Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1813 edition. Excerpt: ... Brehm was the only one, the eternal, the almighty. His energy exerted, divided, and personified, became, Brahma to create, Vishnu to preserve, and Siva to destroy; thus the three greatest and most striking operations of nature, became the offices of peculiar gods. But as things once created are never wholly destroyed, and their elements appear again in other forms, Siva the destroyer is also the god of reproduction, and the creating power of Brahma lies dormant till it shall be exerted in a new formation of the world.. Accordingly his temples are fallen into decay, and I believe that he is seldom or never now adored. Each of these three gods is provided with a sacti or Avife, who partakes of the nature and offices of her husband, and is considered as his active power or energy. Having advanced so far towards polytheism, it was natural to multiply the gods, as the operations of nature and the wants of mankind came to be observed and felt; and while the legislators and priests might adore but one god in spirit and in truth, his personified attributes would indubitably be worshipped as independent deities by the vulgar. In the common mythological accounts of the creation, Vishnu is fabled to have slept on the serpent Annanta or eternity, floating on the face of the milky ocean. When the work of creation was to be performed, Brahma sprang from a lotus growing on the navel of Vishnu, and produced the elements, formed the world, and gave birth to the human race. From different parts of his body he produced the Bramins or priests, the Xetries or warriors, the Vaisyas or merchants, and the Soodras or husbandmen; which four original castes, by intermarriages, and by the adoption of different trades, have multiplied exceedingly. Brahma is often...