others as malignant beings: Shivu, as well as other gods, unite both these qualities: in one hand Shivă holds a dreadful weapon, and with two others he blesses the worshipper, and invites him to approach. Not one of these images, however, conveys the least idea of the moral attributes of God. 1. Brůmha. This god may be properly noticed first, as he is called the creator, and the grand-father of gods and men; in the latter designation he resembles Jupiter, as well as in the lasciviousness of his conduct, having betrayed a criminal passion towards his own daughter. Brùmha's image is never worshipped nor even made; but the Chundee describes it as that of a red man with four faces. He is red, as a mark of his being full of the ruju goonů; he has four faces, to remind the worshipper that the védŭs proceeded from his four mouths. In one hand he has a string of beads, to shew that his power as creator was derived from his devotion. The pan of water in his left hand points out, that all things sprang from water. It has excited much surprize, that this deity, so pre-eminent, should be entirely destitute of a temple and of worshippers. Mr. Paterson supposes, that, in some remote age, the worshippers of Shivă carried on a contest with the followers of Brumha, and wholly suppressed the worship of this god. This conjecture opens a wide field of enquiry; but this gentleman does not adduce any historical evidence of the fact. The story of Shiva's cutting off one of the heads of Brimha, and the existence of violent contentions betwixt different sects of Hindoos at the present day, can scarcely be considered as establishing it, though the conjecture appears not altogether improbable. These contentions for superiority are annually renewed at Hŭreedwarů, Uyodhya, &c. betwixt the Voishnŭvůs (Ramatus) and the followers of Shivu, in which quarrels many perish.‡ 2. Vishnoo. This is the image of a black man, with four arms, sitting on Gŭrooră, a creature half bird half man, and holding in his hands the sacred shell, the chukrů, the lotus, and a * Hindoo women, and the lower orders, regard Punchanŭtŭ, Dŭkshinŭ-rayŭ, Mănůsa, Sheetǎla, Shusht'bee, &c. as malignant demons, and worship them through fear, still praying to them for protection. The superior deities, though arrayed with attributes of terror, are considered as using their power only in favour of the worship per. + Brumha had five heads, but Shivů deprived him of one, as a punishment for his lust. ‡ Raja-Ramů, a learned Shikh, employed as a translator in the Serampore printing-office, says, that about forty years ago, not less than 10,000 persons, and, about twenty years ago 4 or 5000 perished in these contests at Huree-dwară. Another proof, added to that respecting the Bouddhus, that the Hindoo is not free from the fier cest spirit of persecution. club. His colour (black) is that of the destroyer, which is intended to show, that Shivă and he are one: he has four hands, as the representative of the male and female powers; the shell (blown on days of rejoicing) implies that Vishnoo is a friendly deity; the chŭkrů is to teach that he is wise to protect; the lotus is to remind the worshipper of the nature of final emancipation, that, as this flower is raised from the muddy soil, and after rising by degrees from immersion in the waters, expands itself above the surface to the admiration of all, so man is emancipated from the chains of human birth; the club shews that he chastises the wicked. Gŭroorú is a portion of Shivă; his body represents the védů. Vishnoo is distinguished as being the source of most of the Hindoo incarnations; in which forms he commands the worship of the greatest division of the Hindoo population. I know of no temples nor festivals in honour of Vishnoo. He is called the Preserver, but the actions ascribed to him under this character are referred to other forms and names. The shalgramů, a stone, is a form of Vishnoo. During four months of the year, all the forms of this god are laid to sleep. From the agreement of this fact with what is said of Horus, Mr. Paterson gathers a resemblance betwixt Vishnoo and Horus, and supposes that the Hindoos derived their system from the Egyptian: he conjectures also that the fable of Vishnoo's lying down to sleep, turning to one side, and rising, refer to the increase, the greatest rise, and the retiring of the waters of the Ganges, the Indian Nile. The state of the river in these four months agrees with this supposition, though the bramhuns Iconsulted were not aware that this ceremony had any connection with the Ganges. sometimes called the household god. Vishnoo is 3. Shiva is a white man with five faces and four arms, riding on a bull. In one hand he holds an axe, as the destroyer of the wicked; in another a deer, alluding to a sacrifice, when the deer, fleeing from the sacrificia! knife, took refuge with Shivă; with another hand he is bestowing a blessing, and with the last forbidding fear. Four of his faces are designed to point out the sixty-four tůntrus, and the other a different tůntrů. The bull is a form of Vishnoo as the personification of religion; its four feet are, religious austerities, purity, compassion, and truth. In some particulars, this god strongly reminds us of Vulcan and Bacchus. The few Hindoos in Bengal who adopt Shivů as their guardian deity are called soivyŭs. Except those of the lingǎ and of Pŭnchanŭnů, very few temples exist in honour of any other form of Shivu: and none of his form riding on a bull. Before the lingu, Shivü is however daily worshipped under eight separate names, answering to the sun, moon, wind, fire, water, earth, air, and an officiating priest at a sacrifice. Mr. Paterson thinks, that there were once fierce contentions amongst the four principal sects, and that as the soivyus first prevailed against the worshippers # of Brumha, so, in its turn, this sect was subdued by the followers of Vishnoo and of the female deities. The filthy appearance of Shivă as a mendicant covered with ashes, and his quarrels with Doorga, his wife, have given rise to several ludicrous stories found in the pooranus. This marriage excited the same surprise as that betwixt Venus and Vulcan, and seems an unaccountable event, unless it was intended to illustrate the gross idea of the Tüntru writers respecting the origin of the universe. Shivů has three eyes like Jupiter, wears a tyger's skin like Bacchus, and like him wandered about when on earth as a bloated mendicant, accompanied by satyrs. Bacchus wore a deer's skin; and Shivă is represented as holding a deer in his hand. The worship of the lingu also, strongly resembles the worship of the phallus in honour of Bacchus. The sunyasee festival in honour of Shivă (see page 18) appears to resemble much the orgies of Bacchus, especially in the behaviour of the devotees, who are said to have run up and down the streets with their hair disheveled, and with lighted torches in their hands. In the months Voishakhŭ and Kartikŭ, the lingu is worshipped daily in the numerous temples dedicated to this abomination throughout Bengal. It is difficult to restrain one's indignation at the shocking violation of every thing decent in this image; nor can it be ground of wonder, that a chaste woman, faithful to her husband, is scarcely to be found among all the millions of Hindoos, when their very temples are polluted with filthy images, and their acts of worship tend to inflame the mind with licentious ideas.† Another form of Shivă is that of Kalŭ-Bhoirăvă, in which form he cut off Brümha's head, which is seen in one of his hands. A sect of mendicants, called yogŭ-bhogů vadees, who wear a large stone inserted through an incission in each ear, live at the temples of this god, and are sometimes seen, with a prostitute in one hand, and a pan of hot coals in the other, with each of which (the representatives of pleasure and pain) they profess to be equally pleased. Another form of this god is that of Muha-kală, in which he appears as the destroyer. Müha-kalů, as represented in the caverns of Elephanta,' says Mr. Paterson, 'has eight arms; in one hand he holds a human figure; in another, a sword or sa *A most singular coincidence appears to exist here betwixt the Hindoo and Roman ceremonies: These sŭnyasees, though taken from the lowest order, wear the poita as bramhuns during this festival. Kennett, in his Roman Antiquities, book v. p. 305, says, respecting the shews after a funeral, Though the exhibitors of these shews were private persons, yet during the time of the celebration, they were considered as of the highest rank and quality, having the honour to wear the Prætexta.' + I am credibly informed, that a Hindoo, once on a visit at a temple near Serampore, asked the officiating bram ăn to give him a proof that the idol was able to converse with him. The bramhun entered the temple, shutting the door after him, and the visitor, astonished at immediately hearing voices, interrogated the priest respecting it, who solemnly affirmed from within, that it was Jugănnat'hŭ who was speaking;---but the visitor, determined to ascertain so interesting a fact, forced open the temple door, and----whom should he see, inquisitive reader, but the mistress of the officiating bramhŭa. crificial axe; in a third, a basin of blood, and with a fourth he rings over it the sacrificial bell: two other arms are broken off, but with the two remaining he is drawing behind him a veil, which extinguishes the sun, and involves the whole universe in one undistinguished ruin. In the hieroglyphic of the Muha Prülüyü, (or grand consummation of all things), Shivů is represented as trodden under foot by Muha Kalee,* or Eternity. He is, there, deprived of his crescent, trident, and necklaces, to show that his dominion and powers are no more, and is blowing the tremendous horn, which announces the annihilation of all created things.' 4. Indrů. This is the king of heaven, and the infamous violator of the wife of his religious guide; he is painted as a yellow man, sitting on an elephant, with a thunder-bolt in one hand, and a club in the other; and like Argus is full of eyes. All the attributes of his image are only the signs of his office as a king. He has one annual festival, and is very famous in the pooranůs for the number of wars and intrigues in which he has been engaged. His throne changes masters at the end of seventy-one yoogus of the gods. Jupiter was called the king of heaven, and the Fulminator; Indru's names Divus-putee and Vajree, are significant of similar offices. 5. Yümü, the Indian Pluto, is a dark green man, clothed in red, with inflamed eyes; he sits on a buffaloe, has a crown on his head, and holds in his right hand a club with which he drives out the soul from the body, and punishes the wicked. This is his form of terror, as king of the souls of the dead, but he is also worshipped in a form less terrific, which he is said to assume when he passes a sentence of happiness on the meritorious. Beside his annual festival, he is worshipped on other occasions; and receives the homage of the Hindoos in their daily ablutions. There are several remarkable coincidences between Yumŭ and Pluto, as will be seen by comparing the fables respecting the latter and those in page 60 of this work: the images of both 'grin horribly a ghastly smile.' Pluto had a rod in his hand; Yumă is called Dündü-dhůru, because he holds in his hand the rod of punishment. Yumu is the shraddhŭ dévů, or the regent of funeral rites; and the institution of funeral obsequies is ascribed to Pluto. The dead, in going to Yuma's judgment hall, cross Voiturŭnee, the Indian styx,† the waters of which, like those of Phlegethon, the fourth river of hell which the dead were obliged to cross, are said to be boiling hot. Yumů has several assistants like Minos, who keep a register of human actions. There is something in the story inserted in p. 67, which seems to coincide with Pluto's being obliged to steal his wife Proserpine because he could obtain no other goddess, * This is the famous image worshipped at Kalee-Ghată, near Calcutta. + This river encircled the infernal regions nine times: Voiturůnee encircles this hall six times. his visage being so horrible, and his habitation so gloomy. The Hindoos consider hell as situated at the northern extremity of the earth; the Greeks and Romans thought it was a large subterraneous spot in the earth. 6. Günéshů. A fat short red man, with four arms and an elephant's head, sitting on a rat. His corpulency is a type of Brumha, as the aggregate of all things. In one hand he holds a bell, which is the pattern of a temple, and also points out that this god banishes fear; in another he holds a serpent-weapon, to show that he throws impediments in the way of the wicked; another grasps the hook by which elephants are guided, which points out that he guides the mind; and with the other he forbids fear. His elephant's head is a sign of the mystical sound Om, (3), and the trunk is a type of the instrument with which clarified butter is poured on the fire at a sacrifice. The author of the Roodrů-yamůlu, from whom this is extracted, assigns no reason for Gŭnéshŭ's riding on a rat. Though he has been compared to Janus, I find but two instances of coincidence betwixt them: every act of worship (pooja) is preceded by an invocation to Gŭnéshŭ;* and men in business paint his image over the doors of their shops, or suspend it amongst their merchandize, to insure prosperity. Gunéshŭ has been complimented as the god of wisdom, but the Hindoo deity presiding over knowledge, or wisdom, is Sŭrŭswŭtee, a goddess. Gůnéshŭ receives many honours from the Hindoos, and is considered as bountiful in bestowing wisdom and other favours, though there are no temples erected to his honour in Bengal. Those who adopt him as their guardian deity are called Ganŭputyŭs. He has in some 7. Kartikeyй is the Indian Mars, or commander in chief to the gods. images one, and in others six faces, is of a yellow colour, and rides on the peacock, an incarnation of Indră. In one hand he holds a bow, and in the other an arrow. He is worshipped as the giver of bodily strength. 8. Sooryu, (the sun). I do not find the least resemblance betwixt this Hindoo deity and Sol, either in their images or history. The Hindoos, in a most delicate fable respecting this god, have described the twelve signs of the zodiac. Chaya, a shadow, the name of one of his wives.† Yumŭ, the regent of death, is his son, and * In the Roman sacrifices, the priest always mentioned first the name of Janus. Kennett, p. 85. + The pooranus contain a fable respecting Sōōryǎ and his wife, which almost literally corresponds with the filthy story of Neptune and Ceres when the latter turned herself into a mare. |