del coaft, about twelve miles west of Negapatam. The epoch of thefe tables is of high antiquity, and coincides with the beginning of the celebrated zra of the Calyougham or Collee Jogue, which commenced, according to the Indian account, three thoufand one hundred and two years before the birth of Christ.

These four fets of tables have been examined and compared by M. Bailly, who with fingular felicity of genius has conjoined an uncommon degree of eloquence with the patient refearches of an astronomer, and the profound investigations of a geometrician. His calculations have been verified, and his reafonings have been illuftrated and extended by Mr Playfair, in a very masterly differtation, publifhed in the Tranfactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Inftead of attempting to follow them in reafonings and calculations, which, from their nature, are often abftrufe and intricate, I fhall fatisfy myfelf with giving fuch a general view of them as is fuited to a popular work. This, I hope, may convey a proper idea of what has been published concerning the aftronomy of India, a fubject too curious and important to be omitted in any account of the ftate of fcience in that country; and without interpofing any judgment of my own, I shall leave each of my readers to form his own opinion.

It may be confidered as the general refult of all the inquiries, reafonings, and calculations, with refpect to Indian aftronomy, which have hitherto been made public, "That the mo"tion of the heavenly bodies, and "more particularly their fituation at "the commencement of the different "epochs to which the four fets of tables refer, are afcertained with "great accuracy; and that many of "the elements of their calculations, "efpecially for very remote ages, are verified by an aftonishing coinci"dence with the tables of the modern

"aftronomy of Europe, when improv"ed by the lateft and moft nice de"ductions from the theory of gravita"tion." Thefe conclufions are rendered peculiarly interefting, by the evidence which they afford of an advancement in fcience unexampled in the hiftory of rude nations. The Indian Brahmins, who annually circulate a kind of almanack, containing aftronomical predictions of fome of the more remarkable phenomena in the heavens, fuch as the new and full moons, the eclipfes of the fun and moon, are in poffeffion of certain methods of calculation, which, upon examination, are found to involve in them a very extenfive fyft m of aftromical knowledge. M. le Gentil, a French aftronomer, had an opportunity, while in India, of obferving two eclipfes of the moon, which had been calculated by a Brahmin, and he found the error in either to be very inconfi derable.

The accuracy of these refults is lefs furprifing than the juftpess and fcientific nature of the principles on which the tables by which they calculate are conftructed. For the method of predicting eclipfes which is followed by the Brahmins, is of a kind altogether. different from any that has been found in the poffeffion of rude nations in the infancy of aftronomy. In Chaldæa, and even in Greece, in the early ages, the method of calculating eclipfes was founded on the observation of a certain period or cycle, after which the eclipfes of the fun and moon return nearly in the fame order; but there was no attempt to analyfe the different circumftances on which the eclipfe depends, or to deduce its phenomena from a precife knowledge of the motions of the fun and moon. This laft was referved for a more advanced period, when geometry, as well as arithmetic, were called in to the affistance of aftronomy, and if it was attempted at all, feems not to have been attempted with fuccefs before the age of Hip

parchus.

y ne

parchus. It is a method of this fuperior kind, founded on principles, and on an analysis of the motions of the fun and moon, which guides the calculations of the Brahmins, and the ver employ any of the groffer eftimations, which were the pride of the first aftronomers in Egypt and Chaldæa. The Brahmins of the prefent times are guided in their calculations by these principles, though they do not now understand them; they know only the ufe of the tables which are in their poffeffion, but are unacquainted with the method of their conflruction. The Brahmin who visited M. le Gentil at Pondicherry, and inftructed him in the ufe of the Indian tables, had no knowledge of the principles of his art, and difcovered no curiofity concerning the nature of M. le Gentil's obfervations, or about the inftruments which he employed. He was equally ignorant with refpect to the authors of thefe tables; and whatever is to be learnt concerning the time or place of their conftruction, must be deduced from the tables themfelves. One fet of the fe tables (as was formerly obferved)profefs to be as old as the beginning of the Calyongham, or to go back to the year 3102 before the Chriftian ra; but as nothing (it may be fuppofed) is eafier than for an aftronomer to give to his tables what date he pleafes, and, by calculating backwards, to eftablish an epoch of any affigned antiqnity, the pretenfions of the Indian aftronomy to fo remote an origin are not to be admitted without examina

tion.

That examination has accordingly been inftituted by M. Bailly, and the refult of his inquiries is afferted to be, that the aftronomy of India is founded on obfervations which cannot be of a much later date than the period above mentioned. For the Indian tables represent the ftate of the heavens at that period with aftonishing exactnefs;, and there is between them and the cal-" culations of our modern aftronomy

fuch a conformity, with refpe&t to thofe ages, as could refult from nothing, but from the authors of the former having accurately copied from nature, and having delineated truly the face of the heavens in the аде wherein they lived. In order to give some idea of the high degree of accuracy in the Indian tables, I fhall felect a few inftances of it, out of many that might be produced. The place of the fun for the aftronomical epoch at the beginning of the Calyongham, as ftated in the tables of Tirvalore, is only forty-feven minutes greater than by the tables of M. de la Caille, when corrected by the calculations of M. de la Grange. The place of the moon, in the fame tables, for the fame epoch, is only thirty-feven minutes different from the tables of Mayer. The tables of Ptolemy, for that epoch, are erroneous no less than ten degrees with refpect to the place of the fun, and eleven degrees with refpect to that of the moon. The acceleration of the moon's motion, reckoning from the beginning of the Calyoug ham to the prefent time, agrees, in the Indian tables, with thofe of Mayer to a fingle minute. The inequality of the fun's motion, and the obliquity of the ecliptic, which were both greater in former ages than they are now, as reprefented in the tables of Tirvalore, are almoft of the precife quantity that the theory of gravitation affigns to them three thoufand years before the Chriftian æra. It is accordingly for thofe very remote ages (about 5000 years diflant from the prefent) that their aftronomy is most accurate, and the nearer we come din to our own times, the conformity of its refults with ours diminishes. It feems reafonable to fuppofe, that the time when its rules are moft accurate, is the time when thefe obfervations were made on which thefe rules are founded.

In fupport of this conclufion, M. Bailly maintains, that none of all the aftronomical

aftronomical fyftems of Greece or Perfia, or of Tartary, from fome of which it might be fufpected that the Indian tables were copied, can be made to agree with them, especially when we calculate for very remote ages. The fuperior perfection of the Indian tables becomes always more ccnfpicuous as we go farther back in to antiquity. This fhews, likewife, how difficult it is to conftruct any aftronomical tables, which will agree with the ftate of the heavens for a period fo remote from the time when the tables were conftructed, as four or five thousand years. It is only from aftronomy in its moft advanced ftate, fuch as it has attained in modern Europe, that fuch accuracy is to be expected.

When an estimate is endeavoured to be made of the geometrical skill neceffary for the construction of the Indian tables and rules, it is found to be very confiderable; and, befide the knowledge of elementary geometry, it must have required plain and fpherical trigonometry, or fomething equivalent to them, together with certain methods of approximating to the values of geometrical magnitudes, which feem to rise very far above the elements of any of thofe fciences. Some of thefe laft mark alfo very clearly (although this has not been obferved by M. Bailly) that the places to which these tables are adapted, muft be fituated between the Tropics, becaufe they are altogether inapplicable at a greater diftance from the Equa

confirms the truth of the pofition which I have been endeavouring to establish, concerning the early and high ftate of civilization in India.

Before I quit this fubject, there is one circumstance which merits particular attention. All the knowledge which we have hitherto acquired of the principles and conclufions of Indian aftronomy is derived from the fouthern part of the Carnatic, and the tables are adapted to places fituated between the meridian of Cape Comorin and that which paffes through the eastern part of Ceylon. The Brahmins in the Carnatic acknowledge that their fcience of aftronomy was derived from the North, and that their method of calculation is denominated Fakiam, or New, to distinguifh it from the Siddantam, or ancient method established at Benares, which they allow to be much more perfect; and we learn from Abul Fazel, that all the aftronomers of Indoftan rely entirely upon the precepts contained in a book called Soorej Sudrant, compofed in a very remote period. It is manifeftly from this book that the method to which the Brahmins of the South gave the name of Siddantam is taken. Benares has been from time immemorial the Athens of India, the refidence of the most learned Brahmins, and the feat both of fcience and literature. There, it is highly probable, whatever remains of the ancient aftronomical knowledge and difcoveries of the Brahmins is ftill preferved. In an enlightened age and nation, and during a reign diftinguished by a fucceffion of the moft fplendid and fucceffful undertakings to extend the knowledge of nature, it is an object worthy of public attention, to take meafures for obtaining poffeffion of all that time has fpared of the philofophy and inventions of the most early and most highly civilized people of the Eaft. It is with peculiar advantages Great Britain may engage in this

laudible

1

laudable undertaking. Benares is fubjet to its dominion; the confidence of the Brahmins has been fo far gained as to render them communicative; fome of our countrymen are acquainted with that facred language in which the mysteries both of religion and of fcience are recorded; movement and activity has been given to a fpirit of inquiry throughout all the British eftablifhments in India; perfons who vifited that country with other views, though engaged in occupations of a very different kind, are now carrying on fcientific and literary refearches

with ardour and fuccefs. Nothing feems now to be wanting, but that thofe entrusted with the adminiftration of the British empire in India, fhould enable fome perfon, capable, by his talents and liberality of fentiment, of investigating and explaining the more abftrufe parts of Indian philofophy, to devote his whole time to that important object. Thus Great Britain may have the glory of exploring fully that extenfive field of unknown fcience, which the Academicians of France had the merit of first opening to the people of Europe.

MY

:

Y dear gentlemen foldiers, and loyal auditory, thefe are the words of the kingly prophet; frea the vehemence of his infpired fpirit, he ardently prays to the all-feeing eye for judgment and righteoufnefs, and that the fame may defcend to his fon to govern his people, which was obtained for, my dear fauls, be affured, there is nothing a just man and fervant of God afks from his great Creator but he obtains it. Its proved fo; for no greater bleflings co'd mortals have but his fon and fucceffor enjoyed; he had wisdom, riches, and all other worldly grandeur; he had trophies in war, and fubdued all the enemies of God by his felect people. Now, my dear fauls, and loyal foldiers, thefe words of God and his holy prophet tvere fpoke and verifyed for the inftruction of fucceeding ages to the end of the world, and may now be applied to our prefent caufe. We are

here to fight the battle of God against his enemies, under the command of the king's fon; he is the heir, and no doubt has the hereditary right of the crown of his ancestors; you fee him there in his Royal Perfon, not coveting the right of any other, but endeavouring to recover his own, ufurped fra2 his royal family many years paft, and by the bleffing of God he'll do it, and fay as the royal prophet ex-` preffeth it in the 118th Pfalm, ver. 7.

The Lord taketh my part with them that helpeth me, therefore I fhall fee my defire upon my enemies." My dear fauls, you fee that God has raifed his moft Chriftian Majefty, and Catholic Majefty, two of the greatest monarchs in the world, to be his help: you, my dear fellow-fubjects and loyal hearts, are bound by God and nature to help your true and undoubted Prince to his ane: O now, my brave and heroic foldiers, let your courage and valour be known at command, in afferting the right of your native and hereditary Prince; he is no alien precarioufly brought over from the German continent, and plac、 ed by a rebellious and miferable folk on

the