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self; he has no altars, and prayers for wealth are addressed to Lakshemi, the goddess of Fortune. His splendid residence is in the palace of Alaca, in the forest of Chitraruthra, and he is drawn in a splendid chariot, and surrounded by numerous beautiful attendants called Yacshas.

Agni, the god of fire, is one of the most singular in his form of all the many-limbed tribe of Indian divinities. He has usually three legs and four arms, and is represented breathing fire and riding on a ram: he has various names, but he is best known by that of Agni. Viswacarma, the artificer of the gods, is annually worshipped by the Hindû mechanics, and all tools of carpenters, masons, and other artificers, are consecrated to him.

Aswini and Kumara are the regents of medicine. Kartekeya is the son of Parvati; he is the leader of the celestial armies, and being born with six heads he was committed to the six Kritikas to nurse, who each fed one mouth. These nurses were placed among the stars at a distance from their husbands the Rishist, whom they had betrayed, and only the seventh, the

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*The Kritikas are the stars which form the constellation of the Pleiades.

The Rishis are the seven stars of the Great Bear. The small star which makes one of these a double star is Arundati.

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faithful Arundati, was permitted to remain with her spouse, and to attend him in his nocturnal revolution. Kartekeya is also called Scanda and Swamykartic; he is represented riding on or attended by a peacock, with weapons in his eight hands. His temper is irascible, like that of his brother Mars, but his power is very limited. Camdeo, the god of love, is called Kundurpa, Muddun, and Ununga or the bodyless. He is the son of Parvati, and besides his bow and shafts he carries a banner on which a fish is depicted, and he sometimes also rides on a fish. His bow is of sugar-cane, with a string of bees, and his darts are tipped with the new buds of the sweetest flowers. It happened one day, that while Siva with uplifted arm was performing sacred austerities, the thoughtless Camdeo wounded the terrible god, who instantly with a flash from his eye consumed his body; hence Kundurpa is the only one of the Indian deities who is incorporeal.

Pavana, the deity of the winds, is the father of Hanumân, the monkey-formed god, whose adventures are closely connected with those of the Awatara Rama Chandra, but his character nearly resembles that of Pan; and the whole race of divine monkeys, whose birth is recorded in the Ramayuna, may be said to be of the same family with the satyrs and fauns of the west.

Like Pan, Hanumân was the patron if not the inventor of a particular mode of music, and like him also he inhabited the woods and forests, and was the chief of the sylvan deities.

Nareda, a son of Brahma, was the peculiar patron of music in general, but his principal character is that of a lawgiver. Of the Ragas and Raginis, or male and female genii of music, I formerly gave you an account, and I only mention them now as the companions of Nareda.

Indra is a deity who ranks next to the three great divinities, and in most of his attributes he resembles the Jupiter of Europe. He is particularly the god of the atmosphere, and his will directs all its changes. He is also the deity of delusions; and being in his moral character no better than Jove himself, his changes of form served him for the same purposes as those of the Grecian father of gods and men. His body, from the shoulders to the waist, is spotted with eyes, to mark his constant vigilance, hence he is said to resemble Argus. He is the chief of the celestial spirits who are innumerable, and who inhabit Swerga, the Hindû Paradise, and the abode of virtuous souls; he also presides over the spirits of the earth and sea. His favourite palace is in the forest Nundana, where his pleasures are participated by his wife Indranee, who partakes also of his power, and is usually seen seated by his

side on their beautiful three-trunked elephant, surrounded by attendant Dewtas.

High in a mountain vale, retired from the painful task of guiding either gods or men, resides Casyapa, the priest of the gods, and sometimes called their father; his life and retirement resemble that of Saturn while he reigned over Latium in the golden age. He and his respectable consort are attended by holy nymphs, fair as the Houris of Mahomet and pure as the maidens of Vesta. In their court the innocent and oppressed on earth find repose and protection, and a holy calm breathes eternal peace through their beneficent shades, where Ganesa, the god of wisdom, is the most frequent and most welcome guest.

Ganesa, whom I have placed last among the Hindû gods, is invoked the first by the Brahmins in all sacrifices and in all trials by ordeal. His name, sometimes accompanied by that of Seraswati, begins every book and writing, and even grants of lands and transfers of estates. His statues are placed on roads and at the boundaries of townships and villages, like those of the god Terminus, and he is worshipped, like Hanumân and Pan, under trees and in sylvan places. On the Coromandel coast he is peculiarly honoured under his name of Polear; at Chimchore the incarnation of Ganesa in the Deo of that

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