moon, when regard is had to her acceleration. It follows, too, from the position of the fixed stars in respect of the equinox, as represented in the Indian zodiac; from the length of the solar year, and lastly from the position and form of the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as their mean motions; in all of which, the tables of the Brahmins, compared with ours, give the quantity of the change that has taken place, just equal to that which the action of the planets on one another may be shewn to have produced, in the space of forty-eight centuries, reckoned back from the beginning of the present.

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Two other of the elements of this astronomy, the equation of the sun's centre,

and the obliquity of the ecliptic, when compared with those of the present time, seem to point to a period still more remote, and to fix the origin of this astronomy 1000 or 1200 years earlier; that is 4300 years before the Christian æra:* and the

* That they point to a period more remote than the beginning of the Kaly-Yug, we believe, cannot be de

time necessary to have brought the arts of calculating and observing to such perfection as they must have attained at the beginning of the Kaly-Yug, comes in support of the same conclusion.

"Of such high antiquity, therefore, must “Of we suppose the origin of this astronomy, unless we can believe, that all the coincidences which have been enumerated are but the effects of chance; or, what, indeed, were still more wonderful, that, some years ago, there had arisen a Newton among the Brahmins, to discover that universal principle, which connects, not only the most

nied, but we hope to be excused in saying, that there does not appear to be any reason for dating the origin of the Indian astronomy, at 1000 or 1200 years before that. Perhaps it should rather be said, that the Brahmins, 4300 years before the Christian æra, must have been in possession of such or such parts of their astronomy. It is possible that materials may yet be found, to enable Mr. Playfair to carry his researches still farther back into antiquity; but, probably, never to ascertain the origin of a science, which was not delivered ready written, like a book of laws, but progressively carried on and improved, through the course of numerous succeeding ages.

distant regions of space, but the most remote periods of duration; and a De la Grange, to trace, through the immensity of both, its most subtle and complicated operations.

2dly. Though the astronomy that is now in the hands of the Brahmins is so ancient in its origin, yet it contains many rules and tables that are of later construction.

The first operation for computing the moon's place from the tables of Tirvalore, requires that 1,600,984 days should be subtracted from the time that has elapsed since the beginning of the Kaly-Yug, which brings down the date of the rule to the year 1282 of our æra. At this time, too, the place of the moon, and of her apogee, are determined with so much exactness, that it must have been done by observation, either at the instant referred to, or a few days before or after it. At this time, therefore, it is certain, that astronomical observations were made in India, and that the Brahmins were not, as they are now, without any know

ledge of the principles on which their rules were founded. When that knowledge was lost, will not, perhaps, be easily ascertained; but there are, I think, no circumstances in the tables, from which we can certainly infer the existence of it at a later period than what has just been mentioned; for though there are more modern epochs to be found in them, they are such as may have been derived from the most ancient of all, by help of the mean motions in the tables of Krishnapouram, without any other skill than is required to an ordinary calculation. Of these epochs, besides what have been occasionally mentioned in the course of our remarks, there is one involved in the tables of Narsapour, as late as the year 1656, and another as early as the year 78 of our æra, which remarks the death of Salivahana, one of their princes, in whose reign

*It appears to have been lost since the conquest of their country by strangers; from the want of protection and encouragement, and the effects of persecution and violence. The date seems to prove this.

a reform is said to have taken place in the methods of their astronomy. There is no reference to any intermediate date from that time to the beginning of the KalyYug.

The parts of this astronomy, therefore, are not all of the same antiquity; nor can we judge, merely from the epoch to which the tables refer, of the age to which they were originally adapted. We have seen that the tables of Krishnapouram, though they profess to be no older than the year 1491 of our æra, are in reality more ancient than the tables of Tirvalore, which are dated from the Kaly-Yug, or at least have undergone fewer alterations. This we concluded from the slow motion given to the moon in the former of these tables, which agreed, with such wonderful precision, with the secular equation applied to that planet by Mayer, and explained by M. de la Place.' But the date affixed to the tables at Krishnapouram, coinciding with the year 1491 of our æra, is merely, I presume, the date when the tables were copied there, whereas