144 ESSAY ON 



Thus the rJeath of Gautama happened in Novem^ 

 her 617 ; and his death, in the Puran'as, and according 

 to the Ja])a?iese, is placed either late in the sixth, or 

 early in the seventh century. Pram'ara, the great 

 destroyer, or Pari-m'ara, he who destroys all round, 

 is one of the titles of Yama, and very applicable to 

 MuHAMMED. The Hindus, in the western parts of 

 India, are well acquainted with the famous Cliaryari 

 of the Musulmans, or the four friends and associates 

 of MuifAjiMED. Some, with a little straining, de- 

 rive this name from the Sanscrit; and thus the four 

 destroyers, v/ith their leader, become the Paxcha- 

 Ma'ras, or the five destroyers. Mr. Harington's 

 list, which was brought from Assam by the late Dr. 

 AVade, seems to have been new modelled by the 

 Jamas; as Gautama is introduced there, waging 

 war a2:ainst a certain Manu. 



'o' 



The next subject of inquiry is the CumAricd' 

 chanda, a section of the Scanda-piiran'a. The copy in 

 m}' possession vv^as written in Gujjardt two hundred 

 and thirty years ago, or in the year of Vicuama'DI- 

 tya 1630, A. D. L574; and in the year of Vicrama 

 179^, or A. D. 1740, it was the property of a learned 

 Pandit, who made several corrections in the margin, 

 as usual in India. The owner of that section, 250 

 years ago, obviously considered it as authentic, and 

 as making part of one of the canonical books ; and 

 the copies in general use in this part of the country 

 do not materially difi'er from it. According to the 

 context, this Piirana must have been written when 

 the Roman empire, probably in the east, was in the 

 zenith of its glory ; for the author mentions it as the 

 largest in the woVld, and says that it consisted of no 

 less than 18,030,000 villages, or rather parishes, and 

 he speaks of it as existing in that powerful and ex- 

 tensive state in his own time. Six dates only are given 

 in this section. The first is 'Sudraga, or Suraca, 



