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2, Page]] 224 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. immense stretch of land which extended towards the West on the side of Asia. And all, brought together, were found to speak the same language, to have the same usages, the same customs, the same religious belief. And all to the question, 'Where is the cradle of your race?' for sole response, extended their hand toward the setting sun " (Ibid., p. 308). Geographically, this description clashes slightly with the facts in the Secret Records; but it shows the existence of such traditions, and this is all one cares for. For, as there is no smoke without fire, so a tradition must be based on some approximate truth. In its proper place we will show modern Science fully corroborating the above and the traditions of the Secret Doctrine with regard to the two lost continents. The Easter Island relics are, for instance, the most astounding and eloquent memorials of the primeval giants. They are as grand as they are mysterious; and one has but to examine the heads of the colossal statues, that have remained unbroken on that island, to recognise in them at a glance the features of the type and character attributed to the Fourth Race giants. They seem of one cast though different in features -- that of a distinctly sensual type, such as the Atlanteans (the Daityas and "Atalantians") are represented to have in the esoteric Hindu books. Compare these with the faces of some other colossal statues in Central Asia -- those near Bamian for instance -- the portrait-statues, tradition tells us, of Buddhas belonging to previous Manvantaras ; of those Buddhas and heroes who are mentioned in the Buddhist and Hindu works, as men of fabulous size,* the good and holy brothers of their wicked co-uterine brothers generally, as Ravana, the giant King of Lanka was the brother of Kumbhakarna; all descendants of the gods through the Rishis, and thus, like "Titan and his enormous brood," all "heaven's first born." These "Buddhas," though often spoilt by the symbolical representation of the great pendent ears, show a suggestive difference, perceived at a glance, between the expression of their faces and that of the Easter Isle statues. They may be of one race -- but the former are "Sons of Gods"; the latter the brood of mighty sorcerers. All these are re-incarnations, however, and apart from unavoidable exaggerations in popular fancy and tradition, they are historical characters.** When did they live? How long ago lived the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * An approach to the statues at Bamian -- also a Buddha 200 feet high -- is found near a Jain settlement in Southern India, and appears to be the only one that remains at present. ** Even Wilson admits that Rama and Ravana were personages founded on historical facts: --"The traditions of Southern India uniformly ascribing its civilization and the settlement of civilized Hindus (the Fifth Race) to the conquest of Lanka by Rama" ( Vishnu Purana, iii., p. 318) -- the victory of the "Sons of God" over the Atlantean sorcerers, says the true tradition. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 225 COCK AND BULL HYPOTHESES. two races, the Third and Fourth, and how long after did the various tribes of the Fifth begin their strife, the wars between Good and Evil? We are assured by the Orientalists that chronology is both hopelessly mixed and absurdly exaggerated in the Puranas and other Hindu Scriptures. We feel quite prepared to agree with the accusation. Yet, if Aryan writers did allow their chronological pendulum to swing too far one way occasionally, beyond the legitimate limit of fact; nevertheless, when the distance of that deviation is compared with the distance of the Orientalists' deviation in the opposite direction, moderation will be found on the Brahminical side. It is the Pundit who will in the long run be found more truthful and nearer to fact than the Sanskritist. Surely, it is not because the curtailing of the latter -- even when proven to have been resorted to in order to fit a personal hobby -- is regarded by Western public opinion as "a cautious acceptance of facts," whereas the Pundit is brutally treated in print as a liar, that everyone has to see this in the same light. An impartial observer may judge it otherwise. He may either proclaim both unscrupulous historians, or justify both, each on his respective ground, and say: Hindu Aryans wrote for their Initiates, who read truth between the lines, not for the masses. If they did mix up events and confuse Ages intentionally, it was not in view of deceiving any one, but to preserve their knowledge from the prying eye of the foreigner. Otherwise, to him who can count the generations from the Manus, and the series of incarnations specified in the cases of some heroes,* the meaning and chronological order are very clear in the Puranas. As for the Western Orientalist, he must be excused, on account of his undeniable ignorance of the methods used by archaic Esotericism. But such existing prejudices will have to give way and disappear very soon before the light of new discoveries. Already Dr. Weber's and Mr. Max Muller's favourite theories -- namely, that writing was not known in India, even in the days of Panini (!); that the Hindus had all their arts and sciences -- even to the Zodiac and their architecture (Ferguson) -- from the Macedonian Greeks; these and other such cock-and-bull hypotheses, are threatened with ruin. It is the ghost of old Chaldea that comes to the rescue of truth. In his third Hibbert [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Thus we are shown one hero, to give an instance, first born as the "unrighteous but valiant monarch" (Purusha) of the Daityas, Hiranyakasipu, slain by the Avatar Nara-Sinha (Man-lion). Then he was born as Ravana, the giant king of Lanka, and killed by Rama; after which he is reborn as Sisupala, the son of Rajarishi (King Rishi) Damaghosha, when he is again killed by Krishna, the last incarnation of Vishnu. This parallel evolution of Vishnu (spirit) with a Daitya, as men, may seem meaningless, yet it gives us the key not only to the respective dates of Rama and Krishna but even to a certain psychological mystery. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 226 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. lecture (1887) Professor Sayce of Oxford, speaking of newly-discovered Assyrian and Babylonian cylinders, referred at length to Ea, the God of Wisdom, now identified with the Oannes, of Berosus, the half-man, half-fish, who taught the Babylonians culture and the art of writing. This Oannes, to whom, thanks only to the Biblical Deluge, an antiquity of hardly 1,500 B.C .