spiritual Brahma, when overspread by
Maya, or illusory creative force', according to the Vedanta system
(Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_, p. 44).

3. Indra was originally, in the Vedas, the Rain-god. The statement in
the text refers to modern Hinduism.

4. The incarnations of Vishnu are ordinarily reckoned as ten, namely,
(1) Fish, (2) Tortoise, (3) Boar, (4) Man-lion, (5) Dwarf, (6) Rama
with the axe, (7) Rama Chandra, (8) Krishna, (9) Buddha, (10) Kalki,
or Kalkin, who is yet to come. I do not know any authority for eleven
incarnations of Vishnu. The number is stated in some Puranas as
twenty-two, twenty-four, or even twenty-eight. Seven incarnations of
Siva are not generally recognized (see Monier Williams, _Religious
Thought and Life in India_, pp. 78-86, and 107-16). For the theory
and mystical meaning of _avatars_, see Grierson, _J.R.A.S._, 1909,
pp. 621-44. The word avatar means 'descent', _scil_. of the Deity to
earth, and covers more than the term 'incarnation'.

5. Sita was an incarnation of Lakshmi. She became incarnate again,
many centuries afterwards, as the wife of Krishna, another
incarnation of Vishnu [W. H. S.]. Reckoning by centuries is, of
course, inapplicable to pure myth. The author believed in Bentley's
baseless chronology.

6. For the Mahabharata, see _ante_, note 11, Chapter 1. The Bhagavata
Purana is the most popular of the Puranas, The Hindi version of the
tenth book (_skandha_) is known as the 'Prem Sagar'. The date of the
composition of the Puranas is uncertain.

7. The dates given in this passage are purely imaginary. Parts of the
Mahabharata are very ancient. Yudhishthira is no more an historical
personage than Achilles or Romulus. It is improbable that a 'throne
of Delhi' existed in 575 B.C., and hardly anything is known about the
state of India at that date.

8. It is hardly necessary to observe that this grotesque theory is
utterly at variance with the facts, as now known.

9. The existing settlements of native Christians at Agra are mostly
of modern origin. Very ancient Christian communities exist near
Madras, and on the Malabar coast. The travels of Jean de Thevenot
were published in 1684, under the title of _Voyage, contenant la
Relation de l'Indostan_. The English version, by A. Lovell (London,
1687), is entitled _The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the
Levant, in three Parts_. Part III deals with the East Indies, The
passage referred to is: 'Som