CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN INDIA. Ill 



prisoner. There he found a body of Hindus, whom 

 he carried to Rome, to grace his triumph. Damas- 

 cius, who was contemporary with Justinian, in 

 his life of Isidorus, relates several curious anecdotes 

 of Severus, a Roman, but by birth an African, and 

 who lived in the time of the Emperor Anthemius. 

 Severus was a philosopher of most austere manners, 

 and great learning, and fond of the society of learned 

 men. After the death of that Emperor in 473, he 

 retired to Alexandria^ where he received at his house 

 several Brahmens from India, and whom he treated 

 with the greatest hospitality and respect. Dates and 

 rice were their food, and water their beverage, and 

 the}'^ shewed not the least curiosity, refusing to go 

 and see the most superb fabrics and palaces, with 

 which that famous city was adorned.'* 



It is remarkable, that ancient travellers make no 

 mention of the monstrous statues of the Hindus, 

 The historians of Alexander take notice of the 

 Sib(£, carrying among their standards the image of 

 Hercules, whoever he was. The Siiraseni round 

 Muttra on the Jumna, had also a statue of Hercu- 

 LEs,"!" or Bala-deva. Philostratus takes notice 

 of some figures cut out of the rock beyond Hardwar; 

 but these statues had nothing monstrous in them, no 

 more than those made by Grecian artists in the Pa)i- 

 jab, according to the same author. It is not improba- 

 ble then, that at that time the Hindus had not yet at- 

 tempted to represent, either in stone or wood, their 

 monstrous deities. They were first introduced to our 



* Photii Bibliotheca, p. 1040 and SuiDAS v. Severus. 

 t Asiat, Researches, vol. v. p. 294. 



