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from the Vedas agree with the text of the general compilation.

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The Indian legislators, with their commentators, and the copious digests and compilations from their works, frequently refer to the Vedas; especially on those points of the law which concern religion. Here also the references are consistent with the present text of the Indian scrip

ture.

"Writers on ethics sometimes draw from the Vedas illustrations of moral maxims; and quote from their holy writ passages at full length, in support of ethical precepts. These quotations are found to agree with the received text of the sacred books.

"Citations from the Indian scripture occur in every branch of literature, studied by orthodox Hindus. Astronomy, so far as it relates to the calendar, has frequent occasion for reference to the Vedas. dical writers sometimes cite them; and even annotators on profane poets occasionally refer to this authority, in explaining

Me

passages which contain allusions to the sacred text.

"Even the writings of the heretical sects exhibit quotations from the Vedas. I have met with such in the books of the Jainas, unattended by any indication of their doubting the genuineness of the original, though they do not receive its doctrines, nor acknowledge its cogency.

"In all these branches of Indian literature, while perusing or consulting the works of various authors, I have found perpetual references to the Vedas, and have frequently verified the quotations. On this ground I defend the authentic text of the Indian scripture, as it is now extant; and although the passages which I have so verified are few, compared with the great volume of the Vedas, yet I have sufficient grounds to argue, that no skill in the nefarious arts of forgery and falsification, could be equal to the arduous task of fabricating large works, to agree with the very numerous citations, pervading thousands of volumes, composed on divers sub

jects, in every branch of literature, and dispersed through the various nations of Hindūs inhabiting Hindustan and the Dekhin."*

"It is necessary in this country, as every where else, to be guarded against literary impositions. But doubt and suspicion should not be carried to an extreme length. Some fabricated works, some interpolated passages, will be detected by the sagacity of critics in the progress of researches into the learning of the East; but the greatest part of the books received by the learned among the Hindus, will assuredly be found genuine. I do not doubt that the Vedas, of which an account has been here given, will appear to be of this description."

* Mr. Colebrooke adheres to the Persian nomenclature of the Peninsula; by which the country, from the mountains that separate it from Cashmire, &c. down as far as the river Nerbudda, or about the 22d degree of latitude, is called Hindustan, and from thence southward, Deckhan, or Dekhin.

"To each Veda a treatise, under the title of Jyotish, is annexed, which explains the adjustment of the calendar, for the purpose of fixing the proper periods for the performance of religious duties. It is adapted to the comparison of solar and lunar time with the vulgar or civil year; and was evidently formed in the infancy of astronomical knowledge. From the rules delivered in the treatises which I have examined, it appears that the cycle there employed, is a period of five years only. The month is lunar; but at the end, and in the middle, of the quinquennial period, an intercalation is admitted, by doubling one month. Accordingly, the cycle comprises three common lunar years, and two, which contain thirteen lunations each. The year is divided into six seasons; and each month into half months. A complete lunation is measured by thirty lunar days; some one of which must of course, in alternate months, be sunk, to make the dates agree with the nycthemera, For this purpose, the sixty-second day ap

pears to be deducted;* and thus the cycle of five years consists of 1860 lunar days, or 1830 nycthemera; subject to a further correction, for the excess of nearly four days above the true sidereal year: but the exact quantity of this correction, and the method of making it, according to this calendar, have not yet been sufficiently investigated to be here stated. The zodiac is divided into twenty-seven asterisms, or signs, the first of which, both in the Jyotish and in the Vedas, is Crittica, or the Pleiads."

"The deities, presiding over the twentyseven constellations, are enumerated in the three verses of the Jyotish belonging to the Yajush, and in several places of the Ve

das.

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In several passages of the Jyotish, these names of deities are used for the con

"The Athenian year was regulated in a similar manner; but, according to Geminus, it was the sixtythird day, which was deducted. Perhaps this Hindū calendar may assist in explaining the Grecian system of Junar months."

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