trudes its head, and makes a seat for Ballaji’s right foot, and terminates with the other snake behind him. Unless this refer to the same legend as Crishna crushing Kaliya, I know not its allusion.”[1]
Figure 1, plate 91, of Moore’s Pantheon, is a Hanuman, but it is remarkable that it has a hole in one foot, a nail through the other, a round nail mark in the palm of one hand and on the knuckle of the other, and is ornamented with doves and a five-headed Cobra snake.
It is unfortunate, perhaps it has been thought prudent, that the originals are not in the Museum to be examined. But it is pretty clear that the Romish and Protestant crucifixion of Jesus must have been taken from the Avatar of Ballaji, or the Avatar of Ballaji from it, or both from a common mythos.
In this Avatar the first verse of Genesis appears to be closely connected with the crucifixion and the doctrine of the Atonement. The seven-headed Cobra, in one instance, and the foot on the head of the serpent in others, unite him with Surya and Buddha. Some of these figures have glories at the back of them. In Calmet’s Fragments, Cristna has the glory. Some of the marks on the hands I should not have suspected to be nail-marks, if they had not been accompanied with the other circumstances: for the reader will see that they are double circles. The nail-holes may have been ornamented for the sake of doing them honour, from the same feeling which makes the disgraceful cross itself an emblem of honour. I have seen many Buddhas perfectly naked, with a small lotus flower in the palms of the hands and on the centre of the soles of the feet. The mark in the side is worthy of observation and is unexplained. I confess it seems to me to be very suspicious, that the icons of Wittoba are no where to be seen in the collections of our societies.
Mr. Moore gives an account of an influence endeavoured to be exercised upon him, to induce him not to publish the print, for fear of giving offence. If it were nothing but a common crucifix, why should it give offence?
8. It cannot and will not be denied, that these circumstances make this Avatar and its temples at Terputty, in the Carnatic, and Punderpoor near Poonah, the most interesting to the Christian world of any in India. Pilgrimages are made to the former, particularly from Guzerat. Why have not some of our numerous missionaries examined them? Will any person believe that they have not? Why is not the account of the search in the published transactions of the Missionary Society? There is plenty of nonsense in their works about Juggernaut and his temple. Was it suppressed for the same reason that the father of Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius, admits that he suppressed matters relating to the Christians, and among the rest, I suppose, the murder of Crispus, by his father Constantine, viz. that it was not of good report? It would be absurd to deny that I believe this to be the fact. When Mr. Moore wrote, Terputty was in the possession of the English, who made a profit of £15,000 a year of the temple. The silence itself of our literati and missionaries speaks volumes.
Mr. Moore (p. 415) says, “In Sanscrit this Avatara is named Vinkatyeish; in the Carnatic dialect, Terpati; in the Telinga country and language, Vinkatramna Govinda; in Guzerat and to the westward, Ta’khur, or Thakhur, as well as Ballaji: the latter name obtains in the neighbourhood of Poona, and generally through the Mahratta country.” The name of Terpati, or as he elsewhere calls him Tripati, identifies him with the ancient Trinity. This word is almost correctly Latin, but this a person who has read Sect. XXV. of Chap. II. and Ap. p. 304, of my Celtic Druids, will not be surprised at. Pati or Peti is the Pali[2] word for father. And what does Wittoba’s other name Ballaji look like but Baal-jah, בעל Bol, יה Ie, or ייה Iie? Whenever the languages of India come to be understood, I am satisfied that Colonel Wilford’s opinion will be
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