ASTRONOMY of the BRAHMINS. 151 



them perfectly in many of their elements. They fuppofe the 

 fame length of the year, the fame mean motions, and the fame 

 inequalities of the fun and moon, and they are adapted nearly 

 to the fame meridian *. But a circumftance in which they 

 feem to differ materially from the reft is, the antiquity of the 

 epoch from which they take their date, the year 3102 before the 

 Chriftian era. We muft, therefore, enquire, whether this epoch 

 is real or fictitious, that is, whether it has been determined by 

 actual obfervation, or has been calculated from the modern 

 epochs of the other tables. For it may naturally be fuppofed, 

 that the Brahmins, having made obfervations in later times, or 

 having borrowed from the aflronomical knowledge of other 

 nations, have imagined to themfelves a fictitious epoch, coinci- 

 ciding with the celebrated era of the Calyougham, to which, 



through 



* The accuracy of the geography of the Hindoos, \s in no proportion to that of their 

 aftronomy, and, therefore, it is impoffible that the identity of the. meridians of 

 their tables can be fully eftablifhed. All that can be faid, with certainty, is, that the dif- 

 ference between the meridians of the tables of Tirvalore and Siam is, at moll, but in- 

 considerable, and may be only apparent, arifmg from an error in computing the difference 

 cf longitude between thefe places. The tables of Tirvalore are for Long. 79 , 42' ; thofe 

 of Siam for 82°, 34' ; the difference is 2° , $2, not more than may be afcribed to an error 

 purely geographical. 



As to the tables of Chrifnabouram, they contain a reduction, by which it appears, 

 that the place where they are now ufed is 45' of a degree ealt of the meridian for which 

 they were originally conftrudted. This makes the latter meridian agree tolerably with that 

 of Cape Comorin, which is in Long. 77 , 32', 30', and about half a degree weft of Chrifna- 

 bouram. But this conclufion is uncertain; becaufe, as M. Bailly has remarked, the 

 tables fent from Chrifnabouram, and underftood by Father du Champ to belong to that 

 place, are not adapted to the latitude of it, but to one confiderably greater, as appears 

 from their rale for afcertaining the length of the day. (Aft. Ind. p. ^^.) 



The characters, too, by which the Brahmins diftinguifh their firft meridian, are not 

 perfectly confiftent with one another. Sometimes it is defcribed as biJecling Ceylon ; and at 

 other times, as touching it on the weft fide, or even as being as far weft as Cape Comorin. 

 Lanka, which is faid to be a point in it, is underftood, by Fath. du Champ, to be Ceylon. 

 M. Bailly thinks that it is the lake Lanka, the fource of the Gogra, placed by M. Ren- 

 nel, as well as the middle of Ceylon, in Long. 8o°, 42' ; but, from a Hindoo map, in 

 the Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 25. Lanka appears to be an ifland which marks the 

 interfeftion of the firft meridian of the map, nearly that of Cape Comorin. with the equa- 

 tor ; and is probably one of the Maldivy iflands. See alfo a note in the Ayeen Akbery,. 

 ibid. p. 36. 



