fo far as yet unfolded, the Hindoo fciences; and, on this fubject, I must fortify myself with the obfervation of Sir William Jones, whom nobody will accufe, any more than, I truft, myself, of intended disrespect to the high character and functions of the Hebrew legiflator, but who has declared it to be his firm belief, arifing from both internal and external evidence, that the three prior Vedas are above three thousand years old;* and, to the YAJUSH VEDA, in particular, he affigns the poffible æra of 1580 years before the birth of Chrift, which is nine years prior to the birth of Mofes, and ninety before Mofes departed from Egypt with the Ifraelites.+ The first promulgation of the Inftitutes of Menu, he thinks, was coeval with the first monarchies established in Egypt or Afia; and he remarks a strong refemblance of them, in point of ftyle and grammatical conftruction, with the VEDAS themfelves. I fhall not enter farther into the question, but leave every man to form his

*On the Antiquity of the Indian Zodiac, in Afiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 289.

+ Ibid, vol. v. p. 4.

own

own opinion on the subject; and proceed to the confideration of what, by the industry of our learned countrymen, has been gleaned from those precious fragments of ancient Indian literature.

HAVING

HAVING already, in various parts of these volumes and the Indian hiftory, treated concerning many of the arts and fciences anciently moft cultivated in Hindostan; in particular their style of ARCHITECTURE, when difcourfing on the pagodas; their fkill in SCULPTURE, when examining the figures of Elephanta; having given the entire history of their progress in NAVIGATION, in an express differtation on that fubject, fo interesting to Britons, in the 6th volume of these Antiquities; having, also, in the Commercial Differtation, confidered their MANUFACTURES, and the arts more immediately connected with the beautiful productions of the Indian loom; I conceive my duty to the public, on this point, already in a great degree fulfilled. Their literature and fciences open an immenfe field for difcuffion, and materials for the full inveftigation of them are still among the Indian defiderata. I request, therefore,

in a particular manner, the exertion of the reader's candour in perufing the following Differtation, as the mine of Sanfcreet literature has been hitherto but little explored; though I rejoice to hear there are rising in India many able and willing candidates for that arduous employ.

GENERAL PHYSICS..

In all retrofpects upon Indian science and hiftory, it will be obferved that an uncom mon degree of natural history is blended with it; and, in fact, their mythology is a compound of phyfics and metaphyfics. Extenfive, therefore, as have already been our dif quifitions on that mythology, occafional references to it can with difficulty be avoided, becaufe, in fact, there is fcarcely an art or fcience which has not its refpective numen prefiding over it, who is fuppofed to direct the labours of the artist and the researches of the scholar. Even their theological fpeculations are, in a great degree, founded upon what they obferved pafling in the phyfical world. They faw a direct tendency in nature

to

to diffolution; they therefore fabricated a deftroying deity; but, as they also observed a power in nature capable of counteracting that tendency, the fame fertile imagination, in confequence, conceived a preferving deity, his enemy and antagonist. Hence, probably, the true fource of that rooted enmity immemorially fubfifting between the followers of Veefhnu and Seeva. Every element is, in fact, a perfonified God; the minerals of the earth, and the corals of the ocean, have their guardian genii; and a subtle spirit pervades and prefides over even the humblest tribes of vegetation.

Much as hath already been said on the subject, yet, as it is ever a prominent object in Oriental literary research, I commence my inquiries with renewed investigations and fummary retrospect upon their fyftem of

ASTRONOMY.

I have ventured, in various parts of the two works before the public, to give a date to the Brahmin fyftem of Aftronomy nearly coeval with the flood; because, in whatever