is given in the Asiatic Researches, the SOLAR ORB is regarded with adoration by the Hindoos, and the sect more particularly devoted to the worship of that deity are called SAURA. Indeed, it is not improbable that, in very remote æras, the Indians held the Sun in almost as genral veneration as their Persian neighbours. We are informed by a writer,* who visited India seventeen hundred years ago, that he there beheld a most superb temple erected in honour of that planet, the walls of which were of red marble, resembling fire, and interspersed with streaks of gold. On the pavement of this temple was an image of the radiant divinity, hardly inferior in splendour to his own dazzling sphere: his rays being imitated in a boundless profusion of rubies, pearls, and diamonds, of inestimable value, arranged in a most judicious manner, and darting forth a lustre scarcely tolerable to the organs of sight. As this account of Apollonius may be considered as suspicious, I shall here insert a description of the TEMPLE of the SUN from the Ayeen Akbery, which, although Mr Gladwin conceives Abul Fazil to have been deceived in regard to its magnitude, since no traces of this vast fabric at present remain, will yet be con

*Philostratus in Vit. Apollon. lib. ii. p. 87,

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sidered

sidered as a proof that such a worship did ac tually flourish there at some remote period in its meridian glory,

"Near to Jagernaut is the temple of the SUN, in the erecting of which was expended the whole revenue of Orissa for twelve years. No one can 'behold this immense edifice with. out being struck with amazement. The wall, which surrounds the whole, is one hundred and fifty cubits high and nineteen cubits thick, There are three entrances to it. At the eastern gate there are two very fine figures of elephants, each with a man upon his trunk. On the west are two surprising figures of horsemen completely armed; and over the northern gates are carved two tigers, who, having killed two elephants, are sitting upon them. In the front of the gate is a pillar of black stone, of an octagonal form, fifty cubits high. There are nine flights of steps; after ascending which, you come into an extensive enclosure, where you discover a large dome, constructed of stone, upon which are carved the SUN and the STARS, and, round them, is a border, on which is represented a variety of human figures expressing the different passions; some kneeling, others prostrated with their faces the earth; upon together with minstrels, and a number of strange and wonderful animals, such as never existed

but

but in imagination."* This is said to be a work of seven hundred and thirty years antiquity: it was erected by a RAJA. The Ayeen Akbery farther informs us, that some of the Hindoo philosophers consider the fixed stars and planets as BEINGS, and as borrowing their light from the sun; others assert that they derive their light from the moon, and believe each to be under the influence of some celestial spirit; while others, again, affirm, that the stars are the souls of men departed this life, and raised to this high dignity in reward of their virtues and austerities.

At this day the Indian rajas are fond of tracing back to the solar deity their fabulous origin, and Mr Dow+ acquaints us, that he himself was in possession of a long list of a dynasty of kings, who boasted the distinguished title of SURYA-bans and CHANDRA-bans, or children of the sun and moon. The Asiatic Researches confirm and explain this intelligence, by informing us, that SURYA‡ is believed to have frequently descended from his car in a human shape and to have begotten an earthly progeny, equally renowned in the Indian stories with the Heliades of Greece; and

* Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 11. + Dow, vol. i. p. 31, Asiat. Research. vol. i. p. 263.

that another great Indian family are called the children of the moon, or CHANDRA, under which form ESWARA, or the god of nature, is often worshipped. We must not be surprised, the president of the Asiatic Society observes, at finding, on a close examination, that the characters of all the pagan deities, male and female, melt into each other, and at last into one or two; for, it seems a well-founded opinion, that the whole crowd of gods and goddesses, in antient Rome and modern Varanes, means only the powers of nature, and, principally, the SUN. He owns himself inclined to believe that not only Creeshna or Veeshnu, but even Brahma and Seeva, when united and expressed by the mystical word OM, an expression that frequently occurs in Sanscreet invocations* of the deity, were designed by the first idolaters to represent the SOLAR FIRE. By the triliteral word AUM, which letters coalesce and form OM, the triple divinity, Brahma, Veeshnu, and Seeva, are meant to be expressed; or, in other words, the power of the Almighty to create, to preserve, and to destroy, It may be added, that the term OM is considered in so sacred a light, that it never escapes the lips of

* It particularly occurs in a most sublime prayer to BoODH, translated by Mr Wilkins, in Asiat. Research. vol. i. p. 285.

a

a pious Hindoo, but is the subject of his meditation in holy and profound silence. Their mode of adoring the SUN is said, by Lucian, in his treatise de Saltatione, to have consisted in a circular dance, in imitation of that orb's supposed motion round the earth, by which all nature was gladdened, and from which the various ranks of beings derived light and support. SURYA KOOND is mentioned, under the Subah of Owd, in the Ayeen Akbery, as a place of religious worship very celebrated and much frequented; and a festival called the SURYA POOJA, or the worship of the sun, Mr Holwell acquaints us, is still observed on the seventh day of the new moon, in January, when particular offerings of flowers are made to that luminary in the Ganges. The vestiges of this superstition are, in fact, at this day, evident in all the sacred rites and multiform ceremonies of the Brahmins. At their first putting on the ZENNAR, or sacred cord of three threads, the mystic symbol of their faith, they learn the gayteree, which are certain words in praise of the SUN. At sun-rise they turn to the east, and, filling the palms of their hands with water, and at the same time repeating a

* See Holwell on the Gentoo fasts and festivals, India Tracts, part ii. p. 134.