adorned with the oldest symbols of the Indian theology, and thus expressly fabricated, according to the unanimous confession of the sacred sacerdotal tribe of India, to indicate the Creator, the Preserver, and the Regenerator of mankind.”[1]
To destroy, according to the Vedantas of India and the Sufis of Persia, that is, the σοφοι or wise men of Persia, is only to regenerate and reproduce in another form; and in this doctrine they are supported by many philosophers of our European schools. We may safely affirm, that we have no experience of the actual destruction,—the annihilation of any substance whatever. On this account it is that Mahadeva of India, the destroyer, is always said to preside over generation, is represented riding upon a bull, the emblem of the sun, when the vernal equinox took place in that sign, and when he triumphed in his youthful strength over the powers of hell and darkness: and near him generally stands the gigantic Lingham or Phallus, the emblem of the creative power. From this Indian deity came, through the medium of Egypt and Persia, the Grecian mythos of Jupiter Genitor, with the Bull of Europa, and his extraordinary title of Lapis—a title probably given to him on account of the stone pillar with which his statue is mostly accompanied, and the object of which is generally rendered unquestionable by the peculiar form of its summit or upper part. In India and Europe this God is represented as holding his court on the top of lofty mountains. In India they are called mountains of the Moon or Chandrasichara; in the Western countries Olympuses. He is called Trilochan and has three eyes. Pausanias tells us that Zeus was called Triophthalmos, and that, previous to the taking of Troy, he was represented with three eyes. As Mr. Forbes[2] says, the identity of the two Gods falls little short of being demonstrated.
In the Museum of the Asiatic Society is an Indian painting of a Cristna seated on a lotus with three eyes—emblems of the Trinity.
CHAPTER II.
THE WORD OM.—OMPHE, OMPHALOS.—OLYMPUS, AMMON, DELPHI.—DIGRESSION CONCERNING THE WORD ON.—SUBJECT OF AMMON RENEWED.—HAM THE SON OF NOAH, AND AMMON THE SUN IN ARIES.—NIEBUHR ON THE OMBRICI OF ITALY: SEVERAL REMARKABLE SYNONYMES.—ON THE SPIRIT OR RUH, THE DOVE.—PRIESTLEY’S OPINION.—SUBJECT OF THE PERSIAN AND HINDOO TRINITY RESUMED.
1. Mr. Hastings, one of the most early and liberal patrons of Sanscrit literature in India, in a letter to Nathaniel Smith, Esq., has remarked how accurately many of the leading principles of the pure, unadulterated doctrines of Bramha correspond with those of the Christian system. In the Geeta, (one of the most ancient of the Hindoo books,) indeed, some passages, surprisingly consonant, occur concerning the sublime nature and attributes of God, as well as concerning the properties and functions of the soul. Thus, where the Deity, in the form of Cristna, addresses Arjun: “I am the Creator of all things, and all things proceed from me,”—“I am the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things; I am time: I am all-grasping death, and I am the resurrection: I am the mystic figure OM! I am generation and dissolution.” Arjun in pious ecstacy exclaims, “Reverence! reverence! be unto thee, a thousand times repeated! again and again reverence! O thou who art all in all! infinite in thy power and thy glory! Thou art the father
