286 JOURNAL R. A. s. (ceylon). [Vol. III. 



eyes ? where is his thunderbolt, and where is his elephant Irawana ? 

 Assuredly he is Brahma, who, having witnessed the indolence of the 

 Brahmans, has come hither to teach the Vedas, and their accompaniments.' 

 Another ridiculing all others said ' He is neither the moon, the god 

 of love, nor the thousand-eyed deity, nor yet Brahma. He is the 

 wonderful personage— the supreme — the teacher of the world. ' "* 



5. One of the Triad of Hindu adoration, and a deva who 

 figures most conspicuously in the ancient annals of Ceylon, is, 

 Maha DEVA, commonly called SiVA He has for his seat 

 Mount Kailasha, every splinter of which is represented as an 

 inestimable gem. Hence the appellation of Keles nivas. His 

 terrestrial haunts are said to be the Himalaya region, or that 

 portion of it which is known as the mountain of the moon. 

 He is called Ti-net, because he has " three eyes :" one of which 

 is placed in the centre of the forehead. The Sanscrit form 

 of this name, Tri-Uehah, bears great affinity to Tripthal- 

 rnos, an epithet of Zeus, whose statue was found, says Sir 

 W. Jones, ' so early as the taking of Troy with a third eye 

 in his forehead' One of our poets describes him 



Holding in hand an instrument of three points, having a blue, 

 neck, wearing hides of animals, and concealing his wife Uma in his 

 body. 



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Wearing the crescent moon on the head, and a fierce serpent or I 

 the neck, dancing daily, and using a bullock for his conveyance. 



Kalidasa, the prince of the eastern Poets, thus writes of this! 

 deva, and we quote from the elegant translation of his Meghal 

 duta by Professor Wilson :- 



Hence with new zeal to Siva homage pay, 

 The God whom earth and hell, and heaven obey ; 

 The choir who tend his holy face shall view, 

 With one in thee his neck's celestial blue. 



* Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal, vol. vii, pp. 809, 810. 



