CHAPTER  XXVIL

ON THE FIRST TWO MOTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE (THAT
FROM EAST TO WEST ACCOEDING TO ANCIENT
ASTRONOMERS AND THE PEECESSION OF THE EQUI¬
NOXES), BOTH ACCORDING TO HINDU ASTRONOMERS
AND  THE  AUTHOES   OF  THE   PURInAS,

The astronomers of the Hindus hold on this subject

mostly the  same views as ourselves.    We shall give

quotations from them, but shall at once confess that

that which we are able to give is very scanty indeed.

Quotation         PuHsa says:   "The wind makes the sphere of the

subject       fixed stars revolve; the two poles keep it in its place,

lom  u isa. ^^^ ^^^ motion appears to the inhabitants of Mount

Meru as a motion from the left to the right; to the

inhabitants of Vadavamukha as one from the right to

the left."

In another place he says : "If anybody asks for the
direction of the motion of the stars which we see rising
in the east and rotating towards the west until they set,
let him know" that the motion which tve see as a west¬
ward motion appears different according to the places
which the spectators occupy. The inhabitants of Mount
Meru see it as a motion from the left to the right,
whilst the inhabitants of Vadavamukha see it as the
opposite, as a motion from the right to the left. The
inhabitants of the equator see it exclusively as a
westward motion, and the inhabitants of the parts of
the earth between the poles and the equator see it
more or less depressed, as their places have more or