14

HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE

tables are of comparatively modern date, not older, pro-bably, than the age of Ptolemy (a. n. 150) ; thoughthere is no doubt that the cultivation of astronomy is offar higher antiquity. The age of the Surya-Siddhantahas been placed by Mr. Bentley about b. c. 1000.

The Siamese tables assign certain cycles of the motionsof the sun and moon, which give the lengths of the side-real and tropical year as well as the lunar revolution,agreeing very closely with modern determinations. Oneof the early Indian astronomers, Aryabatta (whose dateis uncertain), advocated the doctrine of the earth’s rota-tion, as did also Bramah-Gupta at a much later period.They were certainly acquainted with some of the chiefinequalities in the motions of the sun and moon. It hasbeen a subject of controversy whether they borrowedfrom the astronomy of the Greeks. Sir W. Jones con-tended for the improbability of this idea from the knownaversion of the Brahmins to foreigners in general, andthe Greeks in particular. On the other hand, Mr. Cole-brooke has cited from one of their writers an acknow-ledgment of the superiority of the Greeks in astronomy.

In the mathematical sciences there seems great pro-bability that the Indians had attained considerableproficiency at a remote age. They appear to have beenearly in possession of the fundamental theorem of geo-metry, which we have as the 47th of Euclid’s 1st book,though at what date is uncertain, possibly before the ageof Pythagoras , who may have borrowed it from them.However this may be, they show great ingenuity in theirmethods of proving it, which they do upon principlesrather analytical than geometrical. Indeed it appears,from the testimony of all who have enquired intoIndian literature, that they were early conspicuous for,their acquaintance with algebra ; they have evincedparticular skill in the solution of problems of the classcalled indeterminate; their astronomical tables provethat they were acquainted with the principal theoremsof spherical trigonometry ; and their tables of sinesappear to be calculated by means of second differences.