CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN INDIA. 37 



number of years, they are written 5,000 in round 

 numbers in the Gaties'a-purana: and, as these 5,000 

 years are not said to be divine ones, we have a right 

 to suppose, that they were meant originally for na- 

 tural years. Gane's'a, who is identified with Vishnu, 

 and has also an inferior paradise in the JVhite Island^ 

 and another in the Euxine or Icshu Sea, thus says to 

 a King of Cds'i or Benares, an antediluvian, and 

 who, like Bali, wished much to be admitted into 

 his elysium : " you cannot now enter my paradise in 

 the White Island ; you must Avait 5,000 years," when, 

 it seems, it was to be opened. " But in the mean 

 time, you may reside in my other paradise in the 

 Euxine Sea."" In the same manner Achilles, with 

 Castor and Pollux, and 1 believe Cadmus, Pe- 

 LEUs, &c. after residing a long time in the JVhite 

 Island in the Icshu Sea, were ultimately translated 

 into the the original JVhite Island in the JVhite Sea. 



The JVhite Island in the Euxine or Icshu Sea, has 

 much affinity with the Limbus Patrum, or paradise 

 of departed ancestors, who waited there for the 

 coming of Christ, who was to open the celestial, 

 and real paradise, for their reception. 



Divines in India declare, that the surest proof of 

 the divine mission of an Avatdra is his coming being 

 foretold: that prophecies concerning a Saviour are 

 often repeated in them, some very plain, and others 

 rather obscure : that they are, in short, one of the 

 fundamental supports of their religion and creed. 

 That Crishna is considered as the first, in dignity and 

 principal incarnation; and that the others are greatly 

 inferior to this, and merely introduced to bring on 

 the grand system of regeneration. In his time, the 

 divine oracles were committed to writing, with a 



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