tie Bfamin’s Obfervatory at Benares. 605 
but thefe doubts I think muft vanifli, when we know 
that the prefent Bramins pronounce, from the records 
and tables which have been handed down to them by 
their forefathers, the approach of the eclipfes of the Sun 
and Moon, and regularly as they advance give timely in- 
formation to the emperor and the princes in whofe do- 
minion they refide. There are yet fome remains in evi- 
dence of their being at one time in polleffion of this 
fcience. The ligns of the zodiac, in fome of their 
Choultrys on the coaft of Coromandel, as remarked by 
john call, efq. f. r. s. in his letter to the Aftronomer 
Royal, requires little other confirmation. Mr, call fays, 
that as he was laying on his back, refting himfelf in the 
heat of the day, in a Choultry at Verdapetah in the Ma- 
dura country, near Cape Commorin, he difcovered the 
ligns of the zodiac on the cieling of the Choultry : that 
he found one, equally compleat, which was on the ciel- 
ing of a temple, in the middle of a Tank before the pa- 
goda Teppecolum near Mindurah; and that he had often 
met with feveral parts in detached pieces. See Philof, 
Tranf. 1 7 7 2, p. 3 53. Thefe buildings and temples were 
the places of relidence and worlhip of the original Bramins, 
and bear the marks of great antiquity,, having perhaps 
been built before the Perfian conqueft. Befides, when 
we know that the manners and cuftoms of the Gentoo 
religion 
