Ill ND O G STA N. 
he had a vifion, and heard a voice faying, “ Name what¬ 
ever boon thou wanteft.” Amara Deva, having heard this, 
was aftonifhed, and with due reverence replied, “ Firft, 
give me a vifitation, and then grant me fuch a boon.” He 
had another dream in the night, and the voice faid, “ How 
can there be an apparition in the Kalee Yoog > the fame 
reward may be obtained from the fight of an image, or from 
the worfhip of an image, as may be derived from the im¬ 
mediate vifitation of a deity.” Having heard this, he 
caufed an image of the Supreme Spirit Bood-dha to be made, 
-and he worlhipped it, according to the law, with perfumes, 
incenfes, and the like; and he thus glorified the name of 
that Supreme Being, the incarnation of a portion of Vifhnu : 
ic Reverence be unto thee in the form of Bood-dha ! Re¬ 
verence be unto the Lord of the earth ! Reverence be unto 
thee, an incarnation of the Deity and the Eternal One ! 
Reverence be unto thee, O God, in the form of the God 
of mercy ; the difpeller of pain and trouble, the Lord of 
all things, the Deity who overcometh the fins of the Ka- 
lee-Yoog, the Guardian of the univerfe, the Emblem of 
mercy towards thofe ■who ferve thee—O'm ! the Polleffor 
of all things in vital form ! Thou art Brahma, Vifhnu, and 
Mahefa! Thou art Lord of the univerfe ! Thou art, un¬ 
der the proper form of all things moveable and immovea¬ 
ble, the pofleffor of the whole! and thus I adore thee. Re¬ 
verence be unto the beftower of falvation, and, Refheekefa, 
the ruler of the faculties ! Reverence be unto thee (Ke- 
fava), the deftroyer of the evil fpirit Kefee ! O Damordara, 
fhow me favour ! Thou art he who refteth upon the face 
of the milky ocean, and who lieth upon the lerpent Sefa. 
Thou art Treeviekrama (who at three ftrides encompafled 
the earth) ! I adore thee, who art celebrated by a thoufand 
names, and under various forms in the fhape of Bood -dha, 
the Qod of mercy 1 Be propitious, O mod high God !” 
“ Having thus worfhippecl the guardian of mankind, he 
became like one of the juft. He joyfully caufed a holy 
temple to be built of a wonderful conftrudion, and therein 
were fet up the divine foot of Vilhnu, for ever purifier of 
the fins of mankind, the images of the Pandoos, and of 
the defcents of Vifhnu, and in like manner of Brahma, 
and the reft of the divinities.” 
LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, ASTRONOMY, 
ARCHITECTURE, and ANTIQUITIES. 
The languages of India are comprehended in three 
dalles : i. Sanjkrit ; 2. Pracrit ; 3. Magad'/ii, or Apabh- 
ranfa. The Sanjkrit is a mod polifhed tongue, which was 
gradually refined until it became fixed in the claffic writ¬ 
ings of many elegant poets, molt of whom are luppofed 
to have flourifhed in the century immediately preceding 
the Chriftian sera. It is cultivated by learned Hindoos 
throughout India, as the language of lcience and of lite¬ 
rature, and as the repofitory of their law civil and religi¬ 
ous. It evidently draws its origin from a primeval tongue, 
which feems to have been gradually refined in various 
climates, and became Sanjkrit in India; Pahlavi in Per fill, 
and Greek on the fhores of the Mediterranean. It has 
nearly fhared the fate of all ancient tongues, and is now 
become almoft a dead language ; but there feems no good 
real’on for doubting that it was once univerlally fpoken 
in India. It was probably the language of the Indian 
courts ; and cultivated not only by perfons who devoted 
themfelves to religion and literature, but alfo by princes, 
lawyers, and phyficians, fcribes, and foldiers. In fhort, 
it was the common language of the firft three caffs; and 
. perhaps of fome few ctafles of the fourth. 
The lecond, or Pracrit language, comprehends the writ¬ 
ten dialeds which are now ufed in the intersourfe of civil 
life, and which are cultivated by lettered men. . There is 
■reaion to believe, (fays Mr. Colebrooke,) that ten diftinct 
polifhed dialects formerly prevailed in as many different 
civilized nations, who occupied all the fertile provinces 
of Hindooftan-and the Deccan; though they now bear 
■the general denomination of Pracrit. Thele Mr. Cole- 
iarooke has fet down in the following orders 
The Sarefwata, a nation which occupied the banks of 
the river Sarafwati. Brahmanas, who are ftill diftinguifhed 
by the name of their nation; inhabit chiefly the Punjab,' or 
Panchanada, weft of the river from which they take their 
appellation. Their original language may have once pre¬ 
vailed through the fouthern and weftern parts of Hindoo- 
flan Proper, and is probably the idiom to which the name 
of Pracrit is generally appropriated. This has been more 
cultivated than any other among the dialeds here enu¬ 
merated ; and it occupies a principal place in the dia¬ 
logue of mod dramas. Many beautiful poems compofed 
wholly in this language, or intermixed with ftanzas of 
pure Sanjkrit, have perpetuated the memory of it. 
The Canyacubjas, poffeffed a great empire, the metro¬ 
polis of which was the ancient city of Canyacubja or Ca- 
noge. Theirs feems to be the language which forms the 
ground-work of modern Hindooftani, and which is known 
by the appellation of Hindi, or Hindevi. Two dialeds of 
it may be eafily diftinguifhed, one more refined, the other 
lefs fo. To this laft the name of Hindi is fometimes re- 
ftnded, while the other is often confounded with Pracrit. 
Numerous poems have been compofed in both dialefts, 
not only before the Hindooftani was ingrafted on the 
Hindi by a large intermixture of Perfian, but alfo in very 
modern times, by Mohammedan as well as Hindoo poets. 
Dokras, or detached couplets, and Cabits, or ftanzas, in 
the Hindevi, may be found among the works of Mufful- 
man authors ; moft poems in this dialect are, however, the 
exclulive produdion of Hindoo poets. On examining them, 
the affinity of Hindi with the Sanfkrit language is pecu¬ 
liarly ftriking: and no perfon acquainted with both can 
hefitate in affirming that Hindi is chiefly borrowed from 
Sanfkrit,, The Hindooftani, or Hindi, is much ufed in Up¬ 
per India. 
Gaura, or, as it is commonly called, Bengalah , or Ben~ 
galce, is the language fpoken in the provinces, of which 
the ancient city of Gaur was once the capital: it ftill 
.prevails in all the provinces of Bengal, excepting perhaps 
fome frontier diftrids, but is faid to be lpoken in its 
greateft purity in the eaftern parts Only; and, as there 
fpoken, contains few words which are not evidently de¬ 
rived from Sanfkrit. This dialed: has not been negleded 
by learned men. Many Sanfkrit poems have been tranf- 
lated, and fome original poems have been compofed in 
it; learned Hindoos in Bengal fpeak it almoft exclu- 
fivel y \ verbal inlirudion in fciences is communicated 
through this medium, and even public deputations are 
conduded in this dialed. 
Mait'kila, or Tirkutiya, .is the language ufed in Mit’/iila, 
that is, in the Circar of Tirhut, and in fome adjoining dil- 
trids, limited however by the rivers Cufi and Gandhac, 
and by-the mountains of Nepal; it has great affinity with 
Bengalee-, and the charader in which it is written differs 
little from that which is employed throughout Bengal. 
In Tirhut, too, the learned write Sanfkrit in the Tirhu- 
tiya charader, and pronounce it after their own inelegant 
manner. 
Vtcala, or Odradefa, is co-extenfive with the fubah of 
Orefa, extending from Medinipur to Manacapattana, 
and from the fea to Sammal-pur. The language of this 
province, and the charader in which it is written, are 
both called Uriya. So far as a judgment can be formed 
from impeded fpecimens of this language, it contains 
many Sanfkrit words varioufly corrupted, with fome Per¬ 
fian and Arabic terms borrowed through the medium of 
Hindooftanee, and with others of doubtful origin. The 
letters are evidently taken • from the Devanagaree; and 
the Brahmins of this province ufe the Uriya charader in 
writing the Sanfkrit language; its deviations from the 
Devanagaree may be explained, from the pradice of writ¬ 
ing on palm-leaves with an iron ftyle, or on paper with a 
pen cut from a porcupine’s quill. It differs in this re- 
fped from the hand-writing of northern tribes, and is 
analogous to that of the fouthern inhabitants of the pe- 
ninfula. 2 
The 
