rotation (see ASTRONOMY:
_History_). Under the heading _Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica_, Tycho
published at Wandsbeck, in 1598, a description of his instruments,
together with an autobiographical account of his career and discoveries,
including the memorable one of the moon's "variation" (see MOON). The
book was reprinted at Nuremberg in 1602 (cf. Hasselberg,
_Vierteljahrsschrift Astr. Ges._ xxxix. iii. 180). His _Epistolae
Astronomicae_, printed at Uraniborg in 1596 with a portrait engraved by
Geyn of Amsterdam in 1586, were embodied in a complete edition of his
works issued at Frankfort in 1648. Tycho vastly improved the art of
astronomical observation. He constructed a table of refractions, allowed
for instrumental inaccuracies, and eliminated by averaging accidental
errors. He, moreover, corrected the received value of nearly every
astronomical quantity; but the theoretical purpose towards which his
practical reform was directed, was foiled by his premature death.

See J.L.E. Dreyer's _Tycho Brahe_ (Edinburgh, 1890), which gives full
and authentic information regarding his life and work. Also Gassendi's
_Vita_ (Paris, 1654); _Lebensbeschreibung_, collected from various
Danish sources, and translated into German by Philander von der
Weistritz (Copenhagen and Leipzig, 1756); _Tyge Brahe_, by F.R. Friis
(Copenhagen, 1871); _Prager Tychoniana_, collected by Dr F.I.
Studnicka (Prague, 1901), a description of the scanty Tychonian relics
which survived the Thirty Years' War and are still preserved at
Prague. (A. M. C.)

BRAHMAN, a Sanskrit noun-stem which, differently accented, yields in the
two nominatives _Brahma_ (neut.) and _Brahma_ (masc.), the names of two
deities which occupy prominent places in the orthodox system of Hindu
belief. Brahma (n.) is the designation generally applied to the Supreme
Soul (_paramatman_), or impersonal, all-embracing divine essence, the
original source and ultimate goal of all that exists; Brahma (m.), on
the other hand, is only one of the three hypostases of that divinity
whose creative activity he represents, as distinguished from its
preservative and destructive aspects, ever apparent in life and nature,
and represented by the gods Vishnu and Siva respectively. The history of
the two cognate names reflects in some measure the development of Indian
religious speculation generally.

The neuter term _brahma_ is used in the _Rigveda_ both in the abstract
s