On the Antiquity of the Indian Zodiack

I engage to support an opinion, (which the learned and industrious M. Montucla seems to treat with extreme contempt) that the Indian division of the Zodiack was not borrowed from the Greeks or Arabs, but, having been known in this country from time immemorial, and being the same in part with that used by other nations of the old Hindu race, was probably invented by the first progenitors of that race before their dispersion. “The Indians, he says, have two divisions of the Zodiack; one, like that of the Arabs, relating to the moon, and consisting of twenty-seven equal parts, by which they can tell very nearly the hour of the night; another relating to the sun, and, like ours, containing twelve signs, to which they have given as many names corresponding with those, which we have borrowed from the Greeks.” All that is true; but he adds: “It is highly probable that they received them at some time or another by the intervention of the Arabs; for no man, surely, can persuade himself, that it is the ancient division of the Zodiack formed, according to some authors, by the forefathers of mankind and still preserved among the Hindus.” Now I undertake to prove, that the Indian Zodiack was not borrowed mediately or directly from the Arabs or Greeks; and, since the solar division of it in India is the same in substance with that used in Greece, we may reasonably conclude, that both Greeks and Hindus received it from an older nation, who first gave names to the luminaries of heaven, and from whom both Greeks and Hindus, as their similarity in language and religion fully evinces, had a common descent.

The same writer afterwards intimates, that “the time, when Indian Astronomy received its most considerable improvement, from which it has now, as he imagines, wholly declined, was either the age, when the Arabs, who éstablished themselves in Persia and Sogdiana, had a great intercourse with the Hindus, or that, when the successors of Chengiˊz united both Arabs and Hindus under one vast dominion.” It is not the object of this essay, to correct the historical errors in the passage last-cited, nor to defend the astronomers of India from the charge of gross ignorance in regard to the figure of the earth and the distances of the heavenly bodies; a charge, which Montucla very boldly makes on the authority, I believe, of father Souciet: I will only remark, that, in our conversations with the Pandits, we must never confound the system of the Jyautishicas, or mathematical astronomers, with that of the Pauránicas, or poetical fabulists; for to such a confusion alone must we impute the many mistakes of Europeans on the subject of Indian science. A venerable mathematician of this province, named Raˊmachandra, now in his eightieth year, visited me lately at Crishnanagar, and part of his discourse was so applicable to the inquiries, which I was then making, that, as soon as he left me, I committed it to writing. “The Pauránics, he said, will tell you, that our earth is a plane figure studded with eight mountains, and surrounded by seven seas of milk, nectar, and other fluids; that the part, which we inhabit, is one of seven islands, to which eleven smaller isles are subordinate; that a God, riding on a huge elephant, guards each of the eight regions; and that a mountain of gold rises and gleams in the centre; but we believe the earth to be shaped like a Cadamba fruit, or spheroidal, and admit only four oceans of salt water, all which we name from the four cardinal points, and in which are many great peninsulas with innumerable islands: they will tell you, that a dragon's head swallows the moon, and thus causes an eclipse; but we know, that the supposed head and tail of the dragon mean only the nodes, or points formed by intersections of the ecliptick and the moon's orbit; in short, they have imagined a system, which exists only in their fancy; but we consider nothing as true without such evidence as cannot be questioned.” I could not perfectly understand the old Gymnosophist, when he told me, that the Ráśichacra or Circle of Signs (for so he called the Zodiack) was like a Dhustúra flower; meaning the Datura, to which the Sanscrit name has been softened, and the flower of which is conical or shaped like a funnel: at first I thought, that he alluded to a projection of the hemisphere on the plane of the colure, and to the angle formed by the ecliptick and equator; but a younger astronomer named Vinaˊyaca, who came afterwards to see me, assured me that they meant only the circular mouth of the funnel, or the base of the cone, and that it was usual among their ancient writers, to borrow from fruits and flowers their appellations of several plane and solid figures.

From the two Bráhmans, whom I have just named, I learned the following curious particulars; and you may depend on my accuracy in repeating them, since I wrote them in their presence, and corrected what I had written, till they pronounced it perfect. They divide a great circle, as we do, into three hundred and sixty degrees, called by them ansas or portions; of which they, like us, allot thirty to each of the twelve signs in this order:

The figures of the twelve asterisms, thus denominated with respect to the sun, are specified, by Sriˊpeti, author of the Retnamálà, in Sanscrit verses; which I produce, as my vouchers, in the original with a verbal translation:

“The ram, bull, crab, lion, and scorpion, have the figures of those five animals respectively: the pair are a damsel playing on a Vínà and a youth wielding a mace: the virgin stands on a boat in water, holding in one hand a lamp, in the other an ear of ricecorn: the balance is held by a weigher with a weight in one hand: the bow, by an archer,

“whose hinder parts are like those of a horse: the sea-monster has the face of an antelope: the ewer is a waterpot borne on the shoulder of a man, who empties it: the fish are two with their heads turned to each others tails; and all these are supposed to be in such places as suit their several natures.”

To each of the twenty-seven lunar stations, which they call nacshatras, they allow thirteen ansas and one third, or thirteen degrees twenty minutes; and their names appear in the order of the signs, but without any regard to the figures of them:

Between the twenty-first and twenty-second constellations, we find in the plate three stars called Abhijit; but they are the last quarter of the asterism immediately preceding, or the latter Ashár, as the word is commonly pronounced. A complete revolution of the moon, with respect to the stars, being made in twenty-seven days, odd hours, minutes and seconds, and perfect exactness being either not attained by the Hindus or not required by them, they fixed on the number twenty-seven, and inserted Abhijit for some astrological purpose in their nuptial ceremonies. The drawing, from which the plate was engraved, seems intended to represent the figures of the twenty-seven constellations, together with Abhijit, as they are described in three stanzas by the author of the Retnamálá:

“A horse's head; yóni or bhaga; a razor; a wheeled carriage; the head of an antelope; a gem; a house; an arrow; a wheel; another house; a bedstead; another bedstead; a hand; a pearl; a piece of coral; a festoon of leaves; an oblation to the Gods; a rich ear-ring; the tail of a fierce lion; a couch; the tooth of a wanton elephant, near which is the kernel of the śrĭngátaca nut; the three footsteps of Vishnu; a tabor; a circular jewel; a two-faced image; another couch; and a smaller sort of tabor: such are the figures of Aswinì and the rest in the circle of lunar constellations.”

The Hindu draughtsman has very ill represented most of the figures; and he has transposed the two Asháras as well as the two Bhadrapads; but his figure of Abhijit, which looks like our ace of hearts, has a resemblance to the kernel of the trapa, a curious water-plant described in a separate essay. In another Sanscrit book the figures of the same constellations are thus varied:

From twelve of the asterisms just enumerated are derived the names of the twelve Indian months in the usual form of patronymicks; for the Pauránics, who reduce all nature to a system of emblematical mythology, suppose a celestial nymph to preside over each of the constellations, and feign that the God Soˊma, or Lunus, having wedded twelve of them, became the father of twelve Genii, or Months, who are named after their several mothers; but the Jyauˊishicas assert, that, when their lunar year was arranged by former astronomers, the moon was at the full in each month on the very day, when it entered the nacshatra, from which that month is denominated. The manner, in which the derivatives are formed, will best appear by a comparison of the months with their several constellations:

The third month is also called Ágraháyana (whence the common word Agran is corrupted) from another name of Mrĭgaśiras.

Nothing can be more ingenious than the memorial verses, in which the Hindus have a custom of linking together a number of ideas otherwise unconnected, and of chaining, as it were, the memory by a regular measure: thus by putting teeth for thirty-two, Rudra for eleven, season for six, arrow or element for five, ocean, Véda, or age, for four, Raˊma, fire, or quality for three, eye, or Cumaˊra for two, and earth or moon for one, they have composed four lines, which express the number of stars in each of the twenty-seven asterisms:

That is: “three, three, six; five, three, one; four, three, five; five, two, two; five, one, one; four, four, three; eleven, four and three; three, four, a hundred; two, two, thirty-two: thus have the stars of the lunar constellations, in order as they appear, been numbered by the wise.”

If the stanza was correctly repeated to me, the two Ashárás are considered as one asterism, and Abhijit as three separate stars; but I suspect an error in the third line because dwibána, or two and five would suit the metre as well as bdhiráma; and because there were only three Védas in the early age, when, it is probable, the stars were enumerated and the technical verse composed.

Two lunar stations, or mansions, and a quarter are co-extensive, we see, with one sign; and nine stations correspond with four signs: by counting, therefore, thirteen degrees and twenty minutes from the first star in the head of the Ram, inclusively, we find the whole extent of Aswinì, and shall be able to ascertain the other stars with sufficient accuracy; but first let us exhibit a comparative table of both Zodiacks, denoting the mansions, as in the Váránes almanack, by the first letters or syllables of their names:

Hence we may readily know the stars in each mansion, as they follow in order:

Wherever the Indian drawing differs from the memorial verse in the Retnamálà, I have preferred the authority of the writer to that of the painter, who has drawn some terrestrial things with so little similitude, that we must not implicitly rely on his representation of objects merely celestial: he seems particularly to have erred in the stars of Dhanisht'à.

For the assistance of those, who may be inclined to re-examine the twenty-seven constellations with a chart before them, I subjoin a table of the degrees, to which the nacshatras extend respectively from the first star in the asterism of Aries, which we now see near the beginning of the sign Taurus, as it was placed in the ancient sphere.

The asterisms of the first column are in the signs of Taurus, Geminí, Cancer, Leo; those of the second, in Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius; and those of the third, in Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries: we cannot err much, therefore, in any series of three constellations; for, by counting 13° 20′ forwards and backwards, we find the spaces occupied by the two extremes, and the intermediate space belongs of course to the middlemost. It is not meaned, that the division of the Hindu Zodiack into such spaces is exact to a minute, or that every star of each asterism must necessarily be found in the space to which it belongs; but the computation will be accurate enough for our purpose, and no lunar mansion can be very remote from the path of the moon: how Father Souciet could dream, that Visác'hà was in the Northern Crown, I can hardly comprehend; but it surpasses all comprehension, that M. Bailly should copy his dream, and give reasons to support it; especially as four stars, arranged pretty much like those in the Indian figure, present themselves obviously near the balance or the scorpion. I have not the boldness to exhibit the individual stars in each mansion, distinguished in Bayer's method by Greek letters; because, though I have little doubt, that the five stars of Asléshà, in the form of a wheel, are ν, γ, ζ, μ, ε, of the Lion, and those of Múla, γ, ε, δ, ζ, φ, τ, σ, ν, ο, ξ, π, of the Sagittary, and though I think many of the others equally clear, yet, where the number of stars in a mansion is less than three, or even than four, it is not easy to fix on them with confidence; and I must wait, until some young Hindu astronomer, with a good memory and good eyes, can attend my leisure on serene nights at the proper seasons, to point out in the firmament itself the several stars of all the constellations, for which he can find names in the Sanscrit language: the only stars, except those in the Zodiack, that have yet been distinctly named to me, are the Septarshi, Dhruva, Arundhatì, Vishnupad, Mátrimandel, and, in the southern hemisphere, Agastya, or Canopus. The twenty-seven Yóga stars, indeed, have particular names, in the order of the nacshatras, to which they belong; and since we learn 11See p. 270., that the Hindus have determined the latitude, longitude, and right ascension of each, it might be useful to exhibit the list of them: but at present I can only subjoin the names of twenty-seven Yógas, or divisions of the Ecliptick.

Having shown in what manner the Hindus arrange the Zodiacal stars with respect to the sun and moon, let us proceed to our principal subject, the antiquity of that double arrangement. In the first place, the Bráhmans were always too proud to borrow their science from the Greeks, Arabs, Moguls, or any nation of Mléchch'has, as they call those, who are ignorant of the Védas, and have not studied the language of the Gods: they have often repeated to me the fragment of an old verse, which they now use proverbially, na níchò yavanátparah, or no base creature can be lower than a Yavan; by which name they formerly meant an Ionian or Greek, and now mean a Mogul, or, generally, a Muselman. When I mentioned to different Pandits, at several times and in several places, the opinion of Montucla, they could not prevail on themselves to oppose it by serious argument; but some laughed heartily; others, with a sarcastick smile, said it was a pleasant imagination; and all seemed to think it a notion bordering on phrensy. In fact, although the figures of the twelve Indian signs bear a wonderful resemblance to those of the Grecian, yet they are too much varied for a mere copy, and the nature of the variation proves them to be original; nor is the resemblance more extraordinary than that, which has often been observed, between our Gothick days of the week and those of the Hindus, which are dedicated to the same luminaries, and (what is yet more singular) revolve in the same order: Ravi, the Sun; Sóma, the Moon; Mangala, Tuisco; Budha, Woden; Vrihaspati, Thor; Sucra, Freya; Sani, Sater; yet no man ever imagined, that the Indians borrowed so remarkable an arrangement from the Goths or Germans. On the planets I will only observe, that Sucra, the regent of Venus, is, like all the rest, a male deity, named also Usanas, and believed to be a sage of infinite learning; but Zohrah, the Naˊhiˊd of the Persians, is a goddess like the Freya of our Saxon progenitors: the drawing, therefore, of the planets, which was brought into Bengal by Mr. Johnson, relates to the Persian system, and represents the genii supposed to preside over them, exactly as they are described by the poet Haˊtifiˊ: “He bedecked the firmament with stars, and ennobled this earth with the race of men; he gently turned the auspicious new moon of the festival, like a bright jewel, round the ankle of the sky; he placed the Hindu Saturn on the seat of that restive elephant, the revolving sphere, and put the rainbow into his hand, as a hook to coerce the intoxicated beast; he made silken strings of sun-beams for the lute of Venus; and presented Jupiter, who saw the felicity of true religion, with a rosary of clustering Pleiads. The bow of the sky became that of Mars, when he was honoured with the command of the celestial host; for God conferred sovereignty on the Sun, and squadrons of stars were his army.”

The names and forms of the lunar constellations, especially of Bharanì and Abhijit, indicate a simplicity of manners peculiar to an ancient people; and they differ entirely from those of the Arabian system, in which the very first asterism appears in the dual number, because it consists only of two stars. Menzil, or the place of alighting, properly signifies a station or stage, and thence is used for an ordinary day's journey; and that idea seems better applied than mansion to so incessant a traveller as the moon: the menázilu'l kamar, or lunar stages, of the Arabs have twenty-eight names in the following order, the particle al being understood before every word:

Now, if we can trust the Arabian lexicographers, the number of stars in their several menzils rarely agrees with those of the Indians; and two such nations must naturally have observed, and might naturally have named, the principal stars, near which the moon passes in the course of each day, without any communication on the subject: there is no evidence, indeed, of a communication between the Hindus and Arabs on any subject of literature or science; for, though we have reason to believe, that a commercial intercourse subsisted in very early times between Yemen and the western coast of India, yet the Bráhmans, who alone are permitted to read the six Védángas, one of which is the astronomical Sástra, were not then commercial, and, most probably, neither could nor would have conversed with Arabian merchants. The hostile irruption of the Arabs into Hindustán, in the eighth century, and that of the Moguls under Chengiˊz, in the thirteenth, were not likely to change the astronomical system of the Hindus; but the supposed consequences of modern revolutions are out of the question; for, if any historical records be true, we know with as positive certainty, that Amarsinh and Caˊlida's composed their works before the birth of Christ, as that Menander and Terence wrote before that important epoch: now the twelve signs and twenty-seven mansions are mentioned, by the several names before exhibited, in a Sanscrit vocabulary by the first of those Indian authors, and the second of them frequently alludes to Róhinì and the rest by name in his Fatal Ring, his Children of the Sun, and his Birth of Cumaˊra; from which poem I produce two lines, that my evidence may not seem to be collected from mere conversation:

“When the stars of Uttarap'halgun had joined in a fortunate hour the fawn-spotted moon.”

This testimony being decisive against the conjecture of M. Montucla, I need not urge the great antiquity of Menu's Institutes, in which the twenty-seven asterisms are called the daughters of Dacsha and the consorts of Sóma, or the Moon, nor rely on the testimony of the Bráhmans, who assure me with one voice, that the names of the Zodiacal stars occur in the Védas; three of which I firmly believe, from internal and external evidence, to be more than three thousand years old. Having therefore proved what I engaged to prove, I will close my essay with a general observation. The result of Newton's researches into the history of the primitive sphere was, “that the practice of observing the stars began in Egypt in the days of Ammon, and was propagated thence by conquest in the reign of his son Sisac, into Africk, Europe, and Asia; since which time Atlas formed the sphere of the Lybians; Chiron, that of the Greeks; and the Chaldeans, a sphere of their own:” now I hope, on some other occasions, to satisfy the publick, as I have perfectly satisfied myself, that “the practice of observing the stars began, with the rudiments of civil society, in the country of those, whom we call Chaldeans; from which it was propagated into Egypt, India, Greece, Italy, and Scandinavia, before the reign of Sisac or Saˊcya, who by conquest spread a new system of religion and philosophy from the Nile to the Ganges about a thousand years before Christ; but that Chiron and Atlas were allegorical or mythological personages, and ought to have no place in the serious history of our species.”