120 



An Us say on Early Relations 



[No. 37, 



' of Indra. The standard of the Battas is a horse's head, with a 



' flowing mane which seems to indicate a connection with the 



1 Hayagrivas of Sanscrit history.' 



In referring to Wilford's account of Hindu relations, with this 



part of the globe, I do so with hesitation. That account is found 



in his Essays on the Sacred Isles, part 1, 

 ♦ As. Kes. vol. 10. J - _ . e 



chapter 1, oi .bssay 6.* He is altogether so 



indiscreet, hypothetical, and fanciful a writer, that the value of 

 his Sanscrit learning is quite beclouded by his extreme want of 

 judgment, and I fear recklessness as to truth : provided some- 

 thing surprising were only made out. A more complete ignis 

 fatuus of literature I never followed. Witness in this portion of 

 his Essay " Budd'ha, Osiris, Dionysius, or Adam," classed with- 

 out hesitation as synonymes ; or again the tomb of Budd'ha, and 

 the tower of Belus (or Babel) identified on a mere vague, and 

 fanciful, etymology. To me it seems that volumes would be re- 

 quisite to write back again, and contradict, what this author, to- 

 the disparagement of hi3 great acquirements, has erroneously writ- 

 ten. As a German by birth, I fear he must have been one of the 

 German iUumwati of his day ; guided by their unhappy principles. 

 It seems to me also possible that he has merely accommodated what 

 he found in Marsden to some things contained in Hindu puranas* 

 Be this as it may, he speaks of Meru with three peaks though the 

 common native epithet is "the thousand peaked (Saha sringa) 

 Maha-meru." Of these three peaks or Tri-cuta, he makes one to 

 include the peninsula of Malacca, as also Sumatra and Ceylon. It 

 would appear from him that Malacca is only a corruption of Ma ha 

 or Ala Lanca, Sumatra according to him is the silver-island of 

 the Hindu purdnas ; though in the Javanese poetical legends it is 

 Nusa Kanchana, or the golden-island. I cannot however feel con- 

 fidence in abridging his statements ; and prefer the brief mention 

 of the simple fact ; which is, that he considers Sumatra and the 

 neighbourhood, familiarly known to the Hindus, when the Pura- 

 nas were written : and for the rest, I must refer the reader to his 

 own details. As I cannot feel much weight due to his statements, 

 so I will not enforce the affirmative of what I have to prove by 

 resting any weight whatever on his authority. 



Let us therefore advance to Raffle's History of Java, a work of 



