ASTRONOMY of the BRAHMINS. 153 



modern aflronomy, if not perfectly accurate, at leaft fo exact 

 as to reprefent the celeftial motions, without any fenfible error, 

 even for a period more remote than the Calyougham ', and this, 

 confidering the multitude of obfervations on which our aftro- 

 nomy is founded, the great antiquity of fome of thofe obfer- 

 vations, and the extreme accuracy of the reft, together with 

 the amflance derived from the theory of phyfical caufes, may 

 furely be afTumed as a very reafonable poftulatum. We begin 

 with the examination of the mean motions. 



22. The Brahmins place the beginning of their moveable 

 zodiac, at the time of their epoch, 54 ° before the vernal equi- 

 nox, or in the longitude of io x , 6°, according to our method 

 of reckoning. Now, M. le Gentil brought with him a deli- 

 neation of the Indian zodiac, from which the places of the 

 ftars in it may be afcertained with tolerable exaclnefs *. In 

 particular, it appears, that Aldebaran, or the firft ftar of Tau- 

 rus, is placed in the laft degree of the fourth conftellation, or 

 53 , 20', diftant from the beginning of the zodiac. Alde- 

 baran was therefore 40' before the point of the vernal equinox, 

 according to the Indian aftronomy,inthe year 3 102 beforeCHRiST. 

 But the fame liar, by the belt modern obfervations, was, in the year 

 1750, in longitude, 2 s , 6°, 17', 47" ; and had it gone forward, 

 according to the prefent rate of the preceffion of the equinoxes, 

 50" j annually, it muft have been, at the era of the Calyougham, 

 i°, 32', before the equinox. But this refult is to be corrected, 

 in confequence of the inequality in the preceffion, difcovered 

 by M. de la Grange f, by the addition of i°, 45', 22", to 

 the longitude of Aldebaran, which gives the longitude of that 

 ftar 13' from the vernal equinox, at the. time of the Calyoug- 

 ham, agreeing, within 5$, with the determination of the In- 

 dian aftronomy %. 

 Vol. II. u This 



* Mem. Acad. Scien. 1772, II. P. 214. Aft. Ind. p. 129, 

 f Mem. Acad, de Berlin, 1782, p. 287. Aft. Ind. p. 144. 

 1 Aft. Ind. p. 130. 



