280 A LETTER FROM 



The firft lines of the firft verfe allude to the ftory of 

 BhawaneFs killing the evil fpirit M heejhdfoor^ who, 

 in the difguife of a buffalo, as the name imports, had 

 fought with Eendra, and his celeftial bands, for a hun- 

 dred years, defeated him, and ufurped his throne. The 

 ftory is to be found at large in a little book called 

 Chandee. The vanquifhed fpirits, being banifhed the 

 heavens, and doomed to wander the earth, after a while 

 aftemble, with their chief Eendrti at their head, and re- 

 folve to lay their grievances before Veefhnoo and Seev. 

 Conducted by Brahma, they repair into theprefence of 

 thofe Deities, who heard their complaints with com- 

 paftion; and their anger was fo violent againft Mahee- 

 Jhafdor, that a kind of *-!ame iffued from their mouths, 

 and from the mouths of the reft of the principal Gods, 

 of which was formed a Goddefs of inexprelhble beauty 

 with ten arms, and each hand holding a different wea- 

 pon. This was a transfiguration of Bhawanee, the con- 

 fort of S<?<?i;, under which (he is generally called Doorga. 

 She is fentagainfl the ufurper. She mounts her lion, the 

 gift of the mountain HcsmaLiy, (faowyj and attacks 

 the monfter, who fhifts his form repeatedly ; till at 

 length the Goddefs planteth her foot upon his head, and 

 cuts it off with a fingle ftroke of her fword. Imme- 

 diately the upper part of a human body iffues through 

 the neck of the headlefs buffalo, and aims a ftroke, which 

 being warded off by the lion with his right paw, Doorga 

 puts an end to the combat, by piercing him through 

 the heart with a fpear. I have in my poffelfion a ftatue 

 of the Goddefs, with one foot on her lion, and the other 

 on the monfter, in the attitude here laftly defcribed. 



The want of a date difappointed my expectations. I 

 had fome hopes that it was contained in the fingle line, 

 •which you informed me was taken from another part of 

 the cave ; but, although I have not yet fucceeded in 

 making out the whole, I have difcovered enough to 

 convince me that it contains nothing but an invocation. 



If 



