present the number seven calls for some notice; for the number of those preserved in the ark was eight. But numbers and names, that have been preserved by tradition, are often covered with a cobweb of obscurity from various causes. The principal personages both in classical and Hindoo mythology are sometimes androgynous; Venus is represented with a beard; the moon is both Lunus and Luna ; Brahma divides himself into two bodies, the one male, the other female; Siva and Parvati are sometimes combined in one body 2: and all this is because the patriarch is sometimes viewed separately and alone, at other times in conjunction with his wife, as the parent of the postdiluvian race. Sometimes the number alone is preserved without regard to relationship or sex; and then the same names and the same qualities are attributed to all, and it is difficult to make out whether the characters are distinct, or one and the same re-appearing on the stage under various disguises of fable: thus, on the one hand, Sir W. Jones suspects, that all the Menus are reducible to one, who was called Nuh by the Arabs; and probably, he adds, by the Hebrews, though we have disguised his name by an improper pronunciation of it. On the other hand, Mr. Wilford suggests, that the seven Menus, the seven Rishis, and the seven Brahmadicas, or children of Brahma, were the same, and 1 Lunam masculum deum, ut plerique omnes in oriente populi, Ægyptii ducebant. Salmasius in Jul. Salin. Polyhist. p. 311. The Anglo-saxons according to Sharon Turner did the same. 2 See Moor's Pantheon. Plates 4. 27. make only seven individual persons.' The seventh Menu, however, was undoubtedly Noah; for in the Matsya Purana, which will presently be noticed, the Mosaic deluge is described in terms that admit of no mistake or doubt, and in the book, which is called the Laws of Menu, he calls himself the secondary framer of all this visible world." 3 He has the title of Satyaurata, because he belongs to the Satya Yug, the first or golden age of the Hindoos; and Vratta is a circle: hence his name imports the originator of the circle, or the author of the circular worship. It will be shewn hereafter, that circular enclosures were Arkite temples, and that the mode of worship was by circular gyrations. Now if Sraddha and Vratta are the same word, as sylva and an are, it may be conjectured, that whether it be now practised or not, this was the ceremony prescribed to the devotee, in the laws of Menu. Each day let him perform a Sraddha with boiled rice and the like, or water, for thus he obtains favor from departed progenitors; this act of due honour to departed souls on the dark day of the moon is famed by the appellation of Pitrya or Ancestral." Great stress is laid upon the offerings on these occasions. An oblation by 1 As. Res. v. 246. 5 2 Sir W. Jones's Works, iii. 336. 729. 3 Satya seems to be the same as Satwa, which signifies truth or purity, and is a title of Doorga or Parvati, the mountain born, considered as the author of existence. It corresponds with the Sydic of the Welsh bards. 4 Moor's Pantheon, p. 167. 5 Sir William Jones, v. vii. 166. Brahmans to their ancestors transcends an oblation to the deities, because that to the deities is considered as the opening and completion of that to ancestors', and therefore it is ordained, that having satisfied Agni, alias Jivani, Soma, and Yama, they should proceed to satisfy the manes of their progenitors, who are called by the sages gods of the obsequies, and the chief of the twiceborn." In those deities, tradition seems to have preserved the names of Japhet, Shem, and Ham; unconsciously, however; for otherwise less honour would not have been paid to them, than to their children; but this fact admits of an easy explanation: their deities of a later age being called Devas, and these being the offspring of the Pitris, the earlier objects of their worship, who were most truly twice born, first into the antediluvian world, and afterwards into the new world out of the ark, came to be confounded with the descendants of their own children. The stream of superstition was so turbid and muddy, that it was difficult to see the bottom of it; but now, since its impurities have partly been deposited by lapse of time, it is somewhat more transparent. Agni and Soma being viewed as the sun and moon, were justly held in less honour than the progenitors; for that sort of worship was posterior to the other as well as inferior, a fact sufficiently implied in the history of those divinities: for one of the ark-preserved saints, the children of Menu, (Atri), was 1 Sir W. Jones, vii. 166. VOL. I. G 2 Ibid. vii. 186. the father of the moon', and another, (Casyapa), was the father of the sun. 2 It is no objection to this statement, that one of these same Rishis had a name which corresponds to Allsun, nor that the sun and moon were said to be two of the eight guardian deities of the world. For when the worship of the heavenly bodies grew out of the decay of true religion, it was a natural mode of conciliating the elder superstitions to represent them animated by the spirits of men already deified, whether their apotheosis were of recent or of ancient date; whether they were kings and heroes not long deceased, or members of the patriarchal family. The first king of Hindostan, says Dow, is said to have been Krishen; not that Krishen whom the Hindoos worship, but a man of wisdom, policy, and courage, who lived to the age of 400 years. The historian is mistaken: for the Krishen, or Krishna, whom the Hindoos worship, was an incarnation of Vishnu; that is to say, he was a man; and it is not difficult to discover who that man was, by comparing the historical and mytho logical traditions: his age was 400 years; an age attained by none since the days of the Patriarch: he peopled 2000 towns; i. e. from him the earth was re-peopled after the deluge. His vizier was Brahma, the father of many arts, of writing, and of 1 Under the name of Chandra.-Moor, p. 90. 3 Viswamitra. 4 Agni and Soma. working in wood and iron. Now Brahma, or Brimha, signifies the wisdom of God, and by means of wisdom imparted to him from that source, the second father of the human race transmitted to his descendants the arts by which he constructed the ark.1 Let us next turn to his mythological character. For a certain time, he was hidden in the moon, which it will be seen hereafter was a common type of the ark; and in one legend, he is represented to be the conqueror of the demon of the ocean, who had swallowed up the children of his spiritual preceptor 2; but his most singular exploit was the lifting up a mountain, under which his votaries found shelter from the wrath of Indra, the god of the elements, who sent a deluge to destroy them. The ark, or real place of shelter, is evidently confounded in this tradition with the mountain on which it rested: almost every age has added some inventions to adorn the character of Krishna, which have given him a very diversified aspect; but these circumstances are sufficient to identify him with Noah in his origin. Both Satyaurata and Krishna are avatars, or incarnations, of Vishnu : now Vishnu, alias Surya, is the sun, and Krishna is the sun, both in Irish and in San 1 Krishna, says Vallancey, is from Crisean, which in Irish means holy, pure, a priest.-Vindication of Hist. of Ireland, p. 82. 2 Moor's Hindu Pantheon, pp. 198. 213. Plate 62. 3 Moor's Pantheon, p. 199. 4 Ibid. pp. 112. and 280. Vishnu is a personification of the sun, or conversely the sun is a type of him. Ibid. 16. |
