FROM AGRA TO OUj£lN. 35 



-«^/n7 15.— Marched S 75§ W, 10,37 miles, to Om- 

 jein. The road good. This city called in Sanfcrit, Ujja'mi, 

 and Aw'mtiy or Avanti, boalts a high antiquity. A 

 chapter in the Poora?is is employed on the delcription 

 of it. It is conlldered as the firft meridian by the 

 Hindu geographers and aftronomers, lb that its longi- 

 tude from our European obfervatorics is an object of 

 fome curiofity. By a medium of eleven obfervations 

 of Jupiter's firll and fecond fatelhtes (taking the times 

 in the ephemeris as accurate) I make its longitude from 

 Greemvuh 75° 51' E. Its latitude, by a medium of 

 eight obfervations 23= ll' 13" M. 



But the city which now bears the name is fituated a 

 mile to the fouthward of the ancient town, which, 

 about the time of the celebrated Vicramadittya 

 was overwhelmed, by one of thofc violent convulfions 

 of nature which, from time to time, alter the furface of 

 our globe. The following narrative of this event, in- 

 volved in a cloud of fable, is handed down by the 

 Brahmens. A certain deity, named Gundrufsein, 

 Was condemned, for an oifence committed againit the 

 god Inder, to appear on earth, in the form of an afs, 

 but on his entreaty, he was allowed, as a mitigation of 

 the punii"hment, to lay aiide that body in the night, 

 and take that of a man. His incarnation took place at 

 Oujein, during the reign of a Rajah, named Sunder- 

 SEiN, and the afs, when arrived at maturity, accofting 

 the Rajah in a human voice, proclaimed his own divine 

 origin, and demanded his daughter in marriage. Hav- 

 ing, by certain prodigies, overcome the fcruples of 

 the Rajah, he obtained the objedl of his wifnes. All 

 day, in the form of an afs, he lived in the ftable, on 

 corn and hay ; but when night came on ; laying afide 

 the afs's Ikin, and afluming the form of a handfome 

 and accomplifhed young prince, he went into the 

 palace, and enjoyed, till morning, the converfation of 

 his beauteous bride. In procefs of time, the daughter 

 of the Rajah appeared to be pregnant, and as her huf- 

 band. the afs, was deemed incapable of producing 



C2 fucU 



