TRIGONOMETRr r,f the BRJ'HMINS. icj; 



nerally received, aibout 1140 years before the Chriftlan aira''^.; 

 and HiPPARCHUs invented trigonometry 130 years before' the 

 fame aera. Even among the Greeks, therefore, an interval, cjt 

 at leaft 1000 years, elapfed from the firil obfervations in aftro- 

 nomy, to the invention of trigonometry ; and we have farely 

 no reafon to fuppofe, that the progrefs of knowledge has beeiA 

 more rapid in other countries. 



A THOUSAND years therefore miifl be added to the age of the 

 Surya Siddhanta, which we fuppofe here to be 2000 before 

 Christ, in order that we may reach the origin of the fciences 

 in Hindoftan, and this brings us very nearly to the celebrated 

 sera of the Caly Yug, to which M. Ba illy has already refen^ed 

 the confl:ru6tion of the aflronomical tables of that country. 

 And here, I cannot help obferving, in juftice to an author, of 

 whofe talents and genius the world has been fo unfeafonably 

 and fo cruelly deprived, that his opinions, with refpe(fl: to this 

 sera, appear to have been often mifunderftood. It cei"tainly 

 was not his intention to aiTert, that the Caly Yug was a re^l 

 sera, conlidered with refpecfl to the inythology of India, or even 

 that at fo remote a period the religion of Brahma had an exifl- 

 ence. The religious and civil inftitutions of Hindoftan, as they 

 now exift, may be all pofterior to this date, and their antiquity is 

 probably to be determined from principles that are not the ob- 

 jedls of aftronomical difcuiTion. All, I think, therefore, that 

 M. B A ILLY meant to afErm, and certainly all that is necefTary 

 to his fyftem, is, that the Caly Yug, or the year 3102 before our 

 aera, marks a point in the duration of the world, before which 



N the 



* The fphere of Chiron and Mus^us was conftrufled, according to Newton, 

 aTjout the year 936 before Christ, (Newton's Chron. chap. i. § 30). According 

 to the fyftem generally received, the ancient fphere, defcribed by EuEoxus, was 

 conftrufted about 1350 yc^rs before Christ, (Dr Playfair's Chronolcy, p. 37). 

 The medium is 1143. 



