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IN

INDIAN WISDOM.

LECTURE I.

The Hymns of the Veda.

N the following Lectures I propose to offer examples of the most remarkable religious, philosophical, and ethical teachings of ancient Hindu authors, arranging the instances given in regular sequence according to the successive epochs of Sanskrit literature. In attempting this task I am conscious of my inability to do justice in a short compass to the richness of the materials at my command. An adequate idea of the luxuriance of Sanskrit literature can with difficulty be conveyed to occidental scholars. Perhaps, too, the severe European critic will be slow to acquiesce in any tribute of praise bestowed on compositions too often marked by tedious repetitions, redundant epithets, and far-fetched conceits; just as the genuine Oriental, nurtured under glowing tropical skies, cannot easily be brought to appreciate the coldness and severe simplicity of an educated Englishman's style of writing. We might almost say that with Hindu authors excellence is apt to be measured by magnitude, quality by quantity, were it not for the striking thoughts and noble sentiments which often reward the student who will take the trouble to release them from their surplusage of words; were it not also, that with all this tendency to diffuseness, it is certainly a fact that nowhere do we find the art of condensation so successfully cultivated as in some departments of Sanskrit literature. Probably the very prolixity natural to Indian writers led to the opposite extreme of brevity, not merely

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by a law of reaction, but by the necessity for providing the memory with aids and restoratives when oppressed and debilitated by too great a burden. However that may be, every student of Sanskrit will certainly note in its literary productions a singular inequality both as to quantity and quality; so that in studying Hindū literature continuously we are liable to be called upon to pass from the most exuberant verbosity to the most obscure brevity; from sound wisdom to little better than puerile unwisdom; from subtle reasoning to transparent sophistry; from high morality-often expressed in impressive language worthy of Christianity itself—to precepts implying a social condition scarcely compatible with the lowest grade of culture and civilization.

Such being the case, it will be easily understood that, although my intention in these Lectures is to restrict myself to selections from the best writings only, it does not therefore follow that every example given will be put forth as a model of style or wisdom. My simple object is to illustrate continuously the development of Hindū thought; and it will conduce to a better appreciation of the specimens I offer if I introduce them by brief descriptions of the portions of literature to which they belong.

To give order and continuity to the subject it will be necessary to begin with that foundation of the whole fabric of Hindu religion and literature-the Veda.

Happily this word 'Veda' has now a familiar sound among Englishmen who take an interest in the history and literature of their Indian fellow-subjects, so that I need say but little on a subject which is really almost trite, or at least has been already elucidated by many clear and able writers. Indeed, most educated persons are beginning to be conscious of the duty of studying fairly and without prejudice the other religions of the world. For may it not be maintained that the traces of

the original truth imparted to mankind should be diligently sought for in every religious system, however corrupt, so that when any fragment of the living rock is discovered', it may (so to speak) at once be converted

1 Surely we should study to be absolutely fair in our examination of other religions, and avoid all appearance of a shadow of misrepresentation in our description of them, endeavouring to take a just and comprehensive view, which shall embrace the purest form of each false system, and not be confined to those corruptions, incrustations, and accretions which in all religions tend to obscure, and even to conceal altogether, what there is of good and true in them. Missionaries would do well to read 'An Essay on Conciliation in Matters of Religion, by a Bengal Civilian,' published in Calcutta in 1849. Let them also ponder the words of Sir William Jones, in his 'Discourse on the Philosophy of the Asiatics' (vol. iii. p. 242, &c., of his Works). This great Orientalist there maintains that our divine religion, the truth of which is abundantly proved by historical evidence, has no need of such aids as many think to give it by asserting that wise men of the heathen world were ignorant of the two Christian maxims which teach us to do to others as we would they should do unto us, and to return good for evil. The first exists in the sayings of Confucius, and the spirit of both may be traced in several Hindu precepts. One or two examples will be found in the Hitopadeśa. Jones' instance is the following: Su-jano na yāti vairam para-hita-buddhir vināśa-kāle 'pi Chede 'pi bandana-taruḥ surabhayati mukham kuṭhārasya, ‘A good man who thinks only of benefiting his enemy has no feelings of hostility towards him even at the moment of being destroyed by him; (just as) the sandal-tree at the moment of being cut down sheds perfume on the edge of the axe.' Sir W. Jones affirms that this couplet was written three centuries B. C. It is given by Bochtlingk in his Indische Sprüche.' Professor Aufrecht, in his late article on the Sarn-gadhara-paddhati, mentions a similar verse in that Anthology attributed to an author Ravi-gupta. The Persian poet Sādī of Shīrāz has a maxim taken from the Arabs, 'Confer benefits on him who has injured thee.' Again, 'The men of God's true faith grieve not the hearts e'en of their foes' (chap. ii. story 4). Hafiz is also quoted by Sir W. Jones thus:

'Learn from yon Orient shell to love thy foe,

And store with pearls the hand that brings thee woe.

Free, like yon rock, from base vindictive pride,

Imblaze with gems the wrist that rends thy side.

into a fulcrum for the upheaving of the whole mass of surrounding error? At all events, it may reasonably be conceded that if nothing true or sound can be shown to underlie the rotten tissue of decaying religious systems, the truth of Christianity may at least in this manner be more clearly exhibited and its value by contrast made more conspicuous.

If, then, a comparison of the chief religions' of the world, and an attempt to sweep away the incrustations which everywhere obscure the points of contact between them, is becoming every day more incumbent upon us, surely Brahmanism, next to Judaism and Christianity, has the first claim on our attention, both from its connection with the religion of ancient Persia (said to have acted on Judaism during the captivity), and from its close relationship to Buddhism, the faith of about thirty-one per

Mark where yon tree rewards the stony shower
With fruit nectareous or the balmy flower.
All nature calls aloud, "Shall man do less
Than heal the smiter and the railer bless?""

In Sarn-gadhara's Anthology a sentiment is given from the Mahabharata, which is almost identical with St. Matt. vii. 3-Ti dè Bλéteis tò κάρφος τὸ ἐν τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, τὴν δὲ ἐν τῷ σῷ ὀφθαλμῷ δοκὸν οὐ κατανοεῖς.

1 These are eight in number, as shown by Professor Max Müller in his Lectures on the 'Science of Religion,' recently published, and not seen by me till after the present Lectures were written and delivered. The eight are Judaism, Christianity, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islām, and the systems of the Chinese philosophers, Confucius (a Latinized form of Kung-fu-tsze, i. e. Kung the master') and Lau-tsze (aged master'); and these eight rest on eight sets of books, viz. 1. the Old Testament, 2. the New Testament, 3. the Veda, 4. the Tri-pitaka, 5. the Zand-Avastā, 6. the Kuran, 7. the five volumes or King (viz. Yi, Shu, Shi, Li-ki, Chūn-tsiu) and the four Shū or books, some of which were written by the philosopher Mencius (Mang-tsze), 8. the Tau-te-King ('book of reason and virtue'); and are in seven languages, viz. 1. Hebrew, 2. Greek, 3. Sanskrit, 4. Pāli, 5. Zand, 6. Arabic, and 7, 8. Chinese.

cent of the human race'. Now it is noteworthy that the idea of a direct revelation, though apparently never entertained in a definite manner by the Greeks and Romans, is perfectly familiar, first, to the Hindus; secondly, to the Pārsīs, as representing the ancient Zoroastrian Persians; thirdly, to all the numerous races who have adopted the religion founded by Mohammed3, and by

1 About two-thirds of the human race are still unchristianized, so that, supposing thirty per cent to be Christians, about thirty-one per cent are nominal Buddhists, about fifteen per cent Muslims, about thirteen per cent Hindūs, and the remainder belong to various other creeds. It has been well observed that Christianity and Buddhism, the two most prevalent religions of the world, and in their very essence the two most opposed to each other, though, at the same time, the two which have most common ground in their moral teaching, have both been rejected by the races which gave them birth, and both, when adopted by other races, acquired the greatest number of adherents. Christianity, originating with a Semitic race, has spread among Āryans; Buddhism, originating among Hindū Āryans, has spread chiefly among Turanian races. Buddhism was driven out of India into Ceylon and still continues there. Thence it passed into Burmah, Siam, Tibet, China, and Japan. It does not seem to have become established in China till the first century of our era, and did not reach Japan till much later. The form it has assumed in these countries deviates widely from the system founded by the great Indian Buddha, and its adoption by the masses of the people is after all more nominal than real. The ancient superstitious belief in good and evil spirits of all kinds (of the sun, wind, and rain; of the earth, mountains, rivers, trees, fields, &c., and of the dead) appears to prevail everywhere among the Chinese people, while the more educated are chiefly adherents of the old moral and philosophical systems taught by Kung-fūtsze (Confucius) and Lau-tsze.

2 Numa Pompilius is, however, supposed to have derived his inspirations from the prophetic nymph Aegeria; as the Greek poets are imagined to have owed theirs to the Muses.

The name of the great Arabian Pseudo-prophet is properly spelt Muhammad, and means 'the highly praised' or 'praiseworthy.' We very naturally call the religion he founded Mohammedanism, but he laid no claim to be a founder. Islām is a word denoting 'submission to the

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