1797.) 
the deity, by a human figure with 
three heads, may be often feen in the 
temples on the coafts of Orixa and 
Coromandel. In the pagoda of Ele- 
phanta, near Bombay, is a vaft triple- 
headed ftatue, of great antiquity. A 
temple wholly confecrated to this kind 
of divinity is found at Perpenade, in the 
Kingdom of Travancore} and an annual 
‘feftival, under the name of Ananda 
Vourdon, is celebrated; in which the 
three powers are conjointly worfhipped 
by vaft crowds of people. In the Sanf- 
creet language, this image is called 
Tetratreyam; a term, remarks Mr. 
Maurice, which could not have been 
found in that language, had not the 
worfhip of a trinity fubfifted full two 
thoufand five hundred years; for it is 
folong fince that language was current 
in India. Another perpetual memorial 
of the Hindoo notion of three powers 
united in one divinity, remains in the ufe 
of the myftical word AUM, each letter, 
refpectively, denoting the creating, 
the preferving, and the deftroying, or 
regenerating poWer ; ® word which, in 
the laws of Menu, probably delivered 
about 1300 years before Chrift, a 
Brahman is required to pronounce at 
the beginning and end of a leéture on 
the Veda*. > 
In the fables and facred poetry of the 
Hindoos, the one great Being, called, 
in the neuter gender, Brahme, is the 
fource of ali exiftence. By an exertion 
of his will, he became an active creating 
power, under the mafculine name of 
Brahma, * the great forefather of all 
fpirits.”’ Hence proceeded, by emana- 
tion, or production from his own fub- 
flance, Vifhnou, Sheva, and, either 
immediately or mediately, other powers, 
to which were given perfonal characters 
and appropriate operations, fabuloufly 
defcribed. Thefe powers, though per- 
fonified, and made objeéts of worthip, 
were contemplated as ftill united to the 
firft fource, like branches of a tree to the 
parent trunk ; and thus the divine nature 
was conceived to poffefs, at once, unity 
and plurality: the fame ideas may be 
traced through all the Eaftern nations. 
Among the Perfians, Oroma{des, the good 
principle, and Arimanius, the fource of 
evil, were derived from the firft fountain 
of being, whom they called Mithras, and 

* See Afiatic Refearches ; Maurice’s Indian 
. Antiquities; Voyage de S$onnerat; Dow’s 
Introductory Differtation to Hiftory of Hin- 
‘dooftan ; Inftitutes of Hindoo Laws. 
MontTsrx Mac, Ne. XXII. 
The Enquirer, No. XIV. 
to whom they gave the eppellation of 
rpimhesioc, triple. The -Ofiris, Ifis, and 
' ‘Typhon, of Egypt, appear to correfpond 
to the Brahma, Vifhnou, and Sheva, of 
India. Brahma is, by the Hindoos, 
reprefented as in the aét of creation, 
floating on the furface of the vaft abyfs, 
while he reclines on the expanded leaf 
of the lotus: ithe figure of Cfiris, in 
Egypt, is recumbent on the fame plant+. 
The lotus is held facred both in Egypt 
and inIndia. ‘Vhere is a fufficient fimi- 
larity between the deities, the rites, and 
the ancient ftatues of Egypt and India, 
to render it probable that the one bor- 
rowed from the other: and the Hindoo 
Brahmans, who have always been inflex- 
ibly tenacious of their religious inftitu- 
tions, and in whom it would have been 
an heinous violation of the precepts of 
their religion to quit their native thores, 
in fearch of foreign divinities, are 
much lefs likely to have vifited Egypr, 
than the Egyptian priefis to have tra- 
velled from the Nile to the Ganges, in 
fearch of wifdom. A tradition is {aid to 
remain among the Hindoos, that priefts 
formerly came from Mifr, the ancient 
name of Egypt, to vifit the Brahmans. 
Traces remain of fimilar vifits from the 
Perfian fages; and Ammianus Marcel- 
linus ¢ relates, that the Brahmans were 
vifited by the Perfian Zoroafter. Many 
circumftances, in fhort, concur to efta- 
blifh a probability that the notion of 
plurality in the divine nature originated 
with the ancient Indian Brahmans, and 
{pread from this fource through the eaft. 
But, however this be, there can be little 
doubt, that the notion generally prevail 
ed in the Eaftern nations long before it 
appeared among the philofophers of 
Greece, 
From the fchools of Egypt§, Orpheys, 
a native of Thrace, who flourifhed before 
the Trojan war, imported into Greece 
the doétrine that the Deity, from etefnity, 
confifted of a compound nature, active 
and paiiive, and that he fent forth, from 
himfelf, all ipiritual-and material beings. 
This doétrine, of, the emanation of all 
beings from God, long continued to be 
taught in the mythological writings of 
Hefiod, and other Grecian cofinogonifts. 
Pythagoras, the father of one of the great 
{chools of Grecian philofophy, upwards 
of five hundred years before Chrift, 
travelled into Egypt, and, perhaps, into 
Perfia and India, in fearch of wifdom 
by 

+ Herodot, 1, 1. 
qt Li xiti. § Died, fee Liv. c. 24. 
ioe eg ang 
‘18g 
eT 
