248 ON THE GODS OF GREECE, 



during the warfare. Thus, in a fimilar conteft between 

 Siva and the Daityas, or children of Dili, who fre- 

 quently rebelled againft heaven, Brahma is believed to 

 have prefented the God of Deflruflion with fiery Jhafts. 

 One of the many poems, entitled i^iw^ya?!, the laftbook 

 of which has been tranflated into Italian, contains an 

 extraordinary dialogue between the crow Bhii/Jiunda, 

 and a rational eagle, named Garuda, who is often 

 painted with the face of a beautiful youth, and the 

 body of an imaginary bird ; and one of the eighteen 

 Pur anas bears his name, and comprifes his whole hif- 

 tory. M. Sonnerat informs us, that Vi/Iinu is repre- 

 ■fented in fome places riding on the Garuda, which he 

 iuppofesto be the Pondichcri eagle of ifn^cm, efpecially 

 as the Brdhmans of the Coaft highly venerate that bird, 

 and provide food for numbers of them at dated hours. 

 I rather conceive the Garuda to be a fabulous bird; but 

 agree with him, that the Hindu God, who rides on it, 

 refembles the ancient Jupiter. In the old temples at 

 Gay a, Vijhnu is either mounted on this poetical bird, or 

 attended by it, together with a little page; but, left an 

 etymologilt fhould find Ganymed in Garud, I muft ob- 

 ferve that the Sanfcrit word is pronounced Garura ; 

 though I admit that the Grecian and Indian ftories of 

 the celeftial bird and the page appear to have fome re- 

 femblance. As the Olympian Jupiter fixed his court, 

 and held his councils, on a lofty and brilliant mountain, 

 ib the appropriated feat of Makddeva, whom the Saivas 

 confider as the Chief of the Deities, was mount Cailafa, 

 every fplinter of whofe rocks was an ineftimable gem. 

 His terreftrial haunts are the fnowy hills of Himalaya, ox 

 that branch of them to the Eaft of the Brahmaputra, 

 which has the name of Chandrafic'hara, or the Moun- 

 tain of the Moon. When, after all thefe circumftances, 

 we learn that Siva is believed to ha.\e three eyes, whence 

 he is named alfo Trilochan, and know from Paufanias, 

 not only that Triophthalmos was an epithet of Zeus, 

 but that a itatue of him had been found fo early as 



the 



