THE HINDU RELIGIOX. <^ 



Deity, of which eacli is a Sacti, or power, with tli^ 

 same attrihutes and vehicle: IN'lA'HEs'wARi is thfe 

 S'acti of Mahe'sa, or Si'va; Bra'hmi, or Brah- 

 ma'ni, of Brahma'; Na'ra'yaxI, of Nara'yexa; 

 AiNDRi, of Indra; Cauma'ri, of Ca'rtice'ya; 

 Ya'ra'hi, of Vishnu, in tlie Vliraha Avatar; Na- 

 RASiNHi, of ViSHNU, in the Narasinlia Avatar; 

 and Aparajita', a form of Bhava'ni, the female 

 principle: tliis last may he the aphrodite of the 

 Greeks. It is prohahle that the representation of 

 Ma'he's'vv'ari, or a female Si'va, riding oh a white 

 bull, may have given rise to the story of Europa's 

 rape: and the representation of Bra'hmi, or the fe- 

 male Brahma', with the swan, may, in like man- 

 ner, have occasioned the fable of Jupiter and 

 Leda. These explanations were, perhaps, invented 

 by the Greeks to account for symbols, of the mean- 

 ing of which they were ignorant. 



axna perexna. 



The Romans themselves were ijynorant of the his- 

 tory of this goddess, and tlie origin of her rites, 

 although she was an object of their veneration and 

 worship. From whence did this ignorance proceed? 

 Was it that the memory of the institution was lost 

 in its remote antiquity? Or was it an adoption of 

 a foreign ritual, without adverting to its origin? 



According to some authors, she was the daughter 

 of Belus, and sister of Dido, who fled to BAtTUi"^ 

 king of the isle of Malta, after the death of her 

 sister, when Hierbas, king of the Getuli, at- 

 tempted to take Carthage. Not finding herself 

 safe with Battus, on account of the threats of 

 HiERBAS, she tied to Laurf.xtum in Italy, wherr 

 tEneas was settled : he met her on the banks of 

 the Numichis, and received her into his palace, 



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