Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c9.223

c9.223

For what further relates to the parts of the astronomy of Chaldea and of Greece, which may be supposed borrowed from that of India, I must refer to the 10th Chap. of the *Astronomie Indienne*, where that subject is treated with great learning and ingenuity. After all the silence of the ancients with respect of Indian astronomy, is not easily accounted for. The first mention that is made of it, is by the Arabian writers; and M. Baille quotes a very singular passage, where Massoudi, and author of the 12th century, says, that Brama composed a book entitled, *Sind-Hind*, that is, *Of the Age of Ages*, from which was composed the book *Maghisti*, and from thence the *Almagest* of Ptolemy. (Ast. Ind. Disc. Prel. p.175.)