^4^8 ■"''^--^•-^^■^' AN ESSAY ON 



the writings of tiieir astrdtjomers ; and, according to those accounts, the 

 Ganges has a loiV^ previous course, from the Manas ardvara, or from ano- 

 ther lake called fiindusardvara, ^e^ovQ it issues from the Himalaya. But 

 these are too much mixM'with'fable, and too full of contradi6lions and 

 inconsistencies J to he-considered as intended for grave geographical in- 

 formation ; and no Hind'd has pretended, that the course of the river 

 could now be traced between the cow's mouth and the sacred lake. 



Even Pran-Pori,* who professed to have visited Mdnasardvara, and 

 who attempted to assign the relative positions of Caildsa and Brahme^ 

 dan'da to which he referred the sources of the Bhagiratlu and Alaca- 

 nandd, declared, that the river at Gajigoutri, which was visited by'him., 

 on his return from Cashmir, is there so narrow, that ' it may be leaped 

 over/-f ■ , , ^ , . , ' ; 



In his accoupt of xhe Mdnasa lake, this pilgrim may have adapted 

 his communications to leading questions which had been previously put 

 to him: and in what he affirmed concerning the rivers Sarayu and 

 Satadru issuing from the Mdnasardvara, as well as respe6ting the foun- 

 tains of the Ganges on mount Caildsa, he may have been guided by the 

 Paurdnic fables. But regarding Gangoutri, he professedly describes what 

 he saw; and what he thus describes, is incompatible with the notion of 

 a distant source of the river. For a stream, so narrow that it may be 

 crossed at a single leap, is a mere rivulet or brook, whose remotest 

 fountain can be but few miles distant. 



To this reasoning might be objedled the tenor of the Hindu fables, 

 which assign to the Ganges a long course, from lake to lake, and from 



■' ■ . ■ . _ .. --IT 



* As. Res. vol. 5. p. 43 and 44. 

 + As. Res. vol. 5. p. 43. 



