V A I 



( Afiatic Refearches, vol. i. ) When not Brahicans, they are 

 not permitted, legaUy, to read the hoUefl cf the Hir.dco 

 books. See Reti and Veda. r tt- j a 



VAIGAL, in Geography, a town of Umdooi^., in 

 Gokonda; 20 miles S.S.E. of Combamet. 



VAIGAR, an idand of Ruffia, m the Frozen ocean, 

 0.. the N. fide of the ftraits of Vaigatflcoi, about 24 mues in 

 length, and about 8 broad. N. lat. 75° 3c'. E- long. 52 24. 

 VAIGATSKOI, Proliv, or Straks cf Vaigaiz, be- 

 tween Nova Zembla, and the continent of Ruffia. 



VAIGE', a town of France, in the department ot the 

 Mayenne; iz miles E. of Laval. r v, r • .1, 



■ VAIHEND, or ScANDERtE, a town 01 Ferha, in tne 

 province of Segellan, anciently Alexandria ; 50 miles E. of 

 Arokhage. N. lat. 31° 10'. E. long. 66° 40'. 



VAI-HIO, in the Materia Medica, a name ufed by lome 

 authors for a kind of lignum aloes, which is brought from 

 Cliina, and is very black, and fcented. „ , „■ . 



VAIJAYANTA, the name of a palace of the Hindoo 

 jrod Indra, fituated in a celeftial city named Amrovati. ( See 

 Indra.) Another of his abodes is called S'ltania; which 

 fee. See alfo Vaikontha. 



VAIKONTHA, the paradife of the Hindoo god 

 Vi(hnu. It doth not precifely appear whether this abode is 

 celeftial, terrene, or fubtcrrene. Sometimes it is defcribed 

 rather of the latter fort in a fcaof milk, called Krirfamudra, 

 where Viflinu is piftured repofing on a mighty ferpent- 

 named Sefha, accompanied by his delightful confort Lakfhmi. 

 (See Lakshmi and Sesiia.) A commentator on a San- 

 fcrit work entitted Klietra Nirmana, the moft ancient per- 

 haps of Hindoo geographical books, places Vaikontha in 

 the Frozen ocean : a circumHance that would liave afforad 

 curious confirmation to an idea of Buffon and Baillie as to 

 the fcite of Eden, had thefe eminent men been aware of it : 

 an idea more ancient, indeed, than the day of thefe philo- 

 fophcrs, as Foftellus had a fimilar notion. See Paradise. 

 Several of the Hindoo deities have refidences efpecially 

 affigued them, by European writers ufually called the para- 

 dife of thofe deities refpeftively ; thus Indra's abode is 

 called Sitanta, Swerga, and Vaijayanta ; that of Siva, Kai- 

 lafa ; that of Varuna is Subhavati. Generally, thefe palaces 

 or places of the Hindoo gods are defcribed as fituated on a 

 myilical trifurcated hill named Meru, to which word we 

 refer the reader for fome of the extravaganzas connefted 

 wth the Olympia of the Hindoos. 



VAILATA, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the de- 

 partment of the Adda ; 18 miles E. of Milan. 



VAILLAC, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Lot ; 15 miles N. of Cahors. 



VAILLANT, Jean Foi, in Biography, an eminent an- 

 tiquary and medallift, was born at Beauvais, in Picardy, in 

 the year 1632. His maternal uncle, to whofe care his edu- 

 cation was entrufted, defigned him for the profeflion of the 

 law ; but inheriting the fortune of this relation, he devoted 

 himfelf to the ftndy of phyfic, in which faculty he took a 

 degree. Having accidentally gained poffeffion of a box of 

 medals, he relinquifhed his medical purfuits, applied to an- 

 tiquarian and medallic refearches, and foon formed a valu- 

 able cabinet, to the increafe of which his various travels very 

 much contributed. In one of his exciirfions for this pur- 

 pofe, he was attacked by an Algerine corfair and carried into 

 flavery ; and after his releafe, he was on another occafion 

 attacked by a Tunifian ; and in order to fecure fifteen or 

 twenty gold medals which he had in his poffeflion, he fwal- 

 lowed them, and in procefs of time nature relieved him of 

 his burden, which he difpofed of to an amateur with advan- 

 tage. On his return to Paiis, he diftinguiflied liirafelf by 



V A I 



various differtations on medals. He was thus recommended 

 to the court, and employed on a commiffion for the profecu- 

 tion of the fame objeft. His ardour urged him to vifit 

 Egypt and Perfia, and he was recompenfed by obtaining 

 a rich cargo of medals. To the Memoirs of the Aca- 

 demy of Infcriptions and Belles Lectres, of which he was a 

 member, he communicated feveral valuable papers on his 

 favourite fubjeft : his reputation gained him the poll of 

 keeper of the duke of Maine's cabinet of medals : and 

 even at Rome he was fo highly elleemed, that he obtained a 

 difpenfation from the pope to marry fuccedively two fifters. 

 His private character was highly eilimable. His labours 

 were terminated by death in 1706, at the age of feventy- 

 four years. The titles of fome of his principal works, in- 

 dependently of feveral feparate differtations, tending to il- 

 luftrate medallic fcience in its conneftion with hiilory, aie 

 as follow : " Numifmata Imperatorum Romanorum," 1674, 

 4to. of which an enlarged edition was pubhfhed by Baldini 

 at Rome in 3 vols. 4to. 1743; " Seleucidarum Imperium, 

 five Hiftoria Regum Syria: ad fidem Numifmatum accom- 

 modata," 1 68 1 , 4to. : " Selefta Numifmata Antiqua ex Mu- 

 fxo Petri Seguini," 1684, 4to. ; "Numifmata .£rea Impe- 

 ratorum, Auguftarum, et Caefarum in Coloniis, Municipiij, 

 et Urbibus, &c." 2 vols. fol. 1688 : " Numifmata Impe- 

 ratorum, &c. Grseca," 1698, 4to.: " Hiiloria Ptolemco- 

 rum ./Egypti Regum ad fidem Numifm. &c." 1725, 4to. , 

 " Achzmenidarum Imperium, &c." 1725. 



The fon of the preceding, -viz. John-Francis Foi- 

 Vaillant, born at Rome in 1665, was inftrutled by hi^ 

 father in medaUic fcience, and was graduated for the pro- 

 feflion of phyfic. He publilhed feveral differtations on me- 

 dals in the Memoirs of the Academy of Infcriptions, of 

 which he was a member, and alfo a diflertation on the " Dii 

 Cabiri." His life terminated in 1708, in the 44th year of 

 his age. Moreri. 



Vaillant, Sebastian, a diftinguilhed French botanift 

 in the early part of the i8th century, was born May 26tl:, 

 1669, at Vigny, near Pontoife, being the eldeft: fon of .; 

 fliopkecper in that town. He is defcribed as having, like 

 many other botanifts of eminence, imbibed a tafte for plant j 

 at a ver)' early age, and even before his fixth year to hav,- 

 cultivated, in a little garden of his own, with which hif 

 father indulged him, all the plants he could colleft from th.- 

 country around, or from the gardens of his neighbours 

 We can hardly wonder that his illuftrious biographer Boei 

 haave, (hould, as a phyfician, delight alio to record an in- 

 ftance of Vaillant's early medical talents, in curing himfell 

 clandeftinely of an internriittent fever, with lettuces and \-ine- 

 gar. He is reported to have made a rapid proficiency at 

 the grammar-fchool of Pontoife, where he gave extraordi- 

 nary proofs of attention to ftudy, as well as of attachmeiit 

 to praftical botany. His father was anxious to have hin. 

 inftrufted in mufic, in which he made fuch progrefs, that 

 he was found competent, at the age of eleven years, to fuc- 

 ceed his matter, as organift in the BenediAine convent of 

 St. Macloud, in the town above-mentioned. Soon after- 

 wards, he obtained a fimilar appointment, in a neiglibouring 

 nunnery, where he was accommodated with board and lodg- 

 ing as a remuneration. The decided bent of young Vail- 

 lant's mind appears to have been towards medicine and 

 furgery, in confequence, probably, of his primary difpofi- 

 tion to an obfcrvance of natural objeils, and a confideration 

 of the qualities of plants. Hence he was led to frequent 

 the pubhc hofpital, and even to become an afliftant to the 

 furgeon of the houfe, and in his leifure hours he read medi- 

 cal books, and purfued anatomical enquiries. In this man- 

 ner he palled his time till he reached his nineteenth ycv, 



when 



