LieuU-Colonel Tod on the Religious Eslablislmenis of Mewar. 313 



the horse, the serpent, and the hare, so, the race o? Surya, of which Rama 

 was the head, may have designated tlieir tribes the Risk/, Hanuman, &c., 

 bears and monkeys. Whether Rameses found his way from tiie Nile to tiie 

 Ganges, or whether Ramesa found his Lanka on the shores of the Red Sea, 

 we can but conjecture. The Hindu scorns the idea that the rock Ceylon 

 was the abode of Rama's enemy. The distance of the Nile from the Indian 

 shore forms no objection to the surmise ; the sail that spread for Ceylon 

 could waft to the Red Sea, which the fleets of Tyre, of Solomon, and 

 Hiram covered about this very time. That the Hindus navigated the ocean 

 from the earliest ages, the traces of their religion in the isles of the 

 Indian archipelago sufficiently attest. 



The coincidence between the most common epithets of the Apollos of 

 Greece and India, as applied to tlie sun, are peculiarly striking. Heri 

 is also called Bhan-nat'h, ' the lord of beams,' or Phoebus, and his heaven 

 is Heripur (Heliopolis), or ' city of Heri.'* Helios {UKiog) was a title of 

 Apollo, whence the Greeks had their Elysium {i\Kv<nog'^, the Heripur or 

 Bhan-ihan, ' the abode of the sun,* the highest of the heavens or abodes 

 of bliss of the martial Rajput. Hence the eagle is a fit emblem of Heui as 

 the sun.t 



The Dii Majores of the Rajput are the same in number and title as 

 amongst the Greeks and Romans, being the deities who figuratively preside 

 over the planetary system. Their grades of bliss are therefore in unison 

 with the eccentricity of orbit of the planet named. On this account 

 Chandra or Indu, the moon, being a mere satellite of Ella, the earth, 

 though probably originating the name of the Indu race, is inferior in the 

 scale of blissful abodes to that of his son Buddha or Mercury, whose heliacal 



• " In Hebrew heres signifies the sun, but in Arabic the meaning of the radical word is to 

 guard, preserve; and of Aam, guardian, preserver.'' — Valuer's Ruins of Empires, p. 316. 



f The heaven of Viehnu, called Vaictint'ha, is entirely of gold, and 80,000 miles in 

 circumference. Its edifices, pillars, and ornaments, are composed of precious stones. The 

 crystal waters of the Ganges form a river in Vaicunt'ha, where are lakes filled with blue, red, 

 and white water-lilies, each of a hundred and even a thousand petals. On a throne glorious 

 as the meridian sun, resting on water-lilies, is Vishnu, with I.acshmi or Sri, the goddess 

 of abundance (the Ceres of the Egyptians and Greeks), on his right hand, surrounded by 

 spirits who constantly celebrate the praise of Vishnu and Lacshmi, who are served by his 

 votaries, and to whom the eagle {garuda) is door-keeper. — Extract from the Mnltnbharal — See 

 Ward on the History and Religion of the Hindus, vol. ii. p. l-t. 



Vol. II. 2 S 



