April 2 Bahmen-gaung; E to S 15 E distant 1 furl. 3 Ooniara; S to S 53 E distant 7 furl. 8 Burwarah; S 22 E to N 47 E dist. extremes, 2 f. Ditto, 26 3 31 Ditto. Ditto, 26 9 16 Ditto, ........ 13. Ditto, Ditto, .... Khoosh-hal-gurh; N 55-65 E dist. 4 furl. •..• Ditto, 14 Peelaudoh; N 60-80 E distant 3 furl. 15 Hindoun; N 12 W to N 80 E dist. nearest 1 f. 16 Surout; S 48 W to W distant 2 6 furl. Ditto, 17 Biana; S 32 W to S 48 E distant 1 furl. Ditto, 18 Rudawul; N 5-50 W distant 2 furl. 19 Kanau; S 69 E to N 88 E distant 3 furl. Ditto, 26 27 9 Ditto, moderate, Ditto, Hydra 26 58 25 Ditto, moderate. 27 2 25 Ditto, Ditto, med. 27° 2′ 10′′ 27 1.55 Ditto, Ditto, Ditto. 20 Futtehpoor; Camp within Chunnunp. Dur-waza, Ditto, med. 27° 5' 43" 27 5 32 Ditto, Ditto, Ditto. Mar.24 12 48 26|1 Apr. 6 10 55 26 3 Im. Anandpoor Im. ... 75 6 15 Ditto, Dublana 75 15 45 Ditto, Em. Ooniara 76 25 45 Ditto, 15 54 62 Im. Ditto 75 41 45 Ditto, The Satellite had emerged sometime By observations of Procyon and Arc- Med. 76° 3'. 16 13 10 241 Im. Surout 76 51 30 Ditto, May 9 13 27 451 Im. Agra, Rozeh Taj Mahl 77 36 45 Ditto. Appar. time, 14 24 30 A slight obscurity began on the Moon's 14 28 30 Dark shadow distinctly seen to enter. 17 00 00 + 10 30 17 10 30 Eclipse ended-Limb clear. If we reckon the beginning of the eclipse from the first perceptible obscurity, i. e. Then beginning by Ephemeris........ 14° 24′ 30′′ 9 23 45 As the state of the limbs at the times marked as the beginning of obscurity and end of the eclipse were similar, if we add half this difference (1′ 37′′) to the first of these times, and subtract it from the last, we shall have the beginning. End Either of which will give the longitude.. 14° 26' 7" 17 8 53 75 35 40 REMARK BY THE PRESIDENT. The observations with which Mr. Hunter has favoured us, will be a valuable acquisition to all Indian geographers and antiquaries; for since Ujjayini, or Ujjein, is in the first meridian of the Hindus, its longitude ascertains the position of Lancá on the equator, and fixes the longitude, at least according to the Hindu astronomers, of Curucshétra, Vatsa, the Pool Sannihita Cánchí, and other places, which are frequently celebrated in Sanscrit books of the highest antiquity. Hence also we shall possibly ascertain the seven dwipas, which, on the authority of Patanjali and of the Véda itself, we may pronounce to be neither the seven planets nor the seven climates, but great peninsulas of this earth, or large tracks of land with water on both sides of them. For example, in a preface to the Surya Siddhanta, the peninsula, called Sal mala, is declared to be 422 Yojanas to the east of Lancà; now a true Yojana is equal to 44 geometrical miles; and the longitude of Sálmala will thus bring us to the Gulph of Siam, or to the eastern Indian peninsula beyond Malacca. There is a passage in one of the Puranas which confirms this argument; where king Sravana is described " on the White Mountain "in the extensive region of Sálmaladwipa, meditat"ing on the traces of the divine foot, at a place called "the station of Trivicrama." Now we are assured, by credible travellers, that the Siamese boast of a rock in their country, on which a footstep, as they say, of Vishnu is clearly discernible, QUESTIONS AND REMARKS ON THE ASTRONOMY OF THE HINDUS. BY JOHN PLAYFAIR, A. M. PR WRITTEN 10TH OF OCTOBER, 1792. RESUMING on the invitation given with so much liberality in the Advertisement prefixed to the second volume of the Asiatic Researches, I have ventured to submit the following queries and observations to the President and other Members of the learned Society in Bengal. I. Are any Books to be found among the Hindus, which treat professedly of Geometry? I am led to propose this question, by having observed, not only that the whole of the Indian Astronomy is a system constructed with great geometrical skill, but that the trigonometrical rules given in the translation from the Surya Siddhanta, with which Mr. Davis has obliged the world, point out some very curious theorems, which must have been known to the author of that ancient book. The rule, for instance, by which the trigonometrical canon of the Hindu astronomers is constructed*, involves in it the following 2 Asiatic Researches, 245. |