72 Captain James Low on Buppa and the Phrabat. 
This discus, at the will of its possessor (for the pretended power acquired 
by the performance of austerities is not always employed to the best of 
purposes), whirls through the air to distant regions, striking kings from 
their thrones, and discomfiting enemies; and then returns to the hand from 
which it was launched. 
The Chakkra is one of the instruments with which Mettawént,hu tortures 
the damned in Ndraka, or the Siamese Norok ; on whose heads it twirls 
like a fiery whirlwind, with inconceivable velocity. 
According to some authorities the Hindi Chakkra was a circular mass of 
fire, instinct with life, darting forth flames on every side ;* and thence some 
have inferred that the Hindis were acquainted with a species of fire, or 
agni astri, which they turned to the purposes of war. The Chakkra was 
borne by Visunu, and was termed Sudjdrasan ;t and the Sacti Vishnavi bore 
in his hand a conch, a discus or Chakkra, a club, a bow, and a sword ;t 
and Crisuna, by striking with the Chakkra the mountain in Saverna Bhiimé, 
or the “ Land of Gold,” opened a passage into the Tamomayi Maha 
Bhumi, or *“ Land of Darkness.”§ Sir W. Jones remarked that the Indian 
Pluto bears in his hands the radiated elliptical weapon, the mace for war, 
and the lotus; and that the Avatars of Visunu are sometimes depicted 
accompanied by a flower and the above weapons. According to Mallet, as 
cited by Maurice, the Scandinavian Jove seems to have been armed with 
the Chakkra of Visunu, and also bore in his hands the Pudma and Geda.|| 
From Kempfer’s instructive History of Japan, it appears that the Chakkra 
is also a distinguishing emblem amongst the mountain priests of that 
country: and we can scarcely doubt that it was among the Druids of 
Britain considered as the type of eternity. Their attachment to the circle 
is sufficiently disclosed in the remains of their holy places and groves ; and 
the emblem itself was found on gold coins, discovered in the year 1789 in 
the middle of the ridge of Carnebrehill, in Cornwall. 
As a type of eternity, BraumA is also exhibited to us with the Chakkra in 
one hand, which, perhaps, was originally intended to typify the sun. 
* Wilkins’s Bhagavat. + Maurice’s Indian Antiquities, 
{ Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. § Ibid. 
|| In the Ratana Kalapa the Chakkra, there termed Wajéra Atd,ha, is described as one of 
the missile weapons of India. 
| Maurice. 
