PLATE XXI. 



of waters with which it was overwhelmed at the time of the deluge, 

 this shell is held among the Indians of the Brahma persuasion as one 

 of the most sacred emblems of that figurative divinity; and thia 

 religion^ it will be remembered, extends over no small portion of India 

 and China, and even to part of Russia and Tartary. Vishnu, as one 

 of the three attributes or triad of Brahma, almost invariably appears 

 with this symbol in his hand. Whether in their paintings, sculptures, 

 or carvings, or in the sacred paraphernalia of their temples, the 

 Chank-shell is the customary type of their deity Vishnu, and some- 

 times it occurs in the hands of the inferior deities,* to whom Vishnu 



* Were it requisite to treat more amply upon this subject, it would be 

 in our power to produce abundant evidence of the prevalence of this symbol 

 of the sacred Volute, wherever Vishnu or his delegated power appears. 

 The rich repository of the India House, the British Museum, and many 

 private collections afford us some examples of the most interesting kind. 

 Some few of these are so immediately connected with the object of our 

 enquiry, that we feel persuaded no apology will be necessary for their 

 introduction. 



In the collection of Lord Valentia is a four-sided cast in brass, resem« 

 bling a kind of pyramid, consisting of three low platforms, each bearing 

 idols, and surmounted at the summit by a tortoise. In several Indian 

 paintings mythologically adverting to the subject of the creation, the tortoise 

 is represented raising the new-born earth upon its back above the waters, 

 and it is usually seen in other mythological paintings of the same subject 

 bearing the throne upon which Vishnu is seated, while the attendants, 

 personified by various beings, are lifting the earth from the deep. Such a 

 painting was once in the celebrated collection of Colonel Stuart : and we 

 need no other evidence to shew that the bronze of Lord Valentia's collection 

 is of the same mythological nature, and referable to the deluge, than to 

 observe the Chank Shell placed at each of the four corners of the ornament. 

 We may comprehend the allusion of the tortoise raising the earth from the 

 waters of the deluge, from a trait of the ancient Chinese astronomy; by the 

 tortoise bearing the earth, they intended the north pole of the ecliptic, which, 

 at the time of the deluge, they maintained had not materially changed its 

 position, and that by this means the world was sustained and saved from 



utter annihilation. 



