from the Ancient Books op THE Hindus. 



315 



Pathmcti by Ptolemy, and Phatmi by Diodorus tbe Sicilian : both 

 feem derived from the Sanfcnt corrupted ; for Padma is in many Indian 

 dialects pronounced Pa dm or P'rfhn, and in fome, Patma. To the fame 

 root may be referred the appellation of the norae Phtkembuthi. or Phtbem- 

 mutbi, as it is alfo written ; for the Padmd-mafh was in the nome Profopi- 

 tis, which once made a part, as it evidently appears, of the nome Pbtkem- 

 buthi, though it was afterwards confidered as a feparate -diftrict in confe- 

 quence of a new divifion : Profopitis, mart certainly, is derived from a 

 Greek word, and alludes to the fummit of the Delta feen on a paffage down 

 the Nile from the city of Memphis ; but Potamitis, which was. applied to 

 Egypt itfelf, can hardly mean any more, than that the country lies on both 

 fides of a /arge river > which would not be a fufficient difcrimination to 

 juftify that common etymology ; and we have already hazarded a conjecture 

 that Potamos, as a proper name of the Ni/e, relates to the holy and beauti- 

 ful Padma. 



Of the Yacjha letters before-mentioned, I fhould wifhto give a particu- 

 lar account j but the fubject is extremely obfcure; Crinitus aflerts, that 

 the Egyptian letters were invented by Isis; and Isis on the Lotos was no 

 other, moft certainly, than Padma'-de'vi', whom the Pur anas mention as 

 the inftructrefs of the Sharmicas in the Yacjha mode of writing. According 

 to the Brdhmensy there are written characters of three principal forts, the 

 JDevandgari, the Paifdchi, and the Ydcfhi; but they are only variations of 

 the fame original elements : the Devandgari characters are ufed in the 

 northern, the Paifdchi in the fouthern parts, of India % and the Yac/hi, it is 

 faid, in But an or in Tibet. The Pandits confide r the Devandgan as the 

 moft ancient of the three ; but the beauty and exquifite perfection of them 

 renders this very doubtful ; efpecially as Atri, whom they fuppole to have 



