302 Lieut.-Colonel Tod on ifie Religious Establishments ofMewar. 



impious to raise a temple to :-.- jn 



" The Spirit in whose honour shrines are "freat." 



Hence the Jains, a grand sect of the Buddhists, so called from adoring the 

 spirit {Jin), were untinctured with idolatry until the apotheosis of Crishna, 

 whose worship and mysteries superseded Buddhism and the simple worship 

 of Nemanat'h.* It was probably long anterior to this schism amongst the 

 sons of Buddha that the creative power was typified, and his worship degraded 

 under sensual forms, when the pillar rose to Bal or Surya [the Vivifier], in 

 Syria and on the Ganges : and the serpent, " subtlest beast of all the field," 

 as the emblem of wisdom (Buddha), was frequently conjoined with the symbol 

 of the creative power, as at the sluine of Eklinga, where the brazen serpent 

 is wreathed round the UnganiA From the rape of Ella (daughter of Manu, 

 themaxt, son of the Sun), by Buddha, his descendants the Lidus preserved the 

 Ophite ritest as the sign of their race until Crishna, whose followers adopted 

 the eagle (gariida) as his symbol. Hence the wars of the Pandus and Talc- 

 shoes of their ancient epics, typified under the eagles and serpents, the pro- 

 fessors of the old and new religion.§ These, with the adorers of Surya (the 



* Of tlie twenty-four incarnations of Duddha, or divine wisdom, Nema-nat'h, the twenty- 

 second, was of the same stock (iWii) and family as Crishna. 



t It was the serpent (Buddha) who ravished Ella, daughter of Icshwaca, the son of 

 Manu, whence the distinctive epithet of his descendants in the East, Manus, or men. 

 An ancient sculptured column in the south of India, evidently points to the primeval 

 mystery. In Portici there is an exact lingam entwined with a brazen serpent, brought from the 

 temple of Isis at Pompeii ; and many of the same kind, iu mosaic, decorate the floors of the 

 dwelling-houses. But the most singular coincidence is in the wreath of /./no-amj and the Yoni 

 over the door of the minor temple of Isis at Pompeii ; and on another front is painted the rape of 

 Venus by Mercury (Buddha and Ella). The lunar race, according to the Purans, are the issue 

 of the rape of Ella by Buddha. 



X Aphah is a serpent in Hebrew. Ahe and Serp are two of its many appellations in Sanscrit. 



§ The Mahabkarat records constant wars from ancient times amongst the children of Svrya 

 (the sun) and the Tak or Tnkshac (serpent) races. The horse of the sun, liberated preparatory 

 to sacrifice, by the father of Rama, was seized by the Tacshac Aniinla ; and Janmeja, king of 

 Dchli, grandson of Pandu, was killed by one of the same race. In both instances, the Takshac 

 is literally rendered the snake. 



The successoi' of Janm^ja carried war into the seats of this Tak, or serpent race, and is said to 

 liave sacrificed 20,000 of them in revenge ; but although it is specifically stated that he subse- 

 quently compelled them to sign tributary engagements {pnenameh), the Brahmans have never- 

 theless distorted a plain historical fact by a literal and puerile interpretation. 



The 



