THE PURĀNAS.
The first Indian poet was Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, a complete epic poem; and Vyasa, the next in celebrity, composed the Mahabarat. To him are ascribed the sacred Purānas, which are called for their excellence, the Eighteen: they comprise the whole body of Hindū Theology; and each Purāna treats of five topics especially; i.e. the creation, the destruction, and renovation of the worlds; the genealogy of gods and heroes; the reigns of the Manus; and the transactions of their descendants. The Purānas are, 1. Brŭmhŭ; 2. Padma, or the Lotus; 3. Brahmānda, or the egg of Brahmā, the Hindū Mundane egg; 4. Agni, or fire; 5. Vishnŭ; 6. Garuda, the bird god, the vehicle of Vishnŭ; 7. Brahmavaivartā, or transformation of Brahmŭ; 8. Shivŭ; 9. Linga; 10. Naruda, son of Brahma; 11. Skanda, son of Shivŭ; 12. Mārkendeya, so called from a sage of that name; 13. Bhavishyat, future or prophetic; 14. Matsya, or the fish; 15. Varāha, or the boar; 16. Kūrma, or the tortoise; 17. Vāmaha, or the dwarf; and 18. The Bhāgavat, or life of Krishnŭ. The Purānas are reckoned to contain four hundred thousand stanzas. There are, also, eighteen upapurānas, or similar poems of inferior sanctity and different appellations; the whole constituting the popular or poetical creed of the Hindūs, and some of them, or particular parts of them, being very generally read and studied.
On the ancient sculptures and medals, allusive to the cosmogony, these hieroglyphic symbols, the egg and the serpent, perpetually occur in very great variety, single and combined; that famous representation of the Mundane egg, encompassed by the folds of the Agathodaimon, or good serpent, and suspended aloft in the temple of Hercules at Tyre, is well known to antiquaries. The Deus lunatus ovatus Heliopolitanus, or the divine egg with the lunar crescent, adored at Heliopolis, in Syria, is another relic of this ancient superstition. The most remarkable, however, of these symbolical devices is that erected, and at this day to be seen in one of the temples of Japan. The temple itself, in which this fine monument of oriental genius is elevated, is called Daibod, and stands in Meaco, a great and flourishing city of Japan. The principal image in this design displays itself in the form of a vast bull, butting with its horns against the egg, which floated on the waters of the abyss. The statue of the bull itself is formed of massy gold, with a great knob on its back, and a golden collar about its neck, embossed with precious stones. The fore-feet of the animal are represented as resting on that egg, and his hinder feet are immersed amidst stone and earth mixed together, the symbol of a chaotic mass, under which and the egg appears a considerable quantity of water, kept in a hollow stone. The basis of the whole is a square altar, the foot of which is engraved with many ancient Japanese characters; and round that foot, in M. D’Hancarville’s engraving, are two natives of that country prostrate, and adoring it.