_
[475] Almost innumerable, and sometimes as whimsically absurd as the
"Arabian Nights' Entertainments," are the holy legends of India.
[475] Almost innumerable, and sometimes as whimsically absurd as the
"Arabian Nights' Entertainments," are the holy legends of India.
Camoes - Lusiades
4.
[470] The Canarese, who inhabit Canara, on the west coast of
India. --_Ed. _
[471] Medina, a city of Arabia, famous as being the burial-place of
Mohammed, and hence esteemed sacred. --_Ed. _
[472] According to tradition, Perimal, a sovereign of India, embraced
Islamism about 800 years before GAMA'S voyage, divided his dominions
into different kingdoms, and ended his days as a hermit at Mecca. --_Ed. _
[473] _i. e. _ pariahs, outcasts.
[474] _Brahma their founder as a god they boast. _--Antiquity has talked
much, but knew little with certainty of the Brahmins, and their
philosophy. Porphyry and others esteem them the same as the
Gymnosophists of the Greeks, and divide them into several sects, the
Samanaei, the Germanes, the Pramnae, the Gymnetae, etc. Brahma is the head
of the Hindu triad which consists of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. --_Ed.
_
[475] Almost innumerable, and sometimes as whimsically absurd as the
"Arabian Nights' Entertainments," are the holy legends of India. The
accounts of the god Brahma, or Brimha, are more various than those of
any fable in the Grecian mythology. According to Father Bohours, in his
life of Xavier, the Brahmins hold, that the Great God having a desire to
become visible, became man. In this state he produced three sons, Mayso,
Visnu, and Brahma; the first, born of his mouth, the second, of his
breast, the third, of his belly. Being about to return to his
invisibility, he assigned various departments to his three sons. To
Brahma he gave the third heaven, with the superintendence of the rites
of religion. Brahma having a desire for children, begat the Brahmins,
who are the priests of India, and who are believed by the other tribes
to be a race of demi-gods, who have the blood of heaven running in their
veins. Other accounts say, that Brahma produced the priests from his
head, the more ignoble tribes from his breast, thighs, and feet.
According to the learned Kircher's account of the theology of the
Brahmins, the sole and supreme god Vishnu, formed the secondary god
Brahma, out of a flower that floated on the surface of the great deep
before the creation. And afterwards, in reward of the virtue, fidelity,
and gratitude of Brahma, gave him power to create the universe.
Hesiod's genealogy of the gods, though refined upon by the schools of
Plato, is of the same class with the divine genealogies of the Brahmins.
The Jewish fables, foolish questions and genealogies, reproved by Saint
Paul (epist. Tit. ), were probably of this kind, for the Talmudical
legends were not then sprung up. _Binah_, or Understanding, said the
cabalists, begat _Kochmah_, or Wisdom, etc. , till at last comes
_Milcah_, the Kingdom, who begat _Shekinah_, the Divine Presence.
[470] The Canarese, who inhabit Canara, on the west coast of
India. --_Ed. _
[471] Medina, a city of Arabia, famous as being the burial-place of
Mohammed, and hence esteemed sacred. --_Ed. _
[472] According to tradition, Perimal, a sovereign of India, embraced
Islamism about 800 years before GAMA'S voyage, divided his dominions
into different kingdoms, and ended his days as a hermit at Mecca. --_Ed. _
[473] _i. e. _ pariahs, outcasts.
[474] _Brahma their founder as a god they boast. _--Antiquity has talked
much, but knew little with certainty of the Brahmins, and their
philosophy. Porphyry and others esteem them the same as the
Gymnosophists of the Greeks, and divide them into several sects, the
Samanaei, the Germanes, the Pramnae, the Gymnetae, etc. Brahma is the head
of the Hindu triad which consists of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. --_Ed.
_
[475] Almost innumerable, and sometimes as whimsically absurd as the
"Arabian Nights' Entertainments," are the holy legends of India. The
accounts of the god Brahma, or Brimha, are more various than those of
any fable in the Grecian mythology. According to Father Bohours, in his
life of Xavier, the Brahmins hold, that the Great God having a desire to
become visible, became man. In this state he produced three sons, Mayso,
Visnu, and Brahma; the first, born of his mouth, the second, of his
breast, the third, of his belly. Being about to return to his
invisibility, he assigned various departments to his three sons. To
Brahma he gave the third heaven, with the superintendence of the rites
of religion. Brahma having a desire for children, begat the Brahmins,
who are the priests of India, and who are believed by the other tribes
to be a race of demi-gods, who have the blood of heaven running in their
veins. Other accounts say, that Brahma produced the priests from his
head, the more ignoble tribes from his breast, thighs, and feet.
According to the learned Kircher's account of the theology of the
Brahmins, the sole and supreme god Vishnu, formed the secondary god
Brahma, out of a flower that floated on the surface of the great deep
before the creation. And afterwards, in reward of the virtue, fidelity,
and gratitude of Brahma, gave him power to create the universe.
Hesiod's genealogy of the gods, though refined upon by the schools of
Plato, is of the same class with the divine genealogies of the Brahmins.
The Jewish fables, foolish questions and genealogies, reproved by Saint
Paul (epist. Tit. ), were probably of this kind, for the Talmudical
legends were not then sprung up. _Binah_, or Understanding, said the
cabalists, begat _Kochmah_, or Wisdom, etc. , till at last comes
_Milcah_, the Kingdom, who begat _Shekinah_, the Divine Presence.
