318 AN ESSAY OK THE 



The Biftigi mountains of Ptolemy, in the Dec* 

 can, are in the country of the Badcgas, according 

 to European travellers of the seventeenth century ; 

 and their language is called Badega The inhabi- 

 tants of that country are called, in the Tamidi dia- 

 lect, Vadacin ; and by others Faduca and Vadugas, 

 but generally pronounced Vdrugds and fVarugas ; 

 though in writing they retain the letter D, which 

 has a peculiar sound between D and R, as in San- 

 scrit. NoxNUs, in his Dionysiacs*, takes particu- 

 lar notice of mount Mtru, and of its circular sur- 

 face on its summit. " Bacchus," says he, " or 

 " Crishna, divided his forces into four armies; 

 " one he sent to the foot of the Northern moun- 

 *' tain, with a circular summit, and surrounded 

 " with deep vallies shaded with trees ; and from 

 " this peak, in Caucasm, issue many rivers, de- 

 " riving their waters from Jupiter." This was 

 Jupiter Pluvialis, the Indra of the Hindus, 

 who holds his court on the summit of 7l'/m/, which 

 is called the Swerga, or heaven of Indra. To 

 this mountain Euhewerus gives the name of 

 Olympus, and very properly. It is emphatically 

 called, as we have seen, the circle of lid, or 

 Ida, or Ildvratta; it might be called also Ildpu, or 

 Ildpus, the city of the Karth, or Ild-pus, from Ila 

 or Has, which sounds exactly like llos in Greek. 

 Ila was the son of VAivASWATA-AfAXU, or Noah, 

 and who, in his old age, resigned the empire of 

 the Earth to him ; and thus he became Ild-pati, or 

 Jijd-pati, the Lord sovereign of the earth, and Ilus 

 the eldest, in Homer, lived near mount Olympus^ 

 and Ida, in the city of Ilium, inhabited by jVIe- 



ROPES. 



Ila', Ida, and Ira, m Sanscrit, signify the earth; 

 * NoMNi Dionrj. lib. XXVII. v. 150, &c^ 



