Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c6.s1.9

c6.s1.9

A rather curious point arises here out of this chronology about the dating of the Benares observatory: Barker along with Pearse, and A. Campbell visited the observatory in 1772. If the observatory was actually built in 1737, it was only 35 years old at this date. Both Barker and Pearse specifically state that it had been there for some two centuries. They must have arrived at this statement after meeting and conversing with persons who, if the observatory had been constructed only 35 years previously, must have been eye witnesses to its construction. As there was no controversy in 1772 about the date of the construction of the observatory, it is inconceivable that Barker’s informants misled him on this point. The conversion of two centuries into 35 years is the most fabulous aspect of this later controversy.