We are told by Strabo, in the fifteenth book of his Geography, that the Brahmans admitted, as a thing well known, that the earth was of a spherical figure; and indeed they are actually convinced of the truth of this principle. They divide the diameter of it into a hundred and sixty equal parts, which they call _Yogiana_. When they wish to determine the degree of latitude under which a place lies, they employ the _Palabhá_, that is, the shadow projected by the gnomon of a dial, placed in a perpendicular direction, exactly at the time when the sun is on the equator. The longitude, called _Deshándara_, they determine by eclipses of the moon; and it is reckoned from the first meridian, which most of the Brahmans make to pass through the western extremity of the island _Lanca_ or _Ceylon_. The place where it does so is called _Salmala_, and is probably a mountain on the coast of _Pescaria_, which is adjacent to that island; at least we have reason to conclude so from this circumstance, that the coast of _Pescaria_ is called in the Samscred language _Salàbhabu_. We know from the Indian mythology, that _Rama_ (the Indian Bacchus, or the Sun,) went to the first meridian in _Lanca_, when he wished to expel _Ravana_ the king of the night; and that, for this purpose, he passed over the bridge _Ràma_, which is properly nothing else than a sand-bank, that affords a passage from _Pescaria_ to _Lanca_. Here then in the island of _Lanca_ is the first meridian, where, according to the idea of the Brahmans, immediately after midnight the natural day begins to appear, and then diffuses itself earlier or later over all the other places towards the east or the west, according as they lie under a nearer or more remote degree of longitude. There are, however, various other places which the Brahmans make their first meridian to pass through: such, for example, as _Avanti_, a town in the country of the Marattas. The inhabitants of the coast of Malabar reckon the hours of the day and the night from the rising and setting of the sun. Thus they say, in the first _Nàliga_ (hour) of the day; in the second _Nàliga_ of the night, &c. Few of the Indians reckon the hours from noon. The duration of time, called _Ràla_, or _Muhurta_, is reckoned by the breathings of a person in health. Six breathings make a _Vinàlica_, or minute; sixty _Vinàlica_ make a _Danda_; and sixty _Danda_, _Dina_, or _Nàliga_, form one _Nakshatranàl_, that is, a natural day; and thirty such _Nakshatranàl_ make a _Masà_, or astronomical month. In Malabar the day and night consist of sixty _Nàliga_, which together, according to the Italian method of reckoning time, amount to twenty-four hours. The night is divided into four _Yama_, or watches; so that the two first last till midnight, and the other two till morning. There is a similar division of the day. These watches have not been borrowed from military regulations; but were first established by the Brahmans employed in celestial observations.