V 1 R 



V 1 K 



attributes; fuch as collar of fliulls, linga, &c. {See 

 LiNGA and Saiv'a.) A human figure with a ram's head, 

 and a handfomc female figure, arc commonly fccn befide 

 him, in the aft of adoration. Some account of Virabadra, 

 with rcprefL-ntations of him from metalhc calls, may be 

 feon in the Hindoo Pantheon. 



Virabadra is a perfonage of extenfive and ancient cele- 

 brity. His exploits, parentage, &c. are recorded in the 

 Sivpurana, and his name frequently occurs in other San- 

 fcrit works. (See Purana. ) In the facred poem juft 

 named, it is faid that he was produced from a drop of 

 Siva's fweat. He is underftood, as one of the offspring of 

 Siva, to be included in the denomination of Bhairava ; a 

 word derived from bheru, meaning terrific or tremendous. 

 It is written, and we believe more correftly pronounced, 

 Vairava ; which name is given to another fuppofed fon or 

 incarnation of Siva. See Vairava. 



Sonnerat mentions Virabadra as a Carnatic deity ; calling 

 him, in his inaccurate mode of writing Eallern names, Vira- 

 patrin. He calls him Siva's fourth fon, produced with a 

 thoufand heads and a thoufand arms, by the fweat of his 

 body, to avert the effefts of a facrifice. He is fometimes 

 called alfo Bhir Bhadr. 



The other three fons of Siva, mentioned by Sonnerat, are, 

 we fuppofc, Kart'ihya, PolUar, and Vairava. See thofe 

 articles. 



VIRACELLUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of 

 Italy, in Liguria, S.E. of Apua. 



VI RAGO, a woman of extraordinary ftature and courage, 

 and who, with the female fex, has the mien and air of a man, 

 and performs the aftions and exercifes of men. 



The word is pure Latin, formed from vir, man, and is 

 feldom ufed but in the way of diverfion. 



Such were Semiramis and Penthefilea among the ancients; 

 and Jeanne la Puceile, commonly called The Maid of Orleans, 

 among the moderns. 



In the Vulgate verfion of the bible. Eve is called virago, 

 becaufe made of the rib of man. The Latin tranllator by 

 this, aimed to preferve the etymology as it is in the Hebrew, 

 and of vir, formed virago ; as Adam, in the Hebrew text, 

 called Eve Ifcha, of ifch, man. 



VIRAGUE, in Geography, a town of HinJooilan, in 

 Dowlatabad ; 25 miles E. of Pcrinda. 



VI RAJ, in Hindoo Mythology, a very myfterious per- 

 fonification, originating immediately from the godhead, in 

 a manner not reconcileable to minds which have happily 

 fhaken off the trammels of idolatry and fuperilition. In 

 the early portion of the InlUtutes of Menu (ch. i. v. 32.) 

 it is faid, " Having divided his own fubftance, the mighty 

 power became half male, half female (or, fays the commen- 

 tator, nature active and pajftve ] ; and from that female he pro- 

 duced Viraj." Menu next tells us that he him.felf was the 

 perfon produced by the male power Viraj, and tliat he pro- 

 duced her lords of created beings eminent in holincfs. 

 Thefe are ufually called Brahmadikas, or offspring of 

 Brahma ; but the Puranas do not agree as to their number : 

 fometimes nine, fcven, and three only are mentioned. Con- 

 flderable difficulty is found in the attempt to reconcile the 

 apparent contradictions in the hiftories of thefe early per- 

 fonages ; who, it may be reafonably imagined, have had 

 hiftorical exilleuce, though fo much obfcurcd by the fiftions 

 of mythology. 



All travellers who have vifitcd the cavern temple, called 

 by the Englifh Elephanta, have been llruck with a cololTal 

 one-breafted figure ; and various have been the conjeftures 

 as to its allufion. The author of the Hindoo Pantheon, 

 who has examined the temple in q^ucflion, reafonably judges 



it to be a rcptefentalioii of Viraj, or nature aftive and 

 paffive ; and he gives feveral reprefenlatioiis of fimilar fub- 

 jefts from original piftures. (See Si V A.) In our article 

 ELEPHANTA we have noticed the fuppofition of fome tra- 

 vellers, that the one-breafted armed female alluded to the 

 fable of the Amazons. It is now found that the Hindoos 

 alfo have fables of iflands inhabited only by warlike women, 

 who are called, in the Perfian tranflations of thefe ftories, 

 Hamazen ; which word means, in that language, uU-'women. 

 (See on this curious fubjeft, Moor on Hindoo Infanticide, 

 p. 82.) The whole ground-work of the Amazonian fable 

 may, therefore, have come from India to the embellifliing 

 Greeks, as well as the notion of male and female deities ; 

 all originating pofiibly in the myfterious fexual union, the 

 fubjcft of this article. 



In the Hindoo mythology, the co-equality of the male 

 and female power is affertcd. There is lefs fexual con- 

 fufion among the Hindoo than among the Greek deities. 

 Among the latter, the fex of feveral is very dubious ; while 

 others were both male and female. Authority can be pro- 

 duced among weftern mythologifts, making both Minerva 

 and Venus male as well as female. Thefe goddeffes cor- 

 refpond with the Parvati and Lakflimi of the Hindoos : the 

 former of whom is feen in the biuiie figure Viraj ; and the 

 latter in her charaftcr of Sukra, or tlie planet Venus, is of 

 the male fex. Soma, the moon of India, is alfo male, as he 

 was among the Germans and Saxons. Tlie Parthians faid 

 that Venus was the moon, and a male deity ; as, according 

 to Macrobius, did fome weftern mythologifts. See Soma. 



There ai-e fables connefted with the liiftory of Krilhna, 

 in which he and his miflreffes, to conceal the ftiamc of the 

 amorous deity from his enraged confort, were varioufly 

 metamorphoffd. On one occafion, as related in a Purana, 

 " when detefted dallying in a grove of fandal with Viraja, 

 the figure of a quadruped concealed his fhame ; and ftje 

 was changed into a river." This fable is noticed in our 

 article Radha. We know not if the nymph of the fandal 

 grove have any conneftion with the fubjecl of this article. 



yiRAMSHAMPETTA, in Geography, a town of 

 Hindooftan, in the Carnatic ; 9 miles S.W. of Terriore. 



VIRANDJIK, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Natolia ; 

 16 miles W. of Kiiitaja. 



VIRANSHEHR, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Na- 

 tolia ; 42 miles E.N.E. of Boli. 



VIRATARUPA, in Mythology, a name of the Hindoo 

 god Vifhnu ; and given alfo to his warlike incarnation in 

 the perfon of Rama. See Rama and Visiixu. 



VIRBIUS MoNS, in ^Indent Geography, part of a moun- 

 tain, now called " Mont Albano." The name Vir-bius 

 (from vir, man, and bis, twice) is faid to have been given 

 to this mountain in honour of Hippolytus, who, having 

 been put to death by a monfter, had been reilored to life 

 by Diana. From the Appian way another was detached, 

 which led to a temple of Diana on this mount. This 

 mountain was on the Appian way, from which diverged 

 two other ways, one of which led to the temple of Jupiter 

 Latialis, on mount Albano, and the otiur to the tcm])ie of 

 Diana, at the bottom of the centre of tile lake of Armenia. 



VIRE, in Geography, a river of France, which riles near 

 Calvados, and runs into the Eii<;li(li Channel, to the north 

 of Iligny, between the departments of the Ciiannel and tiic 

 Calvados. — Alfo, a town of France, and princip;J place of 

 a diftridt, in the dLjjartment of the Calvados ; 27 miles 

 S.W. of Caen. N. lat. 48' 51'. W. long. 48'. 



ViRK, or Matraca, a cape of Arabia, on the coall of '.lie 

 Indian fca ; 16 miles N.N.E. ot IlalKk. 



VIREA, in Botany, Adanfon Fani. de» Plaiitcs, 1. z. 



112, 



