1836.] 



Proceedings of Societies. 



175 



stead of following that of noting by the letters of the alphabet. The mode of 

 noting by ten numerals, which consists in giving the figures a particular value or 

 a particular power, according to the relative position in which they are placed, is 

 an invention of the greatest importance from its simplicity and its ingenuity^ and 

 from the effect which it has had in promoting and facilitating the progress of sci- 

 ence. It was known to the Hindus, though unknown to the Greeks and Romans, 

 who always used the letters of the alphabet, instead of numerals, in their calcula- 

 tions; and the notation by numerals was first introduced into Europe by the 

 Arabs,when they conquered Spain in the seventh and eighth centuries, and though 

 at present so universally used, was at first confined to scientific persons, and not 

 introduced into the common transactions of life until two or three centuries after- 

 wards. This knowledge of numerals, for which Europeans are indebted to the 

 Hindus of India, assisted Napier in his discovery of logarithms ; Kepler, in his 

 calculations of the orbits of the planets; Sir Isaac Newton, in all the sublime 

 calculations which he made with respect to the system of the universe ; and 

 La Place, in the celebrated discoveries which he made in very recent times. It 

 is generally observed, that where a people have made great progress in arithmetic, 

 they have also made great progress in other branches of science, arithmetic being 

 the great engine through which such progress is made. For some \ears the world 

 was not aware of the great progress which the Hindus had made in other 

 branches of science, although they were perfectly aware of the progress they had 

 made in arithmetic. Laloubere, a man of great research, who was sent by 

 Louis XIV. on a mission to Siam, was the first person who in modern days 

 brought to Europe any document shewing the nature of the Hindu astronomical 

 tables. He brought to France a copy of the Siamese table, which was a subject 

 of a good deal of consideration to the astronomer Casini. The French subse- 

 quently brought to Europe the Hindu astronomical tables found at Krishna- 

 puram, those found at Narsapur, and, finally, those found at Trivalore, a place 

 twelve miles to the west of Negapatnam : these three places are all situated in the 

 southern peninsula of India. The astronomical tables found at Trivalore are 

 supposed to have been formed upon observations made 3,000 years before the 

 Christian era,— a fact which Bailiy and Playfair both conceived to be proved, as 

 they found, upon calculating back to the time when these tables were supposed 

 to have been formed, that the situation of the heavenly bodies must have been 

 precisely such as described in these tables. Bailiy and Playfair also remark, that 

 the Hindus could not have formed these tables without an extensive knowledge 

 of geometry, and of plane and spherical trigonometry, or of some substitute 

 for them. It is also remarked, that these tables must have been formed at some 

 of the places in the Southern Peninsula, which are situated between the Hindi 

 meridian, which runs through Cape Comorin, and that which runs through the 

 eastern part of Ceylon, and, consequently, not far from Madura, the ancient seat 

 of the celebrated Hindu college*. From what has been said, as to the great pro- 

 gress made by the Hindus in logic, in ethics, and in physics, it is obvious, that 

 the Hindus are capable, if properly instructed,, of attaining the highest degrees of 

 knowledge and science. 



* The pretended antiquity of these tables is satisfactorily disproved, on the unquestion- 

 able authority of La Place, by a writer in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for 

 January 1836. — Editor Madras Journal, 



