JStRONOMT of the BRAHMINS. 141 



vifion is purely ideal, and is intended merely for the purpofe 

 of, calculation. The names and emblems by which thefe figns 

 are expreiTt d, are nearly the fame as with us * ; and as there is 

 nothing in the nature of things to have determined this coin- 

 cidence, it rauft, like the arrangement of the days of the 

 week, be the refult of fome ancient and unknown communi- 

 cation. 



8. That motion by which the fixed ftars all appear to move 

 eaftward, and continually to increafe their diftance from the 

 place, that the fun occupies at the vernal equinox, is known to 

 the Brahmins, and enters into the compofition of all their ta- 

 bles "f . They compute this motion to be at the rate of 54" a- 

 year ; fo that their annus magnus, or the time in which the fixed 

 ftars complete an entire revolution, is 24,000 years. This mo- 

 tion is too quick by fomewhat lefs than 4" a-year ; an error 

 that will not be thought great, when it is confidered, that 

 Ptolemy committed one of 14", in determining the fame 

 quantity* 



Another circumftance, which is common to all the tables, 

 and, at the fame time, peculiar to the Indian aftronomy, is, 

 that they exprefs the longitude of the fun and moon, by their 

 diftance from the beginning of the moveable zodiac, and not, 

 as is ufual with us, by their diftance from the point of 

 the vernal equinox. The longitude is reckoned in figns of 

 30 °, as already mentioned, and each degree is fubdivided into 

 6o', &c. In the divifion of time, their arithmetic is purely 

 fexagefimal : They divide the day into 60 hours, the hour into 

 60 minutes, &V. ; fo that their hour is 24 of our minutes, 

 their minute 24 of our feconds, and fo on. 



9, Thesi 



* Mem. Acad, des Scien. 1772. II. P. 200. The zodiac they call fodimandalam y car 

 the circle of ftars. 



■j- Ibid. 194. Aft. Indienne, p. 43, Sec. 



