Note 89 — CHAPTER 6
Reading edition
As he did also to Balnath (the god Bal) in the ancient times of India. The baldan, or gift of the bull to the sun, is well recorded. [Baldān, balidāna does not mean the offering of a bull: it is the daily presentation of a portion of the meat to Earth and other deities.] There are numerous temples in Rajasthan of Baalim [?]; and Balpur (Mahadeo) has several in Saurashtra. All represent the sun—
Peor his other name, when he enticed
Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile.
Paradise Lost, book i. 412 f. [77].
The temple of Solomon was to Bal, and all the idolaters of that day seem to have held to the grosser tenets of Hinduism.