or any other goddess: her leading names and characters are Bhavani, Parvati, Cali, and Durga. As Bhavani, she has been already mentioned by us, but in addition to what has been said, she may be compared to the Juno Cinxia,+ or Lucina,‡ of the Romans; the Venus invoked by Lucretius at the opening of his poem on nature, “in short, the Venus presiding over generation, and who on that account sometimes exhibited the distinctive marks of the two sexes, as in her bearded statue at Rome; also in some of those compound images, named Hermæ, and in the figures which had the form of a conical marble, for the reason of which figure, says Tacitus, we are left in the dark: but the reason appears too plainly in the temples and paintings of Hindustan,

See p. 103, supra.

+ One of the names of Juno, who, in that character, was supposed at marriages to unloose the virgin zone,

A name which Juno bore in common with Diana, both being protectresses of women in labour.

where it never seems to have entered the heads of the legislators or people, that any thing natural could be offensively obscene; a singularity which pervades all their writings and conversation, but is no proof of depravity in their morals."*

Parvati, or the mountain-born goddess, has many properties of the Olympian Juno: "her majestic deportment, high spirit, and general attributes, are the same; and we find her, both on mount Cailasa and at the banquets of the deities, uniformly the companion of her husband. One circumstance in the parallel is extremely singular: she is usually attended by her son Carticeya, who rides on a peacock; and in some drawings, her own robe seems to be spangled with eyes; to which must be added that, in some of her temples, a peacock, without a rider, stands near her image. Though Carticeya, with his six faces and numerous eyes, bears some resemblance to Argus,

* Jones,

whom Juno employed as her principal warder, yet, as he is a deity of the second class, and a commander of celestial armies, he seems clearly to be the Orus of Egypt, and the Mars of Italy; his name, Scanda, by which he is celebrated in one of the Puranas, has a connexion, I am persuaded, with the old Secander of Persia, whom the poets ridiculously confound with the Macedonian."+

The consort of Siva, or Mahadeva, under

But the Orus of Egypt, son of Osiris and Isis, appears to bear resemblance chiefly to the Apollo of the Greeks. They have by some learned mythologists been judged to be the same. From the great respect we bear to the authority of Sir William Jones, it is to be wished that he had explained his reasons for supposing Carticeya to be "the Orus of Egypt, and the Mars of Italy." Many suppose the Orus of Egypt to be the same as the Eros of the Greeks, or Cupid of the Romans. Other learned mythologists consider him as the symbol of light, or of the sun. The Greeks seem to have thought him. to respond to their Apollo, hence Orus-Apollo, Like this god, he was skilled in the healing art.

+ Jones.

"

his name of Iswara, is named Isani; and the two seem to correspond under these titles with the Osiris and Isis of the Egyptians. Isani is represented as the patroness of the watery element; and at her festival, named Durgotsava, in which she is also called by her name of Bhavany, her image, after receiving all due honours, is restored to the waters.

The attributes of Durga, or difficult of access, are also conspicuous in the festival which is called by her name; and in this character she resembles Minerva,-not the peaceful inventress of the fine and useful arts, but Pallas, armed with a helmet and spear: both represent heroic virtue, or valour united with wisdom; both slew demons and giants with their own hands, and both protected the wise and virtuous, who paid them due adoration. As Pallas, they say, takes her name from vibrating a lance, and usually appears in complete armour, thus Curis, the old Latin word for a spear, was one of Juno's titles; and so, if Giral

dus be correct, was Hoplosmia, which at Elis, it seems, meant a female dressed in panoply, or complete accoutrements."*

The unarmed Minerva corresponds as patroness of science and genius, of harmony and eloquence, with Sareswati, the wife of Vishnu, and daughter of Brahma. She is supposed to have invented the Devanagari letters, and the language in which the divine laws were conveyed to mankind. The Minerva of Italy invented the flute: Sareswati presides over melody, and is usually represented with a musical instrument in her hand. The protectress of Athens was also on the same account named Musica.

In the argument to a poem addressed to Sareswati, as goddess of harmony, Sir William Jones informs us, that every allusion or epithet in it, is taken from approved treatises. 66 The seven notes, (says he), an artful combination of which constitutes music, and variously affects the passions, are

* Jones.