202:5 Although the Hindus seem to have had a notion of the cause of the tides, they were not very accurate observers of the effect. The extreme rise of the tide in the Hugli river has never exceeded twenty feet, and its average is about fifteen. (As. Res. vol. XVIII. Kyd on the Tides of the Hugli.)

202:6 The Ańd́a kat́áha. The Kat́áha is properly a shallow hemispherical vessel, a saucer; but compounded in this form, implies the shell of the mundane egg. The Bhágavata thus describes these portions of the world: "Beyond the sea of fresh water is the mountain belt, called Lokáloka, the circular boundary between the world and void space. The interval between Meru and Mánasottara is the land of living beings. Beyond the fresh water sea is the region of gold, which shines like the bright surface of a mirror, but from which no sensible object presented to it is ever reflected, and consequently it is avoided by living creatures. The mountain range by which it is encircled is termed Lokáloka, because the world is separated by it from that which is not world; for which purpose it was placed by Íśwara on the limit of the three worlds; and its height and breadth are such that the rays of the heavenly luminaries, from the sun to the polar-star, which spread over the regions within the mountain, cannot penetrate beyond it." According to Col. Wilford, however, there is a chasm in the belt, and a sea beyond it, where Vishńu abides; but he has not given his authorities for this. (As. Res. XI. 54.) The Mohammedan legends of Koh Kaf, 'the stony girdle that surrounds the world,' are evidently connected with the Lokáloka of the Hindus. According to the Śiva Tantra, the El Dorado, at the foot of the Lokáloka mountains, is the play-ground of the gods.

203:7 This comprises the planetary spheres; for the diameter of the seven zones and oceans--each ocean being of the same diameter as the continent it encloses, and each successive continent being twice the diameter of that which precedes it--amounts to but two crones and fifty-four lacs. The golden land is twice the diameter of Pushkara, or two crones and fifty-six lacs; and the Lokáloka is but ten thousand Yojanas. So that the whole is five crores ten lacs and ten thousand (5.10.10.000). According to the Śiva Tantra, the golden land is ten crores of Yojanas, making, with the seven continents, one fourth of the whole measurement. Other calculations occur, the incompatibility of which is said by the commentators on our text, and on that of the Bhágavata, to arise from reference being made to different Kalpas, and they quote the same stanza to this effect: 'Whenever any contradictions in different Puráńas are observed, they are ascribed by the pious to differences of Kalpas and the like.'

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Hinduism

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