RESEARCHES INTO THE NATURE AND AFFINITY OF ANCIENT AND HINDU MYTHOLOGY

The author reveals that in doing his former work on the Origin and Affinity of Languages it naturally occurred to him that the argument which he maintained in it would have been greatly corroborated, could he has at the same time evinced that the original seat of the mythology which prevails in India at the present day was Babylonia; and that it had been thence communicated to Asia Minor, from which country the Pelasgi had, in the course of their migrations, introduced it into Thracia, Greece, Latium, and Etruria. The affinity which appears to exist amongst the polytheisms of India, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, has already attracted considerable attention but it will perhaps be admitted, that no correct opinion can be formed on this point, unless just notions, with respect to the principles upon which ancient mythology was founded, have been previously acquired. Unfortunately, however, all authors, whether ancient or modern, who have attempted to explain these principles. The principal object, however, of these Researches is to exhibit as correct a view as possible of the Hindu religion; and, if he has not failed in attaining this object, the reader will be able to form his own opinion with respect to the affinity which exists between it and the religious systems of antiquity.