Page images
PDF
EPUB

From the intelligence supplied by the early Greek and Latin authors, we find that the same religion, laws, manners, and

historians of the Roman empire, that Hystaspes himself, and most probably not unattended by the illustrious Archimagus, did personally penetrate into the secluded regions of Upper India, in disguise, and that he was there instructed by the Brachmans in the principles of the mathematics, astronomy, and the pure rites of sacrifice. That part of India which Hystaspes visited was, doubtless, Cashmire, where, in all probability, the genuine religion of Brahma flourished longest without adulteration.”—Indian Antiq. vol. ii. pp. 125 and 126.

The author he refers to, is Ammianus Marcellinus, a native of Antioch, who settled at Rome in the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian Era. He is considered as an impartial writer. The passage referred to by Mr. Maurice is as follows:

"Hystaspes, qui quum superioris India secreta fidentius penetraret, ad nemorosam quandam venerat solitudinem, cujus tranquillis silentiis præcelsa Bracmanorum ingenia potiuntur; eorumque monitu rationes mundani motus et siderum, purosque sacrorum ritus, quantum colligere potuit, eruditus, ex his quæ didicit, aliqua sensibus magorum infudit: quæ illi cum disciplinis præsentiendi futura, per suam quisque progeniem posteris ætatibus tradunt.-Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxiii. c. 6.

Mr.

Cust mis.

It fid, at the knowledge o and are f

more accur

that has be
shall find it
that the Hi
ed people, w

were in a stat
before Exyp
had visited ti

The learn.

dis, and th exist betwe

the Egyptian

in the course

the attention Countries of H

Mr. Langles in
edition of Chard
that the religious
and Prasii were t
*See five Men

toires de l'Acade

customs, existed amongst the people of India, at the time they first obtained any knowledge of them, which at present exist and are practised by them: but, from the more accurate and extensive information that has been obtained of late years, we shall find it established beyond a doubt, that the Hindus were a polished and refined people, while the inhabitants of Greece were in a state of barbarism, that is, long before Egyptian or Phenician adventurers had visited their country.

The learning and sciences of the Hindūs, and the affinity which appears to exist between their mythology and that of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, began in the course of the last century to occupy the attention of several literati in different countries of Europe:* but all the informa

Mr. Langlès in his notes to the tenth volume of his edition of Chardin's travels, has endeavoured to prove that the religious and political institutions of the Hindus and Prasii were the same.

* See five Memoirs by the Abbé Mignot, in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres,

C

BRARY ULC DIVERGINE

tion acquired from the relations of modern travellers and missionaries, from Marco Paolo downward, though in many particulars faithful, was still too obscure and sometimes too contradictory, to enable them to form any just opinion on the subject. The voyage published in 1779 by Monsieur Le Gentil,* who was sent by the French government to Pondicherry, to observe the transit of Venus over the disk of the sun, and a subsequent voyage by Monsieur Sonnerat,+ afforded more certain grounds of information in regard to the Indian astronomy, than Europeans had before obtained; a subject which was afterwards more fully illustrated in the "Histoire de

vol. xxxi. Three Memoirs of M. de Guignes, in the same work, vol. xl; and various other works that, previous to the time I have mentioned, appeared in France, England, and other countries.

* Voyage dans les Mers de l'Inde, fait par ordre du Roi, à l'occasion du Passage de Venus sur le Disque du Soleil.

+ Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine. Paris, 1782.

late lart!

really a...
of the p
ral, of the I
have all
complete kn

numerous 6

inquiry; hap
been renove
The cold

were not .
but excited b
doctrines, w!
fury. Every
pious duty to
to adopt his

Hindu religi
obligation, t
Sometimes be
tives, or m
particular chi

*P

[graphic]

l'Astronomie Indienne et Orientale," by the late learned M. Bailly.* Yet it is within little more than these thirty years past, that really authentic proofs have been procured, of the political state and learning in general, of the Indians in the remote ages we have alluded to. Till then, the want of a complete knowledge of the Sanscrit, with numerous other circumstances, obstructed inquiry; happily those obstacles have since been removed.

The conquests of the Mohammedans were not merely suggested by ambition, but excited by the wish of propagating their doctrines, which was exercised with fanatic fury. Every true Musalman thought it a pious duty to subdue infidels, and force them to adopt his faith. The subversion of the Hindu religion was considered as a sacred obligation, the execution of which might sometimes be suspended from political motives, or modified by the disposition of particular chiefs, but it was never renounc

* Published at Paris, in 1787.

LIBRARY ULC DIVEDČINE

ed; and notwithstanding instances of toleration that may be produced, as during the reign of that enlightened prince, Akber, and some of his successors, it is evident that the Hindus were ever regarded by the Mohammedans in general, with abhorrence and contempt.* The practices of those invaders naturally inspired the natives with suspicions of their subsequent English rulers. The Brahmins, sole depositories of the Hindu laws and doctrines, were also

the sole in
deavours t
subjects, I.:
had even tr

the Brahm..
tion and re
appointed C
possessions
his particul
fears. He
mation of t

excited to t
the more I
means for b
his importa
welfare of th
ed the adva
and Hinds
Course of so
the principa
gaining their
posed. A d
dû laws, by
pose; a Pers
their inspect

* The desire of converting all the inhabitants of Hindustan, seems to have excited Tippoo Sultan to the projects which terminated so fatally for him, even more than his inveteracy to the English, or his desire of encreasing his dominions. In his correspondence with Zimman Shah, king of Cabul, and other Mohammedan princes, which was found in the palace of Seringapatam after the capture of the place, this appears to be the grand object he had in view; and he speaks of the destruction of the English but as a measure necessary to accomplish it. In the countries conquered by him, and even in Mysore, he caused many Hindūs to be forcibly circumcised. His father Hyder Ali, on the contrary, left his subjects to practise the doctrines in which they were educated, or which they voluntarily chose to adopt.

« PreviousContinue »