from the Ancient Books op the Hindus. 401 



honour of him: the people, ignorant of his former diflblute life, took him for a 

 holy man and loaded him with gifts, till he became a chief among the votaries 

 of the concealed God, and at length formed a defign of reftoring him to light. 

 With this view he palled a whole night in Cardama-Jl* hdn, chanting hymns to 

 the mighty power of deftrudrion and renovation, who, pleafed with his piety and 

 his mufick, ftarted from the mud, whence he was named Cardame'swa- 

 ra, and appeared openly on earth; but, having afterwards met Sanais- 

 char a, who fcornfully exulted on his own power in compelling the Lord of 

 three Worlds to conceal himfelfin a fen, he was abaihed by the taunt, and afcend- 

 ed to his palace on the top of Caildfa, 



Gupte'swara-sthan, abbreviated into Gupta, on the banks of the 

 Nile, is the famed town Coptos, called Gupt or Gypt to this day, though the 

 Arabs, as ufual, have fubflituted their kaf for the true initial letter of that 

 ancient word : I am even informed, that the land of Egypt is diftinguifhed in 

 fome of the Puranas by the name of Gupta-Jl' hdnj and I cannot doubt the 

 information, though the original paffages have not yet been produced to me. 

 Near Gupta was Cardamajl 'hati, which I fuppofe to be Thebes, or part of it ; 

 and Cadmus, whofe birthplace it was, I conceive tobelswARA, with the ti- 

 tle Car dam a ; who invented thefyftem of letters, or at leaft arranged them as 

 they appear in the Sanfcrit grammars : the Greeks indeed, confounded Car- 

 dame'swara with Cardama, father of Varuna, who lived on the weft- 

 em coafls of Afa; whence Cadmus is by fome called an Egyptian, and by 

 others, a Phenician ; but it muft be allowed, that the writers of the Puranas 

 alfo have caufed infinite confufion by telling the lame flory in many different 

 ways; and the two Cardamas, may, perhaps, be one and the fame per- 

 fonage. 



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