of the Hindus. 



73 



harveft, or of reparation and melancholy (very different from our ideas at 

 Calcutta) during the cold months ; of reviving hilarity on the appearance 

 of blofToms, and complete vernal delight in the month of Madbu or honey ; 

 of languor during the dry heats, and of refrefhment by the firft. rains, which 

 caufe in this climate a fecond fpring. Yet farther : fince the lunar year, 

 by which feftivals and fuperftitious duties are conflantly regulated, proceeds 

 concurrently with the folar year, to which the feafons are neceffarily 

 referred, devotion comes alfo to the aid of mufick, and all the powers of na~ 

 ture, which are allegorically worfhipped as gods and goddeffes on their 

 feveral holidays, contribute to the influence of fong on minds naturally 

 fufceptible of religious emotions. Hence it was, I imagine, that Pa' van, 

 or the inventor of his mufical fyftem, reduced the number of original modes 

 from /even to fix ; but even this was not enough for his purpofe; and he 

 had recourfe to the five principal diviiions of the day, which are the 

 morning, noon, and evening, called trifandhya, with the two intervals between 

 them, or the forenoon and afternoon : by adding two diviiions, or intervals, of 

 the night, and by leaving one fpecies of melody without any fuch rerlric- 

 -tion, Soma reckons eight variations in refped of time ; and the fyftem of 

 Pa'van retains that number alfo in the fecond order of derivative modes. 

 Every branch of knowledge in this country has been embelliflied by poeti- 

 cal fables ; and the inventive talents of the Greeks never fuggefted a more 

 charming allegory than the lovely families of the fix Ragas, named, in the 

 order of feafons above exhibited, Bhairava, Ma'lava, Sri'ra'ga, 

 Hind-'ola or Vasanta, Di'paca, and Me'gha ; each of whom is a 

 Genius, or Demigod, wedded to five Rdginis, or Nymphs, and father of 

 eight little Genii, called his Pidras, or Sons : the fancy of Shakspear and 

 the pencil of Alb A no might have been finely employed in giving fpeech 

 and form to this affemblage of new aerial beings, who people the fairy -land 



K 



