pata (point of intersection of the Ecliptic and Equator) in a Maha Yug[1] are 600 eastward” (4,320,000 years). Again, “The Bhaganas (revolutions) of the ayanansa (equinoctial points) in a Maha Yug are 600 (4,320,000), the saura[2] years in the same period 4,320,000: one bhagana of the ayanansa therefore contains 7,200 years.” Here the Neros and the origin of the famous 432,000 are very clear,[3] where it is shewn that, according to the Hindoos, the equinoxes have a libration.
This La Place is said to have demonstrated, but he makes it very small, while they extend it from the third degree of Pisces to the twenty-seventh of Aries, and from the third of Virgo to the twenty-seventh of Libra, and back again, in 7200 years.
It is admitted by all the Brahmins that their Cali Yug, or their fourth period (at the beginning of which they say the vernal equinoctial point was in the first degree of Aries) took place or began 3101 years before Christ.[4] The beginning of this fourth period is evidently about the end of the fifth back from the æra of Christ, which is the time assigned by them to the flood of Noah when he came out of the ark. These five, and the three preceding, make eight ages, or Yugs, or Neroses, which we shall see were known by the initiated in both the Eastern and Western nations. But I must stop my argument to give a specimen of the uncertainty of ancient chronology.
The following statement will shew how little dependance can be placed upon systems of chronology:
Blair and Usher state the period from the creation to Christ, to be in the Hebrew
| Version of the Bible | 4004 years |
| The LXX | 5872 |
| The Samaritan | 4700 |
| Josephus states it to be[5] | 4483 |
| And Eusebius | 5200 |
Sir William Drummond, in his treatise on the Zodiacs of Esne and Dendera, gives the following numbers:
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| Received text | 4004 | ||
| Samaritan text | 4245 | ||
| Septuagint 2262+3128 | 5390 | ||
| Josephus | 
|
5688 | |
| Seder Olam Sutha | 
|
3751 | |
| Maimonides | 
|
Jewish Authorities | 4058 |
| Gersom |
|
3754 | |
| Asiatic Jews | 
|
4180 | |
Sir William Drummond adopts the LXX., and thus divides it—2262 years to the deluge, and 3128 from the deluge to the birth of Christ.
The following numbers are taken from Dr. Hales:
- ↑ The reader will observe that the Yug, or age as it ought to be translated, is of all lengths—from 5 to 5000 years. Every system, and there is a vast number of systems, has its own yug.
- ↑ Does the word Saura mean Surya?
- ↑ See Asiat. Res. Vol. II. pp. 268—270.
- ↑ Jones’s Asiat. Res. Vol. II. p. 393.
- ↑ Vide Whiston on Old Testament, p. 214; preface to the 21st volume of Universal History; also Celtic Druids, p. 148.
2 B
