FROM THTB AnOJINT BoOKS OF THE HlNDUS. 



44r 



north ■;, and hence many Brdhmens drawa conclusion, which by no means 

 follows, that the Cali, which it joins, rauft flow from weft to eaft. Sdn- 

 tapana-JFLdn, I conceive to have flood at the praydga or trfoeni, that is, 

 at the confluence of the fmaller Crijhnd with the united waters of the Nan- 

 da and the Call ; and I fuppofe it to have been the Apollinis oppidum of 

 Pliny, (a) or the capital of the Adtabarcs,, called alfo Megabari, whom I 

 have already mentioned: for Sa'ntapana was an avatar, or incarnate 

 form, of the Sun., and the country round his ■ aframa, or hermitage, is 

 known to this day by the name of Kuara, which means the Sun, according 

 to Mr. Bruce, and which is no other than the Sanfcrit word Cwdra, or 

 going round the eafih : the Nandd, I pre fume, or- Nile of AbyJJinia, was 

 alfo named the river of Sa'ntapana, whence the Greeks firft made Aftapun 

 in the oblique cafe, and thence, as ufual formed the nominative Ajiapus. 

 According to the Purdnas, the Nandd and Little Grifhnd unite, before they 

 fall into the Call; and Ptolemy alfo fuppofes- that they join near the 

 fouthern border of Meroe, and then are divided, one branch flowing eaftward, 

 and another weftward into the main body of the Nile: that inquifitive geo- 

 gragher acknowledges himfelf indebted for much ufeful information to ma- 

 ny learned Indians, whom he knew at Alexandria, and thofe Hindu's were 

 probably acquainted with the Pur anas ; but Eratosthenes was better in- 

 formed than Ptolemy with refpect to the rivers in queftion ; and the mif- 

 take of the Hindu authors- may have arifen from a faft, mentioned by Mr. 

 Bruce, that, during the rains, the floods divide themfelves,, part run- 

 ning weftward into the Nile,- part eaftward into the Tacazze. It fhould not 

 be omitted, that the country of the fageMRicuand his fon Ma'rcava, feems 

 to be that of the Macrobu, now inhabited by the Gonguas, Gubas, and Sban- 

 gal las ; the Greeks-, according to their cuftom, having changed Marcaba'm- 



{a) Lib. 6. Cap. 30. 



