HINDOOSTAN. 
161 
Their year begins on the nth day of our month of 
April. They divide it into two equal parts ; the one 
comprifing the time the fun is to the lbuth, the other to 
the north, of the equator; and they celebrate his return 
to the north by an annual equinoctial feaft. To adjuft 
the aftronomical with the civil time, every fourth year is 
a leap-year; in which the time exceeding the 365 days is 
thrown into one of the 12 months. The number of days 
in the months is unequal; and fome are of opinion, that 
in eftablifhing the duration of each month, attention has 
been paid to the time required by the fun to pafs through 
the different figns of the zodiac. In their tables they are 
Vayafey - beginning 
Any - 
Ady 
Avany - 
Pi vataffy - - - - 
Arbaffey - 
Cartigey - - * - 
Margaii 
Tay - - - - - 
Mafey - 
Pangouney - - 
■B * 
Days. 
Naf. 
Vtu 
Taj. 
nth of April 
30 
ss 
3 2 
0 
in May 
24 
12 
0 
in June 
3 i 
36 
38 
0 
in July 
3 1 
28 
12 
0 
in Auguft 
3 i 
2 
IO 
0 
in September 
30 
27 
22 
0 
in Qftober 
29 
5 + 
7 
0 
in November 
29 
3 ° 
24 
0 
in December 
2 9 
20 
53 
0 
in January 
29 
27 
l6 
0 
in February - 
29 
48 
2 4 
0 
in March 
30 
20 
21 
IS 
365 
15 
3 1 
J 5 
In the common time they are reckoned as follows : 
Bayfatch, beginning the nth of April, has 31 Days. 
Taith - - - - 31 
Afadeh ^ 32 
Sanvon - - - - - 31 
Bhadon - - - - - - 31 
Afan - - - - - 31 
Catuk ------- 30 
Aghou - - - - - 30 
Pous ------ 29 
Magh ----- 29 
Phagon ------- 30 
Tehait - - 30 
Days 365 
The lunar month is divided into two parts; that from 
the new to the full moon, is called Sood, or increafing ; 
and that from the full to the change, Bole , or waning. 
The former is likewile fometimes called Soohla-pakJJia, or 
the light fide; and the other Creefnna-pakjha, or the dark 
fide. 
They reckon the duration of the world by four Yugs; 
but in the length afcribed to them they are prepofteroufly 
extravagant. years. 
The firft, or Satya Yug, is faid to have lafted 3,200,000 
The Treta Yug, or fecond age ----- 2,400,000 
The Dwaper Yug, or third age - - - - 1,600,000 
And they pretend the Cali Yug, or prefent age, 
will laft ------- 400,000 
Thefe ages correfpond, in their defignation, to the golden, 
iilver, brazen, and iron, ages of the Greeks. 
They tell us, that in the firft ages men were greatly 
fuperior to the prefent race, both in the length of their 
lives, and in the powers of their bodies and mental facul¬ 
ties ; but that, in confequence of vice, they gradually de¬ 
clined; and at laft in this, the earthen age, degenerated to 
what we now find them. At-the end of each age, they 
fuppofe that this world is deftroyed, and that a new crea¬ 
tion fucceeds. 
Their aftronomy appears to be coeval at leaft with that 
of the Egyptians ; which is certainly manifefted by the 
conftruftion of their zodiac, and the planifpheres of the 
heavenly bodies difplayed on the ceilings in feveral of their 
ancient temples. By comparing the annexed Engraving 
of the Indian zodiac, as given by fir William Jones, with 
the Egyptian zodiac and planifphere delineated on the en¬ 
gravings appropriated to our article Egypt, vol. vi. p. 3 56- 
358, it will be feen, that a very fimilar ftate of fcientific 
knowledge, as well perhaps as of religious rites, mull have 
formerly exifted between the two nations. 
According to the early notions of the Hindoo philofo- 
phers,' they defcribed the earth as a plane figure, ftudded 
with eight mountains, and furrounded by feven feas of 
milk, neftar, and other fluids ; that the part which they 
inhabit is one of feven iflands, to which eleven fmaller 
ifles are fubordinate ; that a god, riding on a huge ele¬ 
phant, guards each of the eight regions ; and that a moun¬ 
tain of gold rifes and gleams in the centre. This is ra¬ 
ther a poetical defcription ; and muft not be confidered as 
the doftrine of the Hindoo aftronomers. They divide a 
great circle, as we do, into three hundred atrd fixty de¬ 
grees, called by them anfas, or portions; of which they, 
like us, allot thirty to each of the twelve figns, in the fol¬ 
lowing order: 
Mejha, the Ram. 
Vrijha, the Bull. 
Mit'huna, the Pair. 
Carcata, the Crab. 
Sinha, the Lion. 
Cany a, the Virgin. 
Tula, the Balance. 
Vrijhchica, the Scorpion. 
D harms , the Bow. 
Marcara, the Sea-Monfter. 
Cumbha , the Ewer. 
Mina, the Fifh. 
Thefe twelve figns, in the annexed Engraving, are dif- 
tinguifhed by the aftronomical characters ufually afligned 
to them. The fun, moon, and planets, and the amend¬ 
ing and defeending nodes, are reprefented by the interior 
circle of figures, diftinguifhed as follows •. 1.. The Sun. 
2. The Moon. 3. Mars. 4. Mercury. 5. Jupiter. 6. Ve¬ 
nus. 7. Saturn. 8. Dragon’s-head, or afe nd ng node. 
9. Dragon’s-tail, or defeending node. The centre fhows 
the imaginary mountain of gold, fubordinate mountains, 
fea of nedtar, &c. as anciently figured by the Hindoos. 
But befides the folar zodiac, or Sodi-mandalurn, they have 
a divifion of the great circle into tw'enty-feven lunar man- 
fions, which they call conjiellations, or places of the moon 
reckoned in the twelve figns ; every fign is equal to two con- 
ftellations and a quarter; each conftellation confifts of 
thirteen degrees twenty minutes, and has its particular 
name. This divifion of the zodiac, fays fir William Jones, 
V'as extremely natural in the infancy of aftronomical ob- 
fervation, becauf’e the moon completes her circle among 
the fixed ftars nearly in twenty-feven days, and fo makes 
an actual divifion of that circle into twenty-feven equal 
parts. But thele conftellations are far from including all 
the ftars in the zodiac. M. le Gentil obferves, that thofe 
ftars only feem to have been felefted, which afe bell 
adapted for marking out, by lines drawn between them, 
the places of the moon in her progrefs through thefe lunar 
manfions. 
The preceflion of the equinoxes is reckoned in their 
tables at fifty-four feconds in the year; the motion of the 
ftars from weft to eaft is found to be at prefent only about 
fifty feconds in the year; but from this motion of fifty- 
four feconds, they have evidently formed many of their 
calculations. They have a cycle or period of fixty years, 
each of which has its particular name ; another of 3600 
years; and one of 24,000. From the annual motion given 
by them to the ftars, of 54 feconds of longitude in the 
year, 54 minutes of longitude make fixty years, 54 degrees 
3600, and the entire revolution of 360 degrees makes their 
great period, or annus magrnts , of 24,000 years, which is 
often referred to by them. 
M. Bailly informs us, that M. de la Loubere, who was 
fent ambaflador from Louis XIV. to Siam, brought home 
from thence, in 1687, tables and rules for the calculation 
of eclipfes; and that he likewife found, in the place where 
the charts belonging to the navy are kept, two manuferipts 
containing Hindoo aftronomical' tables, that were depo- 
fited there by M. de Lifle. It appears that one fet of the 
tables depofited by M. de Lille had been given to him by 
pere Patouillet, correfpondent of the mifiionaries in India; 
and that the other fet had been fent to pere Gaubil by 
pere Duchamp, who procured it from the Brahmins at 
Chriflinabouram. 
The tables that were given by pere Patouillet, are 
3 thought- 
