one lakh of yojans in width; that this dwíp is surrounded by a sea of salt-water, also one lakh of yojans in width; that this salt sea is encompassed by a second dwíp of two lakhs of yojans in breadth, and it again by a sea of sugar-cane juice of the same width; that five other belts of alternate islands and seas (each island being of double the width of its predecessor, with a sea of the same width as its adjacent island), succeed each other in regular order. The seas are of fermented liquor, ghí, milk, dhaí, and sweet-water. The Puráns assert, that the earth is not falling in space as the Jains maintain, but is supported by the great serpent Shesha. Such at last is the assertion of the Bhagavata, the most popular of the Puráns. In others, the task of supporting the earth is allotted to the tortoise, or to the boar Varáha. The Puráns maintain that there is but one moon and one sun; that the moon however is at a distance from the earth double of that of the sun; that the moon was churned out of the ocean; and is of nectar; that the sun and moon and constellations revolve horizontally over the plane of the earth, appearing to set when they go behind Merú, and to rise when they emerge from behind that mountain; that eclipses are formed by the monsters Ráhú and Ketú laying hold of the sun or moon, against whom, as well as against all the other deities of heaven, they bear implacable enmity. VrásJí is believed to be the author of all the Puráns; he was probably the compiler of them; he is revered as divinely inspired. SHANKAR A'CHARYA, who flourished about 400 or 500 years ago, distinguished himself as a supporter of this system and as an enemy and persecutor of the Jains; he was also a reformer, but his reforms were confined to morals, and to religious institutions and sacraments. The followers of the Puráns are by far the most numerous of the three classes. The bráhmans, generally the rájpúts, kaiths, and indeed the mass of the population throughout India, all belong to this class.

3rd. The jyotishís or followers of the Siddhántas believe in a system widely differing from both of these. Their system is, with the exception of a few inconsiderable differences, that of Ptolemy. They teach the true shape and size of the earth, and the true theory of eclipses. The earth they place in the centre of the universe, around which revolve in order, as taught by Ptolemy, the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The irregularities in the motions of the sun and moon they account for by supposing them to move, as also did Ptolemy, in epicycles, whose centres revolve in their circular orbits. The authors of the Siddhántas, and especially BHASKAR A'CHÁRYA, the author of the most recent and most popular Siddhánta, called the " Siddhánta Siromani," have spared no pains to expose and

ridicule the monstrous absurdities of the Jain Sutrás and the Puráns. They have always professed in their writings the greatest admiration for the learned men of the West, the Ionians or Yavans;" whilst the Puráns have denounced those who hold any communication with men of these nations, termed by them the lowest of the low. A'RYA BHA'T, the author of the A'rya Siddhánta, expressly maintains the daily revolution of the earth on its own axis, though not its annual revolution.

It is the object of this essay to draw the attention of the public, and especially that of all friends of native education to these Siddhántas, and to recommend them to more general attention and study than they have yet found. It will be asked, "Are you of opinion that they contain any thing which has escaped the research of DAVIS, COLEBROOKE, and BENTLEY, and which may yet throw some new light on the science of Astronomy, on Chronology, or on History?" I must answer, No. But I feel assured from experience, that they afford us beyond all comparison the best means of promoting the cause of education, civilization, and truth, amongst our Hindu subjects.

4th. Here I shall be at once met with the question, "Why go back a thousand years in search of truth avowedly containing some admixture of error, when the pure and the unadulterated truth is at hand, and may be communicated with equal facility ?"

To this I reply, that the pure and unadulterated truth not only cannot be communicated with equal facility, but is absolutely rejected by the mass of the Hindu population of India; but that with the aid of the authority of the Siddhántas, the work of general and extensive enlightenment may be commenced upon at once, and will be most readily effected, the truths taught by them being received with avidity. To explain and correct their errors will at the same time be easy.

5th. With regard to the population of the three Presidencies, the argument of my supposed opponent may, and I believe, does, apply. The native mind there is fully prepared, nay, eager, to receive any cultivation that can be given to it; but what has led to this? For generations, indeed, I may say for centuries past, the native populations there have enjoyed the humanizing advantages of daily intercourse with enlightened Europeans and foreigners of all nations; of a moderate and steady government; and of an extensive foreign commerce; there too the brahmans and the studious have for the same long period, had the benefit of many schools, colleges, and learned institutions, superintended by English teachers, distinguished for their learning and science; there the Press, English and Native, disseminating its daily modicum of knowledge, has at length succeeded in awakening a spirit of inquiry

and discussion, and taught the people the grand uses and advantages to which it may be applied; and there the Missionary, for generations past, has never intermitted in his sacred labours to root out the widespread degrading superstition, and to plant in its stead the seed of the purest morality and of true religion. There, in short, the populations have already advanced far in their course of civilization.

6th. But how widely different is the state of all the rest of the vast continent of India; at least of all Central India, including Nágpur, Berár, Málwá, and Rájputáná, in which my own personal experience has lain. The mass of the population is as rude and barbarous, and ignorant, and superstitious, as it was 17 years ago, when the supremacy of the British Government was first established. Of all the advantages, which have contributed to the enlightenment of the Native mind at the several seats of Government, it cannot be said to have enjoyed even one. What reception then can the announcement of the pure truth be expected to experience amongst a people in such state? With what reason can it be hoped, for a moment, that the English language and English literature, with its varied stores of knowledge, can here receive any cultivation ? Even the most learned of the Hindu population find it impossible to comprehend, without assistance, the very best of our translations into their own languages. The native mind, habituated to the idlest absurdities, has neither relish nor taste for plain sober truth.

7th. Is it your opinion then, it may be asked, that the example of the Jesuit Missionaries of the south-west of India should be followed, and that the truth, to make it agreeable to the present state of the native mind, be dressed up in all the fantasies of a foolish superstition? By no means; I would on no account or in any degree degrade or compromise the simple dignity of sacred truth. But what prevents our availing ourselves of the circumstances which afford us the most pow. erful means of dispelling from the land a darkness otherwise so hope. lessly impenetrable; if it be at once seen, that the Siddhantas do afford to us these most favorable and encouraging circumstances, and that to give a command and powerful influence over the native mind, we have only to revive that knowledge of the system therein taught, which notwithstanding its being by far the most rational, and formerly the best cultivated branch of science amongst the Hindus, and notwithstanding its being the foundation of such little knowledge as they display in predicting eclipses and the like, has, from the superior address of the fol. lowers of the Puráns, and the almost universal practice amongst the jyotishís, of making all their calculations from tables and short formulæ, couched in enigmatical verses, been allowed to fall into a state of utter oblivion ? 2T 2

8th. But how is this lost knowledge to be revived? I shall proceed to explain. In every petty hamlet, not only in Málwá, Rájputáná, and Berár, but throughout India, you will find the joshí or astronomer and astrologer in towns you will find many, and in large cities, even hundreds. It is their business to expound the pancháng, or almanac, to proclaim feasts and fasts, to fix the marriage-day, to tell the times of sowing and reaping; and forewarn their flocks of unlucky days: their services in short are in constant requisition. They are conjointly with the Patwárís, the village school-masters. The village joshí

can expound, but not work out the results given in his pancháng; that high qualification belongs only to the city joshí. But it must not be supposed, that the power to make a panchang, requires a knowledge of even the first principles or elements of his science. The utmost of his knowledge is 20 verses composing the Tithí Chintámaní, and 100 verses of a little book called the Graha Lághava, with a power of using the tables attached to them. By these few verses he can not only find the places of the sun, moon, and planets, but also work out eclipses. But the operation may be called purely mechanical, or an effort of memory. He can find the equatorial gnomonic shadow, from thence deduce the latitude (or acshánsha); he can tell you the amount of chará (or ascensional difference); the deshantará (or distance in longitude); the sun's declination (or krántí): but is wholly ignorant as to what things in nature are expressed by these terms. The verses of the Graha Lághava and Tithí Chintámaní contain only abbreviated formulæ for calculations; their wording is uncouth, and to the uninitiated, more unintelligible than an enigma. But though the ingenuity displayed in thus abbreviating calculations is considerable, it has had the effect above noticed of superinducing an utter neglect of the Siddhántas, in which the principles of the science are so fully, and in many respects so rationally, explained. I have met and cross-questioned many hundreds of joshís of late years; but in this large number, have found only two men who had a rational and full acquaintance with their own system. One is VAIJNATH, purohit of the Maháráo of Kotah; the other, JINCHAND, a jattí of great celebrity at Ajmere, and late of Jhulaí in Jypur. It is singular that neither of these are professed jyotishís; the former is expounder of the Puráns, and the latter a Gurú of the Jains. Oujain, once so famous for its learning, has not now a single Siddhántí jyotishí to support its great name. Indeed, so general and entire is the ignorance of most of the joshís of India, that you will find many of them engaged conjointly with the Puránic bráhmans in expounding the Puráns, and insisting on the flatness of the earth, and its magnitude of 50 crores of yojans in superficial diameter, as explained in them,

with a virulence and boldness which shew their utter ignorance of their proper profession, which had its existence only on the refutation and abandonment of the Puránic system. The Jains and all the followers of the Puráns of whatever caste you will find, on the other hand, betraying equal inconsistency in daily appealing to the panchángs of the jyotishí, and confidently maintaining the infallibility of their contents, though founded on a system with which the truth of their own is utterly inconsistent.

Of the sincerity of the ignorance of both parties there can be little doubt, from the profound veneration with which they, but especially the joshís, regard all the Siddhántas. The Súrya Siddhánta they firmly believe to have been communicated to men by the sun himself, the authors of all they believe to have been divinely inspired. These works are now thought to be, like the Vedas, wonderful displays of Divine wisdom, but totally beyond ordinary human comprehension. That man who has mastered their contents, they regard, and even fear as one possessed with superhuman powers.

10th. With this blind veneration and strong prejudice in favor of the Siddhántas, prevailing particularly amongst the joshís scattered all over India (and the latter are by no means an inconsiderable part of the learned of India), and in some degree, now also amongst the Jain and followers of the Puránas, can we for a moment hesitate in admitting the vast benefits to which the proper employment of these prevailing prejudices will lead ? How readily may a knowledge of the science, as taught in the Siddhántas, be recommunicated, especially to the joshís, whose lives are now idly spent in wading through unintelligible calculations deduced from the Siddhántas? With what exultation will every man of ingenuous mind amongst them receive explanations making plain and clear what is now all unintelligible and dark! They will not stop in simply admitting what is taught in the Siddhántas. Grateful to their European Instructors for bringing them back to a knowledge of the works of their own neglected, but still revered, masters, they will in the fulness of their gratitude, and from the exercise of their now improved powers of understanding, also readily receive the additions made during the last few hundred years in the science.

11th. From the extract now forwarded it will be at once seen, that there can be little or nothing which we have to teach in Geometry, Surveying, and Trigonometry generally, in Geography or Astronomy, of which BHASKAR A'CHA'RYA has not already given us the first principles, and for enabling us to explain which, he will not afford us many new and also the most appropriate arguments, in as much as they will be