384 DESCRIPTION OF SOME INDIAN IDOLS 



seum of the University of Edinburgh : it is Cali in one of 

 her characters called Darga, (that is, difficult of access), attend- 

 ed by Siva, in form of a lion ; the figure is of talcaceous 

 stone. The Hindu god Iswara, a name which Sir W. Jones 

 supposes to be analogous to Osiris ; the goddess Isani, who re- 

 presents the powers of nature ; Carticeya, the son of the god- 

 dess Parvati, (parvat signifies mountain) ; these three (Iswara, 

 Isani, and Carticeya) are deities of the sect of Siva, like Cali, 

 and are represented like Cali with many arms holding wea- 

 pons. The god Quanwon, worshipped in Japan, is repre- 

 sented in the same manner *. 



The next figure (PL XXIV. fig. 2.) is Suria, the Sun, the 

 deity whose province is analogous to that of Apollo in the 

 Greek mythology. The three great Hindu divisions of the 

 power of the Supreme Being, are Vishnu the preserver 

 and giver of life, who is also called Narayan, (that is, 

 moving on the waters) ; Siva the destroyer, reproducer, 

 and changer of forms, called also Mahadeva: and Brahma, the 

 Creator. Suria is the image of a portion of the first of these 

 powers. Etymologists have shewn the resemblance of the San- 

 scrit to the Persian, the Greek, Latin, and Gothic languages ; 

 so as to make it probable that the nations of Europe, the Per- 

 sians and the Hindus, derive their language and birth from 

 one and the same ancient nation which existed in Persia be- 

 fore the Assyrians, and before the times recorded in the his- 

 tories now extant. An instance of this resemblance occurs 

 in the Hindu word Suria, and the Greek 2e;^;o$, which appear 

 to originate from the same root, signifying in both languages 

 a brilliant star and the Sun. Suidas and Hesychius mention 

 that the words 2e/£ and 2e<^of, in the languages anciently 



spoken 



* See a figure in Kaempfer's History of Japan. 



