Upon the road, coming from the court, we were passed by his majesty, who was going, on account of some bad news from his fleet at Donai, to perform a sacrifice at a temple situate in the bay our vessels kay in. He travelled in one of the neat pallenkees I have before described, distinguished by its being red, which colour no subject is allowed to use, in dress or equipage. We afterwards saw him from the deck, cross the river and land at the temple. He was in a covered boat, attended by five or six gallies, and about two hundred men. The ceremony, I was informed, chiefly consisted in bowing his head to the ground before the idols, and sacrificing a buffalo. I made application to be present at it, but it did not succeed. One might be led to imagine from the conversation I had with this rebel, that he was possessed of resources, in some degree adequate to his ambition, and that amongst the nations around him he might blaze into a meteor as baneful and as transitory as a Nadir. In the rise of their fortunes there may be traced a remarkable concurrence of circumstances; like the Persian, he was the commander of a small fortress in a strong situation, from whence he sallied and made a prey of the unwary; like him, he grew into consequence at about the same age, and under the pretence of supporting his sovereign, made himself master of the throne; like him he declares himself the avenger of the wrongs of his country, and becomes a tyrant more odious and destructive than it had ever before experienced; and like him it is not improbable, he may finish his career; at least it will be a reward best proportioned to his demerits. Happily, however, there is the appearance of some insuperable barriers, which promise to confine his future deeds to the scene he is now acting in. Ignaac himself is allowed to have qualities; but these are ill seconded by the mandarines who govern under him. They are all low, illiterate men, chosen from amongst the inhabitants of his native village of Tyson, who, as soon as they have got into power, have been remarkable only for their perfidy, cruelty, and extortion; and, if at a distance, barely acknowledge a dependance on the hand that raised them. Famine, and its attendant, pestilence, have destroyed one half of the inhabitants of the country; shocking are the accounts of the methods Asiatic Journ.-No. 18.

taken by the remainder to preserve a miserable existence. At Hue, the capital, though in possession of the Tonquinese, and better supplied than any other place, human flesh was publicly sold in the market. The country is almost drained of gold and silver;* part on breaking out of the troubles was plundered and carried away by the Tonquinese and Chinese. The remainder, since the great neglect of cultivating the lands and the destruction of manufactures, is daily decreasing, by sums sent to China, in return for the common necessaries of life, supplied from thence, at an exorbitant price by the junks. The force of Ignaac by land is very inconsiderable, and so deficient in the art military, that I may safely aver, an hundred disciplined men would rout his whole army. His marine force, consisting of a few gallies and three or four junks, seized from the Chinese, is almost as despicable; and in this his main dependance, he met with a severe loss, while I was in the country, by the secession of one half of it, on a dispute arising between his brother and one of the principal commanders under him.

Finally, his government is held in the utmost detestation; yet the spirits of the people are so broken by the various calamities they have been afflicted with, that they want courage to resist it effectually. Many of his soldiers, and almost all the principal people I met with, openly declared to me, and to those with me, how reluctantly they submit, and expressed their wishes that the English would take them under their protection; assuring us, that upon the least appearance of a force, the whole country would fly to join them. But more of this in its proper place.

revolutions in a Kalpa is.... 662 The revolutions of the moon's Uchcha and Páta have herein before been mentioned (b).

Having added together the time of six Manus, including their Sandhis, together with the Sandhi, at the beginning of the

Kalpa; likewise the three times nine Yugas which are passed of Vaivaswata Manu, and this the Krita Yuga; and having deducted the time of the creation beforementioned according to divine reckoning, thence will be found that 1,953,720,000 solar years have elapsed at the end of the Krita Yuga.

Hereafter let these be joined by the number of years of time passed; let them be turned into months and joined by the months Madhu, Sukla, (c) &c. also passed; substract the solar months, and the remainder will be the number of Adhimásas; let the number found, joined by the Adhimásas, be turned into days, and joined by days; substract the number of lunar days, and the remainder will be the Tithikshayas; subtract the Unarátri (d), and the product will be the number of Sávana days from Súrya (Sunday) or Lanka, (1st meridian) at midnight; and consequently the days, months, and years. Divided by seven, the remainder (e) (is

(a) Manda means slow-the Apogee seems to be implied.

(b) Vide supra.

(c) This should probably be Sukra, which is another name for the month Jyeshtha. Madhu is the month Chaitra.

(d) The same as Tithikshayas.

(e) According to Mr. Davis, the planetary motion commenced at the midnight, beginning Sunday, so that Sunday is the first day,

the number of days) from Súrya, who is the day-lord.

The days in a month (thirty) and in a year (three hundred and sixty) being to be calculated upon (the result will be) the numbers one, two, joined by one. Those two, a month and a year complete, are to be conceived divided by seven.

As a planet according to its mean position will be in the beginning of the zodiac (when) the number of days found (for its) proper revolution is divided by the Sávana days; so may the Sighra, Manda and Uchchha which have been mentioned of the planets moving east, likewise their Pátas whose motions are retrograde be cleared away.

This has been treated of in an ample manner ; what is in common use in a summary way.

The bringing of the planets to the mean (position) from their wonted usage is ne

cessary. At this the end of the Krita Yuga, all the planets are gone to the mean (positions), and are arrived at a state of equality in the beginning of Aries, without Páta, Manda or Uchch'a (position).

The diameter of the earth is eight hundred Yujanas, twice told. The root of ten times the square of that sum will be the earth's circumference.

The moon is driven away by its Páta farthest north and south from its Krántyangsa the eightieth part of the minutes of the zodiac.

Jupiter the ninth part of that twice told.

BOOK II.

Images of time, of invisible forms, by name Sighra (a), Manda (b), Uchch'ha (c), Páta (d), rest on the Bhagana, and cause the motions of the planets.

Fastened with their cords of air they are drawn away east and west by them with their left and other hands, as the front of their own point (may be) obtained.

Marutwán, too, under the title of Pravaha, may drive (them) with (their) own Uch'cha in front.

"Being drawn (when) arrived in the east, they go a different kind of motion.

He who is called Uchch'ha, when standing upon that half of the Bhagana which is to the east of the planet, draws the planet towards the east, and when on the western half, in like manner, towards the west.

When the planets, drawn away by their Uchch'has, go eastward with the Bhaganas, it is said there is Dhana in them, and Rina in those which are going westward. Thus Páta, too, by the proper force of Ráhu, driveth away north and south, and thus is occasioned the Vikshépa (e) of the moon &c. in due order.

Páta being in the western half, drives the planet towards the north, and being in the eastern half of the Bhagana, he draws it into the south.

From the Sighra of Mercury and Venus when Páta is in that manner situated, they too are driven away from that drawing of Sighra.

The sun because of the largeness of his Mandala () is drawn away but very little; but the moon from the nature of its Mandala is thence drawn much away.

Mars &c. from the nature of their forms, are drawn away very far, and with great speed, by those divine beings called Sighra, Manda, and Uchch'ha; and hence, because of their motions, their Dhana (g) and Rina (h) may be very great. Drawn by those beings, they move in the heavens, driven by the winds.

The planets have eight kinds of motion: crooked, very crooked, not crooked;

slow, slower; even, quick and more quick. Therein five sorts are to be conceived. The very quick may be quick, the slow more slow, the even straight. That motion, which is crooked may be very crooked. I will respectfully tell in what manner the planets always proceed to an equal state with the Drik () from the power of those respective motions, together with the formation of Kuthas.

The eighth part of the minutes in a sign is denominated the first Jyárddha. (5) That sum divided by itself and added to the dividend, with the quotient deducted, forms the second.

And in this manner are formed the twenty-four Jyárddhapindas, (k) by dividing the last result by the first, and having deducted the quotient to the former remainder, adding it to the dividend. The result is as follows:1st.... 225'

3d

4th....

6th.

13th.... 2585' 14th.... 2728

2nd.... 449

sine.

(k) Jyarddhapinda the sum of the Jyarddha. (1) Versed sine. (n) Sine of greater declination.

(m) Semidiametre.-Radius.

WHEN the king was arrived within the grove, semblance of Nandana, (the delightful garden of Indra, the ruler of the firmament), he forgot hunger and thirst, and was lost in extreme pleasure: he approached the exalted hermitage, attended by his minister, his high priest, and the ensigns of royalty; and being anxious to behold there that holy man, who was, as it were, an inexhaustible store of religious discipline, he looked about the recluse abode, which appeared to him like the region of Brahmá,* resounding with the hum of bees, and charmed with flocks of various birds: he heard mystic sentences from the holy Védas,+ repeated according to the rules of prosody, by the most eminent of those who were skilled in many such sentences, and in the performance of various and extensive religious ceremonies. The place was rendered glorious by Bráhmans‡ experienced in the office of performing sacrifices, by others of regulated lives, who sweetly sang the Sáma Véda,§ by such as chanted the Bhárunda Sáma, §§ and by those who had made themselves masters of the Atharva Véda,¶ all of them men of subdued minds, and well formed manners. There were some, who being greatly skilled in the Atharva Véda, and, on that account, much esteemed by those who perform the particular sacrifice called Puja-yajnya, who were repeating from that sacred work, according to the rules of art the place resounded with the voices of other Bráhmans, who were employed in the formation of words,** so that it resembled the region of the blessed Brahma. The king heard likewise, on all sides, the voices of men experienced in

the preparation of every thing necessary for performing a sacrifice; of such as were perfect in the principles of moral fitness, and in the knowledge of the soul; of those who were skilled in connecting collections of varying texts++; of others who were acquainted with particular offices of religion, men whose minds were engaged in securing salvation to the soul from mortal birth‡‡; of those who had attained a knowledge of the Supreme Being, through arguments of indubitable proof; of such as were professors of grammar, poetry and logic; of those who excelled in the science of chronology, of such as understood the nature of matter, motion and quality; of those who were acquainted with causes and effects; of some who had studied the language of birds and apes§§; of those who rested their faith on the works of Vyása||||; of others who were examples in the study of the various books of divine origin, and of the principal persons among those who court the pains and troubles of this world.

Here and there the chief of men beheld Bráhmans of the highest degree, men of subdued passions and austere lives, absorbed in the silent contemplation of the Deity, or making offerings of Ghee¶¶ on the holy fire. But when he saw those who were exercising, with infinite labour, their many wonderful and extraordinary modes of sitting, he was filled with as

+ Skilled in connecting collections of varying texts. Reconciling seeming differences in the Vedas.

Securing salvation to the soul from mortal birth; abstracting the mind from all worldly things, and, as it were, uniting it with the Divine Essence. This kind of absorption is called Moksha.

§§ Who had studied the language of birds and apes; who were acquainted with good and bad

omens.

Vyása. The name of one of their Prophets, and the reputed author of the Mahábhárata, and many other works.

¶¶ Ghee. The Hindus, even for culinary pur poses, reduce their butter to an oil, which is call ed ghee.

* Extraordinary modes of sitting; these Hindu Penitents, by way of discipline, bend and distort their legs and thighs under them in every uns natural way that can be conceived.