[13]. The ‘God Bal,’ the Vivifier, the Sun [?].
[14]. Budha signifies ‘wisdom.’
[15]. Job chap. xxxi. 26, 27, 28.
[16]. Chand, the bard, after having separately invoked the three persons of the Hindu triad, says that he who believes them distinct, “hell will be his portion.”
[17]. [The Jains were not a Buddhist sect.]
[18]. A very curious cause was assigned by an eminent Jain priest for the innovation of enshrining and worshipping the forms of the twenty-four pontiffs: namely, that the worship of Kanhaiya, before and after the apotheosis, became quite a rage amongst the women, who crowded his shrines, drawing after them all the youth of the Jains; and that, in consequence, they made a statue of Neminath to counteract a fervour that threatened the existence of their faith. It is seldom we are furnished with such rational reasons for religious changes.
[19]. [Neminātha was the twenty-second Jain Tīrthakara or deified saint. Arishta means ‘unhurt, perfect.’]
[20]. It was the serpent (Budha) who ravished Ila, daughter of Ikshwaku, the son of Manu, whence the distinctive epithet of his descendants in the East, Manus, or men, the very tradition on an ancient sculptured column in the south of India, which evidently points to the primeval mystery. In Portici there is an exact lingam entwined with a brazen serpent, brought from the temple of Isis at Pompeii: and many of the same kind, in mosaic, decorate the floors of the dwelling-houses. But the most singular coincidence is in the wreaths of lingams and the yoni over the door of the minor temple of Isis at Pompeii; while on another front is painted the rape of Venus by Mercury (Budha and Ila). The Lunar race, according to the Puranas, are the issue of the rape of Ila by Budha. Aphah is a serpent in Hebrew. Ahi and Sarpa are two of its many appellations in Sanskrit. [These speculations are now obsolete.]
[21]. Taintīs kror devata.
[22]. The Mahabharata records constant wars from ancient times amongst the children of Surya (the sun), and the Tak or Takshak (serpent races). The horse of the sun, liberated preparatory to sacrifice, by the father of Rama, was seized by the Takshak Ananta; and Janamejaya, king of Delhi, grandson of Pandu, was killed by one of the same race. In both instances the Takshak is literally rendered the snake. The successor of Janamejaya carried war into the seats of this Tak or serpent race, and is said to have sacrificed 20,000 of them in revenge; but although it is specifically stated that he subsequently compelled them to sign tributary engagements (paenama), the Brahmans have nevertheless distorted a plain historical fact by a literal and puerile interpretation. The Paraitakai (Mountain-Tak) of Alexander were doubtless of this race, as was his ally Taxiles, which appellation was titular, as he was called Omphis till his father’s death. It is even probable that this name is the Greek Ὄφις, in which they recognized the tribe of the Tak or Snake. Taxiles may be compounded of is, ‘lord or chief,’ sila, ‘rock or mountain,’ and Tak, ‘lord of the mountain Tak,’ whose capital was in the range west of the Indus. We are indebted to the Emperor Babur for the exact position of the capital of this celebrated race, which he passed in his route of conquest. We have, however, an intermediate notice of it between Alexander and Babur, in the early history of the Yadu Bhatti, who came in conflict with the Taks on their expulsion from Zabulistan and settlement in the Panjab. [The Paraitakai or Paraitakenai have no connexion with Tāk or Takshak, the first part of the name perhaps representing Skt. parvata, ‘a mountain,’ or pahār in the modern dialect. They lived in the hill country between the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes (McCrindle, Alexander, 57). Omphis represents the Āmbhi, king of Taxila, a name supposed to mean ‘rock of the Tāk tribe’ (ibid. 413; Smith, EHI, 60), or, more probably, ‘city of cut stone.’]