English
Thus I have at length, I think, not only confirmed the most famous epoch in Hindu history, that of Rama, but also, in a most decisive manner, shown the real time of that most extraordinary of all fictions that ever was invented by human ingenuity, the War between the Gods and the Giants; which fiction, about two hundred years afterwards, was new-mo- delled and improved by Hesiod and others, sgid ulti- mately became the foundation of the religions of various nations of antiquity, on which more will be said in the next section. -Digitized by Google 30 THE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY I shall now proceed to give some explanation 6i the origin of tiie fiction^ which in itself is nothing more nor less than a feigned war between light and darkness, and their imaginary offsprings. The eclipse took place on the 25th of October, at which time the longitude of the snn and moon was & 22° 37\ Now the Hindu months always began at the fnom^nt the sun was supposed to enter the sign : therefore it was the 23d day of the month of Kartika when the eclipse happened^ reckoning back bom this ; and the first of the month will be fouiwi to have fidlen on the end of the sixth day of the moon. This being the time of the autumnal equinox, it was found by observation that the Colures had fallen back in respect of the fixed stars, 3° 20' since the former observations in 1181 B.C.; so that the cardinal points of the year, or the Colures, were now found in the following positions : — The vernal equinoctial point in the middle of Bharanl the 7th. The summer solstice in 3° 20' oiAilesha the 14th. The autumnal equinox in the beginning of Visaka the 21st And the winter solstice in 10° of Havana the 27th- It is said^ that at this time they formed the stars into vaiious groupes or constellations, but of which we have now v^ry little or no knowledge. It is also said, that the theogony was then formed or invented, and that the heavens were divided or shared between the gods, each having a certain portion assigned to him, which stands on Hindu record to this day. Among these deities was Yama, the judge of the dead, the Pluto of the Western mythologists. To him the Lunar Asteri^m Bharam (the 7th) was a^Sr signed as his house: so that from the positions of Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 31. the Colures at the tune above described, the equi- noxial Golure passed through the very middle of it } and the solstitial Colures cutting Ailesha in 3° 20', and Sravana in 10°, divided the heavens exactly in two equal portions ; from which, I believe, the fiction of the heavens being divided between Jupiter and Pluto originally sprung. (See Plate III. in which the Mansions are numbered as in Plate XL) From these positions, it is evident, that the solstitial Co- lures, which divided the heavens, would also form the boundary between light and darkness ; and as the serpent's head was always at the winter solstitial point, as I formeiiy explained, a line drawn from it, cutting the serpent in th6 middle, would place the head, or first half, in the darkened hemisphere, and the tail, or last half, in the enlightened hemisphere. Hence the poet, in his fiction, places the ASuras at the head, and the iSuras at the tail, which Ive see was strictly true ; for Sura means light, and comes from the root ^ura, to shine, &c. and Aiura means the opposite, consequently darkness. Thus the morning star (which in ancient time was supposed to be the planet JkpiVer), was called the guide of the gods, be- cause it indicated the approach of day, or light; while, on the other hand, the evening stair {Venus) was called the guide of the Aiur(iSy because it indi- cated the approach of daikness, or night. This short explanation will, I hope, be considered as sufiicient ; to enter more fiilly into the subject would require the whole of the Hhidu theogony to be brought forward and explained, which would swell this essay to a much greater extent than what is absolutely neces- sary for the purpose intended. It has been mentioned above, that the beginning of the month fell on the end of the sixth day of the Digitized by Google 32 THE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY moon^ and that it was found that the Colures had fallen back from their former positions 3° 20'. This made the beginning of the month Kartika coincide with that of the Lunar Asterism Visakha, in conse- quence of which it was made the commencement of the year; and in order to make this circumstance still more remarkable, it was made the birth of Kar- tikeya, or the Hindu god of war (a personification of the year, beginning with the month Kartika), naming him in the form of a patronymic, fi-om the month with which the year began. Moreover, they esta- blished a festival in honour of him, which is marked in the Hindu calendar by the name of Guha Shasti : Guha, implying Kartikeya, and Shasti, the sixth day of the moon on which the year began. At the festi- val he is represented as riding on a peacock, indi- cating thereby that he is the head, and all the planets are stars in his train; whence, metaphorically, he is called the general of armies, which he is there supposed to lead. He is called by a variety of epi- thets, indicating his supposed exploits, qualities, &g. such as, Shadanana — six-faced, in allusion to the six seasons of the year : Dwddakahchana — twelve-eyed, in allusion to the twelve months of the year : Yisaka — alluding to the commencement of the year with that Lunar Asterism. It appears also, that the astronomers of this period (945 B.C.), among other things, had determined the rate of precession of the equinoxes, which they found to be 3° 20' in 247 Hindu tropical years and one month ; in consequence of which determination, they settled the commencement of the former period, and made it the first of Aswina in the year II 92 B.C. Digitized by Google OF THE HIKDUS. 33 i^ich fell on tiie sixth day of the moon, as men- tioned in the last section. They found that in this period of 247 years and one month, in which the sun made 247 revolutions and one sign over, that the moon made 3303 revolu- tions and one sign over, and that there were 3056 lunations complete, and that the number of days in the whole period was 90,245i. Hence we get. Length of the Tropical year 366^- &"' 60^ lO'S of the Hindu side- ralyear . . 365 6 9 52^ ofalnnati<m . 29 12 44 3 Moon's tropical revolution 27 7 43 6 Mean annual precession 48' 56661 Sun's mean motion for 365 days 1 1* 29'' 45' 37* Moon's mean motion for 365 days 13'* 4 9 22 57 From the circumstance of the astronomical period above maitioned, containing one month over and above 247 years, it is obvious that it must begin and end with the same month of the year, and that the next succeeding period would begin with the month following, and.thereby change the commence- ment of the year one month later each succeedmg period: and, moreover, as there was a complete number of lunations (3056) in the period, it follows that the moon's age would be always the same at the commencement of each succeeding period. For instance, at the beginning of Kartika, 945 B.C. the sun's longitude was 6% and the moon's was 8' 12 ; hence it was the end of the sixth lunar day of 12"^ each : and this would be constantly the same at the beginning of each period, in succession, as may be seen by the following table of all the changes made in the commencement of the Hindu year, from 1192 B.C. down to A.D. 638, when the ancient method Digitized by Google 34 THE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY was entirely laid aside, and the present, or sideral astronomy introduced. & Began. Months. L. A. Coin- ciding. Son's Longit Moon's Longit. Calendar. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1192B.C. 945.. 698.. 451 .. 204.. 44A.D. 291.. 538.. I Iswina 1 Kdrtika 1 Agrahdyam IPausha \ Mdgha 1 PUlguna XCkaUra 1 Vmadhha Chiird Visdkhd Jyesthd P. Asdd'ha Sravand Saiiihishd U.Bhddrapadd Aswini 5s 00 6 0 7 0 8 0 9 0 10 0 11 0 0 0 78120 8 12 9 12 10 12 11 12 0 12 1 12 2 12 Shasty Adikalpa GuhaShasH MUra St^ami Jdknu SapUtm I Sept lOct. 29 .. 27 Nov 25 Dec 23 Jan. 21 Feb.