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193 astrologers that the whole history of the human race for a period of 4,320,000 years is contained in these volumes.

We must therefore assume that the authors foresaw into whose hands their books would come during the four yugas, and knew perfectly well beforehand the circumstances connected with the persons who would put questions to these people, and that they therefore give just so much information in their books as would be actually utilized by the human race. Even if any such achievement were possible, one would naturally expect to find millions of volumes in the hands of these astrologers, as many of them are deriving a pretty large income every month from the fees paid by a large number of questioners during these few years of Kaliyuga. Even if we suppose that all the books which satisfied the requirements of past generations have been destroyed already, there must be a considerable number left for the benefit of future generations that Kaliyuga has yet to run on for nearly 427,000 years more. But these lakhs of volumes are nowhere to be found though stern logic sometimes compels these astrologers to admit that they ought to exist. It so happens, however, that each of these men has in his possession just the number of volumes required to meet the demands of enquirers that flock to him and does not trouble himself about the rest.

The astrologers who profess to find in these Nadigranthams the horoscopes of any people that choose to come to them and the predictions based thereupon, have now and then attempted to set a limit to the pretensions of their granthams, especially when the extravagance of such pretensions appeared to disturb the minds of enquirers and make them assume a sceptical attitude of mind. Some said that the horoscopes of caste people only would be found in these books, while others asserted that only the horoscopes of distinguished men would find a place in their mysterious volumes. One of them is of opinion that only a pious orthodox Hindu can expect to find his horoscope in their leaves, while another hinted that the horoscope defined in these books related to a period 25