English
Hence the figure of Krishna is almost always accompanied with that of one or more ser p^ats, as emblematic of time ; for all ^ the deities whose representations or sculptures are accompanied by figures of serpents, are without doubt mere per- sonifications of time, whether taken as the year or Digitized by Google 112 THE MODERN ASTRONOMY time indefinite*. Arjuna in the Geeta, page 93, in addressing Krishna, says : *' I am anxious to learn thy source, and ignorant of what thy presence here portendeth." Krishna answers : '^ I am Time^ the destroyer of mankind, matured, come hither to seize at once on all these who stand be/ore us.'' The fabrication of the incarnation and birth of Krishna, was most undoubtedly meant to answer a particular purpose of the Brahmins, who probably were sorely vexed at the progress Christianity was making, and fearing, if not stopped in time, they would lose all their influence and emoluments. It is, therefore, not improbable but that they conceived, that by inventing the incarnation of a deity nearly similai- in name, to Christ, and making some parts of his history and precepts agree with those in the gos- pels used by the Eastern Christians, they would then be able to turn the tables on the Christians by representing to the common people, who might be disposed to turn Christians, that Christ and Krishna were but one and the same deity ; and as a proof of it, that the Christians retained in their books some of the precepts of Krishna, but that they were wrong in the time they assigned to him ; for that Krishna, or Christ, as the Christians called him, lived as for back as the time of Yudhishthira, and not at the time set forth by the Christians. Therefore, as Christ and Krishna were but one and the same deity, it woujWUije ridiculous in them, being already of the true fei^, to follow the imperfect doctrines of a set of outcasts, who had not only forgotten the religion of their forefathers, but the country from * All tbe Hind as are Satarnalians, that is, worshippers of time, under various shapes and names, according to the different sects. Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 113 which they originally sprung. Moreover, that they were told by Krishna, in his precepts, that a man's own religion, though contrary to, 4s better than, the faith of another, let it be ever so well followed. " It is good to die in one's own faith ; for another's faith beareth fear." Geeta, pp. 48, 49, I have thus endeavoured to explain, what I con- ceive the motives of the Brahmins to have been, in their invention of the incarnations of Vishnu, parti- cularly that of Krishna : nor have I any doubt but that the whole of the incarnations were invented at one and the same period ; and as they were then destroying the old, and forging new books, to answer the purpose of the newly introduced system above explained, an opportunity offered of referring them to different portions of history, that the whole might have the appearance of reality. Krishna they artfully threw back to the time of Yudhishthira, because by that means they put the matter beyond the power of investigation, following exactly the examples of the Egyptians, Clialdeans, and Greek priests and poets, in throvdng back the times of the war between the gods and giants, the Argonautic expedition, and the war of Troy, to periods of time out of the power of any one to contradict them : and this in fact is the case with almost all fictions, however plausible they may be. What shall be now thought of the antiquity of Hindu books, in most of which, and particularly the Mahabharaty they give the exploits of Krishna? Even some of the Vedas speak of him, which cer- tainly is not saying much in favour of their antiquity. The age of the Mahabharat is mentioned in Sir Stamford Raffles' History of Java, by which, at the utmost, it could not have been written earlier than Q Digitized by VjOOQ IC 114 THE MODERN ASTRONOMY about the year 786 of the Christian era ; but from the words forming the date, the probability is, that it was as late as the year A.D. 1157. The war of the Mahabharat, most likely, is nothing more than a mere fiction of the poet. It is somewhat remarkable that none of the writings of the Christians who resided in India anterior to, or about A.D. 538, have come down to our time. If any exist at this day, they would most probably be invaluable, in throwing light on that part of the Hindu history, &c. which is now lost, in consequence of being either destroyed or concealed by the moderns, to make room for their new system. It is not impossible, however, but that some of them, with early Hindu manuscripts, may still exist, locked up in some immense public or private library in Europe, totally unknown and forgotten ; where they will remain, until the great Hindu deity, Time, puts an end to them, by finally mouldering them into dust. Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 115 SECTION II. System qf Varaha— FroM^d tii th€ ninik eeniwry^Tke oijeet qfU-^ Wi>rki im which it is given — Observation on Ctmopus rtferring toA.D, 028 — Revotu* tions qf the Planets^ i^e, in the System — Years elapsed to the beginning qf the Kali Ynga-^ Formation qf the Systewt^ with Remarks-^ Compared with the System </ Brahma — Age qfthe System determined — Lunar Asterisms'-^ The places qf some Stars not agreeing with the names qf the Mansions— The camse expUdned^ and shown in a Talfle — Precession qf the Equinoxes — The method employed artificial, by assuming the motion in an epicycle — Explained by a Diagram — The terms Libration or Oscillation inconsistent with the Author^s meaningy which is further expUmed by the Commentator^ i^c, ifc. We now come to notice the next astronomical sys- tem of the Hindus, in point of antiquity ; that is to say, the system of Varaha. This system, from the astronomical data it gives, appears to have been formed in the ninth century of the Christian era. The object of the author, whoever he may have been, was, first, to support the notions introduced by the last system, in respect to the time of the creation, &c. &c. ; secondly, to give new numbers that would give the positions of the planets correctly at the time^ those given in the former system no longer answering, with sufficient accuracy, that purpose ; and, thirdly, to render the calculation of the places of the planets, &c. much more simple and easy by smaller numbers, than could be done by the unwieldy numbers in the system of Brahma. The system of Varaha* is given in the following * Thu name Varaha, is sapposed bj some to haye an allasion to the feigned iucarnation of Vishna under that name, while others suppose it to be from Varaha Mihira ; but it is perfectly immaterial which. It is certain, however, that Varaha Mihira was not the author of the system, as will be seen in the fourth Section, where Digitized by Google 116 THE MODERN ASTRONOMY works: — the Vasishiha Siddhanta, the author of which is pretended to have lived 1299101 years before the Christian era ; the Surya Siddhanta pre- tended to have been written 3027101 years before the Christian era* ; and the Soma Siddhanta, feigned to have been written by Gopi Raja at the close of the Dwapar, or 3101 years B.C. By these may be seen, the mode adopted for sup- porting the imposition introduced by the former system, that of people living, and cultivating the arts and sciences at immense periods of time back. The three works just mentioned, it is probable, were written at different times, as occasion required, to support the imposition. The Vasiskt'ha Siddhanta, * I consider as the oldest, because the supposed author of that work is said to have observed Canopus, when that star was exactly in the beginning of Cancer. This observation is mentioned by Dada Bhai, a commentator on the Surya Siddhanta, and is the very position given in the Surya Siddhanta, which we must therefore conclude to have been written sub- sequent to the observation of Vasisht'ha. it will be shown that he was contempontry with Akber. This, howoTer, does not prove that the system might not be called after him ; neither does it proTO any thing agabst his beug the supposed author of the Viuiahl^ha the Swrya, and Soma SiddhmUoMt under feigned names, &o. the better to support the modem system of years introduced in A. D.