312 AN ESSAY ON THE 



reckoning from tlie opposite side of the equator, 

 which circumscrihes the Northern hemisphere. 

 But Meru is not the North pole; it is true that it 

 is the Nava, NobeJ?, or under the ninetieth degree, 

 not from the equator, but from the horizon ; or, in 

 other words, it is the zenith and centre of the 

 known world, or old continent, not including the 

 sea ; and this cen*-re, according to the PanranicSy in 

 the time ot Cosmas Indoplfustes, in the middle 

 of the sixth century, was said to be exactly be- 

 tween China and Greece. We read constantly in 

 the Puranas of countries, mountains, and ri\crs, 

 some to the North, others to the East, or to the 

 V^est of Meru ; the country of North Curu^ be- 

 j'ond Aleru, is repeatedly declared to be to the 

 South of the Northern ocean. All these ex- 

 pressions shew very plainly, that by Miru, the 

 Pauraiiks did not originally understand the North 

 pole, which they call Sidd'hapur, which place, the 

 astronomers say, cannot be under the North pole, 

 bee ause it is in the track of the sufl ; for wb.en the 

 sun is there, it is midnight at Lanca and in India; 

 it must be then under the equator. This is very 

 true; but we are to argue, in the present case, ac- 

 cording to the received notions of the Pauran'ics^ 

 who formerly considered the Earth as a flat sur- 

 face, with an immense convexity in the centre, 

 behind which the sun disappeared graduall}^ de- 

 scending so as to graze the surface of the sea at 

 Sidd^hapura. In the Brahman da Pur an' a section 

 of the Bhuv ana-Cos a, it is declared, that one-half 

 of the surface (vedi) of the earth is on the South 

 of Meru, and the other half on the North. All 

 this is very plain, if we understand it of the old 

 continent; one half of which is South of the ele- 

 vated plains of little Bokhara, and the other half 

 to the North of it. Then, twelve or fifteen lines 

 lower, the author of the same Puran'a adds, and 



