The former five‐year cycle comprehends sixty solar‐sidereal months of 1800
days, sixty‐one solar months (or 1830 days); sixty‐two lunar months (or
1860 lunations), and sixty‐seven lunar‐asterismal months (or 1809 such
days).
In his _Kâla Sankalita_, Col. Warren very properly regards these years as
cycles; this they are, for each year has its own special importance as
having some bearing upon, and connection with, specified events in
individual horoscopes. He writes that in the cycle of sixty there
Are contained five cycles of twelve years, each supposed equal to
one year of the planet (Brihaspati, or Jupiter) ... I mention this
cycle because I found it mentioned in some books, but I know of no
nation or tribe that reckons time after that account.(639)
The ignorance is very natural, since Col. Warren could know nothing of the
secret cycles and their meanings. He adds:
The names of the five cycles or Yugas are: ... (1) Samvatsara, (2)
Parivatsara, (3) Idvatsara, (4) Anuvatsara, (5) Udravatsara.
The learned Colonel might, however, have assured himself that there were
“other nations” which had the same secret cycle, if he had but remembered
that the Romans also had their _lustrum_ of five years (from the Hindus
undeniably) which represented the same period if multiplied by 12.(640)
Near Benares there are still the relics of all these cycle‐records, and of
astronomical instruments cut out of solid rock, the everlasting records of
Archaic Initiation, called by Sir W. Jones (as suggested by the prudent
Brâhmans who surrounded him) old “back records” or reckonings. But in
Stonehenge they exist to this day. Higgins says that Waltire found the
barrows of tumuli surrounding this giant‐temple represented accurately the
situation and magnitude of the fixed stars, forming a complete orrery or
planisphere. As Colebrooke found out, it is the cycle of the _Vedas_,
recorded in the _Jyotisha_, one of the Vedângas, a treatise on Astronomy,
which is the basis of calculation for all other cycles, larger or
smaller;(641) and the _Vedas_ were written in characters, archaic though
they be, long after those natural observations, made by the aid of their
gigantic mathematical and astronomical instruments, had been recorded by
the men of the Third Race, who had received their instruction from the
Dhyân Chohans. Maurice speaks truly when he observes that all such
Circular stone monuments were intended as durable symbols of
astronomical cycles by a race who, not having, or for political
reasons, forbidding the use of letters, had no other permanent
method of instructing their disciples or handing down their
knowledge to posterity.
He errs only in the last idea. It was to conceal their knowledge from
profane posterity, leaving it as an heirloom only to the Initiates, that
such monuments, at once rock observatories and astronomical treatises,
were cut out.
It is no news that as the Hindus divided the earth into seven zones, so
the more western peoples—Chaldæans, Phœnicians, and even the Jews, who got
their learning either directly or indirectly from the Brâhmans—made all
their secret and sacred numerations by 6 and 12, though using the number 7
whenever this would not lend itself to handling. Thus the numerical base
of 6, the exoteric figure given by Ârya Bhatta, was made good use of. From
the first secret cycle of 600—the Naros, transformed successively into
60,000 and 60 and 6, and, with other noughts added into other secret
cycles—down to the smallest, an Archæologist and Mathematician can easily
find it repeated in every country, known to every nation. Hence the globe
was divided into 60 degrees, which, multiplied by 60, became 3,600 the
“great year.” Hence also the hour with its 60 minutes of 60 seconds each.
The Asiatic people count a cycle of 60 years also, after which comes the
lucky seventh decad, and the Chinese have their small cycle of 60 days,
the Jews of 6 days, the Greeks of 6 centuries—the Naros again. The
Babylonians had a great year of 3,600, being the Naros multiplied by 6.
The Tartar cycle called Van was 180 years, or three sixties; this
multiplied by 12 times 12 = 144, makes 25,920 years, the exact period of
revolution of the heavens.
India is the birthplace of arithmetic and mathematics; as “Our Figures,”
in _Chips from a German Workshop_, by Prof. Max Müller, shows beyond a
doubt. As well explained by Krishna Shâstri Godbole in _The Theosophist_:
The Jews ... represented the units (1‐9) by the first nine letters
of our alphabet; the tens (10‐90) by the next nine letters; the
first four hundreds (100‐400) by the last four letters, and the
remaining ones (500‐900) by the second forms of the letters “kâf”
(11th), “mîm” (13th), “nûn” (14th), “pe” (17th), and “sâd” (18th);
and they represented other numbers by combining these letters
according to their value.... The Jews of the present period still
adhere to this practice of notation in their Hebrew books. The
Greeks had a numerical system similar to that used by the Jews,
but they carried it a little farther by using letters of the
alphabet with a dash or slant‐line behind, to represent thousands
(1000‐9000), tens of thousands (10,000‐90,000) and one hundred of
thousands (100,000) the last, for instance, being represented by
“rho” with a dash behind, while “rho” singly represented 100. The
Romans represented all numerical values by the combination
(additive when the second letter is of equal or less value) of six
letters of their alphabet: i (= 1), v (= 5), x (= 10), c (for
“centum” = 100), d (= 500), and m (= 1000): thus 20 = xx, 15 = xv,
and 9 = ix. These are called the Roman numerals, and are adopted
by all European nations when using the Roman alphabet. The Arabs
at first followed their neighbours, the Jews, in their method of
computation, so much so that they called it Abjad from the first
four Hebrew letters—“alif,” “beth,” “gimel”—or rather “jimel,”
that is, “jim” (Arabic being wanting in “g”), and “daleth,”
representing the first four units. But when in the early part of
the Christian era they came to India as traders, they found the
country already using for computation the decimal scale of
notation, which they forthwith borrowed literally; _viz._, without
altering its method of writing from left to right, at variance
with their own mode of writing, which is from right to left. They
introduced this system into Europe through Spain and other
European countries lying along the coast of the Mediterranean and
under their sway, during the dark ages of European history. It has
thus become evident that the Âryas knew well mathematics or the
science of computation at a time when all other nations knew but
little, if anything, of it. It has also been admitted that the
knowledge of arithmetic and algebra was first introduced from the
Hindus by the Arabs, and then taught by them to the Western
nations. This fact convincingly proves that the Âryan civilisation
is older than that of any other nation in the world; and as the
_Vedas_ are avowedly proved the oldest work of that civilisation,
a presumption is raised in favour of their great antiquity.(642)
But while the Jewish nation, for instance—regarded so long as the first
and oldest in the order of creation—knew nothing of arithmetic and
remained utterly ignorant of the decimal scale of notation—the latter
existed for ages in India before the actual era.
To become certain of the immense antiquity of the Âryan Asiatic nations
and of their astronomical records one has to study more than the _Vedas_.
The secret meaning of the latter will never be understood by the present
generation of Orientalists; and the astronomical works which give openly
the real dates and prove the antiquity of both the nation and its science,
elude the grasp of the collectors of ollas and old manuscripts in India,
the reason being too obvious to need explanation. Yet there are
Astronomers and Mathematicians to this day in India, humble Shâstris and
Pandits, unknown and lost in the midst of that population of phenomenal
memories and metaphysical brains, who have undertaken the task and have
proved to the satisfaction of many that the _Vedas_ are the oldest works
in the world. One of such is the Shâstri just quoted, who published in
_The Theosophist_(643) an able treatise proving astronomically and
mathematically that:
If the Post‐Vaidika works alone, the Upanishads, the Brâhmanas,
etc., down to the Purânas, when examined critically carry us back
to 20,000 B.C., then the time of the composition of the _Vedas_
themselves cannot be less than 30,000 B.C., in round numbers, a
date which we may take at present as the age of that Book of
books.(644)
And what are his proofs?
Cycles and the evidence yielded by the asterisms. Here are a few extracts
from his rather lengthy treatise, selected to give an idea of his
demonstrations and bearing directly on the quinquennial cycle spoken of
just now. Those who feel interested in the demonstrations and are advanced
mathematicians can turn to the article itself, “The Antiquity of the
_Vedas_,”(645) and judge for themselves.
10. Somâkara in his commentary on the _Shesha Jyotisha_ quotes a
passage from the _Satapatha Brâhmana_, which contains an
observation on the change of the tropics, and which is also found
in the _Sâkhâyana Brâhmana_, as has been noticed by Prof. Max
Müller in his preface to _Rigveda Samhitâ_ (p. xx. foot‐note, vol.
iv.). The passage is this: ... “The full‐moon night in Phâlguna is
the first night of Samvatsara, the first year of the quinquennial
age.” This passage clearly shows that the quinquennial age which,
according to the sixth verse of the _Jyotisha_, begins on the 1st
of Mâgha (January‐February), once began on the 15th of Phâlguna
(February‐March). Now when the 15th of Phâlguna of the first year
called Samvatsara of the quinquennial age begins, the moon,
according to the _Jyotisha_, is in 3/4th of the Uttar Phâlgunî,
and the sun in 1/4th of Pûrva Bhâdrapadâ. Hence the position of
the four principal points on the ecliptic was then as follows:
The winter solstice in 3°29’ of Purva Bhâdrapadâ.
The vernal equinox in the beginning of Mrigashîrsha.
The summer solstice in 10 of Purva Phâlgunî.
The autumnal equinox in the middle of Jyeshtha.
The vernal equinoctial point, we have seen, coincided with the
beginning of Krittikâ in 1421 B.C.; and from the beginning of
Krittikâ to that of Mrigashîrsha, was, in consequence, 1421 +
26‐2/3 x 72 = 1421 + 1920 = 3341 B.C., supposing the rate of
_precession_ to be 50° a year. When we take the rate to be 3°20"
in 247 years, the time comes up to 1516 + 1960·7 = 3476·7 B.C.
When the winter solstice by its retrograde motion coincided after
that with the beginning of Pûrva Bhâdrapadâ, then the commencement
of the quinquennial age was changed from the 15th to the 1st of
Phâlguna (February‐March). This change took place 240 years after
the date of the above observation, that is, in 3101 B.C. This date
is most important, as from it an era was reckoned in after times.
The commencement of the Kali or Kali Yuga (derived from “kal,” “to
reckon”), though said by European scholars to be an imaginary
date, becomes thus an astronomical fact.
INTERCHANGE OF KRITTIKÂ AND ASHVINÎ.(646)
We thus see that the asterisms, twenty‐seven in number, were
counted from the Mrigashîrsha when the vernal equinox was in its
beginning, and that the practice of thus counting was adhered to
till the vernal equinox retrograded to the beginning of Krittikâ,
when it became the first of the asterisms. For then the winter
solstice had changed, receding from Phâlguna (February‐March) to
Mâgha (January‐February), one complete lunar month. And, in like
manner, the place of Krittikâ was occupied by Ashvinî, that is,
the latter became the first of the asterisms, heading all others,
when its beginning coincided with the vernal equinoctial point,
or, in other words, when the winter solstice was in Pansha
(December‐February). Now from the beginning of Krittikâ to that of
Ashvinî there are two asterisms, or 26‐2/3°, and the time the
equinox takes to retrograde this distance at the rate of 1 in 72
years is 1920 years; and hence the date at which the vernal
equinox coincided with the commencement of Ashvinî or with the end
of Revatî is 1920 ‐ 1421 = 499 A.D.
BENTLEY’S OPINION.
12. The next and equally‐important observation we have to record
here is one discussed by Mr. Bentley in his researches into the
Indian antiquities. “The first lunar asterism,” he says, “in the
division of twenty‐eight was called Mûla, that is to say, the root
or origin. In the division of twenty‐seven the first lunar
asterism was called Jyeshtha, that is to say, the eldest or first,
and consequently of the same import as the former” (_vide_ his
_Historical View of the Hindu Astronomy_, p. 4). From this it
becomes manifest that the vernal equinox was once in the beginning
of Mûla, and Mûla was reckoned the first of the asterisms when
they were twenty‐eight in number, including Adhijit. Now there are
fourteen asterisms, or 180°, from the beginning of Mrigashîrsha to
that of Mûla, and hence the date at which the vernal equinox
coincided with the beginning of Mûla was at least 3341 + 180 × 72
= 16,301 B.C. The position of the four principal points on the
ecliptic was then as given below:
The winter solstice in the beginning of Uttara Phâlgunî in the
month of Shrâvana.
The vernal equinox in the beginning of Mûla in Kârttika.
The summer solstice in the beginning of Pûrva Bhâdrapadâ in Mâgha.
The autumnal equinox in the beginning of Mrigashîrsha in
Vaishâkha.
A PROOF FROM THE BHAGAVAD GÎTÂ.
13. The _Bhagavad Gîtâ_, as well as the _Bhâgavata_, makes mention
of an observation which points to a still more remote antiquity
than the one discovered by Mr. Bentley. The passages are given in
order below:
“I am the Mârgashîrsha [_viz._ the first among the months] and the
spring [_viz._ the first among the seasons].”
This shows that at one time the first month of spring was
Mârgashîrsha. A season includes two months, and the mention of a
month suggests the season.
“I am the Samvatsara among the years [which are five in number]
and the spring among the seasons, and the Mârgashîrsha among the
months and the Abhijit among the asterisms [which are twenty‐eight
in number].”
This clearly points out that at one time in the first year called
Samvatsara, of the quinquennial age, the Madhu, that is, the first
month of spring, was Mârgashîrsha, and Abhijit was the first of
the asterisms. It then coincided with the vernal equinoctial
point, and thence from it the asterisms were counted. To find the
date of this observation: There are three asterisms from the
beginning of Mûla to the beginning of Abhijit, and hence the date
in question is at least 16,301 + 3/7 × 90 × 72 = 19,078 or about
20,000 B.C. The Samvatsara at this time began in Bhâdrapadâ, the
winter solstitial month.
So far then 20,000 years are mathematically proven for the antiquity of
the _Vedas_. And this is simply exoteric. Any mathematician, provided he
be not blinded by preconception and prejudice, can see this, and an
unknown but very clever amateur Astronomer, S. A. Mackey, has proved it
some sixty years back.
His theory about the Hindu Yugas and their length is curious—as being so
very near the correct doctrine.
It is said in volume ii. p. 131, of _Asiatic Researches_ that:
“The great ancestor of Yudhister reigned 27,000 years ... at the
end of the brazen age.” In volume ix. p. 364, we read:
“In the _beginning of the Cali Yuga_, in the reign of Yudhister.
And Yudhister ... began his reign immediately after the flood
called Pralaya.”
Here we find three different statements concerning Yudhister ...
to explain these seeming differences we must have recourse to
their books of science, where we find the heavens and the earth
divided into _five parts_ of unequal dimensions, by circles
parallel to the equator. Attention to these divisions will be
found to be of the utmost importance ... as it will be found that
from them arose the division of their Maha‐Yuga into its four
component parts. Every astronomer knows that there is a point in
the heavens called the pole, round which the whole seems to turn
in twenty‐four hours; and that at ninety degrees from it they
imagine a _circle_ called the _equator_, which divides the heavens
and the earth into two equal parts, the north and the south.
Between this circle and the pole there is another imaginary circle
called the circle of _perpetual apparition_: between which and the
equator there is a point in the heavens called the zenith, through
which let another imaginary circle pass, parallel to the other
two; and then there wants but the circle of perpetual occultation
to complete the round.... No astronomer of Europe besides myself
has ever applied them to the development of the Hindu mysterious
numbers. We are told in the _Asiatic Researches_ that Yudhister
brought Vicramâditya to reign in Cassimer, which is in the
latitude of 36 degrees. And in that latitude the circle of
perpetual apparition would extend up to 72 degrees altitude, and
from that to the zenith there are but 18 degrees, but from the
zenith to the equator in that latitude there are 36 degrees, and
from the equator to the circle of perpetual occultation there are
54 degrees. Here we find the semi‐circle of 180 degrees divided
into four parts, in the proportion of 1, 2, 3, 4, _i.e._, 18, 36,
54, 72. Whether the Hindu astronomers were acquainted with the
motion of the earth or not is of no consequence, since the
appearances are the same; and if it will give those gentlemen of
_tender consciences_ any pleasure I am willing to admit that they
imagined the heavens rolled round the earth, but they had observed
the stars in the path of the sun to move _forward_ through the
equinoctial points, at the rate of fifty‐four seconds of a degree
in a year, which carried the whole zodiac round in 24,000 years;
in which time they also observed that the angle of obliquity
varied, so as to _extend_ or _contract_ the width of the tropics 4
degrees on each side, which rate of motion would carry the tropics
from the equator to the poles in 540,000 years: in which time the
Zodiac would have made twenty‐two and a half revolutions, which
are expressed by the parallel circles from the equator to the
poles ... or what amounts to the same thing, the north pole of the
ecliptic would have moved from the north pole of the earth to the
equator.... Thus the poles become inverted in 1,080,000 years,
which is their Maha Yuga, and which they had divided into four
unequal parts, in the proportions of 1, 2, 3, 4, for the reasons
mentioned above; which are 108,000, 216,000, 324,000, and 432,000.
Here we have the most positive proofs that the above numbers
originated in _ancient astronomical observations_, and
consequently are not deserving of those epithets which have been
bestowed upon them by the Essayist, echoing the voice of Bentley,
Wilford, Dupuis, etc.
I have now to show that the reign of Yudhister for 27,000 years is
neither _absurd nor disgusting_, but perhaps the Essayist is not
aware that there were several Yudhisters or Judhisters. In volume
ii. p. 131, _Asiatic Researches_: “The great ancestor of Yudhister
reigned 27,000 years at the end of the brazen or third age.” Here
I must again beg your attention to this projection. This is a
plane of that machine which the second gentleman thought so very
clumsy; it is that of a _prolong spheroid_, called by the ancients
an atroscope. Let the longest axis represent the poles of the
earth, making an angle of 28 degrees with the horizon; then will
the seven divisions above the horizon to the North Pole, the
temple of Buddha, and the seven from the North Pole to the circle
of perpetual apparition represent the fourteen Manvantaras, or
very long periods of time, each of which, according to the third
volume of _Asiatic Researches_, p. 258 or 259, was the reign of a
Menu. But Capt. Wilford, in volume v. p. 243, gives us the
following information: “The Egyptians had fourteen dynasties, and
the Hindus had fourteen dynasties, the _rulers_ of which are
called Menus.” ...
Who can here mistake the fourteen very long periods of time for
those which constituted the Cali Yuga of Delhi, or any other place
in the latitude of 28 degrees, where the blank space from the foot
of Meru to the seventh circle from the equator, constitutes the
part passed over by the tropic in the next age; which proportions
differ considerably from those in the latitude of 36; and because
the numbers in the Hindu books differ, Mr. Bentley asserts that:
“This shows what little dependence is to be put in them.” But, on
the contrary, it shows with what accuracy the Hindus had
_observed_ the motions of the heavens in different latitudes.
Some of the Hindus inform us that “the earth has _two spindles_
which are surrounded by _seven tiers of heavens and hells_ at the
distance of _one Raju_ each.” This needs but little explanation
when it is understood that the seven divisions from the equator to
their zenith are called _Rishis_ or _Rashas_. But what is most to
our present purpose to know is that they had given names to each
of those divisions which the tropics passed over during each
revolution of the Zodiac. In the latitude of 36 degrees where the
Pole or Meru was nine steps high at Cassimere, they were called
_Shastras_; in latitude 28 degrees at Delhi, where the Pole or
Meru was seven steps high, they were called Menus; but in 24
degrees, at Cacha, where the Pole or Meru was but six steps high,
they were called Sacas. But in the ninth volume (_Asiatic
Researches_) Yudhister, the son of Dherma, or _Justice_, was the
first of the six Sacas; the name implies the _end_, and as
everything has two ends, Yudhister is as applicable to the first
as to the last. And as the division on the north of the circle of
perpetual apparition is the first of the Cali Yuga, supposing the
tropics to be ascending, it was called the division or reign of
Yudhister. But the division which immediately precedes the circle
of perpetual apparition is the last of the third or _brazen age_,
and was therefore called Yudhister, and as his reign preceded the
reign of the other, as the tropic ascended to the Pole or Meru, he
was called _the father_ of the other—“the great ancestor of
Yudhister, who reigned _twenty‐seven thousand years, at the end_
of the brazen age.” (Vol. ii. _Asiatic Researches_.)
The ancient Hindus observed that the Zodiac went forward at about
the rate of fifty‐four seconds a year, and to avoid greater
fractions, stated it at that, which would make a complete round in
24,000 years; and observing the angle of the poles to vary nearly
4 degrees each round, stated the three numbers as such, which
would have given _forty‐five rounds of the Zodiac_ to half a
revolution of the poles; but finding that forty‐five rounds would
not bring the northern tropic to coincide with the circle of
perpetual apparition by thirty minutes of a degree, which required
the Zodiac to move one sign and a half more, which we all know it
could not do in less than 3,000 years, they were, in the case
before us, added to the end of the _brazen age_; which lengthen
the reign of _that_ Yudhister to 27,000 years instead of 24,000,
but, at another time they did not alter the regular order of
24,000 years to the reign of each of these long‐winded monarchs,
but rounded up the time by allowing a _regency_ to continue three
or four thousand years. In volume ii. p. 134, _Asiatic
Researches_, we are told that: “Paricshit, the great nephew and
successor of Yudhister, is allowed without controversy to have
reigned in the interval between the _brazen and earthen_, or Cali
Ages, and to have died at the setting‐in of the Cali Yug.” Here we
find an _interregnum_ at the _end_ of the _brazen_ age, and
_before_ the setting‐in of the Cali Yug: and as there can be but
one brazen or Treta Yug, _i.e._, the third age, in a Maha Yuga of
1,080,000 years: the reign of this Paricshit must have been in the
second Maha Yuga, when the pole had returned to its original
position, which must have taken 2,160,000 years: and this is what
the Hindus call the Prajanatha Yuga. Analogous to this custom is
that of some nations more modern, who, fond of even numbers, have
made the common year to consist of twelve months of thirty days
each, and the five days and odd measure have been represented as
the reign of a little serpent biting his tail, and divided into
five parts, etc.
But “Yudhister began his reign immediately _after the flood called
Pralaya_,” _i.e._, at the end of the Cali Yug (or age of heat),
when the tropic had passed from the pole to the other side of the
circle of perpetual apparition, which coincides with the northern
horizon; here the tropics or summer solstice would be again in the
same parallel of north declination, at the _commencement_ of their
first age, as he was at the _end_ of their _third age_, or Treta
Yug, called the brazen age....
Enough has been said to prove that the Hindu books of science are
not disgusting absurdities, originated in ignorance, vanity, and
credulity; but books containing the most profound knowledge of
astronomy and geography.
What, therefore, can induce those gentlemen of tender consciences
to insist that Yudhister was a real mortal man I have no guess;
unless it be that they fear for the fate of Jared and his
grandfather, Methuselah?