SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST; 59 



*^ will <^o into the dwfpa of Craiincha, and from Crauncha to ^Swe'ta, through 

 " the efficacy of his own righteousness/' Bhagavan or Vishnu omits 

 Fushcara, the seventh dwfpa, because he has no power there, as it belongs 

 to Brahma'. Hence, in Ceylon, the followers of Budd'ha, who is VishnUj 

 acknowledge only six inferior or terrestrial paradises, through which men 

 pass after death, and are judged by Yammeh-Ra'ja or Yama, who resides 

 in the sixth paradise, or the dwipa of ^Sdcam^ according to Captain 

 MahonyJ^) " But," says Bhagava'n, " I will tell you, what becomes of 

 " men truly religious; they go at once into heaven, there to remain for 

 " as many years, as there are atoms of dust in a whirlwind : from heaven 

 " they descend into the dwipa of 'Sdca; where they will be kings for a long 

 " time: after which they will transmigrate into the dwipa of 'Sweta.'[ 



It would appear from this, that ''Sweta is different from '^Sdcam : but in 

 that ease there would be eight primary islands, which, being conformable 

 to the system of the followers of Budd'ha, would be an heretical asser- 

 tion. Two out of the eight islands must in reality, be but one ; and from the 

 authority of this Purdna, which surely cannot militate against itself, and 

 from the authority of other Purdn'as also, ^Swetam is either the same with 

 S'dcam or part of it. The sense, then, according to my learned friends here, 

 who at first indeed were not a little puzzled, is plain and obvious. Tru- 

 ly religious people transmigrate at once from Jamhu or India, into ^Sdcam 

 or the British Isles in general, and after remaining a long time there, they 

 ultimately go to 'Swctaniy which is here represented as the Ultima Creta ; 

 the wished for goal, where they are to remain, with a divine body, in tlie 

 presence of the Supreme Being; never to transmigrate again till die dis- 



(0 



Sec Asiatick licscarchcs, Vol. VII. p. 35 



