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all have the same motion of the sun, the same duration of the year; and all are adapted to a meridian passing near to Benares:* for instance, the tables brought

* Yet the first meridian of the ancient Hindū astronomers, it is said, was that of Oujein, then called Ujjaini, and sometimes Avanti, in N. L. 23° 11′ 13′′, and E. Long. from Greenwich, 75° 51'.-The present city is about a mile distant from the site of the ancient town, which above 1800 years ago was buried in the earth, by some extraordinary natural convulsion. Avanti, or Ujjaini, was the magnificent capital of the celebrated Viccramaditya, and one of the principal seats of arts and learning. The traditionary legend of the place imputes its destruction to a shower of earth from heaven; and Mr. Hunter, who seems to have carefully examined the spot, observes, that no volcanic conical hills, or traces of volcanic scoriæ are to be found in the neighbourhood of it. It has been suggested that its destruction may have been occasioned by an inundation of the river Sipara, which now washes the southern extremity of the present town. Tradition relates that, at the time of the destruction of the ancient city, this river changed its course; and while Mr. Hunter and his companions were at Oujein, a part of the town, though situated considerably above the level of the river, was overflowed by it: but he nevertheless thinks an earthquake the most probable cause of the destruction of the ancient city, and that the

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from Siam, suppose a reduction of one hour and thirteen minutes of time, or eighteen degrees and fifteen minutes of longitude, as so much west from the part of Siam, to which these tables had been adjusted. The beginning of the Kaly-Yug, or present age

of Hindu chronology, adjusted to our computation of time, is reckoned at two hours, twenty-seven minutes, and thirty seconds of the morning of the 16th of February, 3102 years before the Christian

change in the course of the river, admitting the tradition in that respect to be true, must have been the effect of that convulsion. By digging about eighteen feet deep, on the spot where the ancient city stood, walls of buildings are found entire, columns, utensils of various kinds, and ancient coins. Mr. Hunter saw a space of from twelve to fifteen feet long and eight high, filled with earthen vessels. Bricks taken from these ruins, continue to be employed in building; some are of a much larger size than those made in modern times.-The present city is of an oblong form, about six miles in circumference, surrounded by walls of stone, intersected by towers.-See Narrative of a Journey from Agra to Oujein, by William Hunter, Esq. Asiat. Res. vol. vi.

æra; but the time from which most of their astronomical tables now existing are constructed, is two days, three hours, thirty-two minutes, and thirty seconds, after that, or the 18th of February, about six in the morning.* They say, that there was then a conjunction of the planets. M. Bailly observes, that it appears, Jupiter and Mercury were then in the same degree of the ecliptic; that Mars was distant about eight degrees, and Saturn seventeen; hence it results, that at the time of the date given by the Brahmins to the commencement of the Kaly-Yug, they might have seen those four planets successively disengage themselves from the rays of the sun; first Saturn, then Mars, then Jupiter, and then Mercury; and though Venus could not have appeared, yet as they only speak in general terms, it was natural enough to say, there was then a conjunction of the planets: but M. Bailly is of opinion, that their astronomical

* See Traité de l'Astronomie Indienne et Orientale, par Bailly, Discours Préliminaire, pp. xxvii, xxviii.

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time is dated from an eclipse of the moon, which appears to have happened then, and that the conjunction of the planets is only incidentally mentioned. We are told by some writers, that the circumstance which marked that epoch, was the death of their hero Krishen; who, as we have already observed, was supposed to be the god Vishnu in one of his incarnations; by others, that it was the death of a famous and beloved sovereign, named Yudhishthira; but, whichever of the two it may be, the Hindus considering the event as a great calamity, distinguished it by beginning a new age, and expressed their feelings by naming it the Kaly-Yug, the age of unhappiness or misfor

tune.

From the tables brought home by M. de la Loubiere, in 1687, it appears that the Indians knew some particulars in the science of astronomy, which were at that time unknown in Europe. Certain motions of the moon contained in them, and which essentially serve to explain her movements, had indeed, been discovered by Tycho Brahe,

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who was born in 1546, and died in 1601: but it cannot be supposed that what had been discovered by Brahe, could have been transmitted to Benares, there introduced into the tables, and from thence brought to Siam, during the time that elapsed between the discovery in Europe and the date when M. de la Loubiere procured those tables. Whoever may be acquainted with the state and nature of the communications at that time between India and Europe, and between the interior parts of Hindustan and Siam, together with the depressed state of the Hindūs under their Mohammedan rulers, and their neglect of science and learning since the conquest of their country by strangers, will instantly reject such an idea. If, therefore, it appear that the Hindūs had a knowledge of certain things in astronomy earlier than the Europeans, that they knew and practised what the Alexandrian and Arabian schools were ignorant of,* it may be asked

Bailly, Professor Playfair, &c. &c.

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