5 6 z Mr. Marsden on the 
and coincidences as may tend to remove this impediment to the 
progrefs of hiftorical knowledge. I am not aware that any 
attempt has hitherto been made in Europe, to bring them into 
one point of view ; and as an opportunity is hereby given 
of correfting fome errors that we have been led into by the 
fanflion of refpeflable names, I am induced to think, that 
what I have undertaken will not be confidered as fuperfluous. 
My prefent purpofe does not lead me to attempt a difcuflion 
of what may be termed the factitious periods of Hindoo com- 
putation, or to explain the nature and duration of the four 
ages, or Yoogs, which this fpeculative people, in the wanton 
exercife of numerical power, have portioned out from the 
boundlefs region of time. The three former of thefe divi- 
fions, even though the progreflive numbers affigned to them 
fhould be admitted as the refult of aftronomical combination, 
can be prefumed to have but little reference to practical chro- 
nology, which feems to trace its origin no higher than the 
commencement of the fourth, or prefent age, denominated 
the Kalee Yoog. This conftitutes the principal era to which I 
would draw attention, and comprehends within it thefe that 
follow ; the era of Bikramajit , the era of Salabdn , the Ben- 
gal era (not ftridlly Hindoo), and the cycle of fixty years. 
Before I proceed to a companion of their feveral dates, it 
will be proper to define the nature of the year and its confti- 
tuent parts, according to which thefe eras are computed by the 
Brahmans , who are the depofitaries of fcience as well as of 
religion. Their aftronomical year is the meafure of that por- 
tion of time which is employed in a revolution of the fun, 
from the moment of his departure from a certain ftar in their 
zodiac, as feen from the earth, till his return to the fame. It is 
therefore folar and fydereal, and contains, by their calculation, 
2 365 < 3 . 
