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Thus it becomes natural to find that, on even such meagre data as have reached the profane historian, Rudbeck, a Swedish scientist, tried to prove about two centuries ago that Sweden was the Atlantis of Plato. He thought, even, that he had found in the configuration of ancient Upsala, the situation and measurements given by the Greek sage of the capital of “ Atlantis.” As Bailly proved, Rudbeck was mistaken ; but so was Bailly likewise, and still more. For Sweden and Norway had formed part and parcel of ancient Lemuria, and also of Atlantis on the European side, just as Eastern and Western Siberia and Kamschatka had belonged to it, on the Asiatic. Only, once more, when was it ? We can find it out approximately only by studying the Purânas, if we will have nought to do with the Secret teachings.
Three quarters of a century have already elapsed since Captain (now Colonel) Wilford brought forward his fanciful theories about the British islands being the “ White Island,” the Atala of the Purânas. This was sheer nonsense, as the Atala is one of the seven dwipas, or islands, belonging to the nether lokas, one of the seven regions of Pâtâla (the antipodes). Moreover, as Wilford * shows, the Purânas place it “ on
* Wilford makes many mistakes. He identifies, for instance, Sveta-dwipa (the white Island), the “ island in the northern part of Toyambhudi,” with England, and then tries to identify it with Atala (a nether region) and Atlantis. Now the former is the abode of Vishnu, exoterically, and Atala is a hell. He also places it in the Euxine or Icshu (Black) Sea, and then seems to connect it, in another place, with Africa and Atlas.
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the seventh zone or seventh climate,” — rather, on the seventh measure of heat : which thus locates it between the latitudes of 24 and 28 degrees north. It is then to be sought on the same degree as the Tropic of Cancer, whereas England is between the 50th and 60th degrees of latitude. Wilford speaks of it as Atala, Atlantis, the white island. And in vol. viii. of Journal of Asiatic Researches, p. 280, its enemy is called the “ White Devil,” the demon of terror. For he says : “ In their (the Hindu and Mahomedan) romances, we see Kai-caus going to the mountain of ‘ As-burj, at the foot of which the Sun sets,’ to fight the Dev-Sefid, or white devil, the Taradaitya of the Purânas, whose abode was on the seventh stage of the world, answering to the seventh zone of the Buddhists, or the White Island.”
Now here the Orientalists have been, and are still, facing the Sphinx’s riddle, the wrong solution of which will ever destroy their authority, if not their persons, in the eyes of every Hindu scholar, even those who are not initiates. For there is not a statement in the Purânas — on the conflicting details of which Wilford based his speculations — which has not several meanings, and does not apply to both the physical and the metaphysical worlds. If the old Hindus divided the face of the globe geographically into seven zones, climates, dwipas, and into seven hells and seven heavens, allegorically, that measure of seven did not apply in both cases to the same localities. It is the north pole, the country of “ Meru,” which is the seventh division, as it answers to the Seventh principle (or fourth metaphysically), of the occult calculation, for it represents the region of Atma, of pure soul, and Spirituality. Hence Pushkara is shown as the seventh zone, or dwipa, which encompasses the Kshira Ocean, or Ocean of milk (the ever-frozen white region) in the Vishnu (and other) Purânas (Book II ch. iv.). And Pushkara, with its two Varshas, lies directly at the foot of Meru. For it is said that “ the two countries north and south of Meru are shaped like a bow,” . . and that “ one half of the surface of the earth is on the south of Meru and the other half on the north of Meru — beyond which is half of Pushkara ” (Vishnu Purâna, Asiatic Researches, etc.). Geographically, then, Pushkara is America, Northern and Southern ; and allegorically it is the prolongation of Jambu-dwipa * in the middle of
* Every name in the Purânas has to be examined at least under two aspects ; geographically, and metaphysically, in its allegorical application ; e.g., Nila, the (blue) mountain which is one of the boundaries to the north of Meru, is again to be sought geographically in a mountain range in Orissa, and again in a mountain quite different from the others (in Western Africa). Jambu-dwipa is Vishnu’s dominion — the world, limited in the Purânas to our globe, the region which contains Meru only, and again it is divided to contain Bharata-varsha (India), its best division, and the fairest, says Parasâra. Likewise with Pushkara and all others.
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which stands Meru, for it is the country inhabited by beings who live ten thousand years, who are free from sickness or failing ; where there is neither virtue nor vice, caste or laws, for these men are “ of the same nature as the Gods,” (Vishnu Purâna, Book II. ch. iv.). Wilford is inclined to see Meru in Mount Atlas, and locates there also the Loka-lokas. Now Meru, we are told, which is the Swar-loka, the abode of Brahmâ, of Vishnu, and the Olympus of Indian exoteric religions, is described geographically as “ passing through the middle of the earth-globe, and protruding on either side ” (Sûrya Siddhanta, v. 5, Whitney’s trans.). On its upper station are the gods, on the nether (or South pole) is the abode of demons (hells). How can then Meru be Mount Atlas ? Besides which, Taradaitya, a demon, cannot be placed on the seventh zone if the latter is identified with the “ white ” Island, which is Sveta-dwipa, for reasons given in the foot-note. (Vide infra.)
Wilford accuses the modern Brahmans “ of having jumbled them (islands and countries) all together ” (A.R. III. 300) ; but he jumbled them still more. He believes that as the Brahmanda and Vayu Purânas divide the old continent into seven dwipas, said to be surrounded by a vast ocean, beyond which lie the regions and mountains of Atala (ibid), hence “ most probably the Greeks divided the nation of Atlantis, which, as it could not be found after having once been discovered, they conceived to have been destroyed by some shock of nature.”
Finding certain difficulties in believing that the Egyptian priests, Plato, and even Homer, had all built their notions of Atlantis on Atala — a nether region located at the Southern pole — we prefer holding to the statements given in the secret books. We believe in the seven “ continents,” four of which have already lived their day, the fifth still exists, and two are to appear in the future. We believe that each of these is not strictly a continent in the modern sense of the word, but that each name, from Jambu down to Pushkara, * refers to the geographical names given (i.) to the dry lands covering the face of the whole earth during the period of a Root-Race, in general ; and (ii.) to what remained of these after a geological (race) Pralaya — as “ Jambu,” for instance : and (iii.) to those localities which will enter, after the future cataclysms, into the formation of new universal “ continents,” peninsulas, or dwipas † — each continent being, in one sense, a greater or smaller region of dry land surrounded with water. Thus, that whatever
* Jambu, Plaksha, Salmali, Kusa, Krauncha, Sâka, and Pushkara.
† Such as Sâka and Pushkara, for instance, which do not yet exist, but into which will enter such lands as some portions of America, of Africa, and Central Asia, with the Gobi region. Let us bear in mind that Upadwipas means “ root ” islands, or the dry land in general.
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“ jumble ” the nomenclature of these may represent to the profane, there is none, in fact, to him who has the key.
Thus, we believe we know that, though two of the Purânic “ islands ” — the sixth and seventh “ continents ” — are yet to come, nevertheless there were, or there are, lands which will enter into the composition of the future dry lands, of new earths whose geographical faces will be entirely changed, as were those of the past. Therefore we find in the Purânas that Sâka-dwipa is (or will be) a continent, and that Sankha-dwipa, as shown in the Vayu Purâna, is only “ a minor island,” one of the nine divisions (to which Vayu adds six more) of Bharata Varsha. Because Sankha-dwipa was peopled by “ Mlechchhas (unclean foreigners), who worshipped Hindu divinities,” therefore they were connected with India. * This accounts for Sankhasura, a King of a portion of Sankha-dwipa, who was killed by Krishna ; that King who resided in the palace “ which was an ocean shell, and whose subjects lived in shells also,” says Wilford.
“ On the banks of the Nile † (?) there were frequent contests between the Devatas (divine beings, demi-gods) and the Daityas (giants) ; but the latter tribe having prevailed, their King, Sankhasura, who resided in the Ocean, made frequent incursions in the night ” (As. Res., Vol. III. 225.)
It is not on the banks of the Nile, but on the coasts of Western Africa, south of where now lies Morocco, that these battles took place. There was a time when the whole of the Sahara desert was a sea, then a continent as fertile as the Delta, and then, only after another temporary submersion, it became a desert similar to that other wilderness, the desert of Shamo or Gobi. This is shown in Purânic tradition, for on the same page as above cited, it is said : “ The people were between two fires ; for, while Sankhasura was ravaging one side of the continent, Krauncha (or Cracacha), King of Kraunch, used to desolate the other ; both armies . . . thus changed the most fertile regions into a savage desert.”
That not only the last island of Atlantis, spoken of by Plato, but a large continent, first divided, and then broken later on into seven peninsulas and islands (called dwipas), preceded Europe, is sure. It covered the whole of the North and South Atlantic regions, as well as portions of the North and South Pacific, and had islands even in the Indian Ocean (relics of Lemuria). The claim is corroborated by Indian Purânas, Greek writers, and Asiatic, Persian, and Mohammedan traditions. Wilford, who confuses sorely the Hindu and the Mussulman legends, shows this, however, clearly. ( See Vol. VIII., X. and XI. of
* They were called demons, Asuras, giants, and monsters, because of their wickedness ; and thus their country was likened to Atala — a hell, because of that.
† Not on the river Nile, surely, but near the Nila mountains of the Atlas range.
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Asiatic Researches. ) And his facts and quotations from the Purânas give direct and conclusive evidence that the Aryan Hindus and other ancient nations were earlier navigators than the Phœnicians, who are now credited with having been the first seamen that appeared in the post-diluvian times. This is what is given in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, III., pp. 325, et seq. : —
“ In their distress the few nations who survived (in the war between Devatas and Daityas) raised their hands to Bhagavan, ‘ Let him who can deliver us . . . be our King’ ; using the word i’t (a magic term not understood by Wilford, evidently) which re-echoed through the whole country.”
Then comes a violent storm, the waters of the Kali are strangely agitated, “ when there appeared from the waves . . a man, afterwards called i’t, at the head of a numerous army, saying abhayan, no fear” . . . and scattered the enemy. “ 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 Purânas 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 Phœnician navigation — then their Purânas must be older than those Phœnicians (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
* 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.
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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 Purânic 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
* 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 Pâtâla (antipodes) of India, or from America. The latter touched the walls, so to say, of Atlantis, before the latter sank finally. The word Pâtâla, meaning both the antipodal countries and infernal regions, thus became synonymous in ideas and attributes as well as in name.
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Râkshasas 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. Plato’s Atlantis perished between water below and fire above ; the great mountain vomiting flames all the while. “ The ‘ fire-vomiting Monster ’ survived alone out of the ruins of the unfortunate island.”
Do the Greeks, accused of borrowing a Hindu fiction (Atala), and inventing from it another (Atlantis), stand also accused of getting their geographical notions and the number seven from them ? (Vide in Part II. the several sections on the Septenate in nature.)
“ The famous Atlantis exists no longer, but we can hardly doubt that it did once,” says Proclus, “ for Marcellus, who wrote a history of Ethiopian affairs, says that such, and so great an island once existed, and this is evidenced by those who composed histories relative to the external sea. For they relate that in this time there were seven islands in the Atlantic sea sacred to Proserpine ; and besides these, three of immense magnitude, sacred to Pluto . . . Jupiter . . . and Neptune. And, besides this, the inhabitants of the last island (Poseidonis) preserved the memory of the prodigious magnitude of the Atlantic island as related by their ancestors, and of its governing for many periods all the islands in the Atlantic sea. From this isle one may pass to other large
* Neither Atlantis, nor yet Sancha dwipa, was ever called “ White Island.” When tradition says that “ the White Island became black on account of the sins of people ” it only means the denizens of the “ White Island,” or Siddhapura, or Sveta dwipa, who descended to the Atlantis of the Third and Fourth races, to “ inform the latter ; and who, having incarnated, became black with sin ” — a figure of speech. All the Avatars of Vishnu are said to come originally from the White Island. According to Tibetan tradition the White Island is the only locality which escapes the general fate of other dwipas and can be destroyed by neither fire nor water, for — it is the “ eternal land.”
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islands beyond, which are not far from the firm land, near which is the true sea.”
“ These seven dwipas (inaccurately rendered islands) constitute, according to Marcellus, the body of the famous Atlantis,” writes Wilford himself. . . . “ This evidently shows that Atlantis is the old continent. . . . The Atlantis was destroyed after a violent storm (?) : this is well known to the Purânics, some of whom assert that in consequence of this dreadful convulsion of nature, six of the dwipas disappeared ” (xi., 27).
Enough proofs have now been given to satisfy the greatest sceptic. Nevertheless, direct proofs based on exact science are also added. Volumes might be written, however, to no purpose for those who will neither see nor hear, except through the eyes and ears of their respective authorities.
Hence the teaching of the Roman Catholic scholiasts, namely, that Hermon, the mount in the land of Mizpeth — meaning “ anathema,” “ destruction ” — is the same as Mount Armon. As a proof of this, Josephus is often quoted, as affirming that still in his own day enormous bones of giants were daily discovered on it. But it was the land of Balaam the prophet, whom the “ Lord loved well ” ; and so mixed up are facts and personages in the said scholiasts’ brains, that, when the Zohar explains the “ birds ” which inspired Balaam to mean “ Serpents,” to wit, the wise men and adepts at whose school he had learnt the mysteries of prophecy — the opportunity is again taken of showing Mount Hermon inhabited by the “ winged dragons of Evil, whose chief is Samael ” (the Jewish Satan).
“ It is to those unclean spirits chained on Mount Hermon of the Desert, that the scape-goat of Israel, who assumed the name of one of them (Azaz(y)el), was sent ” (Spencer).
We say it is not so. The Zohar has the following explanation on the practice of magic which is called in Hebrew Nehhaschim, or the “ Serpents’ Works.” It says (Part III. col. 302) : — “ It is called nehhaschim, because the magicians (practical Kabalists) work surrounded by the light of the primordial serpent, which they perceive in heaven as a luminous zone composed of myriads of small stars ” . . . which means simply the astral light, so called by the Martinists, by Eliphas Lévi, and now by all the modern Occultists. (Vide Sections about.)