"him, and vanished from his pre

" fence.

"And when the agitation of the hoale had fubfided, by the powers "of the fpirit of Brum, Biftnoo ftraightways transformed himself into a mighty boar, and defcending into "the abyss of fhoale, he brought up "the Murto on his tusks.-Then spontaneously iffued from him, a mighty tortoife, and a mighty fnake ‡.

"And Biftnoo put the fnake erect 66 upon the back of the tortoife, and placed Murto upon the head of the

"fnake.

"And all things were created and "formed by Birmah in the eighth "Boboon of punishment and probation, "even the eighth of Murto, according "to the powers of the fpirit, where"with the Eternal ONE had endued " him.

*The Gentoos fymbol of ftrength, because, in proportion to his fize, he is the strongest of all animals. + The Gentoos fymbol of ftability.

The Gentoos fymbol of wisdom,

" And

"And Biftnoo took upon him the "fuperintendence and charge of all "that was created, and formed, by. "Birmah in the eighth Boboon of "Murto; and he cherished and preferved them, as the words of the "Eternal ONE had directed, and com"manded."

REMARK S.

N the fame fublime allegorical manner,

IN

has Bramah defcribed the creation of Surjee *, and Chunder †, and the other twelve Boboons of the Dunneaboudah, without pretending, or aiming to dive into, and explain, the principles of matter, or the nature of thofe effential laws of motion by which the Deity guides and governs his creation; the wifdom of Bramah has elsewhere marked fuch fruitless enquiries, with the stamp of prefumption and folly; and that the knowledge of these, and the mode of the existence of God, is concealed even from the three primary created beings themselves.

From the foregoing fpecimen of the creation of the eighth region, as well as

*The Sun.

+ The Moon.

from

from Bramah's hiftorical difcuffion of the other fourteen, it is moft obvious, that the perfonages which he introduces as actors in the work of that creation were intended by him to be taken only in a figurative sense, as expreffive of the three fupreme attributes of the Deity, his power to create, his power to prejerve, and his power to change, or deftroy, as before hinted *.-For if they were to be understood in any other fenfe, it would exprefly contradict his own text, where he reprefents the creation of the Dunneaboudah as proceeding from the inftantaneous fiat of the Eternal ONE; and a further proof of Bramah's plain intention, refults from his prefixing the fame exordium to each of his fections of creation.

But as the real fenfe and meaning of the allegory (then clearly understood by all) was, in procefs of time, loft to the generality of the Gentoos; the compilers of the Chatah and Aughtorrah Bhades, took the advantage (which ignorance and time gave them) and not only realifed Bramah's three mystical beings, but created alfo a multitude of fubordinate actors, and made Demi-gods and Divinities of them all, inftituting particular days, fafts, and feftivals, and other exterior Vid, Introduction to the fourth chapter.

worship,

worship, to each :-Thus Surjee and Ghunder, Modoo and Kytoo, and a race of their children and defcendants, became Demi-gods and heroes; and scorning to confine themselves to the eighth Boboon, they ranfacked the fourteen, and framed divinities of the principal perfonages which their wild imagination fuppofed refident in each of them, and allotted to them peculiar divine worship, which fubfifts to this day.

It will not, we hope, be thought an improbable conjecture, if we fay, that the allegorical parts of Bramah's Chartah Bhade, (which truely bears a divine femblance) being thus perverted or grofly mistaken by the very tribe, which he had inftituted guardians over it, and being fubfequently communicated to the Egyptian Magi, and by them circulated through the states of Greece, afforded them, as well as Rome and the whole Western world, those inexhaustible fupplies of mythological fyftems, which held their existence and authority even long after the light of chriftianity had fhone upon them.-But to refume our more immediate fubject.

The act of creation of the Boboon of Murto, is reprefented in the annexed plate N° 1. which (with others we shall have occafion

to

to prefent to the reader) was drawn by the inftructions, and under the eye of a judicious Bramin of the Battezaar tribe, the tribe, as before noticed, ufually employed in expounding the Shaftabs.

Brum is reprefented lying and floating on a leaf of beetle, over the troubled furface of the abyss of Fhoale; the three primary beings appear before it, in the pofture of adoration, Birmah on the right, Biftnoo in the middle, and Sieb on the left.

On the right, above the abyfs, is figured a huge boar, bearing on his tufks a lump of earth. -On the left, above the abyfs, is reprefented a tortoife, on which a fnake refts his tail, bearing Murto (or the earth) on his head.Brum and Birmah are habited alike; and are each figured with four heads and four arms.-The three primary beings, are fuppofed in the pofture of adoration, to be receiving the commands of the Eternal ONE, touching his projected new creation; and the other figures exprefs the three gradations of the work, namely the beginning, the progrefs, and completion †.

* Spirit or effence of the Eternal ONE: vide Introduction to the fourth chapter.

+ Vide Plate N° 1.

Part II.

I

No:with