ASTRONOMY of the BRAHMINS. 183 



derived it from the aftronomers of the weft. Yov,firJl, It is ap- 

 plied by them to all the heavenly bodies, that is, to the fun and 

 moon, as well as the planets. With Ptolemy, and with all 

 thofe who founded their fy (terns on his, it extended only to the 

 latter, infomuch that Kepler's great reformation in aftro- 

 nomy, the difcovery of the elliptic orbits, began from his 

 proving, that the hypothefis of the equant was as neceffary to 

 be introduced for the fake of the fun's orbit, as for thofe of 

 the planets, and that the eccentricity in both cafes, mud be 

 bifected. It is, therefore, on a principle no way different from 

 this of Kepler, that the tables of the fun's motion are com- 

 puted in the Indian aftronomy, though it mull be allowed, that 

 the method of ufing them is not perfectly confiftent with this 

 idea of their conftruction. 



2dly, The ufe made of the anomaly of the eccentric in thefe 

 tables, as the argument of the equation of the centre, is alto- 

 gether peculiar to the Indian aftronomy. Ptolemy's ta- 

 bles of that equation for the planets, though they proceed on 

 the fame hypothefis, are arranged in a manner entirely diffe- 

 rent, and have for their argument the mean anomaly. The 

 angle which we call the anomaly of the eccentric, and which is 

 of fo much ufe in the Indian tables, is not employed at all in 

 the conftruclion of his *, nor, I believe, in thofe of any other 

 aftronomer till the time of Kepler ; and even by Kepler it 

 was not made the argument of the equation to the centre. The 

 method, explained above, of converting the mean anomaly into 

 that of the eccentric, and confequently into the argument of 

 the equation, is another peculiarity, and though fimple and 

 ingenious, has not the accuracy fuited to the genius of the 

 Greek aftronomy, which never admitted even of the beft ap- 

 proximation, when a rigorous folution could be found ; and, 

 on the whole, if the refemblance of thefe two fyftems, even 

 with all the exceptions that have been ftated, muft (till be afcribed 



to 



* Almageft. lib. XI. cap. 9. & 10, 



