The next observation of this author is more worthy attention; and, as it may assist your researches, I will explain it. He proceeds to inform us, that "the Hindu systems of geography, chronology, and history, are all equally monstrous and absurd;" that they state the circumference of the world at 500000000 Yougans, or 245000000 British miles; that one of their kings reigned 27000 years; and that king Nanda possessed in his treasury above 1584000000 pounds sterling in gold;" it does not appear on what authority these assertions are made. They may be true, or they may be false. But, certainly, they are neither monstrous nor absurd. I do not recollect the subdivisions of a Yougan. But the true number of degrees will be found by dividing thereby. I will therefore, for the present, pass by the measurement. The 27000 years, which the great ancestor of Yudhisthir is said to have reigned, has been already explained. And whether king Nanda did, or did not, exist, is not very material. That various princes were known of that name in Hindostan is certain. The degree of credit due to the assertion that he possessed in his treasury at one time 1584000000 pounds sterling in gold, is the question to be investigated: If we understand the account literally, we should hesitate in giving credit to it. But there can be no more reason for taking this account, literally, than there is for supposing the riches of the king of Jerusalem. to be intended to be so taken. Taken literally, they agree tolerably well. For supposing that David appropriated one half of his revenues, as an offering to the temple, then the amount in gold was 1296000000; which brings us back to the Hindu numbers. We cannot be too cautious in giving credence to those authors, who, not venturing to ridicule the text of Scripture, select, from the Hindu records, those passages which approximate the nearest thereto, for the purpose of either placing them in a ridiculous point of view, or pronouncing them "monstrous absurdities." At the time Nanda reigned, (for during the whole of the Hindu government, the revenues were collected, and fines levied in Racticas) the gold Ractica was in value four pence of our money; and a Trasarenus is the 1296th part of a Ractica, as follows: * Trasarenus 1 × 8 = 8x3= 24 × 3 TABLE IX. 8, or 1 minute poppy-seed. 24, or 1 black mustard-seed. 72, or 1 white mustard-seed. 72×6= 432, or 1 middle sized barley-corn. 432 × 3 = 1296*, or 1 Ractica, or seed of a Gunja. by which their weights are regulated, and fines omitted; and these numbers equally form the basis, Letter*, we find the same numbers with the cypher Here, as in the table of time given in my first imposed: For example, IN SILVER. Trasarenus 1296 × 2= 2592 or 1 Mashaca. 2592 × 16 = 41472 or 1 Dharana or Purana. 41472 x 10 = 414720 or 1 Satamana. 414720 × 4 = 1658880 or 1 Nishca. IN COPPER. Trasarenus 1296 × 80 = 103680 or 1 Pana or Carshapana. In the eighth chapter of the Institutes of Menu, these calculations are confirmed. They are expressed in six stanzas as follows: "The very small mote, which may be discerned in a sun-beam passing through a lattice, is the least visible quantity, and men call it Trasarenu." Eight of these Trasarenus are supposed equal in weight to one minute poppy-seed; three of these seeds are equal to one black mustard-seed; and three of these last, to a white mustard-seed." "Six white mustard-seeds are equal to a middle sized barley-corn; three such barley-corns to one Ractica, or seed of the Gunja; five Racticas of gold are one Musha, and sixteen such Mushas one Suverna." "Four Suvernas make a Pala; ten Palas a Dharana; but two Racticas of silver, weighed together, are considered as one Mashaca." "Sixteen of these Mashacas are a silver Dharana, or Purana; but a Carsha, or eighty Racticas of copper is called a Pana or Carshapana." The weight of the Ractica is estimated at two grains. Mr. Wilford gives us no authority for his assertions, nor any clue, whereby to trace the period at which his rich king Nanda lived. And indeed, his subsequent account would lead us to suppose the whole fabulous, did not the amount of the riches of Nanda, nearly correspond with that mentioned in Scripture; as we shall presently see. A prince of the name of Nanda is stated by Sir William Jones, on the authority of Rhadacanta, to have commenced his reign A. M. 2406, and to have reigned one hundred years. He was the contemporary of Apappus Maximus of Egypt, whose reign was extended to an equal length*. But we can scarcely suppose, that this was the prince intended; more particularly, as Mr. Wilford brings him, in his pedigree of Noah, so far forward as the year B. c. 300. But the princes of those days, when Nanda ruled at Magadha, were so designated, from the number of their servants and cattle, in which their riches consisted: they being evidently tributary princes to the great ruler of Hindostan. Both the Hindus and Egyptians have a legend relative to a sovereign, who ruled about 500 years after the family of Sunaca became extinct. I do not recollect either his name, or the country over which he ruled. He is said to have been the richest monarch in the world. All his utensils are said to have been of gold: so that it became proverbial, and was afterwards believed, that whatever he touched, turned to that *Vide Table XXV. + See the subsequent part of this work. 1518 |