Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c11.4

c11.4

The book opens with an account of the wonders of the heavens, and the celestial spheres; the system is the Ptolemaic. To each except Mars and Jupiter, figures are annexed and blank spaces were left in the book I used, for the figures of those planets. You will see that, the sun and moon are drawn as amongst us, Mercury is represented as in the act of writing, with paper and pen in his hands, and the inkpot before him; Venus is a woman sitting down, and playing upon a stringed instrument, resembling an Irish harp. And that, which occasions this letter, is the figure of Saturn. By enquiry amongst the learned of these parts, Mars ought to be represented as a warrior, and Jupiter as an old man sitting down, with four girls dancing round him: the book says something contrary to this. I never saw the figure, therefore simply relate what was told me.