141 
seven moons each, or sixty rural years. It is 
known to all the nations, who live on the east of 
the Indus ; and appears connected with the ap- 
parent movement of Jupiter in the ecliptic. 
We have already shown=^, that among the Hin- 
doos the dedecatemorion of the solar zodiac drew 
its origin from the nacshatras, or from the lunar 
zodiac, each month taking the name of the lunar 
mansion, in which the full moon took place. In 
like manner we have observed, that the indic- 
tions of twelve years, and the names of the nac- 
shatras given to these years, relate to the heli- 
acal rising of Jupiter. We may suppose, that 
at the remote period when the first astronomical 
ideas were developed, men were struck at seeing 
a planet proceed through the twenty-eight lunar 
mansions nearly in the same number of years, as 
they observed of lunar revolutions from one win- 
ter solstice to another. In order to collect these 
great years of twelve solar years in groups, one 
of the numbers, which among all nations are 
made use of as resting points in numeration, 
must necessarily be employed ; namely 5, 10, or 
20. The preference would probably be given 
to the smallest of these numbers ; because 5 x 
12, or 60, are contained six times in the num- 
ber 360; which served for the division of the 
circle, on account of the 360 days, which the 
♦ See vol. xiii, p. 336 . 
