140 ESSAY ON 



constant theme of the Pauranics and other Hindu 

 writers. These two Tri-cutas, or three-peaked- 

 islands may probably be the two islands of Cerne, 

 east and west, of the ancients. When speaking in 

 general terms, the Pauranics sometimes place them, 

 one in the east, and the other in the west. But 

 numerous and explicit passages show, that they are 

 situated in the N. W. and S. E. quarters of the old 

 continent. There are however, some few passages, 

 which place them north and south of Mtru; and 

 Lancd is now considered as situated on the equator, 

 exactly to the south of Ujjayini, Meru, and opposite 

 to the island of the moon. The last assigned 

 situation was the first I hit upon, on my first ac- 

 quaintance with the Pwdrias, and perplexed me 

 very much ; as the Pandits^ I was acquamted with, 

 insisted that the Wnixji: island, one of the peaks of 

 the western Tri-cu'ta, was in the N. W. quarter, that 

 is to say, it occupied the whole space between the 

 N. W. and N. points : and that likewise the eastern 

 Tri-catadri was between the S. and S. E. points. 

 Unfortunately, they could not then produce the 

 necessary vouchers from their sacred books; but in 

 the mean time, they exhibited the accompanying 

 map oi Jambu^ in order to illustrate the subject. 



In the plate, the map of Jambu is represented 

 under three different projections. The first is ac- 

 cording to the ideas of the Pauranics, in which one 

 half of the equator is obviously combined with 

 another half of the meridian, on the plain of which 

 the map is projected. I have marked the degrees of 

 longitude upon the equator, and the degrees of lati- 

 tude north, upon an arch of the first meridian. No 

 notice is ever taken of these particulars by the Pau- 

 ranics ; but a little reflection will show the original 



