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[SEPTEMBER, 1906.
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The symbols were coloured with saffron powder, bile of a cow or blood. The colouring process was called lepa or lipi, from the root 'to lip,' to daub.' The attempt to derive the Sanskrit word lips from the Semitic dipi, to write, seems to be far-fetched, and cannot be philologically supported. Such an attempt can only find its support in the theory of the Semitic origin of the Devanagari.
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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
The origin of the Indian hieroglyphics.
The Monistic doctrine, so elaborately preached in the later portions of the Rig-Veda, the Atharva-Veda, and the earlier Upanishads, seems to have exercised so much influence over the minds of the ancient Hindus, that they came to regard the Universe as identical with its Creator. Each of the two constituents of the Universe, Pindânda, microcosm, and Brahmânda, macrocosm, was further separately considered as one with Brahmâ, the Creator. Of this purport is the passage in Hymn XI. 8, 30, of the Atharva-Veda :
"The waters, the gods, the Viraj with Brahmâ eutered into man. Brahmâ entered into his body. Prajapati presides over his body. The sun occupied the eye and the wind the breath of man. Then the gods gave his other soul to Agni, fire. Wherefore one who knows man thinks this is Brahmâ'; for all the gods are in him as cows in a stable."
The ancient Hindus felt, therefore, no difficulty whatever in picturing to their minds the form of either the macrocosm, or its Creator, in terms of the members of human body. Ta sky was believed to be his head; the atmosphere, his lungs; the fiery region, i. e., the region where the sun appears, his belly; the cloudy region, his waist and loins; and the ears, his legs. But this kind of notion regarding the form of god did not, as will be presently seen, drive them at once to contrive a complete picture of the Creator in human likeness; but only helped them to have for worship some tangible symbols, drawn after the models of the five divisions of human body, corresponding to the so-called five elements. (See Plate VII.)
The Kulaprakdiatantra says: -
आकाशमण्डलं भूत्रं वर्तुनं परिकीर्तितम् get wet: generfa-gantown सस्वस्तिकं त्रिकोण तु रक्तं वह्नेस्तु मण्डलम्. sndwagastereo veraftenfrey, आप्यमण्डलमाख्यातं चतुरस्रं महेश्वरी. अष्टवायुतं पीतं धरामण्डलमीश्वरी. awdiergek **TA ZAKEN. सत्तवर्णेन निर्माय द्रव्येण परमेश्वरी.
The sky is said to be blue and circular. The atmosphere is represented by a six-petaled figure containing within it six dots. A red triangle with a svastika figure in it, is the region of fire. A bright-white semi-circle, decked with two lotus symbols, is the sphere of water. A brown rectangular figare, O Goddess, with eight symbols of Vajra, the weapon of Indra, is the globe of the earth. Having drawn all the above figures with the symbols of their seeds (bija), O Goddess, one should worship them.' (See Plate VII.)
The Sivarchana Chandrika is still more plain in its description of the identity of the Universe with its Creator or with human body. It says:
पादाभ्यां जानुपर्यन्तं चतुरस्रं सवञ्चकम्. शान्वोरानाभि चन्द्रार्धनिभं पद्मद्वयसमायुतम्.
माभितः कण्ठपर्यन्तं त्रिकोणं रक्तवर्णकम्. कण्डा मध्यपर्वन्तं कृष्णं बायोस्तु मण्डलम्. धूमध्वाडूमरन्भ्रान्तं वर्तुलं ध्वजलासम्.
