96 ESSAY ON THE 



The Verpe, or Derpen^ which he mentions, I take to be a corruption 

 from Tarpana: because Twashta' hved a6lually in the White Island^ 

 or land of Tarpanai according to the Paurdnics. 



The White Island is also declared repeatedly, to be the land of Tap as ^ 

 or the most proper country for performing tapasya : and we find that the 

 ancient Greeks called the islands of the blessed Theba, Thebe or Thebai;^^^ 

 and, in the objective case, Theben, In the Ayin-Acberi written by Abul- 

 Fazil, to whom the British Isles seems to have been unknown, is an. 

 Island called Tupana in the very place of the British Isles, He had pro^ 

 bably derived that notion from some Brdhmens, who said that an island, 

 famous for the performance of Tap as ^ was in the north-west, at the ex- 

 tremities of the world. Those islands, called Thebe, Theben by the Greeks, 

 were also declared to be the native country of Jupiter, Vishnu, or 

 Crishna, in conformity with the Paurdn'ics, and in opposition to the ly- 

 ing Cretans^ as they were called in all ages. 



In the Trai-ldcya-derpana, ^S'aca-dwipa, or the White Island, is called 

 Nandi-dzvipa, from JVandi the bull of Maha'-deva, who resides there. 

 No further particulars are mentioned, except that there is the van or 

 forest of Jfdndi. When the gods and holy men are in distress, they 

 are always represented in the Purdn'as, as betaking themselves to the 

 White Island, as a place of shelter. This opinion prevailed once in Eu- 

 rope; for Homer introduces Jupiter telling Juno, with whom he had 

 quarrelled, that she might go away, and retire into the regions to the 

 west: and Creusa, in the Ion of Euripides, earnestly wishes to with- 

 draw into the same countries. 



(1) Schol. in Lycophron. r. 1200, 1189 and Canter-annotat, 



