfit of Venus in 1769. 1 his Aca- 

 demician employed himfelf, during the long ftay, which his 

 zeal for fcience induced him to make in that country, in ac- 

 quiring a knowledge of the Indian aftronomy. The Brahmins 

 thought they faw, in the bufinefs of an Aftronomer, the marks 

 of a Cajl, that had fome affinity to their own, and began to 

 converfe with M. le Gentil, more familiarly than with other 

 ftrangers. A learned Brahmin of Tirvalore, having made a 

 vifit to the French Aftronomer, inftrucled him in the methods, 

 which he ufed for calculating eclipfes of the fun and moon, and 

 communicated to him the tables and rules, that are publifhed 

 in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, for 1772. Since 

 that time, the ingenious and eloquent author of the tiiftory of 

 Aftronomy, has dedicated an entire volume to the explanation, 

 and comparifon of thefe different tables, where he has deduced, 

 from them, many interefting conclufions *. The fubject indeed 

 merited his attention ; for the Indian aftronomy has all the pre- 

 cifion neceffary for refolving the great queftions, with refpecl to 

 its own origin and antiquity, and is by no means among the 

 number of thofe imperfect fragments of ancient knowledge, 

 which can lead no farther than conjecture, and which an Aftro- 

 nomer would gladly refign to the learned refearches of the An- 

 tiquary, or the Mythologift. 



4. It is from thefe fources, and chiefly from the elaborate 

 inveftigations of the laft mentioned work, that I have felected 



Vol. II. / the 



* Trait6 de l'Aftronomie Indienne et Orientale, par M. Bail ly. Paris, 1787. 



