Page:Hindu astronomy, Brennand (1896).djvu/14

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Contents

Probability of the System of Lunar Mansions being the common possession of Asiatic nations.

Names of the Arabian Lunar Mansions.

Comparison of Egyptian, Chinese, Arabic, and Hindu Lunar Mansions.

Cycle of Sixty Years common to Asiatic Nations.

Summary of Characteristics affording evidence of a common origin in the Astronomy of Asiatic Nations.

CHAPTER II.

EARLY HINDU PERIODS.

Origin of the Study of Hindu Astronomy to be found in their religious observances.

The Necessity for a Calendar.

The Science of Astronomy confined to Brahmins.

Antiquity and Civilization of the Hindus, as studied by Europeans in the last century.

Exaggerated Chronological Dates of most Eastern Nations in some measure accounted for.

Evidence of the great Antiquity of Hindu Astronomy afforded by astronomical tables published in 1687 and 1772 A.D.

Bailly's "Astronomie Indienne."

Playfair's investigation of Bailly's work.

General Conclusions arrived at by Playfair.

The supposed general conjunction of planets, etc., in 3102 B.C.

The Hindu Theory of Epicycles differs in some respects from that of Ptolemy.

The Kali Yuga one of several epochs invented to facilitate astronomical calculations.

Years of the Maha Yuga and Kalpa.

CHAPTER III.

THE HINDU ECLIPTIC.

Description of the Nacshatras, or Lunar Asterisms.

Division into twelve Solar Signs and twenty-eight Lunar Constellations.

Illustration, of the Ecliptic with Northern and Southern Yuga-taras.