36 OHIGIN' AND DECLIJJE OF THE 



escaped them. This is very probable; but as I 

 never had the most distant idea of ever investigating 

 this subject, till very lately, I may probably have 

 overlooked many passages of this nature ; and I re- 

 collect now only two material ones, which I men- 

 tioned before. These prophecies, in the Puran'aSy 

 concerning this Saviour, declare, that he was to ap- 

 pear in the latter end of the third, and in the begin- 

 ning of the fourth age : which can, by no means, be 

 reconciled to the Christian Era, according to their 

 mode of reckoning. The two passages, alluded to, 

 are to be found in the Fadma and Ganes'a-puran'as, 

 In the first, Bali, an antediluvian, and in the fifth 

 generation from the creation, is introduced request- 

 ing the God of Gods, or Vishnu, to allow him to 

 die by his hand, that he might go into his paradise 

 in the JVhite Island. Vishnu told him, it was a 

 favor not easily obtained ; that he would, however, 

 grant his request: but, says Vishnu, you cannot 

 come into my paradise nov/; but you must wait, till 

 I become incarnate in the shape of a boar, in order 

 to make the world undergo a total renovation, to 

 establish, and secure it upon a most firm and perma- 

 nent footing : and you must wait a whole Yuga, till 

 this takes place, and then you will accompany me 

 into my paradise. A whole Yuga, or Maha-yuga^ 

 consists of 4,320,000 divine, or more pi:obably 4,320 

 natural years.* These, reckoned from the fifth ante- 

 diluvian generation, will fall in, very nearly, with 

 the beginning of the Christian Era, according to the 

 Septuagint, and Joseph us's computation. As to the 



* These are a component part of the great year, or period of 

 12,000 years, used both in the east, and in the west, and also in 

 Persia. In India they say that these are divine years ; but in 

 Etruria and Ptrsia, they insisted, that these were only natural 

 years. 



