English
Modem European tables make his place, €is seen from the eartii, more advanced by IS""; whence it appears that the position stated by the commentator was not from actual observation, but the eflSect of a computation made backwards, from about the 45th year of the Christian era, with the mean annual motion of Jupiter V 0° 21' 9^ 9, which quantity Was employed before Ifeit time in settliftg Digitized by Google OF TU£ HINDUS. 11 the four ages hereafter mentioiied in their proper place. This quantity is greater by 38^ 2, than our modem European tables make the mean annual motion of Jupiter; so that, if we divide 13^ by 38*, 2, we get the 1225th year after 1181 B.C. or the year A. D. 45; from which point of ^me, the cofiftputation, being made backwards, would place Jupiter in 3° 20 of DhankUha, at the winter solstice 1181 B.C. The astronomers of this period, after having farmed and named the Hindu months, as above mentioned, framed a cycle of five years for civil amd religious, purposes, in which cycle they reckoned^ Savan days, or degrees . . . 1800 Mean solar days .... 1830 Lunardays, or7tMi^(of30toaLusAtion) 1860 Luimr skleral days .... 2010 The number of Lunati<ms therefore, ^^ ^2 The year, '-? . . . • . 366 days The Lunation, ig^. . . 29^ 12"^ 23"^- 13- And the diffearence between the shortest and longest day was one hour and thirty-sis: minutes, which serves to point out the latitude of the place. It is extremely probable that the above-mentioned observations were made in the time of Parasurama, who, it is said, was a great encourager of astrono- my. He lived upwards of 200 years before Rama, whose time will be shown in the ixt Section. If we take the data given by Dr.. Buchanan, m his Journey to Malayala, whdT^n he states, that they r^koned by cycles of 1000 years from Parasurama, and that of the thcai current cycle,, 976 years were expired in September 1800, there must be elapsed from Ae epoch of Paraiurama to A. D. 1800, 2976 years ; from which taking 1800^ we have 1176 B. C. Digitized by Google 12 THE ANCIEK'T ASTRONOMY for the epoch of that prince, which ^differs but five years from the time of the above observation. The years of the epoch of ParaSurama are reckoned as beginning with the sign Virgo^ or rather with the month Aswina, which was afterwards changed by the Chaldeans and Egyptians into the sign Virgo, at the time the constellations were formed ; which will be noticed in its proper place. Some persons, per- haps, would think there was an error in commencing^ the year with the month Aswina, seeing that at the time of the observations, only five years before the epoch of Parasurama, the year began at the winter solstice with the month Magha. This is true; but it must be recollected, that the month oi Magha was not the only month with which the year could commence : — any month commencing^ at the same moment the sun entered a Lunar Aste-- rism, oTy in other words, when the month and Lunar Mansion began together, such month might begin the year. At the time of the above observations, there were three months, each of wliich began with a Lunar Mansion. Thus, the month Magha began with the Lunar Asterism Sravisht'ha: the month Jyaisiha began vsdth MHgasiras; and Aktvina began with the Lunar Asterism Chitra, as may be seen by the Plate ; and therefore the year might begin with either of them. The Lunar Mansions that begin with the months are called wives of the Sun, though they had already been all maiTied to the Moon. The commencement of the year with the month Aswina, of all others, was the most celebrated: Durga, the year, personified in a female form, and goddess of nature, was then feigned to spring into existence. In the year 1181 iB.C. the first of Aswina coincided with the , ninth day of the moon ; Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS 13 and on that day her festival was celebrated with the utmost pomp and grandeur. In the year 945 B.C^ some further observations were made, by which they determined, that in 247 years and one month, the solstices fell back 3° 20' in respect of the fixed stars. In consequence of these observations, they threw back the epoch of the commencement of the year yntixAiwina, in 1 181, to the year 1 192 B. C, in which year the commencement of Ahuina fell on the sixth day of the moon ; and the festival of Durga was ever after made to conmience with the sixth lunar day of Aswina, and to continue down to the ninth inclusive, by which means both epochs were included. Thus I have shown both the origin and antiquity of the grand festival of Durga, which of all others is the most ancient and the most superb. This goddess, properly speaking, signifies the year : she is there- fore the goddess of nature; she is the consort of Siva (the personification of time in the male form) ; she is the same as the Juno of the Greeks and RomanSy and the Isis of the Egyptians; she is Ceres, t^roserpine, and in fact the same as all the god- desses ; and their names are applicable to her. Digitized by Google 14 THE AJJCI|:NT ASTKaNOMY SECTION IL FROM 961 TO 698 B. C. Rama — time of his birth determined from Astronomical Data — Date of the RdmayoMa determined ^-Churning of the Oceany or War between the Gods^ and the Giants, description of it — Time qf it determined from Astronomical and other Data — Bhrth (^/'Satarn — The month Kartika made the commence- ment qf the year — The rate of precession determined — A Lwiisolar period discovered f on which were founded the changes to take place in the commence- ment qf the year — A Table qf eight periods of the same, and the year qf their respective commencement, Sfc, In the last Section I gave the epoch of Paraiurama^ 1 176 B. C. I shall now proceed to that of Rama, the son of Dasaratha, and who is believed, or feigned by the modern HmduSy to have been one of the incarn- ations of the Deity. The epoch of this prince is^ considered the most faoious in Hindu history, and perhaps deservedly so; for in his time, and that of his father, astroncHny is said to have been cultivated with n^uch attention; and it is suj^posed that the astronomical tables for calculating the places of the planets, were fi^amed by means of the observations then made. It is, therefore, highly important that we should determine the time accurately, which for- tunately we are enabled to do from astronomical data. According to the Rdnidyana called Valmika^s, five of the planets were in their houses of exaltation, as the astrologers term it, at the birth of Rama : that is to say, the sun was in Aries ^, the moon in Cancer, Venus in Pisces*, Jupiter in Cancer', Mars in Capri- corn*, and Saturn in Libra*, on the 9th lunar day of Chaitra. Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 15 The positions of the planets here given, I strongly suspect, are the result of modem computation, and not from actual observation: for the signs of the ecliptk, at least by these names, were totally un- known in the time of Rama; and were not intro- duced into India, I believe, until the second or third century of the Christian era. However, be this as it may, tlie situations assigned to the planets, whether from computation or otherwise, point out to us, that Rama was bom on the 6th of April, 961 B.C.; at which time they were in the following positions : Bj Lalande's Tables. Bj the Rdmayana. Snn OS 60 11' 23'^ In^rtet. Moon S 12 13 54 Cancer. Venus 11 1 0 0 Pisce*. Mars 10 2 47 0 Capricorn* Jnpiter 4 6 24 13 Cancer, Satam ..•,^... 6 8 27 0 Libra. In which Jupiter is only 6° 24' 13 beyond the limits and Mars 2° 47'. When Rama attained the age of manhood, his father Dasaratha, in consequence of certain positions of the planets, approaching to a conjunction, sup- posed to portend evil, wished to share the govern* ment with him. Dasaratha says : " My star, O Rama, is crowded with portentous planets ; the sun. Mars, and the moon's ascending node" {Rahu\ &c. Raniayanaj B. i. s. 3. v. 16. — " To-day the moon rose in Punarvasu : the Astronomers announce her enter- ing Pwhyd to-iriorrow: be thou installed in Pmhya'' V. 19. — ** The sun's ingress into Pmhj/a being now come, the Lagna of Karkata (Cancer), in which Rama was born, having begun to ascend above the horizon," sec. 13. V. 3. — *' The moon forbore to shine; the sun disappeared while it was day; a cloud of locusts.