ITALY, AND INDIA. 255 



people, that any thing natural could be offenfively ob- 

 fcene ; a Angularity which pervades all their writings 

 and converfation, but is no proof of depravity in their 

 morals. 



Both Plato and Cicero fpeak of Eros, or the Heavenly 

 Cupid, as the fon of Venus and Jupiter; which proves, 

 that the Monarch oWlympu*,2u\d the Goddefs of Fecun- 

 dity, were conne&ed, as Mahadeva and Bhavdni. The 

 God Cdma, indeed, had Maya and Cafyapa* or Uranus, 

 for his parents, at lead according to the mythologies of 

 Cajhmir ; but, in molt refpccts, he feems the twin- 

 brother of Cupid, with richer and more lively appen- 

 dages. One of his many epithets is D/paca, the In- 

 Jlamer, which is erroneoufly written Dipuc ; and I am 

 now convinced, that the fort of refemblanre which has 

 been obfervcd between his Latin and Sanfcrit names is 

 accidental : in each name the three fivlt letters are the 

 root, and between them there is no affinity. Whether 

 any mythological conntclion fubfifted between the ama- 

 racus, with the fragrant leaves of which Hymen bound 

 his temples, and the tula fi of India, muft be left unde- 

 termined : the botanical relation of the two plants (if 

 amaracus be properly tranflated mar jorum) is extremely 

 near. 



One ofthemoft remarkable ceremonies in the feftival 

 of the Indian Goddefs, is that before-mentioned, of call- 

 ing her image into tlu river. The Pandits, of whom I 

 inquired concerning its origin and import, aniwered, 

 " that it was prefcribed by the Veda, they knew not 

 " why ;" but this cuftom has, I conceive, a relation to 

 the doctrine, that water is a form of Ifzvara, and conse- 

 quently of Ifdni, who is even reprefenied by fome as the 

 patronefs of that element, to which her figure is rellored 

 after having received all due honours on earth, which 

 is conhdered as another form q£ the God of Nature, 



though 



