Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c9.35

c9.35

Here, therefore, we have a criterion, by which we are to judge of the pretensions of the Indian astronomy to so great antiquity. It is true, that, in applying it, we must suppose our modern astronomy, if not perfectly accurate, at least so exact as to represent the celestial motions, without any sensible error, even for a period more remote than the Calyougham; and this, considering the multitude of observations on which our astronomy is founded, the great antiquity of some of those observations, and the extreme accuracy of the rest, together with the assistance derived from the theory of physical causes, may surely be assumed as a very reasonable postulatum. We begin with the examination of the mean motions.