CHAP. VIII. their influence and authority. In every village, and every important family, a Bráhman priest is generally established as a preceptor or Purohita. Again, every sect or district is under the jurisdiction of a Guru, or spiritual head, who maintains its orthodoxy in matters of caste and religion. The Purohita is supported by the village or family where he has taken up his permanent abode. The Guru is generally engaged in extensive ecclesiastical visitations, during which he levies contributions for the support of himself and his own immediate disciples, and confirms the younger Hindús who have attained a suitable age.50 The missionary operations of the Bráhmans are indeed worthy of special study. They have been carried on from time immemorial; and the process is still going on amongst hill tribes and other remote populations. A Bráhman makes his appearance in a so-called aboriginal village; and establishes his influence by an affectation of superior sanctity, aided by the fame of his spells, incantations, mystic rites, and astrological predictions. He declares the village idol to be a form of one or other of the great gods or goddesses of the Brahmanical pantheon; and he professes to teach the true forms of worship. He divides the villagers into castes, and introduces caste laws. In this manner the populations of India have been brought under the spiritual domination of the Bráhmans, and the caste system has been introduced into secluded regions, in which it was previously unknown.60

59 The distinction between the Purohita and the Guru has already been laid down. See History, vol. i., Maha Bhárata, chap. ii. Its importance will abundantly appear hereafter in dealing with the later history.

60 The territory of Munipore between Cachar and Burma was only converted to Brahmanism during the last century.

CHAPTER IX.

PORTUGUESE INDIA. A. D. 1500-1600.

Portuguese em

its rise and de

DURING the sixteenth century, whilst the Rajpoots CHAPTER IX. were slowly succumbing to the power of the Moguls, pire in India, the Portuguese empire in India rose to the zenith of cline. 1500-1000. its glory, and then began to decline. The Portuguese were the first European nation that maintained a political power in India since the days of Alexander of Macedon. During the greater part of the fifteenth century they were pushing their way further and further round the Cape, until in 1498 they steered boldly across the Indian Ocean, and anchored off the coast of Malabar. Within a few years more they had established a maritime ascendancy, which extended over the coasts of Africa and Asia from Mosambique to Japan; whilst their famous cities of Goa, Malacca, and Macao, had become emporiums of a trade with India and China, which had previously enriched Venice and Genoa. But within a century the vitality of the Portuguese in India had begun to decay. In 1500 their captains and admirals were eager for gold and glory, but they were also imbued with all the enthusiasm of crusaders. They had not found their way to India, like the early Dutch and English, merely for the purposes of trade. On the contrary, they were animated by

CHAPTER IX. devoted loyalty and fervent faith. They were equally zealous for the honour of Portugal and the triumph of the cross of Christ. But in 1600 the old fire was dying out. The soldier had become a mere trader; the noble adventurer was little better than a pirate. Intermarriages of the Portuguese and native converts had deteriorated the race beyond redemption, and religion and morals were painfully orientalized. In the present day the Portuguese in India have utterly degenerated. The once famous names of De Gama, De Castro, and De Sousa, are borne by wretched half-castes, who are blacker than the natives themselves. In Old Goa the stately mansions, streets, and bazaars are entirely deserted; and the churches and monasteries, which are more magnificent than those of any other European city in India, are sinking into ruins amidst a malarious waste and a few poverty-stricken hovels. Portuguese government is still carried on at New Goa; but the chief memorials of the great maritime power, which once inspired a deep fear throughout the Eastern seas, are to be found in the devastated cities and tiger-haunted jungles of the Sunderbunds.

Importance of the history.

A

The history of the Portuguese in India is thus invested with an interest and significance which are hardly appreciated by general readers. It records the first conflict between Christianity and Hinduism. It furnishes glimpses of the Indian continent as it was during the transition period which separates the modern India of commerce and civilization from the ancient India of the Bráhman and the Mussulman. It is invested, moreover, with a modern interest, for it solves problems which are still occasionally ventilated from sheer ignorance as to where the solution

is to be found. Above all, it throws a broad light CHAPTER IX. upon a phase of the world's history, which is of profound importance; namely, that spirit of revolt which is ever seething below the surface of society like the hidden fires of a volcano. In Portuguese India this revolt found expression in a hateful piracy, which devastated the Sunderbunds, and spread unutterable terror over lower Bengal, until it was suppressed and punished by the strong arm of the emperor Aurangzíb.

Vasco de Gama,

1498.

The first Portuguese who succeeded in reaching First arrival of the shores of India arrived in three ships commanded by Vasco de Gama. Twelve months previously, on Saturday, the 8th of July, 1497, they had left Lisbon like an army of martyrs. Every man had gone to confession and received absolution. The monks of Our Lady of Bethlehem had walked to the ships in solemn procession, and offered up prayers for the success of the expedition, which had been echoed by the whole population of Lisbon. The voyage which followed proved to be one of extreme peril. The adventurers had to encounter terrible storms in unknown seas, and treacherous enemies on unknown shores; and endured privations which culminated in a new and dangerous disease, subsequently known as scurvy. But now the land of promise lay before them; the land of gold and jewels, pearls and spices. In the joy and exultation of their hearts they held a solemn thanksgiving to Heaven, for having at last conducted them to the realms of gold, which Portugal had for generations sought to discover.

The great peninsula of India was at that period passing through one of those convulsive throes to

CHAPTER IX. which it has been subject from the very dawn of Political state of history. The Moguls had not as yet invaded India,

Coast of Mala

bar.

it was not until 1526 that Baber founded his empire at Delhi and Agra. Meantime northern India, or Hindustan proper, had been parcelled out amongst a number of Afghan Mussulman chiefs; excepting to the south and west where the Rajpoots still maintained an independent dominion. The remainder of India, known as the Dekhan and the Peninsula, was about equally divided between Mussulmans and Hindús. The Dekhan was occupied by a powerful Mussulman dynasty known as the Brahmany Sultans. Southward of the Dekhan, the whole Peninsula, corresponding to the present Madras presidency, and including Mysore, was formed into the Hindú kingdom of Narsinga, the last which deserved the name of empire. When the Portuguese anchored off Malabar the Mussulmans of the Dekhan and Hindús of Narsinga were at peace. After a series of bloody wars which extended over a century, the Mussulmans of the Dekhan had at last compelled the Hindú Rais of the Peninsula to pay tribute; and the work of devastation, slaughter, and plunder was thus brought to a close.

The Portuguese, however, could know but little of these great powers. Before them was a long line of coast territory, with a mountain-wall in the background, formed by the chain of mountains known as the western Ghauts, but which might be more appropriately termed the Indian Apennines. This mountain-wall seemed to shut out alike the Mussulmans of the Dekhan and the Hindús of the south, to whom, however, the Rajas of the coast owed a nominal allegiance. The whole line of sea-board is