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XXV. On the Chronology of the Hindoos. 
By William Marfden, Efq. F. R . S. and A. S. 
Read June 24, 1790. 
I T is my defign to treat, in the following Paper, of the 
chronological eras in ufe among the people of Alia, 
called Hindoos, who profefs in general the religion of Brahma, 
and are confidered as the indigenous inhabitants of India. The 
elaborate refearches into their recondite writings, made by thofe 
gentlemen who have applied themfelves to the ftudy of San- 
Jkreet literature, afford us ground to exped confiderable difco- 
veries in regard to the fcientific attainments of this ancient and 
celebrated people. Their aftronomy in particular has attra&ed 
the attention of the learned in Europe, who fee in it the in- 
ternal evidence of very remote antiquity, and are dilpofed to 
allow its pretenfions to originality ; many ftrong and unequivo- 
cal traces indicating that the Greek fchool at leaf!: derived 
more than the elements of their knowledge, by no very cir- 
cuitous channel, from this oriental fource. 
Unfortunately for the gratification of rational curiofity, 
hiftory feems to have been, of all branches of ftudy, that 
which the Hindoos cultivated with the leaft care, and we 
regret to find the periods marked by the revolutions of the 
heavenly bodies, of which other nations have availed them- 
felves to afcertkin and record the important events in human 
2 affairs, 
