his arrows, while sparks of fire were dispersed in every direction.”* Palasa. 66

The flowers raceme-fascicled, large, red, silvered with down. Few trees are considered by the Hindus as more venerable and holy. The Palasa is named with honour in the Vedas, in the laws of Menu, and in Sanscrit poems, both sacred and popular. It gave its name to the memorable plain vulgarly called Plassey, but properly Palasi.+ A grove of Palasas was formerly the principal ornament of Crishnagar, where we still see the trunk of an aged tree, near six feet in circumference."‡

Sami, Sactu-p'hala, or Siva, the Mimosa of Linnæus, but of which there are numerous species. The spikes, or flowers, yellow, perfuming the woods and roads with a rich aromatic odour. The gum, semi-pellucid,

* Jones.

+ Where the late Lord Clive obtained, on the 23rd of June, 1757, a victory over Surajah Dowlah, which, in its consequences, gave to the English the possession of the rich provinces of Bengal.

‡ Jones.

-led

rees

ne

ed

of

is of the same qualities, but more trans-
parent than that of the Nilotic, or Arabian
species. The wood, extremely hard, is used
by the Brahmins to kindle their sacred fire,
by rubbing two pieces of it together, when
of a proper age and sufficiently dried."*

Bilva, or Malura, by Linnæus termed Crataeva, of which there are three species, but the one here referred to is the Crataeva Religiosa. This plant bears a large spheroidal berry, with numerous seeds. "The fruit nutritious, warm, cathartic; in taste delicious, in fragrance exquisite. It is called Sriphala, because it sprang, say the Indian poets, from the milk of Sri, the goddess of abundance, who bestowed it on mankind at the request of Iswara, the god of nature, whence he alone wears a chaplet of Bilva flowers: to him only the Hindus offer them; and when they see any of them fallen on the ground, they take them

up with reverence, and

carry

them to his

temple."+

Besides other proofs that might be pro duced, to shew that polytheism was not of Grecian origin, a passage of Herodotus may be mentioned, where, in speaking of the Pelasgi, he says, that they distinguished not the Gods by any names; they called them Gods, by which they meant to say ordainers; that they afterwards learnt the names of divinities from the Egyptians; that they consulted the oracle at Dodona, to know if they should adopt them, which answered that they might, and that from the Pelasgi they were spread through Greece. There, as in India, the number of divinities was afterwards gradually increased by deifying wise men and heroes. Many deities and objects of adoration were also invented by poets, who ventured sometimes even to personify inanimate things, as well as mental qualities:- fountains, groves, and admired trees and flowers.

The Hindu divinities at their feasts drank a beverage named Amrūti, as the Grecian gods drank their Ambrosia.

that we now live among the adorers of those very deities, who were worshipped under different names in old Greece and Italy; and among the professors of those philosophical tenets, which the Ionic and Attic writers illustrated with all the beauties of their melodious language. On one hand we see the trident of Neptune, the eagle of Jupiter, the satyrs of Bacchus, the bow of Cupid, and the chariot of the Sun; on another we hear the cymbals of Rhea, the songs of the Muses, and the pastoral tales of Apollo Nomius. In more retired scenes, in groves, and in seminaries of learning, we may perceive the Brahmins, and the Sarmanes, mentioned by Clemens, disputing in the forms of logic, or discoursing on the vanity of human enjoyments, on the immortality of the soul, her emanation from the eternal mind, her debasement, wandering, and final union with her source. The six philosophical schools, whose principles are explained in the Dersana Sastra, comprise all the metaphysics of the old Academy, the Stoa, and the

Lyceum; nor is it possible to read the Vedanta, or the many fine compositions in illustration of it, without believing that Pythagoras and Plato derived their sublime theories from the same fountain with the sages of India."*

In addition to what is here said by Sir William Jones, we shall observe, that Philostratus makes Pythagoras say to Thespesion, when reproaching him for his partiality to the Egyptians: "Admirer as you are of the philosophy which the Indians invented, why do you not attribute it to its real parents, rather than to those who are only so by adoption." Iarchus, the Hindu

* Third Annual Discourse of Sir William Jones to the Asiatic Society. See his Works, 8vo. edit. vol. iii. p. 36.

"We may venture to affirm, that, on attentive inquiry, we shall find in the Puranas, and other fabulous writings of the Hindūs, almost the whole mythology of the Greeks and Romans. Some particulars may be modified, and heroes in both of the latter countries may be found, who have been transformed into demi-gods; but all the principal features of the system may be traced.”—Edinburgh Review, No. 29.