English
The facts we have thus exhibited prove decidedly, and beyond the possibility of doubt, the time in which Parasara, Yudhisht'hira, and Garga lived, they being contemporaries, I have been more par- ticular on this head than perhaps was necessary ; but my reason for it was, to show the falsehood and impositions of certain modern Hindu writers, who have, through sophistry and low cunning, endea- voured to destroy the epoch of Yudhisht'hira (2526 of the Kaliyuga of the modern astronomers), and to throw back his time to a very remote antiquity; some placing him 2448 years before the Christian Digitized by Google OF THE niNDLS. 73 era, while others, more bold, even go so far as 3100 years before that period. The impositions here al- luded to, and the methods employed, will be more fully explained when we come down to the times of Aryabhatta, Varaha Mihera, and others. The next astronomical period (the 4th) began on 27th of November 451 B. C. when the Hindu year commenced with the month Pausha, and the Lunar Asterism Purvashadha. In this period I have met with no observations worth mentioning, except one near the close of it in 215 B. C. when it was found, that at the winter solstice, or beginning of the solar month of Magha, the sun and moon were in conjunc- tion on Sunday, at sunrise, in the beginning of the Lunar Asterism Sravana. This observation was the foundation of the festival called the Ardha Udaya, which is still kept up with gieat pomp and cere- mony, though, strictly speaking, it cannot now take place under all the same circumstances, on account of the changes that have taken place by the preces- sion of the equinoxes. Digitized by Google 74 THE ANCIENT ASTRONOMY SECTION V. PROM 204 B. C. TO A. p. 5$8. Ctmmencement of the J(fth Astronomical Period — Astronomy further improved ~^More accurate Tables formed^ a$id Equations introduced — The Hiniu History divided into four Periods, and the Commencement of each settled astronomically — Tables tf the four Ages, and their respective Years of Com- mencementf with the Errors in the Tables then used. We now come down to the beginning of the 5th astronomical period, or 25th December 204 B.C. when the Hindu year began with the month of Magha, at the winter solstice, and in the first point of the Lunar Asterism Sravana : this is marked in the calendar with the word Makari Saptamiy denot- ing, that the sun entered Capricorn on the 7th of the moon. Sometimes it is marked Bhaskara SaptamL The precession of the equinoxes now amounted to one whole Lunai- Mansion, or 13° 20', reckoning from the year 1192 B.C. when it was nothing; so that now the beginning of the fixed Lunar Asterism Magha, was in the beginning or first point of the moveable Lunar Mansion Purvaphalguni : or, in other words, the Rishis were in the beginning of Purva- phalguni: that is, the assumed fixed line already mentioned as cutting the beginning of the fixed Lunar Asterism Magha, and the star 0 of the Great Bear, did at this time cut the beginning of the move- able Lunar Mansion Purvaphalguni: so that the moveable Lunar Mansions, the months, and the Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 75 seasons, ail had fallen back 13^ 20' from the posi- tions they were in, 1 192 B. C. in respect of the fixed stars It appesurs that at, or about this period (204 B. C), improvements were made in astronomy: new and more accurate tables of the planetary motions and positions were formed, and equations introduced. Beside these improvements, the Hindu history was divided into periods, for chronological purposes; which periods, in order that they might never be lost, or, if lost or disputed, might, with the assist- ance of a few data, be again recovered, were settled and fixed by astronomical computations in the fol- lowing manner : — The years with which each period waa to commence and end having been previously fixed on, the inventor then, by computation, deter- mines the month, and moon's age, on the very day on which Jupiter is found to be in conjunction-witb the sun, in each of the years so fixed on ; which being recorded in the calendar and other books, might at any time be referred to for clearing up any doubt, in case of necessity. It was firom these conjunctions of the sun with Ju- piter, that the periods themselves were named Yugas, or conjunctions ; and the order in which they were named was thus : — The first period immediately preceding the inventor, was called the first, or Kali Yuga ; the second, or next, was called the Dwapar Yuga ; the third was called the Treta Yuga ; and the fourth, or furthest back from the author, was called the Krita Yuga, and with which the creation began. The end of the first period, called the Kali, was fixed by a conjunction of the sun, moon, and Jupiter, in the beginning of Cancer, on the 26th June, 299 B. C. This was called the Satya Yuga, or true conjunction, Digitized by Google 7e THK ANCIENT ASTRONOMY and is the radical point from which the calculation proceeds. Having thus far explained the principles on which the four ages of the ancient J^iw^?/^ were founded and settled, I shall now exhibit them complete, with all their dates, in the following table : Names and Order of the Four Ages. Dates. Moon's Age and Month. Error in the Hin- da Tables nsed. Kriia, or fourth Tretd, or third JDwapar, or second Kali, Or first >- ended 19th AprU 2352 B.C. 28th Oct. 1528 .. 15 th Sept. 901 .. 8th Feb. 540 . . 26th Jane 299 .. ^rdrmofVaisakha, 9th .. o^Karfika, 28th .. oiBkadra, 15th .. otMdghay 1st .. of Sravana, Aboat21o46'— .. 13 1 — .• 6 22 — .. 2 33 — .. 0 1 + The mean motion of Jupiter in the Hindu tables employed for calculating the conjunctions and set- tling the periods, appear to have been P0°2r9"54'", or nearly so, which being too great by about 38" would cause the error to increase continually the fur- ther we go back into antiquity, as exhibited in the last column, and from which a near conclusion can be drawn as to the time the tables were framed, from the decrease in the error. I fix them to the year 204 B. C. because it was then the commencement of the astronomical period, at which the astronomers would naturally correct their table by new observa- tions. Moreover, it appears that the Hindu history, according to the above periods, so settled and ad- justed, was brought down, either by the inventor or some other person, to the year 204 B.C. and there terminated. It will naturally be observed, that the year of the Hindu creation, or beginning of the Krita, corre- sponds exactly with the year of the Mosaic flood, which is a most remarkable circumstance, and points out the opinion of the Hindus at that period, (204 Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 77 B. C.) in respect of the time of the creation. The year 2352 B. C. was a leap-year, and the 19th April fell on Sunday, eight days after the vernal equinox. Thus the periods of Hindu history stood in the year 204 B.C.; but in the first century of the Christian era, it appears that they again changed the time of the creation, and carried it back to the autumnal equinox 4225 B.C. The particular periods then employed, the astronomical method used for fixing them, and the probable cause of the change, will be explained when we come down to that period. The Hindus commence the reigns of their kings with the Treta, which according to the table, began on the 28th of October, in the year 1528 B.C. common reckoning. Rama, whose birth we have already shown, from astronomical facts, to have been in the year 961 B.C. was the last prince that reigned in the Treta : and from the first, named Ikswaku, down to Rama, mclusive, there were about 56 reigns in the space or period of 627 years, which gives an average of about 11 and l-6th years to a reign. The Treta terminated in the year 901 B.C.; and as Rama was bom 961 B.C. he must at the close of the period have been 60 years of age, if then living. The next period, the Dtvapar^ began in 901 B.C. and ended in 540 B. C. and therefore lasted about 361 years, in which space there were thirty reigns, giving an average of about 12 years to a reign. The next period, the Kali, began in 540 B.C. : therefore Yud- hisht'hira, whose time I have shown to have been 575 B. C. was of course but 35 years before the be- ginning of the Kali Yuga. The Kali lasted from 540 B.C. to 299 B.C.