is twisted round a Lingam. This I had feen carved on the walls of the pagoda of Wentigmetta, near Sidout, in September 1792. 3d. Elephants treading a man under foot. 4th. A naked figure of a woman approaching the Lingam in her left hand fhe holds the fmall pot ufed for ablution; in her right a string of beads (Ingam valu): a hand appears iffuing from the Lingam. The Brahmens explained the meaning of this fculpture, "ACUMA DEVI naked, approaching to worfhip "the Lingam; a hand appears fuddenly from it, waving, and a voice is heard, forbidding her to approach "in that indecent fituation." A maxim of decency, in the height of religious zeal is here inculcated. 5th. The ftory of MALLECARJEE and the facred cow (the origin of the pagoda) is reprefented in two different places. The cow appears with its udder diftended over the Lingam, which differs from the account of the Brahmens in not being reprefented as a rough ftone; a perfon near a tree is feen, as if looking on; a kind of divifion feems to feparate these figures from a woman, in a fitting posture, with an umbrella held over her, to denote fuperior rank; on the right, behind a tree, is a figure very indiftinct, probably intended to represent the herdfman: the trees are badly executed. 6th. Among the number of animals in the procesfion on the fecond hand third row, two camels are represented with a perfon on each, beating the nagra, or great drum. VOL. V. U 7th. In 7th. In one compartment the figure of an alligator, or crocodile, with its fcales and monftrous teeth is feen, running open mouthed, to devour a perfon lying before it; two women are standing near a third feated; they are looking on a child near them. I got no explanation of this. 8th. An elephant and tyger fighting. The fculptures on the fouth and eaft fides are in good prefervation; thofe on the weft and north are more injured by the weather. The age of the firft temple might perhaps be difcovered from the infcriptions, if a tranflation of them could be obtained. I could gain no information on this head; but I fufpect the building to be of higher antiquity than the knowledge, or, at leaft, than the use of gunpowder among thefe people; because among fo great a variety of arms as are fculptured upon the walls, fwords, bows, pikes, arrows, and fhields of a round figure, the matchlock is not be found, though a weapon fo much in ufe among the poligars. On enquiring of the Bráhmens the meaning of thefe carvings, one of them replied, "it was to fhew how the Gods lived above;” but indeed they feem to have loft all traces of any knowledge they may have formerly poffeffed, and to be funk into the profoundeft ftate of ignorance. XXI. RE XXI. REMARKS ON THE PRINCIPAL ERAS AND DATES OF THE ANCIENT HINDUS. BY MR. JOHN BENTLEY. HE confufion and darknefs that pervade and clined to think, proceed from two different causes: the one, owing to the fancy of their Bráhmens and poets, in difguifing and embellishing their hiftory with allegory and fiction; the other, to the ignorance of the modern Hindus, who, not able to difcern the. difference between the several æras and modes of dating, which were made ufe of by their ancient hiftorians, Bráhmens, and poets, in recording paft events, have blended the whole together, into one mafs of abfurdity and contradiction. At this day, it is not eafy to discover the meaning of all the different modes of dating formerly in use. It appears, however, from hiftorical facts, that they were moftly, if not all nominally the fame, but effentially different in other refpects:-they all went under the appellation of yugs, divine ages, Manwantaras, &c. but the yugs, divine ages, Manwantaras, &c. of the aftronomers were different in point of duration from those of the Bráhmens and poets, and those of the Bráhmens and poets were, in like manner, different from those of others: hence it becomes abfolutely neceffary that we know the difference between each, that is, the aftronomic, the poetic, &c. &c. from each other before we can attempt to analyze the Hindu chronology on true principles. It is from this mode alone that we can difcern truth though difguifed by fiction; and, until the gordian knot, made faft by the hand of modern times, be untied, much will remain in obfcurity. U 2 The The aftronomic yugs, divine ages, &c. are the only periods in which the real number of years meant, are not concealed: it may not therefore be improper before. I proceed farther to state what these periods are, and their duration. The Calpa is the greateft of all the aftronomical periods, and the duration of it is 4320000000 years. This period is compofed, or made up, of the leffer yugs, &c. in the following manner. 4 Yugs, viz. a Satya, a Treta, a Dwapar, and a Cali yug, make one divine age or Maha yug; 71 Maha yugs with a Sandhi, equal to a Satya yug, makel Manwantara; and 14 Manwantaras compofe a Calpa, at the commencement of which there is alfo a Sandhi, equal to a Satya yug. The duration of each period is as follows: > The Calpa is an anomalistic period, at the end of which the Hindu aftronomers fay that the places of the planet's nodes and apfides will be precifely precifely the fame as at the beginning of it; and the commencement of it was when the fun, moon, and all the planets, nodes and apfides, were in a line of conjunction, in the beginning of Aries, or 1955,884,897 years ago therefore fix Manwantaraș, 23 Maha yugs of the feventh Manwantara, and as far as the 220897th year of the Cali yug, of the twenty-fourth Maha yug, are now (A° 1796) expired of the Calpa. The ancient aftronomers, moft probably, for the fake of convenience, made the prefent Cali yug of the Hindus, of which there are now 4897 years expired, to commence when just the first half, or 216000 years were elapfed of the above mentioned Cali yug, of the twenty-fourth Maha yug; and we are now only in the 4898th year of the fecond half of that period. I fhall therefore by way of diftinction, call the present Cali yug the "Aftronomic Era." The Brahmens and poets, in imitation of the aftronomic periods above given, invented others for their history and poetry. Thefe I fhall diftinguish by the name of "Poetic Ages," or æras, because they are embellished by fiction, and covered over with a myfterious veil: nominally, they appear the fame as the aftronomic periods, but hiftorical facts prove them to be effentially different in point of duration; one aftronomic year being equal to 1000 poetic ones: hence Years Real Years A Poetic Satya yug of 1728000 is only 1728 Treta yug of 1296000 Cali yug of 432000 1296 804 432 The first of these Poetic Ages, or Satya yug, commenced at the creation and the reft in fucceffion, agreeable to the following fhort chronological table, continued down to the prefent time. |