Hindu Astronomy

Abstract

THE ancient mathematical and astronomical works of the Hindus are worthy of more attention than they have yet received from Europeans. A lengthened residence in India led Mr. Brennand to become interested in the study of some of these, which was frequently interrupted by the pressure of official duties; but after his retirement he took up the subject again, and presented a paper on it to the Royal Society about five years ago. The interest manifested in this has encouraged him in the composition of the work before us, which it is hoped will have the effect of making the Hindu system of astronomy more generally known, and perhaps induce others to make further investigations on the subject. He begins by a discussion of the ancient zodiac, and its general correspondence amongst the Indians, Chinese, Chaldæans, Arabians, and Egyptians; treats also of the other division of the ecliptic into so-called lunar mansions; and shows the bearing of this upon the probability that the Hindus had originally migrated from Central Asia into India. This, however, is a view which probably few at the present time would dispute, as that is understood to be the original home of the Aryan race. It is when we come to the astronomical calculations with regard to the movements of the planets, the precession of the equinoxes, and the prediction of eclipses, that the problem of the source and origin of the astronomy contained in the Hindu books stands before us. Now as to the precession of the equinoxes, H. T. Colebrooke (who afterwards became the second President of the Astronomical Society, succeeding Sir William Herschel) pointed out in 1816 (“Asiatick Researches,” vol. xii. p. 221), that the Hindus “had approximated to the true rate of that motion much nearer than Ptolemy, before the Arabian astronomers, and as near the truth as these have ever done since.” The Hindus, indeed, appear to have reckoned it at one and a half degrees in a century, which is equivalent to a revolution in 24,000 years; whereas Albatenius, the earliest of the Arabian astronomers who improved upon Ptolemy, made it a degree in 66 years, which amounts to a revolution in 23,760 years. The true value of this is about 25,800 years; but though the Hindu is nearer it than the Arabian, the difference is hardly enough to warrant us in concluding that the two are independent. Hindu Astronomy. By W. Brennand. Pp. xiv + 329. (London: Chas. Straker and Sons, Ltd., 1896.)