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888 years ; or the number of years elapsed at the be- ginning of the Kali Yuga since the vernal equi- noctial point was in the beginning of the epicycle : subtract half a period, or 3736, the remainder 29.888, or near 30 years, was the time anterior to the beginning of Kali Yuga, when the equinoctial point was in the middle of the epicycle. The di- mensions of the epicycle in the system of Aryabhatta Digitized by Googk OF THE HINDUS. 141 is 96°, that is to say, each quadrant 24° ; but in the Surya Siddhanta, each quadrant is 27°: in other respects, the explanation is the same. From a fourth part of the entire revolution = 1868 years, subtract 29.888, we get 1838.112, the year of the. Kali Yiiga, when the precession was 24° eastward by this system ; and as it decreased from that time, if we add one fourth of a revolution, or 1868 years, we get 3706.112, the year of the Kali Yuga, when the precession was nothing, and the vernal equinoc- tial point in the beginning of the epicycle, in a line with the beginning of the Lunar Asterism Aswinl. This corresponded to the year A. D. 605. From these data, it is easy to determine the precession at any time since the year 3706, by the rule of propor- tion, by saying, as 1868 years to 24 degrees, so the number of years elapsed since the year 3706 to the precession. Thus, suppose required for the year of the Kali Yuga 4900, (A.D. 1799,) subtract 3706, theremainder is 1914; then, as 1868: 24°:: 1194: 15° 20' 25', the precession, or distance of the vernal equinoctial point from the Lunar Asterism Aswinl, reckoning on the periphery of the epicycle to the west. This quantity is by far too small, owing to the erroneous rate of precession made use of by Aryabhatta, which he makes only 46'.2526 per annum. The precession for the year 4423 of the Kali Yuga, (A. D. 1322,) when Aryabhatta wrote, would, by the same rule, be 9° 12' 43". Having thus explained the precession according to the scheme of Aryabhatta, we shall now proceed to show his contrivance for doing away, or pervert- ing the original meaning of the passage already alluded to, respecting the Rishis being in Magha in the time of Yiidhisthira, Parasara, &c. which term Digitized by Google 142 THE MODERN ASTRONOliY I have already explained in pp. 64, 66, 66, and sim- ply related to the precession of the equinoxes, and the motions of the Lunar Mansions depending on them, reckoning from the year 1192 B.C. when there was no precession, the fixed and moveable Lunar Mansions of the same name, then coinciding. Aryabhatta, finding this passage an obstacle in the way of transferring the ancient history of the Hindus to the immense periods of the modern system of Brahma, thought he might be able to remove the difljculty, by giving it a different explanation and turn ; which would at once, with all the astronomers and Brahmins, immortalize his name for ever. For this purpose, he assumed the Rishis, (the seven stars in the Great Bear,) to have a particular motion of themselves, different from all the rest of the stars, by which they moved, or were feigned to move eastward, at the rate of 13° 20', or one Lunar Man- sion every hundred years, or nearly so ; thereby making a complete revolution in about 2700 years, or rather 1599998 revolutions in a Kalpa, or 4320000000 years as given by himself in the system. At the commencement of his Kalpa, (1969920000 years before the beginning of the Kali YugUy) he assumes the line of the Rishis to be in the beginning of Aswini. Therefore, to find the position of that line at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, multiply the three right hand digits of the number 1599998 by 456, reserving the three right hand figures in the product, and we have 998 x 466 = .088, the decimal parts pf a revolution at the beginning of the Kali Yuga ; to find the value of which in years, say, as P^- : 2700^ :: .088"^-: 237.6^- which shows, that at thebeginning of the Kali Yuga, 237 years and 6-1 Oths Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 143 had elapsed from the .time the Rishis were in Aswim; and as the Rishis were feigned to move one Lunar Mansion tp the east, every hundred years, the man* sion in which the line of the Rishis then fell intoj was Kritica, 37 years. Now to find the time of Parasara, &c. we must add 100 years for each Lunar Mansion, till we come down to Magha, thus : — Add for Rohinl, . . 100 for Mrigasiras, . . 100 for Ardra, . . 100 for Punarvasu, . . 100 for Ptishya, . . 100 for Aslesha, . . 100 Total to the beginning o£ Magha, 662 A So that by this silly contrivance, the Rishis were feigned to be in the beginning of Magha, in the 663d year of the Kali Yuga, or B. C. 2439 ; and Parasara, Yudhisht'hira, &c. who lived between five and six hundred years before Christ, were thrown back into antiquity upwards of 1800 years ; nay, upwards of 4500 years, if he meant to place them in the Dwapar Yuga; for, in that case, we must go back one full period of 2700 years more. But neither of these agree even with the modem system, and not at all with the ancient method. It is natural, therefore^i to suppose that Aryabhatta's imposition would not gain credit, but, on the contrary, be opposed. For, Aryabhatta's contemporaries would naturally ask, where did he get all this supposed knowledge ? for he could know no more on matters of antiquity than they themselves did ; and, moreover, that the Rishis had no other motions in the heavens, but what all Digitized by Google 144 THE MODERN ASTROKOMT the Stars had in common. To silence all such im- pertinent questions, and to put all cavils to an end, he conceived that the best plan would be to follow up the imposition by another of a more formal nature, and against which, the same arguments that might be used against himself as a modern, could not so effectually apply. This was nothing more nor less than to forge and construct another work and father it on Parasara, giving it the name of the Parosmia Siddhanta. By this second piece of impo- sition, he could reply, that whether the Rishis had a separate motion of their own, differing from all the rest of the stars, or not, was a matter that had nothing to do with him, or whether he believed in such mo- tion or not ; that the ancients had employed it for the purpose of computation, and as a proof of it, that it still existed in the genuine work of Parasara, enti- tled the Parasara Siddhanta ; and that if they did not believe that work, they would not believe Parasara himself, if he rose from the dead to confirm it. Such, I conceive, would naturally be the arguments that would be employed by Aryabhatta to support his impositions. Having thus far explained the matter, we shall now give the system of Parasara, from the second chapter of the Arya Siddhanta. SYSTEM OF PARASARA. Revolutions of the PlanetSy Sf^,ina Kalpa, or 4320000000 Veart, according to ih* Parasara Siddhanta. Planets. Revolutions. Apsides. Nodes. Sun, 4320000000 480 488104634 366 626 327 982 64 232813236 648 893 246 190 630 Moon, 67763334114 JtfercwYy • 17937066474 YeDiu, 7022372148 MarSf •••••••••••• 2296833037 Japiter, •••••••••• 364219964 Saturn, ••••.•...• 146671813 Digitized by Google OF THE HINDUS. 145 ReTolotioBfl of the seren RitkU in 4890000000 yean 1 500008 ReTolBtioBs of the equinoxes in the epicjde in ditto, 581709 Solarmontht in diUo, 51840000000 Lonatioofl ••• in ditto, 5S433334615 Intercalary ditto in ditto, 159S334515 Tithb, or lonar daji in ditto, 160S0000S545O Naturaldaya in ditto, 1577917570000 Intercalary lunar days., ••••••••••..•••• in ditto, 25082465450 Sideraldays inditto, 1582237570000 This system was constructed precisely in the same manner as the system of Brahma, and therefore re- quires no further explanation on that account here. The number of years elapsed of the system at the beginning of the Kali YugCy is the same as in the system of Bi^ma, viz. 1972944000, and the days elapsed to the same epoch were 7 1 95304 1 1 920, The Kalpa also begins on Sunday at sunrise, on the meridian of Ujein, where in fact the system was framed. From the circumstance of tiie years elapsed at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, being the same as in the system of Brahma, a person unacqusdnted with the structure of these systems, would wonder why the revolutions of the planets, apsides, and nodes, are not the same in boUi.