THE immenfe group of Hindoo gods enjoy immortality, with which they are gifted by drinking a water called Amrut, a mythological beverage, bearing fome analogy to the nectar of Homer's Deities. In the mythology of the Hindoos is found an elegant description of nine goddeffes, resembling, in a certain degree, the mufes of the ancients, in the nature of their occupations. There is also most picturesquely delineated, the god of love, who has a variety of epithets, all fignificant of the unbounded fway which he poffeffes over the hearts of men. His common names are Kaum and Mudden, and he is reprefented as a pleafing youth, armed with a bow of sugar cane, ftrung with the ftings of bees; and five arrows, denoting the five fenfes, each of which is baited with different qualities of the poifon of love. A picture was found at Tanjore, when the fort was captured riding on a elephant, whofe form was compofed of the figures of feven young women, entwined together in fo ingenious and whimsical a manner, as to exhibit an exact shape of that bulky animal. In the Befs + Eifhwer Pagoda at Benares, is feen a ftone figure, well executed, of the god of the fun fitting in a chariot, and driving a horfe with twelve heads, an, evident allufion to the divifions of the ecliptic.

* It is also said to represent Kishin, an incarnated form of the Deity.

† An abreviated compound of Vyftnow, or Bifhen and Eifhwer. In this temple, which is dedicated to these two Deities in conjunction, the fectaries of both offer up their prayers.

WITHOUT putting etymology to the torture, or moulding to the shape of his system the deceitful aids of chronology, the careful observer might be enabled to trace fome parts of the religious worship of the Hindoos into Egypt. He would difcover the facred Bull or Cow of Sheva, placed high in the holy legends of the Coptis ; and he would fee the fnake, one of the mysterious affociates of Sree Mun Narrain, devoutly revered by that nation, as the hieroglyphic of wisdom and longevity. It would appear that the onion, mentioned by historians to be held in such profound veneration amongst the Egyptians, is no less marked with reverence in Hindostan; where, though the use of a vegetable diet is ftrongly inculcated, and with not a very large deviation, ufually adopted, the onion is forbidden to many of the fects; and in the upper part of India, when an oath, on which a matter of importance depends, is administered, the Bramin frequently introduces the onion, to render the ceremony more facred.

In comparing the religious worship of the Hindoos with that of the ancients, the functions of fome of the Deities appear confpicuously uniform; and were it poffible to procure a description of the occupations and various powers of the Hindoo fubaltern gods, it might be found, that the group of the western pantheon had been selected from the divine affembly of Brimha. The Egyptians and the Greeks, in their commerce with India, through the channel of the Red Sea, have left, I have been fometimes induced to believe, tokens behind them of their connection with the

Hindoos.

Hindoos, In the collection of a gentleman at Benares are several valuable antiques, which were purchased by the merchants of that city one of which, representing a matron, is cut in a manner bearing every mark of Grecian skill; and another exhibited Cleopatra in the act of being bitten by the afp. The same gentleman had in his poffeffion a Medusa's head, on an emerald, found also at Benares, which being fent to England, was unrefervedly acknowledged to be the work of a Grecian or Roman master. Some years ago, a high finished Camaieu was procured at Guzerat, whereon Hercules flaying the Nemean lion, was executed with much taste and fpirit. Thefe circumstances are adduced to fupport a conjecture, that, during the intercourfe which existed between the natives of Egypt and India, the former might have introduced into their country, with some of the rare and luxurious products of Hindooftan, certain tenets and ceremonies of Hindoo mythology. In endeavouring to point out the track of these antiques, it is to be noticed, thar they might have found a way into India in the cabinets of the Mahometans, who in the more early period of their empire, were little less enthusiastic in the admiration of Grecian productions and literature, than the Romans. And it is a fact in need of no illuftration, that the revival of letters and the arts, after the Roman world had been immersed in Gothic ruin, received a powerful aid from the princes of the Khaliphat.

My knowledge of aftronomy is fo confined, that I am almost

incapa

incapacitated from defcribing the attainment of the Bramins in that fcience, long before the era in which it flourished in the caftern world. The zodiac, with its twelve figns, is well known to the Hindoos, and they have bestowed on the feven days of the week, which commences with funday, the names of the planets. The folar year* of the Hindoos, which is arranged in fix feasons, confists of twelve months, containing three hundred and fixty-five days; and once in the term of four years an additional day is annexed for the completion of the earth's precise revolutions round the fun. Commercial tranfactions and writings of correfpondence are dated amongst the Hindoos according to the lunar, or Lumbut year, which commences about the period of the vernal equinox. The month is calculated from the full moon, and is divided into thirty equal parts. Those comprehending the moon's encrease, are termed Bood, and the portion of its wane, Bole, or Bood. On the third year of the Lumbut, an extraordinary month is altercalated, for the inclusion of the time required in equalizing the lunar and folar systems. The Joaguels are divided into cycles of twelve and fixty years, each of which is distinguished by its pecu

The folar, or as it is denominated by the Hindoos, the Lunkrant year, begins on the 10th or 11th of April, and its months are composed occafionally of 29, 30, 31, and 32 days. The common epocha of Hindoostan was established by the Rajah Vickerum Mhaject, and founded 57 years before the year of Chrift. Some Hindoo nations compute their time from other periods, as in Bengal; but their historical writings are generally adapted to the year of Vickerum Mhaject; who was much celebrated in Hindooftan, for his magnificence, and liberal protection of men of genius.

liar denomination.* The obfervatory at Benares, though rude in its structure, and containing inftruments fuitably coarse, proves notwithstanding, that the Hindoos poffefs the knowledge of ascertaining the motions of the heavenly bodies. Could access be obtained to fuch records of the Hindoos as are divested of that redundancy of fable with which their priests have so copiously interwoven them, it would not be presumptuous to suppose, that we would discover they had been, in the more early ages of the world, one of the most enlightened and powerful nations that inhabited the earth.

THE empire of the Hindoos, as related in many of their hif torical tracts, confifted of fifty-fix feparate principalities, ultimately governed by one prince, whofe kingdom extended from the fouthern limits of Tartary to the island of Ceylon, and from the confines of Affam and Arracan to the river Indus. This extenfive space was inhabited by a people who were divided into four dif tinct tribes, each exercising different functions, but all uniting in their various branches to promote the general good. It abounded in fair and opulent cities, which were decorated with magnificent

*The Hindoos, I believe, commonly clafs their time in cycles of fixty years, though that of twelve is alfo well known to them. Amongst fome articles of plunder, captured by the Company's troops in a Bantan Fort, was found, with other objects of the Hindoo worship, an image of the Mhah Deve, and a printed representation of the figures defcribing the Tartar cycle, which is compofed of 12 years. This figurative mode of marking time, which has prevailed from high antiquity in Japan, China, Siam, and through the vast regions of Tartary, is at this day obferved in the Turkish Empire.

VOL. I.

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temples