from the Ancient Books of the Hindus. 341 



dark azure, and the fame colour is afcribed by St r A bo to thofe of Maris. 

 Her fori Me'd'hi, or Me'rhi, Sue a had alfo renounced the world, and, 

 feating himfelf near her, performed the fame religious aufterities : their devo- 

 tion was fo fervent and fo long continued, that the inferiour Gods began to 

 apprehend a diminution of their own influence. At length Ma'ri'shaV, dying 

 petivratd, or dutiful to her lor d, joined him among the Fifmc^ldca y . or inha- 

 bitants of Vishnu's heaven ; and her fon, having folemnized . the obfequies 

 of them both, raifed a fumptuous temple, in which he placed a flatus ofVisa - 

 nu, at the feat of his weeping mother; whence, it acquired the appellation 

 of Rodana-fibdna. " They, who make ablutions in the lake of Afrii-tirfba? 

 " fays the Hindu writer*,, are purified from their fins and exempt from worlds 

 " ly affections, afcending after death to the heaven of Vishnu ; and they,, 

 " who worfhip the deity at Rddana-fhin enjoy heavenly blifs, without being 

 " fubjeel: to any future tranfmigratiom" No lake in- the world, except that 

 of Maris, correfponds, both in name and in circum fiances, with that of 

 Afru-tirt'ha and the ifland in the midfl of it, which was alfo called Merhi, 

 or Merbi-f 'ban from the name of the prince, who confecrated. it: the two 

 ftatues on it were fud by the Greeks* to be thofe of Mcer is and his queen ;. but 

 they appear from the Pur anas to have been thofe of Vishnu, or Osiris, and 

 of Ma'ri'sha', the mother of Mceris ; unlefs the image of the God was 

 confidered in fubftance as that- of the departed king, who, in the language of 

 the Hindu theologians,- was wholly alf orbed \r\ the divine effence. Three lakes, 

 in the countries adjacent to the Nile, have names in the Purans. derived from 

 airUi or tears; fkrr., : Socdjfu, or Tears of Sorrow., another name for .Afru- 

 Hrt'la, or Maris; fecondly, Herfhdfru, or Tears of Joy; and, thirdly, 

 'AnandaJrUy or Tears of an inward pleafurable fenfaiion ; to both which be- 

 long legendary narratives in the Pur anas. One of the infernal rivers was 

 named Afrumall,. or the Tearful; but the firfl of them was Vaitaranl, where 



