1867.] Proceedings oj the Asiatic Society. 105 



that place being the chief market for the grass, which is brought 

 thither from the interior, and often from a great distance. 

 The receipt of the following communications was announced. 



9. From C. F. Amery, Esq., " On the origin of races." 



10. From Babu Pratap Chandra Ghoshe, B. A. " On the Adjust- 

 ment of the Hindu Calendar." 



11. From Dr. J. B. Davies, the Ethnology of India. 



At the request of the President, Babu Pratap Chandra read his 

 paper, of which the following is an abstract. 



The Hindu Civil year is a practical modification of the Hindu 

 astronomical year. The astronomical year is determined by the 

 period between two consecutive conjunctions of the sun with Acwini 

 ({3 Arietis) the first asterism of the Constellation Aries. In deter- 

 mining the civil year we have only to reject the fractions of a day : 

 thus, if the sun enter the first point of Aries at or after midnight of 

 the 12th April, a day is to be added to the expiring year \ or, if 

 the sun enter on the morning of the 12th, we reject the day from the 

 year. 



The Hindu calendars placing the conjunction of the sun on the 

 13th April of the current year begin the year on that day. By a 

 reference to European Tables and the solution of a few simple spherical 

 triangles it is shown that the ecliptic conjunction of the sun with /3 

 Arietis happens in the present day between the 21st and 22nd April. 

 The initial moment of the year was placed in former times on the vernal 

 equinox, when the sign and the constellation Aries coincided. Owing 

 to the retrograde motion of the equinoxes and to the neglect of Hindu 

 astronomers in correcting the time of the first moment of the year, 

 it has slowly advanced from the equinox at the rate of one day in 72 

 years. 



The first moment of the Hindu year retains in its name the idea 

 of its coincidence with the vernal equinox and the first moment of the 

 ecliptic conjunction of the sun with the first point of Aries, a pheno- 

 menon that does not exist. 



The vernal equinox is removed from the first of Vaicakha by a 

 period of about 22 days, and the moment of ecliptic conjunction of the 

 sun with (3 Arietis is about 7 days in advance of the date. The 

 paper is an attempt towards so adjusting the Hindu Calendar as will 



