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"The King I'T," explains Wilford, "is a subordinate incarnation of M'rira" ( Mrida, a form of Rudra, probably?) who "re-established peace and prosperity throughout all Sankha-dwipa, through Barbaradesa, Hissast'han and Awasthan or Arabia . . " etc., etc. Surely, if the Hindu Puranas give a description of wars on continents and islands situated beyond Western Africa in the Atlantic Ocean; if their writers speak of Barbaras and other people such as Arabs -- they who were never known to navigate, or cross the Kala pani (the black waters of the Ocean) in the days of Phoenician navigation -- then their Puranas must be older than those Phoenicians (placed at from 2,000 to 3,000 years B.C .). At any rate those traditions must have been older;* as -- "In the above accounts," writes an adept, "the Hindus speak of this island as existing and in great power; it must, therefore, have been more than eleven thousand years ago. " But another calculation and proof may be adduced of the great antiquity of these Hindu Aryans who knew of (because they had once dwelt in it) and described the last surviving island of Atlantis -- or rather of that remnant of the Eastern portion of that continent which had [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Says Wilford of the division of Atlantis and Bharata or India, confusing the two accounts and Priyavrata with Medhatithi: -- "The division was made by Priyavrata. . . . He had ten sons, and it was his intention to divide the whole world. In the same manner Neptune divided Atlantis between his ten sons. . . . One of them had . . . the extremity of the Atlantis" -- which "is probably the old continent. . . . This Atlantis was overwhelmed by a flood. . . . and it seems that by Atlantis we should understand the Antediluvian Earth over which ten princes were born to rule according to the mythology of the West (and of the East, also) but seven only of them sat upon the throne." ( Vol. III. p. 286.) . . Some also are of opinion that of the seven dwipas six were destroyed by a flood ( Vol. VIII. p. 367). Wilford takes it to be "Gades which included Spain," but it was Plato's island -- rather. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 407 THE PUZZLES OF ANTIQUITY. perished soon after the upheaval of the two Americas* -- the two Varshas of Pushkara. This may be demonstrated, moreover, on an astronomical calculation by an adept who criticises Wilford. For recalling what the Orientalist had brought forward concerning the Mount Ashburj "at the foot of which the sun sets," where was the war between the Devatas and the Daityas,** he says: -- "We will consider, then, the latitude and longitude of the lost island, and of the remaining Mount Ashburj. It was on the seventh stage of the world, i.e ., in the seventh climate (which is between the latitude of 24 degrees and latitude 28 degrees north) . . . This island, the daughter of the Ocean, is frequently described as lying in the West; and the sun is represented as setting at the foot of its mountain (Ashburj, Atlas, Teneriffe or Nila, no matter the name), and fighting the white Devil of the 'White Island.' " Now, considering this statement from its astronomical aspect, and knowing that Krishna is the incarnated Sun (Vishnu), a solar God; and that he is said to have killed Dev-Sefid, the white giant -- a possible personification of the ancient inhabitants at the foot of the Atlas -- perchance Krishna may be only a representation of the vertical beams of the Sun? Those inhabitants (the Atlantides) are, we have seen, accused by Diodorus of daily cursing the Sun, and ever fighting his influence. This is an astronomical interpretation of course. But it will now be proved that Sankhasura, and Sancha dwipa, and all their history, is also geographically and ethnologically Plato's "Atlantis" in Hindu dress. It was just remarked that since, in the Puranic accounts, the island is still existing, then those accounts must be older than the 11,000 years elapsed since Sancha dwipa, or the Poseidonis of Atlantis, disappeared. Is it not barely possible that Hindus should have known the island still earlier? Let us turn again to astronomical demonstrations, which make this quite plain if one assumes, according to the said adept, that "at the time when the summer tropical 'colure' passed through the Pleiades, when cor-Leonis would be upon the equator; and when Leo was vertical to Ceylon at sunset, then would Taurus be vertical to the island of Atlantis at noon. " This explains, perhaps, why the Singhalese, the heirs of the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * America, the "new" world -- is thus, though not much, older; still it is older than Europe, the "old world." ** If Div or Dev-Sefid's (the Taradaitya's) abode was on the seventh stage, it is because he came from Pushkara, the Patala (antipodes) of India, or from America. The latter touched the walls, so to say, of Atlantis, before the latter sank finally. The word Patala, meaning both the antipodal countries and infernal regions, thus became synonymous in ideas and attributes as well as in name. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 408 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Rakshasas and Giants of Lanka, and the direct descendants of Singha, or Leo, became connected with Sancha dwipa or Poseidonis (Plato's Atlantis). Only, as shown by Mackey's " Sphinxiad, " this must have occurred about 23,000 years ago, astronomically ; at which time the obliquity of the ecliptic must have been rather more than 27 degrees, and consequently Taurus must have passed over "Atlantis" or "Sancha dwipa." And that it was so is clearly demonstrated. " The sacred bull Nandi was brought from Bharata to Sancha to meet Rishabha ( Taurus ) every Kalpa. But when those of the White Island (who descended originally from Sveta dwipa),* who had mixed with the Daityas (giants) of the land of iniquity, had become black with Sin, then Nandi remained for ever in the " White Island " (or Sveta dwipa.) " Those of the Fourth World (race) lost AUM " -- say the Commentaries. Asburj (or Azburj), whether the peak of Teneriffe or not, was a volcano, when the sinking of the "western Atala" (or hell) began, and those who were saved told the tale to their children.