1838.] 



Report on the Afackenzie Manuscripts, 



289 



tions, proceeding thence hy sea, all require to be noticed as they occur, 

 seeing that in the end they will point to some general conclusion. 



The symbolical language of the Chola purva Patayatn (the docu- 

 ment under consideration), may be adverted to in passing. It is a regu- 

 lar specimen oi Hindu writing, and that, even in plain prose, involves 

 bolder metaphors than would enter the minds of European writers, 

 and more than metaphors, that is symbols, bordering on hierogly- 

 phics ; probably suggested by the use of hieroglyphical writing. The 

 Mackenzie MSS. have in some degree educated me to a small degree 

 of acquaintance with this language j though, on the discovery of this 

 style of writing, a previous acquaintance with the symbolic language 

 of the Christian Scriptures assisted me much. Generically both are 

 the same ; specifically they vary. Until this symbolic kind of writing 

 is more fully understood, we cannot come at the real meaning, and con« 

 tents, of a multitude of early Hindu writings. 



One instance may be given in the fire-rain, of which mention occurs 

 at the commencement of the manuscript. The Jainas have a doc- 

 trine, that a rain of fire always goes before the periodically recurring 

 universal deluge ; and this is only a slight alteration of the orthodox 

 Hindu statements, that before the Manu pralaya^or periodical deluge, 

 the sun acquires so ihuch increased power, that all things are scorched 

 up and destroyed, after which copious showers, in which water de- 

 scends in streams like the trunks of elephants, involve the cinerated 

 surface of the earth, deep within a folding of mighty waters ; during 

 which time is the night of Brahma^ or quiescence of the creative ener- 

 gy; and during which time N array ana, ox the conservative energy., 

 quietly floats on the surface of the abyss. But though the afore- 

 said notion of the Jainas may have suggested the idea of 

 fire-rain ; yet it seems in the document under notice to be a sym= 

 bol, made use of to denote divine judgments : whether the idea, 

 in this sense, may be borrowed from a well known historical fact, 

 or otherwise, let others determine. Hindu writers reckon seven 

 kinds of clouds, which respectively shower down gems, water, gold, 

 flowers, earth, stones, fire; in which enumeration, part at least 

 must be metaphorical. In strong poetical hyperbole a lightning 

 cloud might be said to rain fire. But the lightning, and thunderbolt, 

 form /nc?ra'5 weapon. The fire-rain rather seems to be a symbol of 

 the anger of Siva ; in plainer terms, an insurrection against Saliva- 

 hatitti and if so, the shower of mud, may have a symbolical meaning 

 also, and may help to the meaning of a tradition, which states that 

 Uriyur, the capital of the Chola kingdom, was destroyed by a shower 



