Travels in India (Tavernier) 120.1

120.1

The idolaters of India yield to creatures as the cow, the ape, and different monsters, the honours which are only due to the true Deity, although it is certain that they acknowledge one infinite God, all-powerful and all-wise, Creator of the heavens and the earth, who is omnipresent. They call him in some places PERMESSER, in others Peremael, as, for example, towards the coast of Malabar; and Vvistnou in the language of the Brahmins who inhabit the coast of Coromandel. As the idolaters have perhaps heard that the circle is the most perfect of all figures, they have thought to improve upon it by saying God is of an oval figure, and it is for this reason that they generally keep in their pagodas an oval pebble, which they obtain from the Ganges, and adore as god. They are so strongly fixed in this foolish idea that the wisest among the Brahmins will not listen to any argument against it, and thus it is not to be wondered at if a people who have such evil guides fall into this gross and monstrous idolatry. There is a caste so superstitious about this, that those who belong to it keep these oval stones suspended from their necks, and press them against their bodies while they pray.