in Vaicont' ha, having left the inftructions comprized in the Gità with his difconfolate friend Arjun, whofe grandfon became fovereign of India. In this picture it is impoffible not to discover, at the first glance, the features of Apollo, furnamed Nomios, or the Pastoral, in Greece, and Opifer in Italy; who fed the herds of Admetus, and flew the ferpent Python; a God amorous, beautiful, and warlike. The word Govinda may be literally tránflated Nomois, as Césava is Crinitus, or with fine hair; but whether Gópála, or the herdsman, has any relation to Apollo, let our Etymologifts determine. Colonel Vallencey, whofe learned inquiries into the ancient literature of Ireland are highly interefting, affures me, that Crishna in Irish means the Sun; and we find Apollo and Sol confidered by the Roman poets as the fame deity. I am inclined, indeed, to believe, that not only Crishnu or Vishnu, but even Brahmá and Siva, when united, and expreffed by the myftical word O'M, were defigned by the firft idolaters to represent the Solar Fire; but Phœbus, or the orb of the Sun perfonified, is adored by the Indians as the God Súrya, whence the fe&t, who pay him particular adoration, are called Sauras. Their poets and painters defcribe his car as drawn by feven green horfes, preceded by Arun, or the Dawn, who acts as his charioteer, and followed by thousands of Genii, worshipping him and modulating his praises. He has a multitude of names, and among them twelve epithets or titles, which denote his diftinct powers in each of the twelve months; thofe powers are called Adityas, or fons of Aditi by Casyapa, the Indian Uranus; and one of them has, according to fome authorities, the name of Vishnu, or Pervader. Súry a Súrya is believed to have defcended frequently from his car in a human fhape, and to have left a race on earth, who are equally renowned in the Indian ftories with the Heliadai of Greece. It is very fingular, that his two fons, called Aswinau, or Aswinícumárau, in the dual, fhould be confidered as twin-brothers, and painted like Castor and Pollux; but they have each the character of Esculapius among the Gods, and are believed to have been born of a nymph, who, in the form of a mare, was impregnated with fun-beams. I fufpect the whole fable of Casyapa and his progeny to be aftronomical; and cannot but imagine, that the Greek name Cassiopeia has a relation to it. Another great Indian family are called the Children of the Moon, or Chandra; who is a male Deity, and confequently not to be compared with Artemis or Diana; nor have I yet found a parallel in India for the Goddefs of the Chase, who seems to have been the daughter of an European fancy, and very naturally created by the invention of Bucolick and Georgick poets; yet, fince the Moon is a form of Iswara, the God of Nature, according to the verse of Cálidása, and fince Isáni has been shown to be his consort or power, we may confider her, in one of her characters, as Luna; especially as we fhall soon be convinced that, in the fhades below, fhe corresponds with the Hecate of Europe. The worship of Solar, or Vestal, Fire may be afcribed, like that of Osiris and Isis, to the fecond fource of Mythology, or an enthufiaftic admiration of Nature's wonderful powers; and it feems, as far as I can yet underftand the Védas, to be the principal worfhip recommended in them. We have feen, that Mahádéva himfelf is perfonated by Fire; but fubordinate to him is the God Agni, often called Pávaca, or the Purifier, who anfwers anfwers to the Vulcan of Egypt, where he was a Deity of high rank; and his wife Swáhá refembles the younger Vesta, or Vestia, as the Eolians pronounced the Greek word for a hearth. Bhaváni, or Venus, is the confort of the Supreme Destructive and Generative Power; but the Greeks and Romans, whofe fyftem is lefs regular than that of the Indians, married her to their divine artist, whom they also named Hephaistos and Vulcan, and who feems to be the Indian Viswacarman, the forger of arms for the Gods, and inventor of the agnyastra, or fiery shaft, in the war between them and the Daityas or Titans. It is not eafy here to refrain from obferving (and, if the obfervation give offence in England, it is contrary to my intention) that the newly difcovered planet fhould unquestionably be named Vulcan; fince the confufion of analogy in the names of the planets is inelegant, unscholarly, and unphilofophical. The name Uranus is appropriated to the firmament; but Vulcan, the floweft of the Gods, and, according to the Egyptian priests, the oldest of them, agrees admirably with an orb, which muft perform its revolution in a very long period; and, by giving it this denomination, we fhall have feven primary Planets with the names of as many Roman Deities, Mercury, Venus, Tellus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Vulcan. It has already been intimated, that the Muses and Nymphs are the Gópya of Math'urà, and of Goverdhan, the Parnassus of the Hindus, and the lyrick poems of Jayadeva will fully juftify this opinion; but the Nymphs of Musick are the thirty Ráginis or Female Passions, whofe various functions and properties are fo richly delineated by the Indian painters, and fo finely described by the poets: but I will not anticipate what will require a feparate Effay, by enlarging here on the beautiful allegories of the Hindus in their fyftem of mufical modes, which they call Rágás, or Passions, and suppose to be Genii or Demigods. A very diftinguished fon of Brahma |