4© A R O Y A L G R A N T O T 



3. May the luminous body of that God, who, though formed like an 

 elephant, was born of Pa'rvati", and is revered even by Herx, prc-piti- 

 .oufty difpel -the. gloom of misfortune'] [ . ... 



: n r B. 



Th e bodies of the Hindu gods are fuppofed to be an ethereal fu l flanee refembUijig light ; and Ga se'sa, or 

 the divine Wifdom perfonified, is reprefented with tbe Head of an elepkait : his mother was the daughter 

 of the mountain Himalaya. This couplet is in the ftyle calkd yamaxa, where Come of the words have dif- 

 ferent meanings, but are applicable, 'in all of them, to the red; of the f. ntence : thus Jgaja, or miuntain<* 

 lorn, may fignify the goddefs Pa'r.vati\ but it alfo means not a femak ehphant ,• and Heri, or Vish« 

 N v, may be translated a lion, of which elephants are the natural prey. 



4. There is a luminary, which rofe, like frefh butter, from the ocean 

 ©fmilk churned by t|ie gods, and fcattered the gloom from around it. 



NOT E. 

 After tbe ufual ftanzas, called &tm\tela% or aufpicious, we are prefented with tbe pedigree of the donor„ 

 beginning with the Moon, who, in the Jecond incarnation of Vishnu, was produced from the fea^f milk. 

 A comparifon of the moon to butter mull feem ridiculous to Europeans ; but they mould confider, that eve- 

 ry thing, which the ccw produces, is held facred by the Hindus; and the fimile is confident with the allegory 

 of a milky ocean churned by the deities. 



5. The offspring. -of that luminary was Budha, or the Wife, withreafora 

 fo named from his unequalled acts of devotion and eminent virtues : the Ion 

 of Budha was Puru'ravas, by the force of whofe arm the lives of his foes 

 were destroyed : his fori was A'yus ; his, 'Nahusha ; his, the her® 

 Yaya'ti , famed through the world in battle ; "and from him, by his happy 

 eonfort De'vaya'ni', came Tu'rvasu equal to a God e 



NOTE, 

 This pedigree is conformable to tbe Puranas. Budha was probably an eld philofopher and legiflator, 

 highly revered, while he lived, and fuppofed after bis death to prefide over the planet Mercury; while hi* 

 father (if that be not an aftronomical fable) was conceived to be regent of. the Moon : he gives his name, like 

 the Wo den of the north, to the fourth day of the week. The original epithet of the laft king,, named 

 in thisverfe, is Vafunibha, or equal to a < Vafu, but the jingle of fyllables, which the Indian poet meant as a 

 beauty, is avoided in the tranflation : a Vaju is one of the eight divinities, who form a gana t or aiTemblage, 

 of Gods ; and there are nine of thofe g\anas» / 



