English
The Asuras vomit blood fi'om the wounds of the Chacra, and fall upon the ground, pierced by the sword, the spear, and the spiked club. Heads glittering with polished gold, and divided by the Pattis blade, drop incessantly ; and mangled bodies, wallowing in their gore, lay, like fragments of mighty rocks sparkling wi^ gems and precious ores. Mil- lions of sighs and groans arise on every side ; and the sun is overcast with blood, as they clash their arms, and wound each other with their dreadful in- struments of destruction. " Now the battle is fought with the iron-spiked club ; and as they close with clenched fist, and the din of war ascendeth to the heavens, they cry: ' Pursue ! Strike ! Fell to the ground ! ' So that a horrid and tumultuous noise is heard on all sides. *' In the midst of this dreadful hurry and confu- sion of the fight, Nara f and Narayana entered the * This eclipse at the war between the gods and the giants, so poetically described, is the first on record, that on the 2d Jnljr, 040 B.C. being the second. It is remark- able, that doring the war between the gods aid the giants in the west, which will be noticed in the next section, there was also an eclipse of the sin, which is the first known or mentioned in poetic story. t Nam, the eternal, the same as Narayana or Vishna. E Digitized by Google 26 tHE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY field together. Narayana, beholding a <:;elestiai bow in the hand of Nara, it ireminded him of the Chacra, the destroyer df the Asuras. The faithful weapon, by name Sudarsanay ready at the mind's call, flew down from heaven with direct and refulgent speed, beautiful, yet terrible to behold. And being arrived, glowing like the sacrificial flame, and spreading terror around, Narayana, with his right arm formed like the elephantine trunk, hurled forth the ponder- ous orb, tite speedy messenger, and glorious ruin of hostile towns ; who, raging like the final all-destroy- ing fire> shot bounding with desolating force, killing thousands of the Asuras in his rapid flight, burning and involving like the lambait flame, and cutting down all that would oppose him. Anon he climbeth the heavens, and now again darteth into the field like a Pimcka to feast in blood. *^ Now the dauntless Asuras strive with repeated strength to crush the Sm^as with rocks and moun- tains, which, hurled in vast numbers into the heavens, appear like scattered clouds, and fell, with all the trees thereon, in millions of fear-exciting toiTents, striking violently against each other with a mighty noise; fuid in their fall, the earth, with all its fields and forests, is driven from its foundation. They thunder furiously at each other, as they roll along the field, and spend their strength in mutual conflict. ** Now Nara, seeing the Suras overwhelmed with fear, filled up the path to heaven with showers of golden-headed arrows, and split the mountain sum- mits with its unerring shafts ; and the Asuras, find- ing themselves again sore pressed by the Suras , precipitately flee. Some rush headlong into the briny waters of the ocean, and others hide themselves within i&ie bowels of the earth. Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 27 ' '' The rage of the glorious Chacra^ Sudarsana^ which for a while burnt like the oil-fed fire, now grew cool^ and he retired mto the heavens from whence he came. And the Suras having obtained the victory, the mountain Mandar was carried back to its former station with great respect ; whikt the waters also retired, filhng the firmament and the heavens with their dreadfiil roarings. The Suras guarded the Amrita with great care, and rejoiced exceedingly because of their success; and Indra, with all his immortal bands, gave the water of life unto Narayana to keep it for their use." In this highly coloured fiction, the Hindu poets have exerted all their abilities to give a most pom- pous description of a battle that never existed, the foundation of which shall presently be explained. By what is stated above, it will appear that the sun, mobn, and Rahu, or the mocm's ascending node per- sonified, were present, consequently an eclipse of the sun is thereby indicated at the ascending node. Woreover, the goddess Sri*, or Lakshmi, was then bom, or produced from the sea. Therefore, in order to find the time, we refer to the Hindu calendar, where we find that her birth-day falls on the 30th lunar day of the moon oiAsmna; so that the solar eclipse at the ascending node must have happened on that day; which circumstance alone would be sufficient to point out the day and year of the eclipse. But the goddess Lakshmi was born on a Thursday ; hence that day is called Laksmlwar; and therefore * Tbe Venus Aphroditnt of the Westeni mytholog^sts, and emblematic of the Innifolw yew : therefore she is called the goddeas of increase, abmidaBee, &c. She is the daughter of Dnrga, and the Proserpine of the West ; and, considered as time, she is the same with her mother. Metaphorically, she may sometimes represent thei Digitized by Google 28 THE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY the eclipse must have been on Thursday.* From all these data, it is easy to determine the time, inde- pendent altogether of any knowledge of the time of Rama. But beside these, there are others, if thought necessary. One is, that the planet Saturn^ at tite time of this eclipse,* was supposed to be bom from the earth's shadow ; that is to say, that he was situ- ated in that psurt of the heavens towards which the shadow of the earth projected: he was, in conse- quence, called the offspring of the shadow, or CKdy- asuta. Another is, that Saturn was bom in the Lunar Asterism Rohirii; in consequence of which, they say, that any person born under that mansion, while Saturn is in it, is of the same nature with that planet, that is, of an evil disposition. The shadow of the earth at the time of the eclipse must therefore have pointed towards the Lunar Asterism Rohini, in which Saturn was born. All these data are more than sufficient for our purpose. Proceeding, there- fore, with the three first, we find that the eclipse we are in quest of fell on Thursday, the 25th October, in the year 945 B.C. at which time. The Sun's loBgitade from Ariet was about ........ 6^ 22 S7' The Moon's do. do 6 22 37 iS^tm from the Nod^ about 0 12 Mercmy's geocentric loBgitude about 6 IS Venus's do. do. 7 11 Mars*8 do. do. ........ 6 11 JvpUsr^s *do. do. 8 26 Saturn's do. do. ....*••• 0 26 From which it will appear, that all the planets, except Saturn, were on the same side of the heavens with the sun and moon. The sun's longitude at the time of the conjunction being 6' 22° 37', the point of the earth's shadow must be then directly opposite, * The day was called Thursday, because Jupiter on that day conquered the Titans. Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 29 that is, in 0' 22° 37'; and as Satum was in 0* 26^ the difference is something more than 2° from the line of the centre of the shadow ; which difference, how- ever, could be of no importance, as still Satum would be considered in the earth's shadow, according to the notions of the ancients, who believed that the earth was much larger than the sun, nay, that it was supposed to be flat, and surrounded with various seas, until it reached the starry heavens. But Satum was also said to be born *in the Lunar Asterism Rohini; which fact we must now ascertain, in order to prove the truth or falsehood of the assertioh. For this purpose we make choice of the star Cor LeoniSy whose longitude is 9° in the Lunar Asterism Magha. The longitude of this star, in A. D. 1750, was 4$ 26o 21' 12' Subtract precession for 2694 yean 1 7 40 42 Remain longitude in the jear MSB. C 3 18 40 30 Subtract longitude of Car Leonis in Magha •••••0 9 0 0 Remain longitude of the beginning of Magha ••••3 9 40 30 Subtract six Lunar Mansions, complete 2 20 0 0 Remain longitude of the beginning of Rohiin, • 0 19 40 30 Which taken from i9a<ifni' longitude 0 25 0 0 Leases Saturn's longitude in iioAtiii • 0 6 19 30 So that Satum was actually near the middle of Rokini at the time. Rohini is the 9th Lunar Aster- ism, reckoning from Dhanisht'ha, as the first.