MY DEAR SIR,

LETTER VIII.

A THOUSAND thanks for the patience you have had with my last letter, which has really encouraged me to begin this, and to go on with the plan I had proposed. Since, then,

we have done with the heavens, it will not be amiss to inquire what the ancient Hindûs thought of the earth.

Their systems of geography are extremely curious, though involved in considerable obscurity, owing to the exuberance, or poverty, shall I say, of the Hindû imagination, which delights in describing mountains of precious stones, seas of milk, and rivers of honey or butter; and has pleased itself with rendering the world so equal, that for every mountain in the south there is its equivalent in the north, and that no river can flow without a sister stream in an opposite direction. Notwithstanding these disguises, however, it is plain that the Hindûs had a very general and tolerably correct notion of the old continent; and though at first sight they appear completely separated from the rest of the world, the means by which they acquired their true notions of it, become, on a little attention, abundantly apparent.

In the first place, the rich productions of their country, and the excellence of their manufactures, would naturally draw a number of traders to their cities, and as naturally lead them to travel with their merchandise. Besides, they believe that their ancestors came from the north, and it is certain that to this day several places in Tartary are visited by pilgrims as places of worship; and Mr. Duncan, the late governor of Bombay, told me he had seen one who had even been to Moscow on a similar errand*. A pretty regular intercourse has been at all times kept up between India and Samarkand, Balkh, and other northern cities where there are colonies of Hindus, established from time immemorial; and one of the great pilgrimages from Hindostan is to the place called the Fiery Mouth, on the borders of the Caspian Sea.

We must not wonder that, in the early stages of society, the recitals of pilgrims and merchants concerning remote countries, should have been embellished not only by themselves, but by those who took upon them to record and preserve them; and hence, in all probability, arose part, at least, of the absurdity we remark in the Hindû systems of geography.

* An account of that man is published in the Asiatic Researches.

These systems differ considerably among themselves, even as related in the Puranas; but, for the most part, they divide the earth into seven Dwipa, or islands, the first of which, Jambhu Dwipa, is evidently India itself, with the countries surrounding it, bounded on the east by the Yellow Sea, on the west by the Caspian, extending north as far as the Frozen Ocean, and washed on the south by the Indian Sea*.

The Mount Meru occupies the centre of Jambhu Dwipa, and is described by the poets as composed of gold and precious gems, threepeaked, the habitation of the immortals, and from it flow four rivers to the four quarters of the earth, among which the Ganges rolls through the southern quarter, and its source leads us to the true position of Meru, the base of which is the land of Illavrati, surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains. Now this inclosed land is found in Western Tartary, having on the south Thibet, on the east the sandy desert of Cobi, on the west the Imaus, and on the north the Altai mountains; and from the four extremities of this raised plain four of the largest rivers of the old continent take their rise.

North and south of Meru three parallel ranges

* See Edinburgh Review, April, 1808.

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of mountains are described. The first range, on the north, is the Nila, or blue mountains, which appears to be part of the Altai, and is said to inclose Ramanaca, or Dauria. Second, the Sweeta, or white mountain, divides Ramanaca from Heranya, or the gold country, whose inhabitants are tall, robust, and rich in gold *. Thirdly, the Sringavan mountains separate Heranya from Ottara Curu, the northern Curu, or Siberia, which Pliny calls Ottorocoro. Here the river Bhadra, probably the Irtush, flows into the Northern ocean at the extremity of Jambhu Dwipa. South of Meru are the Nishada mountains, corresponding with the northern range of Thibet hills, which country is named Herivarsha, and is separated by the Himacuta mountains from the land of Kinnara, comprising Srinagur, Nepal, and Butan, and divided from Bharata, or India, by the snowy chain of Hymaleya or Imaus.

To the east of Meru, the mountains of Má·layaván divide Illavritta from the land of Badraswa, which is bounded by the Golden Sea (called by our geographers the Yellow Sea), into which a river, called the Eastern Sita, empties

The

They are denominated Yara, or workers in mines. metallurgic labours of the ancient inhabitants of the Altaï mountains are still traced by the traveller. Ed. Rev. for April, 1808.

itself, after passing through the lake Arunda, (Orinnor) and is probably the Whang-ho, Hara moren, or Yellow river. To the west of Meru lies mount Vipula, an extension of Imaus; and between it and the western sea, or Caspian, lies the country of Cetumálá, comprising Sogdiana, Bactriana, and Margiana, with part of the country of the Sacæ. A river, called in some Puranas, the Chaxu, in others the Javanxu, (Oxus, or Jaxartes) after flowing through the lake Sitoda, falls into the Caspian.

Major Wilford supposes the other six Dwipas to comprehend all the rest of Asia and Europe, even as far as Iceland, dividing those countries as follows:-Cusa dwipa contains the countries from the Indus to the Caspian and the Persian Gulph. Placsha dwipa occupied the space between those seas and the Mediterranean and Euxine, or Lesser Asia, Armenia, Syria, &c. Salmali dwipa from the Tanais to Germany. Crauncha dwipa contained Germany, France, and the adjacent countries. Sacam the British islands, and Pushcara dwipa Iceland.

This gentleman, whose learned and ingenious works adorn the Asiatic Researches, has an idea that the British Isles are the sacred isles of the West, mentioned in the Sastras of the Hindûs. Should this opinion prove to have been unfounded, no one will regret, however, that Major

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