KURT1:58 48875 Above a Male Figure, with four Ams, and the Bráhmenical String. Southern Face. BRESI w hd vi Above a Male Figure, with four Arms. I Jh Xih T 1: សង់ក Above a Male Figure, with four Arms, leaning on a Female, seeming to ftoop under the Weight. 1 Above a Male, with four Arms. A Scepter apdifpears in one Hand. This Infcription being very ficult to come at, is perhaps not quite correct. 881 Above a Male Figure, with four Arms. Weft Front. HJWIj8: Over a Male. The String over the left Shoulder, and a warlike Weapon on the Right. Another Figure on this Face, but no Infcription above it. On the Upper Divifion. Each Front of this Divifion is ornamented with Figures, different in some respects from those below: all, however, of the fame Family. On the Eastern Front is a Male Figure, (two Arms only.) He has two Strings or Belts, one croffing the other over the Shoulder. Over Over him is the following Infcription, the only one on this Divifion. 178 J: The Characters of this Infcription bear a strong Refemblance to thofe of the Infcription in the Stone Pagoda, near the Village mentioned in the first Part of the Account of the Place. HORSIT This Infcription is on the Pavement of the Choultry, near the Village, very roughly cut, and apparently by different Artists from thofe who cut the former. Account V.. Account of the Hindustanee Horometry. BY JOHN GILCHRIST, Efq. THE HE inhabitants of Hindustan commonly reckon and divide time in the following manner; which exhibits a horography fo imperfect, however, that its inaccuracy can only be equalled by the peoples' general ignorance of fuch a divifion, that, with all its imperfections and abfurdities, muft nevertheless answer the various purposes of many millions in this country. I fhall therefore explain and illuftrate fo complex and difficult a fubject, to the beft of my ability and information from the natives, without prefuming, in the difcuffion here, to encroach on the province of the chronologift or aftronomer, who may yet investigate this matter with higher views; while my aim is, in the mean time, perhaps, not lefs ufefully confined to ordinary cafes and capacities entirely. 60 Til or unoopul (a fub-divifion of time, for which we have no relative term but thirds, as the feries next to feconds) are one bipul. 60 Bipul (which correfponds progreffively only with our feconds or moments) one pul. VOL. V. F 60 Pul * On this principle one minute of ours being equal to 24 puls, and one moment to 24 bipuls, it is neither easy nor necessary to trace and mark the coincidence of such diminutives any farther. I may, however, add what the Furhung Kardanee contains relative to these horal divisions, as follows. 4 Renoo constitute 1 puluk; 16 puluks, 1 kast,ha; 30 kast,has, 1 kula; 30 kulas, 1 guhun; 60 guhuns, 1 dund; 2 dunds, 1 g,huree; 30 dunds, 1 din; 60 dunds, 1 din o rat. From this work it is evident that there exists various modes of dividing time in India, because a little farther on the author states the following also, viz. our text. 60 Zurru, 1 dum; 60 dums, 1 lumhu, &c. which, as well as the many local modes in use, it would be superfluous to enumerate. I shall therefore attend only to the former, so far as they agree with The kast,ha is equal to 4 tils, the kula, or two bipuls; the guhun and pul are the same; so are the dund and (kuchee)· ghurce; but the learner must advert to the ghuree in this note, being pukkee, or two of the former; as this distinction is frequently used when they allot only four g,hurees to the puhur ; and pukkee, or double, is always understood. 60 Pul (correlative as above, in this fexagefimal fcale with our minutes or primes) one g,huree, and 60g,huree (called alfo d,und, which we may here tranflate hour) conftitute our twenty-four hours,* or one whole day; divided into 4 puhur din, diurnal watches; 4 puhur rat, nocturnal watches. During the equinoctial months, there are juft 30 g,hurees in the day, and 30 alfo in the night; each g,huree properly occupying a space, at all times, exactly equal to 24 of our minutes; because 60 g,hurees, of 24 English minutes each, are of course 24 English hours of 60 English minutes each. For nations under or near the equator, this horological arrangement will prove convenient enough, and may yet be adduced as one argument for afcertaining with more precifion the country whence the Hindus originally came, provided they are, as is generally fuppofed, the inventors of the fyftem under confideration here. The farther we recede from the Line, the more difficult and troublesome will the present plan appear. And as in this country the artificial day commences with the dawn, and clofes just after fun-fet, it becomes neceffary to make the puhurs, or watches, contract and expand occafionally, in proportion to the length of the day, and the confequent fhortnefs of the night, by admitting a greater or smaller number of g,hurees into these grand diurnal and nocturnal divifions alternately, and according to the fun's progrefs to or from the tropicks. The fummer folftitial day will, therefore, confift of 34 g,hurees, and the night * Lumhu and dùm, perhaps, answer to our minutes and seconds, as the constituent parts of the sa,ut, or hour, 24 of which are said to constitute a natural day, and are reckoned from 1 o'clock after mid-day, regularly on through the night; also up to 24 o'clock the next noon, as formerly was the case, and which is still observed in some places on the continent; or, like ours, from I after noon to 12 at midnight; and again, from 1 after midnight to 12 o'clock the next noon. Whether those few who can talk of the sa,ut at all, have learnt this entirely from us or not, is a point rather dubious to me; but I suspect they have it from the Arabians, who acquired this with other sciences from the Greeks. |