Asiatick Researches, Or, Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal, for Inquiring Into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature, of Asia, Volume 9J. Swan and Company, 1809 - Asia Vol. 2-3, 5-12 have lists of the members of the society. |
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Common terms and phrases
ABUL-FAZIL Acberi according Agni-purána ancient ANDHRA appears Arabian armillary sphere ARRIAN asterism astronomers Ayin Ayin-Acberi Benares Bengal BHARTRIHARI Bráhmens BUDDHA Cali-yuga called CHRIST circle copy CRISHNA death denominated Dilli Ditto DITYA dynasty earth ecliptick famous fourth age Ganges Gangetic provinces Gráma grant Greeks Guru Hindus hygrometer inches Indus inscription Jainas Jains JAYA-CHANDRA JINA king land lived longitude lunar mansion Magadha MAJOR MACKENZIE mentioned Méru metropolis miles moisture moon mountains MUHAMMED Musulmans Nacshatra native NONNUS noticed observed original Pandits Patna period Persian Peutingerian tables plate PLINY poles present prince probably PTOLEMY Puránas RAJA reckoned refraction reign river SA'LIVA HANA Saca Sanscrit says sect seven Rishis signifies spoken dialects stars supposed Surya siddhanta temples Tetrachord throne tion translation tribe Ujjayini ULUGH BEG Védas VICRA VICRAMA VICRAMA'DITYA VISHNU worship Yavanas Zodiack
Popular passages
Page 150 - Tapasya, wishing to remember then every thing he knew in his present generation. This could not be fully granted; but he was indulged with writing upon a brass plate, a few things which he wished more particularly to...
Page 280 - ... a similar practice, and maintaining like opinions and observances. The essential character of the Hindu institutions is the distribution of the people into four great tribes. This is considered by themselves to be the marked point which separates them from MlSc/ihas or Barbarians.
Page 95 - There, having gone through a most severe course of religious austerities and expiatory ceremonies, he was directed to sail upon the river in a boat with white sails, which, if they turned black, would be to him a sure sign of the remission of his sins ; the blackness of which would attach itself to the sails. It happened so, and he joyfully sent the boat adrift, with his sins, into the sea.
Page 322 - Therefore, as the hypotenuse is to its base, so is the radius to a base, from which the sine of the angle, and consequently the angle itself, are known. If it exceed the latitude, the declination is south ; or, if the contrary, it is north. The right ascension of the star is ascertained by calculation from the hour of the night, and from the right ascension of the sun for that time. The declination of the corresponding point of the ecliptic being found, the sum or difference...
Page 303 - London, 1875, pp. 309—448. heavens, and each period of life extending to many hundreds of thousands of years — he quitted the state of a deity to obtain immortality as a saint, and was incarnate towards the close of the fourth age (now past), when 75 years and 8£ months of it remained. After he was...
Page 287 - Hindus; an evident sign, that liis sect is subsequent to that, in which this fabulous history is original. The same remark is applicable to the Jainas, with whom the legendary story of their saints also seems to be engrafted on the pauranic tales of the orthodox sect. Sufficient indication of this will appear, in the passages which will be subsequently cited from the writings of the Jainas. Considerable weight might be allowed to an argument deduced from the aggravated extravagance of the fictions...
Page 339 - ... signs or constellations, agreeing in figure and designation with those of the Greeks; and differing merely in the place of the constellations, which are carried on the Indian sphere a few degrees further west than on the Grecian. That the Hindus took the hint of this mode of dividing the ecliptic from the Greeks, is not perhaps altogether improbable; but, if such be the origin of it...
Page 392 - In the scarcity of authentic materials for the ancient, and even for the modern, history of the Hindu race, importance is justly attached to all genuine monuments and especially inscriptions on stone and metal, which are occasionally discovered through various accidents. If these be carefully preserved and diligently examined, and the facts ascertained from them be judiciously employed towards elucidating the scattered information, which can be yet collected from the remains of Indian Literature,...
Page 288 - Indians,* mentions them under the latter designation (<ro<p iroi) as a distinct tribe, ' which, though inferior to the others in number, is superior in rank and estimation : bound to no bodily work, nor contributing any thing from labour to the public use ; in short, no duty is imposed on that tribe, but that of sacrificing to the gods, for the common benefit of the Indians ; and, when any one celebrates a private sacrifice, a person of that class becomes his guide ; as if the sacrifices would not...
Page 285 - Vedas, without any indication of peculiar reverence, would not authorize a presumption against the genuineness of that passage, on my hypothesis; nor, admitting its authenticity, furnish an argument against that system. I suppose both heroes to have been known characters in ancient fabulous history; but conjecture that, on the same basis, new fables have been constructed, elevating those personages to the rank of Gods.