V A H 



" Alma parens Idaca deum, cui Dindyma. cordi, 

 Turrigeraeque urbes, bijugique ad fraena leones." 



^n, X. 258. 

 Dr)-den changes her lions into tigers. 



" Hear thou great mother of the deities, 

 With turrets crowned, on Ida's holy hill, 

 Fierce tigers reined and curbed obey thy will." 

 Pitt, however, in his invocation, reftores the lions. 

 " Great guardian queen of Ida's hiUs and woods, 

 Supreme, majc-flic mother of the gods ! 

 Whofe ftrong defence proud tow'ring cities (hare, 

 While roaring lions whirl thy mighty car." 

 In moft languages of the Eaft, it may be obferved, the 

 fame word means both lion and tiger. The Greeks or Ro- 

 mans, borrowing the attribute from the Eaft, may eafily have 

 mifconceived its name. (See Cybele and Parvati.) It 

 might be fliewn that moft of the myftical ceremonies prac- 

 tifed by the Weftern heathens in honour of the goddefs Cy- 

 bele, were, and are, common alfo in India in honour of 

 Parvati. The peacock is likewife facred to the latter, and 

 is, as we (hall prefently notic", the vahan of one of her family, 

 Kartikya, otherwife called Komara ; and the being deemed 

 his fakti is called Kaumari, aad is likewife fo conveyed. 



Having thus feen that the vehicles of the three great 

 powers compofing the Hindoo triad are feverally the fwan, 

 the eagle, and the bull, we proceed to notice how the in- 

 ferior deities are accommodated. 



Surya, or the fun, rides fometimcs a lion, but generally 

 in a golden car drawn by ftvcn horfes, or by one horfe with 

 feven heads. The horfe is fometimes called Ooch'ifrava 

 {which fee) ; but we are in fome doubt if corredtly. Soma, 

 the moon, is drawn in his filvery car (the^moon is mafculine 

 in India) by an antelope. Pavaia, the god of fire, rides 

 an ardent ram. Kama, the Indian Cupid, rides a luri, or 

 parrot. Varuna, genius of the waters, beftrides a fi(h, as 

 does alfo Ganga, the Ganges, primal goddefs of rivers. 

 Ganefa, the god of prudence and policy, has an elephant 

 as his vahan, it being fiippofed the animal of greateft fore- 

 caft : a rat is alfo deemed a very fagacious animal, and Ga- 

 nefa is fometimes feen fo mounted. He is reputed the eldeft 

 fon of Parvati, and is otherwife named Pol/tar; which fee. 

 Kartikya, her fecond fon, or rather her lord's fon, is borne 

 by a peacock, as before noticed. Indra, regent of the fir- 

 mament, has a three-trunked elephant, named Iravat. Va'i- 

 ra-va, a fon of Siva, rides a buffalo, fometimes a dog. 

 Vyagrayah'i, and Vrlfhadwaja, arc names of Parvati and 

 Siva, 'meaning tiger-mounted, and one who rides a bull. 



Aftrologers have mounted the reft of the planets, as well 

 as the fun and moon. Mangala, or Mars, on a horfe, fome- 

 times on a ram : his fiery nature connefts him fometimes 

 with the igneous Pavaka, who rides the latter animal. 

 Boodh, or Mercury, being by fome accounts a manifcftation 

 of Vi(hnu, at any rate bearing the fame name with a dif- 

 puted avatara or incarnation of that god, (hares his vehicle, 

 and the planet is mounted on an eagle. Vrthafpati, or Ju- 

 piter, on a boar. Suhra, or Venus, on a rat, fometimes 

 on a camel. The (low-moving Sam, or Saturn, on the 

 heavy elephant, or ill-omened raven. Rahu, the diagon's 

 head, on a tortoife or owl : and Kehu, the tail or defcending 

 node, on a frog. 



The word -vahan is ufually pronounced as one broad fyl- 

 lable ; and it has been furmifed that the Enghfti -van and 

 ■wain may bear fome etymological affinity to it. 



VAHARA, in Geography, a town of Arabia Peferta ; 

 J 50 miles W. of Jamama. 

 VAHINGEN. See Vayhikgen. 



V A H 



VAHL, Martin, in Biography, a botanical writer of 

 good and original authority, born in Norway in 1 75 1, re- 

 ceived his firft education at the fchool of Bergen, which he 

 left in 1766, and was then entered a member of the univer- 

 fity of Copenhagen. Refiding two years with the Rev. 

 Hans Strom, an able zoologift and botanift, (fee Stroemia,) 

 he imbibed a tafte for fimilar ftudies, efpecially for fyftema- 

 tic botany, to which he, from that period, to his laft hour, 

 devoted himfelf. In order to obtain every polTible advan- 

 tage in this branch of his education, he repaired to Upfal, 

 where he ftudied for five years under the celebrated Lin- 

 naeus, and became one of the moft diftingui(hed pupils of 

 that great man. Some perfoaal eftrangement unfortunately 

 took place between the preceptor and his promifing difciple, 

 from a domeftic caufe, to which we have already alluded, at 

 the conclufion of our article LiNNiEUS. It w^as fcarcely to 

 be expected that the dignified profeffor, then in the zenith 

 of his profperity and honours, could favourably regard the 

 inclination of one of his daughters, for a ftudent who had 

 his own fortune to feek ; nor is any thing recorded of this 

 daughter, which might have juftified a romantic attachment, 

 or adventurous purfuit, on the part of the young man. We 

 know not in what year Mr. Vahl quitted Upfal, but in 1779 

 he was appointed lefturer, or demonftrator, of Botany, in 

 the garden at Copenhagen, where he taught his fcience, 

 with great applaufe, for three years. After this period had 

 elapfed, he was chofen, by the king of Denmark, to under- 

 take a fcientific tour, at his majefty's expence ; in the courfe 

 of which he vifited Holland, France, Spain, and part of 

 Barbary, as well as Italy, Switzerland, and England. He 

 not only inveftigated and coUefted the wild and garden 

 plants of the countries through which he palled, but, in 

 confequence of liberal introdudlions, to all who were learned 

 or occupied in the fame ftudy, he was admitted to the chief 

 libraries and mufeums in Holland, France, and England ; 

 of all v.hich advantages he made the moft diligent ufe. He 

 was allowed free accefs to the colleftion of fir Jofeph 

 Banks, and the manufcripts of the deceafed Solander, and 

 the writer of the prefent article ufed habitually to devote a 

 day in every week to ftudy with him the herbarium of Lin- 

 nseus, for their mutual benefit. If the acute and learned 

 Dane did not, in every inft:ance, coudutt his enquiries and 

 communications with that high fenfe of honour and delicacy 

 which have been exemplified in the charafters of a Banks, 

 a Davall, Afzehus, Hofack, and many others, in the fame 

 circumftances, he by no means neglefted to improve fcience, 

 or to benefit its cultivators. We (hould not here have 

 alluded to what is beft forgotten, had not a circumftance of 

 this kind been already before the public, in the Tranfaftions 

 of the Linnsean Society, v 2. 209 ; and had not the remark 

 there made been juftified by a fubfequent communication of 

 the late Mr. Dryander, relative to the unauthorized and 

 unacknowledged ufe of Solander's papers, difcoverable by 

 fome little miftakes copied from thence. 



On returning to Copenhagen in 1 785, Mr. Vahl was 

 made profeffor of natural hiftory in that univerfity ; and 

 was appointed editor of the Flora Danica, begun at the 

 royal expence by Oeder, continued with much imperfeftion 

 by Muller, but reftored to its original excellence by Vahl. 

 The better to perform his duty, he vifited certain trafts of 

 country, previoufly little explored by botanifts ; efpecially 

 the coafts and mountains of Norway, as far as Wardbe. 

 Being now married, and fettled in his native land, he under- 

 took the publication of his difcoveries and remarks, in a 

 folio work, entitled SymboU Botanict, of which the firft 

 fafciculus appeared in 1790, the fecond in 1791, and the 

 third in 1 794. Each is accompanied by twenty-five un- 



colourecj 



