m ESSAY ON THE 



led there„ The Paurdnics insist that the manifestation of VisHNtJ, in the 

 charafter of Crishna, happened in '5w/^^.OT, on Tri-Ctita; and the two 

 rams, mentioned in the legends of the Cretan Jupiter, are placed, by the 



author of the Vrikat-Cafha^ in Suvarna-dwipa or Ireland, In short, 'Szve'ta 

 was called by the Greeks and Romans, Ultima Creta or Leuce. ■ ' ■ '" ■ 



In the Rom-an Hippodromus.ov Circus, \nq find a delineation of the cos-- 

 mographical system of the H/;zJw5: for Cassiodorus compares the whole 

 to heaven and earth. The Spina or ridge in the middle represented Jam/JM 

 or the continent^ whilst the Carriere or Course formed a spiral line seven 

 times revolving round the Spina. Every charioteer or horseman passed 

 six times near the fatal meta or goal ; and on the seventh, reached at last 

 the Ultima Creta, which was a spot near the barriers, marked with 

 chalk or creta: '^ Septem spatia^" says Isidorus, '' quadrigce atrrunt^ 

 '*^ quibus peractis, vitie terminus consummatur, quorum Jinis est Cre^ 

 " ta, id est judicium. Life is like the seven spaces run by charioteers; 

 *' these being accomplished, there is also an end of lifer for the 

 ^* end of these spaces is Creta or doom." The inhabitants of Atria^ 

 at the mouth of the Po^ had a river Tartarus, and certain marsheSj, 

 which they called the seven seas. 



This is truly in the style of the Hindu divines ; who assert that every 

 man after death must go to T-ri-^z^'^^ and 'Sweta [for they often give 

 the names of ''Sweta and Chandra to all the British Isles ; though they 

 belong properly to England) there to stand their trial before the king 

 of justicCy the D'harma-rdja, except persons either eminent for their 

 holiness, or notoriously infamous. There is no occasion for a trial in 

 these cases : they are immediately hurried away to their own respe6live 

 places. In the Vardha-ptirdna^ it is declared, that pious men go^ 



