[12a]. As Murex ramosus, of which several varieties are given in the plates Seba, Murex Saxatilis, &c.
[13]. Lot 305, third day, Saturday, May 25th, 1805.
[14]. The Hindoos entertain the belief of a general deluge, not very dissimilar to that of the Mosaic records. They admit, however, many such catastrophes of the earth, and subsequent renovations through the creative power of this attribute of Brahma, which they denominate Vishnu. The Chank Shell refers to a deluge of the earth, anterior to that which seems to accord with the sacred writ. The deliverance of the earth from the Mosaic deluge they term the lotos creation, the type of which is the expanded flower of the lotos, the indian pedma emerging above the surface of the waters with Vishnu seated in its centre.
[15]. Were it requisite to treat more amply upon this subject, it would be in our power to produce abundant evidence of the prevalence of this symbol of the sacred Volute, wherever Vishnu or his delegated power appears. The rich repository of the India House, the British Museum, and many private collections afford us some examples of the most interesting kind. Some few of these are so immediately connected with the object of our enquiry, that we feel persuaded no apology will be necessary for their introduction.
In the collection of Lord Valentia is a four-sided cast in brass, resembling a kind of pyramid, consisting of three low platforms, each bearing idols, and surmounted at the summit by a tortoise. In several Indian paintings mythologically adverting to the subject of the creation, the tortoise is represented raising the new-born earth upon its back above the waters, and it is usually seen in other mythological paintings of the same subject bearing the throne upon which Vishnu is seated, while the attendants, personified by various beings, are lifting the earth from the deep. Such a painting was once in the celebrated collection of Colonel Stuart: and we need no other evidence to shew that the bronze of Lord Valentia’s collection is of the same mythological nature, and referable to the deluge, than to observe the Chank Shell placed at each of the four corners of the ornament. We may comprehend the allusion of the tortoise raising the earth from the waters of the deluge, from a trait of the ancient Chinese astronomy; by the tortoise bearing the earth, they intended the north pole of the ecliptic, which, at the time of the deluge, they maintained had not materially changed its position, and that by this means the world was sustained and saved from utter annihilation.
An Indian painting, mentioned by Mr. Edward Moor, the author of the Hindoo Pantheon, presents us with another deity, Sivi, who holds the Chank Shell in one of his four hands, and the antelope (moon) in another.
There is also an Indian painting of Devi, who appears holding a Chank Shell, furnished on each side with a lateral lappit or wing: this symbol he holds in one hand, and the wheel, the emblem of the universe, in the other; and in a bronze of Vishnu, in the India House, we find the Chank Shell ornamented in a similar manner.
We have seen another indian painting, in which, not only the Chank Shell is furnished on each side with alæ, or wings, but an expanded flower of six petals is placed upon its pinnacle. This shell, if we may judge from its outline, is of that kind which has the spire depressed. Lord Valentia is in possession of a bronze cast, in which Vishnu appears reclined upon his couch of serpents, attended by Lakshmi and Satyavama, (eternity) in which the shell is also winged, and appears to be of that kind in which the beak is elongated or produced; and if this conjecture be correct, it will appear that the Hindoos venerate indiscriminately, and probably as the same shell, each of those three varieties of Voluta Pyrum, which we have mentioned in another part of this description. Our limits will only permit us to observe that we believe we may add with some degree of certainty, that the reversed shell, the more immediate object of our present dissertation, may sometimes appear also: there is in the temple of Visweswara, at Benares, a sculpture of Surya, the Indian personification of the sun, seated in his chariot driven by Aruna, in which the Chank Shell held in his right hand appears to have the aperture on the left side instead of the right, as in the usual growth of the shell. If this be not an oversight of the copyist (Mr. Moor) the circumstance deserves peculiar notice.
[16]. Vide Catalogue Lev. Mus. “Last day, July 12th, 1806, lot 77. The reversed variety of the High Spired Turnip, from Madagascar, extremely rare. £7. 7s.” p. 15.
[17]. “Le dessus du corps est d’un vert-sombre, qui jette quelques reflets dorés: les parties inférieures ne présentent que des couleurs rembrunies.” Buffon