THEORY OF THE EARTH. 155 



3200 years, or about the epoch of Moses.* Nay, 

 perhaps those who give credit to the assertion of 

 Megasthenest, that in his time the Indians were 

 not acquainted with the art of writing, who re- 

 flect that none of the ancients has made mention 

 of their superb temples, those immense pagodas, 

 the remarkable monuments of the religion of the 

 Bramins, and who are aware that the epochs of 

 their astronomical tables have been calculated 

 backwards, and ill calculated, and that their trea- 

 tises of astronomy are modern and antedated, 

 will be inclined still farther to reduce the pre- 

 tended antiquity of the Vedas. 



Yet even in the midst of all the Brahminical 

 fictions, circumstances occur, whose agreement 

 with the result of the historical monuments of 

 more western countries cannot but astonish us. 

 Thus, their mythology consecrates the successive 

 devastations which the surface of the globe has 

 already undergone, or is yet destined to undergo ; 

 and it is only to a period somewhat less than 

 5000 years, that they refer the last catastrophe^ 



* See Mr Colebrooke's Memoir on the Vedas, Calcutta 

 Memoirs, vol. viii. p. 493. 8vo edition. 



t Megasthenes apud Strabonem, lib. xv. p. 709. Almel. 



J The epoch which gave birth to the present age, Call- 

 yug (the earthen age,) 4927 years before the present 

 day, or 3200 years before Christ. See Legentil, Voyage 



