86 ESSAY oy 



Arund'kati', the consort of Vasts-ta, on account 

 of her cxtrr.orcllnary holiness and sanctity. Soon 

 after, some scandalous repcicS prevailed, and the six 

 other Rishis dismissed their consoi ts, and drove tliem 

 out of their places, within the Arctic circle. They 

 were intrused M'ith the education of young Ca'rti- 

 ce'ya, who placed them in the Zodiac, after expelling 

 Jbhijit. 



The Pleiades, according to Mythologists in the 

 west, were intrusted likewise with the^ education of 

 Bacchus, (whc, according to Macrobius, was the 

 same \'Ath. ^.f ars, or Ca'rtick ya) ; and, on that ac- 

 counc, he translated them into heaven^ According 

 to those writers, they suffered a real bodily pollution; 

 and the seventh, says Hyginus, left her sisters, and 

 fled to the reoion of tl:« heavens within the Aixtic 

 circle* ; and this is the Ahl'^dhati' of the Hindus. 



I have not been able to ascertain whose daughters 

 the consorts of the seven Rishis were : neither did 

 the western mythologists agree about it; though 

 they supposed, in general, that they v.ere the 

 daughters of Atlas ; but, as they never existed, it is 

 a matter of little consequence. Thus we see, that, 

 according to some, Yudhishti'r, or Judhispiter, 

 lived 3100B. C. and began his reign immediately 

 lihev the Rralaiia, ov flood ; like Xisuthrus, or Si- 

 sisTiiRUs; whilst, according to others, he lived 

 between the years 1500 and 1370 B. C. like Slsos- 



TllIS. 



The beginning of the Cali-yuga, considered as an 

 astroncmical period, is fixed and unvariable ; 3044 

 years before Vigramaditya, or 3100 13. C. But the 

 beginning of the same, considered either as a civil, 

 or historical period, is by no means agreed upon. 



* Hygiu. Poetic. Astronoia. p. 471. 



