CHAPTER XIII.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON ELORA, &c. &c. Worship of Stones-Brahmans and Budhists-Lotos-Cosmogony of the Hindoos-Visvacarma's Temple-PyramidsNundi or Apis-Monkeys and Peacocks-Lingham-Tortoise -Ganesa-Maha Deo and Parvati-Vishnu-Rama-Pavana -Brahma-Raj Eeloo-Deo Ghur.

UNDER this head I purpose offering some notices on the subject of my narrative, some inquiries, and a few remarks on points connected therewith, before commencing our journey to Aurungabad.

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Religious enthusiasts, in the early ages, always sought the gloom and retirements of forests and caves. Stones have, in the history of superstition, always held a pre-eminence, as objects of worship. In a religion like the Hindoo, where their numedeities are identified with all the actions of a man's life, and every action of which the god is supposed to have influence and to be present at, carving these stones, to propitiate the deity, followed as a matter of course. As nations became civilised, the gods were not only by these means supposed to be conciliated, but their general attributes and character were carved on the

graven image," for their daily contemplation, and for the instruction of their youth. To this very day, in India, I have observed on the roadside, where a murder has been committed, a rude

stone, with the figure of a horseman with a drawn sword; or, for robbery, a camel or bullock, having a pack on their back. Large heaps of stones are often seen by the road-side, on which are placed flags of a dirty brick-dust colour. To each of these heaps every pious traveller adds a stone as he passes, till the heap becomes a little mound. If any of these are at all like the Linga of Māhā Deo, it is sure to be selected, placed conspicuously upright, daubed with oil and red ochre, the peculiar colour of Brahma. The veneration for stones we find mention of in the blessed Scriptures, Genesis, chap. 28, verse 18: "And Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it." Other authorities might be adduced; but, while we have in England a Stonehenge, any further observations appear superfluous.

The following paragraph, written by the late Mr. Reuben Burrows, so well known in India * for many able papers on Hindoo literature, and an authority not to be disregarded, may in this place not be irrelative to our remarks on the stone mansions of Elora.

* Second volume of Asiatic Researches. The Edinburgh Review, July, 1804, may also be consulted. However desirous of giving the latter excellent authority at some length, my remarks on Elora, and my journey to Aurungabad in returning, preclude it, although such a valuable source offers an abundant supply of matter on Bhudism.

"The pyramids of Egypt, as well as those lately discovered in Iceland, and probably, too, the tower of Babel, seem to have been intended for nothing more than images of Mahā Deo (Siva.) Stone. henge is evidently one of the temples of Budha : the religious ceremonies of the Papists seem in many parts a mere servile copy of those of the Gosseins and Fakeers. The different tenets of Popery and Deism have a great similarity to the two doctrines of Brahma and Budha; and as the Brahmans were the authors of the Ptolemaic system, so the Budhists appear to have been the inventors of the Philolaic or Copernican, as well as of the doctrine of attraction. That the Druids of Britain were Brahmans, is beyond the least shadow of doubt." P. 478. On the above I dare not offer an opinion, but submit it to the consideration of those who may not have seen the essay in question*.

The principal object of worship at Elora is the stone so frequently spoken of, the Lingham of "the changer of things," Māhā Deo (literally the great god), Siva. It is a symbol of him in his generative character; the base is inserted in the Yoni; the Ling is of a conical shape, and often a black stone, covered with flowers, (the Belia and Asaca shrubs); the flowers hang pendent from

* I am informed that Mr. Faber's profound work on Mythology is conclusive on this head: not having seen it I cannot think of offering any opinion.

the crown of the ling-stone to the spout of the Argha or Yoni, (mystical matrix); not a whit better than the phallus of the Greeks and its ceremonies. Whatever enthusiasts may say to the contrary, this symbol is grossly indecent, and abhorrent to every moral feeling, let the subject be glossed over as it may. A print will, without offending decency, at once cut short all written description. Five lamps are commonly used in worship (Puja), at this symbol, but frequently one lamp having five wicks. Often the lotos is seen on the top of the Ling. The water that the Argha holds (the pedestal in which the Ling is inserted), is emblematical of Vishnu, and the dent or orifice in the frame, (Yoni) or rim, is called the navel of Vishnu. How comes it, as we find acknowledged by many, and which Major Moor supports both in his writings and prints, that Brahma sprang from the navel of Vishnu in the cup of the lotos? when it is asserted on the other hand, in Hindoo mythology, that Brahma was the first created being, and that Narayana was the spirit, the vivifying, animating, moving, abstract essence, so awfully expressed in our own divine book:

"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

The gross fables and inapplicable allegories engrafted in modern times, have rendered the Hindoo mythology both disgusting and unintelligible. I have every respect for the mythology of

the ancients: it is to that we owe science, arts, and history, and like the emblems in heraldry, it speaks a symbolical language. The primitive Brahmans were philosophers and sages; whilst their successors. have, to confirm and enslave the minds of the people, degraded that system of mythology and science which originally was eminently grand and imposing. Of the lotos a few words more:-"The lotos is a prominent symbol in the Hindoo and Egyptian cosmogony. This plant appears to have the same tendency with the Sphinx, of marking the connexion between that which produces and that which is produced. Leo and Virgo, the Egyptian Ceres, (Virgo), bears in her hand the blue lotos*, which plant is acknowledged to be the emblem of celestial love, so frequently seen mounted on the back of Leo in the ancient remains." More might be quoted in illustration of a symbol seen so frequently in the temples of Elora; for Mr. Newton, in his learned essay on the zodiacs, makes mention of the Bull, the Serpent, &c. Another authority, Captain F. Wilford, on the sacred isles of the west, speaks on

* Ganga (Parvati) Ganges personified, is represented always with a lotos in each hand, and curious as it may appear, called Nil-Kumal, or blue lotos. Siva is called blue-throat, blue-water, or the sea. The setting sun and unknown western country are mysteriously represented by the Hindoos. We have Parvati again as Cali-Ma, black mother, time, or consumer: hence probably Calcutta, Cutta being sacrifice or slaughter.