two others of that primordial family, at this very day, throughout that vaft empire, holden in the profoundest veneration, and confidered as demigods, at least, in their fyftem of romantic mythology, we have the ftrongeft reafon to conclude, that the Hindoos are defcended, in a direct line, from the chief, by whofe name their country, which they themselves denominate Cufha-Dweepa, or the continent of Cufh, is diftinguished; and that Bali, or Belus, and Rama, the deified heroes of their early hiftory, are the identical perfonages recorded in facred writ; the former, according to that authentic chronicle, being the first, and the latter the fourth, fon of Cufh. The fuppofition is greatly ftrengthened by the confideration, that Bali and Rama confer their refpective names on two of the moft diftinguished Avatars. To the confideration of thofe Avatars we shall now return, and the very first that occurs, in its leading feature, bears fuch an immediate affinity to a ftupendous event recorded in the Mofaic hiftory, the destruction of an impious monarch, and the overthrow of an ambitious project to brave the power and vengeance of heaven, as fcarcely to leave a doubt, in the ferious and reflecting mind, of its direct allufion to the Nimrod of Scripture, that mighty and iniquitous hunter of men and beafts, the founder of the great empire of Babylon, the first perverter of the patriarchal religion, by introducing among its pure rites the grofs errors of the Sabian idolatry. A column burting thunder, and the deity iffuing from it under a terrific form, breathing flames to deyour a blafpheming monarch, are events that have too great a fimilitude to the frantic attempt and fatal catastrophe at Babel to permit us to hefitate at the application of this Indian fable. But, when we take into confideration all the connecting circumftances; that the names of the principal branches of the tyrant's family are equally to be found in the dynasties of India and Babylon; that Nimrod, or, to give him his ufual name in profane hiftory, the elder Belus, was the father of aftronomy after the flood, and is fuppofed to have built the Tower of Babel partly for aftronomical purpofes; probability, it must be owned, approaches very near upon certainty." P. 14.

The tyrant of the fifth Avatar is BALI, fynonymous with the scripture Baal and Bel; and both the name and the events defcribed in it, appear to corroborate the hypothesis adopted by the learned Prefident of the Afiatic Society, that under these two characters are represented the two first defpotic sovereigns of the regenerated world, Nimrod and Belus. The diftinguifhed feature in the character of the preceding Avatar, was impiety towards God; that of the prefent is arrogance towards man, mingled with contempt of divine rites; both receive the exemplary punishment of their crimes; the first by a terrible death, the fecond by a public degradation from his abused power, through the means of an infignificant agent, BAMUN, the dwarf; or Veefhnu concealed under that contemptible form. Very few of these Avatars will, from their great length and the mixture of extraneous matter neceffary to their explanation,

allow

allow of being wholly prefented to the reader; but we shall extract the author's relation of the Bamun incarnation, because it is lefs liable than the others to that objection; referring our readers to the volume itself, for those useful obfervations with which the author conftantly prefaces and concludes each of these moral allegories.

"The BAMUN Avatar exhibits to us the inftructive lesson of imperial pride and arrogance humbled by fo infignificant an inftrument as a mendicant dwarf. Mahali, or Maha-Bali, that is, the great Bali, had, by the ufual means (fevere aufterities,) obtained from Brahma the fovereignty of the univerfe, or the three regions of the sky, the earth, and Patala. He was a generous and magnificent monarch; he did not opprefs his fubjects, nor was he guilty of any other great crimes. His ruling paffion feems to have been an unwarrantable pride, that led him to look down on all created beings with fupreme contempt; at the fame time, he neglected to pay proper homage, and render their due oblations to the Devatas. In fhort, in the kies he would acknowledge no fuperior; on the earth, he would allow of no equal; and he boafted, that, by the unlimited extent of his power, he could control even the infernal regions, and precipitate his enemies to the abyss of hell. The Devatas, or at leaft their priests for them, were dreadfully incenfed at being deprived of their rights, the honey, the clarified butter, the delicious fruits, and other rich offerings, that ufed to load their altars; and, in confequence, the former applied to Veefhnu, through the mediation of Brahma, for redrefs. As the principal crime laid to his charge was the defrauding of thofe Devatas, exact retribution was refolved on in heaven, and he was doomed to be deprived of his crown, alfo, by a fpecies of harmlefs fraud, which, it feems, the Indian deity did not think it beneath him to practife on this occafion. Veefhnu, defcending for this purpose, became incarnate in the house of a Brahmin, venerable for years and piety, and, affuming the contemptible form of a dwarf, ill appare led, and apparently deftitute of all human poffeffions, prefented himself in a fupplicating pofture before the arrogant monarch, juft at the period in which he had been difplaying his accuftomed pomp at a banquet of unbounded magnificence; but at which he had again infulted heaven by not of fering the ufual tithe to the minifters of the fovereign deity who be ftows all things. Bali, admiring the fingularity of his figure, and fmiling at his deformity, but at the fame time compaffionating his diftrefs, bade him afk whatfoever he defired, and his requeft should be granted. Bamun, with refpectful diffidence, folicited only a small fpot of ground, three paces in length, for the purpose of erecting upon it a hut fufficiently large to contain himfelf, his books, his umbrella, and the drinking-cup and ftaff, which the Brahmins ufually carry with them. Bali, aftonifhed at the modefty of his requelt, advised him by no means to limit his demand within fuch narrow bounds; told him that all the kingdoms of the world were at his difpofal, and that he need not be afraid of intruding upon his generofity, even though he fhould request ground fufficient for the erection of a large palace, "A Brahmin," replied the artful deity,

"has no occafion

for

for a fplendid palace his real wants are few, and by them his defires fhould be regulated. Only fwear that you will grant me this humble request, and my utmost ambition is gratified." Bali, being about to confirm his promife to the mistrustful Brahmin by the ufual ceremony of an oath in Hindoftan, the pouring out of water from a vessel upon the hand of the perfon to whom it is given, (according to the repre fentation in the accompanying plate,) was interrupted by the planet Venus, a male deity in India, who whispered him, that the apparently milerable mendicant before him was Veefhnu in difguife, and exhorted him to be cautious to what he pledged his folemn oath. The highminded monarch, however, difdaining to deviate from his word, confirmed his promife with the required oath; and, bidding him ftretch" forth his hand, poured out upon it the facred wave that ratified it. As the water, in a full stream, defcended upon his extended hand, the form of Bamun gradually increased in magnitude, till it became of fuch enormous dimenfions that it reached up to heaven. Then, with one ftride he measured the vaft globe of the earth; with the second, the ample expanfe of heaven; and, with the third, was going to compafs the regions of Patala; when Bali, convinced that it was even Veefhnu himfelf, fell proftrate and adored him; yielding him up, without any farther exertion, the free poffeffion of the third region of the universe. Veefhnu then took the reins of government into his own hands; and, as an order of things, different from what prevailed in the Satya, was to commence with the Treta Yug, he new-modelled human fociety: for, whereas in the former, or perfect, age, all property was equally diftributed among the members of each of the great tribes, and in thofe ribes there was no difparity of rank or degree, he divided them into various fubordinate claffes, according to their talents and virtues, in an age, in which it is the belief of the Brahimins, that one third part of mankind became reprobate.In this Avatar, a cir cumftance, evidently allufive to Maha Bali's character as an attronomer, and to the conftellation Orion, in which his father, and poffibly himfelf, was canonized, ought not to be omitted. While Veefhnu was extending his foot to take in the heavenly portion of his domain, and while Maha Bali, at length convinced who was the auguft perfon that had defrauded him of his empire, remained proftrate in humble adoration, the god Brahma carne, and, pouring water on the foot thus extended, it was inftantly converted into the great and rapid river Ganges; which, in their my thology and on their fphere, is actually reprefented as gufhing from the foot of Veefhnu. Now I would with to ask any of thofe critics, who are fo loud in accufing me of fyftem, for exalting the Hind o aftronomers as the original fabricators of the fphere, and itating the Greeks to be their fervile copyifts, by what chance comes it to pafs, that the Greek afterifm Eridanus, on their fphere, is alfo made to flow from the left foot of Orion? Surely to the elder nation, in time and science, is due the credit of the invention; and, when we find the fact as it is found, defcribed in their oldeft Pooraun, and forming a part of the history of the Avatars, fculptured in the pagodas molt venerated for their fanctity and antiquity, even incredulity itfelf can fcarcely deny to the Brahmins the honour claimed for them in this, as well as in many other very curious

and

and ftriking particulats. With refpect to Maha-Bali himself, because he had not oppreffed his fubjects, though he had defpifed the Gods, his crown was not wholly taken from him, but he was left for the remainder of his life in the poffeffion of Patala, the inferior regions; and, as Patala was fuppofed to be on the fouth, because directly op pofite to the north pole, where the Hindoo heaven and the palace of Veefhnu is placed, this circumftance may imply his depofition and banifhment from Cafhmere and the higher regions of Hindoftan to the remote fouthern diftricts of the peninfula, where, in fact, we shall prefently find ample remains both of his name and his exploits. After his decease, fince his repentance was deep and fincere, Veefhnu informed him that he should be received up into heaven, and be placed there in a confpicuous and elevated fituation, from which he might occafionally overlook those former subjects who had been fo much the objects of his regal care. Maha-Bali, having, alfo, discovered confiderable concern left certain annual inftitutions, greatly to their advantage, which he had in the plenitude of his power ordained, should not be properly kept up, to quiet his apprehenfions on that score, the deity farther decreed, that he fhould have permiffion once a year, on the full moon in the month of November, to revifit earth, and fee in perfon that they were faithfully obferved." P. 83.

This is afterwards attempted to be explained by a reference to aftronomy; for the author, after afferting, from Sonnerat, that a feast to Veefhnu, as the conqueror of Bali, is at this day celebrated in India, in November, adds:

"The reafon of this feaft being kept in India in November arofe, probably, because Orion, fetting cofmically in that month, was thought by the ancient aftronomers to engender ftorms and tempefts; whence that conftellation is called, by the Roman poets, Nimbofus, Sævus, Infeftus; and the obfervance of his inftitution at that particular period might be intended to foften the malignity, and avert the vengeance of the genius of that orb." P. 90.

The fixth and feventh Avatars exhibit to us Veefhnu incarnate, in the form of two puiffant warriors of the name of RAMA; whom Mr. Maurice confiders as two different reprefentations of that mighty fon of Cufh; who, in Afia, feems to have been the first founder of empires, and civilizer of barbarous nations. In the firft of thefe Avatars, the divine Rama exterminates, for their accumulated crimes, the whole race of Khettris, or Rajahs, and gives their dominion to the more virtuous tribe of Brahma. In the fecond, he is reprefented as refcuing beauty and innocence, in the perfon of his wife Sita, from the grafp of a favage tyrant, who had carried her by force away; and reclaiming to difcipline, and uniting in focial bands, the wild inhabitants of the Ghauts, who, in he mythology of India, are denominated apes, that is, mountain Satyrs; because imitating, in their fylvan manners and antic geftures, the race

of

of animals alluded to, who abound in the forefts of Southern India. From various refembling circumftances in their refpective characters, Sir William Jones was inclined to think Rama the prototype of the Dionyfius of Egypt; and this Avatar is therefore made introductory, by Mr. Maurice, to the fecond general divifion of his volume, which comprehends the history of the ancient invafions of India, as given by claflical writers, many of thofe narrations, to be found in Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and other Greek hiftorians, are of a very romantic nature, he prefaces this portion of his work by the following obfervations; anticipating the objections that may be made for the infertion of them, and grounding his apology on the very nature of his hiftory, which refers to those diftant pe. riods, in which no event whatever is wholly untinctured with fable, or free from the marvellous.

"Thus have we reached the clofe of the fixth Indian Avatar, in which we find India defcribed as a country poffeffed by a civilized induftrious race, obedient to their princes, and, whatever may have been the conduct of thofe princes themselves, pious and moral, in a very early age after the deluge. Having now devoted fo large a portion to Sanfcreet narration, blended as it is with phy fical and metaphyfical chimæras, it is but juft, as we have already gone through more than half of the Avatars, that we fhould attend to the ancient accounts, which, from the writers whom we denominate CLASSICAL, have defcended down to pofterity, relative to the infant state of that empire, and the invafion of it by Dionyfius and other conquerors. In thefe, though there may be nearly as much fable as in the domestic narrative, I fhall yet faithfully detail them, and in the order they are reported to have taken place, as I confider myself bound to omit nothing of im portance connected with the ancient history of India." P. 101.

Mr. M. now enters, at confiderable length, into the ancient mythological details concerning thofe renowned heroes, whofe exploits engrofs fo large a portion of the ancient historic page, He minutely confiders the period at which they are faid to have flourished, and the acts attributed to them, referring them all to exaggerated accounts of the efforts of the first branches of the family of Noah to colonize the earth, and clear its surface of the monsters of every fpecies that had overrun it. Thus, for inftance, fpeaking of Hercules, after a general furvey of the prodigies performed by him on land, as well as at fea, the author concludes the Affyrian, Belus to be allegorically represented under the character of the first who bore that name.

Equally gigantic in ftrength and form, the dauntlefs explorer of land and fea, who cleared the forefts and drained the marshes of the rugged earth after the incurfions of the inundation, who tamed the favage Nemaan monsters, combated the venemous Lernæan ferpents, and

chafed