Page:A Historical View of the Hindu Astronomy.djvu/14

Rh conducted it. But, in order that others may be able to judge of the truth or falsehood of the assertions of the reviewer, I shall here give the three first columns of the table, which are all that are here wanting to exhibit the decrease in the errors.

There is no man, I believe, in his senses, who, on inspection of this table, will not say, that the author of the work must have lived at that period of time when the errors were least, instead of that period when they were greatest; but our reviewer would wish his readers to believe the contrary; and that the author of the Surya Siddhanta, instead of living about the year A.D. 1000, when the error in the moon's place was only about 1′, lived 3102 before Christ, when the error amounted to near 6°: from which circumstance, it will naturally be concluded by many, that he must either be mad, or entirely ignorant of the nature of astronomy, which science could admit of no such conclusion; because,