india; - stanford university

L-ETTERS

ON

I N D I A ; BY

MARIA GRAHAM,

AUTHOR OF u JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN INDIA."

LONDON :

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW;

AND Am CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBWRGHa

PREFACE.

TJX 3~ indulgence wit11 ” .

received the c c Journal which I I the Public of a Residence in

India,” induced the writer to hope, t11at8 the curiosity concerning our oriental pos... sessions was still sufficiently alive to promise a fhvourable receptionto the following little work. It is written solely with the design of being useful to such as are called,upon to go at an early period of life, to India, ‘and who therefore cannot bave had time to make tlmnselves acquaiainted with even the general-outline of the history, religion, or science of that country.; and though the execution must necessarily have fallen far short of the design, yet it is hoped that’, the general

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iv PREFACE.

8 sketch here presented may not be found uninteresting or uninstructive. The sources from which the information contained in the following pages is chiefly drawn, are, the papers of Sir W. Jones, Mr. Cole- brooke, and Major Wilford in the Asiatic Researches; and where these guides have failed, those who could, in the writer's humble judgment, be ,best relied on, were chosen. colonel Wilks's admirable His-. tory of MysFie,. Orme, Scott, DOW, Mal- co!xg, Buchanan, have all been referred' to ; and if on -every occasion where the 'author has made use of' thek works she has neglected to n&e them, it is because such- references would have been too ntunerous

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For the etchings which accarnpany the letters,' the writer is indebted to her inœ I

genious young friend and relation Mr. J: 1 6. Glennie, of Dulwich, who kindly i& t

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PREFACE, v

be found le Sources tained in awn, are, Ir, Cole- Le Asiatic des have : writer's on, were ,ble His- 'W, MaI- referred'

e the au- she has

use such' .meroua

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pursuits to give her the advantage of pre senting, without embellishment or carica- ture, the subjects of the 'HindQ chissel, which she had been fortunate enough to preserve, when many other drawings were lost on her passage homeward fiorn tbe East.

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With much diffidence she takes leave of her little book to send it forth to the world, certain that it requires much ind& geme, but trusting that the motives of th? undertaking will cancel some of its many faults.

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CONTENTS.

LETTER I. General Introduction. ....................... Page 1 LETTER II* Languages of India ............................... 1 l LETTER III. Prosody-Poetry-Poems-Mahabarat Ra-

mayuna-Sisupola bad’ha-Ciratarjunya Nais- had’hiya-Cumara-Raghu-Megadata-Dra- matic Writings-Sacontala-Malah’Mad’l1ava-

LETTEFL IV. Lyric Pôetry- Amatory Poems-- Mixed Writings-Bards OP India-Music and Musical Instruments-Ancient Hindb Music-Mytho- logy of Music-Fine Arts, Painting, Sculpture, Arcl~itccture, Civil, Religious, and Military.,, 42

LETTER Yb Calligraphy-Ancient Tarste for Literature in India-Vedas- Theology- Plliloaopl1y- S~cts of the Vedantas, Sanc’hyas, and Nyayas ...... 67

LETTER VI. Morals-Laws-Government-Usages ....... S4 LETTER VIX. Astronomy -Astrology- Algebra - Divi-

sions of Civil Time ................................. 109 LBTTRR VIII. Ancient Systems of Geography-India a8

known to the Western Ancients-Ten Native Kingdoms-Twelve Soubas of I-Iindostan Pro-

LETTER IX. Deccan or South Country-British Domi- nions ................................................... 158

LETTER x. Hind& Chronology-Æra of Vicramaditya- History-Menu and his Descendanti-Wars’ of the Mahabarat - Reign of Chandrabrupta - Ancl’hra Kings -Kingdom of Vejeyanuggur, called also Videanuggur and Bisnuggur-My-

Mystic Drama ....................................... 21

1 per, according to the Ayeen Akbery ............ 125

sore-Mahrattas-Nepaul .......................... 170

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LETTER XI. Mussulmans in IndiauMahomecl Sebectaghin and the Gaznavides-Mahorned Seif edierr and Gaurides-Mahomed Shah and Khouaresmians -Invasion of Genghis Khan-Patans-Invasion of Tamerlane-Foundation of the Kingdom of Bejapoor-Establishment of the Moguls .... ..L.. 191

LETTER XII. Bahershah -Houmaioun - Akbar Jehan- ghire-Shah , Jeban Aurengzebe-Successors of Aurengzebe till Mr. Hastings’ Government. ..... 995

LETTER XIJI. Division of Castes-Missionaries ............. 271 LETTER XJV. Manners and Customs-Women-Ceremo-

nies-Eating- Prayers-Ablutions-Oblations -Sacrificial Fire-Rites pf Hospitality-Mar- riage-Obsequies ........... me..b.;.1.~..m,........... 288

LETTER xv. Tombs-Singular Festivals-Amusements- Gambling-Mar ti4 Exercises-Sacrifices . , . . , . S18

LETTER XVL. Mytbo~o gy...................,.,.... ............. 339 I+ETT~R XYII. Various Sects and Tribes inhabiting India,

COIIC~~S~O~..~.~..~;..,.~,.~~.~..~..~..,..,..,..~.,.~~.,, 361

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LETTERS ON INDIA.

ALLOW me todcongratuhte you on your recent appointment;,; 'and on the accómplish, ment of athe = ~ebbn -4xpreswd to' visit the East. I feel 'highly' flattered by your applying to me for information concerning the country you are so soon to see, and to judge' of for yourself; but conscious of my inability to satisfy you as I could wish, on many subjects relating to it, 1 had once thoughts of referring you to such books as contain the best accounts

' of the country, it8 customs, and i ts inhabitants. Rowever, on r&kcting t h t your time must be too fully occupied in preparations for your voy-

' age, to allow you t6 engage in the perusal OP very voluminous works, I have, though. with considerable diffidence, determined to send you

' the abstract you request, of the notes made for

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my own use. I perfecdy agree with you that many of the

evils *complained 'of in the intercourse between the European residents and the native inhabitœ

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gcant'raie of Successors at Erst governed, and afterwards dethroned, by their more enterprising servants, who, in founding new dynasties, only prepared for their descendants the same train of miseries they had themselves ibflicted OII their unfortunate masters, ,

homedan kingdoAns of Hindostan presenta US with tlíe same scenes ; and as the Mussulman sovereigns and usurpers were even more absolute than 'those of the Hindûs, on whom the sacerdotal class was always a considerable check, the ,changes were still moFe sudden and vident ; so that, before, the, arriva$ of the Eurcpsns in

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The better authenticated history of th@

India, , # + i ,Mahond .p?QaFiby _ w w , d r e d y

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which Eke . nselves the ; principles ;h it might ;o rule over : the best mnstituted, :ss stability, tory which :re needfizl, ture we are igning with .S over- the an insignìœ

erned, and mterpl-ising asties, only same train ted 09 their

of the Maw presents us Mussulman more abso-

1 whom the :able checks 2nd violent ; urapeans in w a s .$ready a

ZWTERS ON INDIA. 5

hehkened by the detachment of Some of soits richest provinces; 8 And although Bur& 'Zehe succeeded in re-uniting 'them i io the crown ~ -

Deldi, and even in extending his dominions beyond th9 former ' conquests, his Successors were gradually spoiled of province afker province, till his throne was filled by a mere shadow of royalty, placed and ~zpheld there by the army of a corn- pany of western rnercl1anta.

But I: must defer entering iato the history of ~ussulnrXan-~dkwa+~wen.t, -u I tEnk. I should but ill perform your wishes' if 1 neglected to preface it with that of the most ancient posses- sors of the soil that we are acquainted with, and there are besides some interesting topics on which it would not perhaps be amiss previously to enter.

Nature seems to have taken pleasure in em- ' bellishing and enriching the favoured country

of Hindbstari wiih 'weiy'choicest gift.- Under a pure sky and brilliant sun ' the soil produces the most cxquisite fruits, and 'the 8most abundant harvests ; the rocks are riclï in I .gems;'the mountains J teem wikh gdd, and tlie*'fleecy+ pod of the cotton furnishes ' in prÒfi&on'' the light garment fitted' t o the climate; In travelling> in the interior your cyes will often be enchanted with thé most delicious Iindscapes. Amidst stupendous forests you will not 'unfrequently be

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I chas.med with ab caltivated spot? whera, if I you might realize th5d%g@s pf the pgefs, sod

' l indulge in that impatqicraaa ihdolçnce wbich !l the puent of poetry ind of the fine eyf;$. I j One would imagine Milton had mused in ai--

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ental groves when he desqibes

' l ' I ' 1 fc Insuperable heights of loftiest shade,

I ì i; ' Cedar and pine, and fir, and branching palm, ,;I: A sylvan scene--

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Çroves whose rich trkes vyept .odorqus gums and b q h & Others wbose fruit burnished with golden rind

I.f h e , here only, and of delicious taste : Betwixt them lawns, OF kvel downs, and flocks Qrqing the tender herb wershterposed On palmy hillock; or the flowery lap Of some irrigrious valley spread her store, .

Flow'rs of all hues, and without thorn the rose.

- Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true,

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I' i i ' most enchanting colours ; and though in. the p j modern Hhdûs every generous feeling seems

1 broken down,: and replaced by an almost brute

i! ~ extinguished, but ready to blaze forth if proper-

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li ' apathy, L yet the spark though smothered is not

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II ly awakened, into all that genius and fancy can hope ; or, if, aroused by ill timed or ill directed interference with principles, which through loss

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of 'liberty, of empire, of riches, h v e clung closely round every heart and entwined themselves wit21 every fibre, into vengeance, before ghich, ordinary means of safety will be vain,

' ! l and ordinary courage subdued, , ! l But I trust, that as we have hitherto used our I /

power soberly, and cm the whole, have made o p g9vel:nment beneficial to the inhabitants of India, so we shall continue 'in the same wise mon deration, and conduct the innovations necessary for .their permanent irnpF6vement and our own. eecurity, in such a manner as that the hand of

- quthori'cy be never" seen, but in the punishmenst of L ' . crimes, an*d her voice never beard, but,in the dispensing of justice. I Into whatever part of the counti-y you,travel, orbwherever you may be stationed, you will find mugh to examine ; and if it; Je your good ,fir;: tune ..I to se9 vari~~us. and distant pktrts of' India, p u will find considerable vyie!y of character,) an& sgf&i~qt~~ 4; ffer,qace, C$ ~ ~ s t o g l . ~ and :o€ faí th,

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lgh in t h e ling seems most brute ered is no* h if proper- I fancy c a n ill directed lrongh loss lave clung ined them- ace, before' II be vain,

;o used our lave m a d e abitants o f le wise mo- 3 necessary d our o w n be hand of: mnishmene , but ,in t h e

LETWRS ON INDIA.L 9

to interest you i bat in arder t o derive every 'possible advantage from your change of situation, you should seriously apply yourself to the study of some of the native languages. The Hindoatanee is the most *widelym diffused, though should yoL1 be stationed in Bengal, the Bengale,e or ancient language ,of Gaur will be most usefiil, as it is spoken over a pretty extensive district.. However ,if you wish to . travel a much, learn Persian, which may be called the prench o f the East +&P p%&k least one person c wiU gain respect from the natives, who consider a knówledge of vzyious languages as the mark of a superior education, not tQ, mention the great importance it must be of to an officer t o understand the language of those whom he i s to command. It was not perhaps the least p& of the policy of the .Romans, to plant their language iit ,.evqy conquest, in order to attach their new subjects ; and the elnperòr Akbar increased the number of schools in Hindostan, " and I I causd the Persian and Hindostanee to be , I publicly I taught, together with thê Sanscrit, , and encouraged the translation of poems and scientific works from the ancient lar&uage ofthe Brarnins into the vernacular' tongues, by which means they becsme more pOpdar. Perhaps if Som& thing of the same kind were done by the English,

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sand-wFve, and plows up the loose and barren l ! I! dust, a numerous population once enlivened the . I; plain, and the voice of industry once gladdened ,.Il I., . I "

II ! the y o & . !' / L The: languages of India are usually reckoned

I! 1 ! l 8 The P h r i t or spoken language. I

i f 3 I! LI The Paisachi or language of the demons. 4 ; ' The Magad'hi.

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) I t - t o be four. :"i The Sanscrit or language of the gods. I

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Some writers however substitute for the LWO latter the Apabhransa or Jargon, and the Misra or, mixed language. .

. The, word Sanscrit literally mean5 adorned, and that language is indeed highly polished ; it is cultivated throughout India as the language of ,science and literature, of laws and religion ; and of its great antiquity some comparative idea may be formed from the time in which'most of the degant poets A ourished, wl~icb was about the centúry preceding the Christian Era. Now, many ages must have elapsed, before 80 rich, so pelfect a language could have bee0 framed, and its rules so accurately fixed, 2 cc It evidently draws its origin (says 1Mr:CoIebrooke) fi0111 a primeval tongue which was, gradually sefined in diffeSent climates, and became Sanscrit in India,

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, I ' relavi in Persia, and Greek og the sbores bf , 1 ' the M e d i ~ ~ g ~ ~ ~ ~ . " . . I . I t L mur 1 , : 3 - , , 8 .

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-tflthough the Sanscrit is now a dead language, it W ~ S probably at one period the spoken law guage of most parts of India, and the objections which might be made to this opinion, such as the, inordinate length of the compound words,. and the strict rules for the permutation of letters, in these compounds, are obviated by the fluency with which tlzose persons deliver themselves wrllo still speak the language. _ .

I think that, fiom the fragments of the history &ch have been'

translated-and fi-om these only I can judge-? we are authorized to conclude, that excepting ~ I I times of great civil commotion or religious wars, the Brslnins lived a life of retired indolence ; not, indeed, like the western monks, withdrawn from dgrnestic cares within the walls of a rnqnastery, h i t in sacred grovesl .and c h verned rocks, where, surrounded by their pupils and %heir:dsves, they- a~dtiv&ed poetry, music, and asbranomy ; and dnly deigned 'to appear in ' the active world to receive the homage of 'a, court, and direct i t s .- monarchs ;. or sometimes tb pronounce, on' them the maledictiop; which was almost sure to be followed by the desertion of their servants and the rebellion of, their subjects.

It was in these retirements that, given up to study, the Bramins perfected their sacred l a p page, and composed those numerous and pro-

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found treatises of grammar, which have since employed so many commentators, whose works have been considered. as of such high conseœ quence, that the miters are said to have been inspired. Of the original treatises, the grammar of Panini is the most ancient that remains t b t a s a d of the highest authority : but i ta great; antiipïty and studied brevity have required and received numerous scholiæ, all es&emed divine, The Amera-crrsha, the most esteemed of all the vocabularies, was composed by Amera Sinha, one o f the Stiue poets who adorned the court af Vrdrilmaditya*, and mho was &th& a Jaina or a lBau$ba: his work has ,pas& tlirough jthb hand8 O ~ ~ U M W O U S canmentaton, and many vocabu. laria have been formed to supply its deficiences, besides varioui nomenclatures, and the Nighsnti of the Vedas, which ex$lainc obsolete words and unusual acceptations.

The P r W t language formerly included tit1 the written dialects used in the Common interm course of life, and cuItivated by men of letten but he term PrácGt is now comrnonIy regtriCt& to the language spoken on the banks of the Seraswattee. . "here appear to have been tenlpolislred dial

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t 1 l * It is doubted whether this is the Vrcramadityn, King of

l Onjein, who gave name to the chronological ara, and who flourished 56 years before Christ, cw a E a l a momcb, Borne-

times called Raja Bboja. , * I 1

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LETTERS ON INDIA. 15

litya, King of era, and who omch, some-

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, : l 7 The Gaura, or BengaZi, is spoken in the pro- ! ( 1 1 , . vinces of which the ancient city of Gaur was . l

1 , I once thë capital, and of which nothing re- , \ a I ' I - I li mains but widely spread ruins. - The language

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contains some original poems, besides many translaiions from the Sanscrit : it appeared to me, when I heard it spoken, to'be a soft agreeable ,language, though less pleasing to the ear than the Hindustani.

The M a i W h , OT Tirhuctya, is used in' the Cif& of Tirhut and the adjoiliing districts, and appears not to have been much cultivated.

The language and alphabet called Uriga are used in the Sùba 'of Orissa, whose ancient names '

are Utcala! and Odrudesu. ,

These'five. countries are called the five Gaurs, and occupy the northern and eastern parts of India, though Orissa seems more properly to belong to-fie five Draviras which occupy the Peninsula as far as Cape Comorin ; and Guzerat, which is sometimes reckoned among the ara- viras, wmld find a more natuid place among the 'Gaurs.

The language ' of Guzerat 8 or. Gurjera i# nearly allied to the Hind$; and,' like it; is commonly written- in an imperfect forlri &'&e

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Devanagari character, in which the Sanscrit is expressed.

Drcmiru is the southern extremity of India,

thirteen degrees of north latitude. The language is the Tarnet, called By the Europeans Mdabars. I llave seen translations fiom some Tamel songs, both of love and of waf : aud one I recollect of al humouròus descriptioll, pur-' porting to be the quaire1 6et+ien a man% two wives, om &+hm- IS T a d anif t h other a Tailinga ladi ; 'but as ii appearei that one was lnuch younger and handsomer than the

1 other, the quarrel was naturally enough decided in her fiwour ; though I own that, to me, the I

other deemed' to have the rïght side df the argument.

The Mahmshtpa, or Jldìratfa, ìg a: nati.oil* whiah has in the two last centuries: gregtigr enlarged ita. bodn;d"dri&';v bt& it atitiently cdmpre-

.hended only a mountainous district south of the Nermnda, and' ektending to tlie Cocaa. Thg language boasts of some treátises of; logic atti!: philosophy, besides many original poefhs, chiefly in honour of Rams and Crishna,-a and solne- trmslatioxss from the Sanscrit.

Carnatd; or &znu+u, is tIie an'eieat' language of Carnitaca, a province- which hasgiven- names ta districts on both: coasts of the Pexliiasula.; r *th6

I and extends from Cape Cornorln to twelve or

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dialect stiU prevails in the intermediate IDO^-

tainous tract- TaiZungana: must formerly have comprehended

not only the province of that name, but; those on the banks of the Crishna and Godavery. IC6

language ( Telinga ) has been- cultivated by poets, if not by prose writers.

l Besidesthese ten polished dialects, there arc some others, derived, like them, fkom the Sanscrit, and, like them, written in a character more or less corrupted fiom the Deva Nagari. There are also some spoken by the mountaineers, -who are probably the aborigines of India,

- and which have certainly no affinity with the Sanscrit.

Some of these tongues are divided into local and provincial dialects, and many beautiftd pastorals are written in the two most remarkable-the Panjai, spoken in the Pqnjiìb or country ofthe five rivers, and the Vraja Bhnshn, spogen in the neighbourhood of MathLw+, which derives its name fromlthe cow-pens, ?%$u, of the forests of Vrindha.

- Translations of at least part of two Sanscrit Grammars appeared in English in the year 1808 ; the f i r s t fiom Saraswata, by Mr. Cole- brook, and the second, by Mr. Carey, is partly a transation, partly origiusl, from the Gram- Lg2arg umI h Bengal, where the teachers havc

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llnfortunatcly accommodated the sacred language to the vernacular idiom and pronunciation. A Sanscrit Grammar, by Mr. Wilkins, appeared- in the same year, which has the character, among the learned, of accuracy, pre- ciseness, and perspicuity, notwithstanding its great length, which the mdtitude of rules and exceptions in the language has swelled to ’ 656 pages.

The ,author of the able article upon . this Grammar, im~&e-thia&e~th’ I vol~irne of ~ the Edinburgh Review, has given a very interesting table of the analogy of the Sanscrit with some other languages, which certainly goes far to confirm the opinion of Mr. Colebrooke and of Sir William Jones, concerning the primeval tongue fioun -which these languages m y have been derived; and which 1 quoted in the carIy part ofthis Letter. The first put of the analogy consists af words expressing the names of different parts of the body, and the relations of consanguinity, thus- ” _

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Sunsclit. Lntin. Persian. Gennun. Bnglish: L

pitara pater pider vater father matara mater mader muder motlm bhratarn frater . brader bruder brother

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In this last word, there is an example of’ the manner in which the Sanscrit double letters are

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QtlleifS. The,secold point is the analogy in the strut-

ture of some of these Iaeuages, perceived in the distinctions, of the feminine and neuter genders ; the dedenslons of nouns ; &e signs of comparison ; the infinitives and declensions of' verbs, which goes SO far as the irregularity and defectiveness of the substantive verb.

The eight, cases render the use of prepositions a~per f lu ,~~a ; they are, thereforer exclusively: prefixed to verbs, being withmt signification alme. But I shall venture no fwthcr an this subject, which, I fear, I can hardly render as interesting as I should wish ; for I intend, in my next Letter, to notice some of the principal: miters in the languages X have been mentioning : and, J hope to present you with ratber an

I - agreeable ' gi&ure of ancient 13indostan, when I lay before you the a~&semtmts of King Vitra*

* maditya's court, and introduce you-if you have not I already ïntroducod yourself-to the elegant Calidas,, and the pious and venerable Vahiki.

The Indian paetry is rich, high,' and varied, aboq$q$; i p , luxuriant, dewiptions, and O C C ~

si,i~mqV~. -i@&@M.ng.- boj& &m, tender* '

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LETTBRS ON INDIA. 22 . aess : but it must be confessed, that it is ofiern rendered dull by repetition and bombast, and deformed- by an indelicacy unknown to Euro- pean writers.

C# They loudest sing CC The vices of their deities, and their own cc 1x1 fdble, llymn, or song, ‘so personating

Their gods ridiculous, themselves past shame’! PARADISE REGAINED.

‘YOU wiU,’ne~~@&&ss, ._find something to please, and mire to interest: you. India; it ‘is ptobgble, if not certain, is the parent of all the western gods; and, consequeatly, of that beautiful body of poetry which has the Grecian lmgTtllo: logy fox its basis : and though Ithe child be grown ‘LIP to , a beauty and streagth, of which the mother mild never boast, we lcannot behold without reverence, the origin of all that has d’e- lighted and insttucted US, o f those .heavenly strains which‘ have soothed bur griefs OIT )quieted .our passions, and in a manner given us a ne@ mord existence. How often iit QUT evenihg walks on the banks of the Thanse$, or amid the woody glens of Scotiand, has: the spring of life, $ho breathing flood of exiitence azound LIS, Bodmed to realize the fiTbles of the poets, and to $eople,evely tree and every.wave with a tutelary deity ! And believe nie, that in *the forests of

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Hilldostan, and on its ,caverneil mountsins, the same divinities have been adored, for the mme feelings and passions have filled the hearts of their votaries.

LETTER III.

DEAR S u t ,

S r m E the Bramins were almost e x c h sively the lettered men of India, it will not appear ex@aordinary that the literature of that country should be so intimately blexldedwith its religion, that it seems impossible to separate them : however, I shall put off to another t i m the history of the Vedas, or four sacred books of the -Hindoos, and content myself at present with profaner poems. But, before I pro'ceed, I must say one word of the Sanscrit prosody, which is said t o be richer in variations of metre than any other known language.

Sanscrit and Prhcrit poetry is regulated by the number, length, and disposition of syllables, and is disposed into several classes, each of' which is again subdivided. Some of the metres admit any number of syllables, from twenty- seven to nine hundred and ninety-nine ; an$ others are equally remarkable for their brevity :

example ject, and In the tel

Whep wish to

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but the most common Sanscrit metre, is the stanza of four verses, containing eight syllables each.

Sanscrit poetry admits both of rhyme and Blank verse, and is in some instances subject to very rigid rules, although, in others, there is scarcely any restraint.

The rules of prosody me contained in brief aphorisms, called Sz&m, the - reputed author of wllic11 is PINGALANA, a fabulous being, in 'tlle shape of %,serpent, +and who, under the name of PATANJALI, is the author of tfie Mahd B12ashyn, or great commentary on grammar. The Sutras llave been commented on by a great variety of authors ; and thcre are also some 'other original treatises on the subject, the most remarkable ofwhich, is that by the poet CALIDASA, who tcnches the laws of versification in the very metres to which they relate. 8 '

Every',kind ofornament seems to be admissible in the Indian poetry, and some embellislunents which we' should look 1 upon as burlesque,, are admitted even in the most pathetic poems, Calidasa himself, in the Ndodtiya, gives an example of' a series of puns on a pathetic subœ ject, and employs both rhyme and alliteration in the termination of his yerses.

Whep you have time, I advise you, if you VVisIl to know all the varieties o f metre, and

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The Maha Bharata, and the Ramayuna are the most ancient historic$ books, and for the information of the lower classes there are some works adapted for them, as none but the twice’ I

&om, that is the three highèst castes are permitted to read either the eighteen Vedyas or the two great poems.

There are hesides these works of the hetero- dox sects upon almost all the subjects above enumerated,

The most incient Indian poem is the Ram% yuna, of ~ r n i k i . ?G& v*h&eh .og-it have been printed at Serampore, in the Devanagaxi

I character, accompanied by a literal translation by the missionaries Cary and Marshman. I do not know whether it was wise to translate li- ferally so long a poem, especially as it abounds in those ropetithns and tedious details which deform the eastern witin@, and as tihe closem

Qf the t r a d b pa tlm..oniginal, naturally &-es it dmure ta persons accustomed to the English, idiom, and $altes &om it, to me at least, tbc character po&y*. . I

The first section of the fimt book may be

* Three hundred rupees per month are allowed to the translators by the Asiatic Society and the College of Fort bWilliam, and it is proposed io- translate and publish a series o f the oriental p a a m .


considered as the argument of the whole poem. It opens with -a salutation to Rama, the Jlero of the poem, and to Valmiki the author, who is )denominated a Holda, (a singing-bird) mounted on the branch of poetry chanting the delighdbl note Rama, Rama, Rama ! valmilti is then introduced consulting Nareda, h deity of song, upon a fit hero for the subject of a, poem, and is accordingly directed to Rama, the son of Dusharuthra, king of A p d ~ y a 01' Oude.

The pious Dusharuthra, in order to obtain children, performed an Aswa-medha or the sacrifice of a horse to tile gods, and soon afterwards were born to him four sons-Rama, whose

' mother was Kooshdya ; Bharata, whose mom ther was Kikeeya, and Lukshmana and his twin brother, sons of Soornitra. The old king designed Rama for his heir, and had dready prepared a31 the ceremonies for his inaugura- tion, > when Kikeeya, the mother of Bharata, claimed a promise that her son should reign, upon h i c h , To preserve inviolate the promise, made through affection to Kikeeya, tile hero at his father's command, departed into tile fore& He departing into exile the wise, heroic

' Lukshmana, his younger 'brother, through I gfi fection, accompanïed him, 13s beloved spouse,

C

always dear as his own soul, the Videhan Sita, of Januka’s race, formed by the illusion of the Deva, amiable, adorned with every charm, obedient to her lord followed him into exile. Endued with beauty, youth, sweetness, good- ness, and prudence, she was inseparably attendant on her lord as light on the moon. Ac- companied by the people and his sire Dusha- ruthra, he dismissed his cl~arioteer at Shingu- .

vera, o;n the banks of the Ganges.” The three illustrious exiles built themselves

a. pleasant bower on the mountain >Chitrakoota, and shortly afterwards Dusharuthra cc departed to heaven lamenting his son.” Bharata who was called to the succession, immediately sought Rama, and intreatèd him to reign, but the a

hero, respecting his father’s promise, gave his sandals to Bharatta, and commanded him as his elder brother to return and govern the kingdom. I I ,

Eama and his companions retired into the forest of D~ndacca, whence after some adven-* tures he. departed and fixed. his reiidence in ,

the country of Pmchwattee, where he carried on an exterminating war against the Rakshusas, and while absent on one of his warlike expeditions, Ravuna, the king of Lanka, entered his bower and carried off Sita. Rama and his brom ther then turned their arms to the South, and in

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LETTBRS ON ImrA; 99

indignant at the accusation, went thrpugh the fiery ordeal, and having thus established her -

innocence, she was received by Rama, while heavenly music sounded in the air, and showers of flowers fell upon the earth. Ø -

fiama and bis companions then took leave of tlie sylvan nations, and returned to Ayodhya, where be reigned happily and honoured.

Valmiki lived a8 d.re court of the VonarcIl . , whose actions I1e 'has immortalized, and whose

reign Major W?I%rtPphem,:at-Jeast fifteen centuries before Christ.

Besides the mere subject of the poem, tllere are many curious iopics treated of -in the Ra- mayuna, particularly details of religious sacrifices and ceremonies, descriptions of cities, and of the pomp OE royalty and of tbe priest-

. hood. But; I am pmticularlp pleased with. the picture it gives of the amusements of the court of Rama. After a great and pompous sacrifice, accompanied 'by games and exercises, the two I

disciples of oahiki , the sons qf Rama and Sita, Kooshee, and Luva, with voices by nature melodious, and skilled. in music, rehearsed the actions of their father in the assembly, when the, surrounding sages united in a joyfúl burst of applause, saying, 6' Excellent ! excellent ! The poem, the very expression o f nature, the

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30 LBTTliRS ON INDIA,

song, the air !" And each bestowed a $if% up011

the young minstrels. I am sure you .will immediately recollect t h

songs of Demodocus and the plaudits of his hearers in the eighth book of the Odyssey, and if- it be true that Homer meant the blind poet as a picture of himself, Vahilri's recording the homage paid to his own strains will not appear to be any extraordinary degree of vanity, though I confess to our taste they inay not be SO well deserved as those that even to thesc times arc almost piously bestowed upon the blind Meœ lesigenes.

The other great historicd. poem entitled the Mahabharut contains the adventures of the hero Crishna, 'and the great wars which d i s tracted India in the fourteenth century before Christ, and which introchced some wry important changes in the religion of the 3EhdÛs. Ir; is written by Vyasa, who is the reputed corn- piler o€ the-Puranas. ' ,I. s h l l probably have {' notice inore particularly tile events w11ic1z for111 the subject of the Mahabharut in a future letter, and as I have never seen any translation of any part of' it, 01' of the Bhagavat, though I know that a portion of the latter has been translatecl by the elegant pen of Mr. Wilkins, I. sllnll ]?rd- ceed to mention other works.

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hext to th

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recollect the 3udits of his 3 dyssey, an le blind poet :ecording the 1 not appear mity, though )t be so we11 :se times are 3 blind M e -

- LETTERS ON INDIA. 31

Next to these gteat poems which are held sa-. cred, the epic poem of Megha may be ranked. It i s called Sirsupala bad’ha and describes the death of Sisupala, slain in war by Crishna. In the first Canto, Nareda commissioned by Indra, Jike the evil dream sent by Jupiter to Agamem.. non, incites Crishna to war with his cousin and enemy Sisupala, king of‘ the Chddis. Ac- cordingly on the first- occasion which prqsented itself, namely, contempt shewn by Sisupala and his follow em dkw@iBhaa,, by withdrawing from a sdernn sacrifice performed by the Rajah Yu- dishthera, where divine honours were paid to Crishaa, the hero assembles his troops, and the armies of the I rivals meet, when that of Sisupala being destroyed, the two chiefs en- *

gage in single combat contending with supernatural weapons, Sisupala employing arms of fire which are overcome by the watery tris001 of Crishna, who finally, slays his foe with an arrow, which ’ ends the twentieth Canto. This poem is one of the six excellent compositions’ in Sanscrit, which T shall naine together.

I The second is the Ciratarjuniyn of Bhwravi, aid. ‘

contains the history of the hero Arjuna’s journey and penance on the mountain of India Keiladrce, in order to obtain celestial weapons fiorn the gods, to be employed against king Duryod’hana. That part of his adventures which gives the title

”-

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%va, who a p rata or sylvan

Sriharsh, by poem in the

resting story, mgth, but is Calidasa. IC ; of Nishads, ma king of dom by gam- i in a human

deserts his Ioder which gistress, Da- the conch-

e broken the strous form l they weto

LETTERS ON INDIA. Y 3

The Raghu contains the history of Rama and his predecessors, fiom Dilpa the father 6f Itaghu and his successors to Agniverna. I t is imposSibk to enumerate the poets who have celebrated Rama, both in .the Sanscrit and PAcrit languages, and indeed in every Indian dialect,

The Meglmdutn consists of no, more than a hundred and sixteen stanzds. I t supposes a Yacsha or attendant of Cuvera, to have been sepaldstecl from a belaved W& by an imprecakm OF the gad Cuvera, &IO was irritated by the Yacsha’s negligence in suffcting the heavenly

The distracted demigod, bcznislzecl fiom heaven to earth, takes his h o d e 011 a hill, and intreats n passing cloud to convey an affectionate mes- sage t o his wife. The great elegance and tenœ derness of this little poem have entitled it, not.. withstanding its brevity, to a place among the six c?kfd’mwes of the Hindû poets. Its author Calidasa appears to have been a most voluminous writer, fior besides the threemasterpieces I Gave just named, he has leR other poems, besides a W O I \ ~ on prosody and some dramas, one of which you are probably already acquainted with fiom the translations of‘ Sir William Jones ancl Mi. Wilkins. The drama of Sacontala iS founded on the mnrríage of Dushmanta, one of the an- cestais of Vicramaditya, whose court Calidasa

b narden to be trodden down by India’s elephant.

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: i 54 LEI'TERS ON INDIA.

' i 'i l adorned, and before whom the prologue gives t us t o understand it was played. The scene

,),t opens with a hunting party of the youthfuul monarch, where he appears chasing the deer in a chariot drawn by horses, a11d guided by young charioteer to the chnfines of a sacred

'I grove. Dushmanta, in order not to violate the I holy place, dismisses his charioteer and advances t done in the direction of some female voices, and 4 discovers Sacontala, a young princess under the

l,

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r guardianship of the high priest of the grove, l I with her attendants. The Bramin being absent,

the' young damsels perform the rites of hospitality, and the prince and t4acontda mutually

-fall in love and, contract a marriage unknown to any but the attendants of the latter ; a few days afierwards the king being called to his capital, departs, and gives Sacontala a ring as a token of their marriage. On the return of the Bramin t o the grove, he is informed by inspiration of al1 that haq happened in his absence, and sends Sacontala to the court of Dushmsmta, accom- Panied by proper persons t o deliver her to her husband; but' in the mean time Sacontala having, in the first moments of her grief for the departure of the king, neglected to perform the rites of hospitality towards a ßramin, the irritable priest pronounces a malediction upon her, by vhich, he on whom she was-then thi>nking 'should

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LETTERS ON IXDIA. 35

forget her. However her companions who alone heard the curse, rely on the ring for recalling her to his mind, but in bathing for the last I

time before she quits the grove of her foster- father, she drope the ring into the water, and thus loses the talisman. When she presents herself at court, the young king, though charmed with her beauty, refuses t o accept her, alleging he knows Iser not, and that she must be the wife of some other man. Ori this Sacontda faints and is conveyed to the heavenly court; of Casyapa the father of the gods, where her son Bharata is born. Meantimet the fatal ring i s found by some fishermen in the belly of a fish, and on. i t s being restored to Dnshmanta, he remembers Sacontala and bittedy laments her loss, weeping over her picture and forgetting his pleasures and his business, till his assistance i s required by-the gods in quelling the demons, Mter having re- lieved the divinities from thcir distress, he goes to the court of Casyapa, and there meets a beautifil child dragging along a lion’s whelp ; this child he proves to be his own by handling a magic bracelet, which only the parents of the young prince could touch with impunity ; Sa- contala then appears in a widow’s garb, and ,

being recognized by l m lord, all the mysteries are explained and they return happily to earth. , Such is the outline of Sacontala but my

a 2

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description, short as it must be, can convey m idea of the beauty of the senthents, and the native tendernew which the poet has bestowed on the young reduse, and which even in translation must charni This drama presents 'US with a picture curious in itseli;', and interesting as it regards the ancient braminicd 'Hindûs. It pourtrays the simple and austere manners of .the priesthood, their proud dominion over their monarchs, their constant vigilance, which induced them even to condescend to act the part of court buffoons, and the prodigious influence they mimt have possessed, as they appear to llave been charged with the education of the royal children of both sexes, to whom they performed the part of guardians as well as tutors, and into w h m they were thus at liberty to inculcate their own maxims and instil their own sentiments, But to me the most interesting part is the pleas* ing light in which it places the early condition of the Hind& women, before the jealcnls Mahoœ medan maxims had shut them up in zenanas, and reduced them to the degrading situation in which they are now placed. Here we see the king's mother charged with the care of the royal city and council during her son's absence. '?Ille young women of the forest practising the rights

, of hospitality, and exercising al€ the functions of rational creatures, admitted to 8 considerable

L

:an convey- ents, and the has bestowed ren in translac sents us iwith nteresting as l Hindûs. It nanners of the n over their ce, which in- o act the part ious influence ppear to llave of the royal

ey performecl ors, and i n t o nculcate their -L sentiments, t is the pleas.. d y condition iealous Malml 1 zenanas, a n d

situation i11

be we gee the le of the royal Ibsence. 'The ing the rights the functions considerable


share of the religious learning of their preceptors, and skilled in the fine arts, as we see in the young paintress whom Dushmanta employs t o paint the portrait of Sacontala afkr he had lost her, and who by the description' of the poet was n o t content with the cold delineation o f the features, but represented the princess as the hero first beheld her in the h e s t , surrounded by her young companions at tlleir pastoral occua patians.

Irr s h t , if we. may judge by this specimen, I should think the dramatic part of the Hindû literature would be the most pleasing to Europeans were it better known, and this opinion is confirmed by Mr. Colebrodce, to whom we arc indebted for a sketch of the subject o f another drama, and for it translation of some of the scenes.

The pIot, 'setting aside the supernatural part, which, Iwvever, the firm belief of &e Hírrdfis in xnagic and necroniancy rendered pleasing t o ;them, is such as w70uld do no discredit to an European pen. It is called Malati-Mad'hava, written by the poet Bbnvabhuti, and is in ten acts, the live first of which are the most interestm ing, and seem to form the natbral developanent of the story. Bburivasu, minister of the king of' Padmavatî, and Devarata, in the service of the king , of Vidherba, had agreed, while their children were yet infants to crow11 their long


friendship by the marriage of Malati danghter of the first with Mad’hava son of the latter. Meantime the king having hinted an intention t o propose a match between Malati and his favourite Nandana, who was old and ugly, the two fathers concert; a plan for throwing their children in each other’s way, and conniving at a clandestine marriage, in pursuance of which ï&d’hava is sent to finish’ his studies in the city of Padmavati under the care of the old priestess &mandaci, by whose contrivance, aided by Lavangica the foster-sister of Malati, the young people meet and become mutually enamoured. At this period the play opens with a dialogue between the old priestess and a female pupil, in which all the preceding events are naturally mentioned, and we are prepared for the appearance of the other characters of the piece, and particularly of Saudamini a firmer pupil of the priestess, who has arrived at supernatural power by religious austerities, and of Aghoraghanta a tremendous magician, and his female pupil Capa- lacundala, who both fiequent the temple of Carala the dreadful goddess, near t‘ho celnetery o f tbc city.

Mad’hava, his companion Macaranda and servant Calapansa then appear upon the scene, and Mad’hava discloses his meeting with Malati and his love for her. I His attendarkt then shews

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tacaranda ancl [pon the scene,

ant then shews WithrMdati

LETTERS ON INDIA. S9

h i l m his own picture drawn by Malati, which he had obtained from OIE of her damsels, and in return Mad'hava draws the features of tlie,young heroine on the same tablet, and writes under it 8

passionate stanza. The tablet is conveyed by the attehdants alternately to the lovers, whose affection is thus fostered and increased. Mean- time the king sends to Bhurivasa, to make the projected proposal for the marriage ~f bis daughter with the favourite Nandana, and the minister having answered that the king may dis-

' pose of his dalighter as he, pleases, the lovers are thrown into great agitation. Camandaci then contrives another interview between them is a public garden, but at the same moment a cry of terror announces that a t reme~dms tyger had rushed f iom the tempIe of Siva, and the youthful Madayantics sister of Nanilana 'is in great danger, when Mad'hava's companion Ma- carsnda is seen .rushing to, her rescue. l He kills .the tyger, i s himself wounded behind the scenes, and is brought in insensible, but revives by the care of the women, and Madayantica' wllolln he has saved falls in love with him.

The preparations for the marriage of Malati wit11 Nandana are then announced, and Mad'œ hava takes a resolution which none but a HindÛ lover could have imagined, namely, that of going to i;Z.le cemetery and selling his living flesh

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!&Q ]LETTERS ON INDIA. i :

I

I ¡I .to the ghostis and malignant spirits, in mder t&

I '1 i' be is wandering by night for this purpose among ' _ the tombs, wtere in a soliloquy he thus de-

i 1) ' i I

obtain the accomplishment of his wishes. While

$ scribes the cemetery, c c the river that bounds it, I and tremendous is the roaring of the stream

breaking away .the bank, while its waters are embarrassed among fragments of skulls, and its

; i shores resound horribly with the bowling, of

the contiguous woods," he is alarmed by the

uoice sf: Malati, The scene opens and discovem the enchanter

and sorceress aboye named, with Malati adornœ ed as a victim, the inhuman wizard having stolen her while sleeping for the purpoge of o sacrifice to the dlreadful goddess. While he is preparing the horrid rites, Mad'hava rushes forward and Malati. fies to his arms for protection, when voiqeG we head withqut in search of her; Mad'- hava places her in safety and encounters the magician, when tzley quit the stage fighting, The event of the combat is told by the sorceresg, who VOWS vengeance against the hero for dafing

. her. pzeceptor. And here an European writer w&ddl bave &isbed h i s piece with his fiif.%22 act; but 8 Hin&, whose storycan'never be toolong, col1tia1hwa: it t b o w h five Qtber acts, &d. relates

c

!i I shakals and the cry of owls screeching amidst

' I I voice of a female in distress, and recognises tile

6


the contrivance of the priestess to dress Maca- randa it1 the habit of Malati, and thus to disgust Nanda and obtain an interview for the disguised

U

lover with Nanda's sister, 117h0 agrees t o accompany him to the place of Malati's concealment, where however they do not find her ; for the sorceress has carried her off ia a flvirw car. The lover and friends are now in the utmost despair, till the arrival of Saudamini the pupil of the priestess, who by her preternatural power re- leases Malati, and the play concludes with a double wedding. -~ - - ~-

n- This story you perceive has considerable i~ terest, and, bating the preternatural part, is really dramatic. But I have already said so much of it that I fear I shall have tired you, and therefore I shall say adieu,

P. S. I had forgotten while on the subject of dramatic +writing, that as we have had our mys. teries and moralities in Europe, the Hindûs are not without a sort of mystic drama, the only specimen of which that I have seen is entitled. cc The Rise of the Moon of Intellect," and i t s subject is the war between king Eeason and king Passion, wherein all the orthodox virtues and follies fight for the first, and the poor heretics are, all iurned over to the service o f Iring Pas- sion,'whois not overcome till the birth oPyomg

LETTERS ON INDU. ' 43

through the medium of translition, like the inan who fancied himself intimate with the village lord, because he had crossed the ferry in, the same boat with his lordship's horses, I will venture to ask you, if the sorceress of Bhava- ,

bbuti be not at least as poetical a personage as Lucan's old witch ? The fatal effects of the hasty curse p,roaounced by the choleric Brah- min in Sacontala, shocks you, but you forget how many Greeks fell sacrifices t o the vengeful ímprecatlons of C4ryses, or how Ajax perished

I and Ulysses wandered, the victims of supernatural curses.

1 know you will laugh at all this, but rernern- ber 1 am not saying that the luxuriant shoots of the Oriental palm-tree surpass in beauty or in

I flavour the purple clusters of the European vine, but only that there i s a hbeauty; inferior indeed, but striking and characterhtic in thése monumento of eastern civilizatidn and lite- ra ture.

I believe that there are many lyric poets among the Hindû writers, but I can only 'name Jayadeva, whose odes the Hindds are fond of explaining in a mord and relikious sense, as the Persians do those of Hafiz, but I believe that the poets certainly mean what they say, and not what their countrymen choose to attribute to them, ancl I think you will be of the same opî-

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nion unless you discover a spiritual sense in such lines as

When in the goblet's ruddy dies I see the sun of bliss arisc, In her bright cheek mho hands the mine A thousand mantling blushes shine.

Or, If in the breeze thy sighing breath Should paw where Hnfiz sleepshin death, Quick should the flow'rets fragrant Mpom, And gaudy tulips deck his tomb.

e

The amatory poetry of India is said not to Be deficient of tenderness of expression and thought, but the passion it sings is too little refined for o w western taste, though its Ian- guake is highly polished. There is, however, a serious kind of love poem, the description of which is exceedingly laughable, though it be written in sober earnest. In it, various descripl tions of lovers and mistresses distinguished by age, temper, and circumstances, are systemati- cally classed and IogicaIIy defined, with the utmost seriousness and precision, as if they were intended for the bureau de mariages, which I hear has lateIy been opened at Paris. Nor i s this the only childishness the venerable Brall mim have tolerated ; for though I cannot learn that they ever hit upon the pretty conceit of wr;ting; verses in the: shape of a hatchet or an

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egg, they bave metres where the lines increase in arithmetical progression, and poelqs c01n- posed -fivith such studied ambiguity that the reader may at his, own option read in them either of two distinct stories totally unconnected with each other.

There is a class of writings not uncommon in Sanscrit caZled c ~ m n p d , consisting of' a mixture of prose and verse, in the manner of the His- tory of the Civil Wars of Grenada, in the Spanish, great part of which is related in those simple and pathetic ballads we have seen occasionally translated. And there are some exquisitely polished prose w.orks, which fiom their extreme elegance are ranked among poems like TeZemaqzce and Tod Abe&.

The story of one o f these so nearly resembles the Oberon of Wieland that I cannot resist giving it to you, only observing, that the Hin- du hero is not required so far to transgress the bounds of decorum as to steal the teeth and

dsustaches of his unfortunate father-in-law. CC Candarpa-cetu, a young and valiant prince,

son of Chintamani, king of' Cusurnapum, sees I

in a dream a beautiful girl of whom he becomes enamoured. Impressed with a belief of the real existence of the damsel, he resolves t o travel in search of her, accompanied only by his , -

fiiend Macaranda. While reposing under a tree , in the forests of the Vindhys mountains, tbc


fiivoukte overhears two birds discoursing, and learns fiom them that the princess Vasavaqatta had refused the hands of many suitors, having seen prince Candarpa-cetu in a dream, wherein she n'ot only became acquainted with his pc:-son and manners, but his name. Meanwhile the young lady's confidante having been sent by her, mistress in search of the hero, Jkcovers the two fi.iends in the forest, and delivering a letter to the young prince conducts him to the palace, whence after lnutual explanations he con- veys the princess, Misfortune, however, pur- SUBS them, for scarcèly had they reached the forest, when in the darkness of the night the lover loses his mistress, upon which fier a fruitless search, being arrived at the sea-shore, he resolves to cast himself' into the sea, but is arrested by a voicc fimi heaven promising the recovery of the princess and indicating the means. Here the resemblance to the story of Wieland stops, for Vasavadatta is discovered

spell-bound, in the form. of a marble sta fiom which Candarpa-cetu alone can release her, ARer her restoration, she relates her separate adventures, and they proceed together to Cu- sumapura, where they pass a long life in un- interrupted happiness.-

h b a b l y if we knew a little more of the native tales of India, we might trace 'the sources whence lnahp of the early romances of Europa

Came tQ US t;

jecta either : of othhor bap

Traces of Hindth cd

LETTERS ON INDIA.

carne to us through the Arabs and 47

Moors ; and possibly also, the origin of some of the Norse and Scddic fables ; but I am, unfortunatkly, SO t o t d y unacquainted %th any oriental language, that I am obliged t o stop where I find English guides fail, but it is scarcely possible not to be struck with the singular resemblances one finds in the Hindû legends and customs, to those of our ancestors,

One of the most obvious o f these, is the custom of entertaining .a family bard to sing the exploits of the heroes whose descendants he serves, and which has not entirely ceased in the East, any more than the family musician in the Highlands of Scotland, though in the latter the song be exchanged for the pibrach. Some- times these bards, or bawts as they are called, are employed to tell tales of pure invention, sometimes to chant the productions of ancient poets, and oftener to recite the adventures o f the nn- cient heroes who have become the gods of Hin- dostan. There is also a set of! itinerant t&- tellers and poets, who, like the ancient minstrels and troubadours, wander from province to province secure of a hospitable reception ; and by tlleir own romantic adventures, furnishing subjects eitller fol: tileir own’future songs, or those o f other bawts.

Traces of the profession of the bardui, as the Hindûs call the bards, may be found in almost


nificence undoubtedly derived fiom the Splen- dour of earthly monarchs ; a small remnant of which you will be apt to remind me is preserved

I among ourselves, in the appointment of .the laureat and his yehly odes ; sàve that, unfortunately, the praises of ancestors give place t o more direct flattery in our plain-dealing days. I am no musician ; and, therefore, can only

tell you, that the few Indian airs I had an opportunity of hearing, were remarkable for their extreme simplicity, and some of them pleased m y uncultivated ear, as those of Scotland and Ireland do, because they seem expressive of the sentiments &&ibed in the songs they accompany. The instrumental part of their music did not please me so well ; however, I believe I did not hear any of the best. It appears to me too noisy, from the constant use of drums of al1 sizes, and of trumpets and pipes, from that so large as to require a man to bear th,e mouth on his shoulder while it is played by another, to the smallest reed. I have, however, heard some extremely sweet pipes ; and I have seen the double pipe, which we observe in antique

1 sculptures, but whZch is not remqrkable for the beauty of its tones. There arc several instruments sf the guitar and: lute kind, some of yhich are formed with hollow gourds, by way

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Qf sounding-boards ; and I once saw a kind- of triangular harp or lyre, the tones of which Tere charming. There is also an instrument played with a bow, "which put me a ,good deal in mind of a danci-ng-msster's kit. The stringS.of all'these being of iron or brass wire, and in general the fingers used for fretting the strings being armed with thimbles of metal, the tones produced have not that mellowness which we admire in Europe. + 1 . .

*That the ancient music of Hindostan was infinitely superior t o the modern, we may rea- ,

ionably infer from the treatises concerning it in the Sanscrit 'language, and fioin the eilects ascribed to it by the poets, which seem not ih- ferior to those produced by the lyie of Orpheus. It was natural that the invention of so en,chanting an art should have been ascribed to the gods ; the Bramins 'suppose it to have been communicated to man by, Brahma himself, or his consort Seraswati, the goddess of speech ; ancl .fable, that Nareda,, an ancient lawgiver, who was the inventor of the vina (a kincl of guitar) and the cach'hQpi or tsstudo, was the son' of Brahma and the same goddess. Bherat, the inventor of natucs or dramas represented with songs and dances, or what, WB . ter111 operas, was conridered as inspired ; apd Hanundin, the fiiiend of Rama, who is,dso

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I 52 LETTERS ON INDIA.

I Pavan or Pas, is the author of a most popular ' , mode of music. Sir Wïlliam Jones, in his

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Essay on the musical modes of the Hindûs, quotes several treatises, particdady the Da-

- haday, Niwaym, Bhagut% bodha, and Retnucara. These describe particdarly four matas or S ~ S - tems of music, by Iswara or Siva (perhaps Osi- r i s j Bherat, Hanumhn, and Callinath, an Tn- dian philosopher : there are, however, different systems peculiar to almost each province of Hindustan. Some of the sweetest of these seem to hate prevailed in the Panjâb, and in q ~ e neighbourhood of Mat'hura, the pastoral people of whích, delighted în singing the lives and adventures of their hero Crishna, who was himself the patron of music, and is often rel. presented dancing while he plays on ,a reed. The scale of the Hindûs comprehends s e y n s&tndu, called sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, and in the octave they reckon twenty-two quarters and thirds. They also count eighty-four modes, formed by subdividing the seven natural souads ; thesemodes are cded ragas, a word which properly signifies passion, each mode being intended to move one or other of OUT affections.

I . Hence the fabulists have sometimes imagined - thmu 80 .various, as to-,make up the number of

k'housáhd 5 more tepperate writers, $hough &ëy hibit ahnost as many possible


modes, only reckon twenty-three as applicable t o practice.

The Indian poets seem to have employed the utmost elegance and richness of their talents- t o adorn the fables connected with ihis divine art. I

The six chief modes are personified as beautiful youths, the gqnii o f music, and presiding over the six seasons. Bhairuzla is lord of the clleerful, dry, or autumnal season, and his strain& invite the dancer to accompany them- ~ j d u u a rules the cold and melancholy months, and with his attendant Rapis, complains of slighted love, or bewails the pains of absence. Sriragu patro- nizes the dewy season, which is the time of delight, that ushers in the spring, the fiagrant and the flowery time over w&ch Hitadola m Vasulata presides. When -the oppressive heat comes on, t$e soft and languid melody of D@aca sympathises with the fevered feelings, while the refì-eshing season of the new rains bestows a double pleasure, when accompanied by the sweet strains of Bfegha*. To aid the Raga8 corne their faithfd spouses, the thirty Raginis, five of which attend esch youth, presenting to him eight little genii,

The namcs of the seasons are as follows :-Surad, the autumnal season; Henzuntu, the frosty ; Sisiru, the dewy ;

, I their sons, whose lovely voices aid and vay the : <i I melodies of their sires. ì i Such is the outline of the beautiful picture 1

I drawn by the poets, and which is also a $vqurœ

f works, like the music of modem Hindostm, do

1 ite subject with the Indian #painters; but their

J n o t fiwnish materials by which t o judge of the state of the art, when India was in the zenith of her glory. Of the ancient music, indeed, the history has been preserved In elaborate scientific ’

treatises and poetical tales ; but ancient pictures must long ago have perished ; and it is only by- a detached hint, scattered here ancl

-there, in writings on other subjects, that we can guessthat paintiug was once highly dult$mted.

The specimens of Hindû art 1 have seen, are minute imitations of nature, on a scale in general more diminutive than our common mi.; niatures ; but there is a delicacy of handling about them, that seems like the remains of a more perfect art, which survives only in its mechanical part, while the soul and genius that

’ once guided it; are long since fled. Sculpture had made considerable progress in

Hindostm at an early period ; and however the &at attempts at hewing a stone, slzd poT lishing it into the resemblance of’ the I~ulnall figure, still it serves ag a model wbi& other artists may improve.

LETTERS ON ‘ TNDIA,

Th f i ~ ~ t ,figures of the ancient Egyptians; and even of t h e Greeks, had tbeir hands straight, and attached to the body, and the legs were not

I divided ; the Hindfis had attained t o an imita- tion of attitude I and action ; and thoug!l their forms, wanted that exquisite grace Ghich even now enraptures us, when’we behold the-wonders of the Grecian chissel, -1 l~ave seen some which are not without elegance, particularly a dancing figure at &e entrance to the cave of Cadi, which possesses considerable ease and graceful-

, ness :- and there is no little skill displayed in the grouping of some of the sculptures at the Seven Pagodas, particularly one representing Criskna protecting his followers fiom the wrath of Indra. :Pexhaps one great reason of the‘arréstation of the farther progress of ,sc~~lp- ture, after it had advanced SO fàr, was the attempt’ to represent, by gigantic bulk, the greatnesgjmof the heroes and the gods, which ne- cessady, ” as it tendered the work less ma- nageable, made it coarse : whereas the l Greeks,

* though, in a few instanceg, $hey formed:colossal stqtues, cdmrnqnly confined themselves to the beautiful proportions‘ of riature, and sought- to place gieainess in’ expression. The bending of the brow sf Jupiter, conveyed at, once all that is sublime and majestic in the ,Father of gods

, >

- and men ; but the giant-’Siva must f rom, and


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n. LETTERS ON INDIA. 57

The caves of Salsette are interesting, as I think they present us with the civil architecture of India at a very early period. Most of these small caves appear evidently to have been private dwellings : each of them has a, little portico, and a cell within, at one end of which there is a raised part, which, on my visiting them, I imagined was designed for a bed place ; but since that time, a passage in Sacontala" has made me conjecture that it was the consecrated heath where the sacred fire was kept, and this I

appears to me to be confirmed by the circuln- stance that there is near the largest and first cavern, one to which I was obliged to be lifted up, when I found a considerable platform, and a'figure of the deity in the back ground. Now, the height to which this platform m is raised, ci*- responds with the description of Dushmanta's - hearth; and might have belonged to the superior of that society, which, from the number of caverns, their contiguity, and the conve-

* Dusl~manta.-Wardour, point th: way to the hearth of the consecrated fire.

Wardaur.-This, oh king, is the way (he wulks before). Here is the entrance of the hallowed enclosure ; and tbere stnnds the venerable cow to be milked for the sacrifice, looking bright fkom the recent Rprinkling of mystic water.-Let the &ing ascend.

(Dushmanta is ruised to thepluce of sacrìjce on the shoulders

.


niences of baths and reservoirs with which they are qqlied,’ we may conclude once inhabited the now deserted mountains of Salsette. These Scenes brought to’ my mind the opening of Mason’s Caraekacus :-

. . . . . . . . . . . . . the place Where, but at times of holiest festival, The druid leads his train. . . . . . . . . . . . . up the hilt Mine eye descries a distant rangt: of caves Delv’d in the ridges of the craggy steep ; And this way still another.

Reside the sages skilled in nature’s lore, &c. On the left

r

The rocky ‘hill in which th‘ese dwellings are d q , contains probably some hundreds ,of caves, of different sizes. I saw a great number ; but, I believe, scarcely half of those which are known. One of tbem appears to have been a temple it is of an oblong form, terminating in 8 selni- circle, in. which is one of those solid masses which the Jines. and Bhaudd’hcts suppose to cover part of t h ashes of their respective saints, and which are sometimes,, as in Sal- ,

sette, and at Cadi in the Maliratta mountains, formed of rocks, wrought in their native bed. ; and sometimes, as in the temple courts of all the sacred places I saw in Ceylon, , qbuiIt of brick or other materials, plaisterd over with

IA.

:stivaI,

Il gt: of caves gy steep ;

le refi :'S lore, &c.

;e dwëllings are dreds o f cavess t number ; ?mtj hich are known, been a templo fing in at semia se solid masses las suppose to ;heir respective nes, .as in SsE atta mountains, leir native bed j; mple courts sf I Ceylon, , ,built {tered over' with

I

LETTERS ON INDIA: 59

fine cltunurn or Stucco, and generady of a co- nical form, These monuments or altars, as they have been sometimes called, are often without ornament ; friquently, however, they are very much ehricheil, and have generally on the top a member which spreads a little, so as to form a kind of u lnbda , which you know is, Ïn the East, the emigri of dignity.

The great caverns both at Ckara, ìn Salsette,. and at Carlí, ' ire supported by polygonal pillars, with peculiar bases and. capit&, possessing ' I

considerable dignity and solidity, though they are fiar behind the Greek columns in elegance. &I send you some sketches of specimens sf these, ancl also of some which supported the entrances '

to some of those smaller caves wl&h I talce to have -been dwellingho~ises. At Cadi, these dwellinghouses are in different 'storiés, in the perpenclicular face of the rock, ind cornlinuni- citing wit13 each other by stairs within, while the outside only presents here and there a wil1dow, or-a colonnade. At Canna, the dwell- hings enter from witllot~t ; before " each door there is*uskilly B iesérvoir, and lin most of them

' I found excëllent water. ' The communication between distant parts of the mountain is facili- tated by winding paths, or steps hewn in the rock; and on the summit there are larger reservoir8 and baths, which were pmbably in

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60 LETTERS OM INDIA.

colnlylon. The hewing of all these is extremdy SkiVul, and marks a knowledge of the sciences and arts connected with architecture, of no ordinary degree. The construction of arches, 'alone, is a proof of tl1e great progress if tile Hindiìs- in the arts which tend so materially to the comfort and embellishment of .society ; and the buildings erected for astronomical purposes, of which the ruins still remain, are a farther evidence of their skill and ingenuity.

bably partook originally o f thqt grandeur and -simplicity so remarkable in .the cavern temples ; but that they very early adopted a styla of excessive ornament is evident fiom the $ago&$ as the English choose erroneously ,to call them, hewn out ofthe rock at Ellora and at MahveZ- lepoor, or the Seven Pagodas. Every moulding, every angle, is adorned with grotesque heads or images, or pinnacles, extremely enriched with pilasters, and what we should call corbels, &up- porting them, The roofs of the buildings are oblong, they are generally covered with a moulding, along the to pof which Is placed a row o f vases, or if square, they terminate in a kind OP dome, ribbed on the outside wjth an ornament not uqlhce the Gothic crockets. The interfitices between the ornaments of the sides of the tem-

a ples, are gerwrdly filled up with sculptwm re

The religious 6uiZdigg-s of the HindQs proœ ,

6

e .

A.

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I

LETTERS ON INDIA. . 61 .. r ; presenting the persons Q€ the Hindiì mythology, .

and the pillars which support or embellish them, - are occasionally fluted or otherwise adorned. On the whole coast of Coromandel, the modern tern- ples are built in the style of these very anci,ent sculptures, but, in general, with considerably more numerous embellishments, and with less taste. I, however, send you a sketch of one tvllich pleased me exceedingly when I saw it, 5t is B muntaporn OT open ternpJe, in which, on- days of festivals, the deity is placed, having been brought from an adjoining temple to receive the perÈonal addresses of bis votaries. The style of building is, however, very diflerent in different provinces, as you may convince yourself by looking at Daniels’s beautiful prints. Those of the north appear to be the qost simple ; and one might thence, perhaps, argue, that they were the c most ancient : however, the Yculptured rocks are incomparably the most suthentic monuments of the ancient architecture ; and when these shall be better- known, it may perhaps be possible to class the different models, and t o form some -sort of regular system

With the Mahommedan axhitecture, introduced in the 1 %h and 1 %h centuries into India by its conquerors, and probably blended with *‘hat of the natives, X am but little acquaintd.

’ -ob’ orders,

62 = LETTERS ON mma. B L I ~ you will find -most magnificent specimens in the tombs of the kings at Veyjeyapoor, and ia the monument built by Shah Jehan to the memory of his wife, near Agra, and called after her the Taje Mahal ; it is of white marble, and

- beautifully inlaid. The tomb itself is inlaid with precious stones, in so beautiful c?, mosaic,

* that i t has been ascribed to Italian artists in the service of the M o ~ L ~ . TIle mosques of Dehli and Agra will also exci te your admiration -for their grandeur and extent, as well 8s for the beauty of form and *workmanship you will discover ín them. Like the Hindû temples, their walls usually enclose a large area, the centre of which is occupied by a consecrated tank or reservoir of masonry ; and often adorned with trees, pilIars, and seats, along the brink, fiom which, to the bottom, there is usually a flight of steps. The buildings around the court, something like the cloisters to our colleges, are, with the Hindûs, the residence of ,priests and other holy men ; with the Mussulmans, they are consecrated to hospitality, where travellers of every nation find shelter and rest. The clZouZt?y of the Hindûs was naturally separated froin the temple to prevent pollution by the admittance of irn- pure tribes, but near enough to answer the humane purpose of protecting the traveller fiorn insult or danger. Some of the most admirable

l

LETTERS ON INDIA. G3

works of the Hindûs are their tanks or reservoirs of water ; some of which have been constructed with consummate ingenuity and incredible labour, by damming ixp the outlets of narrow Galleys, and thus making use of the surrounding rocks as walls. Others,- in the flat countries, have been' dug and lined with masonry, coveling *frequently not less than a hun-

, dred acres ; and. wells of every description, for the' purposes of' agriculture or the relief of travellers, are met with all over the country, more dr less in repair, as the towns or villages near them have flourished or been destroyed by war, oppression, or famine.

Among the great public works of Hindostan, there are none more worthy of remark than the canals of Sultaun .Firoze, which were *dug to supply the city of I3jssar Firozeh with water, The first o f these passed from the Jumna to Sufedoan, a hunting palace, and thence t o Hissar, and was one hundred and fourteen p o l graphical miles in length. This canal was re- paired about A. D. 1626, by Shah Jehan, who prolonged it to Delhi, making in the whole one hundred and seventy-four geographical miles.

The other canal brought the waters ofthe Sut- lege to IEIimu : it is said to have been one hundred miles in length ; and both these canals are said to have been intended by Eiroze to have

I

c

stituted the personal estate o f the heir apparent sf the empire.’’ I

Such works as these are redly worthy of a great -monarch ; and the labours of Firoze, , and the laws of Akbar, are among the most honourable monumeuts of conquest that the warœ riors or monarchs of my age, or any faith, have left.

The rearly,miIitary architecture of India must

64 LETTERS ON 3 .NDIA.

answered the purposes of navigation, as well as giving water to the town and djacent country.

I copy verbatim the following note of Major Renne1 from Captain Kirkpatrick’s ma- r;lUscripts.-cL Besides the main canals that have been mentioned, it seems that, several others were cut, which united them in different parts ‘ and in different directions. The banks, both of the main canals and their brqnclzes, were covered with towns-such as Juneed, Dhatara, Hansi, and Toglucpoor. Firoze, by sanction of n decree ,of the Cauzces assembled for the. purpose, levied a tenth of the produce of the lands fertilized by these canals, whi&- he ap- pliéd, together with the revenue of th% lands newly brought into cultivation, to charitable uses. The lands of Firozeh, which before had produced but one scanty harvest, now produced two abundCant ones. This Sircar, ever since the conquest of Hindostm by the Moguls, has con-

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66 , -I_,E'rTERS ON INDIA,

other Europeans, who llave usually been obliged to construct such defences for their factories. Many if not most of these are in a ruinous condition, and it is only at the three presidencies that you will see them on a very extensive scale and carefully kept up. The inland forts I a m less able to speak of, but I believe .some of them to possess considerable strength agaillst any nativi? force, though few, excepting those whose natural situations are strong*, could resist 51 re-

, gular attack fiom European troops. Among these the mud forts are probably the best calcul lated for resistance, as the substance of which they are built being kneaded clay," possesses a tenuity which deadens the effect- of shot and renders it difficult to effect n' breach.

But you will think I am straying o~1-t of my proper province and trenching upon y6urs, and, t o say the truth, the useful and exact lines of rl,

fortress have in general few charms for a Indy's eyes, however she may delight in the Inore showy structure of palaces ancl temples. There-'

* Such as the fortress,of Dorvlat-abad, which stands on the *summit of a bigh insulated rock. It is surrounded by a ditch I am told fifty feet wide, and the rock is scarped to an autonish- ing height. Across this ditch a mrmw bridge leads to an aperture in thle rock, by which you enter a winding passage cut in the hill, the egress of which is defended by i p t i n g of metal, which is ,let clown at pleasure, and thus renclers the place completely inaccessible.

LETTERS ON INDIA. . 67

Tore I will talce leave in time, and beg you to believe me as ever, &c.

LETTER V.

IN mentioning the fine arts as t 1 q once ,flourished in Hindostan, 1,ought not t o have omitteed Calligraphy, ,which, in a country where printing is udmown, becomes really an art, of

trifling importance. Accordingly we find in the East, where the means of multiplying books

printing have not yet superseded the pen of the scribe, the most beaQtifu1 and correct manu- scripts often enriched with costly illuminations and gilding. Though paper be now pretty generally used to write on in India, and that of a very smooth and even kind, yet the mdre ancient methods still preyail in some districts. One of these xlliclz is most frequently practised

~ is. writing upon the leaf of the palmyra with an iron style; so that you see people going about i with their little bundle o f leaves in appearance like a large fan, tied up bet'ween two bits of

_.wckd cut to fit, them, either as ledgers and ,bill- boo~w, or tile legendary tales of tlleir country, OT the lmly texts o f their ßhastras, which may possj,bly have been originally written with the

, asme materials, Another kind of writing of F 2

wrote. .Many grants of land and other p~ib lk C ~ U -

menta have been discovered engraved on copper- plates, a number of which are frequently fastened together with a ring and sed, an8 numerous inscriptions on stone are met with on the sitcs ~ f a o s t ancient towns and places of wordlip. The writingf on paper and parchment is per-

formecl with a reed shaped nearly lil- Le our com- ~ n o ~ pens ; the ink in substance and coIour re- seml&s a thick solution of the common Indían ilik, but the writing is ofken traced in various


i

?a LETTERS ON INDIA.

written expressly for the use of the lower people, -and in case t h y do not find occupation in their own callings they are permitted to have recourse to any other, excepting, the reading and teaching the Vedas, among which writing is enumerated, and in so populous a country where

* literahue had become a Iuxury, we may be sure that very many, hands must have been employed in administering to that luxury. We may suppose without any great stretch of imaginatioh, that the lords and ladies of king V~crsma% court would, after the representation o f Sacontda, be sager t o read' 80: charlhing a productim, and the ornamented - aid perfumed manuscript would eagerly be offered to her, whose dark eyes emulated those of the interesting princess, and

I the hope of recommending IGrnself to favour and wealth would incite the writer to excel his competitors, till the perfection of the art itseIf became a primary object.

We have often smiled at the naiule account which Froissart gives of presenting his rich manuscript to his patron, and I cannot suppose that the Indian poet was less eagerfor distinc- tion than the western ~Izronicler, or that the Hindoo monarch would with less colnplacency re.

.&ive the legends of' his heaven-descended an;. cestom, thaJn the Count de Foix did those of .his QWII cchtemporaries.

The warriors of '1Hindostan whose family Barts

d .

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* LETTERS ON INDIA. 71

led their troops on to battle, chanting the strains of victory, on' returning to their halls of peace, held feasts in honqur of the gods or 'heroes, where the minstrel after the martial exercises, made the lofty roofs resound with the songs of other times, or in his ow11 I numbers drew tears from eyes that seldom wept ; solnetimes the drama with all its pomp delighted the eyes and ears of the attentive audience, and at others the historic -and legendary scroUb were unfolded, and the reading of past events occu- .pied the heroes who were one day to be enrolled on -the same list ,with their progenitors. . Far different were the scenes in which these legends were composed ; retired in the deepest recesses of the sacred groves consecrated to the

Hidden Power, that reigns ~

'Mid the lone majesty of untarnd'nature.

.Was the abode of Sage6 skilled in nature's lore :

The changeful univcrse, its numbers, powers Studious t . l q measure, save when meditation . Gives place t o holy rites.

Cnructacus, Act Ist. I

These sages controuling, by their sacred cha. rscter of mediators between the gods and men, the councils of' monarchs and the enterprises of yilrriors, appeared but to - command respect ; and in their hours of solitude compose& or coin-

74 ’ LETTERS ON INDIA.

Indian scripture including the argumentative part or Vedanta is contained in tracts called Upanishads, and to .each Veda a tyeatise called jyotish is annexed, explaining the adjustment of the calendar for religious purposes.

The Rigveda contains chiefly encomiastic muntras, and its name is derived from the verb ‘Bich t o laud ; these prayers are mostly in verse, and together with similar passages in any 0 t h ~ Veda are called Eich. The authors of these hymns are various, some of them being ascribed ‘ to diflerent deities male and female, others to kings and princes, or to sages ancl T holy men. “This Veda contains in its’last chapter the celebrated Gayatk, or Indian priest’s confession of faith, which i’s thus translated by Mr. Colebrooke. . cc This ‘new and excellent praise of thFe, O

splendid playful sun ! is offered by us to thee. Be gratified by this my speech, approach this craving mind, as n fond’ man seeks a woman. -May that sun (Pushasi) who co~~templates and ,looks into all worlds be our protector,

cc LET us MEDITATE ow THE ADORABLE LIGErr

GUIDE OUR INTELLECT.‘ Desirdus of food WC

.solicit the gift of the splendid sun (Su&ri) who sl1ould Be studiously worshipped. Vene- rablemen,guided bythe understanding, salutethe divine (8a~ih.i J with oblations and praige,”

OF THE DIVINI3 ILULER (SAVITRI). MAY IT

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LETTERS ON INDIA. 7-5

I do not wonder that one of the first objects of worship should have been him who

Wit11 surpassing glory crown'd Looks from his sole dominion like the God of this new world.,

Or that the cc splencliil playful sun," should have been regarded as the embodying of that, divine intellect which pervades and governs all things. But soon the type was considered as the thing typified, and the sun once adored as God, there ewere .no bo,unds to the wanderings of- the human imagination; and though theinstructed sages ever considered the sun, the air, the fire, as types of their Creator, the vulgar soon adopted that mythology which personifies the elements and planets, and peoples heaven and earth wit11 3isrious

, orders of beings. TIILIS though -the Vedas dis- dinctly recognize but one God, their p-oetic Ian- guage does not sufficiently distinguish the Creator fiom the creatuie; and th'ough the numerous titles of the deity be all referable to the sun, the air and fire, and these three again ,but *sigli.ify the' one God, th&e titles insensibly became the 'names of separate deities, I who usurped the worship due only to the Suprehe. intelli- 'geme.

The name of ;the Yajurveda signifies that it concerns oblations and sacrifices, Soon afier it was compiled by Vyasa i t became polluted, and

8


After proceeding to describe the production of all beings from the mundane egg floating on the waters, the Aitaréya asks, '' What; is this Soul-? that we may worship him. Which is the soul? Is it ,that, by which a man sees By which he hears ? By which he smells odouTs By which he utters speech ? By which he dis- criminates a pleasant or an unpleasant taste ? 1 s it the heart, or understanding ? Or the mind, or JyiU ? Is it sensation ? or power ? or discrimina-

' tion ? or comprehension ? -op perception ? 01' m- tention ? or attention ? or -application ? OF taste (or 2ain ?) or memory ? or assent ? or deter- mination? or animal action ? or > wish ? or de- aire ? .

All these are only various forms of apprehension. But this (soul consisting in the fiwulty of apprehension) is BRAHMA ; heis INDRA, he is (PRAJAPATI) the lord of creatures : tllesc gods are he ; and so are the five primary elelneats, earth, air, the ethexid. flnicl, water ancl light,; these, .and the same joined with minute objects and other seeds of existence, and again -other beings produced fiom eggs, or borne in wombs, or originating in hot moisture, or springing from plants ; wl1ether horses, or kine, OT men, or elem phants, whatever lives, and walks, or flies, or whatever is immoveable, as trees and herbs :

that is the eye of intelligence. On intellect every tiling is founded : the world is the eye of

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LETTERS ON INDIA: 79

intellect ; and intellect is its foundation. In- telligence is (B+aRme) the great one.

cc By this intuitively intelligent sod, that sage ascended from the present world- to the blissful region of heaven, and; obtaining all his wishes, became immortal. He became immortal.

cc May niy speech be founded on undemtand- h g ; and my mind be attentive to my utter- ance. Be thou manifested to me, O self:manifested (intellect !) For my sake, O speech, and mind ! approach this Veda. May what 1 have heard be unforgotten : day and night may I behold this, which I have studied. Let me think the reality : let me speak the hutl~. May it preser’ve me ; may it preserve the teacher,; me may it preserve ; the teacher may it preserve ; Inay it preserve the teacher.” To this long quotation I will only add the

conclusion o f a hymn on the same subject, which is found in a different part of the Rig- veda.

” CC Who knows exactly, and who slmll in this world declare, whence and why this ’ creation toolr place? The gods are subsequent to the production of this world; then who can know whence it proceeded ? or whence this varied world arose ? or whether it uphold itself or not I He, w110 is in the highest hcaven, the ruler

LETTEBS ON INDIA. St

divine energy whicb alone sustains them Were suspended but for a moment.

Their notions concerning the human soul "p- pronch nearly to the Padzcism of some other pbilosophical sects, and may be understood fiom the following text. c c That spirit fiom which these created beings proceed ; through which, having proceeded from it, they live ; toward which they tend, and i% hi ch they are ultimate- l y < absorbed, that spirit study tot know ; thah spirit is Ithe +pea& O ~ Q V

The ddesi philosophical sect in India appears, however, to have been that of the folœ lowers of Capils, inventora of the Sanc'hya or numeral philosophy' which Sir William Jones thought resembled the metaphysics of P p thagorns, who is said, indeed, to have travelled into India in search >of knowledge, and who might possibly have adopted the tenets of the

89 b LETTERS ON INDIA.

Brahmins his instructors. Next to the Sanc'hya, Gotama and Canáda invented 0 the Nyhya or 10- gical philosophy, admitting the actu,al existence of material substance in the popular sense of the word matter, and comprising a body of dialectics, with an artificial method of reasoning, wit11 distinct names for the three parts of a proposition and even for those of'a regular syllogismq.

The philosophy of the Baudd'ha and Jaina relrgious sects is branded with the name of atheism by the orthodoxe Brahmins, who assert that they deny the existence of spirit independent on matter, and consequently that o f the supreme intelligence. But we may, 1 think, doubt how far the assertions of enemies and rivals v e entitled tqbelief.

Thus you see the forests and groves of Hin- dostan produced systems of philosophy long before she

From heav'n descended to the low-roofed house Of Socrates,

Q Sir William Jones, in his eleventh Discourse, printed i n the 4th vol. of the Asiatic Researches, p. 170, mentions the following curious tradition which, according to the author of the Dubistan, prevailed in the Panjab. cc Among other Indian curiosities which Callihthenes transmitted to his uncle, w u a technical system sf bgic which the Brahmins, had communicated to the inquisitive Greek," and which the Nahomcdan writer supposes to have been the groundwork of the filmous Aristotelian method. 1

h. LETTERS ON - IKDIA.. $3

And conjecture, and even tradition seem tu point them out as the origin of au the

Streams that watered all the schools Of academies old and new, with those Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic 'severe.

A thousand circumstances concur to identifjr the ancient religions of India and Egypt ; .and to render it most probable that the relation of their sciences and philosophy was not less intimate. Which was the most anciently civilized &he two countries will probably ever 1 remaín 1

undetermined ; but the Indians seem on many accounts to lay claim to a superior antiquity. Their physiczzl situation, so well adapted to the production of' all that nature requires, while it must Irlave been long before the muddy shores of the Nile were habitable, is not the least a argument in their favour ; besides, their traditions and poems d see'm to point to the north- as

I the quarter whence they -received their religion, their science, their v language, and their c m - querors, which could not n have been the case if' they wem originally from Egypt. It is pos-

-sible that the same origin may be common CO them both, a i d that the similarity observed in tlxe monuments of every kind in the two nations may be drawndiom one common source. NOW the Gqeks confessedly borrowed frmn

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84 LETTERS ON IR'DIA.

the Egyptians, but tcmsporting their coame and clumsy imagery imlto their own charming climate, gelJius refined and purified it with her magic touch, and formed even in the infancy of happy Greece those podels, which like the ?deal beauty of the pain,ter, future times have squght unceasingly to emulate, but sougllt in vain ; while the ancient mothers of art, continued their massy and ill-formed W O X ~ S , 8 5 if the palsied hand of time had brought them Back to a state of infhncy and fixed them in irrecoverable pedíocqity. You have only to cpmpam the rude sketch E send yon of a still rqder deity", wit11 the beautiful head of the Ap0110, an$ if fQr a mqment you can forget its deformity to think of the- ingenuity that made the eleplpnt's head the symbol of the god of letters, X shall t l h k you deserve to be born 51r'

Brahmin in your next visit to this world, and $0 be one of Genesa's especial favourites, with wh6se name I conclude this letter, thc subject of which is peculiady bis own.

I

LETTER' VI. You flatter me extremely by desiring

the continuance o f so grave a correspondence W mine on the subjeot of Indk has hitherto

- See the plate OP Geneea,

$6 LETTERS ON INDIA.

their nature, and that we sl1ould look on the historian who should- tell US of laws I which enacted th& and murder, or punished honesty and benevolence, with as little credit, as on him wl~o should talk of ‘6 men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders.”

Our missionaries are very apt to split up011 this rock, and in order to place our religion in the brightest light, as if it wanted their feeble aid, they lay claim exclusively t o all the sublime maxims of morality, and tell those they wish to convert, that their own ,books contain nothing but abominations, the belief of which

- a e y must abandon in order to receive the purer doctrine of Christianity. Mistaken men ! could they desire a better opening to their hopes than to find already established that morality which says, it is enjoined to inan even at the moment of destruction to wish to benefit his foes, a s the sandal tree in the instant of its otmtZ2row shed$ pmfume on the axe tJaai fells it.’?

How happy would it be if instead of fighting with the air as, these good men persist in doing, they were employed in teaching the rudiments of knowledge, in searching for, and cornpihg such moral passages fiom the ancient Hindiì book@, as, taught to the young Indians, might improve them, ,and render them worthy of still filrther advantages, an. improvement ‘they w.oul’d be fir

.

LETTERS ON INDIA. $7 " *

from refixsing, as it would accord mith their prejudices, and being founded on the wisdom of their forefathers would carry with it the authority of religion and the attractions of affection., Should we hear of the habitual want of truth in the Hindûs, if from their infancy they were exercised in those sacred passages where truth in all her sublime and attractive array is identified with the universal Soul, and made familiar w i t h . the strains of the poet, .whoppeak- ing of the inviolability of a promise, sings,

Before the appointed hour even thou thyself art not able to destroy the tyrant to whom thou hast promised life ; no more than the sun $able prematurely to close the day which he himsex n

enlightens"." In short I consider morality like the sciences

and artg, to be only shmbering not forgotten in (India ; and that to awaken ,the Hindûs to a knowledge of the treasures in their own hands i s the only thing wanting to set them fairly in the course of improvement with other nations. *

Bverywhere in the ancient Hindû books we find the maxims o f that pure and sound morality which is founded on the nature of man as a rational. and social being. Their laws themselves

* From Mogha's poem th the death of Sisupila. I

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the social relations by the commission of adultery IS punished with c?, severity beyond that exercised by almost any other people. Even the minor moral or rule of courtesy has not been neglected bv the lawpivers, for Menu snvs, (L Let one

learned, who are advanced in age, whd hwe no beauty, no wealth, or who are of ignoble birth." Maxims which- mipht have became the noble . ---

PO- litenem scsrcelp exeeeds .that other saying of the sage, LcLet a mm say what is h e , but ] a € him say *what is pleasing."

The Nindûs claim the honour of' having invented the method of teaching by apologues, and whatever we may think of the justice with which the claim is made, when wo relneln- bell the fables used bp fiamson, it is bcyobd 8

doubt that one of thè 'oldest collections of fables in ,existence i% that h g known in Europe by the title of pi$ay'~ Fhbles, but which Mr. "WiIkin$ has' restored to its original narne of Heetopadesa, where rules and maxims for tho a

ggyernment of a state, a ho~~sehold, and one% own copduct, are aptly illustrated in B series of' apol~g-qe~ rebted by a Brahrniv tor^ to b i o

pupils, two young princes whom he prepares for the exercise of regal power at the request of their fathor. ,

I am not sure that I: need defend the laws of the Hindûs as 1 have done their morality, because I c10 not recollect ever having been unjust towards them myself; but X think that they bear the impression of a certain state of civilization, which . . does not appear to have been' h r enough ad- vanceil,, to have restored to men that portion of liberty .which in firnes of high cultivation is nam turally recovered fiom the laws instituted in the early stages of society, when lawgivers, delighted with their first triumphs over savage man, attempt to rcnder their regulations perfett, by making them resch to every oflience and degree of' oflience whether public or private. Accord- ingly we find among the Hindû laws, a number of fiivoloua and vexnti.iaus details ilzterfering with almost every employment and every action of hulaan life ; for instance, chue laws of Menu conbain prohibitions against biting the nails, or washing the feet in a pan of yellow mixed metal, with cautions not to walk in the shadow of a coppcr-coloured or red-haired man, besides tedious sumptuary laws, especially regarding the dress of women.

However, there are amorlg these laws many that shew tlle legislator to 'ha\ye been wise and


humane, and give us a high idea ofthe, governments of ancient India. The laws of Men11 which you may read in Sir William .Iones's Translation, are said to have been compiled about nine centuries before Christ ; but 51s the age of the Vedas is fixed considerably earlier, me may conclude that the lau7s themselves are

a much more ancient, whethet handed down by tradition or preserved in writing *.

From this code it appears that the ancient Hindû courts were held openly by the king or by his judges, who might be chosen fiorn*either of I the three first or twice-Born castes, although a - Brahmin was preferred. The judges are enjoined' to understand the expedient, but to pronounce according a to the strict interpretation of' the law. Three witnesses were required to prove an accusation, which witnesses might be of any class, and where women were concerned, women were- also to be, .witnesses. I á m sure you will admire the address which the judge is-directed to make to the witnesses. CC The soul itself is

. its own witness, the soul itself is its own refuge :

8 * Tbere are eighteen principal titles of law according to Henu, the ten first of which concern debts, deposits, part- nerships, boundaries, sale and purchase, and masters an$ senants; 11th and ,1!3th, assault and slandcr ; 13th, larceny ; 14th; robbery ; 15thy drtltcry; Nth, matrimonid disputes ; 17th, inheritance; 18th,-gatnhg.

LETTERS ON INDIA, 91

Offend not thy conscious soul the supreme internal witness of men ! T h e - sinful have said in their hearts, None sees us ; yes, the gbds dis- tinctly see them ; and so does the spirit within their breasts"." 1: think you must recollect my telling you that the Parsees in Bombay regulated their own affairs by their Panchaït or village council. This Panchaït is borrowed. by them from the Hindus, and consisted oEa little jury which received and decided on evidence under the head man of'the village or Patel, who

J was again subject to the governor of a larger district, and so on through several gradations to the sovereign himself. Every village or rather township was surrounded with its fields, which were- sometimes cultivated in common_, but more fiequently each man tilled hfs own ground, and there was besides village waste, which served for the common pasturage of the inhabitants. In each township there were twelve principal persons, Ist, the patel or magistrate ; 2d, the registrar ;. sil, and. 4th, the watchmen of the village and of the crops; sth, the distributer of the waters ; 6th, the astrologer, who an-

* It is true that a species of pious fraud is not only allowed but hollowed, by being called the. speech of tllc gods, when by bearing false witness one may save an innocent person. This vicious principle of course leads to perjury on other occasions.

1T)B LETTEXS ON INDIA.

LETTSRS

ancl indeed often was, money.

The Hindû law of

ON INDIA. 93

redeemed for a price in

property into equal shares, two of which go {cl.- the eldest son, one and a half to the next, and one to each of the otl-rers ; or the eldest son takes one shal;e, and the best article 'out of the chattels of his father ; besides which, a, single sheep or other animal Inay not be divided, bQt- is given to the eldest. TQ the unmarried daugh, ters the brothers give each a fgqrts of his sbqye as portions, The sons inherit first, then the daughters and wife, after whom dl descendantss male or female, real or adopted, before colla, teral relations.

Should a whole family choose to r e m - L ln together, the eldest san takes b i s father's plaw, and enjoys the property undivided, provid.ing for all the rest as his father did in bis lifetim,e ; B custom which reminds one of' the patriarchal times when Lot sojourned with Abraham til1 they increased so greatiy, when Abraham divided the property and they parted, Lot journeying towards the East, and Abraham dwelling in thle land of Canzap.

I €eel a little angry however with one part of the code of Mena, where he says that a woman may nevec be independent, but khat in her youth she belongs to her father, on her marriage

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94 LETTERS ON XNDXA.

t Q her husband, and on bis death to her sons ör other male relations ; and again, that a wife, a son, and a slave can have no property independent on the husband, father or master ; thus classing them together. .

However we must not look upon the state of' &,ves in the East in the same light in which we llave been accustomed to consider the negtoes in the West Indies. A man purchased by a Hindû or Mahomedan becomes one of his family, and is liable to no greater hardships than the son of his purchaser, and is fiequently treated with as much consideration. The eldest servant of Abraham's house ruled overall th'at he had, and was charged by his master, with the care of providing a wife for his only son ; and the manners in the East have been so stationary that no material change has taken place in the situation o f s h e s . AI1 the laborious occupations of husbandry wllich European merchants forced their slaves in foreign' climates to perform, have alwitys been carried on in the East by free hus- bandmen, and all the mechanical a r t s by free persons of particular classes, so that the slaves could only be household servants, and by living constantly in the families to which they belonged, they acquired claims to tenderness and consideration which were seldom if ever resisted. In perusing the laws of Menu you will na

tETTIIRS ON INDIA. 9;

) her suns õr at a wife, a ty i n d e p end- laster ; thus

c’oubt be struck as I was with the number of laws favourable to the’ Brahminical order. For instance, in the 8th chapter, cc Never shall the king slay a Brahmin though convicted of all possible crimes : let him banish the offender from his realm ; but with all his property secure and his body unhurt. No greater‘ crime is known on earth than slaying a Brahmin, and the king therefore must not even form in his mind an idea ‘of killing a priest.” Andragain, in the Ist chapter, CC Whatever exists in the uniierse is all in effect, though not in form, the wealth of the Brahmins, since, the Brahmin is intitled to it all by his primogeniture and erni- nence of birth.”

Would one not imagine that the spirit, if not the letter, of these laws had transmigrated into the popes and their myrmidons during the middle ages ? If the unfortunate brother of Chandra- gupta, whom the Greeks call Sandracottus, fell a victim to his expressions of contempt for a filthy and deformed Brahmin, we have seen an emperor (Henry IV.) distinguished for many virtues and possessed of considerable talents, standing for three days barefooted in the depth of winter, at the gate of the haughty bishops of Rome ; and alffother Henry, among the most virtuous of the Xnglish monarchs, receiving stripes at the tomb of him who had made his life a constant‘martyr-

3


doIn. If the Brahmins, protected in their persons and property, yet presided in courts where they condemned others .to the severest penalties of the laws, the prieshod of Europe, no less privileged, while thep claimed exemption from all secular jurisdiction,. exercked the pawer of" life and death in their 'own courts, t o which every man was amenable, whose strength in arms was not sufficient to protect him* Happily for Eurape the priesthaod was nut hereditary OX

confined to one class. The constant influx o f new members. who broqght scmething af-the common world into the, cloister, piweruing their family relations and the-connections ,of cauntry, prevented their becoming a disthch caste, aa evil which would inevitably have prolonged the darkness which so long overwhelmed the wcstem world, if it had not confirlmcd it for ever. It is scarcely possible to imagine any two systema more n e d y allied than those of the &&mina and of the priests. of' the middle ages. The monasteries in the Wes$, mdowed by raya1

,patrons, and enriched by the pi01~8 eontriln~=, timq of all rinks, wem only rivalled by the magnificence af the Hindû temples, supported by royal ancl private grants of lima, and other valuables, and, adorned v&h the jmvels cd' t h pious, (XIF the. expiat,ory@ &rings of the offender. The 'prieW l o f : both c-lassa eBtccunad: it ore


bOmmable to subsist by alms than to labour, and both arrogated to themselves the right of instructing and guiding the people, and'oQ dit-

recting the secret councils of their monarchs. The trials by ordeal so common in Europe in

the middle ages, have subsisted from time i m ' memorial in India, and, though generally disused, they are still of authority, and have been . appealed to at BenareH 90' late as A. D. 1783, Robertson, in his ,History of Charles thse Fifbs supposes that these trials were invented ih Eu- rape to remedythe defects of the judicial proceed- in@ of those times, and t o guard against the numerous fiauds, and the injustice which could not but arise from the practice of allowing a man to clear himself from any accusation by compurga- tion, or the oaths of himself and his neighbours or relations. But the extreme similarity between the trial by ordeal as practised in India, and the appeal to the j,ustice a€ God common in Europe, would lead us to believe that they had a corn- mon and more ancient origin. . The principles on which auch appeals rèst, are indeed fumded in human nature, and have given rise not only I

t~ these absurdities, bùt to the belief in magic, and the train of follies attendant on it. . It is naturd for the savage, in such cases as his own sagacity is incompetent to investigate and to dem cide, to look to some superior power for aid,

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98 LETTERS ON INDU-

and in many cases the workings of ons science itselc on being brought to a test, which it was firmly believed was directed’by a Supreme omni- scient Being, would produce effects collsonant to the justice of the cause, and every such event would give strength to the populap. faith in the efficacy of the trials. The rockingstones which are found on the coast of Cornwall, and other parts of England, were used as an ordeal by the Druids ; and well might fear pdsy the band ere i t touched the rock of trial, while innocence baldly approached and moved thé mighty mass +. Notwithstanding these considerations which account for a similarity of principle, the .exact coincidence of many -of the forms used, persuades me, that they are so many traces of the ancient and intimate connexion which Sir WilIiam Jones pronounces, -it would be possible to prove, between the first race of Persians and the Indians, to whom we may add the Grkeks and Romans, the Goths and the old Egyptians or Ethiops, who according to him originally spoke the’ same language, .and professed the sake papular faith : And probably the more familiar we become with the antique CI;LstOms, laws and manners of HiDdos-

a

* See) Mason’s Caractacus, for a beautiful exemplificatian d this superstition of our forefatha,

LBTTERS ON I N D k 3 99

tan, the stronger will the resemblances be found, and the clearer the traces of the ancient connexion and subsequent separation of these vaœ rious tribes.

- But I will not detain you with my own opi- nions on the subject, but state the facts an which they are grounded. The trial by ordeal is of nine kindg, st, by the balance, zd, by fire, sd, by water, 4th, by poison, bth, by the cosha, &h, by rice,. Vth, by boiling. oil,- $th, by red-hot iron, and %h, ,by images.

The first, a trial by the balance, is made by the accused person performing worship to the fire, and afterwards fasting a whole day, when he is weighed twice or thrice, and if at the second or third weighing he is found heavier than at first he is gûilty. The writing on the wall over against Belshazzar king of‘,Babylon, cc thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting:’ {Daniel, chap, v. ver. 27) of which text Milton has made so noble n use in the end of the 4th book of the Paradise Lost.

The fiend looked up and knew His mounted scale alofk, nor more but fled Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night.

Probably refers to a similar trial used by the Babylonians ; and Homer also makes Jove hang out ‘the scales of life to weigh the fate of his son qarpedon.

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100 LETTERS ON INDIA.'

... - -

bad been publicly declared, walked through fire or over hot embers. The antiquity of this trial needs na farther proof than the passage of the Ramayusa, where Sita to dispel the suspicions of Rama passed through the fire. Its existence in ancient Persia is proved by Ferdousi,

The second and third ordeals, those by fire and waier, were administered pretty much in the same manner as in the western courts. In the former, the ,&$nit &er his accusation

one of whose heroes, Syawousch, the eaaterq Hippolytus, passes through the fiery ardeal to clear himself &om the guilt imputed to him by his mother-in-law, But the moRt extraordinary use of the fire ordeal that I recollect, belongo to Europe: I mean the famous trial of the MUS- arabic and Romish liturgies in Spain, during the eleventh century, which was had recourm to af€er the trial by judicial combat ; when, con- traxy to the wishes of the court, and the interest of the superior clergy, the champion of. tho Musarabk book, had triumphed over the knight of the Roman faith*. The last legal trials by fire or by water in England were in King John's

* A story similar to this is related of a kame and a mie* sionary at Delhi, under Jahangl~ire, who nut being trollbled with much faith, proposed the trial. The kame &runlc from it- The J~Bu&# knowing the emperor's disposition, accdptd the propos& but the good-natured Shah interposedmanjl saved him.,

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reign ; but I suspect that since that &ne many' an old wo,ma!l has been drowned in endeavour- ing to prove her innocence of witchcraft, by the trid whether she sank or swam in water. This mode of trial differs but little from that of the Hindûs, among whom the accused is compelled to put his head under water, and if he raises it before a person appointed for the purpose has walked a certain distance, 'be is guilty.

The trials by poison are of two kinds. One is by swdlowing poison from the band c& a Brahmin after worshipping the fire, when t h culprit is absolved if he survives, and the other method is to take a ring out of a vase ih"d1ich a venemous snake has been confined, who at once convicts and 'punishes the unfortunate wretch if lre bites him.

The trial by the Coshn resembles that mentioned in the fifth Chapter of Numbers, which '

treats of the law of jealousy. Among the Hin- dûs it is conducted by malting the accused person drink of the water in which idols have been washed, while the Jews put the dust that covered the floor of' the tabernacle into the water, Xn both cases indisposition within zl prescribed tirne after the draught wäs the sign of guilt.

The trial by rice was performed by chewing cansecrated 'rice, and if it carne out of' -the mouth bloody 01- dry the accused person wai

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lm' LETTBRS ON INDIA.

condemned. The trial by images, called IlheI** ma and Adherma, or justice and injustice, sisted ìn taking out of a covered vase a figure of lead or 'other base metal, or one of silver. The silver image absolved, and the base metal condemned. Sdmetimes pieces of black and white doth d th th6 images painted on'them were used.

The trial by red-hot iron Ilas been used ill Europe in various forms. In the early history both of France and England, there arc instances o f accused persons of' high rank, particularly women, walking over red-hot ploughshares ; and y~u'doubtless remember the anecdote of- one of the Paleologi, who5 when required by the pa- triarch of Constantinople to take a red-hot ball: off the altar, begged the holy man to set him the example, as certainly his innocence must be sufficient to guard him from harm, if it were possible that a soldier might remain unhurt, In this latter form of handling a hot ball, a man was tried at Benares, in the year 1783, on the following occasion, A man accused one Sslncar of larceny, who pleaded not guilty, and as the

' trial by ordeal, was offered to the appellee, and accepted by him ; and after obtaining permission from the Honourable Company's government, it was conducted as follows, in the presence of Ali Ibrahim Khan9 chief magistrate of Benares, from whose account of it5 in the first volume of'

1 thefi could not be proved by legal evidence, the

. .

the Asiatic iadced the

CC The 1 worshipped sente& the fire, forme ground ; al Ganges, b1 to remove his hands a state of

ers, and which th white cc red-hot, in his h the spac of the E ball in that hat his veral tween 3 mined, not eve Since it

UTTERS ON INDIA. LOS

the Asiatic Researches, I take the story, and indeed the rest of the history of Indian ordeals.

cc The Pandits of the court and city having worshipped the god of knowledge", and pre- sentéd their oblation of clarified butter to the fire, formed nine circles of cow-dung on the ground ; and, having bathed the appellee in the Ganges, brought him with his clothes wet, when, t o remove dl suspicion of deceit, they washed his hands with pure water ; then having written a state of the case, and the words of the Muntra, on a palmyra-leaf, they tied it on his head ; and put into his hands, which they opened and joined together, seven leaves of pippal, seven of jend, seven blades of darbha grass, a few flowers, and some barley moistened with curda, which they fastened with seven #threads of raw white cotton. After this, they made the ball red-hot; and taking it up with tongs, placed it in his hands : he walked with it, step by step, the space of three gaz and a half, through each of the seven intermediate rings, and threw the ball in the ninth, where it burnt the grass that had been left in it. He next, to prove his veracity, rubbed some rice in the husk between his hands, 'which were afierwards examined, and were so far from being burned, that not even a blister was raised on either of them, Since it is the nature of fire to burn, the officers

* Ganesa. 1 ,

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Ither man Inging his ut a ring ; hand wag e value of

taining justice, or of enforcing a petition; founded, I suspect, on thefear of drawing down. punishment by injuring a Brahmin, by whom this species of importunity is chiefly practised. When a person wishes to gain a point that he has '

no other means of carrying, and therefore resoIves to sit in dherna, he places himself at the door of the person of whom it is to be obtained with a. dagger or poison in his hand, which he threatens to uge if thle master of the house goes out, or &tempts to molest him ; and ads ~o sin is CQJXL'

parable to that of causing the death of a Brahmin, the unfortunate person is thereby completely arrested. The Brahmin continues to sit fasting 3 and it is customary for the person arrested to fist also ; 60 that it generally happens that the prosecutor obtains his wish, partly by the dread of his death, and partly by his importunity. 1 believe e h i g custom properly belongs to the Brahmins:; but I recollect a curious instance of it among a lawer tribe in Bombay. Shortly after I went there, my tailor brought me a letter, intreating me to beg the magistrates to take away a man who &e in dherna at his door. On inquiring into the case, I found that it 'was to recover a wife. It geeins the prosecutor llaving a wife whom he was- unable to support, during a time sf scarcity, had mide her over to the tailor, who having a good blz$ness, was not only able to maintain her, n but 4x1 dress her 80 well, that in time of

able t o do a good deal of work, wished ta have her back ,again. Not being able to obtain her by' intreaty, he had recourse to the method by dherna, which I believe did not succeed, the tailor rather choosing to give him y a sum of money than to part with the lady.

Many. Brahmins obtain a subsistence from other Hindow by sitting in dherna before their houses ; but their demands in this case are s o moderate, as to be readily complied with. Some of the Pundits admit the validity of an obligation extorted by dherna, while others rej-ect it.

There i s another kind of extrajudicial method of extorting justice, called the koor- A circular pile of wood is erected, and on it is placed a COW, or an old woman, when the whole is set fire to at once. The object of this is to inti- midate the officers of government or others from importunate demands, the whole guilt of the sacrifice being supposed to fall on those who force the constructor of tho koor to adopt the cruel expedient. I

These two barbarous methods of obtaining justice, mark a greater degree of inseculity than the general tenor of the Indian laws and police would induce us to attribute to the state of society in ancient India. It is probable, therefore, that they had their origin during the civil wars,

f obtaining :curity than 3 and policg state of 80-

5, therefore, : civil wars,

-. LETTERS ON INDlA, IOY

which desolated that country for Somé time previous to the Mussulman invasion, or were

' borrowed from some of the savage. tribes who occasionally made thek inroads f'rom the North. Some other circumstances seem to give colour to such a supposition-such as the murder of innocent persons, in order that their ghosts may haunt an enemy, Of this crime, you will find several instances. detailed in the twenty-second article of the ninth volume of the Asiatic Re- searches, but which are tóo shocking t o dwell upon : however, I cannot help noticing thce custom which prevailed in some of the Raj- poot tribes, o€ putting to death their female infants.

It was only in the year 1789 that this custom was known to prevail ; and shortly afkerwards, measures were taken to induce them by arguments sanctioned not only by natural feeling andl humanity, but also by the religion they pro- fess, to enter into an agreement to bring up their female children. Happily, this measure was productive of the best effects, and it is probable, that at present the custom scarcely exists.

Here is a very long letter ; I onIy hope it may entertain, or rather interest you, and that my endeavours to shew the Hindûs, upon the whole, in a more favourable light than you allow them to deserve, or that I confess I once thought

108 ’ LETTERS ON INDIA.

them worthy of, will not have entirely failed : at the same time we see them men, and men fallen from a high state of civilization to one the ‘most humiliating, with all the train of vices which that humiliation i s calculated to produce.

But we must not forgit what they were once. Athens herself, alas ! groans under the sway of 8 Turkish Jaaissary ; and the cc mather of arts and eloqucnce’’-she who wm c c native to fiæ mous wits, or hospitable”-now languishes in &er ruins ; and instead of the voice of commerce in, her streets, and o f the Muses in her groGes, echoes only the pitying sigh of the traveller. If indeed her genius still survives, and watches over her august ruins, she has been soothed by one bright gleam, which has shone upon her f iom our North, though it has been but; to gild her ,tomb,-

’Tia Greece-but living Grccce 110 more ! So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start ;-for soul is wanling thcrc. Hers is the loveliness in death That parts not quite with parting breath : But beauty with that fearful bloom, That hue which haunts it to the tomb- Expression’s last recediag ray, A gilded halo hovering round decay,

~ T h e farewell beam of feeling past. away ! spark of that flame-perchance of heav’nly birth- which !&%XI& but warms no more its cherisb’d. ebth !

- 1 . G140UR. ,

Iy failed : and men tl to one train of

dated to


LETTER VIL

You will think me very presumptuous when I tell you 1 am going to mention the Indian astronomy in this Letter : but I measure my endeavours to give you the little information I have myself, by the curiosity I kaow you to ,

poss.ess, rather than by my abilities.- Of all the sciences cultivated.by man, astroœ

nomy is that which seems to raise him highest in the scale of beings. Sfiblilne as the heavens in which it is conversant, it seems to detach him from earth, and to place him is the midst of beauty, order, and harmony. The magnificent vault of heaven, studded with its brilliant gems, revolving in ceaseless and silent course, must naturally have attracted the earliest regards of

I man ; and to trace the progress of astronomy from its first rudo observations, would. be to follow the history of human progress fiom the beginning of the world.

,It was natural that tho remains of a profound knowledge of the laws of the heavenly bodies, with exact and perspicuous rules for calculating their phanornena, when first discovered in India,

LETTERS ON INDIA.

should have attracted no common share of attention from the European philosophers. But on examination, the state df astronomy in modern India exhibits the same melancholy traces of decline and ruin which are discernible in every other science which once1 flourished in that venerable country.

The antiquity which may be assigned to the Indian astronomy has been disputed ; but the general conclusion, drawn from the most respectable .authorities, gives its earliest recorded observations in fiom three to four thousand years before the Christian æra. The arguments of those who contend that the Indians received their

I astronomy fiom the Greeks or Arabs, are refuted by the fact, that though the astronomers of Greece had every advantage over those of Hin- dostan, excepting what they derived froxn the antiquity of their science, they fell into grrom which I the Hindûs entirely avoided ; to which may be added, that the calculus of the Hindûs, more correct than that o f Greece, agrees in its delineation of tbe heavens at a remote period with the improved state of astrol nomy ìn modern'Europe. Of the many proofi,

.however, of the originality of the science in Kindostan, the most remarkable i s the rectifi- cation of the circle, the rule for comp&ng the


length of its circumference, being used in India before it was known in Europe".

The existence of the Indian astronomy was not known in Europe till M. de la Loubere, ambassador of Louis XIV. at the court of Siam, brought with him to Rance some tables 'and rules for calculating the places o f the sun ancl moon, which were examined by Cassini, who bore testimony ,to their accuracy. Other tables were sent to Paris by the French missionaries ; and M. le Gentil, on his return from India, where he had been to observe the transit of Venus, A. D. 1769, brought with him another set of tables, and the Indian methods of calculating ; and in 1787, M. Bailly p'ublished his As- tronomie Indieme, while in I 789 Mr. Playfair's paper on the same subject appeared in the Edin- burgh Transactions. Such was the' state- .of' knowledge on this highly interesting subject when the Asiatic Society was establisbed. Since that time, the volumes of their Researches havi been enriched with a variety of papers on the Indian astronomy, from which I take the facts I write to you, in hopes that though I understand nothing whatever of the science rnyselc you,may be induced, in the East, t o go

* See Mr. Davis's paper, in the second volume of the Asiatic

u

Reaearches, 8

L

112 Ll?,TTERS ON INDIA.

on with studies in which J know you have already made some progress.

,The Hindû books on astronomy have the ge- nerd name, of the Jyotish Sastras, in which are t o be discovered traits of a bright light, which must have illumined mankind at so very early a period, that M. Bailly seems to doubt whether we shouId not regard them as remains of ante- diluvian‘science, fiagrnents of a system that is lost, and whose ruins only serve t o excite our admiration

The Surya Sidd’hanta* seem3 to be the Jyod ‘Eish Saatri af highest authority, if it be not the old& It is said to have been revetileil by Surya, or the sun, t o the sage Meya, according to some about the year of the world 1956. The obliquity of the ecliptic is stated in it to be %O,

which, if founded an actual observation at the time of‘ compiling that Sastra, would conlirm its qupposed antiquity.

The Hindû didsìon of the zodiac into signs

* Abd PazdeJ in the Ayeen AlcberiJ cnamcratm nine bidd’hantas or treatises on astronomy: 181, tila Brallm+ Sid(1’. hanta; M, Swrya Bidd’hanta’; 3d, Sorna Sidd’hanta; &Il,

’ Vrihaepnti Sidd’hanta ; 5th, Goorg SicldJllallpd ; &II, Nar& Sidd’hanto ; Yth, Parasarn Sicld’lwtta ; 8t.11, Poolugtya hanta; 9th Vashidltha Sidd’hanta, But there are nlally other h a t h e s on $e subject, either origil~nl tvorks 01: c o a ~ c n - taries on the ancient boah.

4%

’J

1

h

o z

114 LETTERS ON INDIA*

silver, brazen, and iron ages, among the western poets.

The really learned Jyotish Pandits have just notions of the figure of the earth, and of' the œconomy of the universe ; but they, in appearance, agree with the popular notions on these asubjects-such as, that eclipses me caused by a Monster who occasionally interposes his head or his tail (Cetu and R a h , or the ascending and descending nodes) between the earth and the sun and moon ; and that the earth is a plain, supported on the backs-of elephants, resting on

- it tortoise, and other equally puerile superstitions.

But to ieturn to the Jyotish' Brahmins : one of their methods for finding the latitude is by an observation of the PaZablEa, or shadow projected fiom a perpendicular gnomon, when the sun is in the equator ; and the longitude is directed to be found by observation o f lunar eclipses, calculated for the first lneridiitn, which the Surya Sidd'hanta malces pass over Lanca Rohítaca, Avanti (now Ougein) and Sannihita- saras. In the Surya Sidd'hanta, the nícthod of observing the places o f the stars is bricRy hinted, LC The astronomer should f h m e a sphwe, and dmine the uppareat latitude and longitude." Cotn- mentators on this passage describe the method of making the observation, * They direct IC 3pheu

LETTERS ON INDIA. l15

rical instrument (golayantra*) to be constructed. On the pins of *he axis of the sphere must be suspended an intersecting graduated circle, which appears to be a circle of declination. *The golayantra is then rectified; so that the axis points to the pole, and the horizon is true by a water level. CC The instrument being thuB

* This is an armillary sphere. Various directions for constructing it occur in different astronomical books of fie EIindfig, among olh& in the Sidd'hanta Siromani, by Bhascara an astronomer, who flourished in the twelfth' century of the Christian m a . But there is one contained in the Surya Sidd'm hanta as follows, in a literal translation.

Let the astronomer frame the surprjsing structure of the, terrestrial and cclestial spheres.

I Having caused a wooden globe to be made (of such size) as he pleasa, to represent the earth j with a staff for the axis, passing through the centre, and exceeding the globe at both ends ; let him place the supporting hoops as also the equinoc-1 tia1 circle.

68 Three círc'les must be prepared (divided for signs and den grees) the radius of which must agree with the respective diurnal circles, in proportion to the equinoctial: the three circles should be placed for the ram and following signs, ree rspectively, at the proper declination in degrees north or south ; the same answer contrariwise for the Crab 'and otl~er~signs. In like mamer three circles are placed in the southern hcmi- sphere for the Balance and the rest, and contrariwise for Ca- pricorn and the remaining signs. Circles are similady placed on both hoops, for the asterisms in both hemispheres, as also for Ahh@t, and for the seven Rishis, Agusqa, &Crhme, auld other ßtars.

116 LET’X’ERS ,ON INDIA.

placed, the observer is instructed to Iook at the star Revati thronih a &ht fitted to m orifice at the centre of the sphere ; and having found the star, t o adjust by it ’the end of the sign Pisces on the ecliptic. The observer is then t o look, through the sight at: tlle chief (ybga) star of‘ Aswini, or any other proposed object, and to

CI In the mid& of all these circlcs is placed tbc equinoctial. At t h e intersection of that and the supporting hoop, and distant from each other Inlf the signs, the two equinoxes should be determined, and tlk two solstices, at the degree of obliquity €corn the ,equinoctial ; and ille places of t h I h n and the reit, in the order of the s ips , should be adjusted by the strings or the curve, Anither circle, thus passing from equinox to equinox, is named the ecliptic : and by tbiN path, tbe sun ilhminating worlds, for ever travels. The moon a l h othcr planets are seen deviating fiom their nodes in the ecliptic, to the extent of their respective irentest latitudes (within the

The author proceeds to notice t h rclation of thc grcnt circles beforementioned to the horizon ; and observes, that, whatever piace be assumcd for t h aper of thc spherc, the middle of the: heavens for that place is ils horizon. H C concludes by shewing that the instrument may Ire macle to rcvolvc with regularity by means of a current of water ; and hints that the appearance of spontaneouo nlotion may IIC given by n concealed mechanism, for which cpicksilver is t o be cm- ployed.

Mr. Golebrooke’s Essay 011 t h Indian and Arabian divisions of the Zodiac, Asiatic Regearches, vol. IX. From thal, geilde- man’s and &Tre Davis’s papers 1 take with very littlc exception d l that I have presumcd to my on the eubjcct of Imlim astronomy.

, Zodiac.)”

T

,

. . . . * -


bring the moveable circle of declination over it,. The distance in degrees, from the intersection of this circle and the ecliptic to the end of Pisces (Mina), is its longitude in degrees ; and the number o f degrees on the moveable circle of declination fiom the point of intersection to the place of the star, is its latitude. These latí- tudes and longitudes of course require correc- tion, for which some rules are given ; but, I imagine, the manner of' observing will be sufficient for yotl at present. Another Inode is taught in the Sidd'hanta Sundara", and expound-

# cc A tube adapted to the summit of a gnomon, is directed towards the star on the meridian ; and the line of the tube, pointed to the star, is prolonged by a tbead to tile

n ground. The line from the summit of the. gnomon to the base is the hypotl1enuse, the beight of the gnomon is the perperrdi- cidar, and its distmce from the extremity of the thread is the base of the triangle. Therefore, as the hypothenuse is to its base, so is the radius to a base, from which the sine of the angle and the angle itself are known. If it exceed thelatitude the declirmtion is south ; or, if the contrary, it is north. The right ascension of the star is ascertained by calculation from tllc 11our of the night, and from the right ascension of the sun for that time, The declination of the corresponding point of thc ecliptic being found, the Rwn or difference o€ the de-

~ clinations, according m they arc of the same or diffèrent denominations, is the distoncc of the star from the ecliptic. The longiludc of the game. point is computed ; and from t h e eje- mcnts, with the actuul precession of the equinox, rnay be calculated the true longitude of the star; as also itslalitude on 8 circle passing throrxgh the polrs of the idiptic;'-Mrb COLEUBOOKL

I


ed in the Sidd’hanta Sarvabhanma, the only work in which the true latitudes and longitudes of the stars are atternpted‘to be given. -

The ndtion oia polar star common to tlle Indian ’and Greek astronomers could not be taken from the present polar star in the Little Bear ; Bailly konjectúres. that one of the stars in the Dragon” was the polar star mentioned by Eudoxus, which was nearest t o the pole 1326 years before Ckrist ; and it is possible, that either that, or the great star in the same constelhtion-f which

‘was within one degree of thc pole 2836 years. before Christ, may be the polar star of the ancient Hindû astronomers,

The Hind& have a divisioli of the ecliptic and zodiac into twelve signs or constellations,

e agreeing in figure and designation with those of t he Greeks, and cliflering merely in the place of‘ the constellations which are carried by them a W e further to the westward than by the Greeks. But; their most ancient distribution of thc cclip.. tic was into twenty-seven parts, nearly agreeing with the Manzi1 or mansions of the ]noon used by the Arabs, who might eithcrhnve borrowcc2 it; from the Hindûs, or derived it fiom the same corn- mon Source of some more ancient astronompt.

c

:onis. x r n Joncs's pa- :ic Researches,

rneshd


The principal star of each Nacshatra is called Yogatara, but they are not the same with the Yogas which regard astrology, and are also employed in regulating moveable feasts. The yoga is a mode of indicating the sum of the lon- . '

gitudes of the sun and moon ; the rules given,for its computation make it obvious that the yogas are twentyseven divisions of 360' of a great circle measured on the ecliptic. The twenty-' eight yogas of the astrologers correspond with the nacshatras, but vary according to the day of

Mesha.. ...... .the Ram. TuZn.. .......... the Balance. V d i a . . ....... the Bull. Vrishchicn . ..,.the Scorpion. Mitluna ...... the Pair. Dltanrrs ..l ..... t h e Bow. Carcatu ........ the Crab. ICfucara ...... ,the Sea Mbnster. SinHu .......... the Lion. C u ~ ? d h U ........ the Ewer. Canya ......... the Virgin. fifina.. ......... the Fish. The figures ofthese twelve mterisms are thus described in x

translation by Sir William, from the Retnnmala of &Speri: The Ram, BuZI, Cd, Lion, and Scorpion have the figures

of those five animals respectively : tlle Pair arc ;z damsel playing on a vina, and a youth wielding B mace : the Vi~gilt stand5 on a boat in water, holding in o w hand a lamp, ancl in the other an ear of rice-corn : the Balance is held by a weigher with a weight in one hand : the Boto hy an archer whose hinder parts werelike those of a horse : the Sea Monster has the face of an antelope : the Bwcr is a water-pot: borne on the shoulders of a man who empties it : the Fish are two with . their heads turned to each other's tails ; and all these me supposed to be in such places as suit their several natures. '

Tbe lunar mansions, Nacshatras, from Mr. Colebrooke's most interesting paper, are

NhtlXS

3 80 LETTERS ON INDIA.

is divided into three dreshcanaa, and over these divisions thirty-six guardians are appointed whuse figure and habit are described- minutely : these

. . ,

I Asmini ..... .I horse's liead ....... 3. .C+ Aric:tia. . 9 Bharani.. ......................... 3. .RTusca. 3 Kritico. ..... .n knife. .............. (i. .+I Ttwi, Plciaciea. 4. Rahini. ..... .a whecl-carringc ...... 5 , .I* Tauri, Aldebarall. 5 Miigasiras .. .an mtelope'e hcad. .... 3, . X Orionia. . G 'Ardra ...... .n .pm. ............... i. .a Orionirs.

LETTERS ON INDIA. 12.1-

termining fortu'nate and unfortunaie days or Ilours, and the figures of their guardians are in- scribed on amulets or other charms, They cor- Espond not only with the Decani of the Greeks, but with the Rab d Wajeh of the Arabs who were not less addicted to judicial astrolag9 than the Hindûs.

A modern Hindû will upon no account under- take EI jdnrney or an enterprise of any kind without consulting the astkologer, and you may 'remember b a t I meniioneil him as one of t h twelve chief persons in a village, where his-office is to declare the proper times for the different operations of agriculture, to adjust, the calendar for religious festivals, besides the proclamation of lucky and unlucky days, All of which, after all, ody proves that men we the same in every climate: and under every circumstance : the au- gurs of Greece and Rome, the soothsayers of Israel, and the conjurors o f modeh Europe, like the astrologers of' Hindostan, had equally the credulity of their fellow-mortals to work upon, .and as a knave sometimes ends in being XI great a dupe as tllosc he deceives, the deception that was began from interested motives zriay be car-

' ricci on' with the good faith of superstition. t T~US the most snblime science that the mind

of man ever aspired to grasp, has been nlade subscr&nt td purposes the most ridiculoL1s, M if

1

3 '

LETTERS ON INDIA.

poor human nature was destined to be humbled even where she might justly have exalted herself. Thank Heaven thé days of the triumDh of astrology in the West are over,

L - -

and there is little danger ofour seeing anarmy run away fn consequence of a bad omen, or a general keep his tent-because of an unlucky conjunction of the stars! T h e lights of heaven now shine with beneficent lustre to guide the mariner over the tracHess deep, and the c‘ bands of Orion and the sweet influences of the Pleïades*” cheer the traveller as he wanders on th roqh distant 118-

fions, imparting and receiving kn’owledge. The industry and ability of Mr. Strachey has

lately firaished us with a translation of a Sanscrit 8

work on algebra, called Bija Gannîta, written by Bhascara Acharya about the year 1188 of our era. The work appears to have been written with a view to astronomy, and seems to have been compiled fiom more ancient materials : I would fain refer you entirely for an account of‘ it to the Edinburgh Review for July 18 13, where, among other curious remarks, you will find a,

very ingenious’ explanation of the use of the word C ~ O U T S for unknown quantities. As the operations of arithmetic received the name of

’ * If the translation be true, thestars were named and cIaswd ,

in Egypt and Chaldca before the time of Moses, since thc book of Job is as old a8 that lawgiver.

>

sions arl watches, the seas ghurr eel

be humbled zxalt e d her- e triumph of ;here is little way in con- :rai keep his :tiin of tI1e ine with beer over the ’ Ol-ion and

cheer the distant Ham

edge- trac12 ey 1.1 as fa Sanscrit ita, written 11’ l 188 of been writ.

m s to have 1nteriaXs : I acco r x n t of

3 13, where, will find a use of the s. A s the le name of

ed and classed xes, since tbc

UTTERS ON INDIA. 1 23

cahlus from the pebbles with which they were carried on before the invention of numerical signs, so the unknown quantities of‘ the Indian algebra must have received those of the colours from the use of different coloured shells, flowers, or pieces of cloth, when the first rude- essays towards inventing the science were made. This may rationally be considered as a collateral proof of the originality of the Hindt algebra; but there appear to be others much more direct in ,

the solutions of various difficult problems given in- the Bija Gannita, some of‘ which .continued t o be unknown in Europe until the time of Euler, which could scarcely have been the case if th& had been derived from the Greek and Arabian writers, whose works are the foundation of moa dern science. But I am so ignorant on this subject, that I have written even the name of algebra in fear and trembling, and only ventured to do so as an excuse to tell you where you might look for the best account- of it in its Indian guise that we yet possess in this country,

The mode of dividing time in India is very unequal, as it depends on the seasons and come- quent length of day and night : the great divisions are four day watches and four I night watches, each of which must of coursc vary with the season; but the watches are subdividcd into ghurrees which are fixed, and contain twentp

. adjusted astronamicdy by an astrolabe, the ghurree d e e or watchman strikes the ghurree +th a wooden mallet on a shdlow belbmetal pan, like those we bring fiom China under the name of gongs, and. besides the number of the ghurree, that of the p h u r is rung at the end of each watch. The same bind of water measure, bat very delicately arranged, is used for astronomical purposes. None but great rnen can afford the luxury of a ghuwee al, or clock, as it

I requires the attendance of nume1*ous servants, and the only public cl.ocks in India are those atiached t o the armies;.

LETTER VIIII.

c


In the first place, the rich productions oftheir and the excellence of their tnanufac-

tures, would naturally draw a number of traders t o their cities, and as naturally lead them to travel with their merchandise, Besides, they beEeve that their ancestors came from the north, and it is certain that to this day several places in Tmtary are visited by pilgrims as places of worship ; and Mr. Duncan, the late governor of Bombay, told me he had seen one who had even been to Moscow on a similar errand". A pretty regular intercourse has been at au times kept up between India and Samarkand, Balkh, and other northern cities where there are colonies of Hindûs, established from time immemorial; and one of the great pilgrimages fiom Hindostan is t o the place called the Fiery Mouth, on the. borders of the Caspian Sea. I

We must not wonder that, in the early stages of society, the recitals of pilgrims and ~ner&ants concerning remote countries, should have been embell'shed not ody by themselvea, but by those who took 'upon them to record : and preserve them ; and hence, in all probability, arose part, at least, of'the absurdity we remark in tItlle Hindû systems of geography.

J

l

i lofty mou found in F Thibet, on the west t1 mountains this raised old continr

North a

*

:tions of their Leir manufaca ber of traders ead them to 3esides, they lm the north, 2ral places in laces of wora governor of .ho had even R. A pretty mes kept up I, and other colonies of lorial; and :indostan is th, on tho

I

:arly stages

have been ut by those .d preserve arose part, the Hind&

l merchants

LEWERS ON INDIA. IR

These ' systems differ considerably among themselves, even as related in the Puranas ; but, for the most part, they divide the earth into seven Dreripa, or islands, the first of which, Jarnbhu Dwipa, is evidently India itself, with the countries surrounding it, bounded on the east by the Yellow Sea, on the west by the Cas- pian, extending north as far as the Frozen Oceah, and washed on the south b y the Indian Sea +.

The Mount Meru occupies the centre of Jambhu Dwipa, and is described by the poets as composed of gold and precious gems, three- peaked, the habitation of the immortals, and fiorn it flow four rivers to the four quarters of the earth, among which the Ganges rolls through the southern quarter, and its source leads us to the true positíon of Meru, the base of which is the land of Illavrati, surrounded on all sides by lofky mountains. Now this' inclosed land is found in Western Tartary, havlng on the south Thibet, on the east the sandy desert of Cobi, on the west the Imaus, and on the north the Altai mountains ; and from the f0.w extremities of this raised plain four of the largest rivers of the old continent take their rise.

North and south of Meru three parallel ranges

See Edinburgh Review, April, 1808,

'LETTERS ON INDIA. 129

itself; after passing through the lake Arundi, (Orin~zpr) and is probably the WBang-ho, Ham-

I moren, or Yellow river. To the west of Mera lies mount Vipula, an extension of Imaus ; and between it and the western sea, or Caspian, lies ,

the country of C'etumilri, cornprising Sogdiana, Bactriana, an'd Msrgiana, with part of the country of the S a c k A river, called in some Pu- ranas, the Chaxu, in others the Javanxu, (Oxus, or Jaxartes) after flowing through the lake Si- *odi, falls into the Caspian.

Major Wilfórd supposes the o h i six Dwipas to comprellend all the rest of Asia and Europe, even as f i r as Iceland, dividing those countries 2s follows :-Cuss chipa contains the countries from the Indus to the Caspian and the Persiali Guli$~.' Pkacsha dw@a occupied tlio space be- tweein. those sehs and the Mediterranean and Euxinc; op Lesser Asia, Armenia, Syria, &ce. ,S&&iZi d w i p fiom the Tanaîs to; Germany. GuZm7&2 dw&a contained Germany, FrancCl and the zitljhcent countries. Sacum the Britislí ,

islands, and Puslmzra chipa Iceland. This gentleman, whose lea14ned and ingbnious

works adorn the Asiatic Researches, has an idea &,t the British Ides are the sacred isles of the West, mentioned in the Sastras of the I3ndûs. Sl1o~ld tIlis opinion prove t o llave been udbund- ed, no one will regret, however, that Major

1

K

LETTERS ON INDIA.

Wilford, has been induced to entertain it; for tile researches in which he engaged, in order to supl. port it, 'have made us acquainted with the gee- graphical systems of the Hindûs, and. with the true situations of almost all the kingdoms and cities mentioned by ancient writers, both native

' Hindûs, and Greeks and Romans, whose descriptions are thus verified, and new confirma- tions added to history.

Of the books fiom which the Hindb systems of geography are to be learned, the Puranas are the chiec To each of these there is a book annexed, cded Bhuvana Cosha, lor dictionary of countries. Besides these, Major Wilford mentions several geographical treatises" of the orthodox Hindûs, and others of the h e s and Baudd'has. The Hindûs, as I before mentioned, consider Mount Meru as the center of the world; and some. of thcir books describe the seven dwipas as disposed in concentric circles around it, descending gradually fiom its summit, and separated fiom each other by seas, some of which' they imagine to be salt, others milky, or of the juice of the sugar cane,

A. LETTERS ON INDIA. 131

with other similar absurdities. The Baudd’- I( has of Thibet suppose Meru to be a square

pillar, and the dwipas, of course, square also; while others among the Baudd’has imagine the dwipas to be disposed ïn circles between Jarnbhu dwipa and Mount Meru, which they thus place at the north pole. This notion of the circular divisions of the earth with interposing seas, is not peculiar to the ancient Indians. Tile Hindûs make the sacred Ganges wind seven times round the base of Meru, thus ’forming the .

seven dwipas ; the . Baudd’ha’s sea of milk en- compasses the same mountain eight times, while the Styx” of the western mythologists wound nine times round the earth.

And with nine circling streams the captive souls inclosed. 43th Bncis.-Dgden,

The fables of the Edda agree áIs0 remarkably with these notions; and perhaps their coln- mon origin may be traced in Genesis, chap, IL v. 10.

‘C And a river went out of Eden to water the garden ; and fiom thence it was parted, and became into four heads.”

Hesiod, apeaking of the Styx, sap, I

Round and around earth and the ocean broad, W L 1 1 silver whirlpods mazy-rolled, at Pcllgth It falls into the main.

f i z nine streams,

!ll~cogon~.-Ellon’s Translation, 1

K 2


The four rivers af the Hindûs, into which; the Ganges separates, after circumambulating Meru, , are discharged fiom rocks hadng the faces of dlfferenk animals. Ganges descends fiom the c d s mouth, and is collected in. the lake Mana- Sarovara, to rest itself, diel: its faIl f i r n > Mem, b&re ib deseen& to earth. P h ~ y and Q. CU$- tius hoth nientiion this resting of the river in th& lake, tke usual name of which is Mapanh. B lies betmeen thirty-three and thirtyfour dmegrees of north latitude, and between eightyone and eighty-two of east bnghude. The Clraxur, the Sita,.arrd &e Bhadm, which E have heady men- tíoned; flow in like, manna tIm.oq11 &er heads of animals: the last thrtmgh #W of a &m, &e second through th-at of an elephaqt, and the first: through- that of a horse ; which different ani- mais are supposed to3 impaTt their characters to the, mations. watered By their st&ea.ms, afier their samed reposo in their appropriate lakes.

This, I fancy, will be a sufficient specimea of $he geography of the Hhda books : I slid1 therefore detain you no ronger with1 it, but, with the help of Major Wilford, anileavour ta reconcile the accounts af JindiaYs lefi u;s by the ancients of the West, with the actual positions of the places now existing, or whose remains can yet be traced; and afterwards the 9ncient divisions ~ t t b peninsula of' India, according to

I

LETTERS ON INDIA. . IS3

their own historians, with those to which we I are now familiarized.

I cannot do better, I believe, than begin by Major Wilfords account of the famous royal, or Nyssæan road, as described by Pliny and the Peutingerian tables. Some of the measures and distances given by the ancients, as they received their accounts , only by hearsay, are naturally enough wrong, though, upon the whole, they agree wonderfully well with the distances calculated by Màjor Rennell.

This road, according t o Dionysius Periegetes, was made out with great care, and at the end of every Indian itinerary measure a small column was erected. To accompany this description, I 8

send you a little map which I made for " y own use ; and, if not very'exact, it will at least Serve to show the general line of the road. The first part of this road, from the Indus to the Hy- phasis, is that pursued by Alexander in his espe- dition into India, and the rest is that leading to Palibothra, at that time the capital of the Hindû J

empire. Alexander crossed the Indus at the ferry of

Tor-Beilsm, or the black shore, to the westward of Peucolais, now Pirhola or Pücsuli, and advanced to Taxila, the true na-me of which was ITacsha Syala, or Tacshila. It is now completely in ruins, as well as a city which was built dn its

site' by the Mussulmans, and called Turru& Pehri. Thence he proceeded to Rotas, whose Hindû name was Hridu; and on to. the Hydas- pes, whose native names are Jailarn and Behat. Near the ferry there, was Alexandria Bucepha- los, remarkable for the neighbouring mountain, called bv Plutarch the mountain of' the. elephant, J - by which title it is stiill known, and is rem able as a holy place, whence it is commonly called Bal-Nath-Thileh, or the mountain of the lord elephant. He then crossed the Acesines, Chandra BhAga, or Chinab river, near the town called Spatura or Simtura by the Europeans, and probably the modern Sadhorah. The city of Lobaca, on the Hydmotes, or Ravi (the Ira- vati of the Puranas) was the next station. It is . the modern Lahore, whose real name is Lavaca or Labaca, fiom Lava or Laba,asonofRarna, and Lahore is corrupted from Lava-wara, the place of Lava.

From Lahore the road crossed the Hypllasis or Beyn, and the Zadadrus or Sataclru rivers, to the town called Tahorn in the Peutinkerian tables, and now Tehoura or Tihotra ; thence to K e - PorcII, really C'hettri-wars, the capital of a powerfLd tribe of C'hettris or Xetries, who lived ia a beautiful and woody country, whom Pliny calls Cetriboni, fiom Xetri-ban, the forest of Xetries. Ketrora is now Tanehsar. From K+

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tr01-a the mad led to the Jumna, which it crossed at Cunjpoora, and to the Ganges at Hustina- Pour, the true situation of which was first discovered by Major Wilford. This magnificent capital, the seat of the monarchs descended from Puru, had been supposed, by Abu Fazzle and his followers, t o have stood near Tanehsar, t o the west of the Jumna ; but its true situaticm is a few miles south-west of Darinagar, on B l

branch of the Ganges, formerly thebed of that .

river. It is the Bacinora of the Peutingerian . i 1 : tables, and the Storna of Ptolemy. Bacinora is i

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nymous with Hastinagara or Hasthapoor. Of SO large a city, there now remains only a small place of worship, anil the site of the city is covered with large ant-hills. T h e next stage fiom Hastinapoor was the Rodaplrs of' Pliny and 'che Rapphe of Ptolemy, now called Hur- dowah, fiom which Calinipaxa, properly Callini- basa, of which there is no remains but the river t11a.t gave it name, led to Allahbad, called Gangapor, or the town o f the Ganges by Ar- temidorus. From Allahabaci to Palibothra the road. lay dong the southern bank o f the Ganges ; and I'tolemy gives the following statioas: Flrsl, -tile river TUSO, now the Touse.; thence to C h - &a, now Cauntee, on the banks of the Ganges, almost opposite to GOOPY Gnnge, which, h u g h

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a corruption of I-Izzstinora or Wastinora, syno- r J

LETTERS ON INDIA.

e been so forœ is considerably

M e r Cauntee, two cities, called Sagala, are Spentianed, one of which is Mirzapoor, and the other Monghir. Thèse places are said to have 8 subterraneous communication, n opened by lightning, which may account' for their 13aving the same name, while both the qncient Srtnacrit and modern names are different. T h e tp .e name for the first, Sagala, i s Vindhya Vasini, and of the second Mudgala. The first is a name of the goddess Cali, and the second descriptive of the charms of the situatiaq. From Sagala I

the distance is short to Palibothra or BJiputra, called also .Raja Grìha. There is every reasgn t o believe that the Baliputras, or song of Bdi, whose capital Palibotlm was, abandoned it as soon as the kings of Gaur or Bengal became powerful, as it was too near their fiontier ; and they afierwards fixed their residence at Padlns- vati or 13atna, which had also the names of &fal gad'ha, Elimaied, and Almaied,

extends over a space of 1,476 British miles at least, meqtioned by the Western ancients 5 but the regular gad, instead of beginsisg wit13 *be %X EiRilarn, probablF crossed the Indus, at Atto& ~ e n t ~ & ~ 3 few m&s $rthar to the noxtb,

YOÚ have here the great Indian road,

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IXTTERS ON INDIA. 137

rbolemy mentions some other roads used by the traders to China ; one of which departed frQm Cabolitm, or Cabul, and Went through the mountains north of the Panjab, where it was joined by one from Tahora, at a point called Aris, in the mountains of Haridwar. These two roads are frequented to this day, and the place of meeting càlled Khama lang. The road then goes to Aspacora, in Thihet, mentioned by Ptolemy, where it met with another from the Gang& provinces, and passed through Parthona, 'now Kelten, with the epithet af Panjuling, whence, perhaps, the Paliana of Ptolemy. This road ends, in the tables at Magsris, corruptly for the Thogaris of Ptolerny, now Tonkar, near Lassa.

The road from the Gangetic provinces caule from a place called Canina or Cartasina, now Carjuna, near Burdwar; thence through S&- baru, now Cucshubaru, ta Aspacora, which it is probave was the rendezvous also of the cara- vans which, according to Pliny, went by land fro111 Ceylon, or Taprobme, to China.

1 have marked these routes on my little map, $n wl~ich I have abstained from putting any vames but those absolutdy necessary.

The first, division of India, which I noticed while 'speaking of thc languages of Hindostan, is into the five Gaurs and the five Ilraviras, and


concerning these authorities nearly agree. That they really formed separate states, I should think

-gdmitted of no doubt, as they each had a separate language, which had been) cultivated by poets, if' not by prose writers ; and a nation must have been ldng consolidated and independent before it could form its language and pohsh us Style ; and, on thls account, 1 Chuse to begin +th this division rather than with those which have obtained in later times, but which 1 shall notice.

The first of these nations was named from the principal river which flowed through their COU^

try, namely, .the Sareswata; They prubably occupied all the Panjab aa far west as the Indus, and bounded to the south by Guzerat, In this tract w.e find Lahore, Multan and part of Aj- mere, and that portion of Dchli, which contains Hissar Firoze, which 3: mentioned to you before, on account af its canals. This country is particularly interesting, as it contains the whoIo space marched over by Alexander, and the murse of his fleet down tl>e Hydaspes and Indus to the ocean.

The Canyacubjas, whose capital was Canogre", qppear to have been a warlike nation, and ocm

4 !W 10' N. Lat. and 790 50' E. Long,

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casionally to have carried their arms, and ex- I

tended their dominion, over great part of india, I so that it would be difficult to fix their bound-

ary, especially as the language formed upon theirs is understood over almost the whole of Hindostan and the Deccan. Their dominion, however, may be considered as extending over part of the province of Deldi, with Oude, Agra, Serinagur, and, probably, Ahhabad and Kash- rneer. It was bounded on the north by the Hi-

Jumna, Ganges, Serju, and other rivers ; and it was also watered by the Sinde, Chumbul, Tonsa, and Sona, from the Ricksha hills. 1 slmuld be inclined to think this kingdom the paradise of Brahminism. Canoge itself is situated on the Holy Ganga. I Delhi,. anciently Indrapati, or the city of Indra, occupies a station, l i t i Ie iderior in sanctity, on the Jumna. Hasthapoor, the residence of the kings of Puru's race, sur- !

rounded by its sacred groves, and washed by 8

the daughter of Jahnu (Ganges) divided with Csnoge the honours of the capitid ; and the two I ! holy cities, Gungapoor (Allahabad) and Casi (Benares) still pride themselves on their antiquity and sanctity.

Mait'hila, or Tirhut, extended from the Cusi (Cazdsica) to the Gundhttc (Gandhaca) and from the Ganges to the mountains of' Nepaul,

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/ maleyah, or snowy mountains, whence flow th0


and contained the modern Sircars of TirIlut, and the adjoining districts o f Wajipoor, Betnah, and perhaps Teriani. Its ancient capital was Tir- hut, or Tirhucti, celebrated for its race of Brslh- &IS, its schools, and its learning.

Gaurs, or Bengala, extended over the province of Bengal, and probably part of Bahar, the ancient Maghada, whose monarchs succeeded to those of Canoge, if they were not the same race, in the extensive dominion they possessed in India. This province formed part of‘ the kingdom of the Prasii, or Prachii (people of the East,) whose capital, the famous Palibothra (Baliputra) occupied the place of the modem Rajemahl, and was only abandoned for- Patali Putrs, or Fatna, when the kings of Gaur Proper began to emerge. fioun obscurity, and fixed their residence at the city of Gaur, on the opposite side of the Ganges.

Utcala, or Odradesa, now the Subah of Orissa, extended along the duxes of the bay of Bengal fiom Balasore to Point Godavery, and inland, as far as Sammdpoor; it comprehended the Corn- c

pa~y’s provinces of Mednapaor, Cuttack, and the Circars, and the Nizam’s cguntries of Sin& boom, Mol1urgunge, Gangpoor, and Sumbul- $oar. It is watmed by several fins rivers, the .chief of which is, the Mahanuddy. On the low .sandy share ;gtandpl the celebrated Jaggernaut Pa- ‘

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goda, where Crishnsa is worshipped under the figure and attributes of Jagnaut'h. The province of Cuttach is low and swampy, and I as- s'txre you, from experience, that the coast is not the most agreeable in the world for navigators. Point Palmyras is only discovered, when within dangerous distance, by the tops of the,Palmysa trees, whence ít takes its name ; ànd fiom thence begin tbe sand-heads, as they are called, am as- gemblage of Rhoah continually shifting, a~ $he matter brought down from the interíor by th6 rivers that fall into the head of the bay inireaises. A number of pilot-vessels continually eruize in the neighbourhood, to conduc6 ships' bound fo2 Calcutta up the Iloogley, which, without them, would be inaccessible, as nothing but experience can eaable men to perform the navigatioa with, safety. The inhabitants of Ori~ah, and theid Ibguage, wete aQciently called. Umig~.

Dravîra extends f'rom Cape Comorin to be- .tiweed twelve and" thirteen degrees of north latitude, and comprehends Madura; Travancore, and the intellmediate provinces up do Mysore and the CarnaGc, part of each of which ara within it4 Bomndary. Xt i3 watered by the Ca- very, which; &&n. tfie Sahp hills, ol: that part of tlle Ghauts, near Poona, and by several tributary streams. which flow from the mozzntains of MaIaya and* Mahendra, This country Bas bee*

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famous fiom the spirit and enterprise of its mountain tribes, the extreme beauty of its landscape, and above all, for the great place of Hindu pilgrimage, which rivals if it does not exceed even JaggernaÜt,-I mean Ramisserarn; situated on a point at the head of the Gulf of Manar, and appearing to communicate with Ceylon by the little chain of islands which the Hindûs call Rama's Bridge, but which the Mussullmans, and after them the Christians, have transformed

indefatigable HanumAn made a road for the armies of Rama Chandra, when he invaded Ceylon, whence the sacredness o f the place and the yearly offerings to Ráma. The western part of Dravira is remarkable, as the country o f the Christians of India, and on its coast is Calicut, where the first Europeans, under Vasco de Gama, visited India by way of the Cape of Good Hope.

North of Dravira was the kingdom of Carna- taca, which has given name both to theCarnatic on the east, and Canara on the west coast ; it occupied the rest of the Mysore and the Car- natic, and the shores of Choromandd or Shola Mandel (the coun&y of Shola,) on which stood the'farnous city of Maha Bali Pooram,, now better known as a sea-mark by the name of the Seven Pagodas, and presenting, even in its ruins,

LETTERS ON INDIA. I43

marks of early grandeur. Its sculptured rocks and antique buildings are among the most curious monuments in India.

On the sandy shore, beside the verge Of ocean here and there, a rock-hewa fane

Resisted i n its strength the surf and surge That on their deep foundations beat in vain.

' In solitude the ancient temples stood, Once resonant with instrument and song,

Now, as the weary ages pass along,

Which roars for ever on the restless shores ;

The lonely sound of winds, that moan around

And solemn dance of festive lndtitude:

No voice they hear, save of the ocean flood

Or, visiting their solitary caves,

Accordant to the melancholy waves. Southey's Curse of Kclsama.

Tailingana extended over the country be- "

tween the Kistna and Godavery, and even beyond them on either side, and lay between Odradesa, Muru, and Camataca, and probably contained part of the provinces of Bejapoor and Alxrungzbad, with Beder and Nydrabad. Its three rivers, t h Godavery, Kistna, and Beema, are sacred. It is part of the Deccan, properly so called, aud was the seat ofthe great Mahomedan kingdom of'Bejapor, under the Bhamani dynasty. Its mountains and forests f.ilrnis11 the scenery of some of the great poems of' the Hiqdfis and ,

L E T ~ R S OK INDIA.‘ 14.5”

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LETTERS ON INDIA.

Allahabad; Oude, Agrnere, Ahmedabad, Ba- har, .Bengal, Delhi, Cabul, Lihore, Multan, and Mdwa; and upon the conquest of Candeìsh, Berar, and Ahmedmggur, they were formed into three other soubahs, though their limits were d~ t . precisely defined.

I Abu Faze1 begins his account of the Souballs with that of Bengal, in which he includes ’

Orissa and Cuttack, with the country to the south-east, as far as Chitigong. He describes the country as rich in the extremeh and particularly mentiQns that the revenue W ~ M paid in gold, and silver, and not ,in produce ; and that Akbar, in the assessment, conformed to. the established cus&m, The periodical rains begin in April, and continue about six months, with intervals, however, of cl~azming weather.

Bahar, lying west of Bengal, and watered by the Ganges and bane, was also very fertile, and paid its proportion of produce in money, and ,

the raìuy season is the stwe as in Bengal, Th,e naqves ,of thia province, to &o north of the Ganges, on &e banks of the Gunduck, are diiiated vith a kitld of gof’d, ancl the historian of Akbar observes, that young people w e most

The capital of the soubah o f Allahstbad i s a town ‘ o f the same namo, but anciently called Fiymg or Gangapuri : it is called the kiner d

I rrtzy dected. l

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LI$TTERS ON INDIA. 147

worshipped, places, because the Ganges and Jumna meet there ; and it is said that tile. Sa-. mwata joins them at that place by a subterraneous channel. Like the other Gangetic ',provinces, it appears in the time of Akbar to llave been not onIy fertile but highly cultivated, abounding in towns and villages, and flaurisljing manufactures.

Oude, watered by the Goggra or Safjew, and $be ,GQomty, is remwked by Abu Fwd fw the perfection of its agriculture, its manufacture of earthen ware, and the flourishing state of. its Cacmerce, as well as the antiquity and sanctity of its capital. In the soubah of Agra were mives Q f copper, and hot and cold springs. It produces excelient sugar and indigo, and:ww celebrated for its. agriculture and i@ manufkc$heH of bladets and fine std'i.

The clivate of Malw& is described as charmœ ing-in Summer cool, and in winter temperate ; abounding with wheat and fiuits ; the co~ntry naturally beaut;iful, and ornamented with build- iqp, ancl the people warlike, One .province, GpSr&, is noticed as paying its share afthe R- venue in money.

Candeisb, called ín the Ayeen Akbery %n- +) $ a rich province, 'abounding. in rivers,

v A &ampliment to the prince'Danie1, son of Akbar, Who W= its governor wbea Abu Faze1 wrote ; bui on ille death" bf nanie], the mw name was dropped, and the old one resumed.'

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its capital mòs'ques, royal. p eri West fiom consideral of Cutch j Sinde, fu1

South o from the 0

Aramray khabited Juzzet 01 favourite distingui charums, minstrel genealog by eloqul gera COT

hundred thirteen

Agme tuated t{ and wati tense. ' contains ing rom: holder S,

FazeL A Khuljee;

cbarums,.' whose profession is, like that of a minstrel or troubadour, to sing hymns, recite genealogies, and in battle to anímate the troops by eloquence and song. Abu Faze1 says,.Gur- '

gern contains nine circam, divided into one hundred and ninety-eight pergunnas, of which thirteen are sea-pdrts.

Agrnere contains seven pergunnas ; it is situated to the west of Agra. The soilïs .sandy, and water scarce, and the summer heat. is in- tense. The southern part is mountainous, and contains mines of iron and .copper. The following romantic story of some of the ancient landholders, called Rawel or Rama, is told by Abu Fazel, Ancient historians relate, that Alla o' dien Khuljee, king of Dehli, hearing that Rawel ,

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156 LETTERS ON INbIA.

Rutten Sein, of Meywar, had 8 wife of uncommon beauty, sent to demaad her of him. The Itawe1 refused to part with her, ?pon which the army of the sultan besieged- him in Chitore, where he h&í out so long, that Alla O' dien had '

- at length xccoume to artifice, and offered peace, inviting I Rutten Sein to be his guest. The Rinn& w~ls at fjrst received with great respect, but on a signal given he was seized, and carried to the sultm's camp, w!lere he was respectfully treated. Menutime, seven hudred soldiers equipped tlxmselves as women, and placing themselves in pdankeons, sent word that t h Rannee was coming in state with her women, to presqt here self to the sultan, but first arequested an inter& view with tho Ranna, which request being corn- plied with, the solcliers had no sooner been admitted t o their prince, t h t h y threw OC their disguises, and rescued him : his return tr, Chitore being covered by posts stationed pree viously, and who stood against thc pursuing -cncity'tiU their sovereiglz wa3 placed in- sdety, ' when the sultan returned disappointed to Dehli. *A second expedition was equally unavailing ; but, at length, the Rawel being decoyed I to his preienee, was treacherdusly murdered* I %lx saubzlh of Dchli, divided into eight sir- c&. %& Sich in natural productions and manufactures.' ' Ita mountains were filled with mines, and its plains with C Q Q ~ and cattle, lt i s wa-

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tered by the Ganges and Jumna, with many of their tributary streams, and i s studded thick with towns and villages. Here the monuments of Hindú piety raise their venerable forms amid the shades of Thanessar ; and there the mag& ficence of the Moslemin displays itself in the canals of Firoze, and the tombs of the Alla O'

'diens and the Toglucks. Throughout the East, a tomb is not, as with us, lefi neglected amid a crowd of others, where thq bat cc folds his,&& ,wing " on the over-spreading yew, but piaced in gardens of public resort, where the placid j oy diffused by the charms of nature combine with '

the remembrance of the departed friend, and mellow our grief for his loss, into that sofker feeling, which, as the twilight reminds us of-the departed aun but to !give u s h o p ofi his again Xising, persuada us. that our deparation i s PQt I

,eternal. ,

The soubah ,of Lahore contains five divisions, .Great part,of it i# now called the Panjãb, or five waters, h m the Ave rivers flowing through it, .and falling into the Indus, which is i@ .western boundary. In the time of Akbar, its inhabitants ,were fkmed for their handicraft and manufac- fures, as well a6 their agriculture 3 and the country produced abundance of fruit and grain, besides metals and minerale, found in the sandy beds of the rivers, and mines of rock salt. '

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Ríshis, professed celibacy apd abstinence. They reviled no other sect, and asked nothing fkorn any one ; but made it a duty to plant fruit trees by the road side to', refkesh the travener, and to perform simiIar acts of benevolence- " * Cashmere produces in abuahnae all the fioitsr 'of Europe and of Asia : it fuknishea a great deal of silk, and all those beautiful shawls rtalled M i a n shawXs, which are worti wherever Com merm has extended her ahils or rested her ca- ravans. The country is exceedingly populdus, hhd' the inhabitants addicted to simp?è plbasutaa II believe I should, call them, to distinguish them from vicious indulgencies. A weaver of Cashmere has no sooner earned a little money, "than he proceeds to the bank? of a lake 02 river,

I :and there with his family hires a boat, in which they pass the day, rowing or sailing amidst the aM&,beatlt;iful scenery in t h e world, and only landffd&-mto' take r8fkaflhment, m walk in the

I

meadows and the streams a

r the Indus, ere , country is fre

pions, but pr partridges ; J

. amusements, i bitants is r ia : L once si

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LaTTERS ON INDIA. 154

ineadows and gardens which are fertilized by the streams and lakes formed by the heads of the Indus, ere he leaves their happy valley. The country is free from poisonous snakes and scor- pions, but produces excellent sheep, elks, and partridges ; hawking and hunting are favou5te amusements, and the principal food-of the inhabitants is rice and fish. I once saw a picture or map of Cashmere,

which vas brought to Cdcutb by some shawl- merchants. It was painted. upan a s q w e -of cotton cloth, and professed not only to trace the situations of the towns, lakes, and rivers, bLlt even the housis, bridges, and public pleasure gardens. The encircling mountains were colourecl. with all the gradationfi from the deepest verdure at the foot, ta thessnowy hue of the sumnits ; and among the valleys, the side towards Cashmere, there wa$ scarcely one which had not a Hin&ì temple or B ' Mussulmaxl mmosqtze. 1.12 the public pleasure ground, called

' AImeidAn, parties were represented sitting under the shade of spreading gtoves ; and i t the diG jferent bridges over the canals,a or on the banks ofthe reservoirs which water the gadens, were multitudes of boats for hice, and the lakes and rivers were crowded with parties in barks of I

#various sizes and degrees of beauty. I immediately thought ofthe demesnes of the Castle of

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gome pains to ascertain' the fiiGt,. seems to bed lieve- it. . m % ,

l- Tl~e'otGer sircars which. irr. the time of Alrbat foxme& @mt-o&J &e. rui3~b~~f~~hmere-n~ln~l~~ P0khely; Bhember, : Sewad, Bijore, Kandahar, and Kabul, partake mote or less of its physical advantages, being all diversÍfied with woo& and mountains, and watered with abundant strmms, They occasionally pròcure gold in some of their rivers,. ,lq,,laying a fleece in 'the water, and the next day they usually find the grains of'the metal entangled in it, so tb@ they have only the trouble of watching it, The whole soubah abounds in springs, many of which are intermit- tent, others are hot, some p petrify, and ot];llcrs produce salt. The hills and mountains, besides the'xbines of various metals, conhin many singular @verns, to which the superstition ofthe

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people has, ais wizal, ascribed da miraculdus .origin.

Such is the picture of Hindostan lefk US by Abu Fazel, who wrote in the sixteenth century : a picture probably flattering, and certainly very diffexent fiom that presented on our acquiring possession of the territory ; but the long and happy reign of Akbar,, which lasted half a ceno tmry, and was distinguished by the most regular and wise government that ever blessed Hindos- tan, since the first Mussulrnan invasion, had restored to the cultivator confidence, and to the manufacturer. security. Although the taxes we& in some districts extremely high, in Cash- mere for instance, equal to one half the produce of the land, the mildness and equity .of the government, and the greater commerce .carried on by the Izighest )taxed S O Z & ~ ~ S , in proportion to . their cultivated lands, macle the taxes ón *+ed property as light as in those actually rated at less.

In my next lettbr I shail 'endewtur' t o gite you an account xjf the Deccan or South. b.' This name has sometimes been applied'to 'the 'whole península south of tlleWrmada ; but; I . * since the Md~omedsn 'coaipie~t, hxir& not to have 'k- tended furth& 't&+: do the banks of tbe Kistna.

The tw&e*' so*b&s%f A1dk-u- comprehended m ë p n r t s bf the Deccan; but thei m a i &

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f58 LETTERS ON INDIA. r i I easily distinguished from the true provinces of

ir' haps I ought to have reserved them 'fir their f the empire of Dehli by their situation, and per- a

proper place, -but 1 thought it better ta present you with &e statement: of the Ayeen Akbery, without changing any thing, as it, is unquestion-

the former state of India.

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i ably the most authentic document we possess of '

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, LETTER IX.

&TER my last long letter on the geography of India, you' d l , I fancy, think me unreasonable to begin another with the same subject. But I had only laid before you the ancient divisions of Tndia, more properly called Bharata, when we axe speaking of it before the Nahomedan conquest, and the provinces of Hindostan ProPaer, or the country north of the Nermada or Nerbudda, with the very small por- tim, of the Deccan, annexed by Akbar to the &pl .empire. I must now mention t h kinp doms of the South, or Deccan, in i ts widest ex- gent, that is, from I the Nermada to Cape. Como*

p % ~ ? a t ~ pm of tdis tract consiSb of high ta&&&. thated from three ta five thou8md

about fifteen, degrees of latitude. . * a


feet above the sea, calred the Balaghaut: or land above the mountains ,; the rest i s a belt of m- equal breadth surrounding this land, and calIed Payeen Ghaut, or below the mountains, IR the Deccan you may place the ancient kingdoms, distinguished and circumscribed by their Ian- guages, called the five Dravirs, , but omitting Guzerat and substituting Orissa, The ancient divisions were however last, among new and more numerous partitions, long before any intimate intercourse between Europeans andaIndia,

Telingann, divided into A d r a and Kalinga, seems ta bave retained its distinctive name longer than most of the Dravirs, for it was known ta I

the Mahomedans by it; and, at the period of their invasion, its capital was Warankal.

Carnataca was early divided inta a nurabsr of sepaxate states, the south-western *portion o f which wag Mysoor. Of aadetn Carnatic a small portion e only formed part of the ancient province, and Bejapoar occupied the northern part, and perhaps a small párt of Telingana. The qncient capital o f Carpataca was Rhaor Sum- mudra, about a 'hundred miles north-west bf $,eringapatam ; but the seat. of government was removed to Tonoor, only twelve miles from that city, upon the Mussulman invasion ïp 1326, when the ancient city was destroyed by the army of Mahommed 11L .

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160 LETTERS ON INDI+

About the sime' time a 'new kingdom was foum.led upon the banks bf the Toombudm l ~ y sonè oflicevs of ther'ilethr'dhed king of Warankal, an& its capital was named Videanaggur, sometimes called Bisnuggur. This kingdom wits sub-' sequehtly- enlarged by the acquisition' of' the greatat part of Dravira 'or Draveda. .From Naiserarn, near which there is a considerable wall in ruins, the country of Toolava extended t o th'e neighbourhood of Goa; and bordering on it to the East is the small country of Coorg, whose present Rajah and'his father llave distin- gtlished themsehes by' the desire of improving I theix country and people: The three principal parts &to which Dravifa was divide'd, were named from three rival dynasties, 'the Chola 01' Cl-ioril", the Cheran and the Pandian. Combaconum and Tanjore, upon the Cavery, appear t o llave beell, the capitals of the former, which cornprehellded the &vinces of Tanjore, Trichinapoli, part of the rnoiferrt Carnatic, includillg probably Gingee and Wandiwahi. The kingdoln of m Pandian in- cludid Madura, TinivzIly, Marawas, and $rol bably part of Dindigul, and the count-1-y of the Polygats; and tile country of 'Chern colnire.

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hended Kerala or Malabar, Cochin, Tmvancore, Shallam, and' Cbirnbatoor. In this division li$ Calicut, whkre the first European ships, under V'mCo de Garns, touched, afier doubling the Cape of Good Hope. The coast is bold, and the &*it picfuresque 'I ever saw; and the coún- try abounds in the finest timber in the world. There are rio harbouis for any thing larger than a bod ; àna it is on& during the rains- that the small rapid rivers, that n fall direktly from- the &hi%&i&,&re & e . p enough' to float the timber t6 tEe'c-oasti.

s. At the time when the Mahrattas or- Maha- I'askas' emergid &om" obscurity under Sevajee ánd lais successors, the countfy anciently known by ' their name was divided into a numbek of dis- t h c t provinces, d i c h " #vere successively sdizêd by the Maliomedäig, '&th th6 exception. p&ha$s of tZie iountain& districts near Poonah and $be Cokuk. Ca$iI&'h aiil Bérár were'kdded' to $hs Mk~gixl ernpire; Aurungabad, Betlei., 3eja- pore, and Gundwana, miith their subdivisions, formed the greatest part of the ' Mahoinehán do- mihiongin the Decca& to which must be added 'ffydrabacd, Gokonda; and other provinces of Telingana north of thé Godaveryi 8

Such is the - general' vie* 'of' the divisibn of Iddía at two veri different- periods. The fir5t, dien its ancient kingdoms were sci settled inti'

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polished as to have formed and cultiv&ed each its own language ; the last, as it was found at the time of the I first permanent European establishments in the country. Had it been possible to have been more -minute in stating the precise ancient boundaries of' the different provinces, I am not sure thnt I: should have attempted it, for the task of tracing their perpetual variations would have been endless, and perhaps useless.

The British dominions extend over by far the greater part of the above provinces, and acci- d-eat, -rather than convenience, seems to have

~ fixed the situations o f the three presidencies fiam which they are governed. Calcutta, the seat ofthe supremë government in India, stands on -that branch of the -Ganges callecl the. Hoogly, about eighty miles fiom Saugor island, where that river falls înt0 the sea, T h e approach to it is defended by a most dangerous coast, owing to the slmals called the sand-heads, which are deposited by the thousand mouths of Ganges as it 'rolls into the ocean, and which, during the floods occasioned by the rains, are continually changing their places. The bed of the Hoogly is also encukbéred by similar sands,

.the bays formed in its low woody shares are in general extremely unhealthy. The aspect i m p ~ e 3 a s .P you " : approach , the capitd, and the

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clearing of the grounds has also materially h- proved its salubrity. Calcutta itself‘ is now far from an unhealthy place, which’ is in great measure owing to draining the streets of the Black town, and constructing gobd roads in all directions from, the presidency, a work, which does the Marquis Wellesley even more honour than his magnificent palace at the presidency, or his charming gardens at Barrackpoor. I - , -In the rainy season the Hoogly is navigable qtde to the Ganges ; but in the ,&y ‘weather boats *of all descriptions are obliged to pass thraugh the sunderbunds, or channels, that in* tersect the‘ Delta formed by the Ganges, into the main stream. The country.rourid Calcutta is perfectly flat and very woody. In the imme- .diate neighbourhood are some extensive salt& lakes, and the c,ountry in general, ,like the rest of Bengal, is, extremely fertile. Fort william, .which ,defends this presidency, is strong, but perhaps larger than is necessary under the present circumstances, as the army that woyld be required to garrison it might certainly *keep the ,

field, but it was built before the English- possessed either the territory or the resources they .are now masters of in India, ‘and while the French, Danes, and Germans possessed settlements on the river above Calcutta.

Madras, the second in rank o f our presiden. M 2

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Bombay possesses more natural advantages than any other European settlement .in India, but it is, unaccountably, that which has been most neglected ; however, it i! only a few years since the Mahrattas have been so far subdued as t o render the surrounding districts safe. The idand o f Bombay lies in 18" of north latitude ; it I s nine miles in length and t1xee.i.p breadth ; full of towns and-villages, and every foot of the land cultivation, Jt is connected by a cause- w@y, with the large and fruitm, though neglect@ d, island of Salsette, and forms with it, Granja, and Elephanta, a most commodious harbour. It bas the advantage over every port in India in -the rise of the tides, which is seventeen feet, whereas the highest springs in Prince.of Wales's Island, -and the wonderful harbour of Trinco-

- male only rise to ten feet; It is consequently

ships, .the timber, for which is furnished by the Malabar coast ; and its situation opposite to the Persian and Arabian shores makes it peculiarly fit for commerce. I know no place SO well situated. Its excellent welldefended harbour, the fertility of the adjoining districts, the agree- ableness OP the climate, and the extreme beauty of the scenery, all contribute to malte it one of the most,charming spots in the world, as far as the gifts of nature are concerned, and with the

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state of its society I have at present nothing to to do, although 1 feel it difficult to restrain myself' from talking of a place' which is rendered

L interesting to me by 'a thousand agreeable recol- lectiom.

I shall not attempt to delineate the present political divisions of India, but confine myself' to the external features of the country, some of which I have already described. The northern part of Hindostan Proper is bounded by the stupendous range of mountains which separates it fio111 Tartary and Thibet, running in a direc-

I tion norflt-we& and southeast, called the Hima- layah mountains, or I3[imava;t. These mountains furnish the sources of the Indus and its tributary streams, which water the country of the Panjab, the Ganges, with the Jumna, and other rivers which unite with tlmdmajestic flood, and the Bmhmaputra.,

The mountains of Paryatra lie in the neigh.. bourhood of Ogein, to the north of the Ner- mada, and fiom them flow the Mahk, the Sipra, and Betrva, with some other rivers. The Rccshti mountains give rise to' the Nermada, the Some, and many streams of less note, which, with the exception of the Nermada, fi111 into other rivers.

The Vindllya mountaina, ambng which lies the -Arcadia of India, lie to tile saut11 ~f .the- Nerrnada, and oonkain the 'sources of the

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Tapi, Tapti, and several smaller rivers, while thme of the Godavery, IGstna, Bhima, Tunga- 'badra, and Cavery are in a less elevated range stmth of the Vindhya chain, called t h e Tahya hills. Four inconsiderable streams rise ill the Malaya mountains, and some others from ;the high Mahendra. In general there is a defi- ciency of water in 'the Deccan, none of the rivers south of the Nermada, being navigalde for any distance from their mouths ; those on the 'eastern side of the peninstla being choslked with sand-banks, throw11 by a violent surf against their openings ; and those on>the western coast descend so abruptly fiom the mountains of the shore, that they have not time to collect into streams of any magnitude before they join the king of rivers. There are no lakes but those I

formed artificially, for the purposes of suste- nance ,and agriculture, but some of these are of such vast extent, as to appear more lil+ the work of nature tI1an of man ;- än4, t h ~ ~ @ ~ ' ' ~ ~ r ': - ._ so1ne*pbuxs the mountam 'torents foi& cascadew of exquigite beauty, tlleie are none of sufficient magnitude to bear a comparison with the Btu- pendous f'eatures of the New' World. I '

Although travellers report that mainy districts of India bear tlx marks of extinguished volcanos, 2nd many specimens of minerals,' ,apparently formed- in these tremendous laboratories of na-

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ture,, have been 'brought fiom different Xparts of the country, there is not at present äny b u ~ n g '

mountain in action, nor are there,. I *believe, re-

. cords of any such, although the mouth~ V s r e , as several streams are called which emit flame, are fi.equently . . mentioned:. such, for instance, are those- in the neighbourhood of the Caspian, and that at Chitagong, where a temple is b&lt Over the spring, and due oblations performed to the sacred fire. yarn springs are not uncommon on the westervl coast, nor, I bebeve, in other parts of tbe coupxy,: CÖ41 i s fo9nd i& the nortb-sastern provinces 5 mima of copper, gold, silver, and iroq abound jip r;bhpp~ bf $he north ; diamond has Jong * render& &el ,@awe iof Gol? conda famous ; Cambay, firnishes I comeli~q and other opake stones ; the neighbourhood of Hydrabad produces garnets while Ceylon seems the great magazine of the beautiful CO-

loured and transparent gems. of' that idand little is kqoyn beyond -@e Belt

occupiedby theEng&h,whicIj ,ensirdes -thewhole iglao-d, and is from ten to thirty miles irr $idth ; a dist&t woody, fertile, Fnd , i n general haIthy, on the westefn side is ,one ,of the finest harbours; in ,&e 'world at. Trincornale 3 anil on- the north- qq'cqqst- is7 the pearl fishery, in I the Strait&- of Manv, the product of v&h, aowmer, i s by n? means m p J tq that ig the Arabian seas.: The

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iaterior of Ceylon mis mountainous an.d woQdy, but it is So dangerous to the health, to pass any time in the Jungle, and so difficult forL an Euro- pean who hps .once entered the country to leave it, that I &n only refer you to the old traveller, Knox, for an account of it, whose picture is of that kind, that though one does not know the original, onç feels sure of the resemblance.

&e great natural feature of India is the singular diversityof:ihs coasts. T h a t of the western side is high and bold, with some small harbours firmed-bp insulated rocks and promontories; such as that of the river at Goa, and the bay at Boa- bay, than &ich there ar,e few finer. The e,@gtern, or Choromandel coast, on the contrary; is low . ,land sandy, fidl o f banks,, ,against -which a tremendous surf at 911 times beats, fgqi got: der-

l bg a port; pf any kind. . The seasons .also differ 1 on the :opposite !bores, the rdns setting in at I .Bombay in May or June, a s they do in Bengal I

-and the other northern pr,ovinces, while at Ma- dras they begin nearly as the dry ,we&& sets in on the western coast. 'During the rainy sea- gong the climate is subject $0 violant storms and bvrricanes, pprticularly - at the setting in and breaking up af the .Mgnsoons ; bu$ for eight montbs in the yqar $he weather is clear ; the hnd and 'sea breezes 'constantly blow; and one pay, if any where, forget the proverbial incon; 'gtancy o f the winds and waves.

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. But ít is time to take leave of you for present. 1 have done with local descriptions for some time, as X wish, if possible, to pl-esent you with a sketch of such a part of the history of ancient India, as has corne t o our knowledge with any degree of certainty. Adieu,

LETTER X.

THE prodigious antiquity claimed by the Brahmins for their country and their history, extending to millions of years, is evidently fa- buloüs. It is however reconcileaide wit& truth by -the consideration that the assumed periods of the Hindû astronomical cycles, have been mistaken by the poets for actual revolutions of years on earth, and M. Bailly has shewn that in ancient times the word signifying a year was employed for any revolution whatever, and that among some nations the times of the equinoxes and solstices were the periods of three months each, by which time was computed, while others who -enjoyed a shorter summer, Ilad one warm and two cold seasons, each o f four months, and - equally called years. The revolutions of .the 'moon, and even that of day and night have also passed fin years, and hence the confusZan of early chronology: when the: $rue 'length - of

the solar y' ed, the re were perpl present th( irreconde

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astronomic S100 yeas ment as means ag for placi Yu d'hish

those 01

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before c commenc tian axa. personag envelope can on13 tion of S history I

Thefo Dwapar YI €our ages c all astronoi to have br sible that 1

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the solar year being undetermined or disregard- ed, the revolutions by which time was counted' were perpetually changing, and consequently present those anomalies which have appeared irreconcileable with reason and truth.

Major Wilford places the beginning of the astronomical and unchangeable Cali Yug * at 3100 years before Christ t, but its commence- ment as a civil or historical period is by no means' agreed upon, though there are reasons for placing it about 1370 before Christ, when Yud'hishthira, Minos, and Crishna lived $. 0

The %ras used in more modern times are those of Vicramaditya, beginning' 56 year8 before Christ, and of Salivahana whose period comlnences seventy-eight years after the Chris- tian ma. The history of the two extraordinary personages who gave names to these periods is enveloped in fâbles and contradictions which can only be plausibly explained by the supposition of several persons of the same name whose history has been confused.

Q The four Youp, i. e, lhe Kruty Youg, the TretaYoug, the Dwapar Youg, and the Kali Youg are poetical periods like the four agce of the western poets ; bvt they are besides probably all astronomical periods. Their extravagant length shews them to bave becn in cvery cd6e sùpposititious, and it is very pos- I

siMe that they were chiefly adapted for thc purposes of judicial astrology.

Or before Vicramadityn 3044. 2 The Jines place it 1078 B. C. others l835 B, C.

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, Major Wilford mentions four Vicramadityau wI1ose histories appear t o be 9 mass of hetel*Oge- qeous legends taken -from the apocryphal gospel of .thq igfmcy" c$ 'Christ, the tales of the Talæ mud c&~ce~nj.gg $O~~QXYII, ancl some of the Per- sian - l & ~ r ~ . Q#' the Sgasanian kings; (

Vicrama.&tya was a king of Ogein, who made a desperate tapassya" in order to obtaiq long life fiom the goddess ,Kali ; but as she seemed deaf to him he prepared to cut off his gwn .head, when she interposed and granted him the empire ofthe &rM, tillsthe appeqance of a &vine child, who was to be born of a virgin, and whose father was to be a-carpenter, wllm he-wzp t~ be depÍived 'of his crown and. life, în, the year of.&e Cali yug 3101, answering to the beginning of the Christian æra. Vicramaditya af'ter this promise lived surrounded by pleasures for a thousand years, when, remembering the prophecy, he, sent messengers to seek the wonder-,

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' After thë pnhlication of the*-Curse of Kehama, it is probably unnecessary to cxplak the nature of a TapaBsya, or those sacred aqteriiies which have power to force boons of ~

monstrous import' from the gods, to overturn the laws of nature, and to subject immortals themselves to human con- trod. The opinion of the efficacy of severe self-mortification, if it has produced the Tnpass of Vicrama, Bali, and hrjoon, bas also, combined with a purer faith, produced the pillared saints of Egypt, the Anchorets of Palestine, and peopled the convents and monasteries of Europe. Man is always and everywhere the same.

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fu1 child, and followed with 'an army ,to destroy him ; but the young Salivahapa; .then five yearg old defeated and slew the longlived votary of Cali, and established his own æra instead of that of his rival,

Another account of' Vicrama makes himJive only one hundred and forty-five years, during all which time he waged war with -the Bolnacas or Romans, and took one of their emperors prisoner, whom her dragge&in triumph through the streets of Ogein, which. tale is' probabIy found-ed on the imprisonment of the emperor Valerian by the Persian prince Shapour, The V-icrama cotemporiry with Solomon is like him said to- have discovered the great muntra m s f d l by which he rule& the elements and subœ jected the spirits -md genii.:. '

- But the gre& featurks irr whit& t h Bis- .- ries- of th& %vicra;mai agree is. the ~ ' w i t 2 1 ~ the divine child king- Sdivahana, and: the tapass. to CaliF- 'at whose feet, on tbc-least.fit:cif: ill-humoar they cast their.head3, which are then picked' up and-xeplaced on- the trunk bp an attegddn$s$iri& who- however," as ea- Bddy j'ho@$. 'is otdy em- powered: to girforrn this, sedice tenjtimesm The last VicgaiÍia 'bowever; appebw red$4o' be a distinct person9 vhose-'trde nam'e wks -Bfiojam It is doubted whethe$ this i s - not the king whosq court Calidasa and his learned: cotemporaries adorned, but most Orientalists seem of opinion

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that it was the king of Ogein of that name who reigned fifky-six years before 0u1~.@ra, and who

5s the trueL,Vicrama of the chronologists. Bhoja waged war with the Mahomedans, and must have lived about the year 1000 of the Christian era.

The ancient history of India like its ,chronology, i s lost in remote antiquity, and the traces of it are so faint and imperfect that we might be tempted t o imagine that for some political purpose all regular documents had been systcmati- cally destroyed. Of the different races .now in- hábiting Hindostan, it is conjectured that the scattered tribes of the hilly countries, whose language, customs and ' religion differ ,entirely from .those of the Brahmins, are the aboriginal inhabitants, and it is certain that the Brahmins and their brethren have traditions stating themselves to have come fiom the North, to have conquered the fertile country of Hindostan, and ,to have established their CUS~OMS, their religion, and their languages. At whatever time this colla quest took place, the Brahmins were considered $8 the masters of India from the &motest anti- q ~ t y , .long before the days o f Alexander, and the descriptions left of them by the Greek Witers proves that no material change Bas taken 1

place in their manners and customs notwithstanding the Mahomedan, conquest and the subn sequent intrusion of European. Bettlers,

LETTERS ON INDIA. l75

The ancient Hindû historians begin their accounts of the world with seven dynasties QT races of men, six of which have entirely passed. away, and the seventh race, of whom Satyavrata the seventh Menu is the patliarch, now inhabit the globe, and it is predicted that on the ex- tinction of this dynasty, seven others will succeed. This Satyavrata app,ears to be the same person with Noab, like him he was preserved in a boat during an universal deluge, and with him his sons, Charma, S'hama and Jyapeti. After the deluge Atri, a son or grandson of ,Menu, bad three sons who became monarchs and legislators.

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The eldest was an incarnation of the moon or Soma, called also a portion of Brahma, and founded the Chandra varsha or lunar race of kings, who sate for many centuries on the throne of Magad'lla, a country properly comprehending South Ballar only, but which under that pawer- fu1 race of monarchs occasionally spread over the greatest part o f India.

From Ilcsllwact., another son of Satyavrata, descended the monarchs o f the.Surya Varshas or solar line, whose capital at one time appears to have been Hastinapoor, a city built however by a monarc11 of'the lunar race of kings.

I The lunar race of kings of Magad'ha have '

particularly engaged the .notice of Sir William Jones and Major Wilford, partly on account of

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and partly 'because the Gm& and Chinese writers-throw some ad- dition$l light on their 'chfohicles. . .

which the chrono- lOdy-~&y be fixed'with tolerable accuracy, be- hrè the birth- d Christ, -namely, thel great war of th&' B!Mddízwat~ and the reign of Climidra

J Cmfita', cotemporary of Alexander. AA the 1 s$ce before and between these dates is lost in

uncertainty, exceptiig when occasionally a vo- i tive inscription serves to fix the date of a parti-

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t The 'mh. monarclï in descent from Atri was %h, the'- ancestor . of the family of Pandu, ~ € L ~ S ~ M ~ I Y ~ I . U Y ? S are fie subjects of the epic jyet, t& dram~tist and the musician through- but Indist.. Dushmanta, tXe heio of.' Sacontala, was also of tke royal an'd fortunate bouse of Puru, .and his son Bharata gave, his name to the whde 'of Tndia. Hasti bequeathed his name to bis descendants in the magnificent city of Has- tihapdop3ihich fie built, and the sons o f Curu, Jahnu and SudAna, 6egan that rivalship between their families' which caused' the longest and bloodiest W& in t'fie ann& of India.

While these' great men adorned the race of Soma, that of Suryá produded- her Raghu, her Dhsàrathra; add' other heroes, forerunners and worthy re1aGonk öf *he hero -Eimachandra, the

180 LETTERS OW INDIA.

petty tyranny, of ' the nobles, who appear more than once to have carried their turbulence SO far as to, have drawn upon their whole c h death or banishment.

The next period, afier the great wars, upon which we can fix with certainty is the reign of Chandra Gupta, by the Greeks called Sandra- cottus. This 'prince was descended fi.01n the ancient lunar kings of Magadha, but he was illegitimate, his mother being the daughter of a barber, and he only succeeded to the throne by intrigue and crimes. Sacatara, prime minister of Nanda, the father of Chandra Gupta,, murder.. ed I his .mast-,' but' was in turn with ,the whole of his family9 8 excqt one son named Vicatara, put to death by Upadhanwa, the' son and successor of Nanda. T h e young man however whom Upadhanwa had spared, 'watched for an opportunity of revenge, and having provoked 'the young monarch to offer an affront $0 a Brahmin, he took advantage of the confusion occasioned by the excommunication o f the king, andawitll Chandra Gupta entreated the assistance of 'the neighbouring monarchs to overturn the kingdom of Prachijc., half of which he promised to P+rm . * Praclii, Dr the East, comprehending d l the country east.

ward from Allahabad. Thq Greeks called the inhabitants of this district Prasii, and its capital was Raja Grilla or Palibo- t h a . Prachi inclnded, Ist, the country froin Allahabad to Raja Griha, and M, Bengal, or Gaucoudesa, whose' jnha- bitants were called by the Greeks-Gangaridcs. I

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vateswal'a, hord of the mow~&s, king of Nepaul, in case of success. That monarch not only asll sisted Chandra Gupta with his own troops, but also procured the help of the Yavans or Greeks,

and treachery, Chandra Gupta was seated on the throne of Prachi, where he soon forgot his promise to Parvsteswara.

The new monarch put to death ill the noble and legitimate children of his fáthep,, after .which . his reign appears to have been peacefbl ,and. prosperous, respected abroad and beloved by his subjects. The accounts of the Greek cotemporary historians agree remarkably well with this Indian account of Sandracottus, ,only that they hint that the minister Saeatara was his real father, The most remarkable event in tbe latter part of his reign was the invasion of bis kingdom by Sdeucus, about A. C. 300 ; but the inroqd ended in a treaty, by which the Greek gave his daughter in marriage to Chandm Gupta, who I

agreed to furnish him annually with fifky * d e + phants.

The same good intelligence is recorded to have subsisted between the descendants of the two kings, for Antiochus the Great went .to India, to renew th; ancient alliance with Soplm gasemus (flJzivucu sena) the grandson of Om-

L when after a diagusting scene of alternate cruelty

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but in what manner or at what pe31.iod they ab- tained possession of it we are ignorant.

Sri Carna Devi or Sipaca, styles himself in - some'grants of land Lord of Txi C&nga, tm the

&tree shores, so that his dominion must have extended over the whole of India, if not the peninsula of Malacca, at least its western h r e , if the lexpreslsion be not merely intended to m.ark his 'superiority,bver the 'inferior moaakih his [email protected]. His dewendant P d o ~ m ~ the

I laat; of' the second family of AndbarBq

I84 LETTERS ON INDIA.

that the seat of the government of Magad'lla was removed from Palibothra to Patna, as b&ug farther fiom the enemy's frontier. I

kingdom of Magad'ha, the countries to the westward, or that part of Hindostan called the

t ' 1 While these changes were going on in the .

Panjib, was ravaged by a horde of Huns, 'who seem'to have met with little resistance from the

1 , native monarchs. I 1 ~ The situations of the different kingdotns of the

south of India 'I described in a former letter. their' history is buried in , obscurity till about the tirne'of the Mabomedan'conquest, but they ap- peu-. to haye been occasionally under the do- Irii;lidn of'the powerful monarchies of the North, though the distinct characters of their languages and dphabeticd writing prove that they must have been for the most part either totally independent or only nominally in subjection. When the MussuEmams first appeared- in the south of India, Bula1 I Raï was the sovereign of Carnata, Dravida, and Tulava, and his capital was Dwara Summudra, 155 miles northœwest &om 8eringapnta.m ; but the city being shortly mined by theinvaders, the seat o f government was removed t o Tonara near Seringapatam, and Buld Raï built the city of Vejeyanuggur as a defence against the Modems. This new city soon be-

' came famws dl overl the East for its xiches and 6

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splendor under a new 'dynasty, who ruled +e whole of India south 'of the Kistna, till the year 1564, when the Rajah, Ram Rajah fe11 ip the battle of Telicotta, and his descendants fled before the Mahomedans, first to Pennaconda and thence to Cbandragheri, whence the last branch of this ancient family was expelled in 1646.

After the battle of Telicotta the remaining Hindfi , noble's, arid landholders or Udiars, endeavoured to render themselves independent-, ,

and those of Mysore succeeded in establi'shing a kingdom, the capital of which was first Mysore but afkerwards Seringapatam, where nine kings of one family reigned successively till A. D. 17'6 1, wl~en Hyder dlly deprived the last of his throne. These Mysore ,Rajahs appear to have been men o€ abilities, and probably in more fa, vourable timCs might have established a permanent monarchy 5 but the miserable political and military state of dl India at that time, distracted

. no less by the wars which strangers waged with each, other within her territories, than by the ravages of her own various nations, prevented the possibility of securing a small kingdom both from foreign conquest; and domestic treaclmy. As X a m purposely refiaíning fiom all mention

of the Mahomedan histqry of India in this Ictter, the Mahrntta, $tate is the only one which rem&ins I

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head of his troops, he gave the death-blow to the power of his descendants, by leaving the whole civil authority and administration in the hands of the viceroy and Psish~a. Accordingly his grandson Shahoo, the third o f his family who succeeded him, was mon confined .in the fortress of Sittara, and the ambitious Peishwa Balajec governed, in his master's name it is true, but entirely by his own authority. The other nobles of the cou11ci1, of course jealous of the Peishwa, fbrlned tlleir separate parties, and pursued their separate interests, and while they pillaged Dehl2 * m and . Agra, overrun Guzerat, ravaged Bengal 'and Oriw, and even canied. their in- ' cimionk to .the -gates of M&w~ :th7ase internal quarrels were fermenting, which &er. the battle of Pamput, A. D. 1761, disunited the Mahratta chiefs for ever, and have thus secured the peqce of India.

When I visited Poonah in 18x0 the mdan- choly spectacle of ruined towns and villages but too plainly marked the camps of the. rival chiefs, who alternately pretended to defend, or openly attacked the capital, and it would not be easy for Sevajee ,to recognize, in the British, canton- ments which surround the capital and imprison its chief, the scene of that greatness which he raised, and of that paiver which rendered him the dread of the greatest monarch of' Hiadostwnl

l * In th : difieren ! attempt ' have cc

: the kin, ' out t h t sidered

are beJ . their 4

the sal kingdr scwred

, valley

i ingp2a h filled i i The 1 of sev

countr ceedec alwayr

! P

shy. 1

LETmRS ON INDIA. 189

In the slight sketch I have given you of the different Hindû kingdoms of India, I have not attempted to give all the details which I might have collected, but only to awaken your curiosity. Before I quit the subject I must mention the kingdom of Nepaul, which, although without the limits of India proper, must be considered as a Hindû kingdom, as its inhabitants are believers in the Brahminical religion, and their customs and manners prove them to be of .

the Haine families. Like that of the other Hindû kingdoms, the early history of Nepaul i 9 ob- scured by superstitious fables, and its beautiful valley is reputed to have been a favoured dwelling-place of the gods, after the lake which once filled ít had been dried up.

The historians of Nepaul preserve the nmmwy of several dynasties who have reigned over'the country, the greater number of which have proceeded from foreign conquerors, who appear always to have found thnt beautiful countryban easy prey. If the first dynasty was of native ppinces, the second was o f invading Rajepoots, deposed by the Kerats, a, mountain tribe 'from the East; and these were displaced by a tribe of I

Xetries, who reigned in different branches,'nearly three .t;housand years. The kingdom was then divided into three separate sovereignties, in which state it continued for two centuries, when

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LETTERS ON INDIA. t 91

LETTER XI.

THE first attempt of the Mahomedans towards the conquest of India was made during the reign of the Kalif Omar", who sent Maganeh Abu1 Aas, from Bahrein to the mouth of the Indus; but. the expedition failed of success, and it was not till the reign of the Kalif Walid t - that Sind was occupied by the' Mussu'Emnns, fiom which- period their incursions into the fertile countries of Hìndostan became more fieœ quent and successful, till they at length obtained complete possession.

The first Mussulman prince however who made a serious impression on India, was the Sultan Mahmud Sebectaghin, who reigned at Ghazna. His father Sebectaghin appears to have been a soldier of fortune, and being too far from the seat of the Kalifat to fear its power, he erected an independent sovereignty at Ghaz- na, nominally however subject to the Kalif; for on the accession of Mahmud to his father's power, &er a successful expedition to Balk, we find him receiving the robe of honour and the investiture as Sultan, from Kalif Cader, i? the year of. the 14egira 389 t.

* A. D. 636. A. H. 15. j- A. D. 717. A. H. 99. i. e. A, D. 998-9.

i''


Three years after this event he made his first exDedition into India with considerable suc-

,ned but a short time in .that country, as he -made a conquering excursion into Segestan the following year, whence he returned to India in 1005 of our ærit t, and seized &bet11 and Multan. No sooner had he corn- pleted this expedition, than be was obliged to turn his arms against Uek Khan, who had pro- fited of his absence in Indict to invade Kkoras-

Balk; but l ;11 e

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LETTERS ON INbIA. . 193

The most remarkable events of that expedition were the destruction of the famous Hindû-temple .

of soumenat, and the choice made by Mahmoud of a descendant of the ancient rulers of the -

'counQ of the race of Debschelim, to be i t s governor and king.

After an active and successful reign of thirty- one years, this great prince died in the year of 7

the Prophet 421. Amid the constant activity ,

as a warrior which 'distinguished Mthmoud, we feel almost surprised to contemplate the elegance- of bis court, which was not only the theatre 'of magnificence, but thetemple of' the mused It was by his order that the materials of the Shah- aalneh were collccted, and under his eye that Ferclousi composed that immortal poem, where the wisdom of thc sage and the genius of 'the poet combine to preserve and adorn the early history of his native country. I once before referrccl you to theChevalier D'Ohsson's interesting account of the life and character of FeTdousi prefixed to his Tableau Historipe de l'Orient, cz work confessedly talcen fi.0111 the Shahnameh.'

The Neghnristan from .which D'Herbelot chiefly takes his account of Mahmoud, wllich you will perceive X scrupulously follow, relates Inany interesting anecdotes of this prince, but none which plenses me SO much as thc follow- illg, whidl, while it shews the vîrtucs of the

m

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LETTERS. ON INDIA.

Sultan most conspicuously, displays the vices of the oriental government and administration of justice, holdiug out little safety to the wretched except from the private virtues of the

A poor man complained tu Mahmoud that'a Turk had broke9 into his house in the night, and &er robbing him,hnd beaten and abused hiln cruelly. After every inquiry that might lead to

\ the detection of the culprit, without effect, Mczhmoud desired the poor man not to oppose the thief the next time he came, but to come instantly to him. It was not long before the Turk repeated his attack. The sderex imne- diately gave infQrmation t o the Sultan, and led him to his house. Mahmoud having surrouqcled it with his guards, caused all the lights to be extinguished and the robber slain, which being done, he called eagerly for a lamp, examined the person of the wretch, and exclaiming, God be praised, he fell upon his knees, returned a

L - thanksgiving, and called for food. The poor man had nothing b& the coarsest bread an,d water to offer, but Mahmoud ate and drank eagerly, and prepared t o depart, when the man to whom he had done justice, entreated to be informed why he had caused the lights to be put out, why he. h;cd thanked God, and called for food. cc l i * caused your lamp to be extinguish.

r.

'ZETTERS ON INDIA. 195

ed,'' said the Sultan, %ecause I thought that none could dare t o commit so flagrgpt a piece '

of injustice but one o f my own sons, and I was not willing that the sight of my child should prevent me fiom inflicting the punishment such a crime deserved 5 when ï thanked God, it was because I discovered the body to be that of a stranger, and I called for food, because, since the day you preferred your complaint, fearing that it might be my son, 1 have fasted while 1 doubted-of Bis viitue 1''

Of the successors of Mahnmud on the throne of Ghazna little need be said. They were constantly occupied either in petty warfare at home, or in the defence of their distant provinces with various success ; and the usual intrigues of the Harems and the viziers, rebellion and slzivery are not likely to furfiish pictures of a pleasurable nature, '

Thirteen monarchs of the dynasiy of Sebecd taghin reigned at Ghazna", but with very various

Yrs. Mths. YI.$. Mthr. * Mahmoud Sebecta- Massoud III.. ......... .18.. . O

@in reigned .... 31. .. O Schirzad ................ 1.. . O b1assoud1. ...... 1.m....13... O Adam Shah. .......... O n/zau(JouJ .............. 7.. . O BahrAm Shah ......... ..3%. . O n$assoud 11, ........... O... l, Hhosru Sbah was itnprisoned Ali D...^ 2,. O. A. H. 551, and died A= EL ~ b d u l Raschid ....... l... O 561 or A. D. 11 56 and Ibrahim .,..,,,. m1,.11.4%., O 1165.

- 0 2 The I'

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196. LETTERS ON INDIA

influence or interest in Hindostan. It was re* served. for the princes of the next family, who, by deposing Khosru, obtained possession bf his empire,'to fix their capital in India, and to esta* blish perma~ently the Mtxdman belief on the throne of Dehli. ' The father of Hassan ben Hossain owed his - fortunes and advancement to the government of Gaur to the seventh Ghaznavide Sultau Ibrahim, but; Hassan taking advantage of the weak and disordered state: of the empire of Ghazna under Bharâm S h d ~ , invaded it, and 'after various success, both in his reign md that O f his succëssor Khosru Shall, he took the latter prisoner9 and' he died in confinement ten years afier the loss of his kingdom.'

Previous to the final conquest of Ghazna, Hasl san met' with one of those singular reverses of' fortune which are ody to be met 'with in arien- .tal story : having invaded the dominions of the Seleucida, he was taken prisoner, and appears to have been made the personal' attendant; of Sangiar the then reigning monarch, in which situation be so much ingratiated himself by his: talents for poetry and for flattery,that, the coaque- Tor sent him back laden with gifts to his own ca.

T h e succession of these princes is a little different in Dow's Ferisbta, &here we find two Khosrus after 'Bihrirn, t h first of whorri reigned seven years; and it was his Eon who was irnpri- soned by the Gauride Mahommed.

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LETTERS ON INDIA. I97

pit& where he died either in the same year il1 ,which h e took Khosru Shah prisoner, or that immediately following it. I Mahomlned Seifedclien succeeded his father *

Hassan and reigned seven years, which were of little importance to India ; but the joint reigns of Giath’o’dien Abulfiltteh and Shahabo’dien A b d MUZZLI~~U~ which lasted forty years, and the short period of four years during which the latter survived his beloved brother and fi-iend, fixed t h e first Mussulman empire within India proper on the throne of Dehli.

The history of the immediate cause of the revolution which subverted the ancient Hindû monarchy of‘ Indra-Patti or Dehli, is among the most romantic that even the annals of the East present c

, Jya Chndra, Emperor of India, whose capil tal was Canoge, was not in truth the legitimate sovereign of the country ; that title belonged to tile young hero Pithaura king of Dehli, whose noble character. and unhappy fate are the theme sf both Mussulman and Hind& writers : the two monarchs appear, however, to llave lived for some years In gooc1 intelligence, till upon occasion of a solemn sacrifice at the capital of Jya Chandra, where the functions of officiating priests were t o be performed by sovereign princes; Pithaura, uat choosing to perform an inferior part while hi8 ,

4

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LETTERS ON INDIA.

rank as superior lord should have m . d e him the high priest, absented himself'fjr~m- the ceremony, and tl~us#incurred the enmity and persecution of the monarch of Canoge. Shortly afterwards, a

+ Inore romantic adventure terminated not d y in the destruction of Pithaura but in hisawn ruin. Jya Chandra had adopted as his daughter a BeauGLd . and accomplished damsel with whom the king of SillhaIa-Dwipa or C e y h had presented him, during an excursion he had rnade t o that island under pretence of a pilgrimage, but in reality to exact tribute fiom the kings of the southern provinces. This damsel he had kromised în marriage to a neighbouring monarch, but she, being enamoured of the valorous and noble Pi- thaura, refbed her consent, Pithaura being at that time at Deldi and hearing of her affection, disguised himself, his brothers and attendants as the servants of a bard whom h.e sent to the court of JyaChandra; andhaving by hismeans obtained an interview with the fair prisoner, for such she had been since her avowal of' her flection for Pithaura, he carried her off in sdety to Dehli. during a species of tournament held by Jya Chancha, though not without a combat which deprived him of some of his bravest Warriors.

The king of Canoge, in order to revenge- himself ehe. more completely for this insult, imm plored the assistance of Shahab'o'dien, who ac-

Y


eordingly marched with a powerfd army against Pithaura, who roused himself from the deIights of his capital and the indulgence of his love to meet the Mussulmans in the plains of Thanessar, where he was defeated and slain A. D. 1194~. His capital immediately feli, and Shahab’o’dien fixed in it the first and greatest of the Mahome- dan monarchies of India; and very shortly afterwards overthrew Jya Chandra l-rirnselc and thus obtained the most extensive and richest proœ vinces of Hindostan.

When Sbahab’o’dien found himself sole mas’- ter of the extensive dominions of the Ghazna- vide sultan, increased by his recent conquests, his regret at having no male children induced him to adopt several of his slaves, among whom he divided bis empire. Of these, Tegh Ildiz in Ghazaa, Nassuro’dien in Multan, and Cuttt1bo’- dien Ibcc in Dehli, founded powerful dynasties afier the death of Mahlnoud the immediate successor of Shahabo’dien, of the Gauride family, and who reigned seven years. Mahmoud fell a victim t o the indignation excited by his trea- cfiery in betraying the young prince Ali Shah into the llsnds of his rival on the throne of Khouaresm, Mohammed Shah, and was consequently murdered in his bed A. D. 121 2t;

d.


when the crown of Ghazua was seized by the same Mohammed Shah the Kllouaresmisn*.

But his dominion in India was rather nominal than real, as he was employed during the whole of it in war with Gengis *IChan, whom he had imtnudentlv nrovoked. In 596 of the Hegirat,

F

P tire possession of that country. The fol107


capital of that province, had seized and put to death some Tartar merchants, tqavelling with a caravan fiotn the camp of Genghis Khan. who sent to deinand an aDologv whlch was inconsz- I

invaded KhorassarP, and in spite of the incorn- 1

eldest son or- IVlohamined, defeated the Khou- arcsmians and forced the sultan to retire ; which he at .first wished’ to have done, towards his In- dian dominions, but being intercepted, he fled to Mazcnderan and fbr greater security went to Ab- goum an island of the Caspian, whence he was driven by the Tartars to another island in the same sea, where he died A. H. 617-b.

His brave successor Gela1 o’dien fought long and valiantly against Gen&, but in vain : one of his most desperate actions was, swimming across the Indus in sight of Genghis and bis victorious army, afier having drowned his women to save thcm from t h conqueror ; who, at the sight of this honourable though perhaps cruel exploit, turned to his children and exclaimed, cc Bchold my sons, a hero worthy of his father$!’’ Five years afterwards he returned into Persia, where the celebrity of his name soon raised him an army with which he gained some battles, and

8 R. H. 615, R. D. 1blS. A. D. 1230. :l Thie caploit was perforlncd R. 1-1, 618, A. D. 12’21.

LBTTERS ON INDIA.

conquered some small states towards the eon- tiers of Arabia ; but his native dominions were hourly 8aEng a prey to the arms of Octai the grandson of Genghis and his generals, who .had already posskssed themselves 'of Cabul, Canda- har and Multan ; and

He left the name at which the world grew pale To point a moral or adorn a tale,

For A. H. 628#, being surprised by a party of Moguls, he disappeared, and nothing is known certainly of his fate.

Genghis Khan, whose family in its various branches has reigned with such various fortune in India, and whose name' and exploits spread terror even in Europe, was' born at Diloun JO- loun in the year of the' Hegira 549-l. His father dying when he was at the age of thirteen, the Mogul chiefs his subjects rebelled against the

- government of a child, and obliged him to take refuge with Avenk Khan a Tartar prince, at whose court he soon distinguished himself by his great qualities ; and having upon one occasion preserved the crown of his benefactor when at-

9 tàcked by a revolted brother, he was rewarded with the hand of the daughter of Avenk, who thus added the ties of relationship to those of gxatitude. '

But this harmony 'did not last, for the Tartar * A. D, 1230. .t' A. D, 1154.

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LETTERS ON INDIA: 203 I

nobles, jealous of the young foreigner, formed cabals against him, and excited the suspicions of his father-in-law ; so that that to save himself, Genghis, or as he was then called' Timegin, had recourse to arms, and having obtained a coin- plete victory over the Tartars, took possession of the dominions of Avenk, and regained the kingdom of his father. Upon this signal success he assembled the Kuriltai or llational mili.; tarv meeting of the Tartars", at which he was bv acclamation named their sovereign, and the title

I of Genghis Khan conferred upon him bythe noble Tubi Tangri -lt The eleven years immediately suc- ceding were employedin conquests towards Chi- .

na, Korea, and Cathay; and the twelfth year was that of his invasion of the states of Mohammed, but it is unnecessary to entes into a detail of his. rapid conqucsts; the towns destroyed,and the millions of human victims whichwere sacrificed,have sufficiently ofien blanched the cheek of the reader sf the history of that scourgeof mankind; and yet, there are generous actions recordcd of him, and generous sentiments expressed, which show that the heart though wild was not without those feelings of humanity, which by no means belong

* Something resembling h e Wittenagemotes and Weapon- rcbaws of our forefathers.

-t- From thc war with Avenk to the meeting of thc Iinril- tai occupied €rom R, II. 600 to 602, or from h. I). 1ZQ5 tu laos.

I 904 LETTZRS ON INDU.

peculiarly to the more polished societies of the West. Perhaps, judging by modern examples, we might be tempted to believe that where the .

passions for conquest and for fame are strong enough to overleap the bounds of modern edu-

l

l cation, which naturally tends to equalize the ge- i nius by assimilating the habits of men, there l

must be a natural ferocity of character insensible to the charities of human life, though capable of the exertions which may exalt it to fame.

Genghis IChn became the nominal sovereign of the empire of Dehli in the year of the Hegira 619*, but never actually took possession of the throne, as his life 'was 'a continued scene of moving conquest. Pive years &er this new acquisition, being completely worn out by his constant exertions, he solelnnly assembled his falnily and divided his dominions among themt. These dominions extended fiom east to west over a space of eighteen hundred miles, and although the Tartar laws of Genghis are celebrated for their wisdom, still the miserable civil state of that extensive couritry, and the extreme turbulence of the military chiefs, rendered the division of so immense st territory absolutely necessary. Accordingly to Qctai his grandson, whose fither had fallen in battle, he gave the Mogul and Cathiian territories. Jagat!my, gave, his

* A. D. 129% t A. H , 624# or A, D. 1287.

>rau' t ': I'

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name to Tmnsorrania or Turkestan Proper. Kho- rassan, Persia and India became the patrimony of Tulikhan : and Batou the son of Giougi, another grandson, was put in possession of Arban, Rous and Bulgaria : this is the same Batou, who, forty years afkerwards, crossed the Tanais, entered Europe and overran Hungary and Moravia*. Having thus divided his conquests,Genghis Khan died in the sixty-sixth pear of his age, having first put into the hands of his sons a solemn corn- pact ‘concluded between his, great-great-grand- -

father Ici1 Khan and his brother Fangiouli the seventh ancestor of Timw Leng, in virtue of I

which his family held the sovereignty of Tartary ; and which Timur himself so much respected, that he cllose rather to claim honour as descended fiom a female of the family of Genghis, than as being himself of an older branch of the house o f Ki1 Khan,

That you may form some i$ea ’of the terrors of a Tartar army, I repeat the following account fi-om D’l3erbelot, of tile destruction of the city of Herat : It had been taken and kindly treated by one o f the generals of Genghis Khan ; but a report of some reverses of fortune having reached it during his absence, the city rebelled, and on liis return held out against him till most of‘ tbc

* A. N, 656, or A. D. 1958,

LETTERS ON INDIA.

inhabitants capable o f bearing arms were either killed or wounded. When it was retaken, every man, woman and child was pLlt t o the sword excepting a Moola, Scherer u’dien Khatib, and fig teen other men who hid themselves in a cave, where they were joihed three days afterwards by twenty-four more, and these forty persons lived in the’ruins of Herat fifteen years without seeing one other human being !

While the Tartars were thus hovering round the fiontiers of India and daily threatening its cities with the fate of those of Cabul and Kho- rassan, the adopted slaves of Shalmb o’dien were enjoying its riches and ruling its finest provinces. Kuttubo’dien? reigned at Deldi til1 A. D. 12 1 st, when he was succeeded by A r m Shah who was as soon deposed by Iletmish Shums’o’dien, who died in 1235 3, and was succeeded by Firoze Shah Rocneddin.

Firoze did not, however, long enjoy l i s dig: nity, for his sister Rndiath’o’dien or Rizia, zl lady of incomparable bcrtuty and unbotmded ambition, having brought over the chief nobles. to her party, exiled her brother and seated herself

* A. D, 1207 ; Mahonmed Bakthyr one o€ Kuttub o’dien’e generals overcame Lahhmaayah thle last king of Bengal, an& that province continued subject to the ‘crown of Dellli 140 years; its subsequent revo luhs will be mentioned here- af‘ter.

t A. Il. 616. 3 A. H, 633.

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LETTERS ON INDIA. SO7

his throne. But undrer a female reígn jealousy was easily excited, and this enterprising plimess was obliged to fly fiom her capital, and after a series of the most romantic adventures, she was killed in attempting to escape from her other brother BaharaIn, who was then raised ta the throne, which he enjoyed for little more than two years, when his army rebelled and placed Massoud Shah d a , o’dien, *e son of Piroze, on the throne. But he, being a weak prince, was imm mediately deposed in favour of his uncle Nassur o’dien Mahmoud a man of extraordinary qua- lifications. During the time of his imprisonment, which lasted from the death of his father Iletmish, be had supported himself by writing, as he despised the imperial allowance to prison. ers, saying, that those who would not; labour for bread, did not deserve to eat. After he ascended the throne, he considered himself only as trustee fQr the state, and continued to $upply his private wants by his own industry. Ferislltaa &tes, that one day as an Omrah was inspecting pc Koran of the king’s writing, he pointed out a word which he said was wrong ; Mahmoud $miled, and drew a circle round the word ; but as SoOn as the Omrsh wag gone, he erased the circle and restored the word ; remarking that it was better t o erase from a paper what he knew I

was right, than to wound the old man by shew-. 3


ing'birn that he hacl found fault without reason. Mahmoud had but one wife who performed all the homely offices of' housewifery without even a maid servant to assist her, and their table, as the emperors of India never ate ín public, was

I served with the frugality of an anchoret. To these private virtues, Mahnoud added a thorough knowledge of arms, and was eminently successful in alibis wars. His clelnency towards those who at different periods of his reign rebelled ap ins t him, was so extraordinary that ít 'clraws forth a, kind of reproving wonder from his historian ; and the ónly shade in his government was thrown over it by a temporary fkvourite who abused his power ; :but it passed quickly away, and Mahl moud, who had the singular fortune to fincl a friend in his vizier Ghiaso'dien Bdin, died aner a reign happy both for hiinself and his subjecis of twenty-one years ; and leaving no children, was succeeded by Balín, who was of the same. family with his master ancl predecessor.

Balin was originally a Turkish prisoner, who was sold as a slave, but making known his con-, nexion with the reigning family at Dehli, hc was advanced by the princes, his predecessors, t o the highest rank, and his reign proved him worthy of his fortunes. He expelled a11 flatter- ers, usurers, 'apd disorderly persons, from his qourt, and was severe in dispensing justice,I but

LETTERS ON INDIA5

afier, and his second son, Kera, being absent in his viceroyalty of Bengal, Key Kobad, son of Kera, was placed on the tImae of Dehli. But tllis prince proved unworthy ofthe familywhence he sprung ; and as the weak are usually the prey of the wicked, an ambitious and' profligate minister took advantage of the young monarch's propensity to pleasure, and brought such odium upon him, that he was murdered A. D. 1289, after a reign of three years, and Jellal O' dien Firoze, an Afghan chiec was raised to the throne, at the age of seventy. He endeavoured to repair the evils of the last reign, but it was too hard a task for a man of such an advanced age; and dl the vhtues a€ Firoze could not preserve him fiom treachery and violence corn- bined : he was put to death A. H. 6 9 P , and Alla o' dien, his nephew ancl son-in-law, SUC..

ceeded him. Alla o'dien was a man of prodigious alnbitioll

and strong passions and talents, a great Tvan.ior and financiel; and exact in maintaining justice : but his reign, firom the beginning till his death,

nmhd with cruelty and hardness of heart, We may form an idea of' his ambition by the two projects which he formed in the early part; of his life. first was to found a, new religion to immortdh~ his name, like Mallomjmed ; ancl

the second to leave a viceroy in India, and to tread in the steps of Alexander the Great, aRer whodm he called himself Secunder Sani *. B,ut neither the people he governed, nor the etate .of his empite. permitted him actually to engage

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LETTERS ON INDIA. 82 I.

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i n either of these attelnpts. That he possessed n . . -

no conunon energy of character IS proved by the followiug anecdote. -Being to,tdly illiterate when .he ascended the throne, he observed that his courtiers, before him, abstained from literary ,conversation ; he therefore privátely applied himself’ to learn, and in a few months wrote and read the Persian character with ease, when he called learned men t o his court, and neglected nothing to encourage literature.

But his tyranny met with its reward in a .gef nerd insurrection, headed by his unworttly .fa. gourite Cafoor, which increased the violence of an illness under which he then laboured, and he died A. 13. 716-b. During a few month, Cafoor, under the name of the late king’s SQD

Oalar, governed ; but he wag so universally da. testecl, timt tke people saw wit11 pleasure .$W

throne occupied by Cottub o’dim &barri? Sbah, the eldest son of Alla.

* Alexander Second : this is the same name elsewbere written Idkllnrler Thani, the difference being in the pronunciation of the vwious dialects in which the bistories are writteu.

P 2 A. D. 1316.

21 2 LETTBRS ON INDIA.

A .. .. 1

throne of India for five years, when Ghîaus o’ dien Tugluck, a Patan, whose father had been brought up by Balin, was crowned by the acclamation of the people, and fully justified their choice. In matters of justice and police, and the encouragement of science, art, industry,

U

and commerce, he revived the reìgn of Balin.

memory of the

His son jonah, afterwards sultan Mallom- med III. was everywhere victorious in the Deccan, and carried his arms to Warankul and Telingana, which had, during the late disturbances, shaken ofF the Massulman yoke ; Bengal-, which had continued an independent MLISSUL man government f h m the death of Balin, undm the posterity of his son Kem, acknowIedged anew the superiority of. Togluck, by appealing to him fi-om the abuses of its sovereigns, and he seemed to enjoy every prosperity, when, in A. H. 725* he was killed by the accidental falling in o f the roaf of a temporary house at Afghanpoor. -

Mahommed III. was a brave prince, and gen nemus beyond eKample, but his character was harsb and cruel. His conquests were generally followed by massacreis, and fiequently of Mus-

* A. D. 1324.

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d m a n s as well as Hindds, although he kept up the outward forms of religion with extreme strictness. In his reign, the Moguls penetrated nearly to Dehli ; and to pay the- royal coff'ers for the sums which bought off the invaders, the farmers were so severely taxed, that some burnt $heir houses and crops in despair, many fled ato the forests, where they subsisted by robbery ; and these evils were further increased by issuing base 'money of imaginary value. In these dis- tressing circumstances, Mahommecl hearing that there were immense riches in China, formed the mad project of invading that country ; but the army he raised for that purpose perished by the way, and he was soon called to quell rebellions in the southern part of his dominion, which continued to rage with little interruption during the rest of the reign. To increase the miseries o f his subjects, the infatuated MahomF ,med took it into his head to transplant the whole ,of the inhabitants of Dehli to Deoghir, which he new named Dowlatabad, and thus desolated his capital for the sake of forming a colony which never succeeded, and which soon remained his only possession in the Deccan ; for some of the IgindG princes, particularly Bulla1 Deo, the builder of Bejsnuggur, taking advantage of the

- distraction of' his empire, opposed his armies, and chove them from L some of his finest prop

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~nces. Atlength, A. H. 152’, this tyrannical reign of twenty-seven years closed, and Firoze, a e nephew of Mahommed, succeeded him.

Muezzin Mohizeb Firoze fihall, is a name which might be canonized in India. I-le was not a great warrior by inclination ; but there is hot a sihgle instance in which he did not put down rebellion and repel invasion, nlthoq$I he made no conquests. His pleasure was t o edu- cate his sons properly, and to improve his country. The following list of his public works is a s&cient panegyric.-‘c He built fifiy great sluices, €arty mosques, thirty schools, twenty caravamaras, a hundred palaces, five hospitds, a hundred tombs, ten baths, ten spires, one hundred and fifty wells, one hundred bridges, and gardens without number. His name is prem served in that of his city Firmeabad, and the remains of his canals are still to be traced. The only great severity of which he was guilty, wag ‘the punishing too signally a treacherous nasassi- nation. It is to be regretted that his old age was embittered by the loss of the worthies$ of his children, and a rebellion against his son Ma- -hbmmed, to whom he had resigned his empire. He died A. H. 791-f.

l%iaus b’dim TogEuek, the grandson lof

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tending to predict that he should one day rule over the Deccan, and begging him, in that case, to add the name of 1.angoh to his own ; and with this empty prophecy, he paid him for his gold. The prediction, however, was one which in such turbulent times are calculated to work their own accomplishment. Accordingly, Houssun having been appointed to the command of a hundred horse as a reward for his honesty in delivering the gold to his master, employed every resource of' his powerful mind in advancing toward his object ; and at length, having risen by his talents t o a high command in the army, he took advantage of the distrac- tions of the empire under Mahommed, and -seized on the provinces of the Deccan.

O n the first success of his rebellion, he had the art to make it appear that he was made king of Deccan, by the choice of the rcbel chiefs whom he had engaged to assist h i s views ; and being in a manner pressed to assume the sovereignty, he clranged his title of Ziffir Khan for that of Alla o'dien I-Ioussnn Kangoh Ball- manee, thus remembering h i s promise to his old master who became his prime minister, being the first Hind& who had served in r?l MusSulman copd. DeogFr, the modern Dowlatabacl, the Tagara of Ptolerny, had been tbe Hindi capita1 of h t part of hdia ; but Alla o'dien fixed his

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residence at the ancient Koolburga, which he new-named Ahssunabad.

The dynasty of Bhamwnee kings founded by him in A. H. 748, or A. D. 134’7, lasted two hundred years, when the natural weakness of *

the Mussulman monarchies-was productive of its usual consequences in the division of the kingdom blto five inferior monarchies, which were finally absorbed in the Mogul empire in the reign of Aurengzebe, about the year 1650%.

. * Table of the Bhamanee kings of Deckan from Scot’s Perishta :

A.N. A.D. SuIlan Alla o’dien Kango11 Bhamanee ............... 748 1347 Mclhornmed Shah Bbamanec ........................ 759 1357 Mujahicl Shah Bhamanec .............................. 776 1374

. .T)aoud Shall Bhamanee, (son of Alla o’dien) ...... 779 1377 Mahrnoud, (mother son of’ Alla o’dien’) ............ 779 1377 ~11iause o’dien Bhammee ........................... 799 1996 Shurnse o’dicn, (brother of Ghiause) ............... 799 1396 Abu? Muzzuffir u1 Ghazi Sultaun Firoze Roze’af ’-

Z O O ~ ................................................ 800 1397 Ahmecl Shah Wake (brother of Abdl Muzuflïr) S25 1428 Alla o’dien II,.. .......................................... 838 1434 Houmaioun Shah Zelim, surnamed the Cruel... ... 862 1457 Nizaln Shah ............................................. S65 1460

1 It w a y to visit tll;lis plincc who was II patron of learned men, if nol. Ilinlsalfmong their number, that Hafiz left Schiraze t o go to i but embarking, 5t tempest forced him back t o port, which, Wit11

thc other disagrecable citcumtances incident to being v d m ~ not accllstomed to it, dctcrmined him never to quit his native counbY tagain.

Shumse’o’diea

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the s'on of a Tartar sh>epherd, and by others his descent is traced from the same noble family as that sf Genghis Khan : when the manners of the n'ation are considered, it will not appear im- pdssible that both accounts may be true ; the Tartars live as the ancient patriarchs and the modern Arabs, without fixed habitations, but remove their villages or camps lrts-the season, caprice, or

parts which had been seized by the Mahratta Sevagee, and annexed it to the Great Mogul empire A. H. 1097, A. D. 1665.

The succession of the Bizam Shahee kings of Ahmebug- gur began with Beheree, whose son, however, first actually assumed the crown 5 this son was

A.H. A.D. Ahmed N i z a n Shah .................................... 895 1489 Boorehan N i z a m Shah ................................. 914 1508 . Houssein N i z a m Shah ................................. 961 1553 Moortiza Nizam Sldl .. .rd: i .......................... 970 1562 Meeraun Houvsein Nizam Shah, (a suicide) ...... 996 g587 Ismael Nizarn Shah .................................... 997 1588 Boorahan S h h ........................................ ..10C)4 1595 This prince was the father of Ismael whom he succeeded, and the son .of Maoftizn Nizarn Shah; he was taken prisoner bg the Moguls in his capital Ahrnednuggur, and sent to the fortress of Gudior, the Spandau of Asia. After thirs disaster a slave, Unbcr, under the name and by the authority of Moor- tiza the Second, governed with great ability, and preserved the klagdom in peace during his administration, which he employed in publ ic works of utility and magnificence. Amollg these he built the town of Aurungabad or Gurk&, a d grcatlp &proved a n d beautified Dowlatabad where he was buried, A. €1. lU35. His aom Futteh succeeded to his dignities under Moortiza and his oon Houusein but the Moguls having al lengtll taken

Dowlatabad,

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the convenience of feeding their flocks and herds may dictate. The constant disputes that, in such a state o f society, must arise on account of the best pasture, or the most; plentiful springs, the necessity of vigilance to guard the camps from the attacks of neighbouring hordes, or of wild beasts, maintain a warlike spirit and martial habits among the people; and, as the prince is clis-

Dowlatabad, Houssein was sent to Gualior, and Futteh being insane was allowed to retire to Lahore.

The kingdom of Golconda11 was not torn from the Bha- manee sovereigns till nearly eighty years aftcr those of I3eja- poor and Ahmednuggur. Its monarchs are known by the name of the Koottub Shalls. The first of whotn was

A.H. A. D. KoolliKoottub Shah .................................... 918 1512 Julnsheed Koottub Shah .............................. 955 Ibrahim Koottub Shah ................................. 963 Mahommed Koolli Koottub Shah., ................... 989 1581 Malmoud Iioottub Shah .............................. Abdalla Koottub Shah ................................. Abu Houssein Koottub Shah ........................

This last prince was taken prisoner by Aurungzebe, who confined him in the fortress of Dowlatabad, asd annexed his kingdom to the Mogul empire.

The other two kingdoms which were founded on tile ruins of the Ehamanee monarchy of Deckan, werc those of Bereed and Urnmaid Shahees, the first of wholn reigned Over a small district of which Beder was the capital; bat tile dynasty producecl only three sovcrcigns. And thc latter ruled a small part Qf Berar, but; during the reign of the fourtE1 maid Shah, these two petty kingdoms were swallowed alp khe Mogul empirc,

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tînguislied from llis followers by no external mark of dignity, the appellation of a Tartar shepherd might well apply to the noble relation of the great I h m .

At the age of twenty-six, Timur married the daughter of a powerhl emir, who was tributary to Togatimur, a descendant of Zagathai, the

the city o f Balkh, in the year of the Hegira

over the countries to the east of the OXUS. li! l !*i I

Ten years afterwards he crossed that river, invaded IUIorassan and Georgia, ancl A. 13. 790t he haci traversed Persia as far as Schiraz, whence, however, he was recalled to defend llis ocvn capital, which was disturbed by insurrections, and at the same time ateacked by foreign tribes, in pursuit of some of whom he advanced so far towards the north, that the sun did not set for forty days. Pive years after his attack of Schi- raz, he sent his son Miram Shah with a powerful a m y into ]Litlorassan, and his grandson Pir Mahommcd through Cabul end Ghazna to In- dia, while he himself took the road to Baghdacl, which he entirely ruined, and destroyed its in- llabitnnts. A. H. 800$, Tamerlane turned his a r m towards India ; and Imviag taken many

son of Eenghis. His first conquest was that of :J , _ ! l ' ,

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* A. D. 1353. A. D. 1387. t A. D. 1396.

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of the mountain fortiesses towarda the &North while Pir Mahommed entered the country by the western provinces, he gave batde to Sultaun Mahommed in the following year, nearly in sight of Dehli, which was instantly seized and pillaged by the Tartars, who masgacred its inhabitants, and left it in ashes, to proceed ,faJcther towards the East. Tamerlane 'led his victorious troops to the banks of the Ganges, at Toglipor,

\ where he crossed the river, and then marched northwards upon the left bank to the ,Straits of Kupele, where the flood bursts through the mountains upog the plains of Hindostan ; and ;here, at that time, a multitude o f pilpims of all nations were assembled, in reverene' to the holy stream. Mistaking the crowd of devotees for an army intending to oppose thorn, the Tartars fell upon tbem, and wcre 'for a short time vigorously repdsed ; btlt the pilgrims were at length overcome, md Tamerlane, #,perhaps, ashamed of his victory, returned by th znoua- tains to Samarkand, receiving on his way thc homage of the king of Cashmere ; and this was the .only t h e he visited India, where 1% Ma. homned continued, homever, to make some conquests, It was oply three years after this cx- pedition that Tamerlane made the sfamours incur- sion into Syria and Natolia, took Aleppo and Damascus, and summoped Bajazet to abandon

While Tamerlane was thus occupied, his grandson, Pir Mahommed, whorri he had- left to govern India, was assassinated", and his son, sultan Sharoch, succeeded to the throne of Ghazna, on which he sat forty - two years. .

Tamerlane, however, beginning to feel the in- firmities of' age, resolved to close his career with a solemn festival. He, therefore, returned t o Samarkand, and on an extensive plain near that city, he erected splendid pavillions, where there was feasting for sixty days. All classes and orders were assembled, the different artisans appeared with the insignia of their trades, anil the royal armies passed in review before the mo- narcll, whose court was crowded with ambassa-

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dors, not only from the Asiatic sovereigns, brrt9 according to some authors, those of Manuel Paleobgras, and of Henry the Third, king of Castile, were present ; and on the last day of this great festival, Tamerlarie caused tl~e lnar- riages of all the princes and princesses of the royal house to be celebrated. This was the last public act of Timur, for, the next year,' having marched towards the fiontiers of China, he Gas, taken ill st Otrar in Turkestan, where he died

~ T T E R S ON INDIA, nsd

%lie sovereign w I ~ reigned at Dehli when Tamerlane invaded India, was,’as I have already mentioned, S u h n Malmoud III. who hacl as- cendeci tha throne in his infancy, and wliose long and imbecile reign qras: fillecl rvith all the &orders incident to a declining empire. Se- veral sovereigns, supported by different parts of the army, set themselves up in ‘pifferent proa vinces, and the,,zmbition ofthe mjnisters gratified itself st the expence of the interests o f the state ancl of its master; At lexrgth, the Seid Khizer seized the reins Qf government, arid seated himself on the Yatan throne ; and, after a tubu- lcnt reign of seven years, he died lamented by his subjects. IIis son, Moaz o’dier.1. Abd F’uttoh sultan Mubarric Shah, succeeded him, o f wIlom Ferîslltá says, cc he reigned thirteen rears : he was esteemed a man of-parts, just, and bcnevoJ,ent, and though no great warrior, ilad he lived in 8 virtuous age, there is no doubt bLit he- possessed talents which might render him worthy of the throne.’’ His ne- pIlew, the murderer of Mahomlned the Fifth; wit11 his san’ Alla IT. occupied the thronk; the first during twelve, and the latter during tweqtpsiven years, most unworthily, when Bel- loli, an Afghan of the commercial tribe of Loudi, I whose family had fdr some generations &t,irigtj&ed itself, spread the royal umbrella.

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Over his head, and marked his contempt for Alla by dlowing him to govern a small district for twenty-eight years.

None ever deserved to wear the crown better than Belloli, both by his public and private vii.tues and cmld any thing in those times of anarchy have restored Hindostan to ;;t state .kither of dignity or .prosperity, it would have beell &e reigns of such princes 8 s himself and his SOB Secunder I. the first of which lasted thirty-eight years, and the latter but ten years less. But the son of' Secunder disgraced his -family ; and 'during the twenty years that his weak and wicked administration lasted, all the horrors of civil war dnd assassination distracted the country, so that, at length, the nobles invited Baber Shah, of the house of TamerIane, .from Cabul, and plaked him on the tImne, so justly forfeited by Ibrahim Loudi. But ,the empire of Dehli was no longer the same that .flourished under Bdin or Nussur o'dien Ma., Iromtned. The province of' Bengal was Corn- pletdy separated fiorn it ; the rich countries of thê Reccan were the seat of another empire : Guzerat did not even nominally acknowl.edge the- sovereigns of Delzli ; and thè mountain triBi% óf' Patans werk tao turbulent to see tamely a MO@l dominion establislaed, where they had- f i r so many centuries borne the sway, ,

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The provinces which Baber received were those of Multan, Lahore, Dehli, Agra, Ajmere, and Oude. A very small part of Bahar belonged even nominally to the kingdom of Dehli, and the deserts of Ajmere contained few sub: jects, and those few it could scarcely support. Still the empire was r7, ,prize worth contending for ; but it required the talents and the perse- verance of Bahr to establish even the shadow ' of regal authority, where anarchy Ilad so long prevailed.

The family of B a h r sball be the subject of another Ictter : not that I mean it to be so long as t h i s ; but 1 have been sometimes tempted to dwell a little longer than I intended on the reigns of some of the Patans, rather as ,a study of human nature in a state of society, where both the good and the bad appear in very high relie< than because these reigns had any peri manent influence on the state o f India. Wheië the sys te~n of government is so absolutely .vì- cious, that its interior adpinistration as well as' exterd. policy, is dependent on the arbitrary will of one man, whether weakmd wicked, or of a firm an+ virtuous character; the effects of the longest and most I beneficent reign, are quickly olditerated ; and the wisest institutions and laws are subverted in a moment, by the , passions o f a weak, or the cruelties of a tyranní-

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c d ptince. Thus the general teddency O F such governments is to decay ; and it is only when anarchy has risen to its height, and some vigot- ous genius mho can be both a conqrlerof and a legislator, enforces a temporary calm, that inall is allowed a little breathing time to recover strength for 'new exertions, and but too certainly for new sufferings. Such, in few words, has been the Mahommedan history of India. Of the institutions which made its nativc 1no- .

narchies more respectable and more stable, w e know too little ; and o f its present state, just recovering fióm the horrors of long and crud wars, it is not fair to judge.

LETTER XII.

THERE i s no prince whose lifc cal1 bc abetter authenticated than that o f Zeher o'dlien Mahommed Baber Shah, for He has ivritten his own memoirs in a style accounted elegant by

- those most conversant in eastern literature, and in a manner that shews him ,.to have been a consummate general and an able politician at least towards the latter part of his life. He was the sixthin descent fiom the great Tamerlane, and wa8 born A. H. 888". At the early age o f

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twelve years h i s father Seik Omar, king of Firghana and Indija, part of the i’nheritance of Timur; entrusted to him the government of In- dija, depending entirely on his extraordinary abilities, and Omar being acCidentaIly killed about the same time Baber, succeeded to the whole kingdom. His uncles, jealous of his abilities, and thinking that the dominions of a dild would be easily seized, marched against him but were repulsed, as were various other princes who made the same attempts. When &ber had reached the age of fifteen, having saved his o k dominions he thought of invading those of others, and accordingly marcbgd against the king of Samarlcand, and the same year took that capital, but gave great offence to his army by refusing to permit any plunder. This clernen’cy was at that time so detrimental to his interests, - that the greater part of his troops abandoned. h i m , aQd while he wás possessing himself of $amarkand, his own capital Indija was wrested froin him. On his march to regain Indija the- &mdw-dians revolted, so that he found hime self with a very smslrl body of troops witl1out st kingclorn, and retreating fiom place to place \vithout bowcver losing courage or hope.

His fortune, which never remained long either wholly good. or bad, restored to him at different times both Indija and Samarkand, blat

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his possession of either lasted bùt for a few months, so that at the age of twenty he found himself obliged to abandon his native country, and as the unsettled state of Cabul offered the fairest opening t o his ambition, he marchecl thither, and two years afierwards estabiished Iiimself on the throne of that kingdom. This in all his’ ‘future fortunes was the province most strongly attached t o . him, for he had won the hearts of the inhabitants by the patience and

. generosity with which he applied himself to reœ lieve the miseries caused by a dreadful earth- quake, which A. D. 1504 desolatea that coun-

It was in the year of the Hegira 925+ that Baber first crossed the Indus, on the invitation of some of the nqbles’of Hindostan, who in the troubles of that unhappy time turned their eyes towards Baber for relief. But it was not’ until six years afterwards that he took possession of Lahore, and the next year marched to Dehli. &fore he reached that capita1 Ibrahim met him with a large army, and a fierce engagement en- sued, in which it is said that sixteen thousand Patans with Ibrahim himself were killed on the field. The Moguls- immediately took possession of the capital, and the Kootbat was read in .the

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* AI*P. 1517? t The Rootba j . . l is I the solemn declaration of the lineage and

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chief mosque in the name of Baber. He went after the ceremony to visit the tombs of the saints and heroes round the city, and thenc? t o Agra, which quietly opened-its gates to the neIV monarch, whose progress was marked by &mm ency and indulgence.

Thus Hindostan was subdued by a stranger with a handful of menl Ferishta says, C C to what then can' we attribute this kxtraordipkry conquest in a natural lkht but to t he great abilities and experience of .Baber, and the bravery of his few hardy troops, trained to war for their subsistence, and now fired with the hopes of glory and gain? But what contributed most t o weigl? down the scale of conquest was the degeneracy of the Patans, effeminated by luxury and wealth, and dead to all principles of virtue and honour, which their corrupt factions and- civil discord had wholly effaced ; ít being now no s h a m to, fly, no ' infamy to betray, 110 breach of honour 'to murber, and no scandal to change parties. When, therefbre, the fear of' shame and the love of fame were gone, it was no wonder that a herd without unanimity, order or discipline, should fil1 into the hknds of a few brave men."

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titles of a monarch, after wllieb the royal umjmlla is spread ovtr their IxcatL. The emperors o f Dehli were never crowned, but 011 occasions of state the diadem was su~pended over their bads from the state canopy.

years of civil war, and encountering every rc- verse of fortune, soilx!tiimes a wanderer in t h sandy desert, with scarcely an attendant, at

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qthers at the head of a promising army, the aon of Baber was obliged to fly for protection and safety to the court of Shah Thatnasp, the second of the Slxffee ,dynasty of Persia. Of the sufferings of this prince and his little band of Moguls the following incident may give an idea. CC On the fourth day of their retreat, they fell in with another well which was SO deep, that the only bucket they had, took a great deal of time in being wound up, and therefore a drum was beat t o give notice to the p o p l e when the bucket appeared, that they might repair by turns to drink. The unhappy men were so impatient for the water, that as soon as the first bucket appeared ten or twelve threw tllernselves upon it before it quite reached the brim of the well, by which means the rope broke, the bucket; was lost, and several fell headlong after it. When this fatal accident happened the screalns and lamentations of all became loud and dreadful, some, lolling out their tongues, rolled themselves in agony on the hot sand ; while otllers precipitating themselves into the .well met with an ilnnlediate and consequently an easier death !'*

Meantime Feiid an Afghan, commonly' called Shere, ascended the throne of Dehlj. appears *to have been a man of extraordinary talents and a hardy warrior. But aIthoug1l capable of the most generous actions, he was on many

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occasions cruel and vindictive. He was one of the most treacherous politicians that history has recorded, but he maintained public justice throughout his kingdom, and punished all de- ceits but his owp. The monuments o n i s magnificence and care of the public remain. He built caravanseras for travellers of every sect and religion, at every stage fiom Bengal to the

‘ Indus, a distance o f three thousand miles ; and planted rows of fi‘uit trees alang the road for the accommodation of the passengers. He was the first who established horse-posts in India, for the forwarding intelligence to government, and for 0

the convenience of commerce ; and in his reign the public safety was such that the traveller rested and slept with his goods on the high- ,

road in perfect security. H e was killed by the bursting of a shell st the seige of Chitore, after a reign of five years*, and his eldest son Adil succeeded him ; but before the ceremony of in- auguration took place, that timid prince gave up his title to Selim his younger brother, whose qualities though much inferior had a great resemblance to his father’s. He died, after a turbulent reign of seven years, A. H. 960t.

The vices of his brother-in-law and successor Mahomed Adil soon distracted the kingdom

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* A, D. 1545. A, I-I. 952. -J- A. D. 1552.


and 6 possessed many accomplishments and virtues ; the characteristic mildness and humanity of his family were most conspicuous in him, and

Solne occasions were carried to an excess that bordered upon wed' L iness.

Shah Jumja, Abu1 Muzuffir, Jellal o'diefi, Mnholtlmed Akbar Padsllnh Ghazi, commonly called Akbar Shah, succeeded to his fither, A. H. 963 *, The ,unsettled state in which Houmaioun had left the empire iequired a11 the talents and resolution, and perhaps a11 the harsh- ness of Byram, Akbar'sntutor, and a11 the bravery and gentleness of the young prince, to reduce t o any kind of order the discordant and turbulent members of which it was composed. The first orders which were issued were in that spirit which distinguished the reign of L4kbar, and rendered it a kindlof golden age t o the inhabitants of Hindostan. These orders prohibited t h exaction of the present-money on the accession of' the new sovereign from the %rmers, they likewise prevented the pressing labourers for the

. \vars, and permitted d l goods to pass from place: to place toll fiee.

But, Akb-ar wczs soon c a h l t o less pacific duties ; the Patan chiefs stili raised partial insurrections, gome of which were qnellecl by

8 A. D. 1555. ,

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timely severity of Byram, and others disarmed by the clemency of Akbar. minister, IIOW- ever, having tasted the sweets of power,- knew not how to resign nit as his pupil advanced in age, and being offended at the prince’s endeavours to emancipate himself, he imprudently took up arms against him, under pretence of a pilgrimage to Mecca, but was soon overcome. Akbar invited him with kindness to return t o him, and when the old man threw himœ self at the foot of the throne, Be tools: him by the hand, raised him andl t l~rowhg a robe of state over him, placed him in his former situation at, the head of the nobles. cc If’’ said Ak- bar, C c the lord Byram loves a military life, he shaIl have the government of Calpe and Chinœ deri, in which he may exercise his martial genius: if he rather chooses to remain at court, our favour shall not be wanting to the great benefactor of‘ our family ; but sl~ould devotion engage the soul of Byram to perform a pilgrimage to Mecca, he shall be escorted in a manner suitable to his dignity.” Byram chose the pilgrimage, and Akbar gave him a suitable retinue and 50,000 rupees a year, or something more than 36,000, to support; him. He was unform tunately murdered, with his. guard, by mine of the Afghans of the family of Loudi.

ARer this temporary storm, the interior of


Akbar's kingdom regained such a portion of tranquillity that agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, which had declined during the troubles that precided and accompanied the downfall of thePatan monarchy, began to flourish. The emperor turned his thoughts to the improvement of his people ; and while he employed the valour o f his sons and the Patan and Hind& chief? on the frontiers, sometimes as a guard against incursions f iom the north, and sometimes with a view t o conquest towards the south, he, with his minister, the learned Abul B a d , was employed in regulating the economy of the state ; in procuring information concerning the different provinces, with their produce and revenue, and in fkaming regulations of public justice and utility. Schools were established in various parts of the empire, in - , which b.oth the Indian and Arabic sciences were faught, Translations of works both of utility and elegance vere made at the command of Akbar, and under the eye of Abul Fazel, whose brother J?eizee was not only a great warrior, but one of the most learned men of' Hindostan. In short, the government of Akbar shcwed what advantage a Virtu~uS prince may derive from despotic power, to do good ; but, alas ! all despots are not Akbars ; and that. excellellt king died afier a reign of fifiy-one years, in the year of the He-

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LETTERS ON INDIA. b

The death of &bar closes the history of Fi- rishta : his successors have been less fortunate in the writers of their lives, but materials are not wanting for a modern hiatory of Hindostan ; and DowS the translator of Fgishta, seems to have availed himself with ability of these resources, on the death o f ‘Akbar, a faction at court

endeavoured to place I<hogru, the sop of #eliFS Akbar’s only surviving son, on the th.rone; but their designs were .defeated, and Selim,’ under the title of‘ Jebanghire, or .conqueror of the world, succeeded to the crown o f Hindostan. The friends of Khosru, rather than his own dispositions, led hiln then into an open rebellion, which was soon suppressed, and the prince was imprisoned, and many years ,&,erwards was murclcred by his brother, Shah Jehan, w1:o himself was more than olxe eng&g,ed in rebqilions against h i s father. The p,ersom whose influence was most felt in this reign, was Mir11 u1 Nussur, afterwards Noor Mahl, the wife of Jeha%&@. $he was the daughter of Aiass, a Tartar, whose poverty obliged hiln to f l ~ his country, grid was born in the wilderness, under circumstances of peculiitr misfortune. Aiass’s talents grid prob,ity SOOIL raised him into notice at the court of Akbar, und his darrgllter having been educated with the greatest cap, became one o f the most

R

JXTTERS ON INMA. %B

b w n s and villages built ; manufactures' flourished, and agriculture was particularly encouraged. Provinces which had been desolated by war were repeopled and cultivated, (and justice was done equally to the Hindû and Mussulman. The Mogul empire was so respected, that the court was crpwded with ambassadors, among whom an English envoy fiom James I. who presented a coach to Jehanghire, was one of the most favoured ; and in spite of the opposition of the prince royal, he obtained the object of his mission, which was leave 'to establish a hc- tory at Surat. . - But in the meantime, the martial habits of the nobles, whenever they were unemployed in fureign wars, broke out in rebellions, sometimes headed by Shah Jehan, the prince royal, at others by -different nobles ; but most of them were owing t o the intriBw of Noor Mahl, whose active and overbearing spirit could brook no rival in the sultan's favour. , Jehanghire died A. H. 1037*2 at Mutti, half way between Lahore and Cashmere, for which kingdom he had set out, t o enjoy the beauty and coolness of its valley during the hot months, it being his custom t o perform ebry year a journey to some part of his dominions, 1

944 , LETTERS ON INDIA.

This monarc11 had the teputatìon of being a deist, because he protected the followers of Brakma and Zoroaxter, and even tolerated Chris- tailas as veTl as Mussulmans. Ne was most ri- gorous in administering justice, punishing even those he loved, without regard to greatness of situation 03: office, He was completely free firom avarice, and his disposition was forgi~ng. 111 private, his temper was capricious, SO much so, indeed, as to bear occasionally the character of insanity, with which malady his unfortunate son KJlosru was certainly afflicted. He was naturally indolent, and indulged much in wine and opium; but be was fond .df literature, and has left a d-written life of himself. So well known and so well beloved was he, that he frequently lefi his palace in a simple habit, and mixed with the eve~ng parties of every rank I his person was tob we101 known to be disguised, but he never had reason to repent of hi3 familiarity with his people. ' Ch tbe death of Jebanghite, several parties were formed, each with a different view, ta pyevent the accession o f Shah Jehm ; but, by the as!&tance of his fatherh-law, Asiph J&, who was brofhr-to the favourit; sultana of his fidler, that prince overcame them dl, but*.unlíke the merF Cifil dispositions of the former sultans of' the hQuse of Timur, he put to death every one of

' ! l

E

the male descendants of Baber but himself and his four Sons ; I and to make the people forget this cruelty, he held a festival, which surpassed in magnificence every thing of the kind that had ever been witnessed in the East. However, the virtues he displayed during a reign of thirty years formed the best veil he could throw over the crimes of his advancement. HiS.justice and vigilance secured the happiness of his subjects, and hjs gratitude for'services insured the, lives and fortunes of those who grew, great in the state. It was Shah Jehsn's peculiar fortune t o have,

in the beginning of his reign, the ablest vizier and the most consummate general th^ had flourished under the family of Timurb Asiph Jah, his father-in-law, inherited the virtues and abilities of Aiass, and ruled the empire almost despotically till his death, which happened in his '

seventy-secofid year. The general Mohabet, who had serveci Jehanghire, and his son Khan . Zirnan, were the military ornaments c# the first years of Shah fehan ; but the, da th of the lab ter, shortly af!ter that of his fither, woulci have 'boon a more serious loss to the empire, but fix .the rising geniuses of the four princes, sons of Shah Jehan, by his wife Mamtsza Zemfinee. She was the daughter o f Asiph Jah, and by her gentle disposition, her virtue@, and her beauties,

m


had acquired an alraost unlimited influence over her husband, who, during her life, had no other wife, and afler her death built that splendid rno- nument to her memory, which has excited the; wonder and admiration of all who have visited Agra, and where he himself was afierwzurds buried by his son Aurengzebe*.

The Mogul dominions were considerably enlarged during the reign of Shah Jehan. The whole of Bengal was entirely subdued ; the states of Asetn and Thibet were kept in awel Under Aurengzebe, his third son, the frontier towards the Decan had been extended towards the north ; Candahar was recovered; Cashmire wás governed by a viceroy from Deldi ; Guzerat '

was entirely reduced to - obedience ; and, with the exception of a famine which, A. H. 1043 t., desolated Hindostan, the interior of the kingdom enjoyed as perfect a state of prosperity as it i s possible for human &airs to attain. But the time was approaching when this tranquillity was to be disturbed ; and for the eventful period of the civil wars which terminated the reign of Shah Jehsn, and preceded that of Aurengzebe, we have not only the testimony of native writerg

JC 'That beautiful tomb, constructed of fine marble, an3 ill-

laid with precious &mes,- is called the Taje Mahl; it cost

t A, D, 161% dnti0,OOO;

V'

d l the well VI bia; a the m

. warric frank the el &his p p eoplr his qv two B

rema^

ward! ' j P

- LETTERS ON INDIA. 247

but the recital of an eye-witness, the traveller Bernier, who, as pl~y~tician to one of the Mogul nobles, resided twenty-two years at the court of Dehli.

The extraor'dinary qualities of the sons- of Shah Jehan were the primary cause of those disturbances which terminated in the elevation of Aurengzebe and the murder of bis brothers. Dara appears to have been one of the most accomplished of princes : although a Mussulman, he retained in his pay several Hindû Pundits, who instructed him in the ancient learning of the country; and from the Jesuits, whom he pensioned handsomely, and whose colIege W* not among the meanest buildings at Agra, he became acquainted with European science. <Like all the princes of the hóuse of Baber, he was well versed in the literature of Persia and Ara- bia ; and few men in his time surpassed h i p in the manly exercises, and in the qualities of a

, warrior or a courtier. At the same time he was frank and generous almost to imprudence ; and the elegance of his address, and the beauty of his person, rendered him the favourite of the people. His eldest sister, Jehanara,, partook of bis quaities in an eminent degree ; and those two were, of dl Shah Jehan3 children, the most remarkable for filial piety, and for affection ta- wards each other.


Sultan Sujah, the second don of .-b..-. - 1.. .

many òr' Mara's good qualities, and he was infi- nitdy wore prudent, but he was too fdnd of pleasure.

hrengzëbe wai pêrháps a greater warrior than either of his brathers ; he ckrtainly was mote adapted for intrigue, but 'lie possessed nei&& the beauty, the address, nor the since; flty of t h s e plinces. He was an excellent ifis- dembler; and had a peculiar faculty of discover- s

ing the characters and dispositions of others, so äs t b bring them insensibly over to his own pm- $os&. To cloak his ambítion, which early aspfr-

' ed-to the throiw, he affected the habits of 8 B - kir &c derv&e, and used religioh as it mask to alf bis &@ris. Hiis sister, Roshenara Begum, re- &embled him in disposition, and what authbl*ity she possessed in the harem was emplqed for bîm.

. Morâd was tlie fourth son of Shah Jellan. In li& bpenkss and sincerity he resembled Dara '; in his cdutagk hit surpassed all> his brotlsers ; but he was impatient and passioaate to excess. fie was extremely beloved by the people, and for *ät reason he was for a time courted by

With four auch 'sons, Shah >ehan felt $n anxi- Wy'Wt~d'to one *ho, ta sedurè his own throne3 had murdered every male in his family, and was

' Aurengzebe. e%

'cp


therefore particularly careful to cause such re- ,

spect to be paid to Dara, as he hoped would smooth his way t o the empire after his own death". To this end he associated him k t h himself in the kingdom, and caused respect to be paid to the signet of Dam equal to that paid to his own. Sujah at the same time was made governor of Bengal, Aurengzebe had the corn* mand of the southern provincesy and Morad, with a powerfd army, ruled in Guzerat. In the year of the Hegira, 1067+, Shah Je-

han was seized with a paralytic stroke, and continued for some time in such a state of weakness, that the whole government tvas administered by Dam The three other princes being apprized _.

of this, and each expecting that ere they could reach Delhi their father would have breathed his last, determined to march towards the capital, and contest the crown with Dara. Solimân Shekoh, the Bon of Dara, immediately set out, I

&t the head of an imperial army, to oppose SU- jab, who was rapidly advancing fiom Bengd, and defeated him near Benares, when 'he fled

f

350 LETTEN ON Iilu'DHA:,

back to his government to raise new forces,. Meantime Aurengzebe hac1 mmched from the Deccan, and was joined by Morad with his troops from Guzerat at Brampoor. Meer Jumala* was also, by the artifices of that crafty prince, brotlght over to his party ; and these united forces soon overcame the resistance offered on the banks of the Nerbudda by the Maharaja Jeswunt Sil@, and marched on towards Agra, Tllere they: were met by Darit, and victory seemed for some tirne doubtful, till Dara was forced to dismount from his elephant from different accidents, The soldiers, no longer seeing hiln in his station, ff ed, and Aurengzebe gained a decided victory.

Dara fled to Dehli, ancl Aurengzebe by a stm- tagern got possession of Agra, and conscquently of the person of his father+, but it was not yet;

* Meer Jumla was a man oflow origin, who Sy his talcnts had raised 11imr;elf to great power, and acquired immense wealth under the Kaoi,uL Sllahee lcilrgs of Golconda. IVllile Aurengzcbe commanded i n Ille DCCC~D, Mccr Jumla, upon some aGont from bis sovereign, fled with his treasures to Ru- rcngzebe, who prized h i s abilities, and, at tlmt time, still more his riches and forces. I-IC died of a fever in Arraci"Ln, whew he had remained on an expedition during the rainy season.

Shah J e h n was imprisoned in the fortress of Agra, where his coznpanions were bis dauglitter Jelm~ara, and llis grand-daughter, the child of Dora. He died A. FI, 10%. A. D. 3666. I-Ie was the first who departed from the mild clíaracter of the house of hber by the murcler of his relations,

alpi


time to seize the throne. Dara still had re& sources 5 and Morad, whom he had deceived by his appearance of piety, and' to whom he had promised to yield all pretensions to the crown, on condition o f recelvlng a hermitage for himself, was still the favourite of the army, and at the head of a powerful body of his own friends. €Xe therefore marched in pursuit of Dam, but on the way he seized and murdered Morad in. his own tent, where that unsuspicious prince had accepted of a sumptuous entertainment. After this crime Aureagzebe inarched to Delhi, arid there mounted the imperial throne, but con.. trived to 'have it forced upon him by his fiiedds, and assumed the title of Alûmghire, or Con- queror o f the World, in the year of the Hegira, X068*.

Meanwhile the most- unprecedented misfor- tunes pursued the unfortunate Dara, nor was his lzeroic son, Soliman Shelroh, more prosperous. Sujrth had again collected an immense army,

* and to oppose him Aurengzebe marched fiom Dehli, and defeated him in an obstinate and bloody battle at Kedgwa, about thirty miles fio111 Allahabad. This was the last serious opposition to the amnbition of Aurengzebe, MorSd was al-

and he perhaps suGrcd more tllan any other prince from the 6 a w crimes ill his son.

* .h, D. 1656,


ready murdered. Dam, wit11 his family, was a figîtive, enduring incredible hardships in the same desert where Houmaiou? had before sufi fered. In consequence of these hardships, his beloved wife, Nadira B a d , the daughter of his uncle Parviz", died at t h e residence of Jihon, a petty chief in the province of Bichar, west of the Indus. Jihon then seized Dara, and sent him, with his son, t o Dehli. There he was mounted on it sorry elephant, and after parading through the streets, where every eye wept for k, he was confined in a miserable hut a few milesfiom the town, and basely murdered in the night by the orders of Aurengzebe, who is re- ported t a 'have wept when he received the bloody head. But the war with Sujah was not entirely at an end, and a peculiar circumstance rendered it more vexatious to his brother t1lLzyI any he had waged. Mahommed, so11 of Au.. rengzebe, was tenderly attached to one of tile daughters of Sujah, and being wrought upon by l

a letter fiorn her, he left the camp ofhis father's general, Meer Jumla, and joined his uncle. However, this desertion did not change the fior- tune af the new emperor : Sujah was again defeated at Tanda, and fled to the mountains of Tipperah, ailer having dismissed Mallommed

*, nhrdered by Shah Jehan,

I

- 1

I

i 1

,LETTERS ON INDIA.

with bis wife and jewels to a large amaunt. An artful letter from Aurengzebe to his son Ilad excited the suspicions of the unfortunate prince, who could no longer bear tolive with a man he had ceased to trust ; but Mahommed, on his return to his father, was immediately imprisoned in Gunlior, where he remained till his death. Many year8 elapsed before the fitte of Sujsih was known with certainty in Endostan; but at length it was discovered that the Rajah of Aracan had - caused him to be treacherously drowned; his two - sons and twenty attendants were murdered by a party of the Rajah's troops ; his wife and her two eldest daughters escaped fiom ignominy by suicide, and the youngest died of a broken heart immediately after her forced .marriage with the murderer o f her family.

I Thus every obstade to the ambition of Aua rengzebe was removed ; and if a wise and just government of his people could atone for an im- pl-isoned father and three murdered brothers, that morlarcll might hope for pardon. He is said to have exhibited signs of sensibility ri the catastrophe of h i s last brother, and perhaps he was sincere ; far now that he was seated on tbe throne, and no longer under the impressions af either fear or jealousy, he' had leisure to look round 'on the 11avock he had made, and it would I

be strange indeed if he could have contemplated

d

954 LEmERS ON INDIA*

it Lz111noved. Aurengzebe reigned fifty-tm years Tvith a reputation which few princes have surpassed. The tra~quillity OF that perioci was only disturbed by a transitory inckmtion to rebel, rather than a rcal rebellion, in his son Shah Mum, and á suspicion of a plot formed by the Persran nobles, wit11 his vizier at their head, to g

dethrone him. This suspicion had made hiln resolve fdr t& days on a general assassination of the Persians, but the prudence of the Princess Jehnnara saved him fiom that dangerous cruelty.

made the splendour o f the Mogul throne proverbial. Bernier, in particular, has given u s a high ìdea of it ; aud as under his, successors the empire was in a state of continwd and rapid deœ cline, I will stop one n-mxnt, before 1 finish my list of emperors, to give you some idea of what the Mogul court once was,

The magnificence bof Aurenggebe’s court has ’

Where the gorgeou East, with richest Iland, Fhow’r’d on her kings barbaric pcwl and gold.

An idea may be formed of the riches of the royal tmxwry of Dehli, when we relnembcr that afier many years of weak government, ancl both public and private disturbances, Nadir Shah, when he invaded India, carried with hiln fiom

and jewels. Aurengzebe’s manner of passing; hi3

capital above eighty millions sterling in gold ’ !

l ... ,

I

LETTERS ON INDIA. 265 l

day has been minutely described by different au- t h s , and I give you an abridged account "of it as a picture of his character, of the manners of his court, and of the riches he possessed. His dress was simple, except on days of festivals, when he wore cloth of gold and jewels ; and his private life was that of an anchoret, altlmgh he encouraged magnificence in his nobles, and required it in the governors of his provinces.

having bathed, he spent half' an hour in his chapel, and the same time in reading before he went t o dress. At seven o'clock he went to the chamber of justice, to hear appeals and to over- look the bast decisions of the judges, a practice of the house of' 'Timur. At that time the people had fiee access to him ; the necessitous were of'ten relieveil by the king UrnseK who bad a large sum o f money lying on a bench be- -side him, and he was always ready to listen to their, petitions. If a well-grounded complaint appeared against the greatest noble, Auren@ zebe, at hitJ next audience, put into his 'hand a Twitten paper, containing the nature of his fault, and a dismissal fkom al1 his offices : he deprived him of Bis estates, and thus degraded, he was obliged to appear daily at the hall of' audience, .f;ill being sufficiently punished he was gradually restored if worthy; if otherwise, sent into banish-

He rose every morning at daybreak, and ,

,

I

25 G LETTEKS UN INUIA.

brea1 - _.

after which he appeared in a balcony facing the great square of the palace. There he sat to review his elephants richly caparisoned, his state horses, feats of horsemanship, and combats of wild beasts. At eleven o'clock he went to the hallof audience and mounted hisjewelled throne, - - 1 before which al1 the nobles were arranged In two rows, on rich carpets, according to their rank, when all ambassadors, viceroys, generals, and

I . visitors were introduced. Each person presented inade a nus'sur or offering ; if he was in high

The ceremonies of introduction consis$ed of bowing three times, at three different intervals, in approaching the throne, and the same on retiring, which was always done backwards. l'm1

a new dignity was conferred on any omrah, a dress of state, two elephants, two horses, a camp bed, a sword, warlike instrumentk and enn signs, his patent, and a sum of money were conferred by the emperor.

The hall of audience, or c M e Z sitoon opened

I hvour, the king. received it from his own hand.

pbe passel va3joua oc, and- active occasioned

t * Literally the forty pillars. T h e .roof of this h d was of Po@ever, -, silver ; the rails which divided it from the courts were of gold, and the other railings of silver. These were spared by Nadir Shah, but ailerwards seized by the infamous Golaurn Khadir Khan.

8

L'ETTERS ON INDI.& 957

into a large square, where Aurengzebe reviewed and examined troops; a second square was occupied by the lower order of nobility; a third by artisans who came to exhibit their manufactures, and who received rewards according to their. merits; and a fourth was filled by huntsmen, who presented wild animals and; game. After spending two hours I in the hall, he retired to his bathing chamber with the officers of state, and regulated ordinary affairs, after which- he spent an hour at table, and in the hot mason slept half an hour. At four he appeared in the, balcony over the great gate of the palace, when a mob, nsually collected round him with petitions and complaints. From this noisy scene he retired to prayers, and thence to the bathing room, where the vizier and other ministers assembled, and the council frequently sate late, though the usual hour for the emperor's retiring was nine o'clock'

This was the usual manner in which Aureng- zebe passed his time a t Dehli or Agra; but the various occupations in which, during his. long , and active, reign, he was enkaged, necessarily occasioned a clifferent disposal of his hours, However, when he was on a journey, the court of justice was held in the çamp at the same hours as ih the city ; and those who were obliged to follow the king an c?,ccgunt- of their business,


had each a sum allowed sufficient to defiay their travelling expenses.

A minute attention to the comforts of his people distinguished the reign of Aurengzebe. 011 occasion o f a scarcity, an inundation, or other pressing evil, the taxes were remitted in the suffering districts, and they were always lightened on those fwms which, in the emperor’s journies through his states, he saw the best CUL

tivated. The fiontier provinces, however, could hot enjoy all the benefits of his administration, for in order to preserve the internal tranquillity of his empire, he kept LIP a constant warfare in the Deccan, and finally succeeded in re-uniting the whole of its Mahomedan kingdoms to the Mop1 crown. But he had a more formidable opponent than any of the weak princes of those petty states, in the Mahratta chief Sevajee, whom he was accustomed to call the mountain rat, and. who during nineteen years baffled dl the empel m’s efforts io destroy his power. But 1 have already in a former letter mentioned that singular man; and I shall now proceed to the suc. cessors of Aurengzebe.

He died R. H. 1 119 *, after a reign of fifty4 years. He’began a reign which‘ he owed to

LETTERS ON INDN, 259

~~ypocl.i~y, by the most unnatural murders, The splendor and beneficence of his rule taught his subjects to forget his early days. The piety he professed during his whole life, and especially in his last years, must not be ascribed wholly to &S- simulation ; conscience required an expiation of his crimes, and conscience also made him. feel the necessity of a stronger protection t b n he c d d afford himeelf. Religion was his only ree fuge; and as he had learned to know it when he thought of it only as a means of gratifying his arnbitio,n, he probably ended by being a sincere believer, perhaps even an enthusiast, for his character allowed not of weak impressions.

I-Iis person was by no means remarkable, and llis countenance had no beauty, but it was expressive, and sometimes agreeable. His manners were prepossessing and simple ;. his voice was harmonious, and he was a good orator and 8x3 elegant writer. He was well acquainted with ntlle languages of Arabia and Persia, and he wrote the Mogul tongue, as well as the vazious dialects of India, with ease. He erected colleges in ali tile principal cities of Hindostan, and schools in ,

.the inFerior towns ; he proposed rewards for learning, and founded several public libraries. Hospitals, caravanseras, and bridges were built, and ferries establiahcd on al1 the public roads; Z~IC a&nin&ation of justice was impartial, and

S 2

960 LXTTERS ON INDIA.

capital punishments were nearly disused during his reign. Such were the atonements he endeam vollred to make for his crimes ; and he has found qmlogists- in those who pretend that the nature of despotism bess Cg no brother near the throne."

Aurengzebe, or Alumghire, was succeeded by his second son Mahomed Mauzim, commonly called' Bxhadur Shah. It was this prince who, under the title of Shah Allurn, had once been near disturbing the reign of his father by a civil war, and his own elevaticm to the throne was contested by his brothers, whose deaths in battle saved him fiom the crime of fratricide. He only enjoyed the crown four years and eleven months, when his son Jehander Shah, or Moaz ddien succeeded to it, whose three brothers. were sacrificed to his security. But his low and disgusting vices, together with the pride of his minister Zooueccar Khan, soon proved his destruction. The two brother seyds, Abdoolla Khan Bareah and Ali Khan, were soldiers of fortune, who had raised themeIves CO import;. ance during the troubled times that succeeded the death of Aurengzebe. These two chiefs, with prime Ferokhsere, grandson of BahadUr %ah, liaised a powerful army, attacked and kifled Jebander 'Shah, and for Borne time de- luged the. capital with, the blood of its nobles, *

To secure 'the throne to Ferokhsere, the

LETTERS ON IKDIA. ,961

princes of the blood, who might have aspired to '

the crown, were blinded with hot irons and im- , l t

prisoned. The Seyds, however, grew -tired of i

their emperor, whose private favourites oRen I gave them great offence; and after a reign of six years they imprisoned him, and placed one of the royal family, whom they released fiom J , l

confinement. on the throne. .The manner of $erokhsere's death is differently related, but .all agree that it was violent. It I was during the reign of this prince that the East India Company i p obtained their fermân of free trade, in conse--

I ;

quence of a successful operation performed on the emperor by MT. Hamiiton, the surgeon to the Company's embassy. That gentleman being offered any reward ho chose, besought the grant of the Company's requests, which were instantly complied with ; and the emperor, 'besides other 'valuable presents, gave him models of all his surgical instruments in pure gold.

Abu Berhaut Rnffeh u1 Dirjât was the phan- tom that the seyds. now placed. on, the throne, but dying of a consumption ìn. four months,

I Ruffeh ul Dow1a.h was put into his place, where he died in three months. more, and made way for Mahomed Shah", grandson of Balladur Shah, who, since the accession of Jehander Shall, bad ,been in confinement.

1 He began his reign A. D, 1790, f

E62 LET'rERS ON INDIA.

The chief event which makes this reign mel morable in the annals of India, was the invasion of Nadir Shah. According to some accounts9 he was called into Hindostan by the Nizam u1 Mmlk, who, about Al D. 1724, Imd begun to

em ,pero ..-

Ir, and to make himself independent in the Deccan, But *as the invasion did not take place till sixteen years &er that period, it is probable that t h e Iove of conquest and the desire of plunder were sufficient to induce Nadir to invade SO weak an empire as, that of Dehli was become. Early in fie reign of Mahomed a conspiracy of the nobles cut off the two seyds, who had made and un- made his predecessors at will. Shortly afterwards the Nimm withdrew all but a nominal allegiance for the states of the Deccan. The Mah'l.attsa had seized Guzerat and Mulwa, and even scoured the country within sight of' Agra# Na- dir had possessed himself of Candallar, and Ca- bu1 waH but feebly guarded. Under these cir- cumstarrce8, the imprudence of Mahomed ofi fended the Persian ambrrsrrador, and thus afforded m immediate pretext for the inirasion of his master. - A kind of infatuation seems to have ,prevailed In the Mogul councils ; [the army was -not half assembled ; and Mahoméd had only marched four days"jaurney fiom Dahli into the p l ~ n of Kmnal, when Nadir, fie& fmm the con-

t '


quest of Lahore, defeated him, with the IOSS of his best and bravest minister. At first the strictest discipline had prevailed among the Per= sians : no one was molested ; and the emperor, after having been kept a state prisoner with his famiIy for a few days, was permitted to return quietly to his palace.

But this tranquillity did not last, On the night of the 10th March a quarrel in the Bazar raised a tumuh, and one of those engaged suddenly called out that cc Nadir Shah was dead, and now was the time to free Dehli fiom the Persians,)' A massack instantly began, and during the whole night the city was a scene of confusion and murder. But the morning saw it revenged. Nadir Shah at daylight marched to the musjid of Roshen u1 Dowlah, situated in the principal street, and there gave orders for a general massacre of the inhabitants, without dis- tinction of age or sex. The havock lasted from s~qcise tö mid-day, when the emperor and his n&l,bs appeared before Nadir Shah, and, for the &l&.. of Mahorned, he pronounced .the words, 4' I#rgìve," Instantly the carnage stopped, but not its effects. Many Hindoos and Moguls, 20 Save their worn& &om pollution, set fire to their houses, and burned their families and effects, These fires spread, and the city be* çame incumbered with ruins. The dead bodies

8

LETTERS ON

soon caused a pestilential mrviving inhabitants. Private inurdem, in order to extòrt confessions of treasures, filled'tbe houses witli tears and groans. A famine was added to

- these' calamities, and some hundreds of honour- ' able persons 'committed suicide, to 'escape at once from such accumulate

-been concluded, by which

INDU.

disorder

#d distress( 2s.

' Ivwas not till the fifteenth of Apriï that Nadir -and his Persians lefi the city. A treaty had

he confir ' m e Id Malm ked on the throne of all tfie provinces east of the Indus, and I reserved those to the west for

'himself. He I carlied with him three millions and a half sterling in money from the P q d &ea- SV, & million and a half in plate.; fifieen SmiDiöns in jewels, the celebrated peacock tljl-one, valued at a million, other thrones bf inferior value, and the canopy for the royal ele- nphant, estimated at eleven millions ; besides five hundred elephants, a number of horses, and the imperial camp equipage. Nor was this all: 'five millions at least were collected by way of fine fiom the nobles and other inhabitants, besides the private plunder of the soldiers, which pro-

m bably amounted to' as much more. I The historian whom Scott translates, remarks !on the ' miseries 'of 'these dreadfhl times, that -they were prbduced by the selfishness af all ranks

' of people. I. should, be teinpted to change the . . a ,


cause for the effect. Despair had rendered them indifferent . to the future, and to each I other ; none had hopes of better times, and consequently present enjoyment was all that could. be attained; to betray another afforded n chance for favour, and therefore for safety ; but to t imt even a brother, was to arm him against you for the day of adversity.

ARer the departure of Nadir Shah, 5t mourn- fin1 tranquillity took possession of the court of nDehli, but it was soon disturbed by those private intrigues which rendered the Nizam wholly in- clependent, and by the invasions of the Mahrattas on one side, and those of Ahmed Shah Abdalla on the other. This Ahmed Shah was a soldier of

' fortune, raised t o high rank by Nadir Shah, and who, after his death, had made himself independent in Candahar and Cabul. In the year .of bis first invasion of India, A. D. 1747, died Mahomed Shah, who, though not fitted for the

'turbulent times in which he lived, was ;c humane and respectable prince.

Aluned Shah, the son 'of Mahomëd, * succeeded him ; but though he had before his accession shown marks of spirit and bravery, he disappointed his subjects by giving himself up entirely to' pleasure after he mounted the throne. -

His' reign was a scene of confusion, owing t o the turbulence of the nobles and the incursions of

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the Mahrattas and Ahmed Abdulla, nor was &at of his successor, AZumghire II. more tranquil. Ahmed's eyes were put out, and he was consigned to a state of tranquil oblivion in 1753, and his cousin, Alumghire, placed on the throne. The principal event in his reign was the total overthrow of the Mahrattas at L the battle of Pa-

' niput, A. D. 1761, by Ahrned Abdda, corn- mody called the Dtlrannee Shah; but that did not; secure greater tranquillity. The wretched monarch was alternately the prisoner of his open foes and of his ministers, till he was murdered by his vizier, in the year in which the Mahrat- tas were . defeated. During this calamitous reign the French general, M. Bussy, had rendered himself almost absolute at the court of the Nizam who had granted the northern Sir- cars in Jaghire to his nation ; but the English had become so powerfid by their union with the nawab of Arcot, that Bussy and his countrymen found it necessary ta oppose them. A long struggle between the two nations terminated in tbe taking of Pondicherry by the British, which ruined the French in that part of India; and the Nzam bestowed great part of the Jaghire they had formerly possessed on the conquerors.

The singularly miserable reign of Bhah Allum the Second began A, D. 1161, The battle of Plassey 'Plain, which had been won by Cdonel,


afierwards Lord Clive, A. D. 1756; and its cont sequences, had renderted the interference of the English of -great importance to the contending parties in Hindostan. Accordingly, the ac- knowledgment of Shah Allum, then a fugitive at Patna, by the English and the nawab of Bengal, Meer Casiin, whom they had raised to that station, put an end to all. other competitors. The depredations of the Mahrattas, and of the Jauts under Rajah Md, rendered it impossible for the emperor to attempt to get to Dehli without the assistance of an armed force ; and as the Eng. lish were too fully occupied with their own affairs in Bengal to afford him assistance, he re- quested and obtained the escort of Scindia, the Mahratta chief, and in the tenth year of his reign removed from Allahabad, where he had been pensioned and protected by the English, ta Dehli, the ancient capital of his empire, and whkre his coming diffused a general joy. But the emperor was now obliged t o accompany, if not to head the Maliratta armies; ancl it -was with difficulty that he prevented them fiom falling on the forces o f his own vizier Sujah ul Dowlah, and the English. As soon as the royal treasury was drained, the Malnatta allies seized all Shah Allum’s estates except the ruined city of Dehli, and treated him with personal indig- nity. The small remains of his own force, con-

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sistirtg of only four battalions of Sepoys, were easily overcome by Bissnjee and Holkar. The 'citymwas plundered, and a famine added to the misery of the people. From that time, to the year 1787, the unhappy Shah Allum was alternately the pageant of every successful party that could seize his person, whether Mahratta or Mogul. At that period Scindia afforded him the means of daily subsistence, n11d Mahratta troops garrisoned his citadel. -But be W ~ Z S destined t o , drain the cup of misery .to the dregs. Gholaum Kha&r Khan, a Rohilh chief, mnrcb- ed suddenly from his resicleme o f Gooscghur, and seized Debli and the persons of the whole royal family. Nature shudders at the recital of the monstrous cruelties committed by that wretch, who deposed Shnh Alllzm, and raised anotllcr of the royal family to the mock dignity of emperor.

- On, tbe twenty-sixth of July, 1 7887 the royal family was confined ; and between that time and the fourteenth of September their suflerings ex..

'ceeded any thing thnt the wildest imagination can frame. To extort confessions of treasures, they were frequently kept many days without

L ' food; and for the crirng of conveying fourteen -cakes and ,some water to Shah Allum, a noble wasmndernned to be beaten with clubs. The women of the.harem were tied up and beaten;

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king’s uncle, and other respectable persons, were so severely flogged as to faint away; two infants and twelve women. died of hunger; and ’

four more, in despair, threw themselves out of

Before Shah Allurn’s face, he caused several of his Sons to be lined up and dashed against the ground, and- then throwing - down the unfortunate emperor, his eyes were stabbed out with a dagger.

But the approach of the Mahrattas alarmed Gholaum, who fled fiom Dehli ; Scindia replaced Shah Allum on his throne ; and, soon after, seizing the Rollilla chief, he cut off his ;ears, nose, arms, and- legs, and sent him as a present t o the emperor, but he died on the road unpitied and unrespectecl.

Meantime the English, partly by arms, and partly by negotiation, had obtained the real possession of Bengal and Bahar ; and their nawab; Casirn, having proved refractory to their orders; -they, afker a considerable struggle, in which the nawstl, was sided by the vizier Suja ul Dow-

. lah, completely subdued all their. enemies ; and -the battle of Buxar gave them a reputation in war, which, aided by their policy, placed the vhole of Hindostan Proper at their disposal*


The province of Allahabad was settled on the emperor, but he unfortunately lefk it for Dehli, whi& occasioned all his subsequent sufferings. The V;zyut was confirmed in the family of suja

Dowlah. The son of' Jaffier Khan, who himself had been both the predecessor and successor of Casiln Khan, was, on the death of his father, appointed nawab of Bengal under his mother Munny Begum. Every principal city admitted an English resident ; and the predominance o f British influence was felt both in the cabinet and the field. Such was the state of Hindostan when Mr. Hastings became governor-general on the part o f the Company: and as, since that time, the history of India belongs properly to that of Britain, I shall conclude this rapid sketch of the rise and decline of the Mussuhan power in India.

The state of that country, from the death of Aurengzebe, was so disastrous both t9 the nations and individuals who compose it, that not a momentary doubt can exist of the advantages of its present government over the past, whatever be the opinion as to the merits of-the government itself. Every man may now repose under his own plantain tree ; and if in the early and unsettled period of our first posse+ sion of the country, some injustice Wag corn- anitied, and some enormpus fortunes unfairly

amassed, the present purity of the Company's servants is best attested by the unfeigned respect in which most of them are held by the natives, and by the very moderate fortunes whicll, after long and arduous service, they can. now attain tb.

LETTER XIIL MY DEAR SIR,

AFTER so long a digression to the Mussulmans, I intend to go back to the Hinœ das ; and though I know no more of their history than I have already sent you, their customs and manners, and the division of castes, which SO

peculiarly distinguish them from every other nation, may perhaps be interesting.

The division of the different classes of society into separate tribes, forbidden to intermarry or hold communion with each other, seems anciently to have been by no means confined to the Hindûs. The perpetuity of trades and professions in ancient Zgypt, the setting aside the tribe of Levi and house of -Aaron for the priesthood among the Israelites, attest this ; and though, in the latter instance, it was by the peculiar disposition of heaven, we may well suppose it to have been in conformity with the

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wants of that people, and with the customs of the surrouading nations, whose ignorance and grossness re<uiied 'a visible pomp as the external sign of' religion -ancl devotion. SO, in compas-. sion t o their. weakness, the ark, of the covenan t vas permitted t o be built, which, like the moving temples of even the modern Hindfis, accompanied the nation in its wanderings, whether in warlike expeditions or peaceful ceremonies, the brazen serpent was erected in the wilderness, and the tent of the tabernacle was watched and guarded by m consecrated tribe, as the family of Koreish served the sacred Caaba.

With -the.exception, bowever, of the customs of the small remnant of the Jewish nation, and perhaps of the Chinese hereditary trades, i;Z1~

Hindûs are the only people which now presents a complete rnodel'of the system of castes. The number of distinct classes at present a& in owœ I

! Jedged among the Hindûs, is infinitely - greater

tban it was at first, if we may believe the and cierit books in which they are enumerated. 3ut as this very artificial system must have been formed long afker the wants of society had produced difference o f professions to SLIPPIY those wants, it is most probable I that, in order to in-, troduce .with1 more authority a division so I ex-. tremely oppressive ta certain ordem,, the lawgivers refeved it to more ancient times, and thus

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LBTPEfiS ON INDIA. S!?-9

added the sanction which respect for. ancestry never fdls to give, to their own institutions. If one wished to iuustrate the doctrine that knowledge is 'power, it would bë scarcely possible to find a history more-apposite than that of the subordination of castes in India. Nothing but superior knowledge could have procured for the Brahmins a sufficient ascendancy over the minds of their countrymen, to allo+ tbem to take to thehselves the first rank in society, to enjoy without labour the conveniences and even luxu- ries &ch others must toil to gain, and without taking on themselves the burdens of either government or war, to reap the advantages of .

both, and to enjoy the priviléges without incur- ring the dangers of dominion. Such, however, is the highly endowed Brahmin, who, in the so- . Etude of' his caverned mountains, or consecrated groves, ' studied the various powers and passions -

of the human mind, in-order to bend and wind' it the more surely to his purpose; while he in- vestigated those laws of nature, the application of which, among a simple people, might make him alternately the prophet of blessings or the denouncer ,of woes. Nor were these the only means by which I they virtually governed their fellowkcitizens. Those religious feelings which are inherent in every human breast, and which sanctify every association with which they are

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The Brallwins are divided into ten great classes, named fiorn the nations whence they

. came,.which are, with the exception of Casmira or Cashmere, the same with thè ten ancient nations of India, which I formerly mentioned, Their names are the Saraswnta, Canyacubja,

' Gama; Mit'hila, Utcala, Dravira, - Mahaxastra, TeIingana, Güjjera, and Cashmira Brahmins, These ten classes are farther subdivided, according to the districts they are born in, and the families whence they spring ; and their usages and.. professions o f fktti differ in almost every tribe. While some hold it ttnlawful to destroy animal life, and-abstain even from eating eggs ; others make no scruple of feeding on fish or fowl. . Brahmins of different nations, and families

do not usually eat with each other, and under many circumstances, 'priests even of the same tribe rduae: to eat together.

. I The 'most important function of the Cshatrya or Xetrie daas, is that of government, That caste, alone, ought to furnish monarchs, and 8 Brahmin is- forbidden to accept of any gift from a, king not born a Xetrie. At the salne time,

while the sceptre is thus placed in the hands of t b ,,miJìtary class, there are strmg injunctions t o leave the civil administration to the sacerdoh1

. tfibe, and Menu abounds with tqts favourable

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LETTERS ON INDU, W7

t.0 that nation, where the seats of justice are filled by holy Brahmins.

A l t h g h the intermarriage of different classes be now unlawful, it was formerly permitted, or .at least ,those who framed the present arbitrary system of castes feigned it to have been so, in times anterior to the written law, in order 'to account for the extraordinary number, of inter4 mediate classes sprung fiom tbe" four oliginal divisions of mankind. These intermediate classes are reckoned by some t o be thirty&, although other authors count more. than double - that fl' 1 ,

number, many of which, according .to them, 1 ,l(:

are of doubtful origin. Those wliicb mnk higher are such whose fathers are of the first class, and the mothers of the second, the third, and the fourth ; then those whose-fathers are sf the seœ cond caste, and the mothers inferior ; afterwards the children of a man of the third class, - by a woman of the last ; and these afford six divi- siam As many proceed from the marriages-of women of high caste with men iderior to themselves, and innumerable others are derived-from the intermarriages of these mixed divisions, both among themselves and the pure families. These form the regular respected castes ; but there are several classes' if outcasts, called chandelas, pa- Tiahs, &C. who are nat permitted to live in towns or villages, or to draw water from the same wells as o t lm Hindûs ; but they pay a

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Natas and Naticas, who are players, :dancers, and singers, are also distinct classes of the very lowest kind +. Such are the general divisions Qf the Hindb castes ; with regard to the strictnesa with which each is obliged t o follow its peculiar trade,. tllere are a variety of opinionx. The most commendable method by which a Br&- min can gain a .sub&sie.nm, is by teacbing the

priests,' and receiving gifks fiom great men. A 'Xetrie should pear arm ; a Vaissya's proper avocations are rnenclmdise, àgriculture, . and pasturage ; and that of a Sudra, s e t d e attendance. But; a, Bralmin who cannot subsist by bis proper functions, may bear arms, till the gro~~nd, or Send catge, and, in'co-mmon 'with the &trie, pwtise medicine, ' painting; apd other a t 8 , b i d e s accqking of menial ser.vim, receiving dms, and lending money for usury. A Vaissyal inay perform the duties of a Sudra, and f 'believe he may boar mm3 ; and a S&a may live by any handicraft,- painting, wxiting, trad- ing, and huhandry.. Tl16 ,mixed classes may prwtiae the trades peculiar to the :mother's

* Grellman was, 1 believe, the first w l ~ o dspected that the Qypie5 of Europe were a tribe of the Nats of I-Iindostan: Richardson% paper, in the 7th volume of the Asiatic Re- darches, on thc hzeeghurs, seems to leave no doubt OD ihe - wbject,

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caste, with one exception in favour of the Brahe mim, for-none but one ofthat holy order may teach or expound the Veda, +or officiate in relie

ceremonies, Thus YOU see that the nu- ' merous exceptions to the general precepts con-

cerning the, inviolability of the castes, render those precepts less vexatious in their operation than they must otherwise have become.

T h e distinctions between the castes and sects of H i d û s are known at first sight, by certain marks made- on the forehead, cheeks, or other parts of. the body, with a variety of pigments ; and that this practice was not in ancient times peculiar to the Hindûs, may I think be inferred from the &h Chapter of Leviticus, where the Israelites are forbidden not only to make cuttings in their flesh for the dead, but t o pint an,, marks upon thmz. This is, indeed, far from being a singular instance, which might be I taken. from, the scriptures, of the truth with which the modern Hindûs'have preserved' to us the, c& toms of the antiqueArnilies of the world. I do not. know if you will allow me to compare the ceremonies practised by the Nuaurites, or those haelites who wished to dedicate themselves to, the Lord as Levites, in order to obtain the holi- ~ R S S , of the tiibe of Aaron, with the, austerities of the Sanyassees, who,. from motives OE a similar

. nature, aspire to perform th@ functions, and at. tain to t h sanctity of the holy and recluse Br&-

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min, although born in a lower clags. But I th!nk YOU would find it interesting to read the books of Moses attentively, while you are study- ing the Hindûs, either in your closet here or in their own country. One would throw light on the other, and YOU know I have often said that 3: thought that one reason why our countrymen have distinguisbed themselves so .much in oriental literature and research, is, that from their infancy they are accustomed to the richness of oriental imagery, inh the sublime wildness o f oriental poetry, and initiated into oriental manners, by the common translation of the. Bible, which, fortunately for us, w a s made *at the time when our language was polishing into beauty, while it retained enough of its anciept simplicity to' follow the divine original in its, boldest flights, as well as through its tenderest passages, and thus the very phrase anillmanners ,

ofthe cradle of all religions has beenhandeddown to us with the pure doctrines df ouf o " m divine Apostle. But the ceremonial institutions of the Jews have passed away, and the 1earning"of their taskmasters, the Egyptians, has perished ! Hin-, dostin alone presents the picture of former time3 in i t s priesthood, its Jaws, and its people. if0 inqGre into the Causes of that stability is beyond my powers, even. if I possessed d l the facts which would be necessary to form any.

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98s LETTERS ON Imrd.

t11eol-y concerning it : at the same time 1 carmot -

bui attribute sbmething to the system o f castes. The climate of Tndia,where but little clothing and shelter are iecessary, and where food is plentiful, in prbportion'to the wants of- i t s inhabitants, i% productive of that inddtenoe which deadens ani- bition and palsies exertion, in the generality of mankind. The little wants of a Hindû are so eisily suppIied, that Be has scarcely any spur ' t o

his industry for the sake of procuring nece,ssarieÉ or comforts ; and his ambition is checked by the reflection that if a wish to ameliorate his candi- tion 'should arise, no virtue, no talent, no ac- quirement, can raise him to a higher zank in ssci'ety than that enjoyed by hie forefathers ; and' this reflection is embittered too by tl.le conn. sideration, that the crime of another may, u& ,

countenanced by him, and in some cases unl kno,wn to him, deprive kiln of the station be enjoys, .and render him and bis family ~ut~a(; lb fot"ever% Thus, by B mord action and mac- I

tion, the castes have been preserved inviolate ; a6d if in some spots where European mtde~~ mints hive encouraged industry, a d by hold-

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e The 12000 Brahmins of the coast of Malabar, who pedshea inconsequence of the cruelty of Tippoo Saheb, in forcing them-!? swallow beef-broth, by which they lost custe, or be-. camk b&casts, &any being starved io death, and many 'camœ mittlng'mí&e Si despair, is an instame 0% thh., '

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-* In Bombay, the merchant Suncnrset Bapooset built, at t h e expense of upwards of &'12,000, a very beautiful temple to M&a fieb. The 'Brahmins, who had patiently watched the building., : and Qoneecraked the ground and the materials, disaoverad, on its completion, that 'poor Suneutset wits of too low a caste to Fake an affering to the gods, and that, conse- qucntly, h e must mhke a deed of gift to the priests, who then: atlndCified it 3s the holy phce of Maha Deo. 1, d

384 LETTERS ON m m . profligate Sanyassee, but feels indignant at the: abuse- of solne of the best and strongest feelings of our nature ? I am not, as y611 know, among: those who either extravagantly praise or extravagantly condemn the Hindûs or their religion. It is enough that the latter is false, to wish it ex- clxmged for a better ; but the Hindûs are meIl, and moved by human motives and by human passions, and never, never will a convepsion be wrought among them by the present system of the missionaries. They must be bad, judges indeed of human nature, who can suppose, that millions of men are, without a miracle, to be

' converted by a few hundreds of preachers, who go among them, ignorant of their language and philosophy, and eyen the religion they would combat. Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews, was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and. consequently could sooth or elude the prejudices of the people who were born in the land of Mis- mim. St. Paul, the Apostle o f the Gentiles, was versed in the philosophy of Rome and o f Athens, and wielded against their superstitions, the very doctrines and forms of their own sages. But we, with ample means o f learning, send inexpc-

. $enced youths, virtuous indeed in their own lives, and skilled in their own doctrines, but í g - norant of the science of the East, and above all, ignorant 'of the motives. and passions of humm

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natùrk, and the art of leading men's minds.- cc 'Whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you," were the words of St. Paul t o the people of Athens. He turned not to the temples crowded with images to expose the follies and vices of Jupiter, or to fqlsify the predictions of Apollo, but he seized upon the simple altar of the wisest of men, to the u n h o m God; an$ thence beginning his.exposition of divine duths, he, without irritating'the' passions of hÍs hearers by open defiance calling on them t o defend their deities, announced the pure faith of Christ, cc That they should seekthe Lord, if'haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us : -For in him we live, and move, and have our being ; as certain: also of your own poets have said, For we are. also his ospring. Forasmuch, then, ss'we ire- the ofbpring of God, we ought not to think that- the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven' by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at ;W-

but' now commandeth all men everywhere to- repent.'' . '

v Such were the arguments o f the model of preachers before the most enlightened people of ancient times. Why, then, are we harshly to denounce to the Hindû condemnation and contempt ? Should not his greater ignorance de-

LETTERS ON INDI.& m to join the Christian tommunity, they wmld escape the contempt into which proselytes now fall, and perhaps might attract hew converts, instead of, as now, standing a melanchoIy warn., ing against a change of, faith, which in thig world renders them miserable and ridiculousm Far be it fiom me to oppose the conversion of the Hindûs ; but I cannot but grieve that the meins employed are, so inadequate to the end proposed, and whether, as happens in the physical world, doing little and unskilfully in a deep- rooted disorder, be worse than leaving nature to her own quiet operations,is to me noi; doubtfiul, Sdoner or later hese will take effect : once ex-. cite the hopcs of gain, the desire of-advance. ment, place knowledge within the reach of those not unwilling to know, they will conquer difliicd- ties to attain their wishes, thq will feel, @id' the ednscidus supel*iority which a vanquished ob&&' cle'inqhes, courage and ambition to overcorn& &hew, the fetters of opinion will be broken, and the Hind& as he rises in the scale of beinpi kll shake off the superstitions, with the €ethaigy ofslavery, and the long desired object of good men will be obtained by a creature worthy@' tmjoyjng it.

All this you will Bay is visionary : alas ! 1 ani compdld. ta acknowledge, that without some of *hose extraotdinary occurrences 'that have ' Q C ~

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$88 LETTERS ON INDIA:

casionally changed the belief with the destiny of nations, centuries must elapse before these things can come to pass; and X c m only excuse myself by saying, that certain as J: am o f the imptlssibility of the present and sudden conversion of the Hindas, I have no resource but to build 'my hopes on the silent operation ofages, and the .certain though remote effects of moral Sauses on the mind of man.

. . LETTER XIV. NY. DEAR SIR,

I FANCY I shall exercise your patience much in the Letter I am now beginning as I

bave ever done in any X have written on the same subject, for I have t o speak much ofcerernonies, which to us are tedious and unmeaning, but they influence greatly the private life of the Hindûs, which passes among the higher *castes h complete indolence, when not engaged in superstitious observances. The existence of the lower classes is an alternation of the greatest bodily Iabours, with perfect idleness ; but arnang dl9 there is discernible a portion of that hp,- hui@ which, in times df remote antiquity, ren- &xed hdia the nurse if 'not the mother o f arks

LE$‘hRS UN ‘INbIti. 28s

arid science, and of ihd spirit which in ali times has made the Hindhs a warlike peopled The tnanQers of the Hindds are prwerbidly

mild and gentle, &n& among. the higher orders especially it is extreme~y rare to see alay one OW himself to be transported by passion into the slightest intemperance of ward or+ gesture. r’he higher classes of wòrnen are now almost as much reduse8 as those of the Mussulrba.i~, who habe introdkced ‘their, j eahgy of the sex into . *

hd ia ; but we have abundant proofs in th-e * , a n +

aient poets that they formerly enjoyed pede& .freedom, or at least were only subject to the restraints which among a civilized peiiple ‘are imposed by the laws of society and .decorum. Sacontda, the adopted daughter of a holy Br&& min, received his .guests.. b,axm&,ed all gites Q f hospitality,. and appears to bqe ham testr&ied by no ties but those, of. religion and virtue: The mother of Duuhmanta governed his people during his absence fiom his capital ; wornen were competent witnesses in a court af justice : indeed9 Mena says, that in a case eon- cerning a woman, women are the proper wit. memeg. But it i# neeilless to multiply exampleg for every Bindû tale confirms the fact -of &e ancient polished state of India,=whene its splendid -

courts presented all the charms of literature, and all the chivalrous gallantry, which in raising ’

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insisted on. After washing h i s

m$ &ETTE€k$ ON INDIA.

conjunction, and the x&, 6th, and 9th of each lunar fortnight ; he then utters a short prayer, sips water, and qrinkles some of the same de- wept before him, prepdata7 ' to his morning bath, which coasist;s in ablutions, followed by wophip, an& the inaudible- repetition ~f the Cj+p$gie. T,. with the dames of 'the worlds, afeer wh,ich he sits down t o worship the rising sun. This ceremony is begun by tying the lock of Hair &a&e crown of the head, while he again recites the Gayatrie. Then holding cusa-grassT in hig left hand, and three blades of the same in his ggbt, he sips water three tinea, then rubs his hands, and" touches with water his eyes, nosè, que3 feet, head, and mawel t, .and sipping thrice agains Be meditates on the halieat óf texts durahg threc suppressions of the breath. A suppression of the breath implies the following meditation- @G Air ! earth ! sky ! heaven ! middle region ! pbce of' births ! mansion o f the blessed ! abode' of @th 1 we meditate on the adorable light of

* Gapdrier the most h& text of the MindG Scripturm, contained. in the lmt cllapfer bf the Rigvda; 'for the Gay&,& and its contex$ see the 5th Letter. ,

Poa Cynoeuroides. 8 The Jewish ritual required the tip of the r&ht ears, tocs,

lrrrd thmbs, of She priests to be touched with the bloodof the @ring, Lev. viii. 93. Touching the tip of the right

. " i@ gq.ped as a pwiication by the Brahmins,

LETTERS ON INDIA. 89B I

the resplendent generator which. govern8 'OW i% tellects, which i s water, lustre, savour, immortál faculty o f thought, Brahma, earth, sky, .ana 'heaven" !" Then follow0 sipping of water; wîth renewed ablutions and prayers, hhea tbe Bah- t

* The triliteral syllable Om op Atm, is thus, explained, together with the rest sf )he text, by Y&nyawaZcya.-gc The l

h r e q t of alf beings produced ab states òf existence, f?r ,hp generates and preserves all $reature& therefore he is calk$ .the Generator ; becaise he shines, and $Orts, aad itradiatkG therefore is be called resplendent or divine, and is prdsed by dl deities. We meditate on the light which, e*isti@ h our ,minds, continually governs I ow jntelleets in the puquit of Virtue, wealth, love, and beatitude; becáuse the bekg ?ho

, shines with seven rays, assuming the lortn of time and of fire, ernatures productions, is resplendent, ilhminea all, and finallj destroys the universe 3 tberefore, he whovaturally hipes with leven rays, i s callad Light or tbe e@u]gmt p e g . !&e firet ayllablc denotes, that be illumines wolllws; the secoid cytp nant implies, that he colours all creatures 5 the lu syll'able aignifies, -that he moves without eeasing. From his ch&is&g dlp he iá called Ihe itradiating power." Of the nurimdussthet commentaries or glosses on the Gayatrie; the followidg is th4 .only specimen I shall copy--cr On that efiulgent power, which i s BRAHME himself', and is called the light Qf the radiatnt S&, do 3: meditate govethecl by the rnpt;eriW~ light shidt RA aides within me, for the purpose of thought, that. very light id the edrths the mbtle sether, and dl which esist4 within created sphere ; it is .the threefold world, contaihing al1 which 4s fixedar moveable ; it exists internally in my heart, externday in the orb orthe SU^ ; being one arid tbe Jarne with that effut- gent power, I myself am an irradiated manifestation Of the *L+ preme BR AH ME,^'

LETTERS ON INDIA; '295

nmouncing the sacred I triliteral word Om, the 'Gayntrie is repeated :a -hundred OF B thousand times, according to the sins to be expiated, abcl ,the times coûnted on a rosary, composed of gemsset in gold, or of wild seeds, and sornetimëd even of' flowers. The poet, in describing Gunk carri, one of the consorts of the pensive Ma- lava, the musical I genius & Melancholy, says-

On a slvqnk chaplet of n.@ected flowers ' In pensive grief she connts the weary hours, *

b , I

But the Hindû, accustomed tolrepeat E s Gayatrie by rote, is as little, serious 01' attentive ' t o the words he-utters, $as the poor Catholic, who rem peats his paternosters and aves without under: '

standing them ; so that the text may be Fe-' peatcd backwards or foxwad,mD I&e words in- differentIy plaod, without diminishing ,its b I i * ness, :The ceremdny of counting the beads being wer, a few more texts are repeated; and the Brahmin is at libertyho attend tothis worldly concerns. ~ Preparatory to every act of religion; ablutions mmt be performed, for which all watep is proper, but that which has lain above grounik is t o be preferred, as is running water toJ a standm ingh pool, a> river to a brock, I a sacred befbre a cbmmon stream, and above all, the water of the Ganges, The superstitious veneration foi. par-. ' GctIlar rivers is among the most natural into

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ef cows ; and $grne axe consecrated the- sky by standing in a shower of rain. AU these ablu? %ions are perfimmed with ceremonies neady 'similar to those I have clescribed, and with diver4 holy texts first invoking the rivers,' the. gods, apd water; These formalities must be repeated before reading the vedas, vedangas, sacred poems, mythologicd &~i&ories, law, and other branches of sacfed li$erttturq and dter such atucty, the prieatp shodd. dffer barley$ tila, qd water to Manes, sitting +th his face towards the East with cuss-grsss spread befire him,. touching the offering with the tips of his fingers only, as they are pwts gacred to the gods, The Manes to whom these oblations are offered, are those of the progenitors of mankind, the Brahmin's own fkkbsr, ,patmnd .gi.sswd&ther~ apd great grardfhther, to, his mother, mcl both Patern4 and maternal: grandmothers, and great grandmothere, paternal uncle, 8011, grandson, dabghter's son, son-in-law, and ather relatioas and the ceremony i s conoluded by thee' voluWwy oblatiqns, one presented like &@se $0 the gods looking East, asother liks those to the Manes. looking south, and, the tbisd is an oblatrihi of wqter I ta the SUL.

The reading of the vedas, and oblation to the Manes are two of the five s&amnts which form part of the daily duty of a Brahmin the other#

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hre separate sacrifices to the deities and the spirits, and the rites of hospitality. ' ',.The consecrating the sacrificial fire, and haI- lowing %hè iacred iiensih are the - groundwork of- all r&gibUs acts, and, h e y are consequently performed wiW pecuiiar care* Birst, tl1e priest ime&s k%b .tob~ung-'a- level piecé o€ "ground,

'chbits square, free from impmities and shëltered by a shed ; then he describes different lines of variobs lengths and- colours sacred to várious deities, and, having casi away the first embers $í-om the vissel containing' the b e , . in

I order' to exorcise its hiutfiIl quilities,% he places the rest- on the hearth, when he names .the fire accordi,& to the-dse l h 'rn'eans-tb make of' it, and' kilendy.bu& a piece bfi wood' al span' long, sm'éired:with clarified butter". Ne next places the Brahmanä or supeiintending priest, who, except: on' very sohm occasions, is representad by ãa bandle 0;f fifty blades of cusaqgrass, and, &fier' bany* ceremonies, such as wallring round the' f i 1 4 e ~ - following the -course of the. SUB, pour- '

'hg ,out 'water, and exorcisimg wlmtevey, is evil, d h h k h formalities are'bccompaniçd by prayers- h d ejàculations; the : ladle, and , otl16r impie-

' ment8 of sacrifice, are consecrated by 'touchihg . * ? t 1 " . - l

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GETTERS ON INDIA. 302

?n the mean time, the bride bathes while text8 me recited over her, and both the hands ofthe bride and bridegroom are smeared with turmeric, or some other auspicious drug, when a matron binds them together with eusa,-grass, to the sound of cheerfûl music. The priksts then begin jo@ acclamations, while the bride% '

father pours water and grain on their hands; blesses. th.em,*and proclaiming their names so- lemdy gives them - to each other. ' Being thus- dlìanced, they walk out, and the briaegroont addresses het with the following an&si.milar sen- tences, LC May the regents of space,gair, sun, ancl fire disp61 the :anxiety thou feelest, and turn thy heart unto me! Be gentle in thy aspect, loyal tö thy husband, amiable in thy mind, and beautifid in thy person 1'' He then presentg her with ai waistcloth and mantle; and when shebas put thêm on, the father ties the ski& of his daughter and her huBband together, saying, U Ye must be'inw separably united in matters of duty, wealth, a d love After this, the bridegroom goes 20 .the principal chamber and prepares a sacrifieid fire, and hallows the sacred utensils, while two of hib friends walk round his fire with jars of' Water, and place themelves on the South. He 'then pub four double handfds of rice mixed with '

sa~-leaves* into a flat basket, near which he * Adenanthera aculeata.

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LETTERS ON I N ~ T A . 503

hibited degrees of relationship extend to tlie sixth of affinity, and the bearing the satne family name is a 'sufficient' cause of impediment.

The custom of. the widows burning themselves with the dead bodies of their. husbands, which has excited SO much compassionate indignation in Europe, although decidedly encouraged by theiHindÛ legislators, has, according to Mr. Colebrooke, .miver ,been: fcequent, !and he grounds I this consoling opinion ~ onl tire excessive, spi~tual rewards, promised 'eken, ta the spectators of. the, holy ceremony ; for i t 'is said by grave authors that even those who .joirl the procession shall be rewarded as for av ds- WamedJta or other great sacrifice, and that those wlm thtow butter- or wood on the pile, shall acquire .'merit I ten mflk-fold thae .of> . an As- wzlmedha.

Althòugh it be the duty of a widow . to burn herself with her husband, she has the alterna- #tive either to live ,after his death $as' a' Brah- inacharì or to commit herself t o t h e dames". #Should she resolve to live, she must pass her life in chastity; piety, and mortifications. . x She must eat but one meal a day, and never' sleep upon a bed, under pain of causing her husband to fall

* ,

I I * The custom is not unexampled in ancient Greece. Evadne, the wife of Capaneys who perished in the Theban war, burnt herself on her husband's funeral pile.

LETTERS: ON INDIA. I

&om a state of bliss. She must abstain froa ornamenting ber person, or eating out of m a p &ficent .vessels, QT of delicious food, and she must daily offer oblations for khe Manes of ancestors. In some cases, as where a woman bas a young infant, m is prepaat, she :is positively f o ! b ì 4 ! :toc kwn herself, -and the widow of a Br&~n who dies în a foreign country is also prohibited fio,, giving this proof of affection for her absent lord; but the widows of other castes may if they please burn themselves, on the news of $he death of their husbands.

A &do, who recedes after having declared her resolution to. burn with Ber husband, is now compellad by her relations to complete the saœ crifice ; hence some of %be hocking scenes’ which those of our countrymen who have been kye-witnesses, have described ; but in general what is thus courageously undertaken, i s as cou. rageously carried through. .

The ceremonies attending this sacrifice are as follows : cc Having first bathed, the widow, dressed in two clean garments and holding sOme cusa-grass, kips water from the palm of Her band. Bearing cusa and tila in her hand, she looks towards the East or North while the &ah- mana utters the mystic word Om.’’ Then afbr ’bowipg to Narayuna* she repeats the Smccll;Pa,

. * The Hinda Neptune. . , L

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LETTERS ON INblrli, 505

h hi ch contains a declaration of her nime and f'dmily, with the day and month in which she prfbrrns the sacrifice, and the motives- which . ,

induce her t o do so, and concluding with the following adjuration : I cal1 on you, ye guardians of the eight regiolls of the world L sun, and ~ X I O ~ , air, fire, ether, earth, and water ! My own

- soul ! Vama! Day, night, and twilight I And thou consciehce, bear witness. I follow my husband's corpse on the funeral pile.". She then walks thrice round the pile, while the Brahmin utters the following Muntras, 4' Om ! Let these women, hot to be widowed, good wives, adorned

: with collyrium, holding clarified butter, conk sign tlmlzsclves t o the fire, immortal, not child4 less, nor husbandless I excellent, let them pass into fire whose original element is water?

cc Om ! let these wives, pure, beautiful, commit themselvefi to the fire with' their husband'@ corpse."

ARer this benediction afid repeating the my$- tic Numaò Nam& she ascends the pile, and her son, or other mar kinsman of her husband applies the funeral torch with the, ceremonies prescribed by the Grillya or ritual of his tribe.

The ' efficacy. ascribed t o this affectionate sacrifice is wonderful, not less than purifying h husband fioin dl .his ,crimes and insuring him an existence of bliss during the reigu Qf %ur-

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LEijC'TER$ ON INDIA.'

' flndeed the Ramayuna, at least that part of it ibllich is translated, would give you a more ex- plicit account of the prívate and public life of the ancient heroes than any thing I can wxìte to you 1 but then 1 could scarcely insure your patience to read much more than the first section, and I believe nothing but the desire of' variety during a long voyage would have carried me I

through so much of it as I have read. Hem after .I must refer ,to it again, but at , present II shdl return to my constant iuide, ML Cole.. brooke, for the account of the funeral rites o f G

the, Hindûs, or at least of the greater part of them, for some castes bury their dead, and I believe all bury very young infants ; other tribes throw their dead inta rivers; but I: think no Hindûs expose, them to the air, ia, the mannef now practised by tlie few relnaiuing disciples rrf' Zoroyter. , 3 I _

9 Ais soon as a sick Hindû'loses dl hope of recovery, his relations begin to perform the ap-3 pointed ceremonies necessary to secure his sale vrttion ; and some of these, are in many cases so severe, that the patientemust be enduCd with no ' common strength, if he escape the perils of his extreme ,unction. h t r u t h , it is scsrcely desirable that he should, for aRer havings gone through the proper ceremónies, it is accounted unholy .to )ive, and consequently tlhe patient

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lases caste am1 becomes a than whicb ít is jrnpossible to imagine a more wretclxd . fate. You may suppose that a greedy heir h a y take advantage of this absurdity to g e t rid of old relatiin1 before the appointed time, and I was told in Calcutta, that n Hindû whose father had for some time been ill, appeared one day in the greatest agitation at the house of an English gentleman, whom he intreated to come and save l is fither, of whom he was very fmd9 for that the Brahmins and near relations had already seized hiln to convey him to the river whence he could never return. The English- man immediately accompanied the pious son., and had the satisfaction of rescuing the old man fiom a premature death, and for aught I know he still lives to bless his preserver.

A dying Hindû must be laid in the open air ‘on a bed of cus~~grs1ss ; if it be practi- cable Be i s brought t o the banks of the Ganges or other sacred ~ stream, where he first makes donations to the priests of cattle, land, gold,

- silver, or whatever he may possess. His head must be sprinkled with water from the Ganges and smeared with mud from the same river, a, sa&grArnii stone* must be placed by him, -* ?be Sâ&rá.rn&s are bkck stones (cdcnreous 1 hclicvcf

found. itì a p& of- the Qandari river, within th~j limits of NepauL They are mostly round, and are commonly perforated

LETTERS ON INDIA, 5 389

strains from the Vedas or other sacred poem$ !must Be sounded ïn his ears, and leaves of holy basil scattered on his head. When he dies, his . body must be washed, perfumed, -and decked with golden ornaments, a piece of which metal 3s ako put in the mouth of tlae'deceased, a clo& perfhed with fragrant oil is then thrown over the body, which is carried by the nearest rel;c tions to some holy spot an a forest, or 12ear Wal ter, preceded by fire and by food borqe in un- baked earthen vessels, and followed by various musical instruments. The body of a Brahmin must be conveyed out of a town by the western gate, that of a Xetrie by the northern, a Vaissp, is carried out by the eaat, and a Sudra by the sonth. A corpse may not pass through an inhabited place, and it is required to rest once .by $he way to the pile, If the deceased beta priest who maintained a consecrate'd fire, the ,place whereon tho funera1 pile is erected, must be-

in one or more places by worms ; or, as the Hindes' belieye, by Vishnu in the shape of a reptile. According to the num- bcr of perforations and of spiral curves in each, the stope is supposed to contain Vishnu i n various characters. For example, such a stone perforated in one place only, with four spiral curves and with marks resembling a cow's foot and a long wreath of flowers, contains Lacshmi Nariiyana. In like lnanner stones are found in the Nermada, near Oncar Man- &-tra, Whì& arc considered as types of Sivi, and are called Wn-ling. .

lected excepting where a widow has burnt henelf with her husband. You will I am sure an reading this recollect the 11th Æneis where I

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samet I;. .

LETTERS ON INDIA: 311 ,

the Trojans and ancient Italians conclude a , truce for the purpose of celebrating the obsequies of their fellow-soldiers slain in battle,

The Trojan king and Tuscan cbief command, .

Their frientls convey the dead to fun’rd fires, Black smonlcl’ring smoke from the green wood expires ; T h e light o€ heaven is,choak’d and t h new day retircs.

I TÒ raise the piles dong the wiuclinsj strand,

’ Then thrice clrouvd tAe ki1tdltdpiles tlag g ~ ,

’ ‘fhrice horse end foot about the fires are led, , Por ancient custom bac1 &dained it so,

And thrice with loud lamene they hail the dead. ^ . I

& * q L t # * s + * + Y * *

81 4 &ETTERS ON INDXA.

persons, and it is only on the third, fifth, seventh, and ninth days that they assemble in the open air t o bathe, and take B repast, after which ,they place lamps in the cross roads, andfat their .own doors, as if t o guide the wandering spirit;

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.LETTERS ON INDIA. 315 ,

$weet, and salutary kerbs be sweet unto US ; -may night be sweet, may the mornings pass sweetly ; may the soil of the earth, and heaven pbrent (of al1 productions) be sweet unto us ; Inay (Sbms) king of herbs and trees, be sweet ; may the sun be sweet, may kine be sweet, unto US.'>

After tbc food Ilas been offered to the Manes, the Bì-ahmins are fed, and the officiating priest receives h i s fee before the ashes are collected*. -WI-m1 that is t o be"done, th6 nearest relation with bis kinsmen carries into the cemetery eight vesœ sels as offerings t o Siva and other deities, and presents an Argha with other offerings, after which be walks round the place where the fLmera1 pile stood, and places two vessels at each of the car- dinal points, and shifting the sacerdotal thread to the right shoulder, .he sprinkles the bones $vith cow's milkt, and beginning wit11 the skull

draws them from the ashes with a branch ,of sami and another of palasa. They are then

9 put, into an earthen jar lined with yellow cloth nnd leaves of the palasa, and covered with a lid, '

I

I * The Brahmins who officiate at fi~nerals are not much esr téemed. The priests of Egypt who performed the fimeral rites were held in abhorrence.

.f- hcl~illeo quenched the aslm of the pile of Patroclus with sable wine, and the urn containing the hero's bones wag

I lined with fat.

’ LBTTERS ON INDIA. $17

to ascertain whether this part of the ceremony is of the nature of turning the scape-goat loosed into the wilderness as loaded with the sills ofthe people among the Jews,

Various Sradd’has ari performed modhly for the first year after the .death of a relation, but those at the encl of the third fortnight, the sixth month, and the first anniversary are peculiarly h ~ l y . The f i r s t series of obsequies is intended to effect the re-embodying of the soul, and the second to raise the shade from this world to’ a place of happiness, for otherwise, like Homer’s unburied heroes, it would wander

A t~akcd, helpless, melancholy ghost:

Toperpetuate the felicityofprogenitors ninety- lpiix formal obsequies are performed in the course of the year, besicles the daily oblations to the Manes, which I mentioned before. And now having fed, married, and buried my Ilinilû, I &all take leave of‘ him and you for the present, satisfied if I have inade you better acquainted, and, shewed you at the same time that he is not very unlike some of the heroes of other times whom he hau ‘lmd the -fortune, whether good or bad I will not say, t o outlive.

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LETTER Kv4

YOUR questions, my dear ,sir, conceriid ing tlic barrows found; íb solne parts of the interior of India, are in part bnswered by the in- junction to plant a tree, or raise a mound o< earth or masonry on the spot where a fimeral pile has stood, or where a sepulchral urn is buried. Some of the artificial hillocks you menr tion, contain urns, in which bones, coins, and ornaments have, been found, and others are heaped over rude stone tombs, in which similar vases are deposited.

Barrrows, fiom The mould

Of him who felt the Dardan’s arrow, That mighty heap of gathered ground, Whicll Ammon’s son ran proudly touurl, l3y nations rais’d, by monarchs crown’tl,’’

I

t o those on which the shepherci of‘ Mona, lies to see the green-clad fairies of’ his isle, ’ while his flock feeds 011 its short herbage, are found in every part of’ the globe. The pile of stoqes in the Afiican desert which hides the entrance to the sepuIchra1 chamber of the Copt, ’

3 the grassy ld¡ock which breaks the horizon of the vast plains of Tartary, and the tomb of‘ the Cacique which arrests the steps of the Lama .L

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LETTERS ON INDIA. 31 Q

driver as he ascends the ridges o f the Andes, all attest the desire of' man to be after deatll. All when opened discover the signs ofmortality, but d l contain Iikewise some memorial for the f i l tu . In one it is the armour which helped t o earn the warrior's fame, in another the simple implements which supplied tbe savage with his food, the pitcher from. which be drank, or the axe which opened his path through the fol rests.

In India the -wife, the object.of affection, perhaps of that delicate jealousy which dreads the change of senliment even afker death, ac- companies the Hindû to his funeral pile. In America the savage

Thinks that transported to a better sky His faithful dog shall bear him company.

T h e Scaldic warrior carried his. armour to his tomb, that in the lull of Odin he might join the joyous battle of the Immortals, and as his manners softened and his creed improved, he- atill cllerished the hope of living in the memory of those he left behind ; hence the sword, the spur, ancl the banner were transfeked from the Gothic cairn, to the Christian shrine, and the deep rooted principle of immortality connected man with his progenitors, through all the variah tio,ns ,of time, of climate, and of religion.

We Inay l e ~ e to professed antiquarians the task of tracing the individual resemblances and

LETTERS ON INDIA. sil 4 The Mussulmana have dontributed gready td hdorn the cities of India with tombs, who& hagnificence has n&er been surpassedj and though all superstitious reverence for *the dead be strictly forbidden by the Kotaa5 they have borrowed frbm their Hindh subjects much of th& kind of devoticm ; and a Pip's kubber, or tomb of a Mussulinan saint, 'might pass for the ahrine of st. d?rideswide or &D Agnes. These buildings, in the parts of India I saw, are of very various sizes and degrees of beauty ; they have all domes, under which is the tomb, generally unadorned, however rich the superatructure may 'be. Two of them at Bombay,. one on the point of Love-grove, and tile other on the rocks close td tho seadlore, llave an interesting story at; tached t o them. Two lovers were together in a pleasure-boat, erijoying the cool breezes of the ocean, wheh their little bark struck on a eon: ,cealed rock and sunk ; : the youth easily .got an &ore, but finding that his beloved was stiil struggling in the whves, u he returned. to save'

a her, L but in vain the bodies of both were after; wards drifted td the land, where -they were' buried on the ,different spots on which they were' found, PeouEiar reverence is paid tu these kub- bers both by Mussulmans and Hindhs ; and I #believe. that the priest in wbose guardianship l tlley are; lnakes 'no SIII~U profit of I the

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394 LETTERS ON IHDIA.

ceremony and rejoicings, similar t a those still made in some parts of' England on the erection of the maypole. .

The HindOs, fióm what I have seen of theIn, I should consider as a cheerfid people, .fond of' shews and amusements, although custom preA vents them from joining in many of those which enlivFn the populace of other nations,

Dancing is a diversion of which they ,never partake, as it is the trade of a peculiar caste, who me hired at all feasts ; and that dancing consists more in pantomime than what we call dancing in Europe. The dancers are adorned with jewels and flowing robes, and hung with little bells, which as they move in cadence give an agreeable sound, and, men and women are both occasionally employed, although th'e men chiefly confine themselves to pantomime in the strictest sense of the word. The dancing girls are generally of' agreeable persons and counte- nances, a n i their motions extremely &aceful, to which advantages they frequently add B good voice, and they are taught to siug with suficient c m . Next to .exhibitions of dancers, thoie of tumblers jugglers, whose feats surpass any thing I have seen in this country, are the fa- yourite diversions o f the € h d Q populace .; the

El1gland, made it unnecessary to speak, of' the% * latter lzzlve indeed, by theii- importation iqto

LETTERS ON INDIA. 325,

feats ; and YOU must be content to believe m e when I tell YOU, that the tumblers are not less- excellent in their own line. The exhibiters of dancing snakes, as they call themselves, .are also-. peculiar favourites ; for i t appears a, kind of mi-. racle that man should handle unhurt the most. noxious of a11 reptiles, but I never- could dis- tinctly ascertain, or make up my mind to be+ lieve without ascertaining, what influence may reasonably be ascribed to the music made use of, on these occasions, and 'more especially on the I

first catching the snakes, which is certainly accomplished with safety by these men, while others dread to approach their haunts.

Shews of wild beasts m e also favourites with the EIindûs, and although the drama and the arts depending on it have almost disappeared, representations sf a more rude natire I are ea., gerly run afker by the idlers that crowd the streets of an Indian town 'towards the evening. But though thess shews and exhibitions, 'with religious processions and feasts, make a tolerable catalogue of popular a1nusements, it -would be incomplete without that cine which every Hindh, from the prince to the peasant, delights to inclulge in ; I mean, the recital. of poems or histories, either simply told'ar sung in a kind o f recitative. I For this a' HindQ will forego hia RIeep and bis food, and sit for hours m ~ t h b . 6

l

i s thrown, the king or a pawn must be mwed 5 if quatre, the elephant ; if trois, the horse ; if a deux, the boat. The iring may seat himself on the throne of his ally, if he be skilful enough and take the command of the two armies ; and his object is dways to get - the thrones of his qyonents, and if ' a t the same time he takes his enemy, it is a complete victory. The mixture of chance and skill in this game renders it inferior to the game of' chess as now generally .

used ; but it is not less an image of war, as its name Chaturanga or Cliaturaji denotes. It signifies the fo.. membqrs of an army, elephants, horses, c'nariots, and foot-soldiers ; and tl1rough i t s corruptions by the Persians, Arabs, and Eu- ropeans, Sir W. Jones most ingeniously derives the name o f chess, The Hindb legends ascribe the invention of'

this game ta the wife of Ravana, king bf Lan- ka, or Ceylon, to amus6 ker husband with an 'image' of field war, while he was closely be 'sieged in his capita1 by Rama a;nd his army of fmountaîneers from the contineat, called not >unaptly monkeys, baboons; and satyrs ; wh&e the fables concerning the divine a i e Hanumfin. The varieties of this gamg are al&ost as nume- roua SS the nations who play it in the East. Th chinese have, 'in the centre of their board, i% !!Ver Or mated ditch, avez which the elephant *

c


pever passes ; and the king and his two sons never leave a diagram marked out for them, and callecl ,i fort, in tbe centre of their respective dominions. ’ They haye besides a rocketeer or pao, who can only take one adversary when he leaps over tho head of another. The Burmahs have; like us, only two armies J but the places for the pieces, excepting the pawns, are arbitrary, ann may be varied-according to skill or caprice: Some af t h gamos limit; the hoIlours of the pawns who reach the last squares of their ene7 mies ; others allow them QO privileges at all ; but they are all evidently the same game and founded on the same principles. The common people in India are very fond of a game, which iu to tlleir chaturanga, what our draughts is to ehcss 1 they eith,er u s e as a board, a piece td cloth on wlricl- squares and diagrams of different colours are wrought, or they chalk the ground, or draw lines on the sand, to answer tlqe same purpose ; the game is pla~7ed with different CO?

lolnrcd seeds, or Btones, or shells, or even balla of cotton ; to fix tho moves, a shell is tllrown up as in playing at pitch-farthing, and the side

’’ on whiob it descends determines the play, There are a number of other popular gaines, but; I am aslzsmed to say that l did not s~~ffi , cie;ntly. attend to them while 1 was on the Spot, $Q able ta ßive an intelligible account, d”


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LETTERS ON IKDIA. S31

339, LETTERS ON INDIA.

Diana. The instances of suicide in honour of the divinities, can scarcely be ranked amang the sacrifices ordained by the ancient worship, as they are merely acts of momentary enthusir

I asm 01- despondency, inflicted on a man’s own person. ,

. The following sketch fi-om Mr. Blaquiere’s translation of the Rudhiriidhy6yáY or sanguinary chapter of the Cilicá Purana, you may com pare, if you have leisure, with the bloodstained rites of -the agcient Greeks, Syrians, and even’ our own Druids. The goddess Cáli or BhaL yava, is the proper consort of Siva, the destroy- ing principle, in his character, o f Rach the .temible ; and to her, all sanguinary sacrifices are acceptable, from a tortoise to a Iu.mnn victim ; and the pleasure whicF she receives fioin e,zch, is proportioned to their supposed importance in the scale of existence. That arising from the blood of a fish or tortoise, only lasts for one month ; while. that from the sweet savour of a human being is extended to a thou.. sand years, and an offering of thee Inen delights .the goddess for i hundred thousand years, Thfi .

, sacrifice is most dignified when performed with an axe ; less so, when a hatchet, knife, or saw, i s used ; and the least worthy, is when the; vio- $ i m is slain with a hoe or spade. The , . l ô ~ ~ Z i q

pleasure, a human of twen what is voluntar sacrifice +th t h chaplet8 crated ::

been h him, m come li

- * See

LETTERS ON INDIA. ss$

exfipioyed on thede occasions are savage and blood- thirsty, as the sacrifice is commonly offer'ed in order to obtain revenge on enemies ; and wheœ 1

ther it be the blood of a victim, or the suppli- Cmt'S own blood, which he presents, the rites are nearly the same. 'Human blood must be offered in vessels of gold, silver, copper, brass, or earth ; but that of other sacrifices may be presented in vessels made of leaves or of

I The sacrifice of human victims, or indeed of animals, -especially the horse, cow, and elea phant, if I understand rightly, is reserved .for *

monarchs ; unless in cases of when it Inay be performed by princes or their ministers at pleasure, to insure the succèss of' a battle. If a human offering be made, he must be a man of twenty-five, without taint OP blemish, and what is still a harder condition, be must bé a voluntary victim, Being led to the . place of sacrifice which is z1 cemetery", he is rubbed with the dust of sandal wood, adorped with chaplets of flowers, and fed with the couse- crated food which has for two days pieviously been his diet. The sacrificer then worships hiin, and prays to him, as having already become like the deity ; and standing with his face

WQOd

* See the account of Malati Madllrxva in a former letter.

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pointed -ofkings of the Jews.’ Goats ‘were the most Common sacrifices in India ; but for these it was permitted to substitute spirits or ferment- ed liquors. But the great sacrifice which 1noh yarchs performed to obtain their dearest wishes, and which indeed required a rnmarch’s revenue t o accomplish, was the Amamedha, or sacrifice -of a horse, The steed intended for that purpose was to be young, unbroke, pure, and fiee from blemish, and he was allowed to ramble unconfined for twelve months preyious to the ceremony ; but if during, that time any onc laicl his hand up011 him, he was rendered unfit for the purpbse, and the ,preparations which were both expensive and tedious were tibegin anews The Ramayuna begins the history of Rams with the description af the Aswamedlla per. formed by DasimtBn to dbtain a son ; and it appears that on, this solemn mcasion all the neighbouring monarchs were invitedi and t110 Brahmins from every surrounding nation asflcln- bled; artificers from every country were ’0: ployed in erecting the wuod-work fir tZ1c ceremony, anit, it is to be supp~scd,~ the temporary shelter for the immense multitude tllat assclll- bled to share the largesses distributcd by tllc ~nonarch. The poet says, that during the wIloZe time, the words, Give ! Eat ! were evcrywherc llea~a; and serving-men i n sumptuous ..apparel l

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‘d‘istributcd food. The voice of the holy Brah- mins repeating the sacred texts, was heard

, amidst the songs of gladness in the streets, and at length, when .the horse returned fiorn his journey of a year, he was sacrificed with trans- ports of joy. Pits lined with bricks had. been prepared for the altars, that the blood and the water of oblations might flow round them ; these pits were arranged in the form of Gamora the divine eagle, and those of the wings were lined with bricks of gold ; three hundred other animals, birds, beasts, and fishes, were sacrificed at the same time, by the sixteen officiating priests,’ aypointed by Dasaratha ; and the chief priest then took out their hearts, and dressed them according to the law of sacrifices, careœ fully observing the olnensf which promised hap- pir~ess and the accomplishment of’ his ~ s b e s to the King. ’ The most ancient Greek and Tus- can ceremonies appear to have resembled these

. in many, if not most particulars ; but the h& roes of 13o1ner were too impetuous to wait so long f.br the fulfilment of their vows, as the great Aswamedha required. They no soorler r&ched the destincd place of worship, but

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But; 1 dare say you will. think this enough of panguinary sacrifices. Of other offerings 1 have spoken in describing the ceretnonics Of hospitality, marriages, and fimerals. They consist of milk, water, honey, fruit, seeds, and flowers, besides butter and curds, with which on many ocqasiong the barley and other seeds are moistened.

These simple acknowledgments of the good- ness of the Deity arc certainly more pleasing than the former saçrifices. But the universql belief in tlle fdl of man from a state of happiness and innocence, and the consequent necessity for a means of propitiating the offended Deity, has over the whole of the ancient world produced the same effects ; and feeble man, eager to avert; punishment fiom hirnsel6 or to draw i t down upon his enemies,, has often been led to tl1e commission of crimes revolting to nature, under the idea, that a great and painful sacrifice was alone -meritorious in the eyes of the God of' mercy and forgiveness !

-Happily those days of darkness have passed away; and that there i s rmt now a spot upon the earth, where a human victinl is deliberately sacrificed, and scarcely any where even an animal bleeds upon the altar, is a sufficient answer to the cant of those who arc daily lamenting the deterioration of mankind, and the corruption of +he world in general.

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LETTER XVI.

, NY DEAR SIR,

X AM not surprised that you find it difficult to reconcile the enormous absurdity and horrible superstitions Imentioned inmy last letter, with those sublime notions of the Deity implied in the account of the creation of the world, by the simple thougAt of the Selfiexistent Intelli- gence. But you 1riust remember'that the one is the belief of the philosopher, the other that of the multitude, and that even Lycurgus could do no more when he reformed Sparts, than to change - the human victims offered io Diana upon its'altar$, inio those severe flagellations, which often proved real sacrifices, and which were regarded as honourable in proportion to the blood spilt in the sight of the goddess.

I am not fond of the Hindû 'mythology, but I (10 'not on the whole think worse of it than of that of the West, excepting indeed that its fic- tions have employed less elegant pens. When Apollo, crowned with light and sLzrrounded by the Muses,.wakes the golden lnyre, and harmonizes heaven and earth ; or Love and the Graces move in magic dance on the delicious shores o f Pi-

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phos, we Westerns feel, as Akenside expressa it,

4‘ he forin of beauty smiling at our heart.”

But the graceful Crishna with ’his attendant nymphs moving in mystic unison with the Sea- sons, and the youthful Cnmdeo, tipping his arrows with the budding floweret, arc images scarcely inferior in beauty, and have waked die poet’s song as sweetly on the banks of Sona or Godwery as the triumphs of‘ the ocean-born ’

goddess on those of cc stnootb sliding Mincius,” I

, However this be, I will endeavour to give ’ you an intelligible account o f the deities of Hinn

dostan, premising that there are partg o f their mythology over which the veil of mystery is, and ought to be spread. ,

The creation of the gods is supposed to be coeval wit11 that of‘ the world, and when t1lc Supreme Intelligence called t h universe into being,, he delegated to the gods the creation of mankind, and the formation and government of al1 mundane ol+cts. Brahma, the. creating energy, with Vishnu the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer, were the greatest a f the deities ; .and there i s a mysterious fable concerning c7,

-great sacrifice offiered up by the ilnnlortds in ;which J3rahma was the oblation, sud from his different members the different classcs .of mm- kind are said to have sprung. But leaving the +

LBTTBRS ON INDIA. 341

mysterious part of the mythology, which might perhaps be traced to an allegorical description '

of the operations of nature, I will name the principal gods whose images are now worm shipped in India, fiom the mountains of Cash- meer to Cape Comorin ; and as Brahma is ~~susllly named first, and the priesthood and religion are called after him, I shall begin with him according~y: I - - Since the creation, Bmlma,- according t o the vulgar mythology, has little concern with the affairs o f men. But identified with Savitri, the SLZB, he is worshipped by the Brahmins in the Geyntri, which you are already acquainted with, as the most holy of texts, and indeed as itself deificd and receiving oblations. One of the most important of Brahma's characters is that of the fatber of legislators, his ten sons being' the promulgators of laws and science upon earth, and fiom himself the Vedas are supposed tö bave oríg$nally proceeded, although in later times, i. e. about 1400 years before Christ, they were collected and arranged by the philosopher and poet Vyasa. The laws bearing the name of Menu, sometimes called the son of Brahma, and the works of the other Rishis or holy persons, have also been rewritten, or perhaps collected fiom oral tradition, long after the ages in which tlie sons of Brahma are said to have re- vealed them ; but still they are all ascribed ta


*


of' the names of Seraswatce is Sach or Speech, and in one of the sacred books she is introduced describing herself7 nearly in the words .of: the famous inscription on the statue of Isis-" I mn all that has been, or shall be, &c." A goose, the emblem of watchfblness, is consecrated to Se raswatee, and sqe is often represented in painting anct sculpture, borne by tllnt Bircl, 'and playing on the vina or Indian lyre, of which the invention is ascribed to h . She is solnetimes seen attendant upon Brahma, while he, seated 011 a lotus, is engaged i n holy ceremonies, ' and holding in one hand the' vedas, while with the other t hee he consecrates the sacrificial utensils.

Siva is the deity who appears to have beerì most cxtensively worshipped. In his attributes he sometimes agrees with Brahma, sometimes with Vishnu, and often with the Sun, His own double character sf destroyer ' and reproducer, Tefers to the operations of nature, who annihi- lates notlhg, but, in the apparent destruction of boclies, only changes the form under wllicll their ele1nen.t;s appear. His names are too numerous t;o be recounted at length, but his principal ella- rst'cters ere Rudra, Iswara, and Mahadeo. As

' ~ d r a he is cruel, and delights in sanguinary sacrifices ; under the character of Iswara, *he is &solate lord of-all,,; but, by the name of Maha

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LETTERS ON INDIA. 345 I

, Among the Hindûs, Siva is one of the greatest of the deities, and there are some sects who contend that all others are subordináte to him, or only his attFibutes ; he is a particular favourite with the common people and with the Sanyassees who claim him as their peculiar patron, under the name of Dhoorghati, or with

' twisted locks. He is often represented with several heads, but generally he is contented with one. The number of' his hands differs fio111

four to thirtytwo, and there i s *a peculiar weal pon appropriated to each. He sits upon a tyger's or an elephant's hide,. and he wears round his neck B chaplet of human skulls; the river Ganges is seen descending from his head, where she rested on her way from heaven to earth, and the moon adorns his forehead.

Thus clecorated, his residence is on Mount Kailassa, where he is surrounded by celestial forms, and is amused with songs and dances, while his wife Parvati, the mountain-born goddess, sits by his side and partakes his banquets.

This Deity is one of the most celebrated in EIindû legends. .She is Maha Cali or the great goddess ,of time : as such she deinands victims of every kind fiom man to the tortoise. She is the punisher of all evil doers : in this character she corresponds with Proserpine, Diana Taurica, and. the three-formed Hecate,

LETTERS ON IIVDIA. 34'9

performed in the autumn with excessive rejoicing and splendor.

One of the appellations of Doorga is Maha moordanee, and by this name her' figure which is sculptured at &hhaballi pooram, and is one Qf the best sculptnrcs I saw in India, is distinguished. On t h festival of Doorga Poo;ja her stst~zes arc carried in procession to the nearest .river or lake, and there plunged into the water. But dl these characters of the goddess. are either obsolete os eclipsed by that of Pad- mala and Camala, or the lotus-born. Here she is decidedly the Venus of the western mythologists ; she sprung fiom the churning of the- ocean on a flower, and was received as the goddess of beauty by the cclestids who bestowed her in marriage on Siva. With hin1 she in- takes of' the clmrms of Kailassa, and she is- the mother of' Camdeo or Depac, the Indian- Cupid, and of Carta,lqa,'tbe Indian Mars, whose vahan, the peacock, is often placed3 by her side. Ga- nesa, the god of wisdom, is also reckoned among her sons, and & e r is regarded not less tlxm Seraswattee, as the patroness of science. She is also the guardian of,those who work in mines, and is the 'inventress of musical instruments whose ' sounds are produced by wires. Ilere she resembles Minerva, and fiorn her being qua& skilled in arms and, arts, she inay be

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Ivhen his sleep commences, destruction will prevail, and after the night of Brahma, who for a season is absorbed in-Vishnu, a new effort oftlle Almighty must .be made for a new creation.

Jupiter, in his best character of conselvator, is the western prototype of Vishnu. They both preside over the rites of hospitality and protect strangers, and the constant attendant of both is a celestial eagle.

But Vishnu is also Varoona armed with a tri- mol, or three-toothed sceptre, and rules the ocean ; thus he is. Neptune, or Oceanus +. Sir William Jones calls Vmoona a form of Siva, but I believe he will bc found to be Vishnu, who is constantly callcck Narayana, and is in that clla- facter always represented floating on the ocean, sometimes on 8 led, and sometimes on Naha Sbeshs the great serpent, who is also Ananta, or Endless. It is true that the attributes, and even weapons, of Siva and Vishnu are interchange- able; bence the former is occasionallyarmed wit11 the trisool of the latter. ’

, When Visl~nu is not seen sleeping on the ocean, be is represented with four or more arms, of an agreeable nspect and graceful figure. His colollr IS dark blue ; hence he is called Nielkont, and he holds a lotus, the elnblem of water ; the

* There is besides Varooaa, Samudra, who is to Varoona 1 . ’

8 8 Occunutr to Neptune.

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Chakra, or ornamented discus ; and the chank if conch, the large buccitnun, on whicll the note of victory is sounded. Besides these, he hag sometimes the Agniastra or fiery dart, perhaps the thunderbolt, and ofken the tksool. His head is sdmetimes ornamentecl with a threeœ plaited-lock, symbolic of Ganges, wild is said to faIl fio111 his foot upon the Iled of Siva, and who is ofien called Triveni, or of three locks or divisions, which naine refers to the three great streams Ganges, Jumna, anci Sareswata, the last of which, the Brahmins affirm, joins the other two by a subtcrraneous passage. Vishnu is often borne on the wings of Garura or Garudi, who is llof unfììeqtiently depicted with a human body; but the beak ancl wings of a hawk. Jupiter's '

eagIe and attenclant Ganymede seem here to be blended. The paradise of the preserving power is Vaikont'hrt, where he enjoys the company of His beloved Srea, or Lukshmee, the goddess of" fortune and of plenty. She is ono of the most beautiful of the goddesses, and is often considered as Camala, the lotus-born, and the mol ther of' Cnmdeo, and consequently the salne with Parvati. Indeed the wholo o f the goddesses, like the gods, seem resolvable into one divinity, and the fables invented concerning the different attributes have given rise to t h e ides of their being actually different persons. The names of

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LETTERS. ON INDIA. 351

the three great divinities, however variouv, are all-resolvable into those of the sun,-fire and air ; and these again into that of one great deity, who is visibly represented in the creation by the sun. But in the vulgar mythology, Surya, the regent of that planet, is a person of much less importance t h n either of those who compose the great tripd. l-le has, however, a npmerous sect of worshippers, who call thelnselves after his name Sanrns. The splendid sun is, according to the Gsyatri, one with truth, and with the supreme intelligence who creates, directs, and animates tile wliole universe. He is invoked with pel '

culiar rcvwcnce by the learned, but the people only see his image rtnewn in a chariot by a many- hedc(1 horse, who represents the hours, and at- tendcd by a fivouritc charioteer, Arun, whom we may call the dawn, and followed by the twelve Aditis or seasons. When we come to spe:lk of the Awatars, or incarnations of Vishnu, 1 shall have further occasim 1 to mcntio-n Surya e

urder thc form of Crishna ; till then I will go on with tile other popular deities. Chandra, the Moon, is, like the Deus Lunns of the ancient Ltsllinns, n male, contrary to all our western notions, This personage kas been chiefly introc ducccl. ínt9 the ' mythology by Ilia place in the astronomical sastras.. The twenty-eight lunar stations into which the hcavcns are divided by the I

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358 LEITERS ON INDJA.

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in the forest of' Chitraruthra, and he is drawn in a splendid chariot, and surrounded by numerous beautiful attendants called Yacshas.

Agni, the god of'fire, is one of the most singular in his form of aU. the many-limbed tribe of Indian divinities. He has usually three legs and four arms, and is represented breathingfire and riding on a ram : he has various names, but he is best known by that of Agni. Viswacarma, 'the artificer of the gods, is annually worshipped ,

by the Hind& mechanics, and dl tools of carF penters, masons, and other artificers, are conser crated to him.

Aswini and Kumara are tbe regents of 'medicine. Kartekeya is .the son ' of Parvati ; he is the leader of the celestial armies, and being barn with six heads he was committed t o 'the sis &i- titikas * to nurse, who each fed one mouth. These nurses were pliced among the stars at a distance from their husbands t he Rishis T, whom they had betrayed, and only the seventh, t b

ve KTitikas are' the stars which I form , L tbe constellation of

The kishis are the seven stars of the Great Bar. The the Pleiades. . I

small star which makes one of these a dci&?e dar io dati.

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faithf'l-11 Arundati, was permitted to remain with , her spouse3 and to attend him in his nocturnal

Swamykartic; he i s represented riding on or attended by a peacock, with weapons in his eight hands. His temper is irascible, like that of his brother Mars, but his power is very 'limited. Camdeo, the god of love, is called Runduypa, Muddun, and Ununga or the body- less. He is the son of Parvati, and besides his bow aud shafts he carries a banner on which n,

fish is depicted, and he sometimes also rides on a fish. His bow is of sugar-cane, with a string of bees, and his adarts are tipped with the new buds of the sweetest flowera. It happened one day, that while Siva with uplifted arm was performing sacred austerities, the thoughtless Camdco wounded the terrible god, who instantly with a laash from his eye consumed his body; hence Kundurpa is the only one of the Indian deitiw who is incorporeal.

Pavans, the deity of the winds, is the father of Hanumb, the monkey-formed god, whose ,

adventures are closely connected with those of the Awatara Rama Chandra, but his charadter nearly resembles that of Pan ; and the wll& race of divine monkeys, whose birth is recorded in the Ramayuna, may be said to be of the same family with the satyrs and fauns of the west,

I revolution, Kartekeya is also called Scanda m d

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INDIA. l 355

Like P&, Hanumân was the patron if not the inventor of a particular mode of music, and like him also he inhabited the woods and forests, and was the chief of the sylvan deities.

Nueda, a son of Brahma, was the peculiar patron of music in general, but his principal character is that of a lawgiver. Of- the Ragas and Raginis, or mare and female genii of music, I formerly gave you an account, and I only mention them now as the companions of' Nareda. !I, i

,Indra is a deity who ranks next to the three I:: great divinities, and in most of his attributes he resembles the Jupiter of Europe. He is particularly the go$ of the atmosphere, and his will directs all its changes. He is also the deity of delusions ; ynd being in his, moral character no better than ove himself, hischanges of form served him for the I ame purposes as those of the Grecian father of gods and men. His body; from the shoulders to the waist, is spotted with eyea, to ,mark his constant vigilance, hence he is said to' resemble Argus. He i s the chief o f the celestial gpirits who <are innumerdble, and who inhabit Swerga, the Hindû Paradise, and the abode o f virtuous souls ; he also presides over the spirits ofthe earth and sea. His favourite palace is in the forest Nundana, where his pleasures are par- ticipated by his wife Indranee, who partakes also of his power, and is usually seen seated by hia

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place receives divine honours, and he is universally respected throughout India.

A statue of Ganesa is always placed on the ground where ìt is intended to erect any bgdd- ing, after the spot has been sanctified by smear- ing it with cow-dung and ashes ; +n,d in shprt, the god of wisdom, or ratlm prudence and

- foresight, is of all the Indian deities the most familiar, and the most resembling the Lares of

, the ancients ; thwghHanumAn, amon,g the lower classes of Hindûs, partakes of this character.

Sir William Jones has so carefully and el* quently compared the Indian Ganesa with the Roman Janus that we can scarcely doubt Qf their identity. They both presided over the begin- nings of things and actions, they had both two

\

faces, and occasionally four, to denote that prl.1- ilence sees around and contemplates the past and present ag well as the future, and they vere equally invoked the' first ,in all sacrifices. One character of Ganesa, that of patron of'

letters, he has in còmmQn with the G ~ ~ i a p Apollo, dkhough the Delphian deity is :better mpresented by Crishna, oqe of the Awntam sf Vishnu, of whom we &all have to ppeak in his

r proper place. Ganesa is repregated of a large

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is frequently seen attending on Siva and Parvati in the bowers of Kaylassa, when his employment is t o fan his parent deities with a chamara of fea- thers, while Nareda plays before them on his 17iaa,

I accompanied by the heavenly- choirs. Thus I have given you a short list of the prin-

cipal deities of Hindostan, which will be sufficient for thé understanding of such ceremonies as you are most likely to see p'erformed in India; but ,

you must expect to find a different name, or at least a different pronunciation of the 'name, in every district for the same divinity. The self- torturers, who as fakirs, sanyassees, &c. will sometimes shock youx sight, are eolnmonly vota- riks of Siva or of Parvati, under some one of their various names.' The celebrated temple of' Jaggernaut or Jaggallat'h, which at its annual. feast presents, perhaps, the greatest abuses thnt ever disgraced a religious institution, has received its- 111 measure o f reprobation, The charitable feast, where; contrary to the laws concerning aaste, all Hindûs are not only permitted but; commanded to eat together, is, perhaps, the only pure remnant of the ancient institutions of the temple. And if the fienKy of superstition casts the votaries of the god 'under thëwheels qf his carriage to meet a glorious death, it is to the

religion i buted. nat'h, B

quireá b deified, : poor Hi car of t1 sacrifice

actions ' itself.

ciples 'II

you of censure pronour is but a But I c deeper topics 9

limits I they wo been di

mer and wb paréd .

namdj or his The fir

logy WE

#haticism consequent on the persecutions whlo1~ $119 long wars that brou@ abqut the change o f

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religion in India: produced, that it must be attri- buted; Criskna, who is the same with Jagga- nat'h, abolished the sanguinary sacrifices required by Rudra and Calí. He in his turn was deified, and the euthusiastic self-devotion of the poor Hin& who prostraied himself before the car of the merciful power who had arrested the sacrifice af his children,' may account, on principles not totally unworthy of our nature, for actions which seem to be at war with that nature I' I itself. 1. am aware that the account I now send you of the Indian mythology may deserve the censure which one of the ablest oriental critics pronounced on a certain elaborate work, that it is but a cc Bazar account of the Hindû theology." But I could not, if I would, have given you a . deeper insight into it without entering 'upon topics which would have led me far beyond the limits I had prescribed to myself, and which, as they would have been useless to you, would have been disagreeable to me.

There is one portion, however, of this mythology which is blended with the history of India, *

and which I will enlarge upon. It may be com- parëd to that of the heroic ages of Greece, namely, that of the several Awatars of Vishnu, or his incarnations and descents 'upon earth. The first of these Awatsrs refers to that universal delage, of which the tradition is preserved by all

d


sations. Here the preserving deity in the form afa large fish CMatsya Avatara) is fabled to have watched over and preserved the boat of the Menu Satyavrata, during the deluge occasione6 by the wickedness which degraded all mankind after they had lost the holy books of laws given them by Brahma,

I The second Awatar i s that ôf Komma, or the Tortoise, which has also a reference t o the de7 luge, The good things of the creation 11aving perished in the waters, the immortals wished to renovate the emth, .and for this purpose Vishnu became a tortoise, and silpported on his firm back the Mount Mern, or the north pole, while the deities placing round it the great serpent of eternity, gave it a rotatory motion so as to agi-

\ tate the milky ocean, whence sprang innurne- rable good things, but seven were prc-eminent : the Iman, the elephant *, the borse t, a physi-

o Amrita, or the prater of life, which was drank imrndiateIy by tbe spirits, so that man still

f ciar], a beautiful woman $, a precioas gem3 and

, * Mythologically this elepl~ant had three trunks, and i6 the favourite of 'Indra.

*I. This was the seven-headed hprse of Surya or the Sun. $: This womb is of lm said to be Lacshemi, or Comala,

when she is like the popular Venus, and is the chief of the A p s a r u . o ~ graces, who, however, are more akin to tbc inlm bitanta sf Mahomet's paradise. '

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remains subject to death. The third Awatar has likewise reference to the drowning of the world, for in it Vishnu is feigned t o have heard the complaints af Prit'hivi, the goddess of Earth, -

dio was neady overpowered by the .genius of the waters, and taking pity on her, be descended from heaven in the form of .a man with a boar's head, and seating Prit'hivi firmly on his tusks, he combateil the water demon and restored the earth &her place. The fourth and fifth descents of Vishnu are probably connected with the ancient lost history of India, and appear to have referénce to religious wars. The legend of the fourth is, .that an impious monarch having de- nied the existence of the Deity, was so enragen against his ,son for lrolding a contrary opinion, that he wag about t o put' him to heath, when

' Vishnu, in the shape o f Narasinlm or the Man- lion, burst from a pillar of the palace and sIew tlxe'atheistical king. The fifi11 'is Vamuna, or the iiwnrf Brahmin, called also Trivikera, or the Three Stepper. . I The famous Bali, who is now one of' the judges and monarchs of Hell, or Pa- tala, had, by his meritorious austerities, obtained thk sovereignty of the three worlds, earth, sea, *

and sky ; but'he SO misused bis power, that the spirits and Dewtalzs were afraid of losing theil: celestial mansions, and therefore petitioned Brahrne and the assembly of 'the immortals to

S69 LETTERS ON INDIA.

free them fiorn the tyranny of Bali. But as the celestial and irrevocable promise had been passed, tllat no being should have power to dispossess the tyrant, Vishnu undertook by artifice t o render him his ovn undoer, and therefore appeared before him as I a mendicant dwarf, begging a boon from the mighty Bali. This boon the king bound himself to grant, and immediately the crafky deity claimed the space he could compass in three strides, and dilating his form, be strode over the earth with the first, over the ocean with the second,.and with the third he mounted to heaven, leaving' the astonished Bali only his portion of Patala to rule. '

The sixth Aptar, or Parasu Rama, is dis- tinctly stated''%%ave been a Brahiin, who, i11

revenge for severities practised by the military caste upon the sacerdotal class, assembled an army, and completely exterminated the so1díers of his country, which appears to have been that of the Mahrattas, and to have subsetuted individuals of the inferior castes in' their places. The same country was at no very distant pelbiod, the scene of a counter-tragedy ; for the Brahmins being slain, the fishermen and other low persons were raised to that dignity, and hence the smau esteem in which the Maluatta and Kokun Br&* mim are still held. -

T b seventh Awatar was Rama-Chandra, the

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hero of Vdmiki's great poem, and of whose act- ventures I gave you a sketch in a former letter. A numerous sect of religionists, calling themselves Ramanuj, worship Rarna-CImsdra as the only real descent of the Deity upon earth. Most EIindûs regard him RS the most auspicious of hcavenly personages, and the common salutation of peaceful travellers in passing is R%m 1Eihn.

Crishna, or Krishen, .the eighth .Awatar, was- the son of Vasudeva by Devaci, sister of the ty- x

rant Cansa, vho, jealous of the young Crishna, caused all the young children in his dominions to be nlnssacred 5 but the child had been sent t o

' Yasoda, the wife of Ananda, a herd in Mat'hura, who brought h i m Ùp as her own son, and gave him for playmates and attendants the Gopas oc herds, and Gopis OP milkmaids, from whom he selected nine a3 his principal favourites, and the poets nncl painters ,seldom represent him without these attendants. None o f the Awatars are so celebrateda that of Crishna, In his youth he slew the serpent Caluja, besides other giants and monsters : lie also protected his favourites the herdsmen of Mat'bura fi-om the wrath of Indra, by raising the mountain Goverd'hana on the tip of B single finger to shield them fiom the showers of stones which the incensed Dewtah was pour- ing ,on them. He afterwards put t o death his enemy Cansa, and having taken his cousins t h

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Pandus under his protection, he conductèd tEle cruel war which I mentioned in speaking of the kings of Magadhs. The private adventures of this god have fimished the pastoral and lyric poets of' India with their most friitful subjects.

. The beauty and affection of his consort RacPha, the friendship of his attendant Nanda *, the demigod's various and numerous amours and wnnderings, are all celebrated with enthusiastn by his votaries, a consiclerd.de sect of whom, the Goclast'has, acknowledge no deity superior to him.

Great part of the history of Crisha bears a resemblance to that ofI3ercules t; the persecul

- tions of' his youth, his triumphs over different monsters, and the war8 in which he was engaged, may all be compared to the adventures of tJle Grecian hero, while the pastoral life af Crjsbna Govind'ha resembles that of Apollo' Nomjus, and his appellation o f cisava, the beautifidœ haired, comes sufficiently near to that of the

* Some say that 8s Crishna was an incarnation of V i p h a ,

Rad'ha was a form of Lacshe~ni, sncl Nanda was the great ser.. pent Ananta Naga in a human h a p ,

The wars of Crishni cllan,ged the rdigion of I part of India, and substituted for the aanguinnry sacrifices reqnired by Maha Deo and %di, offerings of imageer in lieu of I~urrtan victims, and milk for lilood. Ilerculee alHo qubstituted imageer sf clay for the human victims offercd on the altars. of flaturn,

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golden-hai was the pi represent;€ Gopis da11 G overd'h: times he a ddncers, youths be fortnight! Surya, li1

Like T represení bee of i splendid flowers a times sei When hl his nun

8 çrated t! tile a d

BhGd adopted unlike I

he was and in especia horrenl food. founde

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LETTERS ON INDIA.’ $65. .

golden-haired Phœbus. But like Apdo, Criahna r was the patron of music and song ; he is often. represented playihg on a reed, while the nine Gopis dance round him in a circle oh the Mount Govercl’hana, the Hindû Parnassus ; and sometimes he appea~*s surrounded with twelye pairs of dancers, representing the twelve months, the youths being the dark and the maidens the light ,

fortnights, while he himself devignates {he Sun or I Suryn, like Apollo in his character of Phoebus. i

Like Vishnu and all his Awatars, Crishia is represented of a dark blue coloui, with the large bee of the same hue hovering over his head, splendidly dressed, adorned with chaplets of flowers and jewels, and holding a lotus, or sometimes seated on a throne shaped like that flower. When he is not depicted in his h-uman character, his numerous hands hold the weapons conse- çrated to Vishnu himself, and in short he has all the attributes of that deity.

Bhûd, the ninth Awatar, appears rather an adopted than a legitimate Brahminical divinity ; unlike most of the other descents of the gods, he was not a warrior but a contemplative sage, ins introduced many novelties into *religion, especially holding the destrtlction of life in a b horrence,’ either for the purposes of sacrifice 01’ ibod, I 1 3 s life so exactly resembles that of the founder of the Baudclha religion, that be is p -


nerdy considered as one and the same with thnt lawgiver.

The tenth Awatar Kalkee is to come. But Campbell must announce him and his purpose.

* CC But hark! as bow’d .to earth the Brahmin kneels, ‘ From heav’nly climes propitious thunder peals !

Of India’s fate her guardian spirits tell, Prophetic murmurs breathing on the shell, . And solemn sounds that awe the liet’ning mind, -l

Roll on the azure paths of d r y wind. Foes of mankind ! (her guardian spirits say 1

’ Revolving ages bring the bitter day, I

When heav’n’s unerring arm shall fall on you, And Mood for blood these Indian plains bedew ; Nine times have Brahma’s * whcele of light’ning hurl’& IIis awful presence o’er th‘ alarmed world ; Nine times \lath Guilt through all h i i giant frame

Nine times hath suffering mercy s p d d in vain, But heav’n ohdl burst her starry @es again. He comes ! dread Brahma shakes the sunless sky With murmuring wrath, aucl thunders from on high ; IIeav’n’s fiery horse, beneath his warrior form, Paws the light clouds and gallops on the storm ! ’

Wide waves bis flickering sword; his bright arms @ow Like surnrner suns, and light the world below ! Earth and ber trembling isles in Ocean’s bed Are shook, and Nature rocks beneath his tread !

I C To pow redress on India% injur’d realm, The oppressor to dethl:one, the proud to whelm, To chase destruction Rom ber plunder’tl ehore, With arts and arms that triumph’d once before,

* The poet is not incorrect; Brahma and V ~ S I A ~ U arc one uudcll.

, Convulsive trembled W the mighty came;

different forms.

The tt Shall S And C

, Shall 1: Come,

. Love !

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The tenth hwatar comes ! At Heaven's commarrd, Shall Seraswati wave her hallom'd wand ! And Camdeo bright and Ganesa sublime, Sh.311 bless with joy their own propitious clime !

L Come, heav'nly powers ! primeval peace restore, Love ! Mercy ! Wisdom! rule for evermore !''

LETTER xvIr. MY DEAR SIR,

THE time of your sailing is now so near at hand, that this will be the last letter I: shall have leisure to address to you in England, and- I have pretty well exhausted my store of notes concerning the Hindûs prQperly so called. But you must be aware that the inhabitants of' the peninsula o f India, consist of many variolzs sects and tribes, and that when we have enumerated the Hindûs and the different European .pations who have settled on their coasts, we are far fiom having completed the list of the inhabitants of Hindostnn. We may divide them .iato the Christian, Jewish,< MLwuIlnan, and Parsee tribes, besides those sects derived from the Brahminical fhith.

Fxom the time that the spirit of navigation and coinmerce began to revive in Europe, some &ínt feports of a Christian empire in the East, which some placed io Abyssinia, others in Inœ

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dia, and dl agreed to cd1 the country of Pres- ter John, had excited the curiosity of the Western states ; and many missions were sent to discover that desirable county, supposing it to contain, if not the garden of Eden, at least, that happy place where Enoch, Moses, and St. John awaited in their earthly bodies the day of jrrdgment. Its riches were imagined to be as admirable as its government, and all together t o realize the fables of the’ Happy Islands.

Accordingly when the Portuguese found on the western coast o f India a few villages inhabited by the remains of a settlement of Nes- torian Christians, they were persuaded that they were soon to fall in with the country of Rester John, and it was only when they discovered that these poor creatures were heretics who did not acknowledge the Bislmp of Rome, that they remanded Prester John to Abyssinia, and set to work to convert the new Cilristians, by the , p l -

tle modes of the inquisitions established at Goa and elsewhere, to the true Roman Catholic fliitb. They have succeeded; and i t the time 1 was in India, I confess, that the ceremonies I saw performed in the Catholic cllurches, appeared t o me scarcely less contemptible, tIlan those of the neighbouring pgoclas. It i; îln- possible to conceive a more &graded form of . Christianity than that commonly professed by

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the ,black Portuguese of India. The greater part of the priests are of their own complexion, and if the revenues Of a church should be tempt+ ing enough to. attract a white pastor from Goa, a sermon delivered in barbarous Latin, is not

I very likely to produce much effect on ears, per- vious to no sounds but those of the Zingua: Franct!z bf ,the East, under -the name of Portu- guese, but which contains nearly as much of every native tongue as of that linguage. I This class of inhabitants is extremely numerous, though, as ,you may infer fiom what I have said of them, not very respectable in India, Thc richest Christian merchants, always excepting the Honourable Company's servants, are the Armenians, who are settled 013. various part8 of the coast, and in some of the' largest towns in the interior. And these arè the ody two denominations of Christians X shall mention, for it i s needless to say how very .Christian dl the European settlers are.

The Jews have larger settlements and more permanent abodes in India than they have any where in Europe. Bombay has several thousand useful Israelite subjects, who do not refbe to colnmunicate with the Mussulmans, or to bear arms. Cashmire contains a large colony, supposed by Bernier, who was among them a hundred and sixty years ago, to be part of the

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number in Guzerat, and in Bombay, are the descendants of the followers of Zoroaster, who fled‘before the Mahornedan arms under the Ca- lif Omar. They are the most enterprising traders of India; and seem rapidly increasing in numbers and riches. Their present internal police is the C . same wttlïXha6iFof thë, Hindh town-: ships, by whose jaws and, customs they abide, in s t r i c t conformity with the ,conditions on which “they first obtained their settlement il1 Guzerat. They are a hardy race of men, more robust and vuIgar than the Hindûs or the MUS-

. sulmans, but incomparably more. spirited than- either.

Of the different qe~tq, ,wbck have sprung from the Bratkknical Hindûs, that of the Sikhs is the most remarkable*’. Its founder Nana, a. H&dii, who ww born in the middle of the fifi teenth century of *the Christian æm, appears to have been-a’man of singular virtue and be-

. nevolence, who, willing to end the bloody wan &en carried on by the Mussdmans against hin own nation, attempted to reconcile the Vedas and the Koran, by showing that the! Hindb really acknowledged but one suprerqe ,God, and calling upon them to abandan the idolatry

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*,.See Sketch of tbc Siilaha by Sic John Nakolm,., ,


which' had crept in among them, and to abide by the pure faith of their ancestors. The coni sequence was, that instead o f conciliathg the contending parties, he formed a third,- which, though it long continued harmless and .peaceable, was destined one day to carry on the most cruel wàrs in the very heart of that country, which the benevolent founder wished to save from all dissensions. After the death of' Nanac, his followers, who were composed of people of' all -ranks and of all religions, in their zeal to celebrate their prophet, ascribed to him the power o f working miracles ; so wideIy did they ntray from his principles.

The Sikhs continued to increase in numbers, and as it should seen in consequence, for we find that their fourth Guru '"or spiritual leader b&lt the town of Ramdaspoor now called Am- +ritsar, which is the holy city o f the Sikhs. But their tranquillity was soon to be disturbed, and &e peaceable religious sectary, urged by Mus- sulman persecution, changed his character for that. of an intrepid warrior- before an hhndred and fif'ty year3 since the death of Nanac had elapsed; and in half a century more the repeated cruelties of the Mahomedans, especially the murder of the leader of the Sikhs, Tegh Be hader, raised a new champion and legislator in the person of Guru Govind, his SOD, who car-

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ries in British , India is small, although they form the greater pat if not the- entire population of Ceylon, Siam, Cochinchina, the Burman Empire, Cambodia, Japan, Tonkin, and China, differently modified, however, in each, I shall content myself with little more than naming them.

Their plhcipal deity, or perhapa I should say prophet, is Gautama or Bhûd, whi is evidently the same person whom -the Brahmins have adopted into the familr ofthe Awataras of Vishnu, whence we might, perhaps, suspect that the Baudd'ha religion was derived fkom that of the Brahmins. That it once prevailed over

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great part of the continent of Ihdia 'is urdenia-l ble, but that if preceded the Brahminical @it11 in that country, though it has been vehemently asserted, appears not to be proved. The intimate reaemblance which the laws, customs, sciences, and language of the Baudd'has bear to those of the Brahmins afford a strong presump- tion that one people has borrowed largely fiom the other; but in my feeble judgment, the Brahmins bear the most antique stamp. 1 However, we will, if you please, leave this di~cussion to tbe antiquarians, who are not wanting in plausible arguments on each side, and the Baud'histe X believe can even prove that

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LETTERS ON .INDIA. 8'79

maconda, Cornjeveram, Dehli; XMlap&e. The. principal seat of Baudclhirrt~ 3s- in S;ar;l, but, yau will meet with it has a natibriall $hith' 8 :i-h. Ceylon. There it is reniarkabk thkt Gome monuments whose origin is unknown to' the Baudd'lm, have a relation to the Brahminical creed. The religion of the court of' Candy is also Brahminical ; but as that has an- accidental and modern cause, it cslnnqt bave any connexion with these ancient monuments.

Besides these ,sects, undoubtedly of great antiquity, there are a few mountain tribes who seem to practise rites different fiom any of those 1 have named, and these inhabit the hilly countries surrounding Bengal. But I cannot help suspecting, by the few accounts I have heard of them, that they are Hindûs, who have preserved the sanguinary sacrifice and its at- ,

tendant barbarisms, or as some intelligent writers have supposecl, that they may be the remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants of India. Of these, however, you will meet very few: their history is one of the many desiderata in Our knowledge of the East.

Before you return, I trust you will have,thrown Some new light on these subjects, and Z entreat you to remember that nothing is benGath the attention of ,a philosopher, or of one who

,380 LEITERS ON INDIA.

;wishes to eplarge bis views of human nature, to study that most wonderfùl of the works of God,; the,mind of nian, 01: to be that most respectable- of beings, the benefactor of his fellow., icreatures.

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' OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLATES. I I .

THE Plate containing the 'specimen of 'sculp€ure 'is com. posed of two vcpy different subjects.@ The upper one wag drawn by Mr. Glennie, from a green steatite tortoise, in the care of Dr. Fleming, of Gloucester Place. It had been found in digging for a well in B bed of clay, at F very great depth on the banks of the Jumna, not far from Dehli.

The chisseling of this tortoise is mdst delicate, and its polish the highest that stone is capable of, it is in the highest pre- servation, and is, altogether, an exquisite specimen of the excellence of the ancient Hindd artivts in the minor subjects of art.

The lower subject is from the skreen in the h n t of Cadi Cave, it is tather a favourable specimen, as far as the writer is acquainted with Hind6 sculpture. There is, however, one figure on the same skreen, which greatly surpasses it in light- ness and ease ; but the drawing was unfortnnately lost.

, of architecture, stands in the area in front of the Cave of Cadi. The others are detached piecee from Canara in Salsette, and the Seven Pagodas or Mahabalipooram.

The Muntapum is an open temple in which Vishnu is placed by the priests of Mahabalipooram on days of festivals, each pillar is of B single stone, the unfinished building on the right is part of a royal Goparurn or triumphal aroh, and the colonnade in the back ground is part ~f the Cboultry or place af rerit for trqvders.

The large centre column of the second plate, or specimens -

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382 OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLATES.

Vicrarnaditya at the feet of Kali, is taken from the sculptured rocks at the Seven Pagodas, I have given i t this name because the subject accords with the legend, but I "ay be wrong.

Siva and Parqgti *ìth their attend'mta were sketched from alarge tablet in a ruined temple at Mahabalipooram. The sea washes into its courts and it is surrounded by fragments, the remains of former- Endeur, -... A-singular circumstarm concerning this temple is, that it is evidently constructed from the ruins af an older fabric, its latest deity was Siva, whose s~mbols .ocçupy the remaining apartments. A colossal figure of Vishnu Narayn, however, lies in a corner of one of the remaining virandas.

Ganesa, whose uncouth figure is given in the plate, i& the God of Wisdom. This sketch was còpied from one in the possession of Col. L, taken from a town south of Madras, where Ganaa under the name of Polear is peculiarly worshipped.

The Vamupa and Varaha Baatars are from the sculptured rocks at Mahabalipooram, the height of the principal figure in each exceeds six feet, The chiaselhg in some places is very fresh as the rock is remarkably had, appearing to me to be a grey granite, 3

Spec Spec Mur;

1 Vicr I Ten

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f Siva C

Gan Van Van

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ERRATA. - P a p 14; (note)for Vrcramaditya, read Vicramaditya.

for Onjein, read Oujein. 25, line 6 from bottom, olltik as. 53, (note) for Prispasamaya, read Puspasamaya. 59, line B, omit the comme. G9, line iì, fur understood, reod believed. '134, line 9, for overrun, read overran. 135, lino 3 from bottom, for Touse, read Tonse. 141, line 3, for Cuttach, read Cuttack. 155, in describing Cashmere, the word Indys has been allowed

to stand for Vitasta, which is only one of the branches of that river.

188, line 13, for overrun, nad overran. 197, line l 1 from bottom, for Burdwar, Tead Burdwan. 229, line 6, place the comma tefore Baber. 891, (note)& their heads, wad his head.

'DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.

Map of the Dionysian road to face the Title Page.,

Specimens of Architecture ........................... 59

Ten divisions of Bharata ...................... .:. ..... 138 Vicramaditya at the feet of Kali .......... .', ......... 179 Siva and Parvati attended by Vishnu and Brahma

Choturmookhi, from Mahvellipore ............... 345

Varaha Awatar ............. .,. ........................... 361

Specimen of Sculpture, Carli Cave .................. Page 55

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Muntnpu~., .............................................. G1

Ganesa ................................................... 356

Vamuna Awatar ...................................... 362

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india; - stanford university

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