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jLiia 



THE LUNAR YEAR 



OF TBI 



H I N D U $ 



By the PRESIDENT. 



TTAVING lately met by accident with a wonderfully curious tracl ©f the 

 karned and celebrated Raghunandana, containinga full account of 

 all the rites and ceremonies in the lunar year, I twice perufed it with eager* 

 nefs, and prefcnt the fociety with acorrecl: outline of it, in the form of a Ca- 

 lendar illuftrated with flic. ft notes: the many paffages quoted in it from the 

 Vedas, the Puranas, the Sdftras of law and aftronomy, the Calpa, or facred 

 ritual, and other works of immemorial antiquity and reputed holinefs, would 

 be thought highly inter, fling by fuch as take pleafure in refearches concern- 

 ing the Hindus; but a tranflation of them all would fill a con fid crab le vo- 

 lume, and fuch only are exhibited as appeared mod diftinguifhed for ele- 

 gance or novelty. The lunar year of ihree h jndred and fixry days is apparent- 

 ly more ancient in India than the folar, and began, as we may infer from a 

 verfe in the Matfya, with the month A'fivin, fo called becaufe the moon was 

 at the full, when that name was impofed, in the fir ft lunar ftation of the 

 Hindu ecliptick, the origin of which, being diametrically oppofite to the 

 bright fur Chitia, maybe afecrtained in our fphere with exactne&j but, 



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