'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎109] (780/1024)

The Gentiles of Indoftan.
In Geography they have fped no better. They believe the Earth to be flat and tri
angular, and that it hath fevenftories, all differing in beauty, perfediion, and inhabit
tants j each of which is encotapaffed, they fay, by its Sea i that of thefe Seas one is of
Milk, another of Sugar, the third of Butter, the fourth of Wine, and fo forth: fothat
after one Earth there comes a Sea,and after, Sea an Earth > and fo on unto feven,begin-
ning from Someirs, which is in the midft of thefe fiories: that the firft ftory, which is
at the foot of Someire, hath Vent its (ox its inhabitants, which are very perfedf j that
the fecond Contains like wife Veutaf, but lefs perfect * andfo the red, ftill leffening the
perfedfion unto the feventh, which they fay is ours, that is, cf men far lefs perfect
then all the Veiitas * and lalfly, that this whole Mafs is fuflained upon the heads of
divers Elephants, which when they ftir, caufe an Earthquake.
All thefe ftrange impertinences,, which I have had the patience to relate, have often
made me think, that if they be thofe famous Sciences of the antient of the
Indies, very many have been deceived in the great opinion they entertained of them.
For my part, I can hardly believe it, but that I find the Religion of the Indians to
be from immemorial times ‘ 5 that 3 tis written in the Language Hanfcrit^ which cannot
be but very antient, lince its beginning is unknown, and 3 tis a Language, not
imderfiood but by the Learned j that all their Books are only written in that Tongue :
All which are as many marks of a very great Antiquity. Let us now add a few words
about the worjhip of their Idols. ‘ ,
When I defeended along the River Ganges, and paffed through Banares, that
famous School of all the Indian Gentility, I went to fee the chief of the Pendets^ who -
hath there his ordinary refidence. ThisisaF^re, or Religious Monk, fo renowned
for his knowledge, that Chah-Jehan, partly for his Science, partly to pleafe the
gave him a Penfion of 2000 Roupies, that is, about 1000 Crowns. This was a
big and proper Man, goodly to look on j who for all his Cloaths had nothing but a
white filken Scarified about his wafte,and hanging down to his mid-leg,with another
red Scarf about his fhoulders like a little Cloak. I had often feen him at Dehli in this
pofture before the King, in the Affembly of z\\ the Omrahs, and marching upon the
Streets, fometimes on foot, fometimes in a Palefyy. I had alfo frequently feen and
many times converfed with him, when for a whole year together he conftantly came to
our conference before my Agah, whom he courted, that he might procure him again
that Penfion which Aureng-Zebe (being come to the Crown) had taken from him,
that he might appear a great Mufulman. In the vifit I made him at Banares, he was
exceedingly courteous to me, and even gave me a Collation in the Library of his Uoi-
verfity, attended with fix of the molf famous Pendets of the Town. When I found
myfdf in fo good Company, I prayed them all to tell me their fenfe about the Adora-
tionof their Idols i intimating to them, that I was leaving the Indies, extreamly
fcandalized upon that fcore ; and reproaching them, that that worfhip was a thing
againlf a ]i reafon.and altogether unworthy fuch Scholars and Fhilofophers as they were 0
Whereupon I received this Anfwer. />/
We have indeed ( fa id they) in our Deuras or Temples, ft ore of divers Statues, as thofe of
Bra ham, Mehaden, Genich and Gavani, who are fame of the chief and the moft perfect
Lkiitas : and we have alfo many others of lefs perfection, to whom we pay great honour, pro
frating our f elves before them, and prefenting them Flowers, Rice, fcented Oyls, Saffron and
fttcb other things with much Ceremony, but we do not believe thefe Statties to be Brahma or
Bechen, See. themfeIves, but only their Images and Reprefentations, and we do not give them
that honour, but upon the account of what they reprefent. They are in our Temples, becaufe:
tis necejfary for praying well, to have fometbing before our eyes that may fix the mind > and
when we pray, it is not the Statue we pray to, but he that is reprefented by it. For the ref,we
acknowledge that ’tis God that is abfilute, and the only Omnipotent Lord and Mafter.
This is, without adding, or fubtradfing any thing, the refolution they gave me. Butj
to tell you true, this feemed a little too much accommodated to our Chriflianity, in re-
fpeef of what I had learned of it from feveral other Pendets.
> After this, I put them upon their Chronology, where they pretended to (hew me far
higher Antiquities then all ours. They will not fay, that the World is eternal i but
they make it fo old, that I almoft know not which is beft. Its determined duration,
fay they, is of four Dgugue. This Dgugue is* a certain determined number of years, as
amongft us we have a feculum (an Atge) with this difference, that an Age of ours con
tains only an hundred Tears, but their Vgugue is made up of an hundred Lecques, that
. CL 1