﻿OF THE HINDUS. II9 



the seventh Menu be not one and the same* with 

 that of Noah. I propose the questions, but affirm 

 nothing ; leaving others to settle tneir opinions, 

 whether Adam be derived from a dim, which in San- 

 scrit means the first ; or Menu from Nuh, the true 

 name of the patriarch ; whether the sacrifice, at 

 which God is believed to have descended, alludes to 

 the offering -'of Abel \ and, on the whole, whether 

 the two Menus can mean any other persons than the 

 great progenitor, and the restorer of our spechs. 



On a supposition that Vaivaswata, or sun-born, 

 was the Noah of Scripture, let us proceed to the 

 Indian account of his posterity, which I extract from 

 the Puranart' haprecasa, or The Pur anas Explained: a 

 work lately composed in Sanscrit by Radhacanta 

 •Sarman, a Pandit of extensive leaning and great 

 lame among the Hindus of this province. Before we 

 examine the genealogies of kings, which he has col- 

 lected from the Puranas, it will be necessary to give 

 a general idea of the avataras, or descents, of the 

 Deity. The Hindus believe innumerable such des- 

 cents or special interpositions of Providence in the 

 affairs of mankind, but they reckon ten principal 

 a-cataras in th< current period of four ages ; and 

 all of them are described, in order as they are sup- 

 posed to occur, in the following Ode of Jayadeva, 

 the great lyric poet of India. 



1. " Thou recoverest the Veda in the water of 

 the ocean of destruction, placing it joyfully in the 

 bosom of an ark fabricated by thee, Cesava, 

 assuming the body of a fish. Be victorious, 

 Heri y lord of the universe ! 



2. " The earth stands frn on thy immeisely 

 broad back, which grows larger from the callus, 



I 4 



