mined, the more directly will each of thofe Avatars be found to be illustrative of the great' event above alluded to; while the united evidence, arifing from them, reflects a light upon that event greater than has yet radiated upon it from any page of Gentile antiquity. "They all three," fays the prefident of the Afiatic Society, "apparently relate to some ftupendous convulfion of our globe from the fountains of the deep."* In direct proof of Sir William's affertion, I fhall, in this place, somewhat prematurely, present the reader with a print of the first of those Avatars, which was copied by one of the Roman miffionaries from the walls of an Indian pagoda, on which the ten transformations of Veeshnu were delineated in the fucceffive order in which they take place. In juftice to myself I must remark, that this print properly belongs to the first volume of my history, in which all the Avatars are distinctly described, and most of them engraved; but as it is poffible that the increased fum, at which I have been obliged to fix the price of these volumes, may unfortunately deprive me of the continued patronage, throughout the work, of fome of my fubscribers, I here, with grateful attention, submit Afiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 235. 1 mit a duplicate of the plate for their particular accommodation and inspection. The following are in brief the outlines of the allegory, extracted from the Bhagavat, where may be found the paffage from the same book cited above, Near the close of the laft CALPA, (a period of duration of aftronomical origin, and refering to the rate of the precession of the equinoxes, but ftated in the Surya Siddhanta as equal to a thousand maha yugs, or grand revolutions,) BRAHMA, fatigued with the care of fo many worlds, fell into a profound flumber. During this flumber of the creator, the strong dæmon or giant Hayagriva came near him, and stole the VEDAS; thofe four facred volumes which originally flowed from the lips of the quadru ple deity. With this ineftimable treasure he retired into the deep and fecret bofom of the ocean; and, refolving never to surrender the booty he had fecured, fwallowed the ftolen Vedas. Deprived of the vigilant care of Brahma, the world fell into diforder; while, no longer guided by the light that emanated from the facred books, the human race became, to the last degree, corrupt. They were all confequently destroyed in a vast deluge, except a certain pious king and his family, which, in very fingular conformity to the relation of Sacred Writ, confifted of seven persons, who floated upon the waters in a vessel fabricated according to the exprefs direction of Veefhnu. For, this pious monarch, one day performing his devotions on the fhore of the ocean, was forewarned of the approaching calamity by that preferving deity; and having prepared a veffel, as commanded, at the appointed time, Veefhnu appeared again in the form of a fish, "blazing like gold, and extending a million of leagues, with one ftupendous horn," to which the king fastened the vessel by a cable compofed of a vaft ferpent, and was thus towed in fafety along the furface of the raging element. When the waters abated, he and his companions were again fafely landed. Veefhnu then, re-plunging into the ocean, flew, in conflict, the tremendous dæmon Hayagriva, and, rending open the monster's belly, recovered three of the Vedas, but the fourth, according to the allegory, was digefted. The plate annexed discovers Veeshnu rising from the ocean after vanquishing the dæmon, whose head, decorated with horns like thofe of all other princely perfonages in Oriental mythology, is feen floating upon the waves below. Veefhnu appears as if prefenting the facred books, books, which he had thus recovered, to Brahma, who is difcerned above. The third, or Bara Avatar, is not lefs pointedly allufive to the fame awful event. In this incarnation Veeflinu affumes the form of a BOAR, and lifts up upon his huge tusks the ponderous globe, which another dæmon, (an agent ever prefent in Hindoo mythology,) equally gigantic and malignant, after rolling it up like a feroll, had carried away on his shoulders, and buried deep in the abyss. The meaning of all this is fo obvious as to preclude the neceffity of infifting, in this place, how clearly the affertion of Sir William Jones, as to the three firft Avatars, is demonftrated. I fhall return, therefore, in the next fection, to the farther confideration of that curious doctrine, the Metempfychofis, to which, probably, that of the Avatars originally gave birth, and of the ancient myfteries, in which its stupendous arcana were unveiled. SECTION SECTION VII. The Subject of the Metempsychofis, and the AN- Doctrine the Source of all the horrible Penances a Doctrine neceffarily believed in India. The Nature of the Deity, and his Attributes, unfolded in the Mysteries by phyfical Symbols, as, for Inftance, bis creative Energy by the Phallus, or Lingam; his spotless Purity by the тa Osiα DUTα, or transparent Orbs of dazzling Brightness; &c. &c. A ftill fublimer Theology, however, fomewhat resembling the Patriarchal, pervaded the Afiatic World, and particularly flourished in the School of the great Indian Philofopher VYASA. The fecret Operations alfo of Nature herself, when confidered diftinctly from the Great First Caufe, as well in the fuperior as the fubterraneous World, |