149 
preferable to adduce the admission of one, whose " mania 
for modernizing renders his testimony of the advanced 
knowledge of the Hindoos in astronomy, at so remote a 
period as the fifteenth century before Christ, the more 
valuable. 11 My friend, Mr. Prinsep, moreover remarks in 
his Indian Chronological Tables, p. 78, " that there is 
great uncertainty and incongruity in many of Bentley 1 s 
determinations of the dates of native princes and of books, 
from the prejudices he exhibits. 11 This is evident, also, 
from his having chosen that for the classic age of Hindoo 
literature, (A.D. 1183, Heeren, vol. iii. p. 128,) which is 
known to history as the unsettled period of the Mahomedan 
invasion of India. Besides this, we have shown that the 
Arabs translated their works in the eighth, and that the 
Persians did so as early as the fifth century of our era. But 
" he (Bentley) is entitled to every confidence in his ingenious 
mode of calculating the period at which the various improve- 
ments in astronomy were introduced, and the Siddhantas 
written or revised ; by the time when the positions of the 
planets, as assigned by their tables, accorded best with the 
more accurate results of European astronomy. From the 
minimum errors, and the precession of the equinoxes (first 
applied to such a purpose by Sir Isaac Newton), we have 
the following epochs substantially ascertained." 
Invention of the Nacshatras or Hindu Lunar Mansions, B.C. 1425. Bentley. 
The Solar Zodiac, formed by Parasara (under Yudhistira) B.C. 1180. do. 
A Lunar Cycle, invented and precession discovered (Rama ?) B.C. 945. do. 
" The situation of the equinoctial colure in the time of 
the astronomer Parasara, who flourished under Yudhistira, 
is fixed by Davis in 1391 B.C., by Sir Wm. Jones, Cole- 
brooke, and Bentley, in 1180; which latter closely accords 
with the epoch of the Cycle of Parasurama, used in the 
Dakhan, and apparently unknown to these authors, B.C. 
1176. 11 (Prinsep. I.e. p. 78.) 
