deities, and to explain the origin of their foundation with the necessary arrangement, would require a knowledge far superior to mine in the mysterious subject of Hindoo Mythology. It is at this day enveloped in such deep obscurity, that even those pundits the most skilfully versed in the Sanscrit,* are not able to render it moderately comprehensible to the generality of people.

BUT as some relation of a city so famous in Hindoostan, and now so well known in Europe for supplying one of the grand sources of the religious worship of the Hindoos, and being the chief repository of the science yet existing among them, may not be unacceptable to you, together with a cursory investigation of the Mythology of Brimha; the task shall be attempted with attention to the object, and, I trust, with a strict adherence to truth.

Ar the distance of eight miles from the city of Benares, as it is approached on the river, from the eastward, the eye is attracted by the view of two lofty minarets, which were erected by Aurungzebe, on the foundation of an ancient Hindoo temple, dedicated to the Mhah Deve. The construction on this sacred ruin of so tow-" ering a Mahometan pile, which, from its elevated

* The language in which the sacred legends of the Hindoos have been preserved.

height, seems to look down with triumph and exultation on the fallen state of a city so profoundly revered by the Hindoos, would appear to have been prompted to the mind of Aurungzebe, by a bigoted and intemperate desire of insulting their religion. If such was his wish, it hath been completely fulfilled. For the Hindoos consider this monument, as the disgraceful record of a foreign yoke, proclaiming to every stranger, that their favourite city has been debased, and the worship of ther gods defiled. From the top of the minarets is seen the entire prospect of Benares, which occupies a space of about two miles and an half along the northern bank of the Ganges, and generally a mile inland from the river. Many of the houses, which are remarkably high, some of them having six and seven floors, are built of stone, resembling that species found in the quarries of Portland, and which abounds in this part of the country. But the streets where these lofty buildings stand, are so narrow as not to admit of two common carriages abreast. In addition to the pernicious effect which must proceed from a confined atmosphere, there is, in the hot season, an intolerable stench arising from the many pieces of stagnated water dispersed in different

* The Benares, or Chunar-Ghur stone, is closer grained and deeper coloured, than that of Portland.

quarters of the town, whose waters and borders are appropriated to the necessary uses of the inhabitants. The filth also, which is indiscriminately thrown into the streets, and there left exposed, (for the Hindoos possess but a small portion of general cleanliness,) add to the compound of ill smells, so offensive to the European inhabitants of this city. The irregular and compressed manner which has been invariably adopted in forming the streets of Benares, has destroyed the effects which symmetry and arrangement would have otherwise bestowed on a city, entitled, from its valuable buildings, to a preference of any capital which I have seen in India.

In my research into the principles of the Hindoo religion, I received great aid from a conversant knowledge of the Marhatta language, and an acquaintance, though very trivial, with the Sanscrit. The use of this last tongue, now chiefly confined to a particular sect of Bramins, who officiate in the character of priests, hath ever been made the channel of conveying to the Hindoos, the essential tenets of their religion, with all the various forms of their worship. The Sanscrit is a sonorous language, abounding in pith and conciseness; and its periods flow with boldness, and terminate in a cadence peculiarly musical. An extract of a sloke, or stanza, which has been quoted by

Mr. Halhed, is a striking testimony of the nervous composition, and the laconic turn of the Sanscrit. Being composed of only four lines, I will insert it, and endeavour to give the translation literally, aud in verse.

enemy.

n'punditäh,

unlearned.

The mother who hath lost her fame,
The Sire profuse and foe to shame,
Are to their race a pest;

A Bride's soft joys oft' thorns implant,
And he who roams in folly's haunt,
Destroys his father's rest.

THE Hindoos believe in one God, without beginning and without end, on whom they bestow, descriptive of his powers, a variety of epithets. But the most common appellation, and which conveys the sublimest sense of his greatness, is, Sree Mun Narrain*. The Hin

* There is reason to believe, that in the more early periods of time, before the priests of the Hindoos had found it expedient, for the firmer establishment of their sway over the minds of the people,

doos, in their supplication to the Deity, address him as endowed with the three attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, which in the Sanscrit are expressed by the terms, Neerangin, Neerakar, and Neergoon. Though these terms may not, in literary strictness, comprise the precise meaning of the English text, they convey it virtually, and in the amplest sense. The Hindoos likewise believe, that the Supreme Deity possesses a threefold form, the parts of which are said to be separate. It is composed of Sree Mun Narrain, who is supposed to represent a human form; the Alhah Letchinry, described as a beautiful woman; and a serpent on which the Deity is seated. This emblematical assemblage, a symbol of strength, love, and wisdom, according

to raise a huge superstructure of emblematical worship, the temples erected to the Supreme Being were plain, and void of personification: the remains of one of these are now to be seen on the summit of a hill, near the city of Kashmire; which, according to tradition, had been dedicated to the Creator of the world; in which the prayers of those who entered, were addressed to the Deity without supplicating the intercession of an intermediate agent, and where

no image,

or symbol of Divine power, had a place. A gentleman of curious research on the coast of Coromandel, informed me, that at Chilemberum, about 20 miles to the southward of Cudalore, he religious Hindoo edifice, plain, and without any interior figure, which was devoted to the worship of "the Invisible God," and was never approached but with tokens of profound awe and

saw a

reverence.