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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1890.
religious observances when these phenomena recur, are never disappointed in their expectations. I recollect a circumstance which occurred not many years ago, when an Eclipse of the Moon had been announced for a certain evening in the Madras Panchangum; in consequence of which crowds of people had resorted to the Beach for performing their ablutions; but no eclipse appeared; a circumstance which in China might have endangered the mistaken astrono. mer's life, but with the gentle Indian, only occasioned a good deal of noise; and with a few, some merriment on his ill proficiency. The case I refer to may have proceeded from the ignorance of the Sastra; but it is certain (and will be readily believed) that even where the most skilful astronomer is employed, no reliance can be placed on those raw predictions which are never certain within several hours of the time when an eclipse is to occur."
An inscription which mentions an eclipse, is not necessarily to be stamped as spurious, simply because of the non-occurrence of an eclipse on the given date. The point is only one which has to be taken into general consideration, with others according to the particular circumstances of each case, in weighing the authenticity of such a record.
Again, it still remains to be decided, for early times, whether, in order to be the 'oocasions of ceremonies, eclipses should be actually visible,
digible except, of course for accidental reasons, - at the localities of those ceremonies.
The modern rule seems to be olear enough. For instance, the Dharmasindhuadra, parich. chhoda i, uddesa 43, says that the punyakdla of an eclipse of the sun, or of the moon, lasts as long us the eclipse is visible to the eye (chakshusha dardana-yogya): that, accordingly, if the orb
or seta eclipsed, there is no paniyakala before its rising, or after its setting, as the case may be: and that there is no punyakdla at all in the case of an eclipse which is visible only in another country. And it adds the remark, quite in accordance with commonsense, that, if an eclipse cannot be actually seen because of the obstrue. tion of clouds &o., still the times of contact and liberation can be learned from the Sastras or by other means, and then one can perform the rites of bathing, making gifts, &c.; i. e, the punyakala of an eclipse is not lost through merely accidental invisibility.
Of course there is a natural presumption that the rule must have been the same in ancient times. But a noteworthy instance, apparently to
the contrary, is the solar eclipse of the 2nd January, A. D. 987, which is referred to in Prof. Kielhorn's Vikrama date No. 83 (page 166 above). It was a total eclipse. But it was visible only over a comparatively small area in North America and the North Pacific Ocean: And yet it is the eclipse that answers to the other details of the given date.
When the whole question comes to be fully discussed, consideration should be given to the following points :
(1) Is it not possible that the Hindu prodesses for the calculation of eclipses, taken with the Hindu view as to the shape of the earth, and coupled perhaps with the introduction of even a slight error in working out individual cases, might naturally lead to the result, not only that occasionally an eclipse would be predicted when none would occur, but that still more often eclipses which were not really visible in India at all, would work out as visible in that country, though possibly only to a small extent P
(2) Under ordinary circumstances, would person, intending, e. g., to make a grant of land in celebration of an eclipse, wait until he actually saw the eclipse, and then take the matter in hand; or would he accept the eclipse beforehand, from an almanao or from the calculation of his own astrologer, and have all his arrangements complete for the actual making of the grant at the proper time, when, if no eclipse proved to be visi. ble, the Brahmans would find some specious way of accounting for the fact, and would induce their patron to carry out his intention in spite of it'P
Prof. Jacobi (ante, Vol. XVII. p. 155, note 12) has given the opinion that eclipses mentioned in inscriptions are generally to be interpreted as calculated, not as actually observed; the reason, in respect at any rate of the smaller solar eolipees, being, that they are seen only under favourable circumstances, and would pass unobserved if not caloulated beforehand. And he has indicated that, within the limits of a possible eclipse, the Hindus may at any time have predicted an eclipse when none did occur, or may have failed to predict an eclipse when there would be one.
And the concoction of so palpably spurious a charter as the Bhimankatti Math grant of Junamêjaya (ante, Vol. IV. p. 333 f.). - plainly fabricated in order to deceive some reigning king into the recognition of a right to the lands mentioned in it, shews that the Brahmans have looked upon their rulers as persons who could be gulled very easily indeed, and by very clumsy means.
