£.22 O N T HE T.ND I AH :C.Y C L=E 



rence to the winter folflice, that the Hindu year of Vicrama'ditya has to 

 -the vernal equinox. The commentator on the SuryaSiddhdnta exprefsly fays , 

 that the authors of the books generally termed Sanbitds accounted the Diva 

 day to begin in the beginning of the lun's northern road : now, the .Diva 

 day is the folar year ; and the fun's northern road begins in the winter fol- 

 iticej and hence it fhould feero, that fome of thofe authors began the folar 

 year exactly as the Chinefe do at this time. This might moreover have been 

 the cuftom in Para's ara's time; for the phenomenon, which is faid to 

 -mark the beginning of the Vrihajpati cycle of fixty, refers; to the beginning 

 3©f Dhanijht'ha, which is precifely that point of the ediptick, through which 

 |the folftice paffed when he wrote. 



There are, beiide thefe apparent changes made by the Hindus in their 

 mode of commencing the year, abundant inftances of alterations and cor- 

 rections in their aftronomy, an inquiry into which might,' by- fixing certain 

 chronological data, throw confiderable light on their hiftoryj and it is 

 fcarcely necefTary to obferve, with how much more advantage an inveftiga- 

 tion of this kind would be made with the affiftance of fuch agronomical 

 books, written in the Diva Nagari character, as might eafily be had from 

 Haidarabad and Puna, if the Etigli/JiRcMents there would intereft them- 

 felves to procure them. Copies of the agronomical rules, followed at 

 Bombay and in Gujarat^ might alfo prove of ufe, if Niebuhr* was not 

 mifinformed, who fays the natives there begin the year with the month of 

 CarttCt which has an evident reference to the autumnal epuinox, and may 

 perhaps be computed by the ' Arjha Siddhdnta mentioned in Vol. I. p. 261, 

 . as accounting the day to begin at funfet $ for funfet with the Divas is the 



* " Le nouvel ann chez les Indiens a Guzerat, que ceux de Bombay fuivent auffi, vient du xnois 

 Kartigt mais a Scindi on le celebre au mois Afar** Totr.. z, p. 21. 



