Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 2 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of IndiaTod, James
History
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 2 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
Tod, James
Rajasthan (India) -- History; Rajput (Indic people) -- History
The 4th is also dedicated to Vishnu under his infantine appellation Hari
(Ἥλιος), because when a child “he hid himself in the moon.” We must not
derogate from Sir W. Jones the merit of drawing attention to the analogy
between these Hindu festivals on the equinoxes, and the Egyptian, called
the entrance of Osiris into the moon, and his confinement in an ark. But
that distinguished writer merely gives the hint, which the learned
Bryant aids us to pursue, by bringing modern travellers to corroborate
the ancient authorities: the drawings of Pocock from the sun temple of
Luxor to illustrate Plutarch, Curtius, and Diodorus. Bryant comes to the
same conclusion with regard to Osiris enclosed in the ark, which we
adopt regarding Vishnu’s repose during the four months of inundation,
the period of fertilization. I have already, in the rites of Annapurna,
the Isis of the Egyptians, noticed the crescent form of the ark of
Osiris, as well as the ram’s-head ornaments indicative of the vernal
equinox, which the Egyptians called Phamenoth, being the birthday of
Osiris, or the sun; the Phag, or Phalgun month of the Hindus; the
Phagesia of the Greeks, sacred to Dionysus.[4.22.67]
=The Argonauts.=—The expedition of Argonauts in search of the golden
fleece is a version of the arkite worship of Osiris, the Dolayatra of
the Hindus: and Sanskrit etymology, applied to the vessel of the
Argonauts, will give the sun (_argha_) god’s (_natha_) entrance into the
sign of the Ram. The Tauric and Hydra foes, with which Jason had to
contend before he obtained the fleece of Aries, are the symbols of the
sun-god, both of the Ganges and the Nile; and this fable, which has
occupied almost every pen of antiquity, is clearly astronomical, as the
names alone of the Arghanath, sons of Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Sol, Arcus
or Argus,[4.22.68] Jupiter, Bacchus, etc., sufficiently testify, whose
voyage is entirely celestial.
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