Page images
PDF
EPUB

those at Tirvalore, are literally taken from the original tables, omitting the date of the copy.

"The Brahmins constantly refer to an astronomy at Benares, which they emphatically style the ancient, and which, they say, is not now understood by them, though they believe it to be much more accurate than that by which they now calculate. That it is more accurate, is improbable; that it may be more ancient, no one who has duly attended to the foregoing facts and reasonings, will think impossible; and every one, I believe, will acknowledge, that no greater service could be rendered to the learned world, than to rescue this precious fragment from obscurity." -"The discoveries that may be made on this science, do not interest merely the astronomer and mathematician, but every one who delights to mark the progress of mankind, or is curious to look back to the ancient inhabitants of the globe. It is through the medium of astronomy alone, that a few rays from those distant objects can be conveyed in

safety to the eye of a modern observer, so as to afford him a light, which, though it be scanty, is pure and unbroken, and free from the false colourings of vanity and superstition.

66

3dly. The basis of the four systems of astronomical tables we have examined, is evidently the same.

[ocr errors]

Though these tables are scattered over an extensive country, they seem to have been all originally adapted to the same meridian, or to meridians at no great distance, which traverse what we may call the classical ground of India, marked by the ruins of Canoge, Palibothra, and Benares. They contain rules that have originated between the tropics; whatever be their epoch, they are all, by their mean motions, connected with that of the Kaly-Yug; and they have besides one uniform character, which it is perhaps not easy to describe. Great ingenuity has been exerted to simplify their rules, yet in no instance, almost, are they reduced to the utmost simplicity: and when it happens that the operations to

[blocks in formation]

which they lead are extremely obvious, these are often involved in an artificial obscurity. A Brahmin frequently multiplies by a greater number than is necessary, where he seems to gain nothing but the trouble of dividing by one that is greater in the same proportion; and he calculates the æra of Salivaganam, with the formality of as many distinct operations, as if he were going to determine the moon's motion since the beginning of the Kaly-Yug. The same spirit of exclusion, the same fear of communicating his knowledge, seems to direct the calculus, which pervades the religion of the Brahmin; and in neither of them is he willing to receive or impart instruction. With all these circumstances of resemblance, the methods of their astronomy are as much diversified as we can suppose the same system to be, by passing through the hands of a succession of ingenious men, fertile in resources, and acquainted with the variety and extent of the science which they cultivated.—A system of knowledge which is thus assimilated to

the genius of the people, that is diffused so widely among them, and diversified so much, has a right to be regarded, either as a native, or a very ancient inhabitant of the country where it is found.

66

4thly. The construction of these tables implies a great knowledge of geometry, arithmetic, and even of the theoretical part of astronomy, &c.

66

But what, without doubt, is to be accounted the greatest refinement, is the hypothesis employed in calculating the equations of the centre for the sun, moon, and planets; viz. that, of a circular orbit having a double eccentricity, or having its centre in the middle, between the earth and the point about which the angular motion is uniform. If to this we add the great extent of geometrical knowledge requisite to combine this and the other principles of their astronomy together, and to deduce from them the just conclusions, the possession of a calculus equivalent to trigonometry, and lastly, their approximation to the quadrature of the circle; we shall be as

tonished at the magnitude of that body of science, which must have enlightened the inhabitants of India in some remote age; and which, whatever it may have communicated to the western nations, appears to have received nothing from them."

Professor Playfair examines the construction of the tables contained in Brahminical trigonometry. After mentioning the circumference and division of the circle, he proceeds: "The next thing to be mentioned, is also a matter of arbitrary arrangement, but one in which the Brahmins follow a method peculiar to themselves. They express the radius of the circle in parts of the circumference, and suppose it equal to 3,438 minutes, or 60ths of a degree. In this they are quite singular. Ptolemy, and the Greek mathematicians, after dividing the circumference, as we have already described, supposed the radius to be divided into sixty equal parts, without seeking to ascertain, in this division, any thing of the relation of the diameter to the circumference: and thus, throughout the whole

« PreviousContinue »