175 
he says, that " the Yavans are barbarians ; but this science 
is well established among them, and they are revered like 
holy sages." (As. lies. xii. p. 245.) This no doubt proves, 
what however does not require proof, that the Hindoos 
were acquainted with the Greeks. We know, indeed, that they 
made use of some of their inventions, as that of coinage 
(v. p. 72), prior even to the above age of Varaha-mihira. 
But the fact also proves that the Hindoos must themselves 
have previously paid attention to astronomy, to be able 
to appreciate the advances made by the Greeks. 
If this admission by Hindoo astronomers of the time of 
Varaha, of an acquaintance with the cultivation of astro- 
nomy by the Greeks, be thought valuable, how much 
more so, for the purpose of ascertaining priority of scientific 
cultivation, is the constant reference, by the earliest Grecian 
writers, to the East, as the source of literature and of 
science, as well as the object of their travels in pursuit of 
knowledge, at much earlier periods than those of Varaha : 
the value of whose testimony, however, must necessarily be 
diminished, if his antiquity be reduced. 
Before quitting the subject, it is proper to allude to the 
similarity which exists in the ancient astronomy of many 
Eastern nations. For though we may satisfy some minds by 
saying, that the Hindoos borrowed from the Arabs, these 
from the Greeks, — and therefore the coincidences between 
the first and the last ; this will not account for the many 
points of agreement which exist between the Chinese and 
the Hindoos, as also between these and the Egyptians. 
Neither will it explain how the latter, as well as the Chal- 
deans, are reported as having been able to predict eclipses ; 
and that methods for doing so, essentially different from 
the Grecian, exist in the oldest of the Hindoo astronomical 
works. 
If the points of coincidence, from the prevalence of similar 
