Jobares or Jumna, could not be called after the city or river in Egypt in accommodation to the Christian story.
The statue of Cristna in the temple of Mathura is black, and the temple is built in the form of a cross,[1] and stands due East and West. “It is evident the Hindoos must have known the use of the Gnomon at a very remote period. Their religion commands that the four sides of their temples should correspond with the four cardinal points of the Heavens, and they are all so constructed.”[2]
It is to be regretted that Arrian has not given a more detailed account; but in the fact which he gives of Heri-Cristna, Hercules or the Sun, being worshiped at Mathura, called by Ptolemy Matura Deorum, there is quite enough to satisfy any person who chooses to use his understanding, of the antiquity of the history.[3]
Mr. Bryant says, “It is remarkable that among some Oriental languages Matarea signifies the sun. This may be proved from the Malayan language, expressed Mataharii, and Matta-harri, and Mattowraye, and Matta’ree, and from that of the Sumatrans at Acheen. It seems to be a compound of Matta and Ree, the ancient Egyptian word for the Sun, which is still retained in the Coptic, and, with the aspirate, is rendered Phree.” This Phree is, I doubt not, the Coptic ⲪⲢⲎ, explained in my Celtic Druids,[4] to mean the number 608, of which I shall have much to say hereafter.
Strabo[5] says, that close to Heliopolis was a city called Cercesura. This name and the Cercasorum of Herodotus, are, I do not doubt, corruptions of Clissobora.
In the Classical Journal will be found an attempt, by Dr. Adam Clarke, to invalidate what Mr. Maurice has said respecting Cristna treading on the serpent’s head, and, in return, the serpent biting his heel. He seems to have rendered it doubtful whether there were pictures, or icons, of the serpent biting the heel, but the biting of the foot, I think, is admitted by the learned Doctor. It is of little consequence: but the reader must observe that, since gentlemen of the Doctor’s warmth of temper and zeal have considered this to be inimical to their system, the same cause which prevents our finding any icons or pictures of Wittoba, (of which my reader will be informed shortly,) probably prevents our finding exemplars of the biting serpent. It seems perfectly in keeping with the remainder of the system, particularly with the doctrine of Original Sin, which is known to be one of the Hindoo tenets, and for this and other reasons, I confess I believe Mr. Maurice, although I thereby become, according to the Doctor’s expression, an Infidel and a viper. The following passage is from Sonnerat, and I think it must be regarded as fully justifying Mr. Maurice: C’est in mémoire de cet évènement que dans les temples de Vichnou, dédiés à cette incarnation, on représente Quichena le corps entortillé d’une couleuvre capelle, qui lui mord le pied, tandis qu’il est peint, dans un autre tableau, dansant sur la tête de cette même couleuvre. Ses sectateurs ont ordinairement ces deux tableaux dans leurs maisons.[6]
Dr. Clarke says, “I have proved, and so might any man, that no serpent, in the common sense of the term, can be intended in the third chapter of Genesis; that all the circumstances of the case, as detailed by the inspired penman, are in total hostility to the common mode of interpretation, and that some other method should be found out.”[7] I partly agree with the Doctor; but
- ↑ Maur. Ind. Ant. Vol. II. p. 355.
- ↑ Craufurd’s Res. Vol. II. p. 18.
- ↑ Many of the Brahmins, declare that there is no need to send missionaries to convert them; that it would better become us to convert ourselves, by throwing off the corruptions of our religion, which is only a branch or sect of theirs; that our Jesus is their Cristna, and that he ought to be black.
- ↑ Ap. p. 308.
- ↑ Lib. xvii.
- ↑ Voyage aux Ind. Vol. I. pp. 168, 169, see plates, fig. 5, 6.
- ↑ Class. Jour., No. VI. June, 1811, p. 440.
