Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

Postby admin » Tue May 17, 2022 8:23 am

Part 1 of 2

The Problem of the Magical Squares according to the Indians, Excerpt from "A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam"
Tome II
by Monsieur De La Loubere
Envoy Extraordinary from the French King, to the King of Siam, in the years 1687 and 1688. Wherein a full and curious Account is given of the Chinese Way of Arithmetick, and Mathematick Learning. In Two Tomes, Illustrated with Sculptures. Done out of French, by A.P. Gen. R.S.S.
1693



Cassini is also credited with introducing Indian Astronomy to Europe. In 1688, the French envoy to Siam (Thailand), Simon de la Loubère, returned to Paris with an obscure manuscript relating to the astronomical traditions of that country, along with a French translation. The Siamese Manuscript, as it is now called, somehow fell into Cassini's hands. He was intrigued enough by it to spend considerable time and effort deciphering its cryptic contents, also determining on the way that the document originated in India. His explication of the manuscript appeared in La Loubère's book on the Kingdom of Siam in 1691.

-- Giovanni Domenico Cassini, by Wikipedia


Curiously enough the first definite information respecting the Hindu system of astronomy, came to Europe from Siam, where, in the early centuries of our era, there was a flourishing Hindu state. In 1687 Louis XIV sent M. de la Loubere on an embassy to Siam, and he brought back with him a portion of a manuscript containing rules for computing the places of the sun and moon. This was submitted to the celebrated John Dominic Cassini, the Italian astronomer, whom Louis had brought to Paris to take charge of his observatory. In his hands the calculations described, without indication of the meaning of the constants employed, were lucidly explained.

-- Burgess, James (1893). "Notes on Hindu Astronomy and the History of Our Knowledge of It". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland: 722–723.


I gave to Mr. Cassini, Director of the Observatory at Paris, the Siamese Method of finding the place of the Sun and Moon by a Calculation, the ground of which is taken from this Epocha. And the singular Merit which Mr. Cassini has had of unfolding a thing so difficult, and penetrating the Reasons thereof, will doubtless be admired by all the Learned. Now as this Epocha is visibly the ground only of an Astronomical Calculation, and has been chosen rather than another, only because it appear'd more commodious to Calculation than another, it is evident that we must thence conclude nothing which respects the Siamese History; nor imagine that the Year 638, has been more Famous amongst them than another for any Event, from which they have thought fit to begin to compute their Years, as we compute ours, from the Birth of the Saviour of the World.

-- CHAP. XI. What the Siameses do know of the Mathematics. Excerpt from "A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam", Tome II, by Monsieur De La Loubere, Envoy Extraordinary from the French King, to the King of Siam, in the years 1687 and 1688. Wherein a full and curious Account is given of the Chinese Way of Arithmetick, and Mathematick Learning. In Two Tomes, Illustrated with Sculptures. Done out of French, by A.P. Gen. R.S.S., 1693


Tome II, p. 227-247

The Problem of the Magical Squares according to the Indians.

This Problem is thus:

A square being divided into as many little equal figures as shall be desired, it is necessary to fill the little squares with as many numbers given in Arithmetical progression, in such a manner that the numbers of the little squares of each rank, whether from top to bottom, or from right to left, and those of the Diagonals do always make the same sum.

Now to the end that a square might be divided into little equal squares, it is necessary that there are as many ranks of little squares, as there shall be little squares to each rank.

The little squares I will case the cases, and the rows from top to bottom upright, and those from right to left transverse; and the word rank shall equally denote the upright and transverse.

I have said that the Cases must be filled with numbers in Arithmetical progression, and because that all Arithmetical Progression is indifferent for this Problem, I will take the natural for example, and will take the Unite for the first number of the progression.

Behold then the two first examples, viz. the square of nine Cases, and that of 16, filled, the one with the nine first numbers from the unite to nine, and the other with the sixteen first numbers from the unite to 16: So that in the square of 9 Cases, the summ of every upright, and that of every Transverse is 15, and that of each Diagonal 15 also: and that in that of 16 Cases, the summ of every upright, and that of every Transverse is 34, and that of each Diagonal 34 also.

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This Problem is called Magical Squares, because that Agrippa in his second Book De Occulta Philosophia, cap. 22. informs us that "they were used as Talismans, after having engraved them on plates of diverse metals: the cunning that there is in ranging the numbers after this manner, having appear'd so marvellous to the ignorant, as to attribute the Invention thereof to Spirits superior to man. Agrippa has not only given the two preceding Squares, but five successively, which are those of 25, 36, 49, 64, and 81 Cases; and he reports that these seven squares were consecrated to the seven Planets. The Arithmeticians of these times have looked upon them as an Arithmetical sport, and not as a mystery of Magic. And they have sought out general methods to range them.

The first that I know who laboured therein, was Gaspar Bachet de Meziriac, a Mathematician famous for his learned Commentaries on Diophantus. He found out an ingenious method for the unequal squares, that is to say, for those that have a number of unequal cases: but for the equal squares he could find none. 'Tis in a Book in Octave, which he has entitled, Pleasant Problems by numbers.

Mr. Vincent, whom I have so often mentioned in my Relation, seeing me one day in the Ship, during our return, studiously to range the Magical squares after the manner of Bachet, informed me that the Indians of Suratte ranged them with much more facility, and taught me their method for the unequal squares only, having, he said, forgot that of the equal.

The first square, which is that of 9 cases, return'd to the square of Agrippa, it was only subverted: but the other unequal squares were essentially different from those of Agrippa. He ranged the numbers in the cases immediately, and without hesitation; and I hope that it will not be unacceptable that I give the Rules, and the demonstration of this method, which is surprizing for its extream facility to execute a thing, which has appeared difficult to all our Mathematicians.

1. After having divided the total square into its little squares, they place the numbers according to their natural order, I would say by beginning with the unite, and continuing with 2, 3, 4, and all the other numbers successively, and they place the unite, or the first number of the Arithmetical Progression given, in the middle case of the upper transverse.

2. When they have put a number into the highest case of an upright, they place the following number in the lowest case of the upright, which follows towards the right: that is to say, that from the upper transverse they descend immediately to that below.

3. When they have placed a number in the last case of a transverse, the following is put in the first case of the transverse immediately superior, that is to say, that from the last upright, they return immediately to the first upright on the left.

4. In every other occurrence, after having placed a number, they place the following in the cases which follow diametrically or slantingly from the bottom to the top, and from the left to the right, until they come to one of the cases of the upper transverse, or of the last upright to the right.

5. When they find the way stopp'd by any case already filled with any number, then they take the case immediately under that which they have filled, and they continue it as before, diametrically from the bottom to the top, and from the left to the right.

These few Rules, easie to retain, are sufficient to range all the unequal squares in general. An example tenders them more intelligible.

Image

This square is essentially different from that of Agrippa; and the method of Bachet is not easily accommodated thereto; and on the contrary, the Indian method may easily give the squares of Agrippa, by changing it in something.

1. They place the unite in the Case, which is immediately under that of the Center, and they pursue it diametrically from top to bottom, and from the left to the right.

2. From the lowest case of an upright, they pass to the highest case of the upright which follows on the right; and from the last case of a Transverse they return to the left to the first case of the Transverse immediately inferior.

3. When the way is interrupted, they re-assume two cases underneath that which they filled; and if there remains no case underneath, or that there remains but one, the first case of the upright is thought to return in order after the last; as if it was indeed underneath the lowest.

An Example taken from Agrippa.

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As Bachet has not given the demonstration of his method, I have search'd it out, not doubting but it would give me also that of the Indian method: But to make my demonstration understood, it is necessary that I give the method of Bachet.

1. The square being divided by cases, to be filled with numbers in the Magical order, he augments it before all things by the square sides in this manner. To the upper part of the first transverse, he adds another transverse, but contracted by two cases, viz. one at each end. Over this first transverse contracted he adds a second contracted by two new cases. To the second he adds a third more contracted than the former, to the third a fourth, and so on, if it is necessary, until that the last transverse have but one case. Underneath the last transverse he adds likewise as many transverses more contracted one than the other. And in fine, to the first upright on the left, to the last upright on the right, he adds also as many uprights thus contracted.

EXAMPLES.

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aa are the squares of 9 and 25 cases, bb are the cases of Augmentation.

The square being thus augmented, Bachet there places the numbers according to the natural order, as well of the numbers as the cases, in the following manner.

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In this disposition it is evident that the cases of the true square are alternately full, and alternately empty, and that its two Diameters are entirely full. Now the full cases receive not any change in the sequel of the operation, and the Diameters remain always such as they are by position in the square augmented: but for the cases of the true square, which are likewise void, they must be filled with the numbers which are in the cases of Augmentation, by transporting the high ones lower, and the low ones higher, each into its upright; those of the right to the left, and those of the left to the right, each into its transverse, and all to as many cases, as there are in the side of the real square. Thus in the square of 9 cases, which has only three in its side, the unite, which is in the case of Augmentation at the top, is removed to the third case below in the same upright; 9, which is in the case of Augmentation below, is removed to the third case above in the same upright, [illegible], which is in the case of Augmentation on the right, is remov'd toward the left, to the third case in the same transverse; and in sine, 7, which is in the case of Augmentation on the left, is removed towards the right, to the third case in the same transverse.

After the same manner, in the square of 25 cases, which has 5 in its side, the numbers, which are in the cases of Augmentation above, do descend 5 cases below each in its upright. Those of the cases of Augmentation below do ascend five cases above each in its upright. Those of the cases of Augmentation on the right do pass 5 cases to the left, each in its transverse; and those of the cases of Augmentation on the left do pass 5 cases to the right, each also in its transverse. It ought to be the same in all the other squares proportionably, and thereby they will become all Magical.


Definitions.

In the augmented square of Bachet, the ranks of Augmentation shall be called Complements of the ranks of the true square, into which the numbers of the ranks of Augmentation must be removed: and the ranks which must receive the Complements, shall be called defective ranks. Now as by Bachet's method every number of the cases of Augmentation must be removed to as many cases as there are in the side of the true square, it follows that every defective rank is as far distant from its Complements, as there are cases in the side of the true square.

2. Because that the true square, that is to say, that which it is necessary to fill with numbers according to the Magical Order, is always comprehended in the square augmented, I will consider it in the square augmented, and I will call its ranks and its diameters, the ranks and diameters of the true square; but its ranks, whether transverse or upright, shall comprehend the cases, which they have at both ends; because that the numbers which are in the cases of Augmentation, proceed neither from their transverse nor from their upright, when removed into the cases of the true square, according to Bachet's method.

3. The diameters of the square augmented are the middle upright, and middle transverse of the true square, and they are the sole ranks which are not defective, and which receive no complement. They neither acquire, nor lose any number in Bachet's operation: they suffer only the removal of their numbers from some of their cases into others.

4. As the augmented square has ranks of another construction than are the ranks of the true square, I will call them Bands and Bars. The Bands descend from the left to the right, as that wherein are the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in the preceding example, the Bars descend from the right to the left, as that, wherein are the numbers 1, 6, 11, 16, 11, in the same example.

Preparation to the Demonstration

The Problems of the Magical squares consists in two things.

The first is that every transverse and every upright make the same sum, and the second that ever diameter make likewise that same sum. I shall not speak at present of this last condition, no more than if I sought it not. And because that to arrive at the first, it is not necessary that all the numbers, which ought to fill a Magical square, be in Arithmetical proportion continued, but that it suffices that the numbers of a Band be Arithmetically proportional to those of every other Band, I will denote the first numbers of every Band by the letters of the Latin Alphabet, and the differences between the numbers of the same Band by the letters of the Greek Alphabet; and to the end that the numbers of a Band be Arithmetically proportional to the numbers of every other Band, I will set down:

Image

the differences of the numbers of each band by the same Greek Letters.

1. Nothing hinders why the Sign -, may not be placed instead of the Sign +, either before all the differences, or before some, provided that the same Sign be before the same difference in each band: for so the Arithmetical proportion will not be altered.

2. The greater a square shall be, the more Latin and Greek Letters it will have; but every band will never have but one Latin Letter, and all the Greek Letters; and the Latin Letter shall be different in each band. Every bar on the contrary shall have all the Latin Letters, and all except the first shall have a Greek Letter, which shall be different in every bar.

Demonstration.

From hence it follows. 1. That the diameters of the augmented square have each all of the Latin and all the Greek Letters, because that they have each a case of every band, and a case of every bar, and that the cases of every band do give them all the Latin Letters, and the cases of each bar all the Greek. The sum then of these two diameters is the same, viz. that of all the Letters, as well Greek as Latin, taken at once. Now these two diameters do make an upright and a transverse in the Magical square, because that in the operation of Bachet, their sum changes not by the loss or acquisition of any number, as I have already remarked.

2. As the ranks of the true square, whether transverse or upright, are as distant from their complements, as there are cases in the side of the true square, it follows that the bands, and the bars, which begin with a complement, or above this complement, touch not, that is to say, have no case at the defective rank of this complement; and that the bands and the bars which begin with a defective rank or above, have no case in its complement: the Letters then of the defective rank, are all different from those of the complements; because that different bands have different Latin Letters, and that different bars have different Greek Letters. But because that all the bands, and all the bars, have each a case in all the defective ranks, or in their complements: then every defective rank whatever, will have all the Letters, when it shall have received its complement; it will have all the Latin, because that all the bands, passing through every defective rank, or through its complement, do there leave all the Latin Letters; and it will have all the Greek, because that all the bars, passing also through every defective rank, or through its complement, do there leave all the Greek Letters. And thus all the defective ranks will make the same sum in the Magical square, and the same sum as the diameters of the square augmented, which are the two sole ranks not defective of the true square.

That this Method cannot agree to even Squares.

The Demonstration which I have given, agrees to the equal squares, as well as to the unequal, in this that in the augmented equal square, every defective rank and its complement do make the sum, which a range of the Magical square ought to make: But there is this inconvenience to the equal squares, that the numbers of the cases of Augmentation, do find the cases of the true square filled with other numbers, which they ought to fill; because that every case is full, which goes in an equal rank after a full case, and that in the equal squares, the cases of the defective ranks do come in an equal rank, after those of the complements, the defective ranks being as remote from the complements, as the side of the square has cases, and the side of every equal square having its cases in equal number.

Of the Diameters of the unequal Magical Squares.

By Bachet's operation it is clear, that he understands that the diameters are such as they ought to be, by the sole position of the numbers in the augmented square: and this will be always true, provided only that it is supposed, that the number of the case of the middle of each band, be a mean Arithmetic proportion between the other numbers of the same band, taken two by two: a condition, which is naturally included in the ordinary Problem of the Magical squares, wherein it is demanded that all the numbers be in Arithmetical proportion continued. Alternato the mean number of each bar, will be also a mean Arithmetical proportional between all the numbers of the same bar taken two by two: and hereby every mean, taken as many times as there are cases in the band, or in the bar, which is all one, will be equal to the total sum of the band, or of the bar. Therefore all the means of the bands, taken as many times as there are cases in every band, or which is all one, in the side of the square, will be equal to the total sum of the square: then taken once only, they will be equal to the sum of one of the ranks of the Magical square; and it will be the same of the means of the bars: and because that the means of the bands do make one diameter, and the means of the bars the other, it is proved that the diameters will be exact by the sole position of the numbers in the augmented square, provided that every mean of a band, be a mean Arithmetic proportional between all the numbers of its band, taken two by two.

In a word, as in the squares there are no augmented pairs, nor true square nor diameters of the true square, because that the bands of the equal squires have not a mean number, 'tis likewise a reason, which evinces that this method, cannot be accommodated to the equal squares.

Methods of varying the Magical Squares by Bachet's Square augmented.

1. By varying the order of the numbers in the bands, or in the bars, provided that the order which shall be taken, be the same in all the bands, or the same in all the bars, to the end that in this order the numbers of a band or of a bar, be Arithmetically proportioned to those of every other band or bar: but it is necessary that not any of the diameters loses any of its numbers.

2. Or rather (which will amount to the same) by varying the order of the bars amongst them in the augmented square: for this troubles not the Arithmetical proportion, which is the ground of the preceding demonstration: but it is necessary to remember to leave always in their place the band and the bar, which do make the two diameters.

3. By not putting the first number of each band, in the first case of each band: As for example

Image

d, a, e, c, b, are the five letters of the first band, the order of which is arbitrary, and the letter d, which is in the first case of this first band, is not found in the first case of any other band 2 + but in the fourth case of the second band, in the second of the third, in the fifth of the fourth, and in the third of the fifth. Besides the succession or other of the Letters must be the same in every band. But because that in the bands where the Letter d is in a case lower than the first, there remains not case enough underneath, to put all the other Letters successively, the first cases of the bands do return in order after the last, and are in this case thought the last cases of their bands. A circumstance which it is necessary carefully to observe.

If then in an augmented square the numbers are disposed in each band, as in the bands of this square I have disposed the Letters a, b, c, d, e, and which one continues to operate like Bachet, that is to say, to remove as he does, the numbers of the cases of Augmentation into the void cases of the real square, the true square will be Magical, at least as to the ranks, whether transverse or upright, for I speak not as yet of the Diameters.

I shall call those capital cases, wherein are found the Letters like to the Letter which is put in the first case of the first band, which I will call the first capital case.

Preparation to the Demonstration.

1. It is necessary to observe in disposing these Letters, that after having chosen the capital case of the second band, near a Letter of the first band, which I will call the Letter of Indication, so that this second capital case be also the second case of the bar which begins with this Letter of Indication, one may chuse the capital case of the third band, near the Letter of the second band, like to the first Letter of Indication, so that this third capital case be the third of the bar, wherein shall be the second Letter of Indication. After the same manner shall be determin'd the capital case of every band, near the Letter of Indication of the precedent band. From whence it follows, that there are as many capital cases as bands, and no more.

It follows also, that not only the Letter d is always under the Letter c in the same bar, but that all the other Letters are always under the same Letters in the same bars, and that the Letters have likewise the same order in all the bars, as they have the same in all the bands, though the orders of the Letters in the bars, is not the same as the order of the Letters in the bands.

1. The choice of the capital case of the second band, which determines that of the rest, is not entirely arbitrary. To regulate it 'tis necessary to have regard to the number of the ranks of the true square, which is the number 5 in the preceding example, and which is always the square root of the number, which expresses the multitude of the cases of the true square, and so I will call it the root of the square.

Take then a number at your own choice, provided nevertheless that it be less than the root of the square, and first to this very root, and that by adding two points, it be still first at the same root of the square: 'Twill be by this number that we shall determine the choice of the second capital case: and we call it the number determining.

The second capital case must not be the second case of the second band, because that this second case is found in the upright diameter of the augmented square, and that there must not be two Letters alike in any of the diameters of the augmented square: and so as the first capital case is already in the upright diameter, the second cannot be there. It is necessary on the contrary, that the case which you shall chuse in the second band, for the second capital, be as far distant from the second case of the upright diameter, as your determining number shall have Unites, and at the same time your second capital shall be removed from the first capital case as many transverses, as your determining number + 2 shall have Unites. Thus in the preceding example, the second capital case, viz. the case of the second band, where is the Letter d, is the second case after that, which is in the upright diameter, and it is in the fourth transverse underneath the first capital case, which alone is looked upon as a transverse, and the number 2, which determines this second capital case, is first to 5, which is the root of the square, and 2 + 2 that is to say 4, is likewise first to 5, the third case of the second band is therefore the first, which removes from the upright diameter, and it is with this that it is necessary to begin to compute the distance of the rest: so that the first case of this second band is in this sense the remotest of the second case, though to reckon after a contrary sense it touches it.

You may then in the preceding example, where the root of the square is 5, take either 1 or 2, or 4, which do give you three different cases, of which you may make your second capital case, 1 is first to 5, and 1 will give you the case wherein is b, three transverses distant from the first capital case. a is first to 5, and 2 + 2 that is to say 4, is also first to 5, and 2 will give you the case wherein is d, 4 transverses distant from the first capital case., 3 is also first to 5, but because that 3 + 2, that is to say 5, is not first to 5, 3 can give you in this example only a false capital case. 4 is first to 5, and 4 + 2 that is to say 6, is also first to 5, but from 6 it is necessary to deduct 5 which is the root, and there will remain 1. And 4 will give you the case wherein is e, the fourth in distance from the case of the diameter rising, and has a transverse near the first capital. The number 4 will give you then Bachet's disposition, who has placed all the capital cases in the first bar: and as often as for a determining number you shall take a less number by an Unite, than the root of the square, you will fall into Bachet's disposition.

3. From hence it follows, that the diameter ascending will not have any other capital case than the first, which it has already, and that so it will not have twice the Letter, which shall be in the capital cases. To prove it let us suppose that our bands be sufficiently extended towards the right, to make as many new uprights as we desire; and let us mark the first upright, which shall be as distant from the diameter ascending, as the root of the square has Unites: that is to say, which shall be the fifth on the right of the diameter ascending, if the root of the square is 5. And at a like distance from this first upright marked, let us mark a second, and then a third, and a fourth, always at an equal distance one from the other, until that there are as many uprights marked, as the determining number has Unites. In this case as the determining number and the root of the square are first amongst them, the last upright marked will be the sole one, whose distance to take it from the diameter ascending, would be divisible by the determinating number.

Suppose also, that now the bands are long enough, the capital cases are marked all together, and without ever returning to the first cases of the bands, as it was necessary to do, before that the bands were extended, because that then they had not cases enough after the capital, to receive all the Letters successively. I say that in these suppositions, none of these marked uprights will have a capital cases except the last: because that it is the sole marked upright, whose distance from the diameter ascending unto it, is divisible by the determining number: for as the uprights, wherein are the capital cases, are as removed (viz. the first from the upright, the second from the first, the third from the second, and so successively) as the determining number has Unites, it follow that no upright has a capital case when the distance from the upright diameter unto it, is not divisible by the determining number. 'Tis proved then that no marked upright, except the last, will have a capital case: and the capital case which is shall have will be the first beyond the number of the cases necessary to your augmented square, because that in counting the first capital case, there will be as many others before this, as the root of the square has Unites.

Now when you mark the capital cases in a square augmented, according to the method which I have given, so that when you arrive at the last case of a band, you return to its first case, as if it was after the last, you do no other thing, than successively to place all the capital cases, in respect of the diameter ascending, as in the case of the extension of the bands, you will place one after the other in regard of all the uprights successively marked. And none of your capital cases, except a first supernumerary, can fall into your ascending diameter, as no other, except a first supernumerary, could fall into your last upright marked.

4. But if you consider the first capital case, as a transverse, and that you make the same suppositions as before, so that there are as many transverses marked, as the determining number + 2 shall have Unites, and as distant (viz. the first from the first capital case, the second from the first, the third from the second, and so successively) as the root of the square shall have Unites: From this that the root of the square and the determining number + 2 are first amongst them, and from this that the determining number + 2 expresses the distance of the transverses, wherein will be the capital cases, you will prove that there shall be only the last transverse marked, which has a capital case, which will be the first supernumerary: and consequently, that the defective rank, the first capital case of which is the complement, will have no capital case, because that it is the first transverse marked: and you will prove also that the first supernumerary capital case must return to the transverse of the first capital case, and as it must return likewise to the upright diameter, it follows that the first supernumerary case, that is to say, that which you would mark after the last of the necessary, is the first capital case, because there is only this which is common to its transverse, and to the upright diameter.

5. From the order of the letters, alike in all the bands and alike also in all the bars, you will prove that all the letters alike, are at the same distance one from the other, and in the same order amongst them, as the letters of the capital cases amongst them, and that so all the cases which contain letters alike may be considered as capital, so that two letters alike, are never found in the same upright, nor in the same transverse, nor in a defective rank, nor in its complement. Which needs no other demonstration.

Demonstration.

This supposed, the demonstration of the Problem is easie, for whereas no letter is twice in any of the diameters of the augmented square, nor in any defective rank and its complement, it follows that every of the two diameters, and every defective rank and its complement, have all the letters, and that consequently they make the same sumum.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

Postby admin » Wed May 18, 2022 4:58 am

Part 2 of 2

Of the Diameters.

The Band which makes one of the diameters being Magical by position, as it ought to be, continues Magical, because that it receives not any new Letter, nor loses any of its own. The bar which makes the other diameter is found Magical by the disposition, and the proof is this.

As far as the bar of the second capital case is removed from the first bar, so much the bar of the third capital case, is removed from the bar of the second, and so successively, the first bars to which you return, being reckon'd in this case as coming after the last. Now the bar of the second capital case is as far distant from the first as there are Unites in the determining number + 1. Therefore if the determining number + 1 is first to the root of the square, the preceding demonstration sufficeth to prove, that not any bar will have two Letters alike, wherefore the bar which shall serve as the diameter, will not have two Letters alike, and so it will have all the Letters once.

But if the determining number + 1 is an aliquot part of the root of the square, then each bar will have as many Letters alike, as there shall be Unites in the determining number + 1, and there will be as many different Letters, as there shall be Unites in the other aliquot part of the root of the square, which shall be the quotient of the division made from the root by the determining number + 1. These several Letters will be therefore in an odd number, because that this quotient can be only an odd number, being an aliquot of an odd number., Of these Letters in an odd number, the one will be the middle of the first band, the others, taken two by two, will be like to the Letters of the first band, which taken also two by two, will be equally remote from the middle, the one towards the head of the band, the other towards the tail: So that if the order of the Letters of the first band, is as the middle by its situation, or middle proportional between all the others, which, taken two by two, shall be equally remote from it, then the bar which shall serve as diameter will be Magical, because that if it has not the middle Letters of all the bands, it will have the power thereof; for the other Letters, which shall not be mean, if being taken two by two, the one is weaker than the middle of its band, the other will be stronger as much as the middle of its own; and thus the two together will countervail the middle of their bands. As for example, in the square of 81 cases, the root of which is 9, if the determining number is 2, as a 2 + 1, that is to say, 3 is the aliquot part of 9, the corresponding aliquot of which, that is to say that, which returns from the division of 9 by 3, is also 3, there will be in each bar three several Letters which will every one be there repeated three times. The first of the different will be the middle of the first band, the two others between the different, will be alike to two of the first band equally distant from the middle. After the same manner in the square of 225 cases, the root of which is 15, if the determining number is likewise 2, as 2 + 1, that is to say, 3 is the aliquot part of 15 (of which 5 is the aliquot corresponding) it will happen that in every bar there will be 5 several Letters repeated every one three times. The one will be the middle of the first band, the 4 others will be alike to 4 of the first band, which taken two by two will be equidistant from the middle.

The Conclusion is then, that when the determining number + 1, is first to the root of the square, the bars which serves as diameter can only be Magical: but that if the determining number + 1, is aliquot of the root of the square, the bar which serves as diameter cannot be Magical; that the middle Letter of the first band, cannot be the middle Arithmetic of all the other Letters of its first band two by two, and that it is not the letters of its band, which, taken two by two, are at equal distances from it, and the like of which ought to enter into the bar, which shall serve as diameter. After this the order of the Letters of the first band is arbitrary.

In a word, the nearest of these equidistant Letters, shall be each as distant from the middle, as the determining number + 1 shall have Unites, the following shall be as remote from these first, every one from its own, and so successively.

I have said that it is necessary to take the second capital case in the second band, tho it may be taken in such other band as one pleases, provided that the band of the third capital case be as distant from the band of the second case, as this shall be from the first, and that the band of the fourth capital case be at this very distance from the band of the third, and so successively, the first bands returning in order after the last. But besides this, it is necessary that this distance be expressed by a number first to the root of the square, and the thing will return to the same, that is to say, to put a capital case in each band. But if you put the second capital case in a band, whose distance from the first band, was not expressed by a number first to the root of the square, then several capital cases would fall in the first band, which being supposed full of all the different Letters, could not receive the like Letters, which fill the capital cases.

Another way of varying the Magical Squares.

You shall double the preceding variations, if you perform in the bars what you did in the bands, and in the bands what you performed in the bars; taking for one of the diameters, a bar which should be Magical by position, and rendring Magical by disposition the band which shall be the other diameter.

From these Principles it follows, that the square of o cases is always the same, without being able to receive essential varieties, because that it can have only two for the determining number: and because that the removing of the bands, or of the bars amongst them, makes only a simple subversion, by reason that there are only two bands and two bars subject to transposition, and that the band and the bar which serve as diameters cannot be displaced.

It follows also, that always one of the diameters at least must be Magical by position: and that the greatest and least of the number proposed to fill a Magical square, can never be at the center, because that the center is always filled by one of the numbers of the diameter by position, in which, be it band or bar, the greatest nor smallest number cannot be.

On the contrary, the middle number of the whole square, that is to say, that which by the position is at the center of the augmented square, will remain at the center of the Magical square, as often as the diameter by position shall have the capital case at one of its ends, but in every other case it will go out thence, and yet it will never depart from the diameter by position.

All which things must be understood according to the suppositions above explained. Besides I know that the uneven Magical squares may be varied into a surprising number of ways, unto which all that I have said would not agree.

In fine, one of the diverse methods, which result from the Principles which I have explained, is Indian, as may be proved, by removing into an augmented square the numbers of an Indian Magical square, in such a manner, that the cases of Augmentation be full of the Numbers, which they must render to the true square. It will be seen how the numbers shall be ranged in the augmented square, in one of the methods which I have explained.

An Illustration of the Indian Method.

As I had communicated to Mr. de Malezien, Intendant to the Duke of Mayne, the Indian unequal squares, without saying any thing to him of my Demonstration, which I had not as yet fully cleared, he found out one which has no relation to Bachet's augmented square, and which I will briefly explain, because that the things which I have spoken, will help to make me understood.

Let there be a square which we will call natural, in which the numbers should be placed in their natural order in this manner:

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The business is to dispose these numbers magically into another square of as many cases and empty.

1. In considering this square, I see that the two diameters, and the middle upright and transverse means do make the same summ: which Mr. de Malezien thought to have given ground to the Problem, out of a desire of rendering the other transverses and other uprights equal also, without destroying the equality of Diagnolas.

2. I see that the first transverse contains all the numbers, from the unite to the root of the square: that the second transverse contains these same numbers and in the same order, but augmented every one with a root: that the third contains also these very numbers in the same order, augmented every one with two roots: that it is the same in every transverse, save that the fourth has every one of these numbers augmented with three roots, that the fifth hath them augmented with four roots, and so in proportion of the other transverses, if there were more.

3. It therefore occurs naturally to my mind to consider another figure, where in every transverse I will place the same numbers, which are in the first, that is to say from the unite to the root of the square, without augmenting them with any root in any transverse; and I find presently that the transverses will be equal in their summs, having each the same numbers; and that the uprights of this new square, will have the same surplusage one over the other, as the uprights of the natural square, because that the difference of the uprights in the natural square, proceeds not from the roots affixt to the numbers, but from these numbers which are repeated in every transverse, as it is seen in this example, where the strokes annext to the numbers, do denote the roots wherewith each number is augmented in the natural square.

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4. It is evident that in this square all the transverses are equal, in that they have every one the same numbers, and that the uprights are only unequal because that they have not every one all those different numbers which are in every transverse, but on the contrary one alone of these numbers repeated as many times as there are squares in every upright. Therefore I shall render the uprights equal to one another, if I make that not one of these numbers be twice in every upright, but that all be there once. And because that these very numbers do bear every one the same number of roots in the same transverse, I shall also render the transverses equal, if I make that ever transverse have not all these several numbers of it self, but that it borrows one of every transverse. Thus the diameters are already equal, because that they have every one the several numbers that it is necessary to have, and that they take one from every transverse, that is to say, one without the root, the other augmented with a root, the other with 2, the other with 3, and so successively.

The true secret then is to dispose all the numbers of every transverse in a diametrical way, that is to say slanting, so that Having placed one number, the following will be in another transverse and another upright at the same time. Which cannot be better performed than after the Indian manner.

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These are the numbers of the first transverse placed slanting -- , so that there is not two in the same upright nor in the same transverse. I must therefore dispose the numbers of the second transverse after the same manner, and because that I must avoid placing the first number of this transverse, under the first of the other, I cannot do better than to place it under the last in this manner:

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With the same Oeconomy I dispose the other transverses, placing always the first number of the one under the last of the other; and for one of the diameters I put the middle transverse, because that naturally it is Magical.

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It is clear that in this disposition not any transverse, nor any upright have two numbers, neither from the same transverse, nor from the same upright of the natural square, and that the diameters which we have not made by position, has also only one number from every transverse, and every upright of the natural square. This is what M. de Malezien thought, without having had the leisure to fathom it further; and it is evidently the Principle, on which the Indian Method and that of Bachet are grounded, and all the others, of which I have shown, that it is possible to vary the Magical squares. And if care be taken that in a Magical square the ranks parallel to the diameters are defective, and that they have their complements, it will be seen that Bachet's augmented square, and the Magical square have opposite proprieties. In the augmented square, the bands which are the true ranks, are not Magical, and its defective ranks augmented with their complements are. On the contrary, in the Magical square the ranks are Magical, and the defective ranks and their complements do contain, every one, what a band of the augmented square contains.

To finish what M. de Malezien has thought, it is necessary only to accommodate what we have said concerning the choice of the capital cases: and because that this is easie to do, I will speak no more of it.

M. de Malezien thought likewise, that this principle might serve to the even squares, and this is true: but here likewise there is found difficulty in the execution, because that in the even squares, the defective ranks and their complements have every one a case in the same diameter, or have none at all, so that by dispersing the numbers from a transverse into a defective rank, and its complement, two numbers of this transverse are put into the same diameter, or else none at all, and the one and the other of these two things is equally bad. Besides there is no transverse in the even squares, which can furnish a diameter by position: and so it would be necessary to remove a little into the even squares, after the Indian manner of dispencing the numbers, and to put one into each rank and one into each diameter. But the Method presents not it self immediately. However, he is the first example thereof.

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Of the Indian Method of the Even Squares.

I thought to have divined it from the examples of the squares of 16, 36, and 64 cases, which Agrippa has given us.

1. As the ranks are in even number in the even squares, they may be considered two by two. Comparing then the first to the last, the second to the last save one, the third to the last but two, and so successively, by equally removing us from the first and the last ranks, we will call them opposite, be they transverse, or upright.

Now because that the numbers of one rank, are arithmetically proportional with those of another rank of the same way, it is clear to those who understand arithmetical proportion, that two opposite ranks do make the same total sum as two other opposite ranks, and that if this sum be divided into two equals, each half will be the sum that a Magical rank ought to make.

2. The opposite numbers are also the first and last of the whole square, the second and last save one, the third and last but two, and so successively, by removing as equally from the first and last numbers: so that the sum of two opposite numbers is always equal to the sum of other opposites.

From hence it is evident, that the numbers opposite to those of one rank, are the numbers which are in the opposite rank, and that to render the sums of two opposite ranks equal, it is necessary only to take the moity of the numbers of one of the ranks, and to exchange them for their opposites, which are in the other. As for Example:

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1, 2, 3, 4, do make the first natural rank of the square of 16 cases, and 13, 14, 15, 16, do make the last rank thereof. To render them equal, it is necessary only to take 2 and 3, which are the moity of the numbers of the first, and to exchange them for 14 and 15, their opposites; and so 1, 14, 15, 4, will make the same sum as 13, 2, 3, 16.

The transverses between them, and the uprights between them, may render themselves equal by this Method: but because that the choice of the opposite numbers may be made after several ways, the Indians have chosen one, that is easie to retain, which leaves the diameters such as they are in the natural square, because that they are such as they ought to be, and ranges the uprights, when it is intended only to range the transverses. The whole Method consists then in knowing how to range two opposite transverses, and the rules are these.

1. They take the half of the numbers of the upper transverse, and remove them to the lower: and they take their opposite numbers in the lower transverse, and remove them to the upper.

2. The numbers which remain in each rank, do remain there in their natural place, and in their natural order: the transposed do place themselves every one in the case of its opposite, and consequently in a subverted order.

3. The first and the last numbers of every rank do continue in their natural rank, the second and third are transposed, the fourth and the fifth remain, the sixth and the seventh are transposed, and so alternatively two are transposed, and two remain.

EXAMPLE.

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, do make the first natural rank of the square of 64 cases; 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, do make the last thereof. 1 an d8 the first and last numbers of the first rank remain there, and in their natural place, 57 and 64 the first and last numbers of the last rank do remain there and in their place. Afterwards 2 and 3 are transposed, 4 and 5 remain, 6 and 7 are transposed: and after the same manner the numbers of the opposite rank 58 and 59 are removed, 60 and 61 do remain, 62 and 63 are removed. 1, 4, 5, 8, which remain in the first rank, are in their natural cases, and consequently in their natural order. 2, 3, 6, 7, which are removed, are in the cases of their opposites, and are in a subverted order. 58, 59, 62, 63, which are removed, are in the cases of their opposites, and in a subverted order.

All the opposite ranks must be ranged according to these few rules: but it is not always certain that it may be necessary to put the first number of the rank in the first case on the left; for after this manner the first and last uprights would keep all their natural numbers, and would not be equal. Therefore it is necessary to render them equal by the same rule as the transverses, by removing half of the numbers of the first upright into the cases of their opposites, leaving the first and the last in their upright, removing the second and the third, leaving the fourth and the fifth, removing the sixth and the seventh, and so successively according to the rules that we have given for the transverses. The head of every transverse will be then on the right, or on the left, according as its first number shall be continued or removed, to the first or to the last upright, to the right or to the left.

An Example of the Square of 64 Cases.

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But these rules suffice only to the squares equally even; and there is some particular observation for them unequally even.

Every square unequally even, if you thence deduct a compass (that is to say the first and the last transverses, the first and the last uprights) leaves a square equally even, which must be ranged according to the aforesaid rules with a little alteration, which we will declare. It is necessary therefore to see how the first and last transverses do range themselves, because that the first and last uprights do range themselves after the same manner.

1. The transverses, being of a square unequally even, have each a number of cases unequally even: but if care be not taken about the two middle cases of each transverse, then there will remain in every one a number of cases equally even, which we will call the cases equally even. The first rule is therefore to remove half of the numbers of the cases equally even, and to remove those, which should be chosen for this purpose, into a transverse of a square equally even. Thus the first and the last numbers do remain in their cases, the second and the third are removed, the fourth and the fifth continue, the sixth and the seventh are removed, and so successively: but I speak only of the numbers of the cases equally even, and I only comprehend those in the account which I make, no more than if the middle cases had no numbers.

2. The removed numbers pass not to the cases of their opposites, but into the cases which are against theirs, that is to say in their upright: and so they are not found in a subverted order in the transverse into which they pass.

An Example taken from the Square of 100 Cases.

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I have not set down the numbers 5 and 6 in this example, because that they are those of the two middle cases of the first transverse, and that the number of the two middle cases of the first transverse, in every square unequally even have a particular rule, which I will give. As to the eight other numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, which are those of the cases equally even, they are ranged according to the rules which I have given. 1. The first and last are in their natural cases, then the second and third are removed, the fourth and the fifth remain in their natural cases, the sixth and the seventh are removed. 2. The removed, viz, 2, 3, 8, 9, are in the cases over against theirs, and in their natural order, and not in an inverted order.

3. As to the two middle numbers, the first continues, and the second is removed: but the first remains not in its natural case. It passes to the case of the second, and the second is not removed to the case which is over against its own, but into that of its opposite: because that it is not necessary that the first leaves its natural case to its opposite, which shall be transposed into this first transverse, and that the second leaves also to its opposite, the case which is over against its own.

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The numbers 5 and 6 are the middle. 5 remains in its transverse, but it passes to the case of 6, and 6 is removed to the case of its opposite, and not to that which is over against its own.

4. The numbers of the last transverse are ranged after this manner. The first and the last remain in their cases, the others fill the cases which are vacant, in the two transverses, and it is necessary to place them there successively, but in an inverted order. After this manner the two transverses become equal, because that they have given one to the other half of the numbers of the cases equally even, and that their middle numbers do make the like sum in every transverse, the opposites being together, and not in different transverses. It is possible if defined to range the second transverse as we have ranked the first, but then 'twould be necessary to rank the first as we have marked the second.

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The numbers 91 and 100, which are the first and the last of the last transverse, do remain in their natural places, the others which are 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, do fill the cases, which remained vacant in the two transverses, and they are there places successively, but in an inverted order.

5. The first and the last uprights of the squares unequally even do rank themselves one in relation to the other, as the first and the last transverses: and by this means the whole square unequally even is found Magical, and by a Method easie to retain, and to execute by Memory.

The demonstration thereof is palpable. For to consider the numbers, as we have ranked them in the first and last transverses, it is evident that the opposite numbers, taken two by two, are there placed either diametrically in the first and last cases of every transverse, or directly opposite in the same upright, and because that the opposite numbers taken, thus two by two, do always make equal sums, it follows that these two transverses being at the top and at the bottom of the squares equally even, and interior already Magical, will add equal sums to the diameters and to the uprights of this interior square equally even; and that for the uprights and diameters of the square unequally, will be equal in their sums. It will be the same of the transverses of the square unequally even, because that its first and its last uprights will likewise add equal sums to the transverses of the interior square equally even. And our demonstration would be compleat, were not the two numbers mean as well of the first, and last transverses, as of the first and last uprights: for these numbers not being placed every right against its opposite, do add unequal sums to the middle transverses and uprights of the interior square equally even. Therefore to repair this inequality, which is only of two points, it is necessary to make a little alteration in the interior square equally even, which will be the last rule of this Method.

6. By ranging the interior square equally even, according to the rules of the Magical squares equally even; it is necessary to invert the order, which according to these rules of the squares equally even, the two middle numbers of the last transverse of the square of 16 cases, which is at the center of all, and the two middle numbers of the last upright of the same square of sixteen cases, ought to have, you will thus weaken the first middle upright, and the first middle transverse of the square equally even: forasmuch as in the first transverse of the square of 16 cases, the first middle number is always stronger than the second, and that in the last upright of the same square of 16 cases, the middle superior number is stronger than the inferior.

A Square of Thirty Six Cases.

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This square is that of Agrippa, save that I have placed on the right, what he has put on the left, because that he has taken the squares which he gives, after the Hebrew Talismans, where the natural order of the numbers is from the right to the left, according to the Hebrew's manner of writing.

A Square of 100 Cases.

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In the square of 36 cases the numbers 9 and 10, which are the middle of the last transverse of the square of 16 cases, which is at the center, are in an order contrary to that which they ought to have, according to the rules of the squares equally even. Thus 14 and 20, which are the middle of the last upright of the same square of 16 cases, are in a contrary number, to that which they ought to have by the same rules: for it would be necessary that 10 was before 9, and 14 under 20.

In the square of 100 cases at the seventh transverse, the middle numbers 35 and 36 are placed against the very rules of the squares equally even: 36 ought to precede 35 according to the rules: and 44 and 54 which are the middle of the seventh upright are also inverted, because that 44 ought to be under 54.

In every square equally even ranged Magically, according to the rules which I have given, it is infallible that in the transverse, which is immediately under the middle transverses, the two middle numbers should be in an inverted order, that is to say, the strongest precedes the weakest: for either these middle numbers are removed, and consequently in an inverted order, because that then their transverse begins at the right: forasmuch as if the middle numbers of each rank are not removed as it is supposed, the middle of the first upright are not, and so the middle transverses begin on the left, therefore the transverse underneath begins on the right. By a like ratiocination it will be proved that according to the rules of the squares equally even, the middle numbers of the upright, which is immediately after the middle uprights, are ranged in such a manner, that the strongest is always above the weakest.

This is Agrippa's Method of the even squares, which in my opinion are the Indian, the merit of which consists not in giving the sole possible manner of ranging the even squares, but the most easie to execute by memory: For it is to this principally that it seems, that the Indians should addict themselves. In a word, the Indian even squares are also Magical in the Geometrical Progression.

The Indians have two Principles for the Problem of the Magical squares, the one of which they have applied to the uneven squares, and the other to the even. The Mathematicians of this Country, which have laboured herein, have known only one of these two Principles, which is that of the even squares; but they have adapted it likewise to the uneven squares, and moreover they have added a singular condition to this Problem, which is that the Magical square be so ranged, that in deducting its first compass, that is to say its first and its last transverses, its first and its last uprights, the interior square which shall remain is found Magical, after this very kind, that is to say, being able to lose all it compasses one after the other, and to leave always for the rest a Magical square, provided that this residue have at least 9, or 16 cases; because that the square of 4 cases cannot be Magical.

Monsieur Arnoud has given the solution of this last Problem at the end of his Elements of Geometry, and before that he had printed it the first time, I had also resolved this Problem in its whole extent, having been proposed to me by the late Monsieur de Fermat, Counsellor in the Parliament of Thalouse, whose Memory is yet in Veneration amongst the learned: but then I divined not Agrippa's Principle of the unequal squares, nor the reason of Bachet's Method.

In fine, I am obliged to render this Testimony to Monsieur Sauveur, Professor of the Mathematics are Paris, that he found out a Demonstration of the Indian uneven squares, which Monsieur de Malezien communicated unto him: and that he has also invented a Method to range the even squares. I leave unto him the care of publishing this, and several other things of his own invention, because that this Chapter is already too long.
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Rules of the Siamese Astronomy, for calculating the Motions of the Sun and Moon, translated from the Siamese, and since examined and explained by M. Cassini, a Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Excerpt from "A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam"
Tome II
by Monsieur De La Loubere
Envoy Extraordinary from the French King, to the King of Siam, in the years 1687 and 1688. Wherein a full and curious Account is given of the Chinese Way of Arithmetick, and Mathematick Learning. In Two Tomes, Illustrated with Sculptures. Done out of French, by A.P. Gen. R.S.S.
1693

Tome II, p. 186-199

Rules of the Siamese Astronomy, for calculating the Motions of the Sun and Moon, translated from the Siamese, and since examined and explained by M. Cassini, a Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Monsieur de la Loubere, the King's Ambassador extraordinary at Siam brought back a Siamese Manuscript, which comprehends the Rules for calculating the motions of the Sun and Moon, according to the method of that Country, the Translation thereof he likewise brought from Siam, and communicated unto me.

This method is extraordinary. They make no use of Tables; but only the Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division of certain numbers, of which we do not presently discern the Ground, nor to what these numbers refer.

Under these numbers are conceal'd divers Periods of Solar Years, of Lunar Months, and other Revolutions, and the Relation of the one with the other. Under these numbers are likewise conceal'd several sorts of Epoches which are not distinguished, as the Civil Epoche, the Epoche of the Lunar Months, that of the Equinoxes, Apogaea, and Solar Cycle. The numbers in which the difference between these Epoches consists, are not ordinarily at the head of the Operations to which they serve, as they ought to be according to the Natural Order: they are often mixed with certain numbers, and the Sums or differences are multiplied or divided by others, for they are not always simple numbers, but frequently they are Fractions, sometimes Simple, sometimes Compound, without being ranged after the manner of Fractions, the Numerator being sometimes in one Article, and the Denominator in another; as if they had had a contrived design to conceal the Nature and Use of these numbers. In the Calculation of the Sun, they intermix some things which appertain only to the Moon, and others which are not necessary, either to the one or to the other, without making any distinction. They confound together the Solar and the Lunisolar Years, the Months of the Moon, and the Months of the Sun, the Civil and the Astronomical Months, the Days Natural and the Days Artificial. The Zodiack is divided sometimes into twelve Signs, according to the number of the Month of the Year, sometimes into 27 parts, according to the number of the Days that the Moon runs through the Zodiack, and sometimes in 30 parts, according to the number of the Days, that the Moon returns to the Sun. In the Division of the Day there is no discourse of Hours; but therein is found the 11th the 703d and the 800th parts of the Day, which result from the Arithmetical Operations which are prescribed.

This Method is ingenious; and being illustrated, rectified, and purged from Superfluities, it will be of some use, being practicable without books, by the means of divers Cycles, and of the difference of their Epoches. Wherefore it is that I have endeavoured to decypher it, what difficult soever I found at first, not only by reason of the confusion which everywhere appeared, and of the Names which are wanting in the supposed numbers; but likewise by reason of the extraordinary names, which are given to what results from the Operations, of which there are more than Twenty which have not been interpreted by the Translator, and of which I could never have found the Signification, if I had not first discover'd the method; which has likewise evinced to me, that the Interpretation, which the Translator has made of three or four other names, is not very exact.

In this research I have first distinguished, and separated from the other numbers, those which belong to the Epoches, having observed that these numbers, are those which were given to add or to subtract, either simply, or by dividing or multiplying them by certain other numbers.

Secondly, I have considered the Analogies which result from the Multiplications and Divisions of the other numbers, separated from the Epoches; and it is in the terms of these Analogies, that I have found the Periods of the Years, of the Months, and of the Days, and the differences of the one from the other, which the experience of things Astronomical, and the occasion of divers operations which I have made, has been me to understand.

I thought that the Missionaries, to whom Astronomy gives admittance amongst the great and learned throughout the East, might reap some advantage from this work, for the Understanding, and for the Explication of the Oriental Astronomy, which might easily be rectified and adapted to ours, with a little altering the Method, by correcting the numbers which it uses.

I thought also that it would not be useless to reduce the Astronomy of Europe to this form, to be able to supply the want of the Tables which greatly abridge the work. This method would be much more easie to practice in the form of the Julian and Gregorian year of which we make use, than in the form of the Lunisolar year, which the Orientals observe: for their principal difficulty consists in reducing the Lunisolar years and the Civil Lunary months to the years and months of the Sun, which the form of our Kalender immediately gives us; and what has given me the most trouble, has been to find out the method which they use to reduce them, in which the several sorts of Years, Months and Days, which are supposed and sought, are not distinguished. Wherefore the reason of the Explication which I give, and of the Determination of the Genus to the Species which I make in the beginning, will not presently be understood; but in the sequel it will be comprehended by the Connexion of things, and by what necessarily results therefrom.

The jurisprudence of the Hindus and Arabs being the field which I have chosen for my peculiar toil, you cannot expect that I should greatly enlarge your collection of historical knowledge; but I may be able to offer you some occasional tribute; and I cannot help mentioning a discovery which accident threw in my way, though my proofs must be reserved for an essay which I have destined for the fourth volume of your Transactions. To fix the situation of that Palibothra (for there may have been several of the name) which was visited and described by Megasthenes, had always appeared a very difficult problem, for though it could not have been Prayaga, where no ancient metropolis ever stood, nor Canyacubja, which has no epithet at all resembling the word used by the Greeks; nor Gaur, otherwise called Lacshmanavati, which all know to be a town comparatively modern, yet we could not confidently decide that it was Pataliputra, though names and most circumstances nearly correspond, because that renowned capital extended from the confluence of the Sone and the Ganges to the site of Patna, while Palibothra stood at the junction of the Ganges and Erannoboas, which the accurate M. D'Ancille had pronounced to be the Yamuna; but this only difficulty was removed, when I found in a classical Sanscrit [Sanskrit] book, near 2000 years old, that Hiranyabahu, or golden armed, which the Greeks changed into Erannoboas, or the river with a lovely murmur, was in fact another name for the Sona itself; though Megasthenes, from ignorance or inattention, has named them separately. This discovery led to another of greater moment, for Chandragupta, who, from a military adventurer, became like Sandracottus the sovereign of Upper Hindustan, actually fixed the seat of his empire at Pataliputra, where he received ambassadors from foreign princes; and was no other than that very Sandracottus who concluded a treaty with Seleucus Nicator; so that we have solved another problem, to which we before alluded, and may in round numbers consider the twelve and three hundredth years before Christ, as two certain epochs between Rama, who conquered Silan a few centuries after the flood, and Vicramaditya, who died at Ujjayini fifty-seven years before the beginning of our era.

-- Discourse X. Delivered February 28, 1793, P. 192, Excerpt from "Discourses Delivered Before the Asiatic Society: And Miscellaneous Papers, on The Religion, Poetry, Literature, Etc. of the Nations of India", by Sir William Jones


Concerning the Astronomical Epocha of this Method.

I have endeavoured to discover what is the Epoche, from whence they here begin to compute the Motions of the Sun and Moon; and to what year, what month, and what day of our Kalender it refers: for it is not treated of in this extract, which supposes it either known, or explained perhaps in the preceding Chapters from whence this extract has been taken, seeing that without the knowledge of the Epocha, it is absolutely impossible to practice this Method.

I have found that this Epoche is Astronomical, and that it is different from the Civil, which I have understood, because it is here prescribed to begin to compute the Months of the Year, current with the fifth Month in the Leap Year, which consists of 13 Months, and with the sixth Month in the common Year, which consists of 12 Months. For this would not be intelligible, if they supposed not two different Epoches of Years, the one whereof, which must be the Astronomical, begins sometimes in the fifth, and sometimes in the sixth Month of the other, which is the Civil. That which likewise evinc'd to me that the Astronomical Epoche, is different from the Civil Epocha, not only in the Months, but also in the Years, is the Operation which is here made to find the Year of ones Nativity, by subtracting his Age from the number of the Years elaps'd since the Epocha; for this Operation would be useless, if they demand only the Year of the Birth after the Civil Epocha, which is immediately known, and which is compared to the Year current, to know the Age of a Person.

This being supposed, I have first searched out the Age to which this Astronomical Epocha may refer; and having found in the Calculation of the Sun performed by this method, that two Signs and twenty Degrees which are therein employed, can only denote the place of the Zodiack, where was found the Apogaeum of the Sun in the Epocha, which Apogaeum must be in the twentieth Degree of Gemini; I judged that this Epocha must be about the seventh Age, where the Apogaeum of the Sun is found in the twentieth Degree of Gemini according to most Astronomical Tables.

Secondly, having found that the number 621, which is intermixed in the Calculation of the Sun, can only be the number of the days comprized, between the Astronomical Epocha, and the return of the Moon's Apogaeum, to the beginning of the Zodiack; and that the number 3232, which is afterwards employed therein, can be only the number of the Days, during which, this Apogaeum makes a Revolution; I have confirmed that the Apogaeum of the Moon which in 621 Days makes two Signs and nine Degrees, was in this Epocha, in the 21 Degrees of Capricorn: And because that the Moon's Apogaeum by the Revolution it makes in eight Years three quarters, returns to the same degree of the Zodiack twelve times in one Age; I have distinguished the Years of the Age, in which the Moon's Apogaeum is found in this Degree, and I have excluded the other Year.

Thirdly, having found by the method here used for Calculating the place of the Sun, that this Astronomical Epocha is very near the vernal AEquinox, which in the seventh Age fell on the 10th or 21st of March; Amongst these select Years I have found one in which the Moon's Apogaeum, arrived at this Degree of Capricorn, about the 21st of March, which is found but once in 62 Years, wanting some Degrees; and I have found that in the 638th Year of Jesus Christ, the Apogaeum of the Moon was at the 21st Degree of Capricorn the 21st of March.

Fourthly, I have remarked that this Astronomical Epocha must have begun at a new Moon; because the Lunar Months are reduced into Days, to find the number of the Days from the Epocha, and the value of the whole Months being deducted from the Sum of the Days, the test serves to find the Moon's distance from the Sun.

In the 638th Year of Jesus Christ, the AEquinoxial new Moon happened teh 21st of March at three a Clock in the Morning at Siam, when the Sun by its middle Motion ran through the first degree of Aries, the Sun's Apogaeum being in the 20th Degree of Gemini, and the Moon's in the 21st Degree of Capricorn. This Day was likewise remarkable for a great Eclipse of the Sun, which happened the same day, but 14. Hours after the mean Conjunction.

Fifthy, By the manner of find the day of the week, which is here observed, it appears that the day of the Epocha, was a Saturday, and th3 21st of March, in the Year 638 was also a Saturday. This likewise confirms the certainty of this Epocha, and demonstrates the Knowledge and Judgment of those that have established it, who contented not themselves with a Civil Epocha, as other astronomers have done: but who have chosen an Astronomical one, which was the Natural Principle of several Revolutions, which could not begin again, till after several Ages. This Epocha is 5 Years and 278 Days distant from the Persian Epocha of Jesdegerdes, the first year of which began on the 16th of June, in the Year of Jesus Christ, 632. Yet these Indian Rules are not taken from the Persian Tables related by Crosotoca; for these Tables do make the Sun's Apogaeum two degrees more backward, and the Moon's Apogaeum above six degrees forwarder; which agrees not so exactly with our modern Tables. The Persian Tables do also make the Sun's AEquation 12 Minutes less, and that of the Moon 4 Minutes greater; which agrees better with the Moderns.

These Indian Rules are not drawn neither from the Tables of Ptolemy, where the Sun's Apogaeum is fixed to the 5th degree and a half of Gemini; nor from the other Tables since made, which have all this moveable Apogaeum. It seems therefore that they have been invented by the Indians; or that perhaps they have been taken from the Chinese Astronomy, as may be conjectured from this, that in this extract the Numbers are written from the top downwards, after the manner of the Chineses: but it may be that this way of writing the numbers might be common to these two Nations.

Having found the Astronomical Epocha of this method, and the Relation is has with the Julian years; we may rectifie teh Epocha's of the motions of the Sun and Moon by the modern Tables, by adding about a Minute a Year to the Sun's apogaeum, and by correcting the other Periods. Thus there will be no difficulty, to reduce the Years and Months since the Epocha into days; and if the Equations are likewise corrected conformably to the modern Tables, we shall by the same Method, find the place of the Sun and Moon with a great deal more exactness. We will give this Correction, with the Supplement of what is wanting in these Rules, after that we have explained them.

Rules to find the place of the Sun and Moon at the time of any Person's Birth / Explication.

I. / I.

1st. Set down the AEra / 1st. The Aera in this place is the number of the years since the Astronomical Epocha from whence is take the motion of the Planets to the current year; which will appear in the sequel.

2nd. Subtract the Age of the Person from the AEra, you will have the Age of the Birth. / 2nd, The Age of the Person, is the number of the Years from his Birth to the Year current, which being deducted from the AEra, there remains the Age or time of the Birth, that is to say, the Year from the Astronomical Epoche in which the Nativity happened.

3rd. Multiply it by 12. / 3rd. By multiplying the years by 12 they are reduced into Months. These Months will be solar, each consisting of 30 days, 10 hours and a half, a little more or less, according to the several Hypotheses, if the years are solar; or near upon if they are lunisolar, and in so great number, that the excess of the one recompences the defect of the others.

4th. Add hereunto the number of the Months of the year current1 and for this purpose if the year current is Attikamaat, that is to say, if it has 13 Lunar months, you shall begin to compute with the 5th month; but if it is not Attikamaat, you shall begin to compute with the 6th month. / The Form of the Year here mentioned, is lunisolar, seeing there are some common of 12 lunar months, and abundant or Embolismal, called Attikmaas, of 13 lunar months. For that they begin to compute the months, not with the first month of the year, but with the fifth, if it is Leap year, and with the sixth if it is not: I have inferred that there are two Epocha's, and two forms of different Years, the one Astronomical and the other Civil: that the first Month of the Astronomical Year begins in the fifth Month of the Civil Leap year, which would be the sixth Month without the intercalation of the Leap month, which is not reckoned amongst the 12 Months, and which is supposed to be inserted before; and that in the Other Years, all the Months of which are successively computed without Intercalation, the first Month of the Astronomical Year, is computed only from the sixth Month of the Civil Year.

But as it is not expressly determined here, whether one ought to begin to compute an entire month at the beginning or end of the 5th or 6th month, it may be that for the first month of the Astronomical Year they take, that which ends at the beginning of the months whereof it is discourses in this Article. In this case, the Interval between the beginning of the Civil Year, and the beginning of the Astronomical Year, would be only of 3 or 4 entire months: whereas if an entire month is reckoned only at the end of the 5th or 6th month, and that the first month which is reckoned, according to this Rule, be the first of the Astronomical Year; the interval between the beginnings of these two sorts of years, will be 4 or 5 whole months. We shall see in the sequel, that the Indians have diverse sorts of Astronomical Years, the beginnings of which are different, and are not much distant from the Vernal AEquinox; whereas the Civil Year must begin before the Winter Solstice, sometimes in the month of November, sometimes in the month of December of the Gregorian Year.

They add the number of the months of the current year, which are lunar months, to those that they have found by the third Article, which are solar months; and they suppose that the sum, as heterogeneous as it is, should be equal to the number of the solar months elapsed from the Astronomical Epochs. They neglect the different that there may be, which in a year cannot amount to an entire month: but they might be deceived a month in the succession of the years, if they took not good heed to the Intercalations of the months, after which the number of the months which are computed in the Civil Year, is lesser than that which they would reckon without the precedent Intercalations.

5th. Multiply by 7 the number found Art. 4.

6th. Divide the sum by 228.

7th. Joyn the quotient of the division to the number found Art. 4. This will give you the Maasaken (that is to say, the number of the months) which you shall keep.

-- / 5th, 6th, 7th. They here seek the number of the lunar months from the Astronomical Epocha, discoursed of in the 1st Article, to the beginning of the current month: which is performed by reducing the solar months, which are supposed to have been found above, into lunar months, by the means of the difference, which is between the one and the other. In the operations which are made, it is supposed that as 228 is to 7, so the number of the solar months given, is to the difference which the number of the lunary months surpasses the number given of the solar months elapsed, during the same space of time; that thus in 228 solar months, which do make 19 years, there are 228 lunary months, and 7 months more, that is to say 235 lunary months. This therefore is a Period like to that of Numa and Mero, and to our Cycle of the golden number of 19 years, during which the Moon rejoyn'd it self 235 times to the Sun.

Yet in the sequel we shall see, that these Periods which accord together in the number of the lunar months and solar years, agree not in the number of the hours, by reason of the greatness of the solar year and of the lunar month, which is supposed various in these several Periods: and that the Indian is not subject to a fault so great, as the ancient Cycle of the Golden Number, which they have been obliged to expunge out of the Roman Kalender, in the Gregorian correction, because it gave the new Moons later than they are, almost a day in 312 years; whereas the New Moons determined by this Indian Period, agree with the true in this interval of time to near an hour, as will be found by comparing these Rules with the following.

II. / II.

1. Set down the Maasaken / --

2. Multiply it by 30 / --

3. Joyn thereunto the days of the current Month. / The months of the Moon are here reduced into days: but because they make all the months to consist of 30 days, there only will be some artificial months about 11 hours 16 minutes longer than the Astronomical, or some artificial days which begin at the New Moons, and are 22 minutes, 32 seconds shorter than the natural days of 24 hours, which begin always at the return of the Sun to the same Meridian.

4. Multiply the whole by 11. / --

5. Add thereunto also the number of 650. / They reduce the days into 11 parts, by multiplying them by 113 and they add thereto 650 elevenths, which do make 59 days and [illegible]. I find that these 59 days and 1/11 are the artificial days, which were elapsed to the day of the Epocha, since that an eleventh part of the natural day, and an eleventh of the artificial had began together under the meridian of the Indies, to which these Rules are accommodated.

6. Divide the whole by 703. / --

7. Keep the Numerator which you shall call Anamaan. / --

8. Take the quotient of the Fraction found Art. 6, and subtract it from the number found Art. 3. The remainder will be the Horoconne (that is to say, the number of the days of the AEra) which you shall keep. / Having laid apart what is always added by the 5th. Article, it appears by the 2d, 3d, 4th, 6th and 8th, operation, that as 703 is to 11, so the number of the artificial days, which results from the Operations of the 2d, and 3d. Art. is to the number of the days deducted to have the number of the natural days, which answers to this number of the artificial days: whence it appears, that by making the lunar month to consist of 30 artificial days, 703 of these days do surpass the number of the natural days, which equal them above eleven days.

One may find the greatness of the Lunar Month, which results from this Hypothesis: for if 703 Artificial Days do give an excess of 11 Days 30 of these Days which do make a Lunar Month, do give an excess of 163/303? in the Day; and as 703 is to 330, so 24 Hours are to 11 Hours, 15 Minutes, 57 Seconds; and deducting this Overpins from 30 Days, there remains 29 Days, 12 Hours, 44 Minutes, 3 Seconds for the Lunar Month, which agrees within a Second to the Lunar Month determined by our Astronomers.

As to the value of 59 Days and 1/11 which is added before the Division, it appears that if 703 Days do give 11 to subtract, 59 Days and 1/11 do give [x] in the Day, which do make 22 Hours, 11 Minutes and a half, by which the end of the Artificial Day, must arrive before the end of the Natural Day, which is taken for the Epocha.

The anamsan is the number of 703 part of the Day, which remain from the end of the Artificial Day, to the end of the current Natural Day. Use is made hereof in the sequel to calculate the motion of the Moon, as shall be afterwards explained.

The Quotient which is taken from the number of the Days found by the third Art. is the difference of the entire Days, which is found between the number of the Artificial Days, and the number of the Natural Days from the Epocha.

The Herotonne is the number of the Natural Days elapsed from the Astronomical Epocha to the current Day. It should seem that in rigour the Addition of the Days of the current Month, prescribed by the third Article, should not be made till after the Multiplication and Division, which serves to find the difference of the Artificial Days from the Natural, because that the Days of the Current Month are Natural, and not Artificial of 30 per mensem: but by the sequel it appears that this is done more exactly to have the Anamaan which serves for the calculation of the motion of the Moon.

III. / IIII.

1. Set down the Horoconne.

2. Divide it by 7.

3. The Numerator of the Fraction is the day of the Week. / It follows from this Operation and Advertisement, that if after the Division there remains 1, the current day will be a Sunday; and if nothing remains, it will be a Saturday: The Astronomical Epocha of the Horoconne is therefore a Saturday.

Note, That the first day of the Week is Sunday.

If it be known likewise what day of the Week is the day current, it will be seen whether the Precedent Operations have been well made.

IV. / IV.

1. Set down the Horoconne.

2. Multiply it by 800.

3. Subtract it by 373.

4. Divide it by 292207.

5. The Quotient will be the AEra, and the Numerator of the Fraction will be the Krommethiapponne, which you shall keep. / The days are here reduced into 800 parts. The number 373 of the third Article makes [x] of the day, which do make 11 hours and 11 minutes. They can proceed only from the difference of the Epochas, or from some correction, seeing that it is always the same number that is subtracted. The Epocha of this fourth Section may therefore be 11 hours and 11 minutes after the former.

The AEra will be a number of Periods of Days from this new Epocha, 800 of which will make 292207. The Question is to know what these Periods will be? 800 Gregorian Years, which very nearly approach as many Tropical Solar Years, do make 292194 Days. If then we suppose that the AEra be the number of the Tropical Solar Years from the Epocha, 800 of these Years will be 13 Days too long, according to the Gregorian correction.

But if we suppose that they are Anomalous Years, during which the Sun returns to his Apogeum, or Astral Years during which the Sun returns to the same fixt Star; there will be almost no error: for in 13 Days, which is the overplus of 800 of these Periods above 800 Gregorian Years, the Sun by its middle motion makes 12d. 48'. 48" which the Apogeum of the Sun does in 800 Years by reason of 57". 39'". per annum. Albategnius makes the Annual motion of the Sun's Apogeum 59". 4'". and that of the fix'd Stars 54". 34'". and there are some modern Astronomers which do make this annual motion of the Sun's Apogaeum 57". and that of the fix'd Stars 51"3. Therefore if what is here called AEra, is the number of the Anomalous or Astral Years: these Years will be almost conformable to those which are established by the antient and modern Astronomers. Nevertheless it appears by the following Rules, that they use this form of Year as if it were Tropical, during which the Sun returns to the same place of the Zodiack, and that it is not distinguished from the other two sorts of Years.

The Krommethiapponne which remains after the preceeding Division, that is to say, after having taken all the entire Years from the Epocha, will therefore be the 800 parts of the Day, which remain after the Sun's return to the same place of the Zodiack: and it appears by the following Operations that this place was the beginning of Aries. Thus according to this Hypothesis the Vernal middle AEquinox will happen 11 Hours 11' after the Epocha of the preceeding Section.

V. / V.

1. Set down the Krommethiapponne.

2. Subtract from it the AEra.

3. Divide the remainder by 2.

4. Neglecting the Fraction, subtract 1 from the quotient.

5. Divide the remainder by 7, the Fraction will give you the day of the Week.

Note, That when I shall say the Fraction, I mean only of the Numerator. / Seeing that in the third Art. the day of the week is found by the Horoconne, after a very easie manner, it is needless to stay on this which is longer and more compounded.

VI. / VI.

1. Horoconne.

2. Subtract from it 621.

3. Divide the remainder by 3232. The Fraction is called Outhiapponne, which you shall keep. / This Subtraction of 628, which is always deducted from the Horoconne, what number soever the Horoconne contains, denotes an Epocha, which is 621 days after the Epocha of the Horoconne.

The number 3232 must be the number of the Days, which the Moon's Apogaeum employs in running through the Circle of the Zodiack: 3232 Days to make 8 Indian Years and 310 Days. During that time this Apogaeum finishes a Revolution after the rate of 6'. 41". which it performs in a Day, even according to the Astronomers of Europe. The Apogaeum of the Moon does consequently finish its Revolution 621 days after the Epocha of the Horoconne. 'Tis here performed then; as 3232 days are to a Revolution of the Apogaeum, so the number of the days is to the number of the Revolutions of the Apogaeum. They keep the remainder which is the number of the days called Onthiapponne. The Outhiapponite will therefore be the number of days elapsed from the return of the Moon's Apogaeum to the beginning of the Zodiac; which will more evidently appear in the sequel.

If you would have the day of the Week by the Outhiappone, take the Zuotient of the aforesaid Division; multiply it by 5, then joyn it to the Outhiapponne, then subtract thence two days, divide it by 7, the Fraction will show the day.

Whatever is before is called Poulasouriat, as if one should say the Force of the Sun. / Having already explained the true method of finding the day of the Week, it is needless to stay here. Leaving the care of examining it, and searching the ground thereof, to those that shall have the curiosity.

Notwithstanding the name of the Sun's Force which is here given to the precedent Operations, it is certain that what has hitherto been explained, belongs not only to the Sun, but likewise to the Moon.

VII. / VII.

1. Set down the Krommethiapponne.

2. Divide it by 24350.

3. Keep the quotient, which will be the Raasi, that is to say, the Sign where the Sun will be. / To find what the number 24350 is; it is necessary to consider, that the Krommethiapponne are the 800 parts of the day which remains after the Sun's return to the same place of the Zodiac, and that the solar year contains 292207 of these parts, as has been declared in the explication of the fourth Section. The twelfth part of a year will therefore contain 24350 and 7/180? of these 800 parts: wherefore the number 2435- denotes the twelfth part of a solar year; during which the Sun by its middle motion makes a Sign.

Seeing then that [illegible] of a day do give a Sign, the Krommethiapponne divided by 24350 will give to the Quotient the Signs which the Sun has run since his return by his middle motion to the same place; The Raasi then is the number of the Signs; run through by the middle motion of the Sun. They here neglect the Fraction, 7/23? so that the solar year remains here of 292 [illegible], that is to say of 365 days 1/4?, like the Julian year.

4. Lay down the Fraction of the aforesaid Division, and divide it by 811.

5. The Quotient of the Division will be the Ongsaa, that is to say, the degree wherein the Sun will be. / Seeing that by the preceding Article 24 [illegible] of a day do give a Sign of the Sun's middle Motion, the 30th part of 24 150/ooo will give a degree which is the 30th part of a Sign. The 30th part of 24330 is 811; which do make a degree: dividing the remainder by 811 [illegible], they will have the degree of the Sun's middle motion. Here they neglect that ; which can make no considerable difference.

6. Set down the Fraction of this last Division, and divide it by 14.

7. The Quotient will be the Libedaa, this is to say the Minute.

8. Subtract 3 from the Libedaa.

9. Place what belongs to the Libedaa, underneath the Ongsaa, and the Ongsaa underneath the Raasi: This will make a Figure which shall be called the Mettejomme of the sun, which you shall keep. I suppose it is locus medius Solis. / Seeing that in a degree there are [illegible] parts; in a minute, which is the 60th part of a degree, there will be 13!! of these parts. Neglecting the Fraction, they take the number 14, which dividing the remainder, will give the minutes. The Subtraction which is here made of three minutes is a reduction whereof we shall speak in the sequel.

It is here prescribed to put the Degrees under the Signs, and the Minutes under the Degrees in this manner.

Raasi, Signs.
Ongsaa, Degrees.
Libedaa, Minutes.

This Disposition of the Signs, Degrees, and Minutes one under the other is called a Figure, and it here denotes the middle place of the Sun.

VIII. / VIII.

To find the true place of the Sun,

1. Set down the Mettejomme of the Sun, that is to say, the figure which comprehends what is in the Raasi, Ongsaa and Libedaa.

2. Subtract 2 from the Raasi. But if this cannot be, add 12 to the Raasi, to be able to do it, then do it.

3. Subtract 20 from the Ongsaa. But if this cannot be, deduct 1 from the Raasi, which will amount to 30 in the Ongsaa, then you shall deduct the aforesaid 20. / The number 2[?], which is subtracted from the Raasi, in the second Article, and the number 20 in the third Article, are 2 Signs and 20 degrees, which doubtless denotes the place of the Suns Apogaeum according to this Hypothesis; in which there is not seen any number which answers to the motion of the Apogaeum. It appears then that this Apogaeum is supposed fix'd to the 20th degree of Gemini, which precedes the true place of the Apogaeum, 25 it is at present 17 degrees, which this Apogaeum performs not in less than 1000 years, or thereabouts: From whence it may be judged that the Epocha of this method is about a thousand years before the present age. But as the greatness of the year agrees better here with the Suns return to the Apogaeum and the fixed Stars, than with the Suns return to the Equinoxes; it may be that the beginning of the Signs here used, is not at present in the Equinoxial point, but that it is advanced 17 or 18 degrees, and so it will be necessary to be corrected by the Anticipation of the Equinoxes. Here then they subtract the Suns Apogaeum from its middle placed called Mattejomme, to have the Suns Anomalia: and the number of the signs of this Anomalia is that which they call Kenne.

4. What will afterwards remain, shall be called Kenne. / It appeareth by these Rules that the Kanne is the number of the half-signs of the distance of the Apogaeum or Periganat [?], taken according to the succession of the Signs, according as the Sun is nearer one term than the other: So than in the 5th Article is taken the distance of the Apogaeum according to the succession of the Signs; in Article 6th the distance of the Perigaum, against the succession of the Signs: in Article 7th the distance of the Perigaum according to the succession of the Signs; and in Article 8th the distance of the Apogaeum, contrary to the succession of the Signs. In the 6th, 7th, and 8th Articles it seems, that it must always be understood. Multiply the Raasi by 2, as it appears in the sequel.

In the 6th Article when the degrees of the Anomalia exceed 15, they add 1 to the Kanne; because that the Kanne, which is a half Sign, amounts to 15 degrees.

The degrees and minutes of the Kanne are here reduced into minutes, the number of which is called the Ponchalit.

It appears by these Operations, that the Chaajaa is the AEquation of the Sun calculated from 15 to 15 degrees, the first number of which is 35, the second 67, the third 94; and that they are minutes, which are to one another as the Sinns of 15, 30, and 45 degrees from whence

It follows that the Equation of 60, 75, and 90 degrees are 116, 129, 134. / 35-67-94-116-129-134

which are set apart in this form, and do answer in order to the number of the Kanne, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

As for the other degrees they take the proportional part of the difference of one number to the other, which answers to 15 degrees, which do make 900 minutes, making: as 900, to the difference of two Equations; so the minutes which are in the overplus of the Kanne, to the proportional part of the Equation, which it is necessary to add to the minutes which answer to the Kanne to make the total Equation. They reduce these minutes of the Equation into degrees and minutes, dividing them by 60. The greatest Equation of the Sun is here of 2 degrees, 12 min. The Alphonsine Tables do make it 2 degrees, 10 minutes: We find it of 1 degree, 57 minutes. They apply the Equation to the middle place of the Sun, to have its true place which is called Sommepont.

5. If the Kenne is 0, 1, or 2, multiply it by 2, you will have the Kanne.

6. If the Kenne is 3, 4, or 5; you shall subtract the figure from this figure 5-29-60, which is called Attathiat, and amounts to 6 Signs.

7. If the Kenne is 6, 7, 8; subtract 6 from the Raasi, the remainder will be the Kanne.

8. If the Kenne is 9, 10, 11; subtract the figure from this figure 11-29-60 which is called Touataasamounetonne, and amounts to 12 Signs: the remainder in the Raasi will be the Kanne.

9. If you can deduct 15 from the Ongsaa, add 1 to the Kanne, if you cannot, add nothing.

10. Multiply the Ongsaa by 60.

11. Add thereunto the Libedaa, this will be the Pouchalit, which you shall keep.

12. Consider the Kanne. If the Kanne is 0, take the first number of the Chaajaa of the Sun, which is 35; and multiply it by the Pouchalit.

13. If the Kanne is some other number, take according to the number, the number of the Chajaa aattit, and subtract it from the number underneath. Then what shall remain in the lower number, multiply by it the Pouchalit. As for example, if the Kanne is 1, subtract 35 from 67, and by the rest multiply. If the Kanne is 2, subtract 67 from 94, and by the rest multiply the Pouchalit.

14. Divide the Sum of the Pouchalit multiplied by 900.

15. Add the Quotient to the superior number of the Chajaa, which you have made use of.

16. Divide the Sum by 60.

17. The quotient will be Ongsaa, the Fraction will be the Libedaa. Put an 0 in the place of the Raasi.

18. Set the figure found by the preceding Article over against the Mattejomme of the Sun.

19. Consider the Ken aforesaid. If the Ken is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; It is called Ken subtracting: Thus you shall subtract the figure found in the 17 Article from the Mattejomme of the Sun.

20. If the Ken is 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, it is called Ken additional: So you shall joyn the said figure to the Mattejomme of the Sun: which will give out at last the Sommepont of the Sun, which you shall precisely keep.

19. [21?] This Equation, conformably to the rule of our Astronomers in the first demi-circle of the Anomalia, is subtractive; and in the second demi-circle, additional. Here they perform the Arithmetical operations placing one under the other, what we place side-ways; and on the contrary, placing side-ways what we place one under the other. As for Example:

-- / The Mattejomme / The Chajaa / The Sommepont / --

Raasi / 8 / 0 / 8 / Signs

Ongsaa / 25 / 2 / 27 / Degrees

Libedaa / 40 / 4 / 44 / Minutes

-- / Middle Place / Equation / True Place / --


IX. / IX.

1. Set down the Sommepont of the Sun.

2. Multiply by 30 what is in the Raagi.

3. Add thereto what is in the Ongsaa.

4. Multiply the whole by 60.

5. Add thereunto what is in the Libedaa.

6. Divide the whole by 800, the Quotient will be the Reuc of the Sun.

7. Divide the remaining Fraction by 13, the Quotient will be the Naati reuc, which you shall keep underneath the Reuc. / It appears by these Operations that the Indians divide the Zodiac into 17 equal parts, which are each of 13 degrees, 40 minutes. For by the six first Operations the signs are reduced into degrees, and the minutes of the true place of the Sun into minutes; an din dividing them afterwards by 800, they are reduced into 27 parts of a Circle; for 800 minutes are the 27th part of 21600 minutes which are in the Circle, the number of the 27 parts of the Zodiack are therefore called Reuc, each of which consists of 800 minutes, that is to say, of 13 degrees, 40 minutes. This division is grounded upon the diurnal motion of the Moon, which is about 13 Degrees, 40 Minutes; as the division of the Zodiack unto 360 Degrees has for foundation the diurnal motion of the Sun in the Zodiack, which is near a Degree.

The 60 of these parts is 13-1/3; as it appears in dividing 800 by 60, wherefore they divide the Remainder by 13, neglecting the fraction, to have what is here called Nati-reuc, which are the Minutes or 60 parts of a Reuc.

X. / X.

For the Moon. To find the Mattejomme of the Moon.

1. Set down the Anamaan.

2. Divide it by 25.

3. Neglect the Fraction, and joyn the Quotient with the Anamaan.

4. Divide the whole by 60, the Quotient will be Ongsaa, the Fraction will be Libedaa, and you shall put an 0 to the Raasi. / According to the 7th Article of the III Section, the Anamaan is the number of the 703 parts of the day, which remain from the end of the Artificial day to the end of the Natural day. Altho according to this rule, the Anamaan can never amount to 703: yet if 703 be set down for the Anamaan, and it be divided by 25, according to the 2d Article, they have 28 [illegible], for the Quotient. Adding 28 to 703, according to the third Article, the sum 731 will be a number of minutes of a degree. Dividing 731 by 60, according to the fourth Article, the Quotient which is 12d. 11', is the middle diurnal motion, by which the Moon removes from the Sun.

From what has been said in the II Section, it results that in 30 days the Anamaan augments 330. Dividing 330 by 24, there is in the Quotient 13 [illegible]. Adding this Quotient to the Anamaan, the summ is 343, that is to say, 5 d., 43'. which the Moon removes from the Sun in 30 days, besides the entire Circle.

The European Tables do make the diurnal motion of 12d, 11'. and middle motion in 39 days, of 5d. 43'., 21", besides the entire Circle.

5. Set down as many days as you have before put to the month current. Sect. II. n. 3.

6. Multiply this number by 12.

7. Divide the whole by 30 the Quotient, put it to the Raasi of the preceding figure which has an 0 at the Raasi, and joyn the fraction to the Ongsaa of the figure.

8. Joyn this whole figure to the Mattejomme of the Sun.

9. Subtract 40 from the Libedaa. But if this cannot be, you may deduct 1 from the Ongsaa, which will be 60 Libedaa.

10. What shall remain in the figure is the Mattejomme of the Moon sought. / After having found out the degrees and the minutes which agree to the Anamaan, they seek the signs and degrees which agree to the Artificial days of the current month. For to multiply them by 12, and to divide them by 30, is the same thing as to say, If thirty Artificial days do give 12 Signs, what will the Artificial days of the current month give? they will have the Signs in the Quotient. The Fractions are the 30ths of a Sign, that is to say, of the degrees. They joyn them therefore to the degrees found by the Anamaan, which is the surplusage of the Natural days above the Artificial.

The Figure here treated of is the Moons distance from the Sun, after they have deducted 40 minutes, which is either a Correction made to the Epocha, or the reduction of one Meridian to another: as shall be explain'd in the sequel. This distance of the Moon from the Sun being added to the middle place of the Sun, gives the middle-place of the Moon.

XI. / XI.

1. Set down the Outhiappone.

2. Multiply by 3.

3. Divide by 808.

4. Put the Quotient to the Raasi.

5. Multiply the fraction by 30.

6. Divide it by 808, the Quotient will be Ongsaa.

7. Take the remaining fraction, and multiply it by 60.

8. Divide the summ by 808, the Quotient will be Libedaa.

9. Add 2 to the Libedaa; the Raasi, the Ongsaa, and the Libedaa will be the Mattejomme of Louthia, which you shall keep. / Upon the VI. Section it is remarked that the Onthiapponne is the number of Days after the return of the Moon's Apogaeum, which is performed in 3232 Days: 808 Days are therefore the fourth part of the time of the Revolution of the Moon's Apogaeum, during which it makes 3 Signs, which are the fourth part of the Circle.

By these Operations therefore they find the motion of the Moon's Apogaeum, making as 808 Days are to 3 Signs; so the time passed from the return of the Moon's Apogaeum is to the motion of the same apogaeum during this time. It appears by the following Operation that this motion is taken from the same Principle of the Zodiack, from whence the motion of the Sun is taken.

The Mattepomme of Louthia, is the Place of the Moon's Apogaeum.

XII. / XII.

For the Sommepont of the Moon.

1. Set down the Mattejomme of the Moon.

2. Over against it set the Mattejomme of Louthia.

3. Subtract the Mattejomme of Louthia from the Mattejomme of the Moon.

4. What remains in the Raasi will be the Kenne.

5. If the Kenne is 0, 1, 2, multiply it by 2, and it will be the Kanne.

6. If the Ken is 3, 4, 5, subtract it from this figure: 5 / 29 / 60.

7. If the Ken is 6, 7, 8, subtract from it 6.

8. If the Ken is 9, 10, 11, subtract it from this figure: 11 / 29 / 60.

9. If the Kenne is 1 or 2, multiply it by 23 this will be the Kanne.

10. Deduct 15 from the Ongsaa, if possible; you shall add 1 to the Raasi; if not, you shall not do it.

11. Multiply the Ongsaa by 60, and add thereunto the Lebidaa, and it will be the Pouchalit, that you shall keep.

12. Take into the Moons Chajaa the number conformable to the Kanne, as it has been said of the Sun; subtract the upper number from the lower.

13. Take the remainder, and therewith multiply the Pouchalit.

14. Divide this by 900.

15. Add this Quotient to the upper number of the Moons Chajaa.

16. Divide this by 60, the Quotient will be Ongsaa, the Fraction Libedaa, and an 0 for the Raasi.

17. Opposite to this figure set the Mattejomme of the Moon.

18. Consider the Ken. If the Ken is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, subtract the figure of the Moons Mettejomme; if the Ken is 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, join the two figures together, and you will have the Sommepont of the Moon, which you shall keep. / All these Rules are conformable to those of the VIII. Section, to find the place of the Sun, and are sufficiently illustrated, by the explication made of that Section.

The difference in the Chajaa of the Moon, discoursed of in the 14th and 15th Article. This Chajaa consists in these numbers: 77 / 1_8 / 209 / 256 / 286 / 296.

The greatest Equation of the Moon is therefore of 4 degrees 56 minutes, as some Modern Astronomers do make it, though the generality do make it of 5 degrees in the Conjunctions and Oppositions.

XIII. / XIII.

Set down the Sommepont of the Moon, and operating as you have done in the Sommepont of the Sun, you will find the Reuc and Nattireuc of the Moon. / This Operations has been made for the Sun in the IX Section. It is to find the position of the Moon in her Stations, which are the 27 parts of the Zodiac.

XIV. / XIV.

1. Set down the Sommepont of the Moon.

2. Over against it set the Sommepont of the Sun.

3. Subtract the Sommepont of the Sun from the Sommepont of the Moon, and the Pianne will remain, which you shall keep. / The Pianne is therefore the Moon's distance from the Sun.

XV. / XV.

1. Take the Pianne and set it down.

2. Multiply the Raasi by 30, add the Ongsaa thereunto.

3. Multiply the whole by 60, and thereunto add the Libedaa.

4. Divide the whole by 720, the Quotient is called Itti, which you shall keep.

5. Divide the Fraction by 12, the quotient will be Natti itti.

The end of the Souriat. / These three first Operations do serve to reduce the Moon's distance from the Sun into minutes; dividing it by 720, it is reduced to the 30 part of a Circle, for 720 minutes are the 30th part of 21600 minutes, which do make the whole circumference. The ground of this division is the Moons diurnal motion from the Sun, which is near the 30th part of the whole Circle. They consider then the Position of the Moon, not only in the Signs and in her stations, but also in the 30th parts of the Zodiack, which do each consist of 12 degrees, and are called itti; dividing the remainder by 12, they have the minutes, or sixtieth parths of an itti, which do each consist of 12 minutes of degrees, which the Moon removes from the Sun in the sixtieth part of a day; these sixtieth parts are called natti itti.
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Part 1 of 2

Nalanda Mahavihara: Victim of a Myth regarding its Decline and Destruction
by O.P. Jaiswal
Mainstream Weekly
Monday 18 June 2018

[T]he Shaman Hwui-li, took up his tablets and wrote the life of Hiuen-Tsiang. The Master had already written his immortal Si-yu-ki or Record of Western Countries... The Life is supplement to the Record. What is obscure or half told in the one is made clear in the other.

Hwui-li begins in the true Chinese manner with a grand pedigree of his hero, tracing his descent from the Emperor Hwang Ti, the mythical Heavenly Emperor....

And withal clear-sighted and intolerant of shams, he is still a child of his age and religion. With childish curiosity he tempts a bone to foretell the future, and with childish delight obtains the answer he most desires. In the town of Hiddha is Buddha's skull bone, one foot long, two inches round. "If anyone wishes to know the indications of his guilt or his religious merit he mixes some powdered incense into a paste, which he spreads upon a piece of silken stuff, and then presses it on the top of the bone: according to the resulting indications the good fortune or ill fortune of the man is determined." Hiuen obtains the impression of a Bodhi and is overjoyed, for, as the guardian Brahman of the bone explains, "it is a sure sign of your having a portion of true wisdom (Bodhi)." At another time he plays a kind of religious quoits by flinging garlands of flowers on the sacred image of Buddha, which, being caught on its hands and arms, show that his desires will be fulfilled. In simple faith he tells Hwui-li how Buddha once cleaned his teeth and flung the fragments of the wood with which he performed the act on the ground; how they took root forthwith, and how a tree seventy feet high was the consequence. And Hiuen saw that tree, therefore the story must be true....

He returned to his own country with no less than 657 volumes of the sacred books, seventy-four of which he translated into Chinese, while 150 relics of the Buddha, borne by twenty horses, formed the spoil reverently gathered from the many lands we call India....

The original from which the translation is made is styled "History of the Master of the Law of the three Pitakas of the 'Great Loving-Kindness' Temple." It was written, probably in five chapters, in the first instance by Hwui-li, one of Hiuen-Tsiang's disciples, and afterwards enlarged and completed in ten chapters by Yen-thsong, another of his followers. Yen-thsong was selected by the disciples of Hwui-li to re-arrange and correct the leaves which their master had written and hidden in a cave. ...

It will be found that Hwui-li's history often explains or elucidates the travels of Hiuen-Tsiang. Yen-thsong evidently consulted other texts or authorities. This is especially the case in reference to the history of the Temple of Nalanda...


-- The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang, by the Shaman Hwui Li, With an Introduction Containing an Account of the Works of I-Tsing, by Samuel Beal, B.A., D.C.L.


Nalanda1 has a very ancient history going back to the days of Mahavira and Buddha in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. According to the Jaina texts, it was a suburb (bahariya), situated to the north-west of the famous city of Rajagriha. Indeed, so important was the place that Mahavira spent as many as fourteen rainy seasons there. The Pali Buddhist literature too contains many references to Nalanda. It is said that in the course of his sojourns the Buddha often visited the place, which was mentioned as prosperous, swelling, teeming with population and containing a mango-grove called Pavarika. The distance from Rajagriha to Nalanda is given as a yojana.

This place is mentioned in the Maha-sudassana-Jataka2 as the birthplace of the Thera Sariputra, a chief disciple of the Buddha. In other texts the same place, under the name of Nalaka or Nalakagrama, appears as a centre of Sariputra’s activities.3 The Mahavastu, a Sanskrit Buddhist text, also gives Nalanda-gramaka, half a yojana distant from Rajagriha, as the place of birth of Sariputra and finds support in some Tibetan texts, including Taranatha’s History of Buddhism in India, a seventeenth-century Tibetan work.4

It is therefore reasonable to hold that Nala, Nalaka, Nalakagrama and Nalanda are all variants of the same place-name.
A yojana south-west from this place brought them to the village of Nala, [Or Nalanda; identified with the present Baragong. A grand monastery was subsequently built at it, famous by the residence for five years of Hsuan-chwang.] where Sariputtra [See chap. xvi, note 11. There is some doubt as to the statement that Nala was his birthplace.] was born, and to which also he returned, and attained here his pari-nirvâna. Over the spot (where his body was burned) there was built a tope, which is still in existence.

-- A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien, Of His Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399–414), Translated and Annotated with a Corean Recension of the Chinese Text by James Legge, M.A., LL.D.

Hiuen-Tsang, the renowned Chinese traveller of the seventh century AD, says that according to tradition the place owed its name to a naga of the same name who resided in a local tank. But he thinks it more probable that the Buddha, in one of his previous births as Bodhisattva, became a king with his capital at this place, and that his liberality won for him and his capital the name Nalanda or ‘charity without intermission’.5

According to Taranatha, Asoka, the great Mauryan emperor of the third century BC, gave offerings to the chaitya of Sariputra that existed at Nalanda and erected a temple here; Ashoka must therefore be regarded as the founder of the Nalanda-vihara [university] [mahavihara].[!!!]6 The same authority adds that Nagarjuna, the famous Mahayana philosopher and alchemist of about the second century AD, began his studies at Nalanda and later on became the high priest here. It is also added that Suvishnu, a Brahmana contemporary of Nagarjuna, built one hundred and eight temples at Nalanda to prevent the decline of both the Hinayana and Mahayana schools of Buddhism.7 Taranatha also connects Aryadeva, a philosopher of the Madhyamika school of Buddhism of the early fourth century AD, with Nalanda.4
Aryabhata mentions in the Aryabhatiya that he was 23 years old 3,600 years into the Kali Yuga, but this is not to mean that the text was composed at that time. This mentioned year corresponds to 499 CE, and implies that he was born in 476....

It is fairly certain that, at some point, he went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and lived there for some time. Both Hindu and Buddhist tradition, as well as Bhāskara I (CE 629), identify Kusumapura as Pāṭaliputra, modern Patna. A verse[???] mentions that Aryabhata was the head of an institution (kulapa) at Kusumapura, and, because the university of Nalanda was near Pataliputra at the time and had an astronomical observatory, it is speculated that Aryabhata might have been the head of the Nalanda university as well.

-- Aryabhata, by Wikipedia


Further, Asanga, a Buddhist philosopher of the Yogachara school, belonging to the fifth century AD,8 is said to have spent here twelve years of his later life and to have been succeeded by his still more famous brother, Vasubandhu, as the high priest of Nalanda.9
The German translation of Lama Taranatha's first book on India called The Mine of Previous Stones (Edelsteinmine) was made by Prof. Gruenwedel the reputed Orientalist and Archaeologist on Buddhist culture in Berlin. The translation came out in 1914 A.D. from Petrograd (Leningrad).

The German translator confessed his difficulty in translating the Tibetan words on matters relating to witchcraft and sorcery. So he has used the European terms from the literature of witchcraft and magic of the middle ages viz. 'Frozen' and 'Seven miles boots.'

He said that history in the modern sense could not be expected from Taranatha. The important matter with him was the reference to the traditional endorsement of certain teaching staff. Under the spiritual protection of his teacher Buddhaguptanatha, he wrote enthusiastically the biography of the predecessor of the same with all their extravagances, as well as the madness of the old Siddhas.

The book contains a rigmarole of miracles and magic….

-- Mystic Tales of Lama Taranatha: A Religio-Sociological History of Mahayana Buddhism, by Lama Taranatha, Translated into English by Bhupendranath Datta, A.M., Dr. Phil.

These statements of Taranatha would lead one to believe that Nalanda was a famous centre of Buddhism already at the time of Nagarjuna and continued to be so in the following centuries. But it may be clearly emphasised that the excavations have not revealed anything which suggests the occupation of the site before the Guptas, the earliest datable finds being a (forged) copper plate of Samudra-gupta and a coin of Kumaragupta. This is fully confirmed by the statement of Hiuen-Tsang (d. 664 CE) that ‘a former king of the country named Sakraditya built here a monastery and that his successors, Buddha-gupta, Tathagatagupta, Baladitya and Vajra built some monasteries nearby’.10
Kumaragupta I/Shakraditya (r. c. 415–455 CE)
Skandagupta (r. c. 455-467 CE)
Purugupta (r. c. 467–473 CE)
Kumaragupta II (r. c. 473-476 CE)
Budhagupta ( r. c. 476- 495 CE)
Narasimhagupta (r. c. 495-530 CE)
Kumaragupta III (r. c. 530-540 CE)
Vishnugupta (r. c. 540–550 CE) (Last king of the Gupta Empire)

-- by Wikipedia

As some of these names were borne by the Gupta emperors, it has been held that all of them refer to the Imperial Guptas of the fifth and sixth century AD.

The Chinese treatise known as the Hsi-yu-chi (or Si-yu- ki) is one of the classical Buddhist books of China, Korea, and Japan....

On the title-page of the Hsi-yu-chi it is represented as having been "translated" by Yuan-chuang and "redacted" or "compiled" by Pien-chi ([x]). But we are not to take the word for translate here in its literal sense, and all that it can be understood to convey is that the information given in the book was obtained by Yuan-chuang from foreign sources. One writer tells us that Yuan-chuang supplied the materials to Pien-chi who wrought these up into a literary treatise. Another states that Yuan-chuang communicated at intervals the facts to be recorded to Pien-chi who afterwards wove these into a connected narrative.

This Pien-chi was one of the learned Brethren appointed by T'ai Tsung to assist Yuan-chung in the work of translating the Indian books which Yuan-chuang had brought with him. It was the special duty of Pien-chi to give literary form to the translations. He was a monk of the Hui-chang ([x]) Monastery and apparently in favour at the court of the Emperor. But he became mixed up in an intrigue with one of T'ai Tsung's daughters and we cannot imagine a man of his bad character being on very intimate terms with the pilgrim. As to the Hsi-yu-chi we may doubt whether he really had much to do with its formation, and perhaps the utmost that can be claimed for him is that he may have strung together Yuan-chuang's descriptions into a connected narrative. The literary compositions of Yuan-chuang to be found in other places seem to justify us in regarding him as fully competent to write the treatise before us without any help from others...Some of the notes and comments may have been added by Pien-chi but several are evidently by a later hand....

The Hsi-yu-chi exists in several editions which present considerable variations both in the text and in the supplementary notes and explanations....

Under the guidance of the learned Doctors in Buddhism in these establishments he studied some of the great works of their religion, and soon became famous in China as a very learned and eloquent young monk. But he could not remain in China for he longed vehemently to visit the holy land of his religion, to see its far-famed shrines, and all the visible evidences of the Buddha's ministrations. He had learned, moreover, to be dissatisfied with the Chinese translations of the sacred books, and he was desirous to procure these books in their original language, and to learn the true meaning of their abstruse doctrines from orthodox pundits in India. After making enquiries and preparations he left the capital Ch'ang-an ([x]), the modern Hsi-an ([x])-foo, in the year 629, and set out secretly on his long pilgrimage....

After sixteen year's absence Yuan-chuang returned to China and arrived at Ch'ang-an in the beginning of 645, the nineteenth year of the reign of T'ang T'ai Tsung....

Now he had arrived whole and well, and had become a many days' wonder. He had been where no other had ever been, he had seen and heard what no other had ever seen and heard. Alone he had crossed trackless wastes tenanted only by fierce ghost-demons. Bravely he had climbed fabled mountains high beyond conjecture, rugged and barren, ever chilled by icy wind and cold with eternal snow. He had been to the edge of the world and had seen where all things end. Now he was safely back to his native land, and with so great a quantity of precious treasures. There were 657 sacred books of Buddhism, some of which were full of mystical charms able to put to flight the invisible powers of mischief. All these books were in strange Indian language and writing, and were made of trimmed leaves of palm or of birch-bark strung together in layers. Then there were lovely images of the Buddha and his saints in gold, and silver, and crystal, and sandalwood. There were also many curious pictures and, above all, 150 relics, true relics of the Buddha. All these relics were borne on twenty horses and escorted into the city with great pomp and ceremony.

The Emperor T'ai Tsung forgave the pilgrim for going abroad without permission, made his acquaintance and became his intimate friend. He received Yuan-chuang in an inner chamber of the palace, and there listened with unwearied interest from day to day to his stories about unknown lands and the wonders Buddha and his great disciples had wrought in them...On his petition the Emperor appointed several distinguished lay scholars and several learned monks to assist in the labour of translating, editing, and copying. In the meantime at the request of his Sovereign Yuan-chuang compiled the Records of his travels, the Hsi-yu-chi. The first draft of this work was presented to the Emperor in 646, but the book as we have it now was not actually completed until 648. It was apparently copied and circulated in Ms in its early form during the author's life and for some time after. When the Hsi-yu-chi was finished Yuan-chuang gave himself up to the task of translating, a task which was to him one of love and duty combined.... In the year 664 on the 6th day of the second month he underwent the great change.... he passed hence into Paradise....

His character as revealed to us in his Life and other books is interesting and attractive....Too prone at times to follow authority and accept ready-made conclusions he was yet self possessed and independent....

There were lengths, however, to which he could not go, and even his powerful friend the Emperor T'ai Tsung could not induce him to translate Lao-tzu's "Tao-Te-Ching" into Sanskrit or recognize Lao-tzu as in rank above the Buddha....His faith was simple and almost unquestioning, and he had an aptitude for belief which has been called credulity. But his was not that credulity which lightly believes the impossible and accepts any statement merely because it is on record and suits the convictions or prejudices of the individual. Yuan-chuang always wanted to have his own personal testimony, the witness of his own senses or at least his personal experience. It is true his faith helped his unbelief, and it was too easy to convince him where a Buddhist miracle was concerned. A hole in the ground without any natural history, a stain on a rock without any explanation apparent, any object held sacred by the old religion of the fathers, and any marvel professing to be substantiated by the narrator, was generally sufficient to drive away his doubts and bring comforting belief. But partly because our pilgrim was thus too ready to believe, though partly also for other reasons, he did not make the best use of his opportunities. He was not a good observer, a careful investigator, or a satisfactory recorder, and consequently he left very much untold which he would have done well to tell....

After Yuan-chuang's death great and marvellous things were said of him. His body, it was believed, did not see corruption and he appeared to some of his disciples in visions of the night. In his lifetime he had been called a "Present Sakyamuni", and when he was gone his followers raised him to the rank of a founder of Schools or Sects in Buddhism. In one treatise we find the establishment of three of these schools ascribed to him, and in another work he is given as the founder in China of a fourth school. This last is said to have been originated in India at Nalanda by Silabhadra one of the great Buddhist monks there with whom Yuan-chuang studied....

THE PREFACES TO THE HSI-YU-CHI.

There is only one Preface in the A, B, and C editions of the "Hsi-yu-chi", but the D edition gives two Prefaces.... This latter was apparently unknown to native editors and it was unknown to the foreign translators. This Preface is the work of Ching Po ([x]), a scholar, author, and official of the reigns of T'ang Kao Tsu and T'ai Tsung.... It is plain from this Preface that its author was an intimate friend of Yuan-chuang whose name he does not think it necessary to mention. He seems to have known or regarded Yuan-chuang as the sole author of the "Hsi-yu-chi", writing of him thus: — "he thought it no toil to reduce to order the notes which he had written down"....

The second Preface, which is in all editions except the Corean, is generally represented as having been written by one Chang Yueh ([x]). It has been translated fairly well by Julien, who has added numerous notes to explain the text and justify his renderings. He must have studied the Preface with great care and spent very many hours in his attempt to elucidate its obscurities. Yet it does not seem to have occurred to him to learn who Chang Yueh was and when he lived.

Now the Chang Yueh who bore the titles found at the head of the Preface above the name was born in 667 and died in 730, thus living in the reigns of Kao Tsung, Chung Tsung, Jui Tsung, and Hsuan Tsung. He is known in Chinese literature and history as a scholar, author, and official of good character and abilities. His Poems and Essays, especially the latter, have always been regarded as models of style, but they are not well known at present. In 689 Chang Yueh became qualified for the public service, and soon afterwards he obtained an appointment at the court of the Empress Wu Hou. But he did not prove acceptable to that ambitious, cruel and vindictive sovereign, and in 703 he was sent away to the Ling-nan Tao (the modern Kuangtung). Soon afterwards, however, he was recalled and again appointed to office at the capital. He served Hsuan Huang (Ming Huang) with acceptance, rising to high position and being ennobled as Yen kuo kung ([x]).

Now if, bearing in mind the facts of Chang Yueh's birth and career, we read with attention the Preface which bears his name we cannot fail to see that it could not have been composed by that official....according to the Chinese authorities and their translators Julien and Professor G. Schlegel, it was a schoolboy who composed this wonderful Preface, this "piece that offers a good specimen characterized by these pompous and empty praises, and presents, therefore the greatest difficulties, not only has a translator from the West, but still has every letter Chinese who would only know the ideas and the language of the school of Confucius." We may pronounce this impossible as the piece is evidently the work of a ripe scholar well read not only in Confucianism but also in Buddhism. Moreover the writer was apparently not only a contemporary but also a very intimate friend of Yuan-chuang.

In the A and C editions and in the old texts Chang Yueh's name does not appear on the title-page to this Preface. It is said to have been added by the editors of the Ming period when revising the Canon. Formerly there stood at the head of the Preface only the titles and rank of its author. We must now find a man who bore these titles in the Kao Tsung period, 650 to 683, and who was at the same time a scholar and author of distinction and a friend of the pilgrim. And precisely such a man we find in Yu Chih-ning ([x]), one of the brilliant scholars and statesmen who shed a glory on the reigns of the early T'ang sovereigns. ... On the death of T'ai Tsung his son and successor Kao Tsung retained Yu in favour at Court and rewarded him with well-earned honours. In 656 the Emperor appointed Yu along with some other high officials to help in the redaction of the translations which Yuan-chuang was then making from the Sanskrit books. Now about this time Yu, as we know from a letter addressed to him by Hui-li and from other sources, bore the titles which appear at the head of the Preface. He was also an Immortal of the Academy, a Wen-kuan Hsuo-shi ([x]). He was one of the scholars who had been appointed to compile the "Sui Shu" or Records of the Sui dynasty and his miscellaneous writings from forty chuan. Yu was probably a fellow-labourer with Yuan-chuang until the year 660. At that date the concubine of many charms had become all-powerful in the palace and she was the unscrupulous foe of all who even seemed to block her progress. Among these was Yu, who, accordingly, was this year sent away into official exile and apparently never returned.

We need have little hesitation then in setting down Yu Chih-ning as the author of this Preface. It was undoubtedly written while Yuan-chuang was alive, and no one except an intimate friend of Yuan-chuang could have learned all the circumstances about him, his genealogy and his intimacy with the sovereign mentioned or alluded to in the Preface. We need not suppose that this elegant composition was designed by its author to serve as a Preface to the Hsi- yu-chi. It was probably written as an independent eulogy of Yuan-chuang setting forth his praises as a man of old family, a record-beating traveller, a zealous Buddhist monk of great learning and extraordinary abilities, and a propagator of Buddhism by translations from the Sanskrit.

This Preface, according to all the translators, tells us that the pilgrim acting under Imperial orders translated 657 Sanskrit books, that is, all the Sanskrit books which he had brought home with him from the Western Lands. No one seems to have pointed out that this was an utterly impossible feat, and that Yuan-chuang did not attempt to do anything of the kind. The number of Sanskrit texts which he translated was seventy four, and these seventy four treatises (pu) made in all 1335 chuan. To accomplish this within seventeen years was a very great work for a delicate man with various calls on his time.

The translations made by Yuan-chuang are generally represented on the title-page as having been made by Imperial order and the title-page of the Hsi-yu-chi has the same intimation. We know also from the Life that it was at the special request of the Emperor T'ai Tsung that Yuan-chuang composed the latter treatise. So we should probably understand the passage in the Preface with which we are now concerned as intended to convey the following information. The pilgrim received Imperial orders to translate the 657 Sanskrit treatises, and to make the Ta-T'ang-Hsi-yu-chi in twelve chuan, giving his personal observation of the strange manners and customs of remote and isolated regions, their products and social arrangements, and the places to which the Chinese Calendar and the civilising influences of China reached....

At the beginning of Chuan I of the Records we have a long passage which, following Julien, we may call the Introduction. In a note Julien tells us that according to the editors of Pien-i-tien, this Introduction was composed by Tschang-choue (i.e. Chang Tue), author of the preface to Si-yu-ki". Another native writer ascribes the composition of this Introduction to Pien-chi. But a careful reading of the text shews us that it could not have been written by either of these and that it must be regarded as the work of the pilgrim himself. This Introduction may possibly be the missing Preface written by Yuan-chuang according to a native authority....

What our author here states to his reader is to this effect...
His Majesty ascended the throne" in accordance with Heaven, and taking advantage of the times it concentrated power to itself. [His Majesty] has made the six units of countries into one empire and this his glory fills; he is a fourth to the Three Huang and his light illumines the world. His subtle influence permeates widely and his auspicious example has a far-reaching stimulus....in founding an imperial inheritance for his posterity, in bringing order out of chaos and restoring settled government...and in raising men from mud and ashes, he had far transcended the achievements of the founders of the Chow and Han dynasties....

"In more than three-fifths of the places I traversed", all living creatures feel the genial influence [of H. Ms. reign] and every human being extols his merit. From Ch'ang-an to India the strange tribes of the sombre wastes, isolated lands and odd states, all accept the Chinese calendar and enjoy the benefits of H. Ms. fame and teaching. The praise of his great achievements in war is in everybody's mouth and the commendation of his abundant civil virtues has grown to be the highest theme... Were there not the facts here set forth I could not record the beneficial influences of His Majesty. The narrative which I have now composed is based on what I saw and heard."

This is an address well spiced with flattery in good oriental fashion.... The founder of the T'ang dynasty, it should be remembered, was neither a hero nor a man of extraordinary genius, and he came near being a prig and a hypocrite. His loyalty and honour were questioned in his lifetime, and history has given him several black marks. While sick of ambition, he was infirm of purpose, and wishing to do right he was easily swayed to do what was wrong.... But all his success in later life, and the fame of his reign were largely due to the son who succeeded him on the throne....

The splendour of T'ai Tsung's great achievements, the conspicuous merits of his administration, and the charm of his sociable affable manner made the people of his time forget his faults.... So it came that the historian, dazed by the spell and not seeing clearly, left untold some of the Emperor's misdeeds and told others without adding their due meed of blame. For this great ruler smutched his fair record by such crimes as murder and adultery. The shooting of his brothers was excusable and even justifiable, but his other murders admit of little palliation and cannot plead necessity. Though he yielded to his good impulses, again, in releasing thousands of women who had been forced into and kept in the harem of Sui Yang Ti, yet he also yielded to his bad impulses when he took his brother's widow and afterwards that maid of fourteen, Wu Chao, into his own harem. His love of wine and women in early life, his passion for war and his love of glory and empire, which possessed him to the end, were failings of which the eyes of contemporaries dazzled by the "fierce light" could not take notice....

It was during the reign of this sovereign, in the year 636, that Christianity was first introduced into China. The Nestorian missionaries, who brought it, were allowed to settle in peace and safety at the capital. This was the boon which called forth the gratitude of the Christian historian and enhanced in his view the merits of the heathen sovereign.

The author next proceeds to give a short summary of the Buddhistic teachings about this world and the system of which it forms a constituent. He begins —
Now the Saha world, the Three Thousand Great Chiliocosm, is the sphere of the spiritual influence of one Buddha. It is in the four continents (lit. "Under heavens") now illuminated by one sun and moon and within the Three Thousand Great Chiliocosm that the Buddhas, the World-honoured ones, produce their spiritual effects, are visibly born and visible enter Nirrvana, teach the way to saint and sinner...

The author next proceeds to make a few summary observations...
From the Black Range on this side (i.e. to China) all the people are Hu: and though Jungs are counted with these, yet the hordes and clans are distinct, and the boundaries of territories are defined....

"For the most part [these tribes] are settled peoples with walled cities, practising agriculture and rearing cattle. They prize the possession of property and slight humanity and public duty (lit. benevolence and righteousness). Their marriages are without ceremonies and there are no distinctions as to social position: the wife's word prevails and the husband has a subordinate position. They burn their corpses and have no fixed period of mourning. They flay (?) the face and cut off the ears: they clip their hair short and rend their garments. They slaughter the domestic animals and offer sacrifice to the manes of their dead. They wear white clothing on occasions of good luck and black clothing on unlucky occasions. This is a general summary of the manners and customs common to the tribes, but each state has its own political organization which will be described separately, and the manners and customs of India will be told in the subsequent Records."

This brief and terse account of the social characteristics common to the tribes and districts between China and India presents some rather puzzling difficulties. It is too summary, and is apparently to a large extent secondhand information obtained from rather superficial observers, not derived from the author's personal experience, and it does not quite agree with the accounts given by previous writers and travellers. Thus the pilgrim states that the tribes in question had no fixed period of mourning, that is, for deceased parents, but we learn that the people of Yenk'i observed a mourning of seven days for their parents. Nor was it the universal custom to burn the dead; for the T'ufan people, for example, buried their dead.

-- On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629-645 A.D., by Thomas Watters M.R.A.S.

The assumption that the monasteries of Nalanda were the creation of the Gupta emperors beginning with Kumaragupta I receives confirmation from the fact that Fa-hien, the Chinese pilgrim of the early fifth century AD [337-422 CE], does not mention the monastic establishments of Nalanda. He speaks of the village of Nalo, the place of birth and death of Sariputra, and of a stupa existing here.11 As has been suggested above, this place is identical with Nalanda, but the absence of any other monument except a stupa at the time of Fa-hien is significant.

Hiuen-Tsang saw here an 80-ft. high copper image of the Buddha raised by Purnavarman,12 belonging to the early sixth century AD. And the illustrious Harshavardhana of Kanauj (606-647) no doubt greatly helped the institution by his munificence: he built a monastery of brass, which was under construction when Hiuen-Tsang visited the place. The biographer of Hiuen-Tsang says that Harsha remitted ‘the revenues of about a hundred villages as an endowment of the convent and two hundred householders in these villages contributed the required amount of rice, butter and milk’. ‘Hence,’ he adds, ‘the students here, being so abundantly supplied, do not require to ask for the four requisites. This is the source of the perfection of their studies, to which they have arrived.’ This statement makes it clear that the students did not have to beg for their daily food.

Harsha highly revered the Nalanda monks and called himself their servant.13 About a thousand monks of Nalanda were present at the royal congregation at Kanauj.[???] Royal patronage was, therefore, the keynote of the prosperity and efficiency of Nalanda. As Hiuen-Tsang [602–664] says, ‘A long succession of kings continued the work of building, using all the skill of the sculptor, till the whole is truly marvellous to behold.’14
Kumaragupta I/Shakraditya (r. c. 415–455 CE)
Skandagupta (r. c. 455-467 CE)
Purugupta (r. c. 467–473 CE)
Kumaragupta II (r. c. 473-476 CE)
Budhagupta ( r. c. 476- 495 CE)
Narasimhagupta (r. c. 495-530 CE)
Kumaragupta III (r. c. 530-540 CE)
Vishnugupta (r. c. 540–550 CE) (Last king of the Gupta Empire)

-- by Wikipedia

Gupta rulers patronised the Hindu religious tradition and orthodox Hinduism reasserted itself in this era.

-- Gupta Empire: Origins, Religion, Harsha and Decline, by factsanddetails.com/india

***

[T]he Gupta rulers practiced Hindu rituals and traditions ...

-- The Gupta Period of India, by ushistory.org

Hiuen-Tsang also recounts a few of the monasteries and temples that he saw here, giving their directions in most cases. Thus, the monastery built by Buddhagupta was to the south of the one built by his father Sakraditya; to the east of Buddhagupta’s monastery was the one of Tathagatagupta; the one built by Baladitya was to the north-east of the last; while Vajra’s monastery was to the west. After this an unnamed king of mid-India is said to have built a great monastery to the north and erected a high wall with one gate round these edifices. Hiuen-Tsang also gives a long list of the other monasteries and stupas that he found. Modern attempts to identify them with the existing ruins have met with scanty success, as the six centuries that separated Hiuen-Tsang and the final desertion of the site must have produced many new buildings and modified the existing ones.

Hiuen-Tsang was very warmly received at Nalanda and resided here for a long time. The courses of study were based on secular ideals including the scriptures of the Mahayana and Hinayana schools, hetu-vidya (logic), sabda-vidya (grammar) and chikitsa-vidya (medicine), as well as purely Brahmanical texts such as the Vedas including the Atharvaveda. From the accounts of the pilgrim it is clear that Nalanda was bustling with literary activities.

Hiuen-Tsang received here the Indian name Mokshadeva and was remembered by the inmates of the Nalanda monastery long after he had left the place.[???] Several years after his return to China, Prajnadeva, a monk of Nalanda, sent him a pair of clothes, saying that the worshippers every day went on offering to Hiuen-Tsang their salutations.[???]


Nalanda had by then acquired a celebrity status spread all over the east as a centre of Buddhist theology and secular educational activities. This was evident from the fact that within a short period of thirty years following Hiuen-Tsang’s departure, no less than eleven Chinese and Korean travellers were known to have visited Nalanda.15 [Samuel Beal, Life of Hiuen-Tsang (London, 1911), pp. 177.]
KAU-FA-KAO-SANG-CHUEN.
(Nanj. Cat. 1491.)


III. The author in the preface having alluded to the journeys of Fa-hian and Hiuen-Tsiang, who proceeded to the western countries to procure books and pay reverence to the sacred relics, passes on to notice the hardships and dangers of the route, and the difficulty of finding shelter or entertainment in the different countries visited by their successors, pilgrims to the same spots, and that in consequence of there being no temples (monasteries) set apart for Chinese priests. He then goes on to enumerate the names of the pilgrims referred to in his memoirs....

-- The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang, by the Shaman Hwui Li, With an Introduction Containing An Account of the Works of I-Tsing, by Samuel Beal, B.A., D.C.L., Professor of Chinese, University College, London, With a Preface by L. Cranmer-Byyng, 1911
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Part 2 of 2

Next in importance to Hiuen-Tsang stands I-tsing, who reached India in 673 AD and studied at Nalanda for a considerable time. His work records very minute details about the life led by the Nalanda monks that he regarded as the ideal to be followed by the Buddhists all over the world. He said that the number of monks of the Nalanda monastery exceeded three thousand in number, maintained by more than two hundred villages bestowed by previous kings.16 He also gave details of the curriculum which, besides the Buddhist scriptures, included logic, metaphysics and a very extensive study of Sanskrit Grammar.17 He further testified to the strict rules of discipline that the monks observed, their daily life being regulated by a water-clock.18

I Ching or Yi Jing (635-713) was a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk, originally named Zhang Wen Ming, who traveled by sea to India and studied at Nalanda for eleven years before returning with a collection of as many as 500,000 Sanskrit stanzas. He translated more than 60 sutras into Chinese, including Saravanabhava Vinaya, Avadana, stories of great deeds, and Suvarnaprabhascottamaraja-sutra, (Sutra of the Most Honored King). He also is responsible for the translation of eleven Buddhist tantras and eighteen works on monastic discipline, as well as exegetic works....

I Ching was born Zhang Wen Ming in 635 in Qizhou (modern Shandong province). He left his family at the age of 7 to live in a Buddhist monastery, where he studied under two monks, Shanyu (d. 646) and Huizhi....

I Ching was an admirer of two traveling monks: Fa Xian, who traveled to Nepal, India and Sri Lanka between 399 and 412 to acquire Buddhist scriptures and take them back to China, and visited Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha[???];
In Watters’ book ‘On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India’ (prepared from an unpublished manuscript after his death) the following statement is found with reference to the Lumbini site:
‘Yuan-chuang, as we have seen, mentions a stone pillar, but he does not say anything about an inscription on it. The Fang-chih, however, tells us that the pillar recorded the circumstances of Buddha's birth’.

The Fang-chih -– a shortened version of Yuan-chuang’s account -- does nothing of the sort, since though it also refers to a stone pillar at Lumbini, no inscription ‘recording the circumstances of Buddha’s birth’ is mentioned in this text either. Watters, a great Sinologist, was referred to by V. A. [Vincent Arthur] Smith as ‘one of the most brilliant ornaments’ of Chinese Buddhist scholarship, and it is inconceivable that he would have made this critical mistake. Indeed, when Smith asserted that the Lumbini pillar inscription ‘set at rest all doubts as to the exact site of the traditional birthplace of Gautama Buddha’, Watters acidly retorted that ‘it would be more correct to say that the inscription, if genuine, tells us what was the spot indicated to Asoka as the birthplace of the Buddha’. Note that ‘if genuine’: this shows that Watters not only had his doubts about this inscription, but that he was also prepared to voice those doubts in public. Moreover, according to Smith, ‘Mr Watters writes in a very sceptical spirit, and apparently feels doubts as to the reality of the Sakya principality in the Tarai'. From all this, it will clearly be seen that this Fang-chih ‘mistake’ was totally at variance with Watters’ ‘very sceptical spirit’ regarding these supposed Nepalese discoveries (Lumbini included); and I shall therefore charge that it was a posthumous interpolation into Watters’ original text by its editors, Rhys Davids, Bushell, and Smith. If this charge is correct –- and I am quite sure that it is -- then the reasons behind this appalling deception can only be guessed at, I need hardly add.

-- Lumbini On Trial: The Untold Story. Lumbini Is An Astonishing Fraud Begun in 1896, by T. A. Phelps

and Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang, pronounced Shwan-dzang, d. 664), who made a seventeen-year trip overland to India and back in the early Tang period....

I Ching was inspired to make his own mission to India. Provided with funding by an otherwise unknown benefactor named Fong, he decided to visit the famous Buddhist university of Nalanda, in Bihar, India, to further study Buddhism.... I Ching began his journey in 671. Unlike pilgrims before him, he could not take the land route to India across central Asia and the Himalayas because of political turmoil in Tibet and Afghanistan and the surrounding areas. Instead, he made his way to India by sea, taking a more southerly route....

Traveling by a Persian boat out of Guangzhou, he arrived in Srivijaya (today's Palembang of Sumatra) after 22 days, where he spent the next 6 months learning Sanskrit grammar and Malay language.

He then passed through the Strait of Malacca to the northwest tip of Sumatra, where he boarded a ship going to the Nicobar Islands....In 673 after ten days’ travel across the Bay of Bengal he reached the "naked kingdom" (south west of Shu).

I Ching studied Sanskrit for a year in the Buddhist temple of Vahara at the port of Tāmraliptī, in the delta of the Ganges River, then traveled to Nālandā with another Chinese monk, Dachengdeng (d. 675). They followed a group of merchants and traveled to 30 principalities. They visited sacred sites in Gṛdhrakūṭa at Rājagṛha and Mahābodhi at Bodh Gayā, traveled to Vaiśālī, Amaraba, and Kāśī (Banaras), visited Jetavana Monastery at Śrāvastī and the "heavenly stairs" (said to have been built by the god Śakra for the Buddha to use in descending from Heaven) at Sāmkāśya, and journeyed to Sārnāth and Kukkuṭapāda. They encountered mountains, woods, and swamps on the way to Nalanda. Halfway to Nalanda, Yi Jing fell ill and was unable to walk; gradually he was left behind by the group. He was looted by bandits and stripped naked. He heard the natives would catch white skins to offer as a sacrifice to the gods, so he jumped into mud and used leaves to cover his lower body. Walking slowly, he reached Nalanda where he stayed for 11 years.

At Nalanda, I Ching studied Buddhist logic, the Abhidharmakośa, monastic discipline (Vinaya), and the Mādhyamika and Yogācāra philosophies.... I Ching studied and copied original Sanskrit texts of Buddhist religious writings, and collected some 500,000 Sanskrit stanzas that he believed would fill 1,000 volumes when translated into Chinese.

With the manuscripts he had collected at Nālandā, Yijing left central India for Tāmraliptī in 685. Making his way home the same way he had come, he made short stops at Kacha and Malayu. When I-Ching again arrived at Śrīvijaya in 687, he decided to stay and begin the translation of his collection, hoping to complete it in about ten years. In 689, he found he needed more supplies for copying the Sanskrit manuscripts. He went to the port to send a letter to China requesting paper and ink, which were not available in Śrīvijaya at that time. While he was drafting his message, the ship unexpectedly set sail with him on board. On August 10, 689, he reached Guangfu, where he recruited four assistants. He returned with them to Śrīvijaya on December 18, 689, and they remained there until 695, working on the translations. In Śrīvijaya, I Ching studied under the distinguished teacher Śākyakīrti, and wrote an account of Buddhist practices and a report regarding a group of Chinese monks who had traveled to India in search of Buddhism. Yijing sent these reports, together with his translations of Buddhist texts, to China with one of his assistants in 692. I-Ching also produced a detailed geographic account of his travels through India, through the East Indies islands and along the Malay Peninsula....

Accompanied by two assistants, I Ching returned to Guangfu in 694. In 695, he traveled to Luoyang, where he received a grand welcome from Empress Wu.
In 689 Chang Yueh became qualified for the public service, and soon afterwards he obtained an appointment at the court of the Empress Wu Hou. But he did not prove acceptable to that ambitious, cruel and vindictive sovereign, and in 703 he was sent away to the Ling-nan Tao (the modern Kuangtung).

-- On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629-645 A.D., by Thomas Watters M.R.A.S.

He lived at Foshouji Monastery and worked as an assistant translator in the bureau of translations headed by Siksananda. From 700 until his death, I Ching was in charge of his own bureau of translation of Buddhist canons at Luoyang and Chang'an. He translated fifty-six works in 230 fascicles, among them scriptures, commentaries, and Vinaya texts under the patronage of the empress and her successors, who provided forewords to I Ching's translations. Honors and rewards were bestowed upon him, and he was awarded the title "Master of the Tripiṭaka."

I Ching died on February 16, 713. He was buried with grand honors....

I Ching’s entire journey lasted 25 years. He brought back approximately 400 Buddhist translated texts. He translated more than 60 sutras into Chinese...

He also translated 11 Buddhist tantras and 18 works on monastic discipline, as well as exegetic works that are important not only for Chinese Buddhism but for the religion as a whole. His translation of the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya texts systematically preserved one of the most influential monastic traditions in India, and his translations of the Yogācāra texts and of Buddhist logic are quite significant.... His glossary, the Fanyu qianziwen (A Thousand Sanskrit Words), is the earliest extant Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary. Although the translations of his predecessor, Xuanzang [602 – 664], overshadow those of I Ching, a sample examination of both renderings of the Viṃśatikā (Liebenthal, 1934) concluded that Yijing was a better translator than Xuanzang.

I Ching praised the high level of Buddhist scholarship in Srivijaya and advised Chinese monks to study there prior to making the journey to Nalanda, India.
"In the fortified city of Bhoga, Buddhist priests number more than 1,000, whose minds are bent on learning and good practice. They investigate and study all the subjects that exist just as in India; the rules and ceremonies are not at all different. If a Chinese priest wishes to go to the West in order to hear and read the original scriptures, he had better stay here one or two years and practice the proper rules…."

I Ching's visits to Srivijaya gave him the opportunity to meet with others who had come from other neighboring islands.

Srivijaya was a Malay Buddhist thalassocratic [maritime] empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th to the 12th century AD. Srivijaya was the first unified kingdom to dominate much of the Malay Archipelago. The rise of the Srivijayan Empire was parallel to the end of the Malay sea-faring period. Due to its location, the Srivijaya developed complex technology utilizing maritime resources. In addition, its economy became progressively reliant on the booming trade in the region, thus transforming it into a prestige goods-based economy.

The earliest reference to it dates from the 7th century. A Tang dynasty Chinese monk, Yijing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in year 671 for six months.[???!!!] The earliest known inscription in which the name Srivijaya appears also dates from the 7th century in the Kedukan Bukit inscription found near Palembang, Sumatra, dated 16 June 682. Between the late 7th and early 11th century, Srivijaya rose to become a hegemon in Southeast Asia. It was involved in close interactions, often rivalries, with the neighbouring Mataram, Khmer and Champa. Srivijaya's main foreign interest was nurturing lucrative trade agreements with China which lasted from the Tang to the Song dynasty. Srivijaya had religious, cultural and trade links with the Buddhist Pala of Bengal, as well as with the Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East.

Before the 12th century, Srivijaya was primarily a land-based polity rather than a maritime power, fleets are available but acted as logistical support to facilitate the projection of land power. In response to the change in the maritime Asian economy, and threatened by the loss of its dependencies, Srivijaya developed a naval strategy to delay its decline. The naval strategy of Srivijaya was mainly punitive; this was done to coerce trading ships to be called to their port. Later, the naval strategy degenerated to raiding fleet.

The kingdom ceased to exist in the 13th century due to various factors, including the expansion of the competitor Javanese Singhasari and Majapahit empires. After Srivijaya fell, it was largely forgotten. It was not until 1918 that French historian George Cœdès, of l'École française d'Extrême-Orient, formally postulated its existence.[!!!]

-- Srivijaya, by Wikipedia

George Cœdès (10 August 1886 – 2 October 1969) was a 20th-century French scholar of southeast Asian archaeology and history.

Cœdès was born in Paris to a family of supposed Hungarian-Jewish émigrés. In fact, the family was known as having settled in the region of Strasbourg before 1740. His ancestors worked for the royal Treasury. His grandfather, Louis Eugène Cœdès was a painter, pupil of Léon Coignet. His father Hyppolite worked as a banker.

Cœdès became director of the National Library of Thailand in 1918, and in 1929 became director of L'École française d'Extrême-Orient [EFEO: French School of the Far East. Since 1907, the EFEO has been in charge of conservation work at the archeological site of Angkor.], where he remained until 1946.
Thereafter he lived in Paris until he died in 1969.

In 1935 he married Neang Yao.

He was also an editor of the Journal of the Siam Society during the 1920s.

He wrote two texts in the field, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (1968, 1975) (first published in 1948 as Les états hindouisés d'Indochine et d'Indonésie) and The Making of South East Asia (1966), as well as innumerable articles, in which he developed the concept of the Indianized kingdom. Perhaps his greatest lasting scholarly accomplishment was his work on Sanskrit and Old Khmer inscriptions from Cambodia. In addition to scores of articles (especially in the Bulletin of the École française d'Extrême-Orient), his 8-volume work Inscriptions du Cambodge (1937-1966) contains editions and translations of over a thousand inscriptions from pre-Angkorian and Angkor-era monuments, and stands as Cœdès' magnum opus. One stele, the recently rediscovered K-127, contains an inscription of what has been dubbed the "Khmer Zero", the first known use of zero in the modern number system. The transliteration system that he devised for Thai (and Khmer) is used by specialists of Thai and other writing systems derived from that of Khmer.

George Cœdès is credited with rediscovering the former kingdom of Srivijaya, centred on the modern-day Indonesian city of Palembang, but with influence extending from Sumatra through to the Malay Peninsula and Java.

-- George Cœdès, by Wikipedia

According to him, the Javanese kingdom of Ho-ling was due east of the city of Bhoga at a distance that could be covered in a sea journey of four or five days. He also wrote that Buddhism was flourishing throughout the islands of Southeast Asia. "Many of the kings and chieftains in the islands of the Southern Sea admire and believe in Buddhism, and their hearts are set on accumulating good actions."

-- I Ching (monk), by New World Encyclopedia

The Pala emperors held east India from the eighth to the twelfth century AD and were noted for their patronage of Mahayana Buddhism. At the same time they established monasteries at Vikramasila and Odantapuri in Bihar.19 It was even stated by Taranatha that the head of the Vikramasila monastery had control over Nalanda. Still, there are ample epigraphic and literary evidences to show that the Palas continued to be liberal in their munificence to Nalanda.

Mention may here be made of some famous scholars who, by their deep learning and excellence in conduct, created and maintained the dignity which Nalanda enjoyed. It has been already stated above that the early Mahayana philosophers, Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Asanga and Vasubandhu, were all, according to Taranatha, the high priests (pandita) of Nalanda. Next in point of chronology comes Dinnaga, the founder of the medieval school of logic; he was a southerner who was invited to Nalanda to defeat in disputation a Brahmanist scholar and received the title tarkapungava. The next famous pandita was Dharma Pala, who had retired just before Hiuen-Tsang arrived. At the time of the pilgrim the head of the monastery was Silabhadra, under whom the pilgrim studied and whose scholarship and personal qualities he described eloquently. Silabhadra was probably succeeded by Dharmakirti, who is credited by Taranatha to have defeated a Brahmanical philosopher, Kumarila.

The next important figure was Santarakshita, who was invited by King Khri-sron-deu-tsan to Tibet, where he lived for many years till his death in 762. About the same time Tibet was also visited by Padmasambhava, who acquired great fame as the founder of the institution of Lamaism in Tibet. It was no mean honour for Nalanda that one of its scholars gave to the Tibetan religion a form that is continuing to the present day.

Thus, Nalanda succeeded in attracting the best Buddhist scholars whose fame spread to distant countries and persisted through the ages. Rightly has it been said that ‘a detailed history of Nalanda would be a history of Mahayanist Buddhism’.20

It is evident from the account of Hiuen-Tsang that Buddhism was slowly decaying when he visited India. Important centres of early Buddhism were deserted, though some new centres, such as Nalanda in the east, Valabhi in the west and Kanchi in the south, had sprung up.[???] After some time Buddhism lost its hold in other provinces and flourished only in Bihar and Bengal, where royal patronage succeeded in keeping alive a dying cause. But it is clear that Buddhism was no longer popular and centred round a few monasteries. The Buddhism that was practised at these places was no longer of the simple Hinayana type, nor even had much in common with the Mahayana of the earlier days, but was strongly inbued with the ideas of Tantricism, inculcating belief in the efficacy of charms and spells and involving secret practices and rituals.

The crusade of the Brahmanical philosophers and preachers such as Kumarila and Sankara-charya in the eighth century must have been another potent factor in rendering Buddhism unpopular. They are reported to have travelled all over India, defeating the Buddhists in arguments and retionale.

On the other hand it has been propagated that Muslim invaders drove away the monks and damaged the monasteries, but it does not stand correct in the light of scrutiny of the facts. The whole story of Muslim invasion has been woven on the basis of “Tabaqat-i-Nasiri” of Minhaj-i-Siraj, without going through the text honestly. The text reads as follows: “Bakhtiyar Khalji organised an attack upon the fortified city of Bihar and he advanced to the gateway of the fortress with two hundred horsemen in defensive armour and suddenly attacked the place. Muhammad-i-Bakhtiyar Khalji, by the force of his intrepidity, threw himself into the postern of the gateway of the palace, and they captured the fortress and acquired great booty (Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, tr. H.G. Raverty, Calcutta, 1881, pp. 552) The greater number of inhabitants of that place were Brahmans, and the whole of those Brahmans had their heads shaven; and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there; and, when all these books came under the observation of the Musalmans, they summoned a number of Hindus that they might give them information regarding the import of those books; but the whole of the Hindus were killed. On becoming acquainted with the contents of the books, it was found that the whole of that fortress and the city was a college called Vihara.

The above account mentions the fortress or Vihara as the target of Bakhtiyar’s attack. The fortified monastery which Bakhtiyar captured was known as “Audand Vihara” or “Odanda-pura—Vihara” (Odantapuri in Biharshariff, then known simply as Vihara). He did not go to Nalanda from Biharshariff, rather he moved Nadia in Bengal through the hills and jungles of the Jharkhand region, which is attested to by an inscription of 1295 AD. So, destruction and burning of the university of Nalanda by Bakhtiyar Khalji is based on concoction and imagination. It is clear from the above mentioned facts that Bhaktiyar Khalji invaded and conquered parts of Bihar and destroyed the Mahavihara in the region,22 but he did not move towards Nalanda from Biharshariff; so, the question of destruction and burning of Nalanda Mahavihara does not arise. (The above facts in detail are from Professor D.N. Jha’s account in sacw.net of July 9, 2014.)

Two Tibetan traditions tell a tale of destruction of Nalanda Mahavihara by Tirthika’s fire. History of Buddhism in India by Lama Tara Nath [Taranatha] (17th century AD) and Pag-Sam-Jon-Zang by Sumpa Khan (18th century AD) narrate the event of destruction almost in the same manner.[!!!] Both the narratives agree that “during the consecration of the temple built by Kakutsiddha at Nalanda, the young naughty Sarmanas threw slops at the two tirthika beggars and kept them pressed inside door panels and set ferocious dogs on them.” Angered by this, one of them went on arranging for their livelihood and the other sat in a deep pit and “engaged himself in Suryasadhana (solar worship), first for nine years and then for three more years and having thus ‘acquired mantrasiddhi’ he performed a sacrifice and scattered the charmed ashes all around”, which immediately resulted in a fire, that consumed all the eighty-four temples and the scriptures some of which, however, were saved by water flowing from an upper floor of the nine-storey Ratnodadhi temple.23 (Professor D.N. Jha’s account, op. cit.) The above facts indicate that there was longstanding antagonism between Brahmins and Buddhists which resulted in destruction of Nalanda by fire.

Destruction by fire is confirmed by excavations also. While excavating the sites the excavators are frequently seen commenting that the particular monastery was probably destroyed by fire; but they do not state the probable causes of such fires. We have nowhere any evidence to suggest that the fires were caused by outside agencies or in the course of any political catastrophe except for a solitary instance as quoted in a Tibetan source alleging that the Brahmins deliberately set fire to the famous library.

One inscription of about 1003 AD, found at the temple site no. 12, actually refers to such destruction by fire and something saved from it and a grant made by one Baladitya of Telhada near Nalanda. It does not, however, say how the fire was caused. Unfortunately, the inscription does not refer to what was actually destroyed, whether it was the temple itself in the ruins of which it was found or a monastery nearby. The record is on a piece of a stone door-jamb. It does not mention Nalanda by name. It has been presumed that it refers to the restoration of the temple. From the list of inscriptions from Nalanda it may also be observed that this is the last datable inscription so far known to us and found at Nalanda.

It has been stated that the temple shows clear indications that it was restored during the declining day of Buddhism as inferred from its “plain exterior” and from traces of a protective compound wall seen around it. If Baladitya had really restored this temple, or had done a part of the work, as appears quite probable, the fact would be very significant for the history of Nalanda and its final end. It would give an impression that the end of Nalanda was fast approaching by the first decade of the 11th century AD.24 Unfortunately, the antiquities and finds from the excavations have not been closely studied and dated; though we can say that the above is the latest datable inscription so far known and recovered from the ruins. There is, therefore, reason to believe that Nalanda had met its final end some time in the 11th century AD, that is, more than hundred years before Bakhtiyar Khilji invaded Bihar in 1197 AD.[???]

_______________

References

1. In ancient literature both the forms Nalanda and Nalanda occur indiscriminately.

2. Hirananda Sastri in Proceedings of the Fifth Oriental Conference, I (Lahore, 1930).

3. B.C. Law, Geography of Early Buddhism (London, 1932).

4. Chattopadhyay, D.P., History of Buddhism in India, Calcutta.

5. [Saqmuel] S. Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World (London, 1906), II, p. 167. The derivation na-alam-da has been proposed, but it does not convey the sense that it is intended to.

6. Chattopadhyay, D.P., op. cit., pp. 65 ff.

7. Ibid., p. 68ff.

8. Ibid., p. 83.

9. Some scholars are in favour of a date earlier by a century.

10. Chattopadhyay, D.P., op. cit., p. 122.

11. For Hiuen-Tsang’s description of Nalanda, see [Samuel] Beal, op. cit., pp. 167ff. His biographer, Hwui Li, adds some interesting details: [Samuel] S. Beal, Life of Hiuen-Tsang (London, 1911), pp. 109ff.

12. Legge, Travels of Fa-hien (Oxford, 1886), p. 81.

13. Beal, Records, II, p. 118.

14. Beal, Life, p. 160.

15. Beal, Life, p. 177.

16. For a list, see Beal, Life, pp. XXVIIIff.

17. J. Takakusu, A Record of the Buddhist Religion (Oxford, 1896), pp. 65 and 154.

18. Takakusu, op. cit., pp. 167ff. It appears from his account that all the existing grammatical texts of the Paninian school, including the Ashtadhyayi itself, were taught to the students. It is strange that in spite of this the Buddhist texts in Sanskrit should have been written in incorrect language.

19. Ibid., p. 145.

20. Vikramasila was founded by Dharmapala (Chattopadhyay, D.P., op. cit., p. 217) and is generally identified with Patharghata in Bhalgalpur District, Bihar. Odantapuri or Uddandapura was erected near Nalanda by either Gopala or Devapala, ibid., pp. 204 and 206, and may be identified with modern Biharshariff in Nalanda District. Jagaddala was founded by Ramapala, one of the last kings of the dynasty, somewhere in North Bengal.

21. Chattopadhyay, D.P., op. cit., p. 2018.

22. Chattopadhyay, D.P., op. cit., p. 131ff.

23. The identification with the famous Brahmana mimamsaka Kumarila is at once suggested but does not seem to be very likely as Kumarila probably lived somewhat later.

24. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, IX (Edinburgh, 1917), s.v. Nalanda.

Professor O.P. Jaiswal is a Retired University Professor, Patna University.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

Postby admin » Fri Jun 10, 2022 1:25 am

XXII. Lunisolar Periods Composed of Whole Ages, Excerpt from "A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam"
Tome II
by Monsieur De La Loubere
Envoy Extraordinary from the French King, to the King of Siam, in the years 1687 and 1688. Wherein a full and curious Account is given of the Chinese Way of Arithmetick, and Mathematick Learning. In Two Tomes, Illustrated with Sculptures. Done out of French, by A.P. Gen. R.S.S.
1693

Tome II, p. 222

XXII. Lunisolar Periods Composed of Whole Ages

The first lunisolar period composed of whole Ages, is that of 600 years, which is also composed of 31 periods of 19, and one of 11 years. Though the Chronologists speak not of this period, yet it is one of the ancientest that have been invented.

Antiq. Jud. 1, I. C. 3.

Josephus, speaking of the Patriarchs that lived before the Deluge, says that God prolonged their Life, as well by reason of their Virtue, as to afford them means to perfect the Sciences of Geometry and Astronomy, which they had invented: which they could not possibly do, if they had lived less than 600 years, because that it is not till after the Revolution of six Ages, that the great year is accomplished.

This great year which is accomplished after six Ages, whereof not any other Author makes mention, can only be a period of lunisolar years, like to that which the Jews always used, and to that which the Indians do still make use of. Wherefore we have thought necessary to examine what this great year must be, according to the Indian Rules.

By the Rules of the I Section it is found then, that in 600 years there are 7200 solar months, 7421 lunar months and 21/23c.[?]. Here this little fraction must be neglected; because that the lunisolar years do end with the lunar months, being composed of intire lunar months.

It is found by the Rules of the II. Section, that 7421 lunar months do comprehend 219146 days, 11 hours, 57 minutes, 52 seconds: if therefore we compose this period of whole days, it must consist of 219146 days.

600 Gregorian years are alternatively of 219145 days, and 219146 days: they agree then to half a day with a lunisolar period of 600 years, calculated according to the Indian Rules.

The second lunisolar period composed of Ages, is that of 2300 years, which being joyned to one of 600, makes a more exact period of 2900 years: And two periods of 2300 years, joyned to a period of 600 years do make a lunisolar period of 5200 years, which is the Interval of the time which is reckoned according to Eusebius his Chronology, from the Creation of the World to the vulgar Epocha of the years of J. Christ.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

Postby admin » Fri Jun 10, 2022 1:56 am

XXIII. An Astronomical Epocha of the Years of Jesus Christ, Excerpt from "A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam"
Tome II
by Monsieur De La Loubere
Envoy Extraordinary from the French King, to the King of Siam, in the years 1687 and 1688. Wherein a full and curious Account is given of the Chinese Way of Arithmetick, and Mathematick Learning. In Two Tomes, Illustrated with Sculptures. Done out of French, by A.P. Gen. R.S.S.
1693

Tome II, p. 222-223

These lunisolar periods, and the two Epocha's of the indians, which we have examin'd, do point unto us, as with the finger, the admirable Epocha of the years of J. Christ, which is removed from the first of these two Indian Epocha's, a period of 600 years wanting a period of 19 years, and which precedes the second by a period of 600 years, and two of nineteen years. Thus the year of Jesus Christ (which is that of his Incarnation and Birth, according to the Tradition of the Church, and as Father Grandamy justifies it in his Christian Chronology, and Father Rieciolus[?] in his reformed Astronomy) is also an Astronomical Epocha, in which, according to the modern Tables, the middle conjunction of the Moon with the Sun happened the 24 of March, according to the Julian form re-established a little after by Augustus, at one a clock and a half in the morning at the Meridian of Jerusalem, the very day of the middle Equinox, a Wednesday, which is the day of the Creation of these two Planets.

De Trin. 1. 4. c. 5.

The day following, March 25th, which according to the ancient tradition of the Church reported by St. Augustine, was the day of our Lords Incarnation, was likewise the day of the first Phasis of the Moon; and consequently it was the first day of the month, according to the usage of the Hebrews, and the first day of the sacred year, which by the Divine Institution, must begin with the first month of the Spring, and the first day of a great year, the natural Epocha of which is the concourse of the middle Equinox, and of the middle Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun.

Eclog. 4.

This concourse terminates therefore the lunisolar periods of the preceding Ages, and was an Epocha from whence began a new order of Ages, according to the Oracle of the Sybil, related by Virgil in these words:

Magnus ab integro Seclorum nascitur ordo:
Jam nova progenies Coelo dimittitur alto.
[Google translate: A great order is born from the entire ages
Now a new generation is released on high heaven.]


Original Source of NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM: Motto at the Foundation of the Unfinished Pyramid on the Great Seal
by GreatSeal.com
Accessed: 6/9/22

The motto Novus Ordo Seclorum was coined by Charles Thomson in June 1782. He adapted it from a line in Virgil's Eclogue IV, a pastoral poem written by the famed Roman writer in the first century B.C. that expresses the longing for a new era of peace and happiness.

The original Latin in Virgil's Eclogue IV (line 5) is: "Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo."

For a better sense of its meaning, below are two translations (by James Rhoades and by C. S. Calverley) of the passage at the beginning of Virgil's poem which refers to the Sibyl who prophesied the fate of the Roman empire.

Now the last age by Cumae's Sibyl sung
Has come and gone, and the majestic roll
Of circling centuries begins anew:
Justice returns, returns old Saturn's reign,
With a new breed of men sent down from heaven.
Only do thou, at the boy's birth in whom
The iron shall cease, the golden age arise. . .

Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain
Of our old wickedness, once done away
Shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear.
He shall receive the life of gods, and see
Heroes with gods commingling, and himself
Be seen of them, and with his father's worth
Reign o'er a world at peace.

Come are those last days that the Sybil sang:
The ages' mighty march begins anew.
Now come the virgin, Saturn reigns again:
Now from high heaven descends a wondrous race.
Thou on the newborn babe – who first shall end
That age of iron, bid a golden dawn. . .

Thou, trampling out what prints our crimes have left,
Shalt free the nations from perpetual fear.
While he to bliss shall waken; with the Blest
See the Brave mingling, and be seen of them,
Ruling that world o'er which his father's arm shed peace.


That key phrase (bolded above) has also been translated as: a "great series or mighty order of ages is born anew."

Charles Thomson was a former Latin teacher, and Virgil was one of his favorite poets. Inspired by the above passage, he coined the motto: "Novus Ordo Seclorum" and placed it beneath the unfinished pyramid, where he explained it signifies "the beginning of the new American Æra," which commences from the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

An accurate translation of Novus Ordo Seclorum is: "A New Order of the Ages."

Virgil's The Georgics inspired Annuit Coeptis, the motto above the eye of Providence. Also, his epic masterpiece, Aeneid, describes an ancient symbol of peace held by the American Bald Eagle, the olive branch.


This Oracle seems to answer the Prophecy of Isaiah, Parv___ natus est nobis; c. 9. v. 6. 8c7[?], where this new-born is called God and Father of future Ages; Deus fortis, Pater futuri Saculi.

"Puer natus est nobis" (A boy is born for us) is a Gregorian chant, the introit for Christmas Day. Thomas Tallis wrote a Christmas mass on the chant.

The text of the antiphon is taken from Isaiah 9:6, while the psalm verse is verse 1 from Psalm 98, "Sing a new song to the Lord".

Puer natus est nobis,
et filius datus est nobis:
cuius imperium super humerum eius :
et vocabitur nomen eius, magni consilii angelus.
Cantate Domino canticum novum:
quia mirabilia fecit.

[Google translate: A child is born to us,
and a son is given to us
whose government is on his shoulder
and his name will be called the angel of great counsel.
Sing to the lord a new song:
because he did wonderful things.]

-- Puer natus est nobis, by Wikipedia


The Interpreters do remark in this Prophecy, as a thing mysterious, the extraordinary situation of a Mem final (which is the Numerical Character of 600) in this word [[x] Hebrew] ad multiplicandum [to multiply], where this Mem final is in the second place, there being no other example in the whole Text of the Holy Scripture, where ever a final Letter is placed only at the end of the words. This numerical Character of 600 in this situation might allude to the periods of 600 years of the Patriarchs, which were to terminate at the accomplishment of the Prophecy, which is the Epocha, from whence we do at present compute the years of Jesus Christ.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

Postby admin » Thu Jun 16, 2022 12:55 am

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
by Wikipedia
Accessed 6/15/22

Not to be confused with the Catholic Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

On June 20, 1712, Ziegenbalg wrote to the Society for promoting Christian knowledge in London that the mission schools were the "fruitful seed plots of the church" that would prepare scholars to serve the mission "as writers [i.e., clerks and accountants], school masters and catechists" (SPCK, ME Cr 1, page 114). In a letter to George Lewis, a chaplain of the English East India Company in Madras in 1713, Ziegenbalg and Grundler mentioned that the children growing in the "knowledge and fear of God, may, by the divine blessing become a means of planting a church of Christ, deeply rooted in the Word of truth" and contribute to "the future happy enlightenment of Christ's church in the east" (Ziegenbalg, A letter to the reverend Mr. George Lewis, 1715, 2 and 23). Hence, the schools were meant to be part of a "missional church." Ziegenbalg and his colleagues maintained a positive view on the nature and capabilities of the school children. On December 7, 1709, Grundler reported that the Indian school children were more industrious, hard-working, obedient and talented in learning than the European school children,37 [HR, 1, 4, Con., 179; in the mission library of the Franke foundation a copy of the Halle reports is available that belonged to Benjamin Schultze and bears the call no. "A:1, Teil 1." In the margin Schultz corrected Grundler's observation and wrote that mischievousness, wickedness, obstinacy and carelessness were found among those children in the Portuguese school in Tranquebar, who were used to wearing European clothes.] mainly because the school education was built on the interests, experiences and life situation of the Tamil children. Like the ancient Indian Gurukula-system of education, the teachers and their students lived together and imparted what they lived by. This made their learning experience easier. Moreover, they grew emotionally and intellectually stable so that they could achieve all-round development.

The medium of instruction in the schools was Tamil. On August 28, 1715 Grundler, after eight years of work among the Tamil people, affirmed that "everyone learns the principles of Christian religion and his mother tongue" (SPCK, ME Cr 2, Page 3).

-- Genealogy of the south Indian deities, by Daniel Jeyaraj, Professor of World Christianity [Christian propaganda]


2. Travancore. The most remarkable man among the first group of South Indian missionaries was Ringeltaube. He was a Prussian, and was born in 1770. He studied at Halle, and while there was so powerfully impressed by the life of John Newton, that he was led, like Newton, to seek the Lord with all his heart, and to be ready for any sacrifice at the Lord's call. He was ordained in 1796, and in the same year accepted an offer to go to Calcutta as an agent of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge....

From 1806 to 1810 Ringeltaube carried on an active evangelistic work in Tinnevelly, with Palamcottah as his centre, paying also frequent visits to Travancore. Tinnevelly at this time contained about 5,000 Christians, under the care of native agents supported by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Ringeltaube worked much at first among these people....

From 1815 to 1825 there was extraordinary activity and growth in missionary enterprise in and around Calcutta. The Serampore Mission was in full work, the Church Missionary Society, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Baptist and the London Societies were all most energetic. Many auxiliary Societies were initiated, and when Mr. Tyerman and Mr. Bennet visited Calcutta in 1826, they say in their report: 'By the concurrent testimony of all ranks and parties, the change for the better in India within twenty-five years has been surprisingly great in both the manners and practices of natives and Europeans. Irreligious persons acknowledge the change, and confess it has been a good thing to have such an increase of ministers and churches in Bengal and the North-West....

The Madras Mission. Madras, like the other great Indian cities, and especially the great ports, has always been a difficult centre for Christian work. Yet many of the great Societies have felt it imperative to maintain there a staff of workers, and have devoted much time and money to Christian service. Here, as in the case of Calcutta, it would be a pleasant task to indicate the good work which has been carried on there throughout the century by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan, and many other Societies, and also to indicate the great and beneficial results achieved by the two great educational institutions under the care respectively of the Free and Established Churches of Scotland. But we can deal only with the work of the London Missionary Society....

Two remarkable men were at this time connected with the Madras Mission, but each only for a short period. John Bilderbeck, after being received into the Church at Black Town by Mr. Smith, after visiting England in 1831, was ordained and appointed to Madras. He laboured there during 1832 and 1833, and in the latter year removed to Chiltoon. In 1841 he resigned, and later on joined the Church Missionary Society. Robert Caldwell, B. A., was appointed to Madras in 1837, and from 1838 to 1841 was active in the work of the mission. In 1841 he joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and for the next fifty years was famous among the great Indian missionaries of that Society. In 1877 he became Bishop of Tinnevelly, and he died at the Pulney Hills, South India, in August, 1891....

COMBACONUM AND CHITTOOR. — Combaconum is a town situated on the south of Madras about twenty miles north-east of Tanjore. Its population is about 40,000. In 1825 Mr. Mead, leaving Travancore in consequence of ill health, commenced a mission there with the assistance of six native readers, and at once entered on evangelistic work in the town and neighbourhood, and by degrees opened schools. The Directors of the Society for a time deferred giving their approval of the occupation of this town as a permanent station, probably on account of its proximity to Tanjore, an old and important centre of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel....

In June, 1835, Mr. Crisp left Combaconum to proceed to Madras to take the place of a member of that mission whose health had failed. Mr. Nimmo was thus left in sole charge of the work, and in March, 1837, was ordained and placed on the list of the Society's missionaries. From this time until the close of 1851 he conducted the work with much efficiency, his long experience and his intimate acquaintance with the people and their customs well qualifying him to meet the various demands of the position. But in January, 1852, by the decision of the Directors, the station and district was handed over to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a step rendered advisable by the near neighbourhood of Combaconum to Tanjore. Mr. Nimmo therefore removed and took up work at Tripassore....

In the year 1842 Mr. Howell left the mission and joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. After his departure the work was left in the charge of a native catechist, but was superintended by missionaries at Bellary and Madras.


-- The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

SPCK has worked overseas since its foundation. The initial focus was the British colonies in the Americas. Libraries were established for the use of clergy and their parishioners, and books were frequently shipped across the Atlantic by sail throughout the 18th century. By 1709, SPCK was spreading further afield: a printing press and trained printer were sent to Tranquebar in East India to assist in the production of the first translation of the Bible into Tamil. This was accomplished by the German Lutheran missionaries Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pluetschau from the Danish-Halle Mission.

-- Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, by Wikipedia

Hinduism. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1877, by Sir Monier Monier-Williams KCIE

-- Monier Monier-Williams, by Wikipedia


Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
Abbreviation: SPCK
Formation: 1698
Founder: Thomas Bray
Type: Church of England; Christian media; Christian charity; Christian mission
Headquarters: 36 Causton Street, London, SW1P 4ST, United Kingdom
Website: spckpublishing.co.uk

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity (registered number 231144). Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and across the world.

The SPCK is the oldest Anglican mission organisation in the world, though it is now more ecumenical in outlook and publishes books for a wide range of Christian denominations. It is currently the leading publisher of Christian books in the United Kingdom[1] and the third oldest independent publisher in the UK.

The SPCK has a vision of a world in which everyone is transformed by Christian knowledge. Its mission is to lead the way in creating books and resources that help everyone to make sense of faith.

History

Foundation


On 8 March 1698, Rev. Thomas Bray met a small group of friends, including Sir Humphrey Mackworth, Colonel Maynard Colchester, Lord Guilford and John Hooke at Lincoln's Inn. These men were concerned by what they saw as the "growth in vice and immorality" in Britain at the time[2] which was owing to the "gross ignorance of the principles of the Christian religion".[3] They were also committed to promoting "religion and learning in the plantations abroad".[3]

They resolved to meet on a regular basis to devise strategies on how they could increase knowledge of Anglican Christianity. They decided that these aims could best be achieved by publishing and distributing Christian literature and encouraging Christian education at all levels.

These foundational aims and methods continue to direct the activities of the SPCK today.

Priorities to help lowly people to be good Christian people and learn the faith

Education


Unsurprisingly, education has always been a core part of SPCK's mission. One of the key priorities for Bray and his friends was to build libraries in market towns. In its first two hundred years, the Society founded many charity schools for poor children in the seven to 11 age group. It is from these schools that the modern concept of primary and secondary education has grown. Evidence of the SPCK's impact on British education can still be seen in the many Church of England primary schools today. The Society also provided teacher training.[4]

Evangelism overseas

SPCK has worked overseas since its foundation. The initial focus was the British colonies in the Americas. Libraries were established for the use of clergy and their parishioners, and books were frequently shipped across the Atlantic by sail throughout the 18th century. By 1709, SPCK was spreading further afield: a printing press and trained printer were sent to Tranquebar in East India to assist in the production of the first translation of the Bible into Tamil. This was accomplished by the German Lutheran missionaries Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pluetschau from the Danish-Halle Mission. For its time, this was a remarkably far-sighted example of ecumenical co-operation. The SPCK has continued to work closely with churches of many different denominations, whilst retaining a special relationship with churches within the Anglican Communion.

As the British Empire grew in the 19th century, so SPCK developed an important role in supporting the planting of new churches around the world. Funds were provided for church buildings, for schools, for theological training colleges, and to provide chaplains for the ships taking emigrants to their new homes. While the SPCK supported the logistics of church planting and provided resources for theological learning, by the 19th century it did not often send missionaries overseas. Instead, this sort of work had passed to other organisations, such as its sister society the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG), which was also founded by Bray.

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL

More commonly known as the SPG. This society (full title, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts) was founded under royal English charter in June 1701 as the official overseas missionary body of the Church of England. Its leading promoter was Rev. Thomas Bray (1656–1730), also one of the founders of the society for promoting christian knowledge (SPCK), who had been Ecclesiastical Commissary for Maryland in 1699–1700. The impulse for the SPG's organization came from a belated but nonetheless fervent Anglican recognition of the need to carry the Christian Gospel beyond England. In this sense it was a part of the great worldwide Christian revolution, which eventuated in the emergence of Christianity as a genuine universal faith during the following 200 years. According to the terms of its charter the SPG was incorporated for the purposes of (1) "providing a maintenance for an orthodox Clergy in the plantations, colonies, and factories of Great Britain beyond the seas, for the instruction of the King's loving subjects in the Christian religion"; (2) "making such other provisions as may be necessary for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts;" and (3) "receiving, managing, and disposing of the charity of His Majesty's subjects for those purposes." During most of the 18th century the Society's activities were confined to the British colonies of North America where it was active not only among European colonists but undertook the conversion of Black slaves and Native Americans. Prevented by the terms of its charter from continuing in the United States after the American Revolution, the SPG shifted its activity, first, to Canada and, after 1823, to non-Christian regions of Asia and Africa. On the whole, the SPG tended to develop the community type of mission and usually carried on its activities under the direct superintendence of the diocesan bishop in the mission field. Its close identification with Anglo-Catholicism during much of its history and the founding by the Anglican evangelicals of the Church Missionary Society in 1799 somewhat limited the Society's activities. Nevertheless, during the course of the 19th century it spread extensively into South Africa (1821), Bengal and South India (1823), Borneo (1848), Pacific Islands (1862), North China (1863), Japan (1873), Korea (1899), Manchuria (1892), and Siam (1903). Its greatest mission successes were won in India where it still has great influence. The 20th century has witnessed some diminution of the Society's activities as the former holdings of the British Empire have contracted. Even so, it continues to play an active and effective role as a mission agency in the British Commonwealth.

Bibliography: h. p. thompson, Into All Lands (London 1951). c. f. pascoe, Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G., 1701–1900 (London 1901). r. p. s. waddy, "250 Years of Patrologia Graeca," International Review of Mission 40 (1951) 331–336. b. c. roberts, "SPG: How It Works," Church Quarterly Review 157 (1956) 136–143. w. a. bultmann and p. w. bultmann, "The Roots of Anglican Humanitarianism: A Study of the Membership of the SPCK and the SPG, 1699-1720," Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 33 (Mar 1964) 3–48. g. j. goodwin, "Christianity, Civilization and the Savage: The Anglican Mission to the American Indian," Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 42 (June 1973) 93–110. m. a. c. warren, "The Missionary Expansion of Ecclesia Anglicana," in New Testament Christianity for Africa and the World (London 1974) 124–140. b. hough, "Archives of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 46 (1977) 309-322. r. h. s. boyd, "The Patrologia Graeca in Ahmedabad: 1830–1851," Indian Church History Review 12 (June 1978) 54–66. a. k. davidson, "Colonial Christianity: The Contribution of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to the Anglican Church in New Zealand 1840–1880," Journal of Religious History 16 (Dec. 1990) 173–184.

-- The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, by Encyclopedia.com


In Ireland, the APCK was founded in 1792 to work alongside the Church of Ireland; in south India the Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was established to support the Anglican missions in that region and is affiliated with SPCK.[5]

During the twentieth century, SPCK's overseas mission concentrated on providing free study literature for those in a number of ministerial training colleges around the world, especially in Africa. The International Study Guide series was provided, free of charge, to theological training colleges across the world. They can still be purchased from the SPCK website,[6] although the focus of SPCK's worldwide mission is now on developing the African Theological Network Press.

Supporting the Church of England

From the late 1800s to the early 20th century, SPCK ran a Training College for Lay Workers on Commercial Road in Stepney Green, London.[7] This was set up to provide a theological education for working-class men, with the aim of better helping clergy to conduct services. It was also anticipated that with a firmer understanding of the Bible, theology and the values of the Anglican church, these men might be able to instruct their own communities. The college was still handing out medals to graduates in 1908.

Throughout the 20th century, the SPCK offered support to ordinands in the Anglican church. These were men in training to become priests in the Church of England, who had fallen upon hard times and may have otherwise been unable to continue their studies. Today, this support continues through the Richards Trust[8] and the Ordinands Library app.[9]

Supporting the vulnerable

SPCK was involved in tackling a number of social and political issues of the time.[2] It actively campaigned for penal reform, provided for the widows and children of clergy who died whilst overseas and provided basic education for slaves in the Caribbean.

Distribution and bookshops

SPCK's early publications were distributed through a network of supporters who received books and tracts to sell or give away in their own localities. Large quantities of Christian literature were provided for the Navy, and the Society actively encouraged the formation of parish libraries, to help both clergy and laity. By the 19th century, members had organized local district committees, many of which established small book depots — which at one time numbered over four hundred. These were overseen by central committees such as the Committee of General Literature and Education. In 1899, the addresses of their "depositories" in London were given as Northumberland Avenue, W.C.; Charing Cross, W.C. and 43 Queen Victoria Street, E.C..[10] Six years later, in edition 331, the depository was closed at Charing Cross, but a new one added in Brighton: 129, North Street.

In the 1930s, a centrally coordinated network of SPCK Bookshops was established, offering a wide range of books from many different publishers. At its peak, the SPCK bookshop chain consisted of 40 shops in the UK and 20 overseas. The latter were gradually passed into local ownership during the 1960s and 1970s.

Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone, Westminster, London is a former Anglican church, built in 1828 by Sir John Soane. By the 1930s, it had fallen into disuse and in 1936 was used by the newly founded Penguin Books company to store books. A children's slide was used to deliver books from the street into the large crypt. In 1937, Penguin moved out to Harmondsworth, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge moved in. It was their headquarters until 2004, when it moved to London Diocesan House in Causton Street, Pimlico. The bookshop moved to Tufton Street, Westminster, in 2003.

On 1 November 2006, St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust (SSG) took over the bookshops but continued to trade under the SPCK name, under licence from SPCK. That licence was withdrawn in October 2007. However, some shops continued trading as SPCK Bookshops without licence until the SSG operation was closed down in 2009.

Publishing

Thomas Bray believed passionately in the power of the printed word. From its earliest days, the SPCK commissioned tracts and pamphlets, making it the third-oldest publishing house in England. (Only the Oxford and Cambridge University Presses have existed longer.) Early member George Sale's translated AlKoran was published in the 1730s and was praised by Voltaire.

Throughout the 18th century, SPCK was by far the largest producer of Christian literature in Britain. The range of its output was considerable — from pamphlets aimed at specific groups such as farmers, prisoners, soldiers, seamen, servants and slave-owners, to more general works on subjects such as baptism, confirmation, Holy Communion, the Prayer Book, and private devotion. Increasingly, more substantial books were also published, both on Christian subjects and, from the 1830s, on general educational topics as well.

Now, the SPCK's publishing team produces around 80 titles per year, for audiences from a wide range of Christian traditions and none. The SPCK publishes under three main imprints:

SPCK

SPCK Publishing is a market leader in the areas of theology and Christian spirituality.[11] At present, key authors for SPCK include the Anglican New Testament scholar N. T. Wright, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Paula Gooder and Alister McGrath. Recent additions to SPCK's list include Guvna B, and Ben Cooley, founder of Hope for Justice.

SPCK is also increasingly gaining recognition in the secular space in genres such as history and leadership. SPCK represent authors such as Terry Waite, Melvyn Bragg and Janina Ramirez.

IVP

SPCK merged with Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) in 2015.[12] IVP maintains its own board of trustees and editorial board. Key authors for IVP include John Stott, Don Carson, Amy Orr-Ewing and Emma Scrivener.

Lion Hudson

SPCK purchased Lion Hudson in 2021.[13]

Marylebone House

In 2014, SPCK launched its fiction imprint, Marylebone House,[14] which publishes a range of contemporary and historical fiction, short stories and clerical crime mysteries,[11] with Christian characters and Christian themes.

Assemblies website

As the state increasingly took control of providing primary education throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the SPCK looked for new ways in which it could promote Christian knowledge amongst the youth of Britain.

In 1999, the SPCK created the assemblies website. Schools in England and Wales are legally obliged to provide daily collective worship for all of their pupils and this should be of a broadly Christian nature.[15] The aim of the assemblies website is to provide teachers with easy access to free resources, empowering them to deliver high-quality assemblies that make their pupils explore faith and their own beliefs.

Since it was created, the assemblies website has become a web community, on which experienced teachers and youth leaders can share their ideas, assembly scripts and tips and tricks for delivering engaging assemblies.[16]

There are now over 1500 assembly scripts on the website and these are added to every month. Each month, SPCK commissions 16 new assemblies; 8 for primary schools and 8 for secondary schools. In addition to these, 'rapid response' assemblies may be added within 24 hours of momentous world events.[17] Many assemblies focus on Christian themes, but many simply address pastoral issues that come up time and time again within schools. The Festivals of World Religions section also encourages awareness of other religions and enables teachers to celebrate children of other faiths.[18]

Every month, the assemblies website attracts over 50,000 unique visitors and the most popular assemblies are viewed over 10,000 times.[17]

In 2018, the SPCK also redeveloped its Welsh language offering. There is now a bank of 600 Welsh language assembly scripts that can be easily accessed, viewed and used within Welsh language schools.

Diffusion Prison Fiction

SPCK also owns the imprint Diffusion, which has published 12 titles which were especially commissioned for adults who struggle to read. These titles are divided into two series, "Star" and "Diamond". Star books are written for adults who are new to reading and need to improve their very basic skills, while the Diamond series is more appropriate for learners who want to develop their reading confidence further.[19] All of the books are written with engaging plots, suitable for adults, but in a style and typeface that is accessible to people with very basic literacy skills.

SPCK provides these books for free to prisons including to individual prisoners, prison libraries and prison reading groups. This is done with the aim of addressing two major causes of re-offending: lack of employment on release and lack of support from family and friends. At the end of each chapter, the Diffusion books contain questions which can be discussed in a reading group, thereby developing verbal communication and social skills. These questions focus on developing empathy by asking questions like "what would it feel like to be in that character's position?" and encourage self-reflection by asking "how does this example apply to my own life?". Each book fosters a sense of personal responsibility, and demonstrates that every action has consequences.[20]

In these ways, the Diffusion prison fiction programme not only develops hard skills, such as literacy, but also soft skills such as the ability to develop positive personal relationships with others.[19]

By the end of 2018, the SPCK had sent Diffusion books to 70% of prisons in the UK. In 2018 alone, it sent out over 6,500 books.

It is now looking at ways of expanding the programme to reach more vulnerable adults, including refugees and the homeless.

The African Theological Network Press

Together with the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture, the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa and Missio Africanus, the SPCK has founded the African Theological Network Press (the ATNP).

The aim of the ATNP is to be "an ecumenical press serving the church in Africa and the Diaspora through affordable, high-quality, scholarly publications accessible on the continent and globally"[21] The ATNP is a centralised commissioning and editorial unit, based in Nairobi. The material will be distributed across Africa to be printed locally. In this way, the ATNP will overcome the problems of localised publishing, which has the unfortunate consequence that books rarely make it outside the country in which they are published.

The ATNP will also address the dependence of African theological study and teaching on publications from the global North. Too often, African theology is published in the global North and never returned to Africa, or if it is, it is returned at prices that few African Christians can afford.[22]

The ATNP will publish theology, written by Africans on topics that matter to African Christians.

The SPCK has always been actively engaged in worldwide mission, but this innovative approach reflects the extraordinary growth of Christianity in Africa. No longer is mission an asymmetrical process of giving and receiving, but a mutually beneficial experience. There is much that Christians in the UK can learn from the joyful expression of African Christianity. The SPCK hopes that, by supporting the sustainable development of the ATNP, it will "unlock the treasure trove of African Christian thought for Africa and the whole world".[22]

Prominent members

• James Catford, chair of trustees
• Sam Richardson, CEO
• Bishop John Pritchard, former chair of trustees

SSPCK in Scotland

The Scottish sister society,[23] the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), was formed by royal charter in 1709[23] as a separate organisation with the purpose of founding schools "where religion and virtue might be taught to young and old" in the Scottish Highlands and other "uncivilised" areas of the country. It was intended to counter the threat of Catholic missionaries achieving "a serious landslide to Rome" and of growing Highland Jacobitism.[24] Its schools were a valuable addition to the Church of Scotland programme of education in Scotland, which was based on a tax on landowners to provide a school in every parish. Some — but by no means all — Society schoolmasters were inferior in comparison to burgh and parish schools, however, "particularly in [their] acquaintance with the Evangelical System" rather than more pragmatic literacy, numeracy and teaching ability.[25] The SSPCK had five schools by 1711, 25 by 1715, 176 by 1758 and 189 by 1808, by then with 13,000 pupils attending.[26]

At first, the SSPCK avoided using the Gaelic language, with the result that pupils ended up learning by rote without understanding what they were reading.[27] SSPCK rules from 1720 required the teaching of literacy and numeracy "but not any Latin or Irish"[23] (then a common term for Gaelic on both sides of the Irish Sea), and the Society boasted "that barbarity and the Irish language ... are almost rooted out" by their teaching.[28] In 1753, an act of the Society forbade students "either in the schoolhouse or when playing about the doors thereof to speak Erse, under pain of being chastised".[25]

In 1741, the SSPCK introduced a Gaelic–English vocabulary, then, in 1767, introduced a New Testament designed with facing pages of Gaelic and English texts for both languages to be read alongside one another,[29] with more success. In 1766, it allowed its Highland schools to use Gaelic alongside English as languages of instruction.[25] In 1790, a Society preacher still insisted that English monolingualism was a Society goal[30] and a decade later Society schools continued to use corporal punishment against students speaking Gaelic.[23] In the early 19th century, the Society activity declined. Its educational work was taken over by the Gaelic Societies of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

See also

Notes


1. "IPG Independent Publishing Awards". Retrieved 24 August 2017.
2. Collins, Sian (16 March 2017). "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK)". Cambridge University Library. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
3. SPCK: Past & Present. London: SPCK. 1994.
4. "Schooling before the 19th Century". Living Heritage. UK Parliament. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
5. "About". Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
6. "Search results for: 'ISG'". SPCK Publishing. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
7. "A Very Brief History of SPCK's Charitable Work". SPCK Publishing. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
8. "Grants". SPCK Publishing. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
9. "Ordinand Library". Sons and Friends. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
10. "The Dawn of Day", 256th edition
11. "About SPCK". SPCK Publishing. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
12. "SPCK moves to secure future of IVP". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
13. "SPCK buys Lion Hudson's publishing business". The Bookseller.
14. "Home page". Marylebone House. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
15. "Religious Education and Collective Worship" (PDF). Department for Education. 31 January 1994.
16. "SPCK Assemblies - About". Assemblies. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
17. "School Assemblies". SPCK Publishing. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
18. "School Assemblies - Primary". Assemblies. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
19. "Diffusion Books". SPCK Publishing. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
20. "What We Do | Improving Literacy". Diffusion Books. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
21. "Mission and Vision". Retrieved 8 March 2019.
22. "African Theological Network Press - ATNP". SPCK Publishing. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
23. Tanner, Marcus (2004). The Last of the Celts. Yale University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0-300-10464-2.
24. Porter, Andrew (2004). Religion Versus Empire?: British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700–1914. Manchester University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780719028236.
25. Mason, John (1954). "Scottish Charity Schools of the Eighteenth Century". Scottish Historical Review. 33 (115): 1–13. JSTOR 25526234.
26. Hechter, Michael (1977). Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, 1536–1966. pp. 113ff. ISBN 9780520035126.
27. Anthony W. Parker (2010). Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735–1748. University of Georgia Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780820327181.
28. "Our Gaelic Bible". The Celtic Magazine. Edinburgh. 4: 43. 1879. Cited in Tanner (2004).
29. MacKinnon, Kenneth (1991). Gaelic: A past and future prospect. Saltire Society. p. 56.
30. Macinnes, J (1951). The Evangelical Movement in the Highlands of Scotland, 1688 to 1800. Aberdeen. p. 244. Cited in Tanner (2004).

Further reading

Books


• Allen, William Osborne Bird & McClure, Edmund (1898) Two Hundred Years: the History of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1698–1898 online
• Clarke, W. K. Lowther (1959) A History of the SPCK. London: SPCK
• Smout, T. C. (1985), A History of the Scottish People, Fontana Press, ISBN 0-00-686027-3

Articles

• Grigg, John A., "'How This Shall Be Brought About': The Development of the SSPCK's American Policy," Itinerario (Leiden), 32 (no. 3, 2008), 43–60.
• Nishikawa, Sugiko. "The SPCK in defence of protestant minorities in Early Eighteenth-Century Europe." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 56.04 (2005): 730–748.
• Simon, Joan. "From charity school to workhouse in the 1720s: The SPCK and Mr Marriott's solution." History of education 17#2 (1988): 113–129.
• Threinen, Norman J. (1988) Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen (1694–1776). German Lutheran Pietist in the English court. In: Lutheran Theological Review 12, pp. 56–94.
• Withrington, D. J. "The SPCK and Highland Schools in Mid-Eighteenth Century." Scottish Historical Review 41.132 (1962): 89–99. in JSTOR

Journals

• Theology
• Readings In Indian Christian Theology

External links

Websites

• SPCK Publishing, official website for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
• The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge/USA official website
• Education and Anglicisation: The Policy of the SSPCK toward the education of The Highlander, 1709–1825 by Charles W. J. Withers
• SPCK SSG: News, Notes & Info
• Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge official website of the SSPCK
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

Postby admin » Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:23 pm

Chapter III: Pioneer Work in South India: 1804-1820, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895
by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
In Two Volumes, Volume II
1899

-- The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett, 1851-1904

-- London Missionary Society, by Wikipedia

-- Chapter I: India in 1795, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

-- Chapter II: Nathaniel Forsyth and Robert May, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

-- Chapter III: Pioneer Work in South India: 1804-1820, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

-- Chapter IV: Pioneer Work in North India, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

-- Chapter V: South Indian Missions: 1820-1895, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]


CHAPTER III: PIONEER WORK IN SOUTH INDIA: 1804-1820

From 1798 to 1803 the needs of India were before the minds of the Directors, and occupied a large share of their attention; but it was not until 1804 that they were able to send out the first company of missionaries. The conditions under which they were sent and the quality of the workers are quaintly set forth in the Report for 1804: —

'The Rev. Mr. Vos superintends the mission designed for Ceylon. His long standing in the Christian ministry, his faithful and successful labours therein, both at Holland and the Cape of Good Hope, added to the experience which he has acquired by his previous intercourse with the ignorant and uncivilized part of mankind, point him out as a person remarkably qualified to fill this station. He is accompanied by the Brethren Ehrhardt and Palm, natives of Germany, who received their education for missionary services at the seminary at Berlin, which was instituted chiefly, if not solely, for this object, and is under the care, as before mentioned, of that valuable instructor, the Rev. Mr. Jaenicke. They have also passed a considerable time in Holland, with a view of acquiring a more perfect acquaintance with the Dutch language, which is used in Ceylon. Mrs. Vos and Mrs. Palm have also an important service to occupy their zeal, in the instruction of the female natives, and in assisting in the education of children.

'Those who are designed to labour on the continent of India are the Rev. Messrs. Ringeltaube, Des Granges, and Cran. The first is a native of Prussia, who has already passed a short time in India, and has since held his principal intercourse with the Society of the United Brethren. The other missionaries have been about two years in the seminary at Gosport; and the whole have been ordained to the office of the Christian ministry, and recommended to the grace of God in the discharge of the arduous and important service to which they are called.

'It has been observed that some of our brethren are intended for the island of Ceylon, this being the station on which the attention of the Society, and of the Directors, is more especially fixed, and where, we trust, they will actually labour: yet, in the first instance, they are to accompany their brethren to Tranquebar, where they will obtain such accurate and comprehensive information as will greatly assist them in forming their future plans; and where they will find some Christian friends, who will promote their introduction, were not this rendered almost unnecessary by the kindness of one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state, who has furnished them with a letter to his excellency Frederick North, the governor of the colony. The Directors have also fixed in their own minds a particular station for the labours of the brethren who are to remain on the Continent, and in which a very extensive field appears ripe for the harvest; this they have more particularly pointed out in their instructions, leaving, however, the ultimate decision to themselves, under the intimations of Divine providence, and the advice of those pious and well-informed friends with whom they will communicate on their arrival.'


No vessel of the East India Company was permitted to grant this company of missionaries a passage, as they went out in face of the open hostility of the Government, so the little band went to Copenhagen. Five of them sailed for India in a Danish vessel, bound for Tranquebar, on April 20, 1804, and were followed by Palm, who left Copenhagen on October 18. The five reached Tranquebar on December 5, and Palm arrived there June 4, 1805.

The Directors had further decided to establish a mission at Surat, and had appointed W. C. Loveless and John Taylor, M.D., to labour there. They sailed from London December 15, 1804, and reached Madras June 24, 1805. By this handful of workers the foundations were laid of the great work in Southern India which has been so successfully carried on throughout the century. From Tranquebar as a base these men, soon supplemented and strengthened by others, originated missionary work in the important fields of Ceylon, Travancore, Madras, Vizagapatam, Surat, and Bellary.

1. Ceylon. From 1805 to 1819 the work of the Society in Ceylon was carried on by four men. Unfortunately all the original records of this work also seem to have disappeared from the Society's archives, and all we know about it has to be gleaned from the somewhat scanty printed reports of the period. The four missionaries were M. C. Vos, J. P. Ehrhardt, J. D. Palm, and W. Read. The last had been for a short time at Tahiti, and was met by Mr. Vos at the Cape, and by him engaged for service in Ceylon. Vos settled in 1805 at Point de Galle, but was soon called to Colombo to take charge of a Dutch church there. Ehrhardt settled at Matura; Palm at Jaffnapatam, and Read at Point de Galle. Obstacles and difficulties similar to those which obtained in other parts of India were soon experienced. The missionaries were at first cordially welcomed by the governor, Mr. North, by whose influence the stations they occupied were assigned to them. The description of their work reads curiously in the light of to-day. 'The liberality of the government provides in part for the support of each of these missionaries, by which the funds of the Society will be relieved. They are actively engaged in acquiring the Cingalese language, in preaching to those who understand Dutch, and in instructing their children.' In Ceylon at this period there were large numbers of nominal Christians, but their condition may be gauged from one of Mr. Vos's letters: 'One hundred thousand of those who are called Christians, because they are baptized, need not go back to heathenism, for they never have been anything but worshippers of Buddha.'

Troubles soon arose. Mr. Vos's ministrations offended the Dutch consistory, and they demanded his expulsion from the island. He left in 1807, and soon after returned to the Cape of Good Hope.
In 1812 Ehrhardt became minister of a Dutch church at Matura, and Palm of a Dutch church at Colombo. They both then ceased to depend upon the Society, and to be subject to its control. For two or three years they seem to have been active in educational work under government direction, and the last mention of Ceylon as a sphere of service occurs in the Report for 1817 and 1818. In the former we read: 'Mr. Ehrhardt and Mr. Read continue in Ceylon; the former has been removed by the government to Cultura, where he preaches alternately in Dutch and Cingalese. He has also established a school in which children are instructed in English, Dutch, and Cingalese, and on the Lord's day in the meaning of the chapter which they read. Mr. Read preaches twice a week in Dutch and keeps a day school.'

A few lines in the 1818 Report are the last reference in the Society's official records to this mission. After 1818 Ceylon disappears from the list of stations. That the men did good work is certain; but it is equally certain that as the agents were supported by Government, other considerations than missionary necessities became dominant. The mission became an early example of the unsatisfactory result, during the first twenty-five years of the Society's history, of attempting too soon to make missions locally self-supporting.

2. Travancore. The most remarkable man among the first group of South Indian missionaries was Ringeltaube. He was a Prussian, and was born in 1770. He studied at Halle, and while there was so powerfully impressed by the life of John Newton, that he was led, like Newton, to seek the Lord with all his heart, and to be ready for any sacrifice at the Lord's call. He was ordained in 1796, and in the same year accepted an offer to go to Calcutta as an agent of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. His stay there was brief, because 'he found he was to preach neither in Bengali nor in English, but in Portuguese to a mixed congregation of Portuguese, Malays, Jews, and Chinese.' In 1799 he returned to Europe. In 1803 he was accepted by the Society, and accompanied the others to Tranquebar1 [For much valuable information about Ringeltaube see an article by the Rev. W. Robinson in the Chronicle for January, 1889.]. There he took up with great energy the study of Tamil, and gradually was attracted towards Travancore as his field for service. One reason for this choice he gives in a letter to a friend, dated September 11, 1806: 'Long experience has taught me that in large towns, especially where many Europeans are, the Gospel makes but little progress. Superstition is there too powerfully established, and the example of the Europeans too baneful.' In February, 1806, Ringeltaube journeyed by way of Tuticorin to Palamcottah, and there obtained from the British Resident in Travancore a passport to enter that province. In April he visited Trevandrum, and finally obtained permission to establish a mission at Mayiladi, near Cape Comorin.

Travancore is remarkable for the beauty of its situation, for the character and customs of the people, and for the success which during the century has attended the work of the mission. Before describing the work of Ringeltaube, who can fairly claim the title of pioneer for Travancore — the scene of by far the greatest successes in the way of converts hitherto achieved by the Society in India— we will sketch the country and people in the words of Travancore's literary missionary, the Rev. Samuel Mateer2 [The Land of Charity, pp. 2, 3, et seq.].

'Travancore is a long, narrow strip of territory, measuring 174 miles in extreme length, and from 30 to 75 miles in breadth, lying between the Malabar Coast and the great chain of the Western Ghauts, a noble range of mountains, which, for hundreds of miles, runs almost parallel with the Western Coast of India, and which divides Travancore from the British provinces of Tinnevelly and Dindigul. It will be observed that Travancore thus occupies a very secluded position. The high mountain barrier on the East is almost impassable; the sea forms a protection on the West; it is therefore only from the North and the extreme South that the country is easily accessible.

'From its physical conformation Travancore is literally " a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, that spring out of valleys and hills." Fourteen principal rivers take their rise in the mountains, and before falling into the sea spread out, more or less, over the low grounds near the coast, forming inland lakes or estuaries of irregular forms, locally called "backwaters." These "backwaters" have been united by canals running parallel with the coast, and they are thus of immense value as a means of communication between the Northern and Southern districts. Travellers may in this way pass by water from Ponany, near Calicut, to Kolachel, a distance of not much under 200 miles. The mode of conveyance consists either of canoes hollowed out of the trunks of large trees, pushed along by two men with bamboo poles, or of "cabin boats," built somewhat like English boats, with a neat and comfortable cabin at the stern, which are propelled by from eight to fourteen rowers, according to their size. The principal road in Travancore also runs nearly parallel with the coast at a few miles' distance.

'The distinct castes and subdivisions found in various parts of Travancore are reckoned to be no less than eighty-two in number. All these vary in rank, in the nicely graduated scale, from the highest of the Brahmans to the lowest of the slaves. Occasional diversities, arising from local circumstances, are observable in the relative position of some of these castes. But speaking generally, all, from the Brahman priests down to the guilds of carpenters and goldsmiths, are regarded as of high or good caste; and from the Shanar tree-climbers and washermen down to the various classes of slaves, as of inferior or low caste.

'To give some definite idea of these component parts of the population, four principal castes may be selected as typical or illustrative of the whole. These are Brahmans, Sudras, Shanars, and Pulayars. The Brahmans in Travancore are divided into two principal classes — Namburis or Malayalim Brahmans, indigenous to the country, and foreign Brahmans, originally from the Canara, Mahratta, Tulu, and Tamil countries, but who are now settled in Travancore. The Namburi Brahmans, numbering about 10,000, are regarded as peculiarly sacred, and as exalted far beyond the foreign Brahmans. They claim to be the aboriginal proprietors of the soil, to whom the ancestors of the present rajahs and chiefs were indebted for all that they possessed. In consequence of their seclusion, caste prejudices, and strict attention to ceremonial purity, these Brahmans are almost inaccessible to the European missionary.

'The Brahmans in Travancore have secured for themselves a high and unfair superiority over all other classes. They are the only class that are free from all social and religious disabilities, and enjoy perfect liberty of action. The whole framework of Hinduism has been adapted to the comfort and exaltation of the Brahman. His word is law; his smile confers happiness and salvation; his power with heaven is unlimited; the very dust of his feet is purifying in its nature and efficacy. Each is an infallible pope in his own sphere. The Brahman is the exclusive and Pharisaic Jew of India.

'Even Europeans would be brought by Brahmans under the influence of these intolerable arrangements, did they only possess the power to compel the former to observe them. During the early intercourse of Europeans with Travancore, they were forbidden to use the main road, and required to pass by a path along the coast where Brahmans rarely travel; access to the capital was also refused as long as possible.

'The Sudras were originally the lowest of the four true castes, and are still a degraded caste in North India. But in the South there are so many divisions below the Sudras, and they are so numerous, active, and influential, that they are regarded as quite high-caste people. The Sudras are the middle classes of Travancore. The greater portion of the land is in their hands, and until recently they were also the principal owners of slaves. They are the dominant and ruling class. They form the magistracy and holders of most of the Government offices — the military and police — the wealthy farmers, the merchants, and skilled artisans of the country. The Royal Family are members of this caste.
The ordinary appellation of the Sudras of Malabar is Nair (pronounced like the English word "nigher"), meaning lord, chief, or master; a marvellous change from their original position, according to Hindu tradition. By the primitive laws of caste they are forbidden to read the sacred books, or perform religious ceremonies, and are regarded as created for the service of the Brahmans.

'In consequence of their peculiar marriage customs the law of inheritance amongst the Sudras is equally strange. The children of a Sudra woman inherit the property and heritable honours, not of their father, but of their mother's brother. They are their uncle's nearest heirs, and he is their legal guardian. So it is, for example, in the succession to the throne.

'The Ilavars, Shanars, and others form a third great subdivision of the population. These constitute the highest division of the low castes. . . . The Ilavars and Shanars differ but little from one another in employments and character, and are, no doubt, identical in origin. The Shanars are found only in the southern districts of Travancore, between the Cape and Trevandrum; from which northwards the Ilavars occupy their place. These are the palm-tree cultivators, the toddy drawers, sugar manufacturers, and distillers of Travancore. Their social position somewhat corresponds to that of small farmers and agricultural labourers amongst ourselves....

'The Sudra custom of a man and woman living together as husband and wife, with liberty to separate after certain settlements and formalities, has been adopted by most of the Ilavars, and by a few of the Shanars in their vicinity; and amongst these castes also the inheritance usually descends to nephews by the female line. A few divide their property, half to the nephews and half to the sons. The rule is that all property which has been inherited shall fall to nephews, but wealth which has been accumulated by the testator himself may be equally divided between nephews and sons.

'These strange customs have sometimes occasioned considerable difficulty to missionaries in dealing with them, in the case of converts to Christianity. Persons who have been living together after the observance of the trivial form of "giving a cloth" are of course required to marry in Christian form. The necessary inquiries are therefore made into their history, and into the circumstances of each case of concubinage; deeds of separation, drawn up according to heathen law, are read and examined, and all outstanding claims are legally settled.

'The Shanars of South Travancore are of the same class as those of Tinnevelly, and in both provinces they have in large numbers embraced the profession of Christianity. Their employment is the cultivation of the Palmyra palm, which they climb daily in order to extract the sap from the flower-stem at the top. This is manufactured into a coarse dark sugar, which they sell or use for food and other purposes. The general circumstances of the Shanar and Ilavar population in Travancore, especially of the former, have long been most humiliating and degrading. Their social condition is by no means so deplorable as that of the slave castes, and has materially improved under the benign influence of Christianity, concurrently with the general advancement of the country.

'The slave castes — the lowest of the low — comprehend the Pallars, the Pariahs, and the Pnlayars. Of these the Pariahs, a Tamil caste, are found, like the Shanars, only in the southern districts and in Shencotta, east of the Ghauts; but they appear to be in many respects inferior to those of the eastern coast. Their habits generally are most filthy and disgusting. The Pulayars, the lowest of the slave castes, reside in miserable huts on mounds in the centre of the rice swamps, or on the raised embankments in their vicinity. They are engaged in agriculture as the servants of the Sudra and other landowners. Wages are usually paid to them in kind, and at the lowest possible rates. These poor people are steeped in the densest ignorance and stupidity. Drunkenness, lying, and evil passions prevail amongst them, except where of late years the Gospel has been the means of their reclamation from vice, and of their social elevation.'


The languages spoken in Travancore are Tamil and Malayalim. Tamil is spoken for about forty miles north of Cape Comorin; Malayalim north of the Neyattinkara River. That is, about one-fourth of the inhabitants of Travancore speak Tamil, and three-fourths Malayalim.

It was to this earthly Paradise, but rendered loathsome by the ignorance, cruelty, superstition, and pride of man, that the steps of Ringeltaube were providentially directed.
His journal for 1806-7 describes how at Tuticorin the call to enter it came to him: —

'When in the evening, sitting in the verandah of the old fort (formerly the abode of power and luxury, now the refuge of a houseless traveller, and thousands of bats suspended from the ceiling), enjoying the extensive prospect, and communing with my own heart, and the God to whom mercies and forgivenesses belong, something frightened me by falling suddenly at my feet, and croaking, Paraubren Istotiram, i.e. God be praised; the usual words our Christians pronounce when greeting: I rejoiced to see an individual of that tribe among whom I had been so anxious to labour. Entered into conversation with him, as well as I could, to ascertain his ideas about religion, but was soon nonplussed by his stupidity. I could not force a word from him in answer to my plain questions, which he contented himself literally to give back to me. With a sigh, I was forced to dismiss him.'


This interview, unsatisfactory as it was, with a degraded and ignorant Shanar, strengthened the desire which already possessed Ringeltaube to reach Travancore. On April 25, 1806, his desire was gratified. Here is his own picture of the scene:—

'Set out at dawn, and made that passage through the hills, which is called the Arambuly gaut, about noon. Grand prospects of precipices, mountains, hills adorned with temples and other picturesque objects, presented themselves. My timid companions, however, trembled at every step, being now on ground altogether in the power of the Brahmans, the sworn enemy of the Christian name: and indeed a little occurrence soon convinced us that we were no more on British territory. I laid down to rest in a caravansary, appropriated for Brahmans only, when the magistrate immediately sent word for me to remove, otherwise their god would no more eat! I reluctantly obeyed, and proceeded round the southern hills to a village called Mayilady, from whence formerly two men came to Tranquebar to request me to come and see them, representing that two hundred heathens at this place were desirous to embrace our religion. I lodged two days at their house, where I preached and prayed; some of them knew the catechism. They begged hard for a native teacher, but declared they could not build a church, as all this country had been given by the king of Travancore to the Brahmans, in consequence of which, the magistrates would not give them permission. I spent here the Lord's day, for the first time, very uncomfortably, in an Indian hut, in the midst of a noisy gaping crowd, which filled the house. Perhaps my disappointment contributed to my unpleasant feelings; I had expected to find hundreds eager to listen to the Word, instead of which, I had a difficulty to make a few families attend for an hour.

'Travelling pleasantly under the shade of trees across hill and dale, with the ever-varying prospect of the gauts on my right, I reached Tiruvandirem, the capital of Travancore, on April 30. On the road I stopped, as travellers in general do, at Roman Catholic churches. Finding the dialect spoken here differing from the pure Tamil as much as the Yorkshire dialect does from pure English, I was much at a loss to understand them and make myself understood.'


Ringeltaube visited Anjengo, and on May 3 reached Quilon, and then by boat over the backwater travelled to Cochin. Here he met Colonel Macauly, the British Resident in Travancore, with whom he had been in correspondence, and who exerted his influence to get Ringeltaube permission from the rajah to build a church and reside in the country. Ringeltaube, on his return to Palamcottah, thus outlines his plan for the mission, and it is interesting to note that he here sketches the main lines which have been followed in the later development of the mission: —

'1. A small congregation to be begun near the confines of Travancore: £100 to be devoted to buying ground and erecting necessary buildings.

'2. A seminary of twelve youths, drawn from the existing congregations, to be formed: a pagoda and a half to be allowed for every youth per month, viz. 12s.

'3. When prepared, these youths to be sent out two and two, as itinerants, and two pagodas per month allowed as their stipend.

'4. If some of these prove very successful, and are truly gracious subjects, they should be ordained; but previous to this they should take a solemn oath not to exercise their ministry but in such a way as shall be approved by the Church.

'5. These to form an annual synod, under the presidency of an European missionary. Thus they will be gradually taught to govern a Church with prudence and wisdom, which catechists never learn at present.

'6. If any congregation wishes for a stationary preacher, one of these ministers to be given them, and they to stipulate to maintain him.

'7. A printing press to be united with this institution.

'8. Baptism to be administered wherever a true conviction of sin, and a belief in God our Saviour, appears; a promise to be exacted that such persons will be ready to suffer persecution for Christ, if necessary.


'9. A closer communion to be established among real converts, by means of a frequent enjoyment of the Lord's Supper, granted only to such.'


From 1806 to 1810 Ringeltaube carried on an active evangelistic work in Tinnevelly, with Palamcottah as his centre, paying also frequent visits to Travancore. Tinnevelly at this time contained about 5,000 Christians, under the care of native agents supported by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Ringeltaube worked much at first among these people. His method here and at Travancore was rapid itineration. In 1810 Oodiagherry became his centre of work, and in 1812 Mayiladi. In 1812 Ringeltaube's health began to fail. In 1816 he retired from the mission and went to Ceylon, and sailed thence intending to go to the Cape of Good Hope. Then he suddenly disappears, and is never more heard of. As a letter is extant, written from Colombo, stating that his liver was severely attacked, and as he is known to have sailed from Malacca, the most probable explanation is that he died and was buried at sea between Malacca and Batavia1 [See the Chronicle, 1889, p. 16.]. Of how or where his life closed no exact record appears to exist. He vanishes from the Society's story and work in a way which both arouses the desire to know more of him, and also fits in well with the unusual character of his previous career. The foundation of the Travancore Mission is inseparably linked with his name.

'This founder of our Travancore Mission was an able but eccentric man. He laboured devotedly, assiduously, and wisely for the conversion of the heathen and the edification of the Christian converts. Those whose motives appeared worldly and selfish were rejected by him, and all professing Christians were warned and instructed as to the spiritual character of the religion of Christ, and the permanent obligation of all relative and social duties. He was most generous and unselfish in regard to money, and is said to have distributed the whole of his quarter's salary almost as soon as it reached his hands. His labours were abundantly blessed, and his memory is precious and greatly honoured in connection with the foundation of this now flourishing native Christian Church1 [The Land of Charity, p. 265.].'


Prior to Ringeltaube's departure a successor. Mr. Charles Mead, had been appointed. He reached Madras, in company with Richard Knill, in August, 1816, but, owing to illness and to the death of his wife, did not arrive at Nagercoil until 1818. In September of the same year Knill rejoined Mead, having determined to find in Travancore his sphere of service. For two years the mission had been in sole charge of a catechist appointed by Ringeltaube, and he had done much good and useful work. There were when Ringeltaube departed about seven chief centres of work with chapels, five or six schools, and about 900 converts and candidates for baptism. This was no mean record for less than thirteen years of labour.

The Travancore British Resident in 1818 was Colonel Munro, an active friend of the missionary enterprise. Mead and Knill established their headquarters at Nagercoil, four miles from Mayiladi. Munro procured from the Ranee2 [The Queen Consort.] a bungalow for the missionaries, and a sum of 5,000 rupees, with which rice-fields were purchased, as an endowment for education. From this source, ever since 1819, the income of the English seminary has been derived. Munro, also probably in the effort to aid the funds of the mission, secured the appointment of Mr. Mead at Nagercoil as civil judge. Ten years earlier the Directors would have seen little or nothing anomalous in this. Now, although Mr. Mead held the appointment for a year, and discharged the duties so as to win the gratitude of the natives on the one hand, and to secure the external success of the mission on the other, the Board constrained him to resign the post.

'These early missionaries entered upon the work with great spirit and enterprise. A printing press was soon established. The seminary for the training of native youths was opened, and plans prayerfully laid and diligently carried out for the periodical visitation of the congregations and villages. The congregation at Nagercoil alone numbered now about 300, and a large chapel for occasional united meetings at the head station being urgently required, the foundation was laid by Mr. Knill on New Year's Day, 1819. Striking evidence of the strong faith and hope of these early labourers is seen in the noble dimensions of the chapel, the erection of which they then commenced. It is, perhaps, the largest church in South India, measuring inside 127 feet in length by 60 feet wide, and affording accommodation for nearly 2,000 persons, seated, according to Hindu custom, on the floor. Had this fine building not been erected, we should have in later years grievously felt the lack of accommodation for the great aggregate missionary and other special meetings of Christian people, which we are now privileged to hold within its walls1 [The Land of Charity, p. 269.].'

'During the two years after Mead and Knill's arrival, about 3,000 persons, chiefly of the Shanar caste, placed themselves under Christian instruction, casting away their images and emblems of idolatry, and each presenting a written promise declarative of his renunciation of idolatry and determination to serve the living and true God. Some of these doubtless returned to heathenism when they understood the spiritual character and comprehensive claims of the Christian religion, but most remained faithful and increasingly attached to their new faith. There were now about ten village stations, most of which had churches, congregations, and schools, all of them rapidly increasing. Native catechists were employed to preach and teach, and these teachers met the missionaries periodically for instruction and improvement in divine things.

'And now the tide of popular favour flowed in upon the missionaries. Not only did their message commend itself to the consciences of the hearers, but there was doubtless in many instances a mixture of low and inferior motives in embracing the profession of Christianity. The missionaries were the friends of the Resident, and connected with the great and just British nation. Hopes were perhaps indulged that they might be willing to render aid to their converts in times of distress and oppression, or advice in circumstances of difficulty. Moreover, the temporal blessings which Christianity everywhere of necessity confers, in the spread of education and enlightenment, liberty, civilization, and social improvement, were exemplified to all in the case of the converts already made. The kindness of the missionaries, too, attracted multitudes who were accustomed to little but contempt and violence from the higher classes, and who could not but feel that the Christian teachers were their best and real friends. What were these to do with those who thus flocked to the profession of Christianity? Receive them to baptism and membership with the Christian Church, or recognize them as true believers, they could not and did not; but gladly did they welcome them as hearers and learners of God's word. The missionaries rejoiced to think that the influence for good which they were permitted to exert, and the prestige attached to the British nation in India, were providentially given them to be used for the highest and holiest purposes. They did not hesitate, therefore, to receive to Christian instruction even those who came from mixed motives, unless they were evidently hypocrites or impostors. And from time to time, as these nominal Christians, or catechumens, appeared to come under the influence of the power of godliness, and as the instructions afforded them appeared to issue in their true conversion and renewed character, such were, after due examination and probation, received into full communion with the Christian Church. Their children, too, came under instruction at the same time in the mission schools, and became the Christian professors and teachers of the next generation1 [The Land of Charity, pp. 267-268.].'


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India

3. VIZAGAPATAM. This important city, with a population of about 30,000, the chief town of a district of the same name, is on the eastern coast of India, 400 miles north of Madras, in the district known as the 'Northern Circars.' Telugu is spoken, the tongue of from fifteen to twenty millions. Work here began in 1805. George Cran and Augustus Des Granges, the only members of the first company of workers for South India left in Madras after the commencement of the Ceylon and Travancore Missions, decided not to stay in Madras, but to take up work at Vizagapatam. The statement is made that Vizagapatam was chosen because of advice to that effect given by Carey to Mr. Hardcastle, with whom he kept up a regular correspondence1 [Life and Letters of Carey, Marshman, and Ward, vol. i. p. 395.]. There is also evidence that the first missionaries realized what very difficult mission-fields the large cities of India are, and that their call was to work among the natives. However this may be, Cran and Des Granges were welcomed by many of the European residents at Vizagapatam, and were invited to conduct English services in the Fort, for which they received a monthly salary from the governor. They also conducted services during the week for both Europeans and natives; and they opened a school for native children, the first three scholars being the sons of a Brahman. By November, 1806, a mission house had been completed, which cost, together with the site, 3,000 rupees. They then opened a 'Charity' School for Eurasian children, taking some of them as boarders. Towards this they received 1,300 rupees from residents and subscriptions for the support of the children. The two missionaries gave themselves with great diligence to the study of the language, and by constantly meeting and conversing with the natives, notwithstanding many disadvantages, made rapid progress in its attainment. They also began the task of translating the Bible into Telugu, and prepared two or three tracts. In these manifold and arduous labours they were greatly aided by a converted Brahman, Anandarayer by name, one of the most remarkable of the early Indian converts. The experience of this man is of exceptional interest, as he was the first Brahman converted in India by a member of the London Missionary Society. Cran and Des Granges sent home the following account of this remarkable and encouraging event: —

'A Mahratean, or Bandida Brahman, about thirty years of age, was an accountant in a regiment of Tippoo's troops; and, after his death, in a similar employment under an English officer. Having an earnest desire to obtain eternal happiness, he was advised by an elder Brahman to repeat a certain prayer four hundred thousand times! This severe task he undertook, and performed it in a pagoda, together with many fatiguing ceremonies, taking care to exceed the number prescribed. After six months, deriving no comfort at all from these laborious exercises, he resolved to return to his family at Nosom, and live as before. On his way home, he met with a Roman Catholic Christian, who conversed with him on religious subjects, and gave him two books on the Christian religion, in the Telinga1 [Now called Telugu.] language, to read. These he perused with much attention, admired their contents, and resolved to make further inquiries into the religion of Christ; and, if satisfied, to accept of it. He was then recommended to a Roman priest, who, not choosing to trust him too much, required him to go home to his relations, and to return again to his wife. He obeyed this direction; but found all his friends exceedingly surprised and alarmed by his intention of becoming a Christian, and thus bringing reproach upon his caste. To prevent this, they offered him a large sum of money, and the sole management of the family estate. These temptations, however, made no impression on him. He declared that he preferred the salvation of his soul to all worldly considerations; and even left his wife behind him, who was neither inclined nor permitted to accompany him. He returned to the priest, who still hesitating to receive him as a convert, he offered to deliver up his Brahman thread, and to cut off his hair — after which no Brahman can return to his caste. The priest perceiving his constancy, and satisfied with his sincerity, instructed, and afterwards baptized him: upon which, his heathen name, Subbarayer, was changed to his present Christian name, Anandarayer.

'A few months after this, the priest was called away to Goa; and having just received a letter from a Padree, at Pondicherry, to send him a Telinga Brahman, he advised Anandarayer to go thither; informing him, that there he would find a larger congregation, and more learned Padrees; by whom he would be further instructed, and his thirst for knowledge be much gratified. When he arrived at Pondicherry, he felt disappointed, in many respects; yet there he had the pleasure of meeting his wife, who had suffered much among her relations, and at last formed the resolution of joining him. He then proceeded to Tranquebar, having heard that there was another large congregation, ministers, schools, the Bible translated, with many other books, and no images in their churches, which he always much disliked, and had even disputed with the Roman priests on their impropriety. The worthy ministers at Tranquebar were at first suspicious of him; but, by repeated conversations with him, during several months that he resided among them, they were well satisfied with him, and admitted him to the Lord's Table. He was diligent in attending their religious exercises, and particularly in the study of the Bible, which he had never seen before. He began to make translations from the Tamil into the Telinga language, which he writes elegantly, as well as the Mahratta. His friends would readily have recommended him to some secular employment at Madras or Tanjore, but he declined their offers, being earnestly desirous of employment only in the service of the Church.

'Having heard of the missionaries at Vizagapatam, he expressed a strong desire to visit them, hoping that he might be useful among the Telinga nation, either in church or school. This his desire is likely to be gratified, the missionaries having every reason to be satisfied with his character; and, upon their representation, the Directors of the Missionary Society have authorized them to employ him, and to allow him a competent salary.

'A gentleman, who knew him well, says: "Whatever our Lord Jesus requires of His followers, he has readily performed. He has left wife, mother, brother, sister, his estate, and other advantages which were offered to him, and has taken upon himself all the reproaches of the Brahman caste; and has been beaten by some of the heathen, to whom he spake on Christianity; and still bears the marks of their violence on his forehead. He declined complaining of it, and bore it patiently."'


The assistance of so intelligent a convert as Anandarayer was a great help to the missionaries in translation work, and by January 20, 1809, Des Granges could write home, 'The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are complete in manuscript, and have gone through the first correction. The Gospels of Mark and John are begun. I have now four Brahmans engaged in this service. Anandarayer takes the lead; the others are all transcribers.' On April 15, 1809, an entry in Des Granges' journal runs: 'The translation of Matthew may now be pronounced complete; it has gone through many corrections. This evening delivered two copies, one for the Rev. D. Brown, of Calcutta, and one for the brethren at Serampore. Wrote also to them.' On May 16, 1810, he writes: 'The Gospel of Luke in the Telinga language was completed this day, and sent off to the Corresponding Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Calcutta.' The four Gospels in Telugu were printed at Serampore, whither Anandarayer had gone to superintend their passing through the press, in 1811. Through the Auxiliary which had been formed in Calcutta, the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1810 granted a sum of £2,000 to be devoted to Indian Bible translation work during the years 1811, 1812, and 1813, half to go to the Serampore Mission, and half to the other agencies in India engaged in this work. Out of this grant the cost of printing the first edition of the Gospels in Telugu was met.

Neither of these pioneers in the Vizagapatam Mission was long spared to this field of labour. Cran died January 6, 1809, at Chicacole, whither he had gone in search of health. Des Granges died July 12, 1810. The Directors in 1805 and 1806 made strenuous efforts to reinforce the South Indian Missions. In January, 1807, John Gordon and William Lee had sailed for India via New York. There they were detained for a long time, and finally landed at Calcutta in September, 1809. Lee reached Vizagapatam in December, 1809, and Gordon in March, 1810. The deaths of Cran and Des Granges were a great loss to the mission, and very depressing to the new-comer. Both seem to have been men far above the average, both were devoted evangelists, and the latter had in him the making of a first-rate Biblical scholar. Lee and Gordon carried on the work jointly until the close of 1812, when Lee went to Ganjam to open up new work there. After about five years' labour, owing to ill-health, Mr. and Mrs. Lee returned to Madras, the mission at Ganjam was closed, and at the end of 1817 they returned to England and retired from service. Gordon at Vizagapatam had been encouraged by the arrival of a colleague, Mr. Edward Pritchett. He, in company with Mr. J. C. Brain, had been sent to Rangoon, in 1810, to found a mission in Burmah. But war had broken out there, and Mr. Brain died a few months after landing. Pritchett returned to Madras, and settled at Vizagapatam in November, 1811. Anandarayer had rendered Mr. Gordon most valuable services in translation work and in the mastery of Telugu, services similar to those which he had previously rendered to Des Granges. Gordon devoted himself to the completion of the New Testament. The services in the town were maintained, and a school for girls was established under the care of Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Des Granges. Gordon and Pritchett also itinerated 'thrice a week' among the neighbouring villages. But sickness was frequent, and greatly hindered the work of the mission. In November, 1814, Mrs. Gordon died. She was described as 'truly pious, amiable, and useful.' In 1815 James Dawson joined the mission, and continued there in active service until his death in 1832. In 1818 the first complete Telugu New Testament was printed at Madras. The labour of revision and the completion of the version was the work of Mr. Pritchett. It was printed through the Calcutta Auxiliary of the Bible Society, who submitted the translation to experts in Madras, and upon their favourable report granted paper for 2,000 copies. These were printed in Madras under Mr. Pritchett's supervision during the latter half of 1818.

The conditions of mission-work during these early years are briefly put in a letter from Gordon and Pritchett written in 1813: 'We wish it were in our power to send you tidings of conversion among these heathen, but it is our lot to labour in a stubborn soil. But let none despair of success in the end, nor yet suppose that nothing has been done; for at least the minds of multitudes are dissatisfied in the vicinity of Vizagapatam; many have acknowledged themselves convinced of the evil and folly of their ways; and some that they are Christians at heart but afraid to confess it openly. Were it not for the unequalled timidity of this people, by which they are terrified at the thought of losing caste, and at its consequent inconveniences, we have no doubt we should have many converts. No converts can be gained, not even to a tolerable profession of Christianity, but such as have courage to forsake father and mother, and everything dear to them in this world, and fortitude and humility enough to live despised by all whose good opinion nature itself would lead them to value.'

4. Madras. No one of the original party of five who landed at Tranquebar in December, 1804, remained in the chief city of South-Eastern India. Dr. Taylor and W. Loveless had been sent out to found a mission at Surat. Dr. Taylor went on to Bengal, and on his return to Madras both were to go to Surat. Taylor never reached Surat, and Loveless by an unexpected series of events was led to settle in Madras.  

In Madras, as early as 1726, a mission under the care of Schultze had been originated, chiefly by the aid afforded from the funds of the Christian Knowledge Society. But by the close of the eighteenth century the mission, under injudicious management, had fallen into disrepute. The English community was characterized by an almost utter neglect of both religion and morality. Hough, in his History of Christianity in India1 [Vol. iv. p. 136.], states: 'The Lord's Day was so disregarded that few persons ever thought of attending church. The only exceptions were Christmas and Easter, when it was customary for most persons to go to church. The natives looked upon these festivals as the gentlemen's pujahs, somewhat like their own idolatrous feasts. Every other Sabbath in the year was set apart as the great day of amusement and dissipation.' Dr. Kerr, a chaplain of great spirituality and earnestness, also wrote of this period: 'If ten sincere Christians would save the whole country from fire and brimstone, I do not know where they could be found in the Company's civil and military service in the Madras establishment.'

At this time there were great difficulties in Madras in the way of Christian work among the natives. Loveless was in India only on sufferance, the Government influence was entirely hostile to the evangelization of the natives
, and Ringeltaube's opinion, that great cities were most unsatisfactory missionary fields of labour, applied then with special force to Madras. Hence Loveless was practically compelled to devote himself largely to the needs of European residents. He was, however, instrumental in founding two large schools, and in originating the Madras Bible and Tract Societies.

Early in his residence in Madras, and while Cran and Des Granges were still there, by the advice of Mr. Toriano, and through the influence of Dr. Kerr, the chaplain at Fort St. George, Loveless assumed the oversight of the Male Orphan Asylum. In this way he became self-supporting. "A few years later he purchased a piece of land in Black Town, and built Davidson Street Church, which was opened for worship in 1810. This building has ever since been a centre of spiritual life and inspiration. A writer in the Indian missionary paper Forward. for 1893, says:—

'If the old walls of Davidson Street could repeat what they have heard, what "notes of holier days" we now might hear. Hall and Nott, the first American missionaries to Bombay, held service here. Ringeltaube, in 1815, in a "very ordinary costume" — for he had no coat to his back, and wore a nondescript straw hat of country make — preached here his last sermon in India. After which he went on his mysterious mission to the eastward, and is supposed to have been murdered in Malayan jungles. John Hands, ill from overwork in Bellary, came to Madras to recruit himself by change of work. His fervid preaching attracted the multitude, and caused such a ferment in the place, that three young men went to the chapel one night with the avowed purpose of stoning him. The word, however, arrested them, and they departed ashamed, humbled and penitent; one of the three became a missionary in after years. Richard Knill helped on the good work begun by Mr. Loveless, but his service came to a sudden end by illness. It was always a great day when new arrivals from home came to the chapel. They had to preach as a matter of course, and in these occasional services occur the names of Henry Townley, Charles Mead, William Reeve, James Keith, and others whose record of noble service is "written in heaven."'


In 1816 Richard Knill reached Madras, but failure of health sent him to Travancore. A manuscript in Knill's handwriting exists, giving a history of these early Madras days. In it he says: 'For many years Loveless received no pecuniary aid from the Society. Providence so favoured him that he now liberally supports it. This is as it ought to be. This is what every real minister will do, if he can, but every missionary has not the opportunity. His boarding school, which is very respectable, and in which his excellent wife takes a very active and labouring part, affords him a sufficiency to support his own family, and to do good to others. It enables him also to give an affectionate and hearty welcome to the servants of Christ on their arrival in India, many of whom have found his house as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. No missionary on his arrival in Madras should go to an inn for accommodation while Loveless is alive.'

A simple-minded, humble, devoted pastor, teacher and administrator, was the man who, contrary to his own anticipations, thus became a pioneer of the Madras Mission. Mr. Loveless, on the failure of his health in 1824, returned to England and shortly afterwards severed his connection with the Society. Under his care the mission, in which as preacher, evangelist to the natives, superintendent of education, and active agent in the preparation and spread of Christian literature, he had spent nearly twenty years, had been established upon a sound and serviceable basis.

5. Bellary. The foundations deep and lasting of the Bellary Mission were laid by a man whose name must ever stand very high upon the roll of South Indian missionary workers — the Rev. John Hands. He was born at Roade in Northamptonshire in 1780, studied at Gosport under Bogue, and sailed for India in 1809. He reached Madras in February, 1810. He had been destined for Seringapatam, but all efforts to get a footing there proved fruitless. Finally, with great difficulty, and only by the personal efforts of one of the chaplains, permission was obtained from the Government for Mr. Hands to settle at Bellary. This town, also the centre of a great district of the same name, lies north-west of Madras in the centre of the peninsula, about midway between Madras and Goa. Here the missionaries came into touch with people speaking a third great language — Canarese. Telugu and Tamil are also spoken in parts. Recognizing it as the missionary's prime duty to acquire as perfectly as possible the tongue of the people he comes to benefit, Hands gave his days and nights to the study of Canarese. There were no dictionaries or grammars, nor was any Anandarayer available. He therefore set about making for himself the necessary helps. In 1812 a grammar and vocabulary were commenced, and a version of the first three Gospels completed. In the same year a church, consisting of twenty-seven European and East Indian residents, was formed. A native school and also a 'charity' school for 'the education, and when necessary the support, of European and East Indian children were established.'

In 1812 Mr. J. Thompson, intended as the colleague of Mr. Hands, landed at Madras, but as he did not hold the permit of the East India Company — and this, it is needless to state, at that juncture would not have been given — he was ordered to leave the country. While preparing to obey he was seized with illness, and died. In 1813 Mr. Hands decided to make the instruction in the school more distinctly Christian. To this at first the native opposition was very strong, and many children were taken away. But he persevered, the children returned, and soon a second school was required. In 1815 he visited the annual festival held at Humpi, at which about 200,000 natives used to assemble. On this occasion the practice on the part of the missionary and his native helpers of preaching at the festival was begun, a practice which has been followed ever since. Long itinerating journeys for preaching and distributing tracts were undertaken. In 1815 a Tract Society was formed. In 1816 Mr. W. Reeve arrived as the colleague of Mr. Hands. In 1819 the first native convert was received into the Church.

6. SURAT. Although this spot figured in the first paper on desirable missions presented to the Society in 1795, it was 1815 before work was actually begun. Surat is in the Bombay Presidency, some distance north of Bombay itself. In 1804 Loveless and Taylor, who had been appointed to commence the mission, reached Madras; but the former, as we have seen, spent all his missionary life in that city, and the latter — the first medical missionary sent to India by the Society — wasted some years over real or fancied illness, and finally forsook the Society for a Government appointment. The mission was ultimately commenced by the Rev. J. Skinner and the Rev. W. Fyvie.

This sketch of pioneer work in South India may be not inappropriately closed by an extract from the Report of the Society for 1819: 'From the history of Protestant missions in India, particularly during the last few years, it is evident that a spirit of inquiry has pervaded no inconsiderable portion of its inhabitants; that the most obstinate and inveterate prejudices are dissolving; that the craft of the Brahminical system is beginning to be detected and its terrors despised, even by the Hindoos themselves; that the chains of caste, by which they have been so long bound, are gradually loosening; and that considerable numbers have absolutely renounced their cruel and degrading superstitions, and, at least externally, embraced the profession of Christianity. The renunciation of heathenism by numbers of the natives of Travancore, their professed reception of Christianity, the sanction and assistance given to the labours of Christian missionaries by the local authorities, and the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular language of the country are circumstances which appear to justify the hope that the Almighty, in His designs of mercy towards India, is about to communicate the blessings of pure religion to the inhabitants of this most southern portion of the peninsula.

'To these highly important facts we add the countenance afforded to Christian missions by the British authorities. Not only are the labours of missionaries aided by many of the Company's chaplains, but even by many pious officers in the army, and also by numerous European residents who contribute liberally, and who aid the work by personal counsel and exertion. So great has been the change in India within a few years, that a judge lately returned from that country declares that "individuals who left it some years since, and brought home the prevalent notions of that day, can form no just estimate of the state of things now existing in India."'


This estimate must, of course, be understood as applying only to that section of the population which came under the influence of the missionaries, and which formed only a microscopical proportion of the people of the country.

[AUTHORITIES. — Letters and Official Reports; Transactions of the Society, vols, ii-iv.]  
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Chapter IV: Pioneer Work in North India, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895
by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
In Two Volumes, Volume II
1899

-- The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett, 1851-1904

-- London Missionary Society, by Wikipedia

-- Chapter I: India in 1795, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

-- Chapter II: Nathaniel Forsyth and Robert May, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

-- Chapter III: Pioneer Work in South India: 1804-1820, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

-- Chapter IV: Pioneer Work in North India, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]

-- Chapter V: South Indian Missions: 1820-1895, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]


CHAPTER IV: PIONEER WORK IN NORTH INDIA
P. 46-52

Reference has already been made to the work of Nathaniel Forsyth and of Robert May[1] [See Chapter II.] Did space permit, it would be a pleasant task to describe in some detail the work in Calcutta of Kiernander and the influence of the Serampore Mission, and to indicate the powerful stimulus given to Christian work over Northern India by such devoted chaplains of the East India Company as Brown, Buchanan, Corrie, and Henry Martyn.

The removal in 1813 of Government restriction upon missionary labour led to an immediate development of Christian enterprise in CALCUTTA.
The Directors of the London Missionary Society at once resolved to found a mission there, and for this purpose appointed the Rev. Henry Townley, with the Rev. J. Keith as his colleague. They reached Calcutta in September, 1816, and conducted services at first in the Freemasons' Hall, and then for a time in the Presbyterian Church, kindly lent to them by the minister, Dr. Bryce. They founded three schools, did a large amount of evangelistic work among the natives, and established, first at Chinsurah and then at Calcutta, a press for printing Bengali and English books and tracts. Mr. Townley also took a very active part in raising the funds for, and in superintending, the building of Union Chapel. For this building, which cost about £4,000 nearly the whole sum was collected in India itself. The foundation stone was laid in May, 1820, and the building was completed in April, 1831. Within three months of the opening services the total cost had been defrayed.

From 1815 to 1825 there was extraordinary activity and growth in missionary enterprise in and around Calcutta. The Serampore Mission was in full work, the Church Missionary Society, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Baptist and the London Societies were all most energetic. Many auxiliary Societies were initiated, and when Mr. Tyerman and Mr. Bennet visited Calcutta in 1826, they say in their report: 'By the concurrent testimony of all ranks and parties, the change for the better in India within twenty-five years has been surprisingly great in both the manners and practices of natives and Europeans. Irreligious persons acknowledge the change, and confess it has been a good thing to have such an increase of ministers and churches in Bengal and the North-West. The truly serious acknowledge that this amelioration has resulted from Divine Providence having disposed Christian people to send out so many pious and devoted missionaries, who have borne faithful scriptural testimony against vice and ignorance, whether in natives or Europeans, and in favour of truth and piety.'

These important and hopeful results had been brought about, so far as the London Missionary Society was concerned, by the labours chiefly of Henry Townley, James Keith, John David Pearson, Samuel Trawin, George Mundy, and George Gogerly. Other workers who were spared for only a brief period of service were John Hampson and W. H. Bankhead. Micaiah Hill, James Hill, and J. B. Warden reached Calcutta in 1822.

Although a foothold had been gained in India in 1813 for the Christian missionary which has never since been lost, the East India Company still exerted much of its powerful influence to the detriment of missions. Before a passage could be taken the missionary was compelled to take out from the India House a special licence, and to find security to the amount of £500 for good behaviour in India, and as a guarantee that nothing should be done to weaken British authority there. Upon landing the missionary found that both Government officials and European residents looked askance at him. As a rule his presence was a rebuke to much in their own lives, and they both did all in their power to belittle the missionary in the eyes of the natives. To these they were described as low-caste people, quite unequal to conversing with Brahmans or even teaching Sudras. While at this period, 1820, there were in Calcutta two Episcopal Churches, two Roman Catholic, one Presbyterian, one Greek, and one Armenian, there was only one Nonconformist place of worship, in Bow Bazaar, where a tiny congregation of European and country-born Christians were ministered to by preachers from Serampore. While idol temples abounded, and idolatry of the most disgusting character was rampant, absolutely nothing had hitherto been done to bring the Gospel to the natives. The Government almost ostentatiously disregarded Sunday, outdoor work of building and other kinds being carried on upon that exactly as upon other days. The Government were dominated by the fear that Christianity, opposed as it necessarily was to caste and Hindu custom, would excite the fears and prejudices of the Hindus, and lead them to acts of violence against British rule. So far was this carried that a nominally Christian Government would not allow a Christian native to enter the Indian army. This unfounded fear, especially in the minds of the Government officials at Calcutta, had been greatly stimulated by the Vellore Mutiny in 1806, which had been, erroneously, attributed by many to the spread of Christianity among the natives. It was this panic that led to imperative prohibitions against the landing of missionaries, and did much to bring about the great reform of 1813. On the other hand, at this period, all over India subject to their rule, the Government were indirectly subsidising idolatry, and aided the officials of Hinduism to collect their idolatrous dues. The most scandalous example of this kind was the placing of the temple of Juggernat under the charge of the State, and thus practically constituting it a Government institution.

In Bengal the Brahmans, who form the highest caste, are divided into three orders, of which the Kulin is the highest. Originally these were orthodox Brahmans, meek, learned, eager to visit holy places, ascetic, liberal. The lower ranks of Brahmans eagerly desire to attain this rank, and can do so only by marrying their daughters to a Kulin Brahman. This custom has led to a wide-spread and degrading profligacy. A considerable dowry is given at the marriage, the wife usually remaining at her father's house. The Brahman often marries into forty or fifty different families, and spends his life in going from home to home among his many wives, honoured as a god, and all the while living a life of sloth and debauchery that would disgrace a beast. So great is the desire to marry Kulin Brahmans, that age, disease, and deformity are no barriers to marriage. While not the most caste-ridden district in India, Bengal has nevertheless all through the century been rendered a hard mission-field by the power and resistance, both active and passive, of this terrible, dehumanizing system.

George Gogerly reached Calcutta in 1819 to superintend the printing press. He was energetic and able, and was largely and liberally aided by the Religious Tract Society, and at once printed and circulated large numbers of tracts and of school-books.
The absence of any place of worship was a serious drawback. The first building used was in Manicktulla Road, and was constructed of bamboos and mats with a thatched roof. Here Mr. Keith and Mr. Gogerly preached three times a week. Here too they were on one occasion assailed by some religious ascetics, stoned and driven from the building. It was to supply the need of an appropriate centre of work that Union Chapel was built. Soon after a member of Union Chapel presented the Society with a freehold site at Kidderpore, upon which a chapel and a schoolroom were speedily built. Two other bungalow chapels were also opened in other quarters of Calcutta. In these quiet unpretentious ways the Society began its share in the task of winning the myriads of Calcutta to the Gospel of forgiveness and of deliverance from sin.

At Calcutta, as at all Indian stations frequented by Europeans, in addition to work for Hindus, the missionaries felt bound to do what they could for the evangelization of their fellow-countrymen. The scandalous orgies of both sailors and soldiers outraged at times Hindu sentiment, and the immoral heathenism of not a few so-called Christians was a standing reproach, and caused the Hindus to blaspheme the Gospel which the missionaries preached. To facilitate Christian work among the multitudes of sailors visiting the port of Calcutta, a Bethel Society and Sailors' Home was established by Mr. Gogerly, which, though only partially successful and short-lived, led later on to the founding of a strong Bethel Home by Dr. Boaz. The Hastings Church in the Cooly Bazaar originated in services carried on at this time in an officer's private quarters just outside the Fort, for the benefit of the soldiers.

The losses sustained by the mission during the first ten or fifteen years through illness and death were very severe. This was due partly to the deadly climate of Bengal, partly to the pollution of the Ganges by the revolting customs of Hinduism. Within a brief period Mr. and Mrs. Hampson, Mr. and Mrs. Keith, Mr. and Mrs. Warden, Mr. Bankhead, and Mr. and Mrs. Harle were all carried off by death. Mr. Townley's health failed in 1823, and he returned to England. He died in 1861, and upon that occasion the Directors placed on record their high appreciation of his services as the founder of the mission, the builder and first pastor of Union Chapel; and they also stated that 'the entire expense of his passage, and that of his family, both outward and homeward, as well as his support during his stay in India, was entirely met from his own resources, a rare and noble offering to the cause of Christianity, amounting to several thousand pounds.' During the many years Mr. Townley lived after his return to England, he diligently and ably served the Society as a Director, and he frequently aided its work by generous contributions.

Benares was occupied for the Society in 1820 by Mr. M. T. Adam, who commenced the mission there on August 6. The method followed was similar to that at Calcutta. Services were held whenever possible, individuals were encouraged to converse with the missionary, melas were visited, and in 1836 five schools were maintained. Christian work at Benares has proved very difficult and barren, but to the Deputation in 1826 the sacred city of India seemed a promising field: 'Benares, with its 650,000 inhabitants, Hindoos and Mahometans, in the proportion of five to one, appears to us a most important missionary station. It has also immense accessions of people when the pilgrimages are made and the festivals held. All these hundreds of thousands are accessible; they will hear you, converse with you, argue with you, and, generally speaking, take your books and promise to read them. At their ghauts, in their bazaars, before the schools, congregations may be collected every day.'

Berhampur was occupied in 1824, and in 1826 the Deputation found there Mr. Micaiah Hill, Mr. Ray, and Mrs. Warden. Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet, after their careful visitation in 1826 of all the stations in Calcutta, Kidderpore, Chinsurah, Berhampur, and Benares, sent home to the Directors a sober and yet a sanguine estimate of what had been and of what would be achieved. They note the improvement already wrought in the conduct of Europeans, and also the signs of a weakening of the tyranny of Hindu custom, but they overestimated the pace at which the improvement would go forward. Missionary organization and development were slower in Bengal and the North-West, and although the workers have been brave and devoted, the progress all through the century has been slower and less striking than in the South. [Authorities. — Letters and Official Reports; Transactions of the Society, vol. V; Pioneers of the Bengal mission, by George Gogerly]
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