Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c10: III. Hints Concerning the Observatory at Benares
Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c10
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III. Hints Concerning the Observatory at Benares
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(By Reuben Burrow (circa 1783). A few names and words are not clearly decipherable in the original. These have been marked with an asterisk. The most likely reading of them is given in this printed version—Editor.)
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Observations of the ancient monuments have the same relation to history and the arts, that experiments have to natural philosophy; without the last, philosophy is little better than a dream, and exclusive of the former, conjecture is vague and indeterminate.
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To establish an intercourse with the learned of different nations, and to unite their collective force in surmounting the difficulties of art, and extending the boundaries of knowledge, were the primary motives of the first institutors of the royal societies of London and Paris; they knew that science would become the easier as its generality increased, and were conscious of the vast advantages that would arise from the auxiliary support of antiquity in the investigation of truth: Convinced of the veracity of this principle, the antiquarians of Europe were at immense expences in collecting medals, and taking the draughts and dimensions of the Greek, Roman, Palmyrean and Egyptian antiquities; and though much greater advantages may be expected from those collections hereafter, when more generally known, yet even the improvements derived from them already in the single article of architecture have more than compensated the expence, and may fully be considered as a national advantage, whether we respect their utility, duration, conveniency or elegance.
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Notwithstanding the prejudices of the Europeans of last century in favour of their own abilities, some of the first members of the royal society were sufficiently enlightened to consider the East Indies and China & c., as new worlds of science that yet remained undiscovered. They wrote out lists of queries; furnished new heads of enquiry, and seemed extremely desirous of possessing the literary treasures of these unexplored regions of knowledge of which they had formed such sanguine expectations. They failed in these endeavours; it is true, by employing improper means, but the attempt will ever be a monument of the wisdom and public spirit of the employees; and had they not too hastily concluded that to be lost, which nothing but the prejudices of ignorance and obstinacy, had prevented being found; we might at this time [be] in possession of the most finished productions of Asia, as well as of Europe; the sciences might, in consequence, have been carried to a much higher degree of perfection with us than they are at present; and the elegance and superiority of the Asiatic models might have prevented that neglect and depravity of Geometry, and that inundation of Algebraic barbarism which has ever since the time of Descartes, both vitiated taste, and overrun the publications, of most of the philosophical societies in Europe.
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But notwithstanding that the ruins and repositories of Greece and Rome have been ransacked and scrutinised for antiquities, these former prejudices are still in force, and the East Indies are almost entirely neglected; for though the country teems with curiosities of almost every kind, yet excepting the late translation of the Code of Gentoo laws, Europe has received less information from her sons in these matters, than if she had dispatched none to the East but Huns and barbarians; and yet there is a reason to believe that the ‘Parent of the Sciences’ (notwithstanding that epithet is usually applied to Egypt): for the Chinese on the one side, and the Babylonians on the other, we know had astronomical observations, and yet Egypt with all her boasted antiquity had none.
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In all the Grecian, Roman and Egyptian remains there does not appear to be the least vestige of an observatory: The pyramids are said indeed to have been placed north and south for some astronomical purpose, and we are told that Delhazelles* examined the largest of them about a century ago and found it so; but this I very much doubt; for if he examined one, it must have been great want of curiosity not to examine more; and even if he was capable of making the examination, (which is dubious) neither France nor England could at that time have furnished him with an instrument sufficiently exact; besides, it is not certain, nor even very probable that the builders of the pyramid took any uncommon pains to place the building in the plane of the meridian that seems only designed for a funeral monument: And yet from this single and doubtful observation have philosophers concluded that the earth has not altered its axis! It was not indeed supposed till very lately that there was any practical mode of determining the matter; but fortunately for astronomy there is a large Quadrant existing at Benares which from the intent of its construction must necessarily have been placed in the plane of the meridian when the observatory was erected; and as this Quadrant is an immoveable structure of solid massy stones, and consequently not liable to vary its azimuth, or bend like European quadrants the transits and altitudes of a number of stars may be taken with it, by a proper contrivance; and its position with respect to the meridian and equator & c. found out with the greatest exactness; from whence many useful conclusions may be drawn, and this very curious and difficult affair perhaps determined.
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It is well known that the problems of finding the precession of the equinoxes, and the mutation of the earth’s axis, have been considered by some of the most learned mathematicians, and yet they are not agreed concerning it: Some great authors as Newton, Simpson, Walmsley and Sylvain Bailly, supposed the action of the sun and moon to bring the equator out of its place, and to make it revolve round the old axis in a different position; while others as d’Alembert, Euler, La Grange and Titius, suppose the result to be a new equator and a new axis. This last seems indeed to be partly the case, for we cannot otherwise account for equatorial productions being found in Russia and Siberia; nor how those of the frozen zone should be found in the torrid: The matter however is still very doubtful, and requires the aid of observations; for in my opinion even those that have treated the subject best, have omitted some parts that are very essential; for some of them have made a wrong estimation of the quantity of the solar force and all of them have assumed the rigidity of the protuberant parts of the earth’s equator, in their calculations; which is evidently contrary to fact; because we know that near 5/6th of the whole equator is covered with water; and there are not even signs of shallows any where in it, to speak of, except in the short distance between Madagascar and Sumatra: This must make so great a difference in the result that it scarcely seems possible to determine the matter alone by theory: The fact however is certain, that the best mathematicians differ greatly in their conclusions; but if the earth acquires a new axis the meridians will consequently be changed; and if the Quadrant at Benares was placed in the plane of the meridian when the building was erected, it cannot be in the plane of the meridian now; and therefore if the quantity of its deviation from that plane, be carefully and accurately determined it may answer many useful purposes in astronomy, and likewise be serviceable when the theory is perfect to point out the time when the observatory was built, exclusive of its use in the mutation and precession.
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It is also probable that some useful information may be had from the Observatory at Benares, respecting the obliquity of the ecliptic; for though the ancient observations sufficiently point out a diminution, yet these observations are some of them incompatible, and there is a difference with astronomers of more than one fourth part of the whole annual decrease. This I presume may be determined from some fixed sights that are upon one of the instruments, and which perhaps may be directed to some particular star, or remarkable circle in the heavens.
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I am likewise informed that the instruments are divided, but have not been told the particulars; if they have sub-divisions and numbers, they may instruct us in the ancient characters; and perhaps the dimensions of the instruments may give us information respecting the antique measures of the Hindoos; indeed every possible observation ought to be made and every particular dimension taken with the utmost accuracy, for it is with experimental observations as with given situations in geometry where the positions of a few points is sufficient to determine a multitude of lines of different species; and as a number of important conclusions may be drawn from a collection of accurate experiences and well attested facts, so every opportunity of making such ought to be embraced and attended to, if it was on no other account but to give an additional value to observations that might be made in future: For it is worthy of remark that knowledge does not increase in proportion to the number of experiments but in a much higher degree; and that a single observation which proves little or nothing when alone may have a very great effect in conjunction with others; thus, for example, a single point in geometry determines nothing; and two, only give the position of a line; yet if a couple of additional points be added; not only six right lines are thereby determined, but also the magnitude and position of four circles and a parabola; and if we add two points more (which singly would only give a line) we shall thereby determine 15 right lines; 20 circles; 15 parabolas; and 6 ellipses or hyperbolas; from where might be drawn an infinity of other conclusions of different kinds; and though the enquiry at first, might only respect some particular case (as right lines for instance in the example before us) yet from the same data all the rest are deducible; and by similar reasoning, observations made at Benares with only an astronomical view, might be applicable to commerce, to history, chronology, and most kinds of subjects.
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There seems reason to conjecture that the sciences took their rise in India, and were carried there to a high degree of perfection before they were transplanted in other countries: This transplantation might be more or less partial according to the inclination or abilities of those that came into India for instruction; and by the intermixture of these with their own different tenets, we may perhaps account for that confused jumble of truth and fiction that we meet with in what are called the placits of the philosophers. If the Indians knew the theory of comets and had reduced them to calculation, the Chaldeans from thence might have easily learnt that comets were only planets moving in very eccentric orbits, without being able either to calculate their places or to find their distance. To tell us that Pythagoras had the same idea, is only an additional confirmation; we know that he went to India to be instructed; but the capacity of the learner determines his degree of proficiency, and if Pythagoras on his return had so little knowledge in geometry as to consider the forty-seventh of Euclid as a great discovery, he certainly was entirely incapable of acquiring the Indian method of calculation, through his deficiency of preparatory knowledge; and therefore could only get such general notions and principles of things as he was capable of understanding; as the system of the universe, the idea of comets, the plurality of worlds and the doctrine of transmigration: this also accounts for the contradictory opinions of ancient authors concerning the invention of the sciences, and whether the Chaldeans were capable or incapable of predicting the returns of comets and foretelling eclipses, as authors dispute; for each teacher, or head of sect that drew his knowledge from the Indian sources, might conceal his instructors to be reckoned an inventor, and the art itself would be estimated according to the capacity or proficiency of the promulgator, or his followers; thus Berosus the Chaldean is considered by Vitruvius as the inventor of concave sun-dials, though probably the invention had come from the Bramins, as there is now a similar instrument at Benares. Another reason why the sciences were perfected in India is the Indians having been much longer civilised than any other nation, and we know that when people are civilised they begin to study the arts. That they have been much longer civilised, is plain from their state at present, for notwithstanding the slowness of its revolution they have evidently gone through almost the whole political circle of legislative degradation; and are nearly arrived to that despicable state of feeble insignificance, which separates the barbarity of a state of nature, from that of a state of society; and which has all the miseries of both, without any of the advantages of the former.
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As it is probable that many of the observations made by Indian astronomers are recorded in manuscript which a more general intercourse with the natives may discover, it becomes the more necessary on that account to make a particular examination of the instruments at Benares, even to enable us to use such observations, if they should chance to be found hereafter; this will appear indispensably requisite, when we consider that the Chinese have their measures of a degree different from ours and that 23, 39', 18", of our divisions make just 24 in China. Now it would have been impossible for us to have made use of these observations had not a comparison between the Chinese instruments and ours enabled Father Gaubil to give us the ratio between them; and as the observatory at Benares is probably the only one existing in India, so no opportunity of examination ought to be neglected, lest the instruments should be defaced by accident or barbarism, and observation be thus rendered useless that might perhaps have been accumulating for ages; at least this advantage will arise from it, that we shall know what mode of angular sub-divisions they really did follow, and from thence probably be enabled to determine whether the astronomers of India had any communication with the Chinese or Arabian & c.
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In the Newtonian chronology it is supposed that Chiron made a sphere, and formed the constellation into such figures, respecting the argonautic expedition, as we now have upon our globes; as Aries for the golden fleece; Taurus for the brazen footed bull; Gemini for the two Argonauts, Castor and Pollux & c; this chronology is partly founded on a supposition that Chiron’s sphere was made for the use of the Argonauts and that the equinoctian coloure* at that time passed through the middle of the constellation Aries. This hypothesis, however, has met with great contradictions, for it is positively asserted that the Hindoos have similar constellations, and figured almost exactly in the same manner as those that are attributed to Chiron. Now either Chiron received his sphere from the Indians and the improbability of the coloures* position whence he received it will render the time of the Argonautic expedition doubtful; or else the Indians had their astronomy from the Greeks and therefore may have some of their other productions; at least it implies a communication, and it is probably that not only the true system of the world but many parts of the Grecian literature might be derived from the Bramins. Indeed there are many reasons to believe that the true system extended over many other nations before it was heard of in Greece, for it would have been useless to have multiplied astronomical observations on a false hypothesis and we know that the Babylonian astronomers had a series of near 2000 years observations at the time of Alexander the Great. As to the orbs and epicycles of Ptolemy they are but of modern date, in comparison with the ancient Pythagorean system; and the ignorance of the later Greeks and Romans is evident from the ridiculous explications of ancient monuments (plainly relating to the true system) given by some of the old mythologists, examples of which mode are seen in Boulanger, Costard and others, and I have lately met with a similar instance in the Imag Deorum* of V. Catori, respecting the copy of an ancient Persian monument, in which Apollo dragging a bullock by the horns, apparently has a relation to the doctrine of mutual attraction; and where the figure of the sun in a circular plain intersecting a cone, evidently points out both the centre of force and the form of the earth's orbit; in the same manner that Bullialdus has done in his treatise on the philosaic astronomy.
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It would appear from this explanation that the figure of an ox was a symbol with the Persians to represent the moon; perhaps it may also be the same in India, where we know both the moon and the cows are objects of superstitious veneration. There likewise seems to be a familiarity between the East Indians and the Jews; for the Jews worshipped a calf; baked cakes to the queen of heaven and blew the trumpet in the new moon, and there is one of their idolatrous customs mentioned in the 7th chapter of Acts and the 5th chapter of Amos, that has a very evident reference to the Hindoo custom of dragging their wooden...* about; and the Jews are threatened to be carried away 'beyond Babylon' for using it; that is, I suppose the place they got it from; for they could not be carried far beyond Babylon without approaching very near the East Indies: However an examination into the Hindoo monuments might give some light into obscure passages of scripture, and as such infinite pains have been spent upon it as a matter of faith, it might not be amiss to take a little more with it, on the footing of a history.
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It is usual to speak slightingly of Indian astronomers, and to affirm that the utmost of their learning consists in foretelling an eclipse: But to calculate an eclipse is no trifling matter even in our astronomy, and if the Bramins have such short and easy modes of computation as to make that business a trifle, to gain their methods is certainly an object worthy of enquiry, and the more so as our modes of calculation are excessively tedious and intricate: It is also reported that the Bramins have rules for computing the returns of places of comets. Now this is a matter astonishingly difficult and so complicated with every principle of mechanics and philosophy, that if they can possibly do it there requires (in my opinion) no other proof of their having formerly carried astronomy to the highest degree of perfection.
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It is also generally reported that the Bramins calculate their eclipses, not by astronomical tables as we do, but by rules; now these rules, are either as exact as our methods, or not; if they are not, perhaps they may be some particular modes of applying the Chaldean ‘saros’ of 223 lunation, or the ‘neros’* of 600 years, which may be of use in making a near estimate of the times when eclipses may happen: If they be as exact as ours, or but nearly so, it is a proof that they must have carried algebraic computation to a very extraordinary pitch, and have well understood the doctrine of ‘continued fractions’, in order to have found those periodical approximations; this I am the more confirmed in because I have heard that the Bramins have different rules for computing eclipses and that those rules are more or less complex according to the requisite degrees of exactness; which entirely agrees with the approximation deduced from algebraic formulae, and implies an intimate acquaintance with the Newtonian doctrine of series. This at first sight may seem improbable, but will appear entirely consistent when we recollect that the Bramins have Arabic treatises among them, and that the Arabs are well known to have carried Algebra to a high degree of perfection: We are even told that they had a complete method of resolving cubic equations, and were likewise possessed of the 13 books of Diophantus, the 7 last are lost; in the 6 that remain he has carried the subject almost as far as we have, and therefore it is not impossible for the Bramins to have understood Algebra better than we do.
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I have hitherto supposed the Observatory to be ancient, but most of the aforesaid advantages will obtain, even if it be so modern as the reign of Akbar: There will likewise be a greater probability of meeting with the original observations, and more certainly respecting the manner they were taken; as to the system itself which the modern Bramins may now either follow or pretend to follow, it can have no effect upon the observations, for observations are of no sect or party but that of truth, whether the Observatory be Ptolemaics or Copernicans, and if they should happen to be numerous and to be made with great care, they may be of essential service to modern astronomy whether the earth be supposed moveable or immoveable.
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I am far from attributing any superior excellence to the present race of Bramins, especially those of the districts about Calcutta, but I am of opinion that a great deal of knowledge may be found in their books and that some curious and useful matters may be learnt from among themselves: Of the skill and abilities of the ancient Bramins I have not the least doubt, though it is a matter of difficulty how long their successors might have retained that knowledge: I am even of opinion that the intent of the first Indian legislature in the institution of the caste of the Bramins was something similar to that of the late society of the Jesuits, and the *Chaldean Astronomers*, the *Persian Magi*, the *Sooth Sayers of Babylon*, the *wise men of the East* and all the astrologers, stargazers, and magicians that the prophets of the Bible seem to be afraid of, and yet affect to ridicule, were nothing more than either the Bramins themselves or some of their disciples that were infected with the rage of governing, and giving advice, and travelled about to every court and kingdom like the Jesuits, making use of their knowledge in the sciences as a recommendation to matters of more importance: It would be too long to enumerate reasons for this opinion from history; I shall therefore only just hint that the sun-dial of Ahaz mentioned in scripture seems to have been made by the Bramins of Hindoostan; for the shadow of a sun-dial made for the latitude of Jerusalem could not possibly have gone back, as that of the dial of Ahaz did, and consequently the dial was made for some place between the tropics, and its style must have also been a gnomon; but we know that a dial made for any particular latitude will also serve for another if it is properly drawn and situated, and as the Jews were too ignorant to place it themselves, some Bramin might have done it (for we know that Ahaz followed almost every particular of the Gentoo worship and also encouraged their customs and arts) and Isaiah of course had taken the opportunity to retail its usual property, as a miracle: That the shadow of a sun-dial made for the latitude of Jerusalem can not possibly go back is evident from this principle, that whenever the latitude of the place and the declination of the sun are of the same name, and the latitude less than the declination; the foot of the gnomon will fall without the convex part of the hyperbola described by the shadow; and consequently a tangent may be drawn from that point to the curve, which shows when the shadow goes back; but that the gnomon fall wholly within conic section in all other cases; and from this principle I discovered in my way to India a method of working azimuths at sea between the tropics that may be done with 1/20th part of the trouble of the usual methods, and gives the variation of the compass much more exact.
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From the accounts given in the Bible of idolatries of Ahaz and several other of the Israelitic kings, it seems probable that the Gentoo religion had extended itself over most of the kingdoms between India and the Mediterranean; the Jews were continually running into it and made ‘carved and molten images’, worshipped in *Groves under green trees* and made their sons and daughters *pass through the fire* in the same manner as the Fakeers and Bramins do at present; in short the worship of fire seems to have been a principal part of the Jewish idolatry as it was then all over India and is now on the coast of Malabar. But whether the making of ‘their children pass through the fire’ was actually sacrificing them, or not, I can not determine; I think it was; but it is worth enquiry what the customs of the fire worshippers on the coast of Malabar are in that respect, and how far those customs extend, and whether there are yet any remains of them among the priests at Benares, as I think there must.
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Our knowledge respecting India is so exceedingly confined that it is impossible to conjecture with any degree of probability how the Bramins retained their superiority in literature; it is said that the Ptolemaic system was introduced by one of their conquerors called Bickerammjeet about —(Blank in original—*Editor*) years ago, and that in consequent of his order, the true system of the world was entirely exploded. But part of this story seems more plausible than true for it does not appear likely that men who were strongly convinced of the truth of a system should so easily discard, without ever resuming it, for another that had no other recommendation but the sanction of imperial stupidity. It is more probable that the ancient system kept its ground long after, in private, though the Bramins might pretend to be obsequious to the mandates of authority in public: This at least, is the case now in the Catholic parts of Europe, for by the Pope’s decree, to believe in the Copernican system is heresy, and to profess it publicly, is damnation, and yet it is publicly denied and privately believed by every person of knowledge. How far an increase of ignorance may have been favourable to Ptolemy’s system in India can only be known by a more intimate acquaintance with the writings of the Bramins; however as this change of system aforesaid, was not at such a vast distance of time, it is to be hoped that the decrease of true knowledge was but slow, and if so, probably some of their best productions may have escaped the ravages of time, and come down to us without much loss or depravation.
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Astronomy is a subject that requires a larger stock of mathematical knowledge than is usually imagined, and therefore on the renewal of learning previous to the building of the Observatory at Benares, supposing it modern, there must have been some proficiency made in the sciences; this proficiency must either have been derived from the works of the ancient Bramins, or else introduced from some other country; if it was derived from the Bramins, their books must be still in existence, and therefore might be procured without much difficulty; if from any other nation, it would be of consequence to know with certainty its situation, because we should not only know where to direct our enquiries but that nation it is reasonable to suppose would have made collection of all the learning of the adjacent and neighbouring countries, and would in particular have procured, and yet might retain, the works of the principal Arabian mathematicians; but the Arabian mathematicians we know were possessed of most of the works of the Greeks (for it is from straggling Arabic manuscripts picked up by chance, that we derive the little we know of Grecian mathematics) and therefore to determine the source of these, will be perhaps to discover those excellent works of Archimedes, Euclid, Diophantus and Apollonius & c. that have been so long lost and deplored by European mathematicians.
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But supposing after all that his Observatory (contrary to every rule of probability) was built for ostentation and not for use; that there is nothing in its construction worth remarking; no observations on record to be met with, nor any appearance of utility to be derived either from its situation, its form, or position of the instruments, yet even in that case the expense will not be entirely lost; for a number of observations may be made respecting the geography, meteorology and astronomy & c. of India that will more than compensate the trouble. The surveys of India are known to be remarkably defective, and there is great reason to believe that not a single place in India has had its longitude properly determined except Pondicherry. The latitudes are nearly in the same predicament, and indeed most of the English maps are made up of ideal chains of mountains and imaginary woods, taken piecemeal by pretended surveyors, and put together at random without either longitude or latitude by people who were only solicitous to have a fine drawing, without any regard to exactness or to use; by these means the countries are horribly distorted in their positions and geography is so little benefitted by such maps that they are a nuisance rather than an advantage, and there is no other proper method of correcting such surveys but by determining the positions of some of the most material points by astronomical observations; this would assist in putting the different surveys properly together, and as the longitude of Benares and others that might be deduced from it, would contribute in part to that purpose, a journey thither of course would be so far useful.
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The opportunity of making observations of the dip, and variation of the compass might have then utility not only in correcting the surveys, but in discovering the theory of magnetism: that the theory has not yet been discovered is in my opinion owing to a want of observations: It is not easy to know conclusions by induction without a sufficiency of facts, and yet I do not know that in the whole space from India to the frozen ocean, nor from Persia to Kamchatka there has yet been made a single observation, except that at Tobolski by De La Chappe..., and therefore a journey to Benares would also be useful in this matter.
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The nature of the refraction and its variation with respect to the heat, moisture and density of the air, would also be a very proper object of enquiry at Benares: The tables made by Cassini, Newton and de La Caille, are all of them different, and with respect to Benares, are adapted to very extreme latitudes: There is also reason to believe that the results at Benares would be very different from any of them and not only elucidate the general principles of refraction, but also be of service in the practice of navigation, especially about the tropics; if any ancient observations should be discovered, the refraction would be absolutely necessary, and even if they should not, it would have its use; for the climates of England and India are different, to depend upon reasoning from analogy only; especially when there are so many causes of variations and so few of them well determined.
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If the observer was furnished with a proper instrument, it would also be advisable to find the moon’s horizontal parallax in the manner first hinted by Digges and afterwards employed by Maskelyne at St Helena: This would in some respect answer the purpose of measuring a degree of the meridian, especially as the errors might be reduced to very small limits by a repetition of the observations; and this method has an advantage over that of measuring a degree, for it is not liable to be affected by the uncertain attraction of mountains.
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With respect to the other observations respecting meteorology, aerometry, astronomy and electricity & c. which a journey to Benares would give an opportunity of making, it would be endless to enumerate the particulars: It is sufficient to observe that they would all be of service to philosophy, and not take any extraordinary time to execute. But if it was thought proper to send a person who was well acquainted with the theory and practice of astronomy & c. with a small collection of good instruments to take the latitudes and longitudes of most of the particular towns and places in the Company’s territories and dependencies, he might not only collect materials for making a proper survey of these parts and acquire information respecting the ancient and modern state of the country & c. but would also have an opportunity of making the best collection of astronomical and physical observations that has yet been offered to the public; and if it was thought that umbrage might be taken at such a procedure by the natives, it might easily pass under the notion of measuring degrees of the meridian, or of longitude & c., to avoid suspicion.