'i;< iiiii^ lis;)', iliiiliit m ^^nif^^^^^fiBl^H ! 1" Jin — 1 3-ri .^"^ r '>■ -' '^ ■wIM ^^;;^:;^ s THE LAND OF THE YEDA: PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF INDIA; ITS PEOPLE, CASTES, THUGS, AND FAKIRS ; tTS RELIGIOXS, MYTHOLOGY, PRINCIPAL MONUMENTS, PALACESi. ANI> MAUSOLEUMS : TOGETHER WITH THE AND ITS RESULTS TO CHRISTIANITY AND, CIVILIZATION With a Map of India^ and 42 Illustrations, ALSO, STATISTICAL TABLES OP CHRISTIAN MISSIONS, AND A GLOSSARY OF IKDIAH TERMS USED IN THIS WORK AND IN MISSIONARY C0RRE8P0NDENCK. By Rev. WILLIAM BUTLER, D.D. SEVENTH THOUSAND. NEW YORK: PHILLIPS & HUNT. CmClNNATI: CBANSTON t& STOTTE, Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, bj CARLTON & LAN AH AN, la the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at WasningtoB. T-/ ^ Sf?^ PREFACE. THE writer of this book has aimed to act toward the reader in the relation of a guide, as though he were going over the ground again, and giving the benefit of his experience, in pointing out the objects of interest with which years and study have famil- iarized his own mind. The thread of the narrative runs through the work, and, so far as the subject permitted, its continuity has been preserved. In a theme like that of India, and after the reading and note- taking of fifteen years, it is a difficult task for an author to trace every entry to its source, or adequately to discriminate between what is original and what is borrowed. Every reasonable effort, however, has been made to give proper acknowledgment wherever it was found desirable to use the ideas or language of others. While the denominational relation of the writer is evident enough, he trusts that there will not be found on these pages a single sen- tence that can give offense to any member of Christ's Church, but, on the contrary, that their perusal may encourage and strengthen the faith of God's elect in that almighty Power which, even in the idolatrous and conservative East, is so manifestly subduing all things unto Himself Here may be discerned the dawn of that day, so long foretold, when all Oriental races shall be blessed in a Redeemer who was himself Asiatic by birth and blood and the sphere of His personal ministry — whose cross was erected on that continent, and whose first ministers and members were taken from among that people. The hundreds of milHons of their de- scendants now await this redemption, and shall yet joyously unite to crown him " Lord of all." The writer has not concealed his conviction that human history, 444540 4 PREFACE. and the movements and changes of thrones, and powers, and kingdoms, can be fully understood only in the light of the doc- trine of the Second Psalm. Jesus Christ, the divine and eternal Son of God, who created and redeemed this world, is its " Master and Lord." The number, the malignity, the counsel of his foes, are lighter in his estimation than the chaff of the summer threshing- floor, and as easily swept from the path of his almighty move- ments. He has not abandoned this world, with its thousand millions of accountable and dying men, to be the victims of the whims and caprice of selfish potentates, deceiving errorists, or wicked spirits in high places, to be forever crushed down beneath their tyranny and misdirection. He has undertaken, and will accomplish, man's redemption in every sense, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. That repose which the world, and particularly its Oriental por- tion, so much needs and has so long sighed for, is to be found only in Him ; and it vv^ill come when He has overthrown the foes of the world's welfare, and rectified its many wrongs. Then, be- neath the benign administration of this " Prince of Peace," human- ity at length shall rest, each of them under his own vine and fig- tree, and none shall make them afraid. The government of Christ alone explains the condition and the history of the world. We acknowledge him to be " The blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords," whose scepter sways " all power in heaven and in earth." At his feet, who is " Prince of the kings of the earth," and " Head over all things to the Church," is laid this humble effort to illustrate his high providence, as one more heartfelt tribute to be added to the many which are already ascribing — " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power unto Him who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever ! " W. B. ILLUSTRATIOlsrS. CHIEFLY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS. Tiia Taj Mahal — Agra (Sieel) Frontispiece Map— Land of the Veda (India) Opposite page 1 1 Pagb Hindoos and their Teacher 17 A Brahmin 21 Brahmins at Prayer 26 A Lady of India in Full Dress 40 The Nautch Girl of India 44 The Maharajah Dhuleep Singh 48 The Mohammedans of India 62 Mohammed Suraj-oo-deen Shah Gazee, Emperor of Delhi, the Last ok the Moguls io6 Zenat Mahal, Empress of Delhi (Steel) 1 1 1 The Dewan Khass, or Hall of Audience, Palace of Delhi 117 Weighing of the Emperor in the Dewan Khass 123 The Taj Mahal viewed from the River Jumna 128 The Gate of the Taj 1^2 The Taj Mahal— Agra (See Frontispiece) Tomb of Etmad-ood-Doulah — Agra (Steel) i cq The Kootub Minar 1.7 The "Nana Sahib," the Author of the Cawnpore Massacre iSc The Fakirs of India jq^ A Self-torturing Fakir 106 The Yogee, or Silent Saint of India 200 6 ILL US TEA TION^S. Paci VVajii) Ali Shah, the Last King of Oude 209 Joel, Our first Native Preacher 215 Peggy 218 Nynee Tal as you enter it 243 " The House of Massacre " 304 " The Well " — Inside View 311 " The Shrine " — Outside View 311 " The Residency " — Lucknow, India 317 Majo-r-General Sir Henry Havelock (Steel) 334 The Relief of Lucknow by General Havelock 348 Preparing for the Immolation of a Hindoo Widow (Steel) 375 A Group of Thugs 396 The First House of Worship of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India 435 The Sheep-House Congregation. 438 Lord Wellesley, who made Female Infanticide Penal 474 Hindoo Woman Waiting on her Husband 489 Hindoo Widow in her usual Dress 499 Lord Bentinck, who Terminated the Suttee 502 Boys' Orphanage, School-house, and Chapel at Lodipore, India 507 Theological Class of the Boys' Orphanage 513 The Mission-House and Female Orphanage at Bareilly 517 Graduating Class of the Female Orphanage 523 CONTENTS. CHAPTER L THE PEOPLE OF INDIA — CASTE AND ITS rMMtrNITlEB. Great Emergencies of Christianity — Our Narrow Escape — Origin of Caste — The Brahmin — Brahminical Devotions — Prerogatives and Investiture — Discriminations in fhe Brahmin's Favor by tlie Law — Four Stages of a Brahmin's Life — Brahminism a Dead Failure — The People of India — The Ladies of the Land — The Nautch Girls The Gentlemen of India — Conversion and Career of Maharajah Dhuleep Singh — Habits of the Hindoo Aristocracy — Christianity alone Creates a Home — Hindoo Visits of Ceremony — Marriage Expenses — Manners and Customs Page 1 1 CHAPTER n. STATISTICS, MTTHOLOGY, AND VEDIC LITERATURE. Civil and Religious Statistics of India — The Languages of India — India Compared to Europe — Trade, Commerce, and Revenue — Railroads and Telegraphs — English Empire — Value of India to England — The Higher Motives for English Rule — Mapping out Eternity — Measurements of Time — Mythology, Geography, and Astronomy of the Hindoos — The Vedas — Beef-eating Sanctioned by the Vedas — Manners of the Hindoos at the Time of the Macedonian Invasion, (326 B. C.) — Vile Character of Vedic Wor- ship — Deception as to the Contents of the Veda — Hindoo Literature — The Ramayana — The Temptation and Abduction of Seeta — The Mahabarata 66 CHAPTER EL ARCHITECTURAL MAGNIFICENCE OF INDIA. Personal Narrative of Appointment and Journey — Our Reception in India — Charac- ter of Mohammedan Rule — The Moslem Dynasty Passing Away — Zeenat Mahal — The Khass and the Mogul Sinking Together — Architectural Taste of the Emperors — Moore's Blunder in Lalla Rookh — Paradise and its Privileges — The Dewanee Khass and its Glorious Furniture — Interview of Nadir Shah and Mohammed Shah — Tact of the Courtier — The First Sight of the Taj Mahal — View from the Gate — Inside of the Taj — The Effect of Music over the Tomb — The Taj Matchless — Origin of the Taj — The Lost Opportunity of Romanism at Agra — A Prayer which God will ever Refuse to Answer-^Cost of the Taj — Etmad-ood-Doulah's Tomb — The Daughter of the Desert — The Heroine of Moore's Poem — The Kootub Minar — Its Origin and Style — The Government of Jehovah Christ over Nations and Dynasties — The Unfinished Minar — The Palladium of Hindoo Dominion loi CHAPTER IV. ORIGINATINa CAUSES OF THE SEPOY REBELLION. Position of the Emperor of Delhi — Terms of the English Bargain with the Mogul Why the Munificent Provision Failed — The Pageant felt to be a Bore — Moslem Hate S CONTENTS. of Christ and Christians — The Nana Sahib— His Agent Azeemoolah — A Hypocrite who has no Equal — Mohammedan Monopoly of Place and Power — Sepoy Army and its Disadvantages — Annexation of Oude — Dread of Christian Civilization — The Fakirs of India — Humorous Anecdote of Self-torturing Fakir — The Yogees — Hindoo Rules of Moral Perfection — Number and Expense of Saints in India — Militant Fakirs — Luck- how, its Beauty and Vileness — Those who Needed us Most — Our Mission Field- -Joel, our First Native Preacher — Peggy's Sacrifice for her Saviour Page 170 CHAPTER V. «'1N PERILS BY THE HEATHEN, IN PERILS IN THE WHiDERNESS." Reception at Bareilly — A Man who Never Heard of America — The Greased Car- tridges — Metliods and Motives Employed to Foment Rebellion — Willoughby's Gallant Defense of the Delhi Magazine — Massacre of Meerut and Delhi — Providential Com- pensations — Our Warning to Flee — Declined to Leave — Reconsideration and Flight — Left in the Terai at Midnight — God's Answer to a Brief Prayer — Our First Sight of Nynee Tal — The Massacre at Bareilly — Joel's Narrative of his Escape and Flight- - Death of Maria- -Bromfield-street and Bareilly on the Same Day — Massacre at Shah- jehanpore — The Murdered Missionaries — "Tempering the Wind to the Shorn Lamb" — Our Measures of Defense at Nynee Tal — The Value of Our Heads — "The Mutiny Baby" — How we Lived, and our Commissariat — Mutilation of our Messengers — Hun- gry for News — Mrs. Edwards and the Garment of Praise — Lying and Blasphemous Proclamations of the Rebel Authorities — The Spirit of the Moslem Creed — The Dellii Battle of the 23d of June — Scarcity and Dearness of our Provisions — Our Rampore F'riend — Le Bas and the Nawab of Kurnal — The Fakir and the Baby — Our Sudden Flight from Nynee Tal to Almorah — Again "in Perils in the Wilderness" — Light in the Darkness — Almorah Reached at Last — The Fearful State of Things before Delhi -Our Battle at Huldwanee 22 1 CHAPTER Vr. THE CAWNPORE MASSACRE AND THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. American Blood among the First Shed at Cawnpore — " These are They which Came Out of Great Tribulation" — Authorities for the Story — Sir Hugh Wheeler's Preparation — The Beginning of the Long Agony — A Sorrow without a Parallel — The Nana Sahib's Infernal Treachery — Reserves the Ladies for Another Doom — The Dark- est Crime in Human History — The Nana Sahib Meets General Havelock — Totally Routed — Havelock's Soldiers at "The Well" — "I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body" — The Shrine erected by a Weeping Country — Blowing Away from Guns and its Motive — Siege ot Lucknow — Sir Henry Lawrence's Preparation for Defense — The Dis- astrous Defeat of Chinhut — The Unequal Conditions of the Conflict — The Muchee Bawun Blown Up— Sir Henry Lawrence's Death — Determined Resolution of the Gar- rison — Value and Price of Stores — Soothing Influence of Prayer — The Omen of Coming Liberty and Peace — Havelock's Opportune Arrival at Calcutta — Military Services and Career — Begins his Grand March with a Handful of Troops — The Battles of Futty- pore and Pandoo Nuddee — Enters Cawnpore July 17th — Too Late after all to Save the Ladies — Crosses the Ganges and Marches for Lucknow — Wins his Seventh Victory — ■Obliged by Cholera and the Condition of his Troops to Wait for Reinforcements — Sir James Outram's Noble Concession — Reinforced and On his Way again — The Res- idency Reached and the Ladies Saved — Shut in Again— Sir Colin Campbell's Approach to Lucknow — Jessie Browm and her " Dinna ye Hear the Slogan ? " — Meeting of Camp- bell, Outram, and Havelock — Evacuation of the Residency — Havelock Dying — Recep- tion of the Ladies at Allahabad 293 CONTENTS. 9 CHAPTER Vn. THE CAUSES AND FAILURE OP THE SEPOY REBELLION. England's Misrepresentatives — The East India Company Answered by One of its own Hindoo Subjects — Escape of India from French Rule — Young Bengal's Opinion of Christianity — Native Appreciation of English Government — Hindoo Estimate of Missionaries and Christianity — The Interested Enemies of British Rule — Suttee with- out Vedic Sanction — The Mode and Extent of Suttee — The Motives of the Immolation — Instances of Suttee — Abolished by Lord Bentinck — The Thugs of India — Our Inter- view with Two Hundred of Them — Divine Sanction for Thuggeeism — What the Con- Hict Involved — England's Confession of lier Sins — A Missionary Succeeds where a Gov- ernment Fails — Sir John Lawrence's Christian Courage — Our Position again Assailed — Another Divine Interposition in our Behalf — Delhi Falls at Last — Our Journey Across the Himalayas — In Danger from the Wild Beasts — Arrival of our First Mis- sionaries at Calcutta — In Sorrow, Supposing us Killed — We Reach the Plains and Pro- ceed to Delhi — The Nakedness of the Captured City — Alone at Midnight at tlie Kot- walie — The Sights of Delhi — Mohammedan Treatment of Hindoo Idols — Our Visit to the Fallen Emperor — Other Royal Captives awaiting Trial — Attending Christian Worship in the Dewanee Khass — Why the Sepoy Rebellion Failed — Constitutional Freedom Foreign to Eastern Minds Page 35S CHAPTER VIII. RESULTS OP THE REBELLION TO CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. Meeting with One of the Bareilly Refugees — Colonel Gowan's Munificence — Doctor VVentworth's Invitation to China — Sad Service at the Meerut Post-Office — Joined by the Missionaries and their Wives — Lodged in the Taj Mahal — Proceed to Nynee Tal and Commence our Work — The Sheep- House Congregation — The Battle of Bareilly— The Grave of the Great Rebellion — Descent to Bareilly and Visit to my Ruined Home — Conducting Worship for Havelock's Heroes on their Last Battle-field — Visit to Khan Bahadur in Prison — His Trial and How he Died— Journey to Futtyghur and Cawnpore — Re-enter Lucknow — Reception by Sir Robert Montgomery — Marvelous Changes — Results of the Rebellion viewed from the Residency — Effect on the Mohammedans — The Irishman in the Lucknow Court — "One of You shall Chase a Thousand" — Abo- lition of the East India Company — Condition and Prospects of the Gospel — Martyr Campbell's Prayer Answered — Christianity Invincible and Inevitable 430 CHAPTER IX. THE CONDITION OP WOMAN UNDER HINDOO LAW. Woman's Wrongs in India are Legal — Female Infanticide — "Dark Saugor's impious Stain" — Betrothal of Hindoo Girls — Courtship Unknown in India — Legal Age for Marriage — Seclusion follows Betrothal — Education of the Hindoo Maiden — Subordi- nation of Woman Legally Enjoined — The Wife Prohibited from Eating with her Hus- band — Required to Serve him while he Eats — Illustration of Royal Tyranny — A Woman's Curse Dreaded — Polygamy Allowed by Law — Its Extent — Polyandry Its Ancient Character illustrated from the Mahabarata — Widowhood in India — Its Condi- tion and Effect — Death and Funeral of the Hindoo Wife and Mother on the Banks of the Ganges 468 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. OUB CHBISTIAN 0BPHANAGE8 IK ROHILCUND. Wages in India— Causes of Famines — Famine of i860 — The Calamity Turned to Account — Condition of the Orphans received — Our Female Orphanage erected on the Site of Maria's Home — Aspect of our Congregations before i860 — The First Female Orphan — Present Condition of Efficiency and Hope Page 506 CHAPTER XL STATISTICAIi TABLES OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. Table No. I. Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India 528 " II. Missionary Societies Operating in India in 1872 529 " III. Summarizing the Results, and Shov/ing the Progress, of Christian- ity in British India since 1852 530 " IV. Foreign Missionary Statistics of the Protestant Church throughout the World 531 " V. Woman's Foreign Missionary Societies 532 " VI. Home Missionary Societies 532 " VII. Tract Societies 532 " VIII. Bible Societies 533 " IX. Roman Catholic Missions 534 " X. Protestant and Roman Catholic Missions Compared 536 Glossary of Indian Terms used in this Work and in Missionary Correspondence 541 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. CHAPTER I. THE PEOPLE OF INDIA CASTE AND ITS IMMUNITIES. IN my youth I read those amazing descriptions of Oriental magnificence recorded by Sir Thomas Roe — England's first Embassador to India — and others, describing the power and glory of "The Great Mogul" in such glowing terms that they seemed more like the romance of the "Arabian Nights" than the real facts, which they were, of the daily life witnessed in that splendid Court. Europe then heard for the first time of " The Taj," " The Peacock Throne," " The Dewanee Khass," " The Weighing of the Emperor," when on each birthday his person was placed in golden scales, and twelve times his weight of gold and silver, perfumes and other valuables, were distributed to the populace; but the statements seemed so distant from probability that they were regarded by many as extravagances which might well rank with the asserted facts of " Lalla Rookh ; " so that the Embassa- dor, who was three years a resident, and the Poet, who had never been there at all, with their authorities, seemed alike to have drawn upon their imagination for their facts, transcending, as their descriptions did, the ability and the taste of European Courts. How little I then imagined that it would fall to my lot at a future day to be in that very Dewanee Khass, sitting quietly on the side of his Crystal Throne, beholding the last of the Mogul Emperors, a captive, on trial for his life, in that magnificent Audi- 12 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. ence Hall of his forefathers, where millions have bowed down before them in such abject homage ! that I should be there to see him, the last of their line, descending from that throne and $900,000 per annum to a felon's doom and the deck of a convict ship, to breathe out the remnant of his miserable life upon a foreign shore ; and then after his departure to behold, as I did, that costly Khass given over to the spoiler's hand, rifled by the English soldiers of its last ornaments, and ruined forever ! Truly has it been said that ofttimes " fact is stranger than fic- tion;" and the assertion has seldom received more impressive illustrations than are found in the wonderful scenes which T ^^it- nessed in the Court of Delhi at the close of 1857. In reading that stirring account of the great victory won for Christianity near Poictiers on the 3d of October, A. D. 732 — when the brave Charles Martel, at the head of his Christian warriors, had to meet Abder Rahman and his Arabian cavalry, 375,000 strong, and there to decide whether Europe should henceforth be Christian or Moslem — one almost trembles as he thinks what would have been the result had Charles failed that day ! The hosts of the Arabian Antichrist had already extinguished the seven Churches of Asia, almost swept North Africa of its Christianity, had passed the pillars of Hercules and conquered Spain, crossed the Pyrenees, and were now descending into France and Ger- many with the intention of completing the circuit of the Mediter- ranean, and making Europe as Mohammedan as they had made Asia Minor and Palestine. Christendom was terrified, for the Christian Church seemed pressed to the verge of ruin. On the issue of that morning, so far as human eye can penetrate the future, it was then and there to be decided whether Paris and London, and, by consequence. New York and Boston, were to be like Bag- dad, Constantinople, and Damascus : whether, instead of the spires of our churches and the sound of our Sabbath bells, our race was to receive, at the sword's point, another faith, whose outward expression would be the Mosque and the Minaret, and the Muez- zin's cry calling " the faithful" to the Koran and its prayers ! CHRISTIANITY'S OBEAT EMERGENCIES. 13 Well did Christendom bestow the surname of the " Hammer" upon the heroic Charles ! From the blows which he dealt out to those foes of Gospel civilization they reeled back, stunned into the keen conviction that for them and their hateful creed there was no home in Europe. They recrossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and, instead of the Gallic and Germanic races, sought an easier prey in the enervated communities of Oriental heathenism. Thus, instead of France and Britain and Germany, the Crescent of the False Prophet subdued, and for nearly a thousand years waved over, Egypt, Persia, Toorkistan, and India. But for the Providence which gave Charles Martel that decisive victory, Arabic had been the classical language, and Islamism the religion of our race and of Europe ; and "America and the Cape, the Compass and the Press, the Steam-engine, the Telescope, and the Copernican System, might all have remained undiscovered until the present day." When reading these thrilling events long years since, how free I was from any anticipation that I should yet have to stand in the center of Asia, amid a similar whirl of confusion and blood, organ- ized by that very creed, as it rose in its might to sweep the East- ern hemisphere of every vestige of the Gospel, and plant its triumphant flag on the riiins of Christianity ; that it should be my lot to be lost to sight for months amid the rolling clouds of the conflict, where Henry Havelock, victorious over Nana Sahib, accomplished for Oriental Christianity what Charles Martel did a thousand years before for the same faith, in the West ; that at length, emerging unscathed, I should have the high honor to be invited by them to render their thanks to God for their victory, on the last battle-field which his heroes won ; and, more wonderful still, that there, amid the utter military downfall of that creed and its chief dynasty, I should be privileged to plant the standard of the Cross in the land of the Sepoy, and live to see Churches founded and native ministers raised up from the very race who sought our life and labored to destroy our faith ! How different would the East and the West have been to-day had either Martel or UoMQlocia failed ! But God is great for the 14 TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. exigencies of his people, and has often, as in both these instances, shown that he can save by few as well as by many. I am fully of the opinion, and think this work will abundantly show, that Oriental Christianity never passed through such an emergency as that of 1857-8. Even worldly men, ay, the very heathen themselves, declared afterward that it was God alone who saved it from com- plete annihilation. By every law and rule of power, opportunity, and purpose, it must have perished had it been merely human, and true philosophy as well as Christian faith teaches us that it was only saved by the special interposition of Almighty God, its defender and keeper. During the long and weary months of our siege on the summit of Nynee Tal, the handful of villagers there declared that we were the last of the Christian life left in India — that from where we stood, to the sea on either side, our religion and race had been all swept away. We knew well that if this were so our fate was but a question of time that would soon be consummated. Cut off and excluded, there we stood, our anxious hearts trying to ponder the terrible question. Could this be so ? and if so, how fearful must be the result ! For we felt assured, if it were, that the successful effort of the India Sepoy would have found cruel imita- tion in Burmah, China, and Japan, and that it was possible that, at that hour — in those terrible days of July and August, 1857 — Chris- tianity might have been extinguished in the blood of its last martyrs on the Oriental hemisphere, and the clock of the world been put back for centuries. We could only turn to God, and "against hope believe in hope," while we ourselves " stood in jeopardy every hour." How serious that jeopardy was may be realized by turning to the map, and describing a circle around the geographical center of our mission at Shajehanpore, until its diameter would expand to three hundred miles. That area would encircle nearly the whole of Rohilcund, Oude, and The Doab, and would include the cities of Moradabad, Futtyghur, Bareilly, Lucknow, Cawnpore, Rampore, etc. It would represent the very heart of the great Rebellion. Every city, town, and village within these limits " fell," so that, with the exception of the handful with us at Nynee Tal, one little group OUB NARROW ESCAPE. 1 5 that was closely hidden in a Hindoo home in Rohilcund, those in the " Residency " of Lucknow, and those in the intrenchments at Cawnpore — not a white face in all that great valley was left alive. Within that fearful circle on the 31st of May, 1857, were five American missionaries. I am the only one of the number that came out of the terrible vortex ; all the rest, with their wives and children, were ruthlessly murdered. We knew them well — Broth- ers Freeman, Campbell, Johnson, and M' Mullen, and their devoted ladies and little ones, honored and beloved missionaries of the American Presbyterian Church. We alone of the number are left alive to tell the story of the circumstances under which they suf- fered, and of our own wonderful escape from a similar death ! How well we can appreciate the victory of Christian civilization over heathen cruelty and purposes, as well as the amazing strides made by the Gospel and by education since that fearful day ! The reader will well remember how the world stood horrified in the fall of that year as mail after mail brought the tidings of cruelty and massacre, in which neither age nor sex was spared, and also with what anxiety they watched the progress of the feeble bands of heroes who, under such leaders as the gallant and saintly Havelock, fought their dreadful way to our rescue, too late to save even one at Cawnpore, but in time to rescue us and those at Lucknow. The intervention of the civil war in this country necessarily for the time turned away attention from the horrors which were fourteen thousand miles distant ; but the public interest in this subject has not ceased, nor will the story of the " Sepoy Rebellion " ever be forgotten while men admire and honor heroic sufferings, Anglo- Saxon pluck, and subhme Christian courage, exhibited against the most fearful odds and in the face of certain death, in the center of a whole continent of raging foes, while the Prince of the powers of the air marshaled the hosts of hell to annihilate the religion of the Son of God. Doubtless " the rulers of the darkness of this world " had more interest and part in that fearful struggle than was taken by the poor, ignorant Sepoy or his crafty priest. It was earth 1 6 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. and hell combined. No other theory can account for its char- acter. Of this the reader will judge for himself from the facts presented. Fourteen years have passed since closed that great " wrestling with flesh and blood, with principalities and powers, and wicked spirits in high places." Eight of those years were spent by the writer amid the scenes of 1857-8, giving him occasion to verify and examine the facts where they transpired, and correct his judg- ment by as good an opportunity as could be desired. I feel the responsibility to see that such facts shall not drop into oblivion. They should not be allowed to die, especially associated as they are with the history of the Methodist Church in India, whose foun- dations were laid in such " troublous times." It will assist the reader's attention, and promote a more ade- quate understanding of our subject, to introduce to him at this point the people of whom we are speaking, and also unfold some- what their character and peculiar civilization. The wood-cuts are mostly from photographs brought from India, and of course are faithful representations of the various classes as they appear there. The first group are Hindoos, as they sit round a Brahmin to listen to the reading of the Vedas. The Hindoos constitute the great majority of the Empire, and are of the same Caucasian race as ourselves. Their ancestors moved southward from their original home more than three thou- sand years ago, and occupied the Valley of Scinde, probably on the west bank of the Indus, while only Afghanistan and Persia lay between them and the cradle of the race. There, in that valley, their most ancient Vcdas were written — manifestly so from the local allusions — and from thence at a later period they migrated into the richer Valley of the Ganges, driving before them the aborigines of India, who sought shelter in the jungles and mountains, where their descendants are found to-day. The Hindoos have long ceased to be a warlike people. The rich land which they con- quered, its fertility, the abundance and cheapness of the means of life, and their inclination to indolence, which a warm climate mny! . MOHAMMEDAN INVASIOK 1 9 fosters, have all been promotive of the effeminacy into which they have so generally sunk. Their separation into castes and classes have tended to individ- ualism, and to an utter indifference to politics or the public good ; so that you seek in vain for what we call patriotism or love of country. The Hindoo, as a general fact, cares not who rules the land if only he is allowed to cultivate his fields and eat his rice in peace. If left to himself, the last thing he would have thought of would have been rebellion ; indeed, the Hindoos, as a people, did not rebel. They looked on in astonishment, and left the whole affair to be carried on and fought out by the Sepoys and the Bud- mashes (the thieves and vagabonds) of the cities. In every respect they are a contrast to the Mohammedans among them. No tendency to amalgamation with them has ever been developed. They regard them as aliens and oppressors, and are even thankful that they are no longer under their control. About eight hundred years ago there came pouring down into India from the countries of the North-west a hardy, large-boned, intoler- ant race of men, made up of various nations, who had heard of the " barbaric pearl and gold " of Hindustan, and who panted to extend over its wide realms their religion and rule. Before this Moham- medan invasion the Hindoo race succumbed, though the strangers were not one seventh of their number. But they were a unit ; and, taking the Hindoo nations in detail, they conquered. Then, filling the positions of trust and the offices of Government with their own creatures, and as far as they could making a monopoly of education, they continued to compensate for deficiency of numbers by a poli- tic, use of their opportunities, and left the Hindoo to till the soil and pay the yearly tribute which they had laid upon him. The usual alternative of the Mohammedan conquerors — conformity to their creed or grinding taxation, or even death — had to be foregone in this instance, as its attempted enforcement over a people so much more numerous would have been too much for even Hindoo patience, and have ended probably in the extermination of their iconoclastic conquerors. The distinctive characteristics of each are religiously 20 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. kept up. One of them is in the fastening of the outer garment. On meeting either party, though the dress is much the same, you at once distinguish the Mohammedan from the Hindoo by the uni- versal fact that the latter has his tunic made to button on the right side, while the Mohammedan hooks his on the left. There is about the Mohammedan a fierce, haughty aspect, which he takes no trouble to conceal. He cannot forget that he had ruled '.n India for seven hundred years, until the hated English came and broke the rod of his strength, and he is all the more disposed to show his bitterness of spirit because the Hindoo race, with the exception of a few Brahmins, hailed the change with sincere gladness, and can now set him at defiance. It was on this fact that Englishmen relied for the perpetuity of their rule ; and on it they might have depended for long centuries to come, had it not been for a combi- nation of peculiar circumstances which existed in 1857, and which will be detailed in their place. Taking individual portraits, for the sake of more distinctness, I here present a Brahmin, as the acknowledged head of Hindoo society, and an associate of the most exclusive and singular of all earthly orders. The man here introduced holds himself to be a member of the most ancient aristocracy upon the earth. His dignity is one entirely independent ' of landed possessions, wealth, or manorial halls. Indeed, these have nothing whatever to do with it. The man may have literally no home, and not be worth five dollars of worldly property ; he may have to solicit his next meal of food from those who respect his order ; but he is a Brahmin, and is prouder of that simple string over his shoulder and across his naked breast than any English Earl is of his coronet. These men laugh at such a mushroom aristocracy as that of Britain or France, created merely by the breath of a human Sovereign, whose word raises the plebeian to the noble order ; for the Brahmin holds tha^ his nobility is not an accident, but is in the highest sense " by the grace of God." It is in his nature, in his blood, by the original intention and act of his Creator. He was made and designed by A Brahmin. ORIGIN OF CASTE. 23 God to be different from and higher than all other men, and that from the first to last of time. How they hate that republican Christianity Mhich declares that •' God hath made of one blood all nations of men," and that Gospel eqiiahty which announces that saints "are one in Christ Jesus," and that, having "all one Father," "all we are brethren" in a blessed communion, where no lofty pretensions or imprescriptable rights are allowed to any, but he that would be greatest must be the servant of all. I have seen a person of this class, on approaching a low-caste man, wave his right hand superciliously thirty yards before they could meet, and so send him off to the other side of the road. The poor despised man meekly bowed and obeyed the haughty inti- mation. No sacerdotal tyranny has ever been so relentlessly and scornfully enforced as that of the Brahminical rule, and none has been such an unmitigated curse to the nation where it was exercised. Caste is an institution peculiarly Brahminical. The Sanscrit word is varna, which denotes color — probably the ancient distinc- tion between the Hindoo invaders and the aborigines. Caste, from the Portuguese casta, a breed, exactly expresses the Brahminical idea. Their account of its origin, abridged from the Institutes of Mcn?t, the oldest system of law extant save the Pentateuch, is as follows : " In order to preserve the universe, Brahma caused the Brahmin to proceed from his mouth, the Kshatriya to proceed from his arm, the Vaisya to proceed from his thigh, and the Stidra to proceed from his foot. And Brahma directed that the duties of the Brahmins should be reading and teaching the Veda ; sacrificing, and assisting others to sacrifice ; giving alms if they be rich, and receiving alms if they be poor. And Brahma directed that the duties of the Kshatriyas should be to defend the people, to give alms, to sacri- fice, to read the Veda, and to keep their passions under control. And he directed that the duties of the Vaisyas should be to keep nerds of cattle, to give alms, to read the Shasters, to carry on 24 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. trade, to lend money at interest, and to cultivate land. And he directed that the Sudra should serve all the three mentioned castes, namely, the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, and the Vaisyas, and that he should not depreciate nor make light of them. Since the Brah- min sprang from the mouth, which is the most excellent part of Brahma, and since he is the first-born and possesses the Veda, he is by right the chief of the whole creation. Him Brahma pro- duced from his own mouth, that he might perform holy rites ; that he might present ghee to the gods, and cakes of rice to the Pitris, or progenitors of mankind," — Code of Hindoo Law, I, pp. SS, 94. The Bhagvat Geeta, their most sublime treatise, repeats the same arrangement, and makes their observance a condition of salvation and moral perfection. Each class had thus a separate creation, constituting it, in fact, a distinct species, involving a denial of the doctrine that " God hath made of one blood all men." The Hindoos thus reject our common humanity, and hold it to be heresy to believe that all men are fellow-creatures, scouting the idea that we should " honor all men," or " love our neighbors as ourselves." Brahmin is a derivative from Brahm, the Deity, and signifies a Theologist or Divine, The caste is analogous to the tribe of Levi under the Mosaic economy, but without the family of Aaron, All the benefits of the Hindoo religion belong to this class, and the code secured to them rights, honors, and immunities that no other order could claim, so that their persons were to be considered sacred and inviolate, and they could not be held amenable to the penalties of law even for the worst of crimes. The intention of the lesrislator was, that from this learned class alone the nation was to take its astronomers, lawyers, prime ministers, judges, philosophers, as well as priests. They were to hold the highest offices, and to be supreme. The Brahmin is invested with that sacred string of three cotton strands, and the ceremony is called regeneration, and gives the Brahmin his claim to the title of the " twice born," For him, and for him alone, has the law-giver laid down in detail the duties of life, even to his devotions. Each morning he may be ''Wiii-^^lfJIIPJa!!!^ BRAHMINICAL PBATINQ. 2"/ seen, as here represented, on the banks of the Ganges or other "holy" stream. Any thing more singular and whimsical than the forms pre- scribed for him were never enjoined upon humanity as religious ritual. In illustration of this, from a paper in the " Asiatic Researches," by Mr. Colebrook, as quoted by Dr. Duff, we ask the reader's attention to the following extract. Speaking of the duties of morning worship, one of which is the religious ablution, as here represented, "the Sacred Books" strictly enjoin as follows : " He may bathe with water drawn from a well, from a fountain, or from the basin of a cataract ; but he should prefer water which lies above ground — choosing a stream rather than stagnant water, a river in preference to a small brook, a holy stream before a vulgar river, and above all the water of the Ganges. If the Ganges be beyond his reach he should invoke that holy river, saying, ' O, Gunga, hear my prayers ! for my sake be included in this small quantity of water with the other sacred streams.' Then, standing in the water, he must hallow his intended performance by the inaudible recitation of certain sacred texts. Next, sipping water and sprinkling some before him, the worshiper throws water eight times on the crown of his head, on the earth, toward the sky ; again toward the sky, on the earth, on the crown of his head ; and lastly on the ground, to destroy the demons who wage war with the gods. During the performance of this act of ablu- tion he must be reciting these prayers : ' O waters ! since ye afford delight, grant us present happiness and the rapturous sight of the Supreme Being. Like tender mothers, make us here partakers of your most auspicious essence. We become contented with your essence, with which ye satisfy the universe. Waters, grant it to us.' Immediately after this first ablution he should sip water with- out swallowing it, silently praying. These ceremonies and prayers bemg concluded, he plunges thrice into the water, each time repeat- ing the prescribed expiatory texts. " He then meditates in the deepest silence. During this moment of intense devotion he is striving to realize that ' Brahma, with foui 28 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. faces and a red complexion, resides in nis bosom ; Vishnu, with four arms and a black complexion, in his heart ; and Shiva, with five faces and a white complexion, in his forehead ! ' To this sub- lime meditation succeeds a suppression of the breath, which is thus performed : Closing the left nostril with the two longest fingers of his right hand, he draws his breath through the right nostril ; and then, closing that nostril likewise with his thumb, he holds his breath, while he internally repeats to himself the Gayatri, the mysterious names of the three worlds, the triliteral monosyllable, and the sacred text of Brahma ; last of all, he raises both fingers off the left nostril, and emits the breath he had suppressed through the right. This process being repeated three several times, he must next make three ablutions, with the following prayer : ' As the tired man leaves drops of sweat at the foot of a tree ; as he who bathes is cleansed from all foulness ; as an oblation is sanctified by holy grass, so may this water purify me from sin.' He must next fill the palm of his hand with water, and, presenting it to his nose, inhale the fluid by one nostril, and, retaining it for a while, exhale it through the other, and throw away the water to the north-east quarter. This is considered as an internal ablution which washes away sin. He then concludes by sipping water with the following prayer : ' Water ! thou dost penetrate all beings ; thou dost reach the deep recesses of the mountains ; thou art the mouth of the universe ; thou art sacrifice ; thou art the mystic word vasha ; thou art light, taste, and the immortal fluid.' " After a variety of genuflections and prayers, of which these are but a mere sample, he concludes his devotions by worshiping the rising sun. The veneration in which the Brahmin is to be held by all classes, the privileges which he is to enjoy, his occupations and modes of life, are laid down with wonderful minuteness in this Code of Hindoo Law. A mere sample of his assumptions, under the head of Veneration, will suffice : " The Brahmin is entitled to the whole of the universe by the right of primogeniture. He pos- sesses the Veda, and is alone permitted to teach the laws. By his sacrifices and imprecations he could destroy a Rajah in a moment, PREBOGATIVES OF THE BRAHMINS. 29 together with all his troops, elephants, horses, and chariots In his wrath he could frame new worlds, with new gods and new mortals. A man who barely assaulted a Brahmin, with the inten- tion of hurting him, would be whirled about for a century in the hell termed Tamasa. He who smote a Brahmin with only a blade of grass, would be born an inferior quadruped during twenty-one transmigrations. But he who should shed the blood of a Brahmin, save in battle, would be mangled by animals in his next birth for as many years as there were particles of dust rolled up by the blood shed. If a Sudra (a low-caste man) sat upon the same seat with a Brahmin, he was to be gashed in the part offending." — Institutes of Menu, I, 94, etc. Thus a body of men, supposed to number not more than a few hundred thousand, have held the two hundred millions of their fellow-countrymen for thirty centuries in the terrors of this sacer- dotal legislation, enforcing its claims to the last limit of endurance, though at the fearful price of the utter ignorance, degradation, and slavery of their nation. The reader can well appreciate the indig- nant feelings with which this greedy, proud, and supercilious order of men contemplated the incoming of a Christian Government, which would make all men " equal before the law," and the advent of a Religion whose great glory it is to vindicate the oppressed and " preach the Gospel to the poor." The Kshatriya caste (derived from Kshetra, land) and the Vais- yas (traders) had the privilege of the investiture with the sacred string ; but to the Sudras there was to be no investiture, no sacri- fice, and no Scriptures. They were condemned by this law to perpet- ual servitude. Yet this class, with the Outcasts, were necessarily the great majority of the nation, and those who might have been their instructors and guides, heartlessly took away the key of knowledge, made it a legal crime to "teach them how sin might be expiated," and deliberately degraded them for time and eternity. The Vedas expressly state that the benefits of the Hindoo religion are open only to three of the four castes ! The fourth-caste man could have no share in religion and hold no property. He was a 30 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. bondsman, and that forever. No system of human slavery ever equaled this ; for it was intense, unalterable, and unending, by the act of God himself The distinctions of society, by the ordinances of the Hindoo Lawgiver, were thus indicated : Brahmins, or Priests ; Kshatriyas, or Soldiers and Rajahs ; Vaisyas, or Merchants and Farmers ; Sudras, the servile class. The arrangements indicate a pastoral condition of society, far removed from the stirring scenes of the life of the nineteenth cen- tury. The ordinances made no preparation for the wider wants of men or intercommunication of other nations, or the development of our race. They had no provision for manufacturing, mining, or commercial life, but expected the world to move on forever in their limited conservative methods. These four castes were subdivided, according to the theory, into sixty-four, and in the grooves thus opened the divisions of labor were expected to run, so that even trade should become hereditary ; and thus, whatever the genius or ability developed in any man, he was expected to be content to remain in the profession of his father. He might have the germ and the buddings of a mmd like Newton's, but, according to "their cast-iron rules of social life, if his father made shoes he too must stick to the last." No man of one caste can eat, smoke, marry with, or touch the cook- ing-vessels of a person of another caste. The prohibition is fear- fully strict, and guarded with terrible sanctions. And it is as des- titute of humanity as it is singular ; so that, were a stranger of their own nation, coming into one of their towns, to be taken suddenly ill, and unable to speak and explain of what caste he was, he would certainly be liable to perish, for the high-caste people would be afiaid to touch him, lest they should break their caste, and those of the low-caste would be unwilling, lest their contact (on the suppo- sition of his superior order) might irrecoverably contaminate him In their hands the man would perish unaided. This unique masterpiece of Brahminism was intended by its framers to be a wall of brass around their system, to secure its unal- BRAnMimCAL INVESTITURE. 31 terable permanency. But, its own heartless selfishness and cruel tendencies had so far overdone the work that it was found practi- cally impossible to sustain the integrity of the arrangements. Inno- vations crept in and conflicts ensued, and, despite the desperate efforts of the Brahmins, confusion has marred Menu's strange designs, while the introduction of Western civilization, the teach- ings of Christianity, and the light of true knowledge, have delivered such severe and repeated shocks that the venerable and hideous monstrosity is tottering to its final fall. Four Stages of Life are marked out by Menu for the Brahmin : I. The Brahntachari, or Studentship of the Veda ; 2. The GriJias- t/ia, or Married State ; 3. The Vartapmstha, or Hermit Life ; 4. The Sannyasi, or Devotee Condition. The Brahmachari stage begins with the investiture of the sacred thread, which act signifies " a second birth." The investiture takes place in his eighth year in case of a Brahmin, the eleventh year for a Kshatriya, and the twelfth for a Vaisya. The investiture introduces the " twice-born " Brahmin boy to a religious life, and is supposed to sanctify him for the study of the Veda. The thread of the Brahmin is made of cotton and formed of three strings ; that of the Kshatriya is made of hemp, and that of the Vaisya is of wool. It is termed the " sacrificial cord," because it entitles the wearer to the privilege of sacrifice and religious services. Certain ceremonies are observed for girls as well as for boys, but neither girls nor women are invested with the sacred thread nor the utterance of the sacred inaiitras. They have con- sequently no right to sacrifice. Indeed, the nuptial ceremony is considered to be for woman equivalent to the investiture of the thread, and is the commencement of the religious life of the female, {Menu, II, 66, 6j.) So that, a lady remaining unmarried, has nothing equivalent to their " second birth " here, and can look forward to no certainty of a happy life hereafter. The poor Sudra is entirely excluded. Thus, the Servile Man and the unmarried woman of any, even the highest, caste are equally left outside the pale of Brahminical salvation — exactly that condition to which 32 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. High-Church Puseyism consigns all " Dissenters " when they hand them over to " the uncovenanted mercies of God." In addition to the exclusion of woman and the lower caste, this terrible Code proceeds to sink still deeper vast multitudes of their fellow-creatures. The " Outcasts " are numbered by the million. Some of these are called " Chandalas," and concerning them this heartless and cruel Lawgiver ordains : " Chandalas must dwell without the town. Their sole wealth must be dogs and asses ; their clothes must consist of the mantles of deceased persons ; their dishes must be broken pots, and their ornaments must consist of rusty iron. No one who regards his duties must hold any inter- course with them, and they must marry only among themselves. By day they may roam about for the purposes of work, and be dis- tinguished by the badges of the Rajah ; and they must carry out the corpse of any one who dies without kindred. They should always be employed to slay those who are sentenced by the laws to be put to death ; and they may take the clothes of the slain, their beds, and their ornaments." — Code, X, 51-58. Can the Western reader wonder that, tame and subdued though the Asiatics may be, these aristocratic ordinances should have proved too much for human nature, or that the introduction of English rule and fair play, elevating these long-crushed millions to legal equality with these proud Brahmins, was an immense mercy to nearly one sixth of the human family } As a sample of how this sacerdotal law, framed for his special glorification, discriminated in favor of the Brahmin, it may suffice to quote a sentence or two. On the question of his privileges when called to testify in a Court of Justice, he must be assumed to be the "very soul of honor," and his oath, without exposure to pen- ally, was to be held sufficient. The Code decreed that "A Brah- min was to swear by his veracity ; a Kshatriya by his weapons, horse, or elephant ; and a Vaisya by his kine, grain, or gold ; but a Sudra was to imprecate upon his own head the guilt of every possible crime if he did not speak the truth." — VIII, 113. "To a Brahmin the Judge should say, ' Declare ;' to a Kshatriya he DISCRIMINATIONS IN TUE BRAHMIN'S FAVOR. 33 should say, ' Declare the truth ;' to the Vaisya he should compare perjury to the crime of stealing kine, grain, or gold ; to the Sudra he should compare perjury to every crime in the following lan- guage : ' Whatever places of torture have been prepared for the murderer of a Brahmin, for the murderer of a woman, or child, have also been ordained for that witness who gives false evidence. If you deviate from the truth you shall go naked, shorn, and blind, and be tormented with hunger and thirst, and beg food with a pot- sherd at the door of your enemy ; or shall tumble headlong into hell in utter darkness. Even if you give imperfect testimony, and assert a fact which you have not seen, you shall suffer pain like a man who eats fish and swallows the sharp bones." — Memc, VIII, 79-95- The scale of punishments in the case of a Brahmin (in the few instances where he was at all amenable to the law it could only touch his property, never, under any consideration, his person) was equally drawn in his favor, and was all the lighter in proportion to the inferiority of caste of the man whom he had injured ; while, on the other hand, it was equally to be increased in severity (for the same crime in both cases) in proportion to the same distinction. Says the law, " A Kshatriya who slandered a Brahmin was to be fined a hundred panas ; for the same crime a Vaisya was to be fined a hundred and fifty or two hundred panas ; but a Sudra was to be whipped." On the other hand, if a Brahmin slandered a Kshatriya " he was to be fined fifty panas ; if he slandered a Vaisya he was to be fined twenty-five panas ; but if he slandered a Sudra he was only to be fined twelve panas. If, however, a Sudra insulted any man of the twice-born castes with gross invectives, he was to have his tongue slit ; if he mentioned the name and caste of the individual with contumely, an iron style, ten fingers long, was to be made red-hot and thrust into his mouth ; and if, through pride, he dared to instruct a Brahmin respecting his duty, the Rajah was to order that hot oil should be poured into his mouth and ear." — Menu, VIII, 266-276. The " pana " was then nearly equal to our cent, so his privilege 34 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. of slandering a Sudra could at any time be exercised with impunity for a dime, while, if it was so done unto him, the law took good care ihat the plebeian wretch should never repeat the offense, for his tongue was to be slit. How truly could the Almighty, whose name they blasphemously invoke for their outrageous legislation, say of them, " Are not your ways unequal ? " Even in salutations the Code ordained the forms, and gave them a religious significance. " A Brahmin was to be asked whether his devotion had prospered, a Kshatriya whether he had suffered from his wounds, a Vaisya whether his wealth was secure, and a Sudra whether he was in good health." — Menu, II, 127. The food, the privileges, the duties, of this pampered monopolist are all minutely laid down in the Code, but they are too diffuse and too childish to place before the reader, and would not be worth the space occupied. In proof of this I quote one sentence from the fourth chapter, merely remarking that the whimsical injunctions are left without any rhyme or reason. They are as unaccountable as they are singular. " He (the Brahmin) must not gaze on the sun while rising or setting, or eclipsed or reflected in water ; he must not run while it rains ; he must not look on his own image in water ; when he sees the bow of Indra in the sky he must not show it to any man ; he must not step over a string to which a calf is tied ; and he must not wash his feet in a pan of mixed metal." In these stages of its development and claims, Brahminism is nothing less than a system of supreme selfishness, and was worthy of the express teaching with which the Brahmin was directed, in an emergency, to sacrifice every thing to his own precious self, in the following rule : " Against misfortune let him preserve his wealth ; at the expense of his wealth let him preserve his wife ; but let him at all events preserve himself, even at the hazard of his wife and riches." How little can such a religion or such a law know of disin- terested affection, or of that devotion which would risk every thing for the safety and happiness of its beloved object } THIRD STAGE OF THE BRAHMm'S LIFE. 35 His student life ended, the Brahmin commences his married existence with forms and rules which will be referred to when we come to speak of the condition of woman under Hindoo law. In this second stage of his life he is required to have " his hair and beard properly trimmed, his passions subdued, and his mantle white ; he is to carry a staff of Venu, a ewer with water in it, handful of Kusa grass, or a copy of the Vedas, with a pair of bright golden rings in his ears, ready to give instruction in the sacied books, or pohtical counsel, and to administer justice." I'hen in order would come the third and fourth stages of his life, the rules of which are so unique. Such an amazing contrast to the unbounded privileges of the previous stages, and withal so little like what ordinary humanity would impose upon itself, that we must quote them for the information of the reader. These two stages express the very essence of Brahminism. In the Hermit stage, the theory is a course of life that will mortify the passions and extinguish desire ; this being accomplished, the last order, or Devotee stage, is religious contemplation with the view to final beatitude. Menu says, " When the twice-born man has remained in the order of Grihastha, or householder, until his muscles become flaccid and his hair gray, and he sees a child of his child, let him abandon his household and repair to the forest, and dwell there in the order of Vanaprastha, or Hermit. He should be accompanied by his wife if she choose to attend him, but otherwise he should commit her to the care of his sons. He should take with him the conse- crated fire, and all the domestic implements for making oblations to fire, and there dwell in the forest, with perfect control over all his organs. Day by day he should perform the five sacraments. He should wear a black antelope's hide, or a veiture of bark, and bathe morning and evening ; he should suffer his nails and the hair of his head and beard to grow continually. He should be constantly engaged in reading the Veda ; he should be patient in all extremities ; he should be universally benevolent, and entertain a tender affection for all living creatures ; his mind should be ever 36 TRE lANB OF TEE VEDA. intent upon the Supreme Being ; he should sHde backward and forward, or stand a whole day on tiptoe, or continue in motion by rising and sittmg alternately ; but every day, at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset, he should go to the waters and bathe. In the hot season he should sit exposed to five fires, namely : four blazing around him, while the sun is burning above him. In the rain) season he should stand uncovered, without even a mantle, while the clouds pour down their heaviest showers. In the cold season he should wear damp vesture. He should increase the austerity of his devotion by degrees, until by enduring harsher and harsher mortifications he has dried up his bodily frame." — Code, VI, 22 ; Vis/mti Piirana, III, 9, etc. As regards the life to be pursued by a Sannyasi, Menu lays down the following directions : . " When a Brahmin has thus lived in the forest during the third portion of his life as a Vanaprastha, he should for the fourth por- tion of it become a Sannyasi, and abandon all sensual affections, and repose wholly in the Supreme Spirit. The glory of that Brahmin who passes from the order of Grihastha to that of San- nyasi illuminates the higher worlds. He should take an earthen water-pot, dwell at the roots of large trees, wear coarse vesture, abide in total solitude, and exhibit a perfect equanimity toward all creatures. He should wish neither for death nor for life, but expect his appointed time, as a hired servant expects his wages. He should look down as he advances his foot, lest he should touch any thing impure. He should drink water that has been purified by straining through a cloth, lest he hurt an insect. He should bear a reproachful speech with patience, and speak reproachfully to no man ; and he should never utter a word relating to vain, illusory things. He should delight in meditating upon the Supreme Spirit, and sit fixed in such meditation, without needing any thing earthly, without one sensual desire, and without any companion but his own soul. " He should only ask for food once a day, and that should be in the evening, when the smoke of the kitchen fires has ceased, when LAST STAGE OF A BRAUMIN'8 LIFE. Z7 the pestle lies motionless, and the burning charcoal is extinguished ; when people have eaten, and when dishes are removed. If he fail to obtain food he should not be sorrowful ; if he succeed in obtain- irg it he should not be glad. He should only care to obtain a suf- nciency to support life, and he should not be anxious about his utensils." As to the character of his thoughts : " A Sannyasi should reflect on the transmigrations of men, which are caused by their sinful deeds ; on their downfall into a region of darkness, and their torments ii. the mansions of Yama, (the God of the dead ;) on their separation from those whom they love, and their union with those whom the}- hate ; on their strength being overpowered by old age, and their bodies racked with disease ; on their agonizing departure from this corporeal frame, and their formation again in the womb ; on the misery attached to embodied spirits from a violation of their duties, and the imperishable bliss which attaches to embodied spirits who have abundantly performed every duty. " The body is a mansion, with bones for its rafters and beams, with nerves and tendons for cords, with muscles and blood for mortar, with skin for its outward covering, and filled with no sweet perfumes, but loaded with refuse. It is a mansion infested by age and by sorrow, the seat of diseases, harassed by pains, haunted with the quality of darkness, and incapable of standing long. Such a mansion of the vital soul should always be quitted with cheerful- ness by its occupier." — Institutes of Hindoo Law, VI, y6, yy. When you look around and inquire for these self-denying re- cluses, with their sublime superiority to the things of earth and the wants and wishes of the human heart, you will not find them ; cer- tainly not among the Brahmins. Few of these have ever adopted in reality a life so like that of the Yogee, or Self-torturer. All testimony goes to show that Menu's ordinances for the third and fourth stages of the Brahmin's life have lain in his law-book with not one Brahmin in ten thousand even commencing to make them a reality of human experience. It was too much for humanity, and could only be embraced by some fanatic of a Fakir, who would 444540 38 THE LAKD OF THE VEDA. voluntarily assume such a condition for self-righteous and self- glorifying ends. Such men can and will do, for such reasons, what other men have not nerve enough to adventure merely in obedience to the theoretic rules of their order. The Brahmins would fain be regarded as the learned class of India. Of course there was a time when, in the earlier ages of the world, they were so, as compared to men in other nations. No scholar can doubt this for a moment. But the world and education are no longer what they once were ; both have advanced amazingly, while the Brahmin has not only stood still, but he has retrograded. The ruins of India's colleges, observatories, and scientific instruments, especially in Benares, (once " the eye of Hindustan,") convince the traveler too painfully of this fact. Even there, in that renowned city, there is not a single public building devoted to, or containing, the treasures of India's arts, sciences, or literature ; no paintings, sculptures, or libraries ; no colleges of learning, no museums of her curiosities ; no monuments of her great men ; only beastly idolatry, filthy fakirs, shrines of vileness without number, and festivals of saturnalian license, all sustained and illustrated by a selfish and ignorant Brahminhood. Their learning is in the past, and little remains save their great Epics and the magnificent dead Language in which they were writ- ten. Their chronology is a wild and exaggerated falsehood, their geography and astronomy are subjects of ridicule to every school- boy, their astrology (to which they are specially devoted) a humbug for deluding their countrymen ; they had no true history till foreigners wrote it for them, and could not even read the Pali on their own public monuments till such Englishmen as Princeps and Tytler deciphered it. Native education to-day owes more to Macaalay, Dr. Dufi", and Trevelyan, than to all the Brahmins of India for the past five hundred years. Every improvement intro- duced, and every mitigation of the miseries in the lot of woman, and of the lower and suffering classes, has been introduced aganist their will and without their aid as a class. They feel, they know, that their system is more or less effete ; that they are being left A Lady of India in Full Dress. BRAEMimSM A DEAD FAILURE. 41 behind in the march of improvement on which their country has entered. But there they stand, scowling and twirling their Brah- minical string ; while the Sudras and the very " Chandalas," whom they tried so hard to doom to eternal degradation, are obtaining in Government and Missionary schools a sanctified scholarship, which is soon to consign the claims and pretensions of this venerable, ha ighty, and heartless aristocracy to the everlasting contempt which they deserve ! One by one, in their ridiculous helplessness, they behold their strong places taken and wrested from their grasp. The very Veda in which they gloried, and behind which they falsely defended the vileness and cruelty of their system, has been magnificently collated and published in eight volumes by the scholarship of Max Miiller, and then rendered, with equal ability, (the last volume having been published within the past five years,) into English by Wilson & Cowell. So that all the world may now know what the Veda is, and what it teaches, and thus hold these unworthy guardians of it to the fearful responsi- bility which they have incurred, in pretending to quote its authority for the abominations which characterize their modern Hindooism, with all its grievous wrongs against woman in particular, and against the interests of their own nation, as well as its violation of the common sense and judgment of mankind, for whose opinions, however, the Brahmins of India never showed the least respect We now turn from them to introduce the reader to one of the ladies of the land. The opposite picture is from a photograph for which this lady, Zahore Begum, of Seereenugger, consented to sit. As her face had to be seeti by the artist, the concession was a very singular one for any lady of her race. It was done to gratify the Queen of England, who, on the assumption of the direct sovereignty of India — on the abolition of the East India Company in 1859 — requested that photographs of the people, and their various races, trades, and professions, might be taken and sent to her. Her Majesty gra- ciously consented to have her valuable collection copied, and by the courtesy of Captain Meadows Taylor, the Oriental author, the 42 TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. writer obtained copies of this and several others of much value, which will appear in these pages. My readers have, therefore, before them a faithful picture of a Hindoo lady of the highest rank, as she appears in her Zenana home, under the best circumstances, having made herself as attract- ive as silk, and muslin, and cashmere cloth, and a profusion of jewelry, can render her. In the jewel on the thumb of the left hand there is inserted a small looking-glass, of which the fair lady imakes good use. The usual gold ring, strung with pearls, is in her nose, lying against her left cheek ; and her forehead, ears, arms, fingers, ankles, and toes are crowded with jewelry and tinkling ornaments, the sounds of which proclaim her presence and ap- proach always. The wood-cut does no justice to her wann olive color, many of them being even almost fair. Most of them have a figure of great beauty, and a natural elegance of movement which their drapery and rich clothing well become. But the mind is totally neglected. In fact, until lately, when a gleam of light has begun to shine for women in the Land of the Veda, it might be said, without qualifica- tion, that no part of an American definition of education would apply to the culture under which a daughter of India is fitted for future life. It does not, for her, include reading, or writing, or his- tory, or science, or aught else which we include in its meaning. Education, in its proper sense, is denied to the females of India ; denied on principle, and for reasons which are unblushingly avowed, and all of which are reflections upon her womanly nature — one of them being the position that education in the hands of a woman would most likely become an instrument of evil power. She is deliberately doomed by modern Hindooism to a life of ignorance because she is a woman. We have mentioned the present dawn of a better day. It is but the dawn. Dr. Mullen's statistics tell us that already there are now thirty-nine thousand six hundred and forty-seven women and girls receiving an education in the Zenana schools in India. The number is by this time larger and still increasing. Yet it is but The Nauch Girl of India. THE LADIES OF INDIA. 45 the commencement ; for the above number, dividing the one hun- dred millions of women in India, gives but one in two thousand five hundred and twenty-two who are receiving instruction, a num- ber equal only to what this country would have to-day were but one American lady in five hundred and four blessed with education. What need is there, then, to urge on the glorious toil of rescuing India's daughters from the intellectual abominations which desolate their soul and mind in this fearful manner ! The sad story of the wrongs of woman in India will be told after we have traced the rise and fall of the great Rebellion ; for the mitigations of her condition, which Christian law had in mercy enforced, were then put forward by her Brahminical oppressors as one of the reasons why they had renounced their allegiance to Brit'sh rule. But there is one class of women, and it is a very large class, in India, who are under no such restrictions and jealous seclusion as the lady on the former page. These court publicity, and you can see them every-where. This order of females are released from the doom of an illiterate mind. They can read, write, and quote the poets, and jest with the conundrums and "wise saws" of the land. The writer has known of attempts made by this class of girls to enter our schools in order to add the English tongue to their acquisitions, to be used by them for the worst of purposes. These are the " Nauch Girls," a portrait of one of whom, from a photograph, is here given as she appears in public. Their title means dancing-girls. No man in India would allow his wife or daughter to dance, and as to dancing with another man, he would forsake her forever, as a woman lost to virtue and mod- esty, if she were to attempt it. In their observation of white women, there is nothing that so much perplexes them as the fact that fathers and husbands will permit their wives and daughters to indulge in promiscuous dancing. No argument will convince them that the act is such as a virtuous female should practice, or that its tendency is not licentious. The prevalence of the practice in "Christian" nations makes our holy religion — which they suppose 46 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. must allow it — to be abhorred by many of them, and often it is cast in the teeth of our missionaries when preaching to them. But what would these heathen say could they enter our operas and theaters, and see the shocking exposure of their persons which our public women there present before mixed assemblies ? Yet they would be ten times more astonished that ladies of virtue and repu- tation should be found there, accompanied by their daughters, to witness the sight, and that, too, in the presence of the other sex ! But, then, they are only heathens, and don't appreciate the high accomplishments of Christian civilization ! Still, Heaven grant that the future Church of India may ever retain at least this item of the prejudices of their forefathers ! Dancing forms, then, no part of a daughter's education in India, and it probably never will, that is, unless they become corrupted by "Christian" example. All of that sort of thing that they ever desire, on occasions of festivals and ceremonies, they hire from the temples and bazaars. Four or five of these women, tricked out in all their finery and jewelry, and tinkling ornaments on arms, necks, and feet, will, for four or five dollars, dance and jest, and sing India's licentious songs for hours ; but even they don't dance except with their own sex. They are prostitutes, and yet they are undoubtedly the only intel- ligent and cultivated class of Hindoo wom.en. So that the profane and debased have a monopoly of education, while the virtuous and retiring ladies of the land are condemned to a life of ignorance. Such is woman in India as to her mind. Until within a few years this fearful barrier to woman's educa- tion stood sternly across the path of the missionary. A change, in the great mercy of Heaven, is dawning at last even upon India ; but as recently as ten years ago, when you spoke to a Hindoo father about educating his daughter, the ideas that are here clearly enough mtimated at once presented themselves to his mind, and your proposal seemed to him to be almost profane, as he thought, " Would you make my daughter a Nauch girl .'' " The Temple of Knowledge, with its sacred flame, no longer guarded by the Vestal Virgins, seemed resigned absolutely to the control and occupation Th« Maharajah Duleep Singh. THE NAUCH GIRLS. 49 of those polluted beings, whose profession and blandishments are exerted to " Make vice pleasing and damnation shine," but whose guests are in the depths of hell. We next present to the reader one of the upper class of Hindoo society just as he would appear at a " Durbar," or State ceremonial, or in receiving guests at his palace, or in connection with some public display. The dress of a gentleman in India is regulated as to its quality by his wealth and position, and in its variations of form by his creed and locality ; but the Maharajah costume here shown may be regarded generally as that of his countrymen. Their dress is free and flowing, adapted to the climate, and leaving to the limbs a greater freedom of action, with more circula- tion of air, than the American style of dress can ever know. Al- though to our imagination it appears somewhat effeminate in its aspect, yet it is eminently graceful and becoming to the wearers, as any one who has seen a company of Hindoo gentlemen together will have observed. There is something so conservative and bib- lical in the aspect of it, that you feel at once that the fluctuations of the fashions can have no influence upon it. Here is something that is at once suitable and unchanging — a style of comfort and elegance which the past five hundred years has not varied, and which will probably remain unaltered when five hundred more years have passed away. The dress here represented shows a vest of " Kinkob " — cloth of gold — slightly exposed at the breast ; a loose-fitting coat falling below the knees, made of rich yellow satin from the looms of Delhi, bordered with gold embroidery ; a Cashmere shawl of great value encircles the loins, and the usual "Kummerbund" binds all to the waist of the wearer. The turban is made of several yards of fine India muslin, twisted round the head, heavily adorned with chains of pearls, and aigrettes of diamonds and precious stones. These, with the pearls encircling his neck, are of large size and extraordinary beauty and value, the heir-looms of many generations. so THE LAND OF THE VEDA. He holds by his side his State sword, the hilt of which is studded with precious stones. To all this " glory " might have been added the matchless Koh-i-noor diamond, for this prince was the heir of " The Mountain Light," his father, the Maharajah Runjeet Singh, having been its last possessor ; but the great diamond was sent as a present to Queen Victoria, and he himself is handsojne and happy enough without it. How significant of the resources of India is the fact that every article on the person of this princely man, from the gold and gems on his head to the embroidered slippers on his feet, is the produc- tion of his own country, and all of native manufacture ! How quietly in this respect he outshines the Broadway " exquisite " or Parisian belle, whose finery must be sought for in a score of climes and imported from many lands ! The Maharajah is considered one of the handsomest of his coun- trymen. The excellent wood-cut here representing him does not, however, do justice to his black, lustrous eyes, or his finely formed features and intelligent look. The education of the gentlemen of India is sadly deficient. Conducted in the Zenana, among ladies ignorant of the most elementary knowledge, their mental training and acquisitions are usually of the most superficial sort, and destitute of healthful stim- ulus. But the gentleman here represented is one of the exceptions to this rule ; and as he has had the moral courage to separate him- self from heathenism and receive the Christian faith, the reader may be pleased with some further notice of him. He is the first royal person in India who has become a follower of Jesus Christ. His highness is the son and heir of the Maha- rajah Runjeet Singh, who, from the ferocity and valor with which he conducted his wars and ruled his people, was called " I'he Lion of the Punjab." The old gentleman's policy left his nation in con- fusion, and the English power, in the wars that resulted, found his forces to be the sturdiest foe with whom they had ever measured swords in India. Runjeet died in 1839, ^^'^^ ^^^ son, this Duleep Singh, then only four years old, was placed upon the throne. His THE MAHABAJAH'S CONVEffSION. 5 1 uncles ruled in his name, but the ten years which followed were times of anarchy and bloodshed, the Regents being assassinated in succession, and the country one vast camp. The army superseded the civil power, and in their folly actually crossed the frontier, and in 1845 invaded British India. They were repulsed, but only to renew the effort four years later, when they were overthrown, and the Punjab — the country of the five rivers, as the word means, the rivers named in Alexander's invasion, and which unite to form the Indus at Attock — was annexed to the British Empire. The young Maharajah was pensioned, and placed for education under the care of the Government. God mercifully guided the Governor- general in the selection of guardian and tutor for the little prince. Dr. (now Sir John) Logan, of the medical service, and a member of the Presbyterian Church, was appointed his guardian, and Mr. Guise, of the civil service, was selected as his tutor. To Mr. Guise's other high qualifications for his duties was added a beau- tiful Christian character. He had need of all his fitness, for the little ex-king had never been used to any restraint, much less to study or to books, and claimed the right to run wild and neglect all mental acquisitions. But the patience and conscientiousness of the faithful tutor overcame every difficulty ; good habits and a taste for reading were at length formed. Their home was at Fut- tyghur, on the Ganges, where the American Presbyterian Church has a Mission, (the missionaries being mentioned by name on a previous page,) in which many young men were receiving a Chris- tian education. The prince expressed a desire to have some one of good birth and talents for a companion, and a young Brahmin, by name Bhajan Lai, who had been educated in the mission-school, and had there, though unconverted, contracted a love for the Chris- tian Scriptures, was chosen for the position. He soon enjoyed the entire confidence of the young Maharajah. Bhajan was in the habit of studying the Bible in his leisure moments, and the prince two or three times having come upon him thus engaged, was led to inquire what book it was that so interested him. He was told, and at his request Bhajan promised to read and explain the Word of God to 52 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. him, but on condition that it should not be known. The priests of his own rehgion that had accompanied him from the Punjab, and were training him in the tenets of their faith, were soon seen by him in a new hght as he continued to read the Scriptures. When he began to compare them, in all their mummery, immorality, and covetousness, with the purity and spirituality of the Christians around him, whose lives and examples he had carefully noted, a feeling of disgust with heathenism, and a preference and love for the religion of the Bible, sprang up in his heart, to which he soon gave expression. Thus the reading of God's holy Word, taught and explained even by a heathen youth and Brahmin, led the Maharajah to give up idolatry, and to express a desire to break his caste and be baptized. The priests were amazed and confounded, and offered what resistance they could. But the guardianship of the prince effect- ually shielded him from all persecution. Yet, as he was so young, and the step contemplated so important, his guardian, though rejoiced at his purpose, and ready to aid it in every proper way, suggested delay till he could more fully study the religion of Jesus and act with fuller deliberation. He accepted the advice, drew nearer to the missionaries, attended the services, and enjoyed the association of the Christians. He was led to embrace Christ as his Saviour, and on the 8th of March, 1853, was baptized and received into the Christian Church. The Rev. W. J. Jay, the chaplain of the station, administered the holy ordinance in the presence of all the missionaries, the native Christians and Europe- ans at the station, and the servants of the Maharajah. He was clad as here represented, and when he took off his turban, and with much firmness and humility bowed his head to receive the sacred ordinance, every heart in the assembly was moved, and many a prayer went up that he might have grace to fulfill his vov/s and honor his Christian profession. He has faithfully done so to the present time. Immediately after his baptism he established relief societies at Futtyghur and Lahore, placing them under the control of the American missions SETTLES IN ENGLAND. 53 at both places. Besides assisting in the support of the missions, he estabhshed, and still sustains, a number of village schools for the education of the people, and has been a liberal contributor to every good object brought to his notice. When the writer was at Futtyghur he had the opportunity of witnessing the results which were being accomplished by the Christian liberality of the Maha- rajah in and around that station. He was then aiding the cause of Christ and the poor to the extent, probably, of fully one tenth of his whole income annually, and I presume his liberality is no less now. Some time after his baptism, with a desire to improve his mind by foreign travel, he visited England. He took with him a devoted Christian, who had formerly been a Hindoo Pundit, named Nil Knath, by whose instructions he was more fully established in the doctrines of the Gospel, and with whom he enjoyed daily prayer and other religious privileges. On his arrival in London the Government placed a suitable residence in Wimbledon at his disposal, and the Queen and Prince Albert showed him much attention and kindness. The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 distressed him exceedingly, and probably alienated him from his native land. His entire severance from the religion of his countrymen, and, most of all, probably, reasons of State in view of the English rule in his country, which he would not wish by his presence there to disturb in any way, led him to prefer England as a residence. A magnificent home has been provided for him near London, and there, on the allowance of his rank paid yearly by the British Government, he is spending the present portion of his life, honored and respected by all around him. He has probably ere now come to the conclusion that the loss of the throne of the Punjab may have been for him a good providence. During the rebellion his life might have been sacri- ficed. In the peace and honor that surround him he is not only entirely free from the evil influences of an Oriental court, and the distractions of irresponsible government, but he may reflect, judg- ing the present from the past, that, had he remained and reigned, he might very probably, like his uncles and predecessors, have met a violent death. 154 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA, Gentlemen in other lands having the means and leisure of the higher classes of Hindoo society would be cultivating their minds, enlarging and enriching the literature of their times by theii authorship, by foreign travel, by collections of books and works of art, and institutions for developing the resources of their great country. But there are no authors in India, no libraries in its homes ; not one in a thousand of its aristocracy ever saw the out- side of his native land. Learned societies, museums, or fruits of genius are not to be found there. Education, when acquired, is restricted mostly to the mere ability of reading and writing and talking in courtly style, while there are multitudes of wealthy men that cannot do that much ; nay, there are even kings without the power to write their own names, who can give validity to State documents only by stamping them with " the signet on their right hand." The sovereign of the Punjab — father of the Maharajah here represented — was one such. He was unable to write or read his own name, and to the day of his death could not tell one figure from another. The little information of general news which they acquired from time to time had been obtained by a singular arrangement. Each great family, or king's court, had its " editor." He was expected to furnish the news daily, or as often as he could. So he collected from any source within his reach, and got his newspaper ready. But he had no press, nor type, nor office, nor newsboy to aid him. He simply enters on his broad sheet, in writing, one after another, all the news or gossip he could collect, until his paragraphs fill his pages, and he sallies forth in the morning to circulate the news, commencing with the members of the household, and thence to the servants, and so on to the neighbors, reading for each circle the news he had previously collected and written out, and receiv- ing his fees from each company as he goes round the neighborhood. Of express trains, telegraphs, associated press, pictorial papers, and all our Christian appliances for collecting and distributing the news of the wide world, he is utterly ignorant. But the poor editor is on a par with the education of his patrons, and he can rest HABITS OF TEE INDIA AEI8T0GRACT. 55 assured they are not likely to outstrip him in the race for knowl- edge. And so it goes on from generation to generation, until now, when this wonderful innovator, Christianity, has walked right into the midst of this venerable ignorance, and, to the horror of these editorial oracles, has lifted many even of the Pariah youth of their bazaars to a plane of education and knowledge up to which millions look with amazement as they wonder what is going to happen now, when boys " whose fathers they would have disdained to set with the dogs in their flocks " are actually becoming possessed of an education which even their Pundits do not enjoy ! The habits of the India aristocracy are in many respects de- cidedly peculiar. The residence, for instance, is usually very mean, as compared with the wealth of the parties. While they will spend millions upon a temple or tomb, they are content to dwell in a house which a man in America, with one fiftieth of their income, would scorn to inhabit. A Rajah with a rent-roll of say fifty thousand dollars or more per annum will sometimes pass his life in a residence built of sun-dried brick, with a tiled roof, that cost less than two thousand dollars, surrounded on all sides with mud hovels, and in the midst of a bazaar where the din and smoke and effluvia would be intolerable to any decent American. No doubt this want of appreciation of surrounding circumstances in their life is caused by their inability while heathens justly or truly to estimate that idea of ho7ne which Christianity has created for man, especially in the " honorable estate " of the married life which she ordains and blesses, and to which she leads the grate- ful, loving husband to bring his means and ingenuity to adorn it, to make it a convenient, cheerful, happy dwelling for the blessed wife whom he loves and the dear children whom God has given them. Such a home, with its joy and honor, the heathen or polyg- amist can never know or appreciate. His residence is but a con- venience, not the sanctuary of the affections, and his estimate of home must be, and is, defective and perverted. They eschew furniture, in our sense of the word — tables, chairs, 56 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. knives and forks. They eat with the fingers alone, and generally sleep on a charpoy or mat. When you enter a Hindoo home you are at once struck with the naked look of the room — no chair or sofa to sit upon, no pictures on the walls, no piano or musical instrument, no library of books, no maps, no table with the newspa- per or periodical or album upon it, and you wonder how they can bear to live such a life ; to you it would be a misery and a blank. But you are a Christian, and your holy religion has made you to differ, and taught you the nature and value of a Christian home and its conveniences and joys. Nothing would more surprise them in visiting our Western world than to see how generally, according to the ability of each, we beautifv and adorn our residences, and surround them with flowers and verdure and neatness. They would think this all very artificial, and perhaps unnecessary, and could not enter into the feelings of those whose constant effort seems to be to make their abode on earth, in its purity, companionship, and peace, a type of the home in heaven. Woman alone in heathenism, even where she has possessed peculiar wealth and power and opportunity for the effort, cannot make this earthly paradise ; she requires Christianity to be success- ful. Cases have occurred where European ladies have been induced — in Delhi, Lucknow, etc. — to enter even royal zenanas as wives. But though knowing the difference, and probably fondly hoping they could by their presence and ability constitute a happy social state, they soon realized that the very atmosphere forbid the development of the home they hoped to cultivate, and the fair experimenters had, in utter despair, to abandon their efforts and their hopes, and not only so, but themselves to sink to the sad level of the heathen- ish community into which they had ventured ! " Home is the sacred refuge of our life." True, but India's sons can never learn the sentiment and experi- ence which Dryden's line thus expresses till the daughters of India receive the Christianity which alone can cultivate their minds and CHRISTIAmTT ALONE CREATES HCME. S7 hearts, and take under its divine guardianship their sacred mission in India, as in America, to " Give to social man true relish of himself." The men of India have never known v^^oman's high power as "a helpmeet " in mind, heart, social life, or usefulness, and until they do they cannot enjoy the blessed home which only honored and elevated women can create. If there be any one thing, short of salvation, in which America and India contrast each other most vividly, it is woman's high posi- tion in her home, and man's consequent happiness resulting there- from — as wife, living for the husband whom she loves ; as mother, making her abode a nursery for the Eden on high ; the friend and patron of all that is lovely, virtuous, and of good report ; her plas- tic influence of mind and heart and character molding those within her sphere into sympathy with her own goodness, while she thus sweetly " Allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way." In presence of this excellence — and, thank Heaven ! Christianity has thousands such — every thing beautiful on earth brightens. The holiest and happiest men in this world bask in this blessed social sunshine, and are led by it to the contemplation and earnest hope of those " better things " which it typifies ; their sanctified domestic joy becoming a sign and promise of the felicity that will be endless when they come to realize at last what they so often sing below — "My heavenly home is bright and fair." The food and manner of eating is quite Oriental, with the pecul- iarity on the part of the stricter Brahminical caste that they never touch flesh of any kind ; but the rich variety of fruits and vegeta- bles, and other products of the field and garden, with milk, butter, etc., enables hem to enjoy a full variety. The favorite dish of India is the curry," and natives and foreigners alike seem to agree that it is the king of all dishes. If it was not the " savory meat" that Isaac loved, the latter was probably very like it; but 58 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. the dish itself is never equal, in piquancy and aroma, out of India to what you receive there. The eating is done without the aid of knives or forks, the fingers alone being used. This is the mode for all, no matter how high or wealthy. The writer saw the Emperor of Delhi take his food in this way. When they have fin- ished, a servant lays down a brass basin before them and pours water on their hands, and presents a towel to wipe them, remind- ing one of Elisha "pouring water on the hands of Elijah," acting as his attendant in honor of the man of God. The amusements of the India aristocracy are very limited. The enervation of the climate may have something to do with this, but it is probably more due to a want of that developed manliness and self-assertion which belongs only to a higher civilization. They hardly ever think of going out hunting, or fishing, or fowling. Of the chase they know nothing, and I presume there is not one base-ball club in the country ; gymnastic exercises they never take, their music is barbarous, and they do not play. When a feast or marriage requires entertainment they hire professional musicians, dancers, jugglers, or players to perform before their guests, but take no part whatever personally. Operas and theaters and pro- miscuous dancing they hold in abhorrence, as too immoral for them or their families to witness. They are fond of formal calls upon their equals, or social and civil superiors, and like display and exhibitions of their standing and wealth. They are regularly scientific in the art of taking their ease, being bathed and sham- pooed, fanned to sleep and while asleep. They love to be deco- rated with dress and jewelry, enjoy frequent siestas, and divide the remainder of their leisure time in the society of women whom they choose to entertain in their zenanas ; but of public spirit and efforts, disinterested devotion to the welfare of others, intellectual enjoyments, the culture and training of their children's minds or morals, or the exalting influence of communion with a refined and intelligent wife or mother, they know but little or nothing, because they are utter strangers to the inspiration of the holy religion whose fruits these joys and virtues are. THEIB VISITS OF CEREMONY. 59 When they undertake to pay a visit of ceremony it is, to oiu i^iews, very singular what form and punctiliousness they deem to be indispensable. The whole establishment seems turned out for the purpose, for the larger the " following " so much the more you are expected to be impressed with the standing and dig- nity of the great man who has come to honor you with his call. An outrunner or two reaches your door in advance, and announces the master's approach ; then come an armed squad, and his confi- dential servant, or " vakeel," and behind them the great man him- self on his elephant, or in his palanquin ; another crowd of retain- ers bring up the rear, the whole train numbering from thirty to sixty persons, or even more. Often, as I have looked at them, have I been reminded of the figure in the Revelations, where the blessed dead are represented as accompanied on their way into the kingdom of heaven by the escort of the good deeds of their faithful lives, which rise up to accompany them as so many evidences of their devotion to God — " Their works do follow them." The inter view is merely a ceremony. The lady of the house is not expected to make her appearance ; but where the visit is to a missionary family the lady generally does show herself, and, joining in the conversation, watches the opportunity to say a word for the truth of the Gospel. The native gentleman is evidently amazed, though he conceals it as well as he can, at her intelligence and her self- possession in the presence of another man than her husband, so unlike the prejudices that fill his mind about the female members of his own household. No doubt, amazing are the descriptions he carries home of what he has seen and heard on such an occasion. But it is in connection with " durbars," governmental levees and marriage festivals, that the whole force of the native passion for parade and ostentation develops itself As a sample : At the dur- bar some time ago in the Punjab, Diahn Singh, one of the nobles, came mounted on a large Persian horse, which curveted and pranced about as though proud of his rider. The bridle and sad- dle were covered with gold embroidery, and underneath was a saddle-cloth of silver tissue, with a broad fringe of the same mate- 6o TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. rial, which nearly covered the animal. The legs and tail of the horse were dyed red — the former up to the knees, and the latter half-way to the haunches — an emblem, well understood b} the crowd, of the number of enemies which this military chief was supposed to have killed in battle, and that their blood had covered his horse thus far. The chief himself was dressed with the utmost magnificence, loaded with jewels, which hung, row upon row, round his neck, in his turban, on the hilt of his sword and dagger, and over his dress generally, while a bright cuirass shone resplendent on his breast. Add to this a face and person hand- some and majestic, and you have the man as he delighted to be seen on the occasion. But even this was outdone a few months ago on the occasion of the visit of one of Queen Victoria's sons, the Duke of Edinburgh, to India. A part of the pageant was the procession of elephants. These animals, one hundred and seventy in number, and the finest in size and appearance in India, were each decorated in the richest housings, and ridden by the Nawabs and Rajahs who owned them, each trying hard to outvie the other. Perhaps the Maharajah of Putteallah carried off the palm. The housings of his immense elephant were of such extraordinary richness that they were covered with gold and jewels. The Maharajah, who rode on him, wore a robe of black satin embroidered with pearls and emer- alds. The hozvdah — seat on the elephant's back — in which the Rajah of Kuppoorthullah sat, was roofed with a triple dome made of solid silver. This passion of ostentation and show breaks over all bounds on the occasion of their marriage ceremonies, and is permitted to know no limit but their means, nor sometimes even that. Sleeman nar- rates of the Rajah of Bullubghur — whom the writer saw in such different circumstances twenty years after these events, on trial for his life in the Dewanee Khass of Delhi, in 1857, as will be 'scribed hereafter — that on the occasion of his marriage in 1838 tuc young chief mustered a cortege of sixty elephants and ten tuousand fol- lowers to attend him. He was accompanied by the chiefs of MARRIAGE EXPENSE. 63 Ludora and Putteallah, with forty more elephants, and five thou- sand people. It was considered necessary to the dignity of the occasion that the bridegroom's party should expend at least six hundred thou- sand rupees — $300,000 gold — during the festival. A large part of this sum was to be distributed freely in the procession ; so it was loaded on elephants, and persons were appointed to fling it among the crowds as the cavalcade passed on its way. They scattered copper money all along the road from their home till within seven miles of Bullubghur. From this point to the gate of the fort they scattered silver, and from the gate of the fort to the door of the palace they scattered gold and jewels. The son of the Putteallah chief, a lad of about ten years, had the post of honor in the distribution. He sat on his elephant, and beside him was a bag of gold mohurs — each mohur is worth eight dollars gold — mixed up with an immense variety of gold ear-rings, pearls, and precious stones. His turn for scattering began as they neared the palace door. Seeing some European gentlemen, who had come to look at the procession, standing on the balcony, the little chief thought they should have their share, so he heaved up vigorously several handfuls of the pearls, mohurs, and jewels, as he passed them. Not one of them, of course, would condescend to stoop to take up any, but the servants in attendance upon them showed no such dignified forbearance. The costs of the family of the bride are always much greater than that of the bridegroom. They are obliged to entertain, at their own expense, all the bridegroom's guests which go with him for his bride, as well as their own, as long as they remain. From this running description of the superficial, self-glorifying, and aimless lives which these men follow, the reader may easily imagine what must be the condition of their minds, their morals, and their characters. The Mohammedans, a picture of whom we present here, are a moie energetic people than the Hindoos. Their aspect is haughty and intolerant, and in meeting them you are under no liability to 64 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. mistake them for the milder race whom they have so long crushed down and ruled. They are descended from original Asiatics of Persia, Arabia, etc., while the Hindoos are of western stock. " The. natives of India attach far more weight to form and cere- mony than do Europeans. It is considered highly disrespectful to use the left hand in salutation or in eating, or, in fact, on any other occasion when it can be avoided. To remove the turban is disre- spectful ; and still more so not to put off the shoes on entering a strange house. Natives, when they make calls, never rise to go till they are dismissed, which among Mohammedans is done by giving betel and sprinkling rose essence, and with Hindoos by hanging wreaths of flowers around the visitor's neck, at least on great occa- sions. Discourteous Englishmen are apt to cut short a long visit hy sdiymg Ab jao — 'Now go!' than which nothing can be more offensive. The best way is to say, ' Come and see me again soon,' or, ' Always make a practice of visiting my house,' which will be speedily understood. Or to one much inferior you may say, Rtikhsat lena — ' Leave to go,' or, better, Riikhsat lijiye — ' Please to take leave.' A letter closed by moistening the wafer or the gum with the saliva of the mouth should not be given to a native. The feet must not be put upon a chair occupied by them, nor must the feet be raised so as to present the soles to them. One must avoid touching them as much as possible, especially their beards, which is a gross insult. If it can be avoided, it is better not to give a native three of any thing. Inquiries are never made after the female relations of a man. If they are mentioned at all it must be as 'house.' 'Is your house well.''' that is, 'Is your wife well?' There are innumerable observances to avoid the evil eye ; and many expressions seemingly contradictory are adopted for this pur- pose. Thus, instead of our ' Take away,' it is proper to say, ' Set on more ;' and for ' I heard you were sick,' ' I heard your enemies were sick.' With Mohammedans of rank it is better not to express admiration of any thing they possess, as they will certainly offer it ; in case of acceptance they would expect something of more value in return. To approach a Hindoo of high caste while at his meal is MANNERS OF THE HINDOOS. 6^ to deprive him of his dinner ; to drink out of his cup may deprive him of his caste, or seriously compromise him with his caste-fellows. Leather is an abomination to Hindoos ; as is every thing made from the pig, as a riding-saddle, to the Moslem. When natives of a different rank are present you must be careful not to allow those to sit whose rank does not entitle them, and to give each his proper place." — Murray's Handbook. Such are the people of that land toward whom for ages the atten- tion of outside nations has been directed with so much interest. We will now consider briefly their composition and numbers, and some of those singular chronological, historical, and religious views which they have entertained so tenaciously, and so long. 66 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. CHAPTER II. STATISTICS, MYTHOLOGY, AND VEDIC LITERATURE. EVEN among educated men there is a very inadequate idea of what India really is. It is spoken of as though it were one country, with one language and one race of men, just as per- sons would speak of England or France ; whereas India ought to be regarded as a number of nations, speaking twenty-three differ- ent languages, and devoted to various faiths and forms of civilization. During the long period from the time of William the Conqueror till Clive fought the battle of Plassey in 1756, the Hindoos and Mohammedans maintained their diversity, and were as far from any unity or amalgamation when England entered the country, as they were when Mahmoud of Ghizni conquered Delhi. While the nations of Europe tended to unity, and fused their tribes and clans into homogeneous people, who gloried in a common faith and father- land, these millions of hostile men have retained the sharp outlines of race, religion, language, and nationality as distinctly as ever. The diversity of race is shown in the Coles, the Jats, the San- thals, the Tartars, the Shanars, the Mairs, the Karens, the Affghans. the Paharees, the Bheels ; in religion, we have the Mohammedans, the Hindoos, the Buddhists, the Jains, the Parsees, the Pagans, and the Christians. While in nationality, there are the Bengalese, the Rohillas, the Burmans, the Mahrattas, the Seikhs, the Telugoos the Karens, and many others. India is thus, in fact, a congregation of nations, a crowd of civilizations, customs, languages, and types of humanity, thrown together, with no tendency to homogeneity, until an external civili- zation and a foreign faith shall make unity and common interest possible by educating and Christianizing them. In regard to the real numbers of these wonderful people we are CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF INDIA. 67 now able, from a census taken by the English Government last year, and also from Missionary Reports and other authorities, to furnish reliable civil and religious statistics of the Indian Empire. A few items are approximations, but they come as near to accuracy as is now necessary, India has an area of 1,577,698 square miles. It is nearly 2,000 miles from North to South, and 1,900 miles from East to West. The country is divided into 221 British Districts, and 153 Feudatory States, with a population of 212,671,621 souls. The average density of this population to the square mile is 135 persons. But in Oude and Rohilcund (the mission field of the Methodist Episcopal Church) the density is 474 and 361 respect- ively, and is therefore probably the most compact population in the world. England has 367, and the United States only 26, persons to the square mile. As to race, this vast multitude of men are divided as follows : The English army 58,000 Europeans and Americans (civil, mercantile, and missionary life). . 89,585 Eurasians (the mixed races) 40, 789 A.siatics 212,483,247 In religion the native population are distributed, as nearly as we can approximate them, into Parsees (followers of Zoroaster) 1 50,000 Jains (Heterodox Buddhists) 400,000 Syrian and Armenian Christians 140,000 Protestants (attendants on Worship) 350,000 Roman Catholics (attendants on Worship) 760,000* Karens (in British Burmah) 500,000 Seikhs (in the Punjab) 2,000.000 Buddhists (in British Burmah and Ceylon) 3,280,000 Aborigines, and undefined 1 1,000,000 Mohammedans 30,000,000 Hindoos 165,000,000 *■ The Roman Catholic Bishop of Madras in 1869 estimated the whole number of native Romanists in their communion at 760,623, supervised by the Bishops, and 734 priests, in addition to 124,000 with 128 priests under the jurisdiction of the almost schismatic and Portuguese Archbishop of Goa. But Dr. George Smith, one of the highest authorities on India statistics, regards these figures as unworthy of trust, and sets down the numbers for both as not over 700,000. — Friend of I?tdia, May 10, 187 1, P- 554- 68 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. There are a few Jews, Chinese, Portuguese, French, Armenians, Nestorians, and others in the country, but of these we make no account here. The vastness of this wonderful country may be further illustrated by the amazing number of languages spoken throughout its wide extent ; and these are living languages, separate and distinct from each other, so that even the characters of their alphabets have no more similarity than the Greek letter has to the Roman. Nor do I include dialects of tongues, or languages of hmited and local use, but those which are well known and extensively employed. Of such there are not less than twenty-three spoken in the various provinces of India. They are I. The Urdu, (the Hindustanee proper,) the French of India, the language of the Mohammedans, of trade, etc. ; spoken in Oude and Rohilcund, the Doab, and by traders generally ; 2. The Bengalee, spoken in Bengal and eastward ; 3. The Hvidee, used in Oude, Rohilcund, Rajpootana, Bundlecund, and Malwa by the agricultural Hindoos, etc. ; 4. The Punjabee, in the great Indus valley ; 5. The Pushtoo, in Peshawar and the far West ; 6. The Sindhee, in the Cis-Sutlej States and Sinde ; 7. The Gnzerattee, in Guzerat, and by the Parsees ; 8. The Qitchee, in Cutch ; 9. The Cashineriaji, in Cashmere; 10. The Nepatilese, in Nepaul ; ir. The Bhote, in Bootan ; 12. The Assamese, in Assam; 13, 14. The Burmese and Karen, in Burmah and Pegu; 15. The Singhalese, in Ceylon; 16. The Malayalhn, in Travencore and Cochin; 17. The Ta^nnl, from Madras to Cape Comorin ; 18. The Canarese, in Mysore and Coorg ; 19. The Teloogoo, in Hydrabad, and thence to the East Shore ; 20. The Oorya, in Orissa ; 21. The Cole and Gond, in Berar; 22. The Mahratta, in Bombay, Nagpore, and Gwalior ; and 23. The Khassiya, in the North-east. Add the English, and there are ttventy-foiir living languages extensively spoken in India to-day! Nor is this all : the great classics of the leading tongues, the ancient and venerable Pali, the Sanscrit, the Persian, and the Arabic are studied and used by the scholarship of India, because they hold in their charge the venerable treasures of their volumi- GREATNESS OF INDIA. 69 nous literature, and are as important to their faiths as sacred Greek is to Christianity. Compare India with Europe, leaving out Russia, and she has more States, languages, and people. The principal tongues of Europe are the English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, Russ, Polish, Turkish, Greek, Dutch, Danish, Swede, Norwegian, and Finn — 15, There were (according to the Census of 1861) in Europe 52 States, 15 languages, and 198,014,432 people ; but, in India, there are 374 States, 23 languages, and 212,483,247 people. Giving India more States, more languages, and more pop- ulation than all the great Western nations combined ! To understand what India is, and what was the force and impor- tance of her great Sepoy Rebellion, and what is likely to be her relation to Christianity, and to the magnificent future which awaits her Hemisphere, the reader needs to understand and bear these facts in mind. Of course, such a people are not destitute of national conceit. Indeed, the Hindoos hold up their heads with a sovereign sense of superiority above all other people on the earth. Admit their claims, and their system of chronology, and the assumptions of their history, and all other nations must hang their heads as mod- ern novelties, and bow down in humility in the presence of a civili- zation of divine origin and a venerable aristocracy that counts its life and honors by millions of years ! No Hindoo doubts but that his country is, or has been, the fount of all the blessings which have spread over the world, and in this rich conceit they hold it as a maxim that That is. " Min-as-shark talata ba kudrat ar-rahman, Anwar-ud-din wa al-ilm, wa al-umran." " From the East, by the power of the Merciful One, Lights of Science, Religion, and Culture have shone." The nam^ India is apparently derived from the river Indus, and may have originated in the fact that that river divided this then unknown land from Persia and the world of ancient classical litera- ture. The country is called in Sanscrit Bharatktmd, from a 70 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. dynasty of ancient kings ; Punya Dlitmna, " The Holy Land," and also Djam-bhu-dwip, the " Peninsula of the Tree of Life." The trade of India is immense. The Imports are cotton cloth, jewelry, watches, stationery, hardware, metals, salt, silk, books, woolens, American ice, bullion, etc., etc. ; and the Exports are coffee, tea, raw cotton, (in 1861 to England alone 3,295,000 cwt., producing tlicre ^47,500,000,) indigo, opium, (^50,000,000 annually,) saltpeter, jute, seeds, sugar, wool, (23,432,689 lbs. in 1865,) rice, raw silk, ivory, lac, oils, etc. The balance of trade is in favor of India, and the difference has to be paid in cash ; so that the specie of England, Germany, and America is drained off to the East, and wealthy India grows richer all the time on a foreign commerce which has now risen to ^577,000,000 (gold) per annum. The tonnage is at present 4,268,666 tons, and the revenue $249,646,040, which is only about i^i 18 per head — an easier rate of taxation than is levied upon its people by any other civilized Government, while the pro- portion of the revenue spent on the Administration itself is equally economical. Deduct the annual charges for roads and bridges, police, jails, and courts of justice, education, canals, reservoirs, and irrigation, army, navy, telegraphs, public works, interest on Gov- ernment securities, and it seems remarkable that the scanty remainder could meet all the charges of the Administration. The Hindoos well know that they were never so well and so cheaply governed as they are now. Their own testimony to this fact will be presented further on. If it were not for the extent to which the cultivated land is almost exclusively made to bear the burden, with its uncertain tenure, (though this is the practice in most Oriental Governments,) and the growth and sale of that vile opium, there would be little now to rebuke in the government of British India. Yet none are more earnest than some of the English themselves for the abolition of this reproach upon their fair fame. There are seven railroads now running in different parts of the country, with an entire extent of 4,039 miles, and the total traffic receipts of which for the week ending April 22, 1871, was ;^140,220 iij". 4^., or $701,102, gold. Other lines are in process ENGLISH EMPIRE. 7 1 of construction. The telegraphs, i4,ocK) miles long, run all through India, while roads as feeders to the railways are being made over the land. But all has been done or furthered by the Government, and the whole has been accomplished during the past fifteen years. The wealth of India has been proverbial since the time of Solo- mon, who imported therefrom his " ivory, apes, and peacocks." It has also seemed to be inexhaustible. From the earliest antiquity, the merchants of Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Egypt sought to enrich themselves by her commerce ; and when Europe awoke from her sleep of ages, and entered upon her career of improvement, her first efforts were directed toward gaining a share of the trade of the East. England, at length, entered the field, and soon out- stripped all her rivals, Dutch, Portuguese, and French. Agreeably to the policy of the times, the East India Company was chartered by Queen Elizabeth, and vested with the monopoly of the com- merce of the East. And advancing by a steady progress, this giant Company, under the patronage of the Imperial power, at length held and governed, or protected, all that immense region. A leading American journal very justly remarked on this sub- ject, at the time of the great Sepoy Rebellion, that " the achieve- ments by which these stupendous results have been effected are among the marvelous realities of history, compared with which the tales of romance are tame and spiritless. In future times they will, perhaps, constitute the most deeply-interesting portion of the history of our age. We believe that in the present troubles the cause of Great Britain, notwithstanding the many and grave abuses which have been practiced or tolerated by the East India Com- pany, is nevertheless the cause of humanity and Christian civiliza- tion. It is this fact, no doubt, which has awakened no small share of the fierce invectives against the proceedings of the English in India. For a long time that region has been the field of an exten- sive and successful missionary enterprise, to which the British rulers have extended, at least, a protection from Hindoo and Mos- lem violence, and so afforded an opportunity for the free exercise of Christian philanthropy. This is, doubtless, the head and front 72 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. of their offending in the minds of many of those who are loudest in their outcries against British cruelty and reckless ambition. We are v.ry far from approving all that has been done by British agents in India, but we are equally clearly convinced that it is much more for their good deeds than their faults that they are most intensely disliked." Any man who has resided in India, and known the condition of the people and the actions of that Government in regard to them, and the encouragement extended to efforts for the welfare of the natives, especially of late years, will be prepared to accept these words as a fair, and yet generous, statement of the situation. The position of England in India was a very peculiar one, and, in all candor, should be clearly understood before forming an opinion upon the merits of the case. For instance, in India there is no such thing as patriotism, no capability of self-government. If the English rule were withdrawn to-morrow, the last thing the natives would think of would be to unite and form a general Govern- ment. Each Rajah and Nawab would simply set up for himself, hold all he had, and take all he was able to seize. Then would begin a renewal of those religious and national contentions which form such a sad part of India's history, and the bloody exercise of which Britain terminated when she took control of the country, ever since holding the peace between those hostile elements. The natives, especially the more military races, caring little for love of country, are willing to fight for compensation, and to serve any master ; so they were found very ready to wear the livery of England, to bear her weapons, and receive her pay. These men were called " Sepoys," (the Hindustanee for soldier,) each regiment being officered by English gentlemen. By degrees this force rose up to be an immense power, so that in 1856, there were two hun- dred thousand of them, constituting the regular Sepoy army, besides as many more called " Contingents," maintained by native courts under treaty, having English officers in command. Then there were the armed police ; making altogether a force of about VALUE OF INDIA TO ENQLAKD. 73 four hundred thousand trained men, with the best weapons of England in their hands. The total of British troops in all India in 1856 was not much over forty thousand, and they were scattered on the frontier and in a few of the leading cities, seldom more than one regiment in a place, and sometimes only half a regiment. By degrees the Sepoy army, especially that of Bengal, became what might be called " a close service," a high caste Brahminical force, to whose notions constant concessions were made by the Government. They were a fine body of men, invincible to any thing in the East so long as they were led by their English offi- cers, these officers and their ladies and children being afterward the first victims of the Rebellion. The Sepoys were utterly unedu- cated, as superstitious as they were ignorant, and entirely under the control of their Fakirs and Priests. This weak-minded and fanatical body of men had won for England her Oriental empire, and she chiefly relied on them for its defense and preservation. She could well do so, as long as they were faithful to her rule, but not a day longer. By degrees her policy changed, and, instead of maintaining a mixed army of all castes and creeds and nationali- ties, the " Bengal Army," as it was called, grew more and more Brahminical, united, and fanatical. It has been asked. Why did not England let India go when she threw off her allegiance, and free herself from the care and risk of governing a people who thus disdained her rule .'* Two answers may be given to this question. One would be the secular reason of men who valued India for what she was to England in the way of profit and power. Millions of British money were invested in the funds and reproductive works of India ; then, there was the vast, increasing, and lucrative market for English goods, one item alone of which will express its importance. The clothing of the Hindoo is not very voluminous, yet, what a business was it for Lancashire to have the right to supply cotton cloth for one sixth of the human family! But, besides the merchant and the manufac- turer, the politician, the military and the educated man had a deep 74 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. interest in the retention of this "brightest jewel of the British crown," for here was furnished the most splendid patronage that ever lay in the gift of a statesman. Hundreds of the cultured classes of England had careers of position and emolument as civil servants of the Government, under "covenants" that secured them munificent compensation, and which enabled them, when their legal term of service expired, to retire on pensions equal to about one half their splendid pay ; so that Montgomery Martin estimates that the money remittances to Great Britain from India averaged five million sterling ($25,000,000) per annum for the past sixty years. Landed property in England has been largely enhanced in value by the investments of fortunes, the fruit of civil, military, and commercial success in Hindustan. A nation con- trolling the resources of such a dependency, with such a noble field in which to elicit and educate the genius of its youth and display the ability of its commanders, with the profitable employ- ment of its mercantile shipping in the boundless imports and exports of such a country as India, could not lightly resign, or throw it away without a mighty struggle for its retention. But, the man who would present no further reasons than these for British resolution to keep India in its control, would do injus- tice to the better section of English society, and to many of her noble representatives in the East. There is another and a better reason than what was measured by the pounds, shillings, and pence of mere worldly men, underlying the determination of England in this matter. The Christians of Britain hold firmly that, the Ruler of heaven and earth, in so wonderfully subjecting that great people to their rule, has done so for a higher than secu- lar pu'-pose ; that he has given them a moral and evangelical mission to fulfill in that land for him ; and that it is their high and solemn duty to maintain that responsibihty until, by education and Chris- tianity, they shall attach those millions by the tie of a common creed to the English throne, or fit them for assuming for themselves the responsibilities of self-government. For such men Montgomery Martin (one of their most voluminous Oriental writers) speaks THE HIGUER MOTIVES FOR ENOLISH RULE. 7$ ivhen, in his last edition of his " Indian Empire," (4 vols, octavo,) dedicated by permission to the British Queen, he so distinctly declares to his Government and countrymen their high accounta- bility before God and man in this respect, when he asks, "On what principle is the future government of India to be based ? Are we simply to do what is right, or what seems expedient ? If the for- mer, we may confidently ask the Divine blessing on our efforts for the moral and material welfare of the people of India, and we may strive, by a steady course of kind and righteous dealing, to win their alienated affections for ourselves as individuals, and their respect and interest for the religion which inculcates justice, mercy, and humility as equally indispensable to national as to indi- vidual Christianity." Those who know India best, know that I speak the truth when 1 assert, that these words are represented by deeds as honorable in the lives, and devotion to India's welfare, of many of the men who represent Great Britain there. I do not know a community of public men where you can find a greater number of " the excellent of the earth," than among the civil and military officers of England ill India; men who have stood up for Jesus and for humanity, loving the poor, degraded race whom they ruled, and pleading, toiling, and giving munificently for their elevation to a better con- dition. Such names as Bentinck, Lawrence, Herbert Edwards, Havelock, Muir, Tucker, Ramsay, Gowan, Durand, and scores of others, amply justify this statement. The Annual Missionary Reports of the Methodist Episcopal Church (and this is equally true of the other missions as well) bear witness to this fact for many years past. During that time, such was the sympathy for the work which we attempted, in helping them to educate and enlighten the people of our own mission field, that noble-hearted Englishmen in all stations of life, from the Governor-General down to the pri- vate soldier, have aided us as freely as though we were of their own nation or Church, so that their contributions since 1857 will be found to aggregate over 1^150,000 in gold to our mission alone ; while this assistance is all the time increasing, and is ^6 TEE LAND OF THE VELA. also equally extended by these good men to the missions of any Church or nation which goes there, and whose labors are aiming to elevate the benighted natives, and prepare them by education and a public conscience for self-government. The Hindoo Chronology and division of time are very singu- lar, and even whimsical. They hold to four great Ages of the world, called Yiigs. Each of these Yugs is inferior to its imme- mediate predecessor in power, virtue, and happiness. These rlivisions are denominated the Satya, the Treta, the Dwarper, and the Kali Yugs, whose united length amounts to the pro- digious sum of 4,320,000 years ; yet this sum of the Ages is but a Kalpa, or one " Day of Brahma," at the end of which this sleepy deity wakes up to find the universe destroyed, and which he has then to create anew for another " Day " ere he goes to sleep again. The Satya Vug, they tell us, lasted 1,728,000 years, and was the Age of Truth — the Golden Age — during which the whole race was virtuous, and lived each of them 100,000 years, and men attained the stature of "21 cubits" (37 feet) in height! The Treta Yug \a.sted 1,296,000 years ; this was the Silver Age, (using the same figures as the Greek and Roman poets,) during which one third of the race became corrupt, the human stature was lowered, and its life shortened to 10,000 years. The Dwarper Yug extended to only 864,000 years — their Brazen Age — when fully one half of the race degenerated, and their height was again reduced, and their lives shortened to 1,000 years each. The Kali Yiig is the one in which we now live, and is regarded by them as the last — the Iron Age — in which mankind has become totally depraved, and their stature further reduced, and their life limited to 100 years. This Yug, according to them, began 4,950 years ago, and is to last exactly 427,050 years longer, which will close this Kalpa, or " Day of Brahma." They assert that one patriarch called Satyavrata, or Vaivaswata, had an existence running the whole period of the Satya Yug, MAPPING OUT ETERNITY. 77 (1,728,000 years !) and that he escaped with his family from a uni- versal deluge, which destroyed the rest of mankind. He is regarded by Indian archaeologists as the same person as the Seventh Menu, and by Colonel Tod, in his " Annals of Rajasthan," as designating the patriarch of mankind, Noah. The "Night of Brahma" is held to be of equal length with his " Day," and that in the life of Brahma there are 36,000 such nights and days. At the end of each " Day" there is a partial destruction of the universe, and a reconstruction of it at the close of each "Night." During that long night, "sun, moon, and stars are shrouded in gloom ; ceaseless torrents of rain pour down ; the waves of the ocean, agitated with mighty tempests, rise to a pro- digious height — the seven lower worlds, as well as this earth, are all submerged. In the midst of this darkness and ruin, and in the center of this tremendous abyss, Brahma reposes in mysterious slumber upon the serpent Ananta, or eternity. Meanwhile the wicked inhabitants of all worlds utterly perish. At length the long night ends, Brahma awakes, the darkness is instantly dis- pelled, and the universe returns to its pristine order and beauty." This amazing chronology further states, that when these 36,000 "days" and "nights" (each of them 4,320,000 solar years in dura- tion) have run their course, Brahma himself shall then expire, amid the utter annihilation of the universe, or its absorption into the essence of Brahm. This they call a Maha Pralaya, or great destruction. After this, Brahm, (the original spirit,) who had reposed during the whole duration of the creation's existence, awakes again, and from him another manifestation of the universe takes place, all things being reproduced as before, and Brahma, the Creator, commences a new existence. Each creation is co- extensive with the life of Brahma, and lasts over three hundred billions of years, (311,040,000,000 years,) and the people of India believe tliat thus it has been during the past eternity, and thus it will continue to be in the eternity to come, an alternating succes- sion of manifestations and annihilations of the universe at regular intervals of this inconceivable length. Truly does Wheeler call 73 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. this daring reckoning " a bold attempt of the Brahmins to map otit eternity !'^ Trevor has remarked that the present age (the KaU Yug) being 432,000 years, the other three Yugs are found simply by multiply- ing that number by 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The number itself is the tithe of the sum total of the four Yugs. The "divine year," being computed like the prophetic, at a year for a day, (counting 360 days to the year,) is equal to 360 ordinary years ; and these, multiplied by the perfect number 12,000, makes 4,320,000 years, the sum of the Ages, and a Kalpa, or " Day of Brahma." Trevor supposes, that as this chronologic scheme is too absurd for reception, it must have been originally designed as a sort of arith- metical allegory, expressing the chai-acter, rather than the duration, of the periods referred to ; while the descending ratios of 100,000, 10,000, 1,000, and 100 may indicate only the gradual shortening of the term of human life since the creation of man, as the correspond- ing proportions of the virtuous and vicious denote the spread of moral evil, till in the present age " they are altogether become filthy." This theory I leave to the learned reader, having intro- duced the topic chiefly to illustrate the mental characteristics of the people of India, and to show into what vagaries the human intellect, albeit cultivated and subtile, can be drawn in the day- dreams of a people on whom the light of Revelation never dawned. *' Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Their divisions of time are singular: 18 Mimeshas (twinkling of an eye, the standard of measure) are equal to i Kashta ; 30 Kash- tas to I Kala ; 30 Kalas (48 of our minutes) to i Muhurtta ; 30 Muhurttas to i day and night ; i Month of Men to i day and night of the Pitris, (ancestors ;) i Year of Men to i day and night of the Gods. The Hindoos have four watches of the day, and the same at night ; these are called PaJiars, and are three hours long, the first commencing at six o'clock in the morning. The day and night together are also divided into sixty smaller portions, called Ghurees, so that each of the eight Pahars consists of seven and a half Ghurees. They have twelve months in the year, each month MEASURINO TIME. 79 having thirty days. Half the month, when the moon shines, is called Oojeeala-pakh, and the other half, which is dark, they call Andhera-piikh, and these distinctions they recognize in writing and dating their letters. They reckon their era from the reign of IJikurmaditt, one of their greatest and best kings, the present year of their era being 1934. The Mohammedans date their era from the Hejira, or flight of Mohammed from Mecca, which took place in A. D. 622 ; this is therefore their 1249th year. I saw a very primitive method of measuring time, or ascertaining the "ghuree," in India. It was a small brass cup, with a hole in the bottom, immersed in a pan of water, and watched by a servant. When the cup sinks from the quantity of water its perforation has admitted the ghiiree'is completed, and the cup is again placed empty on the top of the water to measure the succeeding gJmree. Great attention is, of course, required to preserve any moderate degree of correctness by this imperfect mode of marking the progress of the day and night, and establishments are purposely entertained for it when considered as a necessary appendage of rank. In most other cases, the superior convenience and certainty of our clocks and watches are making considerable strides in superseding the Hindustanee gJuiree. A brief glimpse at the wonderful Mythology, Geography, and Astronomy of these people will be expected here, as also some notice of their venerable Vedas and their voluminous literature. Their " Sacred Books " gravely teach as follows : " The worlds above this earth are peopled with gods and god- desses, demi-gods and genii — the sons and grandsons, daughters and granddaughters, of Brahma and other superior deities. All the superior gods have separate heavens for themselves. The inferior deities dwell chiefly in the heaven of Indra, the god of the firma- ment. There they congregate to the number of three hundred and thirty millions. The gods are divided and subdivided into classes or hierarchies, which vary through every conceivable gradation of rank and power. They are of ail colors : some black, some white, some red, some blue, and so through all the blending shades of the 8o THE LAND OF THE VEDA. rainbow. They exhibit all sorts of shape, size, and figure : in forms wholly human or half human, wholly brutal or vari(nisly compounded, like many-headed and many-bodied centaurs, with four, or ten, or a hundred or a thousand eyes, heads, and arms. They ride through the regions of space on all sorts of etherealized animals : elephants, buf- faloes, lions, deer, sheep, goats, peacocks, vultures, geese, serpents, and rats ! They hold forth in their multitudinous arms all manner of offensive and defensive weapons : thunderbolts, scimetars, javelins, spears, clubs, bows, arrows, shields, flags, and shells ! They dis- charge all possible functions. There are gods of the heavens above, and of the earth below, and of the regions under the earth ; gods of wisdom and of folly ; gods of war and of peace ; gods of good and of evil ; gods of pleasure, who delight to shed around their votaries the fragrance of harmony and joy ; gods of cruelty and wrath, whose thirst must be satiated with torrents of blood, and whose ears must be regaled with the shrieks and agonies of expiring victims. All the virtues and the vices of man, all the allotments of life — beauty, jollity, and sport, the hopes and fears of youth, the felicities and infelicities of manhood, the joys and sor- rows of old age — all, all are placed under the presiding influence of superior powers." — Duff's India. The Geography and Astronomy of the Hindoos are on a par with their Theology. It would be a waste of time and patience to crowd these pages with their wild, ridiculous, and unscientific nonsense upon these topics. Yet it may be a duty to say some- thing in order to convey a general idea of the subject to such per- sons as have not made their system a study. Dr. Duff has had the patience to epitomize it ; and from him we quote a passage or two, which the reader will deem to be all sufficient, and which he may be assured is only a sample of the monstrous extravagances of Hindoo "science," falsely so called. Speaking of the constitution of the physical universe, as revealed in the Sacred Books of the Brahmins, he says : " It is partitioned mio fourteen worlds — seven inferior, or below the world which we inhabit, and seven superior, consisting — with the exception of our HINDOO GEOGRAPHY. 8 1 own, which is the first— of immense tracts of space, bestudded ivith glorious luminaries and habitations of the Gods, rising, not anlike the rings of Saturn, one above the other, as so many concen trie zones or belts of almost immeasurable extent. " Of the seven inferior worlds which dip beneath our earth in a legular descending series, it is needless to say more than that they are destined to be the abodes of all manner of wicked and loath- some creatures. " Our own earth, the first of the ascending series of worlds, is declared to be ' circular or flat, like the flower of the water-lily, in which the petals project beyond each other.' Its habitable portion consists of seven circular islands or continents, each surrounded by a different ocean. The central or metropolitan island, destined to be the abode of man, is named Jamba Dwip,^ around which rolls the sea of salt water ; next follows the second circular island, and around it the sea of sugar-cane juice ; then the third, and around it the sea of spirituous liquors ; then the fourth, and around it the sea of clarified butter ; then the fifth, and around it the sea of sour curds ; then the sixth, and around it the sea of milk ; then the sev- enth and last, and around it the sea of sweet water. Beyond this last ocean is an uninhabited country of pure gold, so prodigious in extent that it equals all the islands, with their accompanying oceans, in magnitude. It is begirt with a bounding wall of stupendous mountains, which inclose within their bosom realms of everlasting darkness. " The central island, the destined habitation of the human race, is severa. hundred thousand miles in diameter, and the sea that surrounds it is of the same breadth. The second island is double the diameter of the first, and so is the sea that surrounds it. And each of the remaining islands and seas, in succession, is double the breadth of its immediate predecessor ; so that the diameter of the whole earth amounts to several hundred thousand millions of miles — occupying a portion of space of manifold larger dimensions than Ihat which actually intervenes between the earth and the sun ! Yea. far beyond this ; for, if we could form a conception of a circu- 82 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. lar mass of solid matter whose diameter exceeded that of the orbit of Herschel, the most distant planet in our solar system, such a mass would not equal in magnitude the Earth of the Hindoo Mythologists ! " In the midst of this almost immeasurable plain, from the very center of Jamba Dwip, shoots up the loftiest of mountains, Su-Meru, to the height of several hundred thousand miles, in the form of an inverted pyramid, having its summit, which is two hun- dred times broader than the base, surmounted by three swelling cones — the highest of these cones transpiercing upper vacancy with three golden peaks, on which are situate the favorite resi- dences of the sacred Triad. At its base, like so many giant senti- nels, stand four lofty hills, on each of which grows a mango- tree several thousand miles in height, bearing fruit delicious as nectar, and of the enormous size of many hundred cubits. From these mangoes, as they fall, flows a mighty river of perfumed juice, so communicative of its sweetness that those who partake of it exhale the odor from their persons all around to the distance of many leagues. There also grow rose-apple trees, whose fruit is ' large as elephants,' and whose juice is so plentiful as to form another mighty river, that converts the earth over which it passes into purest gold ! " — Duff's India and India Missions, p. 1 1 6. Such is a brief notice of the Geogfaphical outline, furnished by their sacred writings, of the world on which we dwell. In turning to the superior worlds we obtain a glimpse of some of the revela- tions of Hindoo Astronomy. " The second world in the ascending series, or that which imme- diately over-vaults the earth, is the region of space between us and the sun, which is declared, on divine authority, to be distant only a few hundred thousand miles. The third in the upward ascent is the region of space intermediate between the sun and the pole star. Within this region are all the planetary and stellar mansions. The distances of the principal heavenly luminaries are given with the utmost precision. The moon is placed beyond the sun as far as the sun is from the earth. Next succeed at equal distances from HINDOO ASTRONOMY. 83 each other, and in the following order, the stars. Mercury, (beyond the stars,) Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Ursa Major, and the Pole Star. T\\Q.fotcr remaining worlds (beyond the Pole Star) continue to rise, one above the other, at immense and increasing intervals. The entire circumference of the celestial space is then given with the utmost exactitude of numbers. "In all of these superior worlds are framed heavenly mansions, dif- fering in glory, destined to form the habitation of various orders of celestial spirits. In the seventh, or highest, is the chief residence of Brahma, said by one of the " divine sages" to be so glorious that he could not describe it in two hundred years, as it contains, in a superior degree, every thing which is precious, or beautiful, or magnificent in all the other heavens. What then must it be, when we consider the surpassing grandeur of some of these .-' Glance, for example, at the heaven which is prepared in the tJiird world, and intended for Indra — head and king of the different ranks and degrees of subordinate deities. Its palaces are 'all of purest gold, so replenished with vessels of diamonds, and columns and orna- ments of jasper, and sapphire, and emerald, and all manner of precious stones, that it shines with a splendor exceeding the brightness of twelve thousand suns. Its streets are of the clearest crystal, fringed with fine gold. It is surrounded with forests abounding with all kinds of trees and flowering shrubs, whose sweet odors are diffused all around for hundreds of miles. It is bestudded with gardens and pools of water ; warm in winter and cool in summer, richly stored with fish, water-fowl, and lilies, blue, red, and white, spreading out a hundred or a thousand petals. Winds there are, but they are ever refreshing, storms and sultry heats being unknown. Clouds there are, but they are light and fleecy, and fantastic canopies of glory. Thrones there are, which blaze like the coruscations of lightning, enough to dazzle any mortal vision. And warblings there are, of sweetest melody, with all the inspiring harmonies of music and of song, among bowers that are ever fragrant and ever green.' " — P. 1 18. The reader will remember that these descriptions are not to be 84 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. taken as figurative and emblematic, as is appropriate to a state of glory of whose nature and details the heart of man cannot con- ceive, but that they are to be understood, as they are taught, in the strictest literality. The Vedas are undoubtedly the oldest writings in the woikl, with the exception of the Pentateuch. Colebrook supposes that they were compiled in the fourteenth century before Christ. Sir William Jones assigns them to the sixteenth century. They are certainly not less than three thousand years old. Veda is from the Sanscrit root vid, to know, the Veda being considered the foun- tain of all knowledge, human and divine. A Veda, in its strict sense, is simply a Sanhita, or collection of hymns. There are three Vedas, the Rig- Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Sama- Veda. The fourth, the AtJiarva Veda, is of more modern date and doubt- ful authority. The Hindoos hold that the Vedas are coeval with creation. As to their several contents, the Rig- Veda consists of prayers and hymns to various deities ; the Yajur Veda, of ordi- nances about sacrifices and other religious rites ; the Sama- Veda is made up of various lyrical pieces, and the Atharva Veda chiefly of incantations against enemies. The Rig- Veda is the oldest and most authentic of all, and many scholars consider that from it the others were formed. The Hin- doo writers attach to each Veda a class of compositions, chiefly liturgical and legendary, called BraJimanas, and they have besides a sort of expository literature, metaphysical and mystical, called Upanishads. They have also an immense body of Vedic literature, including philology, commentaries, Sutras or aphorisms, etc., the study of which would form occupation for a long and laborious life. The remote antiquity of the Vedas is indicated, among other rea- sons, by the entire absence of most of the modern doctrines of Hindooism, such as the worship of the Triad, the names of the modern deities, the doctrines of transmigration, caste, incarna- tions, suttee, etc., which are now the cardinal points of Hindooism, and the personified Triad of divine attributes, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, in their capacities of Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, THE VEDA8. 85 with the popular forms of the two latter, Kris/ma and iho: Linga, and all the manifestations of the bride of Mahadeva certainly were utterly unknown to the primitive texts of the religion of the Hindoos. The Rig- Veda Satihita (a complete copy of which is befoie us as we write) was translated from the original Sanscrit by Horace H. Wilson, and published in English in four volumes, the first being issued in 1850, and the last in 1866. The learned Intro- duction which the translator attached to the first volume, and an extensive and discriminating notice in the Calcutta Review for 1859, assist us in our description of these venerable writings. The Rig- Veda is a miscellaneous collection of hymns. Each hymn is called a Sukta. The whole work is divided into eight books, or AsJitakas. Each Ashtaka is subdivided into eight Adhyayas, or chapters, containing an arbitrary number of Snktas The whole number of hymns in the Rig- Veda is about a thousand. Each Siikta has for its reputed author a Rishi, or inspired teacher, by whom, in Brahminical phraseology, it has been originally seen, that is, to whom it was revealed ; the Vedas being, according to mythological fictions, the uncreated dictation of Brahma. Each hymn is addressed to some deity or deities. Who are the gods to whom the prayers and praises are ad- dressed } Here we find a striking difference between the mythol- ogy of the Rig- Veda and that of the heroic poems and Ptiranas, which come so long after them. The divinities worshiped are not unknown to later systems, but they there perform very subordinate parts, while those deities who are the great gods — the Dii Majores — of the subsequent and present period, are either wholly unnamed in the Veda, or are noticed in an inferior and different capacity. The names of Shiva, of Mahadeva, of Durga, of Kali, of Rama, of Krishna, never occur, and there is not the slightest allusion to the form in which, for the last ten centuries at least, Shiva seems to ha'/e been almost exclusively worshiped in India, that of the Linga or Phallus ; neither is there any hint of another important feature of later Hindooism, the Trimujii, or Triune combination of Brah- 86 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. ma, Vishnu, and Shiva, as typified by the mystical syllable Om, although, according to high Brahminical authority, the Trimiwti was the first element in the faith of the Hindoos, and the second was the Linga. The deities mentioned in the Vedas are numerous, and of differ- ent sexes. The leading ones are Indra, Agni, and Surya ; and the female deities are Ushas, Saraswati, Sinivali, etc. " The wives of the gods" are spoken of as a large number, and arc often invoked. The operations and powers of nature are deified, as the Murats, the winds ; the Aswins, the sons of the sun ; and even the cows aie invoked in a special Sukta. — Vol. iii, p. 440. In fact, the deities, inferior and superior, of the Vedas may be counted by the dozen, and the work is manifestly polytheistic to the core in its teaching and tendencies. The evidence of this is on every page. For the general reader, the mystery that covered the Vedas is a mystery no longer ; all that they contain stands out for public view in the common light of day. Except as to grammatical construc- tion and translation into modern words, we are far abler to discover and understand what story these ancient documents tell than is any of the Pundits. For, in ascertaining their sense, we have to deal with questions of race, of language, of history, of chronology, and external influences ; questions unknown, and therefore unintelligi- ble, to the Hindoo mind. Forbidden to the Sudras, inaccessible from their rarity and high price to most of the Brahmins, for that very reason they are the objects of a more profound and supersti- tious veneration ; and, if any thing can be supposed, a priori, to startle and excite all Hindustan, it is surely the announcement that the Vedas have become public property, and that Sudra and MlechcJia (barbarian) may read them at his will. It was almost entirely from such writings as these that European scholars had to undertake the compilation of a true chronology and history for India. The task was certainly not an easy one. It was like this : Given the Psalms of David, to discover Irom tJiese alone the manners, customs, religions, arts, sciences, history, chro- nology, and origin of the Jewish nation ; to classify the hymns too, BEEF-EATING SANCTIONED BY TEE VEDA. 87 and assign to each its time and author, with no other help than the heading to each Psalm, added by a later hand. Knowing, as we do, that they range almost from Moses till after the captivity — at least seven hundred years — the later parts of the task alone would demand all the resources of scholarship. It is true that the Vedic hymns are ten times more numerous than the Psalms, but they are at the same time ten times more monotonous, and full of wearisome repetitions, under which even Professor Wilson's patience gives way. In our Sacred Books the Code precedes, and the history precedes, accompanies, and follows the Psalms. With the Hindoo the Code comes after the hymns, and has to do with a different stage of society, and tJie history never comes at all! Nevertheless, the Vedas, with all their difficulties, throw a flood of light upon the origin and early state of the Hindoos. The people among whom the Vedas were composed, as here introduced to us, had evidently passed the nomadic stage. Their wealth consisted of horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and buffaloes. Coined money, and indeed money in any shape, was unknown. We meet but two allusions to gold, except for the purpose of orna- ments. The cow was to the Vedic Hindoo at once food and money. It supplied him with milk, butter, ghee, curds, and cheese. Oxen ploughed his fields, and carried his goods and chat- tels. He preserved the Sojna-Jii'ce in a bag of cow-skin, {Rig- Veda, vol. I, p. 72,) and the cow-hide girt his chariot. (Vol. Ill, p. 475.) No idea oi sacredness was connected with the cow ; and it is quite clear, however abhorrent and revolting the truth may appear to their descendants, that in the golden age of their ancestors the Hindoos were a cow killing and beef -eating people, and that cattle are declared in the Vedas to be the very best of food I Yet modern Hindooism holds it to be a deadly sin to kill a cow, or eat beef, or to use intoxicating drink, and they dare to assert that this was always their creed. We quote texts which leave no room for a doubt on this, to them, important fact : " Agni, descendant of Bharata, thou art entirely ours when sac- rificed to with pregnant kine, barren cows, or bulls." 88 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. " Agni, the friend of Indra, has quickly consumed three hundred buffaloes." "When thou hast eaten the flesh of the three hundred buffaloes/' "Bestow upon him who glorifies thee, divine Indra, food, the chiefest of which is cattle." — Vol. II, p. 225 ; III, p. 276. " Sever his joints, Indra, as butchers cut up a cow." — Vol. II I, p. 458 ; I, p. 165. What an amount of beef-eating is implied in a sacrifice of t/ire-e hundred buffaloes ! the greater part, as usual, being devoured by the assistants. The cooking is very minutely and graphically described in vol. II, pp. 117, etc. Part was roasted on spits, while the attendants eagerly watched the joints, sniffing up the grateful fumes, and saying, " It is fragrant." The queens and wives of the sacrificers assisted in cooking and preparing the banquet, which, on particular occasions, alluded to in the text, consisted of horse- flesh ! All was washed down with copious libations of a strong spirit, made from the juice of the soma plant. RisJii KaksJiivat had in every way most unclerical propensities. He thanks the Aswins most cordially for giving him a cask holding a hundred jars of wine, (vol. I, p. 308 ;) and Rishi Vamadeva, who was taken out of his mother's side, solicits Indra (vol. III, p. 185) for a hun- dred jars of soma-juice. Rishi Agastya also, in a queer, half-crazy Sukta, (vol. II, p. 200,) writes of "a leather bottle in the house of a vender of spirits!' These were the men that fought Alexandei the Great. After such a feast of the gods, Indra puts forth all his might, and destroys the fiercest of the Asuras, (the evil spirits.) The social position of woman, this Veda demonstrates, was con- siderably higher than it is in modern India. She is spoken of kindly and pleasantly as " the light of the dwelling." The Rishi and his wife converse on equal terms, go together to the sacrifice, and practice austerities together. Lovely maidens appear in a procession. Grown-up unmarried daughters remain without re- proach in their father's house. Now, all this is the reverse of the Hindooism of the present day. On the other hand, we have a case of polygamy of the most shameful kind. Kakshivat, one of the THE WORSHIP OF THE VEDA. 89 most illustrious of the Rishis, married ten sisters at once, (vol. II, p, 17 ;) and, if the tone of female society is to be judged of from the wife even of a Rishi, or from a lady who is herself the author of a Sukta, women in those days were no better than they should be. A gallant, deep-drinking, high-feeding race were the wild war- riors of the Indus, and very unlike their descendants. The picture of Hindoo life and manners, at the time of the Mace- donian invasion, (326 B. C.,) was darkly shaded. The Hindoo even then had degenerated ; and the " Life of an Eastern King" on the banks of the Indus differed little in its shameless details from that of his modern successor at Lucknow, on the banks of the Goomtee. Rufus Curtius Quintus, the historian of Alexander, writes of the Hindoos thus : " The shameful luxuries of their prince surpasses that of all other nations. He reclines in a golden palankeen, with pearl hangings. The dresses which he puts on are embroidered with purple and gold. The pillars of his palace are gilt ; and a running pattern of a vine, carved in gold, and figures of birds, in silver, ornament each column. The durbar is held while he combs and dresses his hair ; then he receives embassadors, and decides cases. . . . The women prepare the banquet and pour out the wine, to which all the Indians are greatly addicted. Whenever he, or his queen, went on a journey, crowds of dancing girls in gilt palankeens attended ; and when he became intoxicated they carried him to his couch." — Liber YWl, 32. And, if we are to believe his biographer, into such a vile, sensual thing as this the great Alex- ander himself was rapidly degenerating at that very time ! The religion of the Vedas, then, was Nature worship ; light, careless, and irreverent, utterly animal in its inmost spirit, with littbi or no sense of sin, no longings or hopes of immortality, nothing high, serious, or thoughtful. There was no love in their worship. They cared only for wealth, victory, animal gratification, and freedom from disease. The tiger of the forest might have joined in such prayers, and said, " Grant me health, a comfortable den, plenty of deer and cows, and strength to kill any intruder on my beat ! " " The blessings they implore," says Professor Wilson, 90 THE LANB OF THE VEDA. " are for the most part of a temporal and personal description — • wealth, food, life, posterity, cattle, cows, and horses ; protection against enemies, victory over them, and sometimes their destruc- tion. There are a few indications of a hope of immortality and of future happiness, but they are neither frequent, nor, in general, dis- tinctly announced. In one or two passages Yama, and his office of ruler of the dead, are obscurely alluded to. There is little demand for moral benefactions." — Vol. I, p. 25. So merely fanciful, so wearisome and monotonous, so contempt- uously irreverent are the great bulk of these Vedic prayers, (to Indra especially,) that Professor Wilson, with all his patience, can scarce believe them to be earnest. Take, for instance, the following Hymn. It is addressed to the goddess Anna Devata, personified as Pitu, or material food, and is recited by a Brahmin when about to eat. Pitu is also identified with the Soma juice, mentioned below. The Rishi is Agastya, and the reader can judge if any utterances (and this, too, professing to be sacred and inspired) that he has ever seen, more fully illustrates the words of Holy Writ, "Whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things : " " I. I glorify Pitu, the great, the upholder, the strong, by whose invigorating power Trita slew the mutilated Vritra. " 2. Savory Pitu ; sweet Pitu ; we worship thee : become our protector. " 6. The thoughts of the mighty gods are fixed, Pitu, upon thee : by thy kind and intelligent assistance Indra slew Ahi. " 8. And since we enjoy the abundance of the waters and the plants, therefore, Body, do thou grow fat ! " 9. And since we enjoy, Soma, thy mixture with boiled milk or boiled barley, therefore, Body, do thou grow fat ! " 10. Vegetable cake of fried meal, do thou be substantial, whole- some, and invigorating ; and. Body, do thou grow fat ! "II. We extract from thee, Pitu, by our praises, the sacrificial food, as cows yield butter for oblation ; from thee, who art exhila- rating to the gods ; exhilarating also to us." — Rig-Veda, Vol. II, p. 194. Sukta viii. DRUNKEN WORSHIP OF THE VEDA. 9 1 In a similar strain the Soma-plant is addressed. It was bruised between two stones, mixed with milk or barley juice, and, when fermented, formed a strong, inebriating, ardent spirit — probably not very unlike the whisky of the present day. It appears that the Riskis of the Vedas introduced this custom, or belief, into religion. Indra and all the other gods are every- where represented as unable to perform any great exploit without the inspiration of the Soma, or, in plain English, until they were more or less drunk ! Hear the Veda : " May our Soma libation reach you, exhilarating, invigorating, inebriating, most precious. It is companionable, Indra, enjoyable, the overthrower of hosts, immortal. " Thy inebriety is most intense : nevertheless thy acts are most beneficent." — Vol. II, p. 169. " Savory indeed is this Soma ; sweet it is, sharp, and full of flavor : no one is able to encounter Indra in battle, after he has beeri quaffing this — by drinking of it Indra has been elevated to the slaying of Vritra," etc. — Vol. Ill, p. 470. " The stomach of Indra is as capacious a receptacle of Soma as a lake." — Vol. Ill, p. 60. "The belly of Indra, which quaffs the Soma juice abundantly, swells like the ocean, and is ever moist, like the ample fluids of the palate." — Vol. Ill, pp. 17, 231, 232. " Indra, quaff the Soma juice, repeatedly shaking it from your beard." — Vol. II, p. 233. What common revelry is expressed in the following verse : " Saints and sages, sing the holy strain aloud, like scream- ing swans, and, together with the gods, drink the sweet juice of the Soma."— Vol. Ill, p. 86. This license runs riot, and "the goddesses, the wives of the gods," (Vol. III. p. 316,) with earthly ladies, one of them (Viswa- vara) herself a Rishi and compiler of a Sukta (Vol. Ill, p. 273) in which she prays for "concord between man and wife," all are joined — gods, goddesses, and "divine Rishis" — in high carousal. But, then, mark what Rishi Avatsara says of this lady, Viswavara, and of his brother Rishis, and the rest of the boisterous crew, all " gloriously drunk " together : 92 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. "II. Swift is the excessive and girt-distending inebriation of Viswavara, Yajata, and Mayin : by drinking of these juices they urge one another to drink : they find the copious draught the prompt giver of intoxication ! " — Vol. Ill, p. 311. And this was the worship of Ancient India ! Jolly and easy are the terms on which deity and worshiper meet together for their wassail ! Prajapate addresses his god thus : " Indra, the showerer of benefits, drink the Soma offered after the other presentations, for thine exhilaration for battle ; take into thy belly the full wave of the inebriating Soma, for thou art lord of libations from the days of old!" (Vol. Ill, p. 75.) But the Rishi Viswamitra evi- dently thought that, under the circumstances, there was no use in standing upon even Hindoo ceremony, so he says to his deity : " Sit down, Indra, upon the sacred grass — and when thou hast drunk the Soma, then, Indra, ^^ home!" finishing up the address by reminding him that the hungry steeds in his car at the dooi need consideration, and require their provender ! — Vol. Ill, p. 84. How melancholy and degrading is all this — god, worshiper, and the traffic between them ! But one grade above the beasts that perish ; yet these are the teachings of the most sacred of the so- called " Holy Vedas } " This drunken worship realizes and sur- passes Dionysius and the Bacchanals themselves. These besotted mortals had evidently reached that stage of debasement when men can suppose that the Almighty " was alto- gether such a one as themselves," and when they can "call evil good " and " put darkness for light." Well might the reviewer exclaim, from the abundant and fearful evidence before him that, *'Nb worship ever mocked the skies more miserable and contemptible than the religion of the Veda ! " But, what are we to think of professedly enlightened Hindoos, like Rajah Rammohun Roy, or this modern Baboo, Keshub Chim- der Sen, who, if they ever read the Vedas, of which they talk so glibly, must surely have dared to presume upon the ignorance of their auditors, when they had the temerity, in a day like this, and before a London audience, to assert that " the worship of Almighty DECEPTION AS TO CONTENTS OF TUE VEDA. 93 God in his unity," and " a pure system of theism " are taught in the Vcdas f — Men, who after all this-have the impertinence to assume a patronizing aspect toward Christianity, and superciliously inform us that, however good or pure our faith is in itself, its doc- trine and services are not needed in India, because " the Holy Vedas" contain all that is requisite for the regeneration of their country ! Yet this is said and repeated, and Miss Carpenter and her Unitarian friends clap their hands, applaud the assertions, and lionize the man who utters them, and commend the BraJimo SomaJ, of which he is the High Priest ! Do not such people deserve to be deceived ? and is it really a violation of Christian charity to fear that such persons must be given over to " strong delusion " when they can believe such "a lie" as this? After a careful examination, from beginning to end, of this ven- erable and lauded work, (the doors of which have so lately opened for the admission of mankind,) with the remembrance in my mind of the long years when men have listened to the reiterations of its holiness, as the very source of all Hindoo faith — the oracle from which Vedantic Philosophy has drawn its inspiration, the temple at whose mere portal so many millions have bowed in such awe and reverence, with its interior too holy for common sight, containing, as it was asserted, all that was worth knowing, the primitive original truth that could regenerate India, and make even Christianity unnecessary — well, with no feelings save those of deep interest and a measure of respect, we have entered and walked from end to end, to find ourselves shocked at every step with the revelations of this mystery of iniquity and sensuality, where saints and gods, male and female, hold high orgies amid the fumes of intoxicating liquor, with their singing and " screaming." and the challenging by which " they urge one another " on to deeper debasement, until at length decency retires and leaves them " glorying in their shame ! " The sad samples which we have presented are taken at random, and can be matched by hundreds of passages equally contemptible ; while we have purposely avoided quoting Suktas and verses whose g^ THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. indelicacy is even worse than these ; nor have we found, because it is not there, any thing pure, subhme, or good, with which to offset the vileness here laid before the reader. Coming out again from the gloomy scenes of these " works of darkness " into the light and purity of our blessed Bible, with all its " fruits of the Spirit," never before were we so thankful for our holy religion, nor have we ever felt as deep a compassion for the millions so shame- fully and so long deluded by the false and hollow pretensions of the Vedic teaching. Before dismissing the subject I will, for the sake of such readers as may not have seen an entire Sukta of the Veda, quote one in full, so that he may have a complete view of the " holiest " and most venerable of all India's " Scriptures," selecting one, however, that may be regarded as respectable in its ideas and language. I take the fifth Sukta, on page 38 of volume I of the Rig- Veda. The Rzs/ii (or author) is Medhalithi, the son of Kanwa, and the hymn is addressed to Indm, their God of the Heavens : "Sukta V. " I. Indra, let thy coursers hither bring thee, bestower of desires, to drink the Soma juice ; may the priests, ^-adiant of the sun, make thee manifest. " 2. Let his coursers convey Indra in an easy-moving chariot hither, where these grains of parched barley, steeped in clarified butter, are strewn upon the altar. " 3. We invoke Indra at the morning rite, we invoke him at the succeeding sacrifice, we invoke Indra to drink the Soma juice. "4. Come, Indra, to our libation, with thy long-maned steeds; the libation being poured out, we invoke thee. " 5. Do thou accept this our praise, and come to this our sacrifice, for which the libation is prepared ; drink like a thirsty stag. "6. These dripping Soma juices are effused upon the sacred grass ; drink them, Indra. to recruit thy vigor. " 7. May this our excellent hymn, touching thy heart, be grateful to thee, and thence drink the effused libation. THE RAMAYANA. 95 " S. Indra, the destroyer of enemies, repairs assuredly to every ~eremony where the libation is poured out, to drink the Soma Juice for exhilaration. " 9. Do thou, Satakratu, accomplish our desire with cattle and horses : profoundly meditating, we praise thee." As the Greeks and Romans had their Homer and Virgil, so the Hindoos have had their Valmiki and Vyasa. The great epics of India are the Ramayajia and the Mahabarata. These stand peer- less in their voluminous literature, and have held control of the minds of the people since long before the Incarnation. The Ramayana is probably the most ancient and connected epic poem in the Sanscrit, and exceeded only by the Vedas in, antiquity. It contains the mythical history of Rama, one of the incarnations of the god Vishnu, and was written by the great poet Valmiki. For a very brief epitome of this wonderful and venera- ble development of Hindoo literature we are indebted, to Speir's " Ancient India." The style and language of the Ramayana aie those of an early heroic age, and there are signs of its having, been popular in India at least three centuries before Christ. The original subject of the poem is sometimes considered as mythological, and sometimes as heroic ; but the mythological portions stand apart, and have the air of after-thoughts, intended to give a religious and philosophical tone to what was at first a tale rehearsed at festivals in praise of the ancestors of kings. The mythological introduction states thai Lanka, or Ceylon, had fallen under the dominion of a prince named Ravana, who was a demon of such power that by dint of penance he had extorted from the god Brahm a promise that no immortal should destroy him. Such a promise was as relentless as the Greek Fates, from which Jove himself could not escape ; and Ravana, now invul- nerable to the gods, gave up the asceism he had so long practiced, and tyrannized over the whole of Southern India in a fearful manner. At length, even the gods in heaven were distressed at the destruc- tion of holiness and oppression of virtue consequent upon Ravana's 96 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. tyrannies, and they called a council in the mansion of Brahma to :onsider how the earth could be relieved from such a fiend. To this council came the "god Vishnu, riding on the eagle Vain-a-tayUy like the sun on a cloud, and his discus and his mace in hand." The other gods entreat him to give his aid, and he promises, in conse- quence, to be born on earth, and to accomplish the destruction of the terrific Ravana. Vishnu therefore became incarnated (his Seventh Avatar) as Rama or Ramchundra, and his life and exploits as the celebrated King of Ayodhya, form the subject of this, the earliest epic poem of India. According to this work, Rama was born as the son of Dasharatha, King of Ayodhya, the modern Oude. In early life Rania married Seeta, the lovely daughter of the King of Mithili. But domestic trouble, caused by the intrigues of his mother-in-law in behalf of her own son, caused Rama and Seeta to retire to the forests, and there they lived the lives of her- mits for years, till the time for his action should come. While in this seclusion, Ravana, the demon King of Lanka, (Ceylon,) who ihad heard of the beauty of Seeta, resolved to steal her from Rama. Finding it in vain to hope to succeed without the aid of stratagem, he took with him an assistant sorcerer, disguised as a deer ; and as Rama took great pleasure in the chase, it was not difficult for the deer to lure him from his cottage in pursuit. He did not leave his beloved Seeta without requesting Lakshman, his brother, to remain in charge ; but the wily deer knew how to defeat his precaution, and, when transfixed by Rama's arrow, he cried out in the voice of Rama, " O, Lakshman, save me!" Seeta heard the cry, and entreated Lakshman to fly to his brother's rescue. He was un- willing to go, but yielded to her earnestness, and she was left alone. This being the state of affairs which Ravana desired, he now left his hiding-place, and came forward, disguised as an Ascetic Brahmin, in a red, threadbare garment, with a single tuft of hair upon his head, and three sticks and a pitcher in his hand. In the •rich, glowing poetry all creation is represented as shuddering at his approach ; birds, beasts, and flowers were motionless with dread ; the summer wind ceased to breathe, and a shiver passed THE TEMPTATION OF SEETA. 97 over the bright waves of the river. Ravana stood for awhile look- ing at his victim, as she sat weeping and musing over the unknown cry ; but soon he approached, saying, (we quote the metrical trans- lation here,^ "O thou that shinest like a tree With summer blossoms overspread. Wearing that woven ^»sa robe, And lotus garland on thy head. Why art thou dwelling here alone, Here in this dreary forest's shade, Where range at will all beasts of prey. And demons prowl in every glade ? Wilt thou not leave thy cottage home, And roam the world, which stretches wide- See the fair cities which men build, And all their gardens and their pride? Why longer, fair one, dwell'st thou here, Feeding on roots and sylvan fare. When thou might' st dwell in palaces. And earth's most costly jewels wear? Fearest thou not the forest gloom. Which darkens round on every side ? Who art thou, say ! and whose, and whence. And wherefore dost thou here abide ? " Even a lady alone is not supposed to be necessarily alarmed at meeting " a holy Brahmin," and the fiend's disguise was so com- plete that only a temporary flush of excitement followed his sudden address. So the poet continues : " When first these words of Ravana Broke upon sorrowing Seeta's ear. She started up, and lost herself In wonderment, and doubt, and fear; But soon her gentle, loving heart Threw off suspicion and surmise, And slept again in confidence, LuU'd by the mendicant's disguise. 'Hail, holy Brahmin !' she exclaimed; And, in her guileless purity, She gave a welcome to her guest, With courteous hospitality. Water she brought to wash his feet, And food to satisfy his need, Full little dreaming in her heart What f earful gtiest she had received."* 98 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. She even tells him her own story, how Rama had won her for his bride and taken her to his father's home, and how the jealous Kaikeyi had cast them forth to roam the woods ; and after dwell- ing fondly on her husband's praise, she invited her guest to tell his name and lineage, and what had induced him to leave his native lland for the wilds of the Dandaka forest, inviting him to await her husband's return, for " to him are holy wanderers dear." Suddenly Ravana declares himself to be the demon monarch of the earth, " at whose name Heaven's armies flee." He has come, he says, to woo Seeta for his queen, and to carry her to his palace in the island of Ceylon ! Astonished and indignant at his character and proposal, the wrath of Rama's wife burst forth in these words : ^' Me would' st thou woo to be thy queen, Or dazzle with thy empire's shine ? And didst thou dream that Rama's wife Could stoop to such a prayer as thine? I, who can look on Rama's face. And know that there my husband stands, — 3Iy Rama, whose high chivalry Is blazoned through a hundred lands ! What ! shall the jackal think to tempt The lioness to mate with him ? Or did the King of Lanka's isle. Build upon such an idle dream ? " But vain was poor Seeta's indignant remonstrance. Ravana's only answer was to throw off his disguise, and, "with brows as dark as the storm-cloud," he carried off the shrieking Seeta as an eagle bears its prey, mounting up aloft and flying with his burden through the sky. The unhappy Seeta calls loudly upon Rama, and bids the flowery bowers and trees and rivers all tell her Rama that Ravana has stolen his Seeta from his home. In Rama's time the woods were inhabited by demons and monkeys. On returning and ascertaining his great loss, Rama did not feel strong enough to recover Seeta single-handed. He therefore entered into an alliance with the monkeys. First, the monkey-king Sngriva dispatched emissaries in all directions to ascertain where Seeta was concealed ; and when the monkey-general Hnnooman (the Mars of India) ascer- THE MARABARATA. 99 tained that she was in a palace in Ceylon, Rama and all the allied monkey forces marched down to the Coromandel coast, and, mak- ing a bridge by casting rocks into the sea, passed quickly into Lanka. After fighting a few battles the Rakshasas (demons) were defeated, Ravana was put to death by Rama, and Seeta rescued from her palace prison. Rama will, however, have nothing to say to his recovered wife until she has gone through " the ordeal of fire ; " but as she passed through the blazing pile unhurt, and Brahma and other gods attested her fidelity, her husband once more received her with affection, and, the term of exile over, the whole party returned in happiness to Ayodhya. Such, in brief, is the story of the Ramayana, which is spun out into details and episodes of great length. It is read very extensively to listening crowds in India, who believe every word, no matter how improba- ble, as we would the most authentic records of our own history or our Holy Bible. The Mahabarata is the second famous epic of India. We have only room to say that it describes a contest between the two branches of the Chundra, or Moon dynasty, for the sovereignty of the Ganges territory. The " Great War" (as the word Mahabarata expresses) is generally regarded as having taken place about two hundred years before the siege of Troy. Princes are enumerated as taking part in the struggle from the Deccan, and the Indus, and even beyond the Indus, especially the Yarases, thought to be Greeks. Fifty-six royal leaders were assem- bled on the field of battle, which raged for eighteen days with pro- digious slaughter — another proof of the division of India into many separate States, though occasionally combined, as in this poem, under the leadership of some great general on either side. The contest was waged between the sons of Pandu, the deceased Rajah, and their cousins the Kooroos, who denied their legitimacy — a never-failing subject of dispute in Hindoo successions. It ended in the victory of the Pandus ; but what they gained by arms they lost through gaming. Yudisthira, the Agamemnon of the poem, departs with his brothers and the beautiful Draupadi into lOO THE LAND OF THE 7EDA. exile on the Himalayas. Their evil deeds prevailing, they drop dead, one after another, by the way-side. Yudisthira is the last, and when Indra comes to admit him to Swarga (Paradise) he demands to be accompanied by his faithful dog. The poem follows the hero into the other world. Arrived in Indra's paradise, and finding his enemies there before him, with none of his party, he refuses to stay, and, descending to the shades in quest of Draupadi and his brothers, succeeds in rescuing them from torment. The gods applaud his virtue, and he is permitted to convey himself and all his party to Swarga. The hero of this poem is Krishna, the great ally of the Pandus, and generally regarded as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu.— TV^^r'j Indiuy p. 52. ARCHITECTURE OF INDIA. lOI CHAPTER III. ARCHITECTURAL MAGNIFICENCE OF INDIA THE missionary authorities of the Methodist Episcopal Church resolved, in the year 1854, to found a mission in India, and they advertised during that year and the next for a man to go forth and commence the work. The writer, after waiting in the hope that some one else, better suited for the duty and less cum- bered with family cares, would answer to the call, offered himself for the service. This involved one of the keenest trials through which himself and wife had ever passed — no less than a separation from their two elder boys. The necessity for this, in the case of children over the age of seven years exposed to the climate and moral influence in India, as well as the educational need, are all understood. Having no personal friends to whose care they could be in- trusted, they had to be placed at a boarding-school in the hands of strangers. God only knows the feelings with which we resigned them, fearing (what proved too true in the case of one of them) that we might see them no more on earth ; but, so far as we could understand, it was either this, or for our Church to fail of her duty to perishing men in India. We understood that such sacrifices were contemplated by the Head of the Church when he instituted a missionary ministry for the salvation of the world. He was well aware what this would involve to the souls of many parents in the future, and therefore, to sustain them under the peculiar cross, he had put on record one of his most glorious promises. There can be no mistake as to the circumstances con- templated. " Peter said, Lo, we have left all and followed thee And He said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you. There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or I02 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive mani- fold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlast- ing." With hearts bleeding at the sacrifice which we were called to make, we clung to the precious and appropriate promise of our divine Master, committed our little ones to his care, and went forth to fulfill his commission to the best of our ability. With my wife and two younger children I sailed from Boston or. the 9th of April, 1856. I was instructed to proceed by way of England, and there obtain from the secretaries of the different missionary societies all the information available in regard to those unoccupied portions of India where we might labor without in- terference with existing missions, " to preach the Gospel, not where Christ is named, lest we should build upon another man's foundation," and there labor for the enlargement of the kingdom of God. Having attended to this duty, and obtained all the light that the secretaries and returned missionaries could impart, I resolved to proceed to Calcutta, and from that to move westward into the heart of the country and examine the Valley of the Ganges. We left Southampton on the 20th of August in the steamship Pera. Just as we were departing, the consort ship of the same line, the Ripon, came in with the mails and passengers from India, and on board of her was the Queen of Oude, coming to place before the British Queen her protest against the annexation of Oude, and to plead for the restoration of the sovereignty to her family. Apart from the singularity of the fact that she was probably the first lady of her race who had ever come to a western clime, her presence there occasioned me no particular interest ; yet, as God looked down upon the objects of each, how much she and I, thi'.s meeting casually for a moment, really depended upon each other's movements ! Had she succeeded in her mission, I must neces- sarily have failed in mine, so far as our present mission field is concerned, for I was unconsciously going to the kingdom which she had ruled, and to the very capital whose gates she had left ajar OUR RECEPTION IN INDIA. 103 five weeks before — gates that had been closed by Mohammedan oigotry against Christianity for ages. Her success on this expe- dition would have closed them again indefinitely, and I should have had to go elsewhere ; but He whose holy providence guided my ste^js took care of the issues. She failed, and I succeeded, yet not without "a great fight of afflictions," as the sequel will show. We landed at Calcutta on the 23d of September, and were most cordially welcomed by the missionary brethren there, and aided by their opinions and advice in regard to the unoccupied territory of the country. We soon realized, in the brotherly kindness of their intercourse, and the gladness with which they regarded the incom- ing of another mission, what real evangelical union, and what free- dom from sectarianism, exist among Christians in a heathen land. Dr. Duff was especially kind to us. He seemed so thankful that the Lord was sending more help to redeem the India he loved so well, and for which he had labored so long and so faithfully. As we parted from the great and good man, I little imagined that within a year, counting us among the slain, he would write a sort of biography of me, (in his work " The Indian Rebellion,") or that I should live to thank him, at his own table, for the peculiar privilege of knowing what my friends would say of me v9hen I was dead. Yet so it proved. Proceeding at once up the country, we reached the city of Agra, the seat of government for the North-west, and soon realized that we were now amid the splendid evidences of the power and glory of the " Great Moguls." This imperial city, and the adjoining one of Delhi, were full of those reminiscences, and the interest which they at once awakened was something intense and peculiar. We were in blissful ignorance of any cause for anxiety — knew not what a volcano of wrath was quietly preparing beneath our feet, or how surely the titled and decorated " Nawabs," whose courteous salaams we returned, were thirsting for our blood, and resolving to have it, too ; but we will let that subject rest here, until we share with the reader our interest and delight as we survey some of those magnificent, those matchless, monuments of Patau skill r04 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. and wealth with which we now found ourselves surrounded. This will also give him a better idea than any thing else could do as to what those imperial people risked in their desperate enterprise, when pensions, palaces, titles, ancestral monuments, and mauso- leums, with all their gorgeous traditions, were the mighty stakes ventured in the frantic and final struggle of their dynasty with a superior civilization and the strength which accompanies it. We were, though we knew it not, contemplating many of these glories for the last time in which men could gaze in admiration upon them, for most of them, save the Taj and the Kootiib, were des- tined to destruction by the ruin which war was so soon to bring. When we saw them again, one year afterward, " the glory had departed," save in the cases given. The Taj, especially, seemed as though self-protected by its own purity and loveliness ; even ravag- ing war respected it, friend and foe alike agreeing that its beaut}' should remain unsullied forever. The first permanent conquest by a Mohammedan sovereign in India was that made by Mahmoud of Ghuznee in the year lOOi. Sixty-five rulers of that faith, during the following eight centuiies, tried to maintain their authority over the great Hindoo nations. It may be doubted whether any part of the world was ever so cursed by a line of bigoted, ferocious wretches as, with two or three excep- tions, were these Mohammedan despots of India during that time. To many of them may be truly applied the terrible lines of Moore : " One of that saintly, murderous brood, To carnage and the Koran given, Who think through unbelievers' blood Lies their directest path to heaven ; One who will pause and kneel unshod In the warm blood his hand hath poured. To mutter o'er some text of God Engraven on his reeking sword ; Nay, who can coolly note the line, The letters of those words divine, To which his blade, with searching art, Had sunk into its victim's heart !" And all this transacted by these " bloody men " under the pro- fessed sanction and authority of a holy and merciful God, whose Mohammed Suraj-oodeen Snar Gezee, Emperor of Delhi, the Last of the Moguls CHABACTEB OF MOSLEM RULE. 10/ special favor and reward they asserted awaited them in Paradise for blasphemous cruelties like these ! The reference in the lines is to their habit of engraving texts from the Koran upon their swords. What millions, during the past eight centuries, have been destroyed by Mohammedanism and Romanism in the name of religion, till hi manity sighs to be relieved of their baneful presence, and the true Christian looks forward solemnly to the awful hour when He " to whom vengeance belongeth " will call " the beast and the false prophet " to their dread account — partners in punishment as they have been in guilt ! The character and cruelties of Popery recorded in Motley's recent histories are equaled in India's records by those Moslem scourges, Hyder Ali, Tippoo, Tamerlane, Nadir Shah, and Aurungzebe. The creed of the Koran is utterly unfit for civil government. It is a system of moral and political bondage, sustained only by military power and despotic rule, naturally corrupting those who adminis- ter it, while it has ever pauperized and demoralized the people who have been subjected to its sway. The Moguls have done in India what the Turks have accomplished in Asia Minor ; and yet, while destroying and impoverishing, neither race have taken root in either land. In the former the power of the Moguls crumbled to pieces, and in the latter that of the Turks is now " ready to vanish away." The last century closed upon Shah Alum — the grandfather of the monarch whose portrait we here present — engaged in a terrible struggle with the Rohillas of the North and the Mahrattas of the South. The long examples of perfidy and blood were then bearing their fruit, and had made these once subject-races the remorseless and inveterate enemies of the Mogul rule. Their power had been rising as that of the Emperor was in its decadence. Destitute of the means, which were once so abundant, to repress these conflicts, the aged Emperor had to witness these fierce and powerful parties contending with each other for the possession of his person and his capital, and the power to rule in his name. In 1785, Sindia, the Mahratta, became paramount; but a few years after, while engaged in a war with Pertalo Sing, of Jeypoor, £08 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. advantage was taken of his absence by Gholan Kadir Kahn, the Rohilla, to obtain possession of Delhi and Ihe Emperor, This he accomplished by the treachery of the Nazir, or chief eunuch, to whom the management of the imperial establishment was intrusted. The inmates of the palace were treated by the usurper with a degree of malicious barbarity which it is hardly possible to con- ceive any human being could evince toward his fellow-creatures, unless actually possessed by Satan. After cruelties of almost every description had been practiced, to extort from the members and retainers of the imperial family every article of value that still remained in their possession, Gholan Kadir continued to withhold from them even the necessaries of life, so that several ladies perished of hunger, and others, mad- dened by suffering, committed suicide. The royal children were compelled to perform the most humiliating offices ; and when at last the wretched Emperor ventured to remonstrate indignantly against the atrocities he was thus compelled to witness, the fierce Rohilla sprang at him with the fury of a wild beast, flung the venerable monarch to the ground, knelt on his breast, and, with his dagger, pierced his eye-balls through and through ! The return of Sindia terminated these terrible scenes. Gholan Kadir fled, but was followed and captured by the Mahratta chief, who cut off his nose, ears, hands, and feet, and sent him in an iron cage to the Emperor — a fearful, though not uncommon, example of Asiatic retributive barbarity. He perished on the road, and his accomplice, the treacherous Nazir, was condemned, and trodden to death by an elephant — a mode of execution long practiced at Delhi. The condition of the imperial family, though ameliorated, remained barely tolerable during the supremacy of Sindia ; foi the stated allowance for the support of the Emperor and his thirty children, though liberal in its nominal amount, was so irregularly paid that the imperial household often wanted the necessaries of life. The real authority of the Moguls had passed away, and it now became a question. Who shall seize the fallen scepter — some one THE FALLING DYNASTY. 109 of these contending chiefs, or the English power, which had already established itself in the South and East of the country ? The lat- ter alone had the ability to give peace to the distracted land, and, at the same time, might be relied upon to grant the most generous terms to the falling dynasty. Accordingly, on the lOth of Septem- ber, 1803, Shah Alum, the last actual possessor of the once mighty tlirone of the Moguls, thankfully placed himself and his empire under the protection of the British commander. Lord Lake, and thus delivered himself from the cruelty and tyranny of his enemies. The General, on his entrance to the palace, found the Emperor " seated under a small tattered canopy, his person emaciated by indigence and infirmity, his countenance disfigured by the loss of his eyes, and bearing marks of extreme old age and settled melan- choly." The arrangements made with him, under the directions of the Marquis Wellesley, then English Governor-General, were, no doubt, far beyond in liberality what the poor old man could have expected. Of this more hereafter, in its place. The gigantic genius of Tamerlane, and the distinguished talents of the great Akbar, with the magnificent taste of Jehan, have thrown a sort of splendor over the crimes and follies of their descendants ; and men kept reverence for the ruins of such great- ness, and for the ideas which we have all associated in our child- hood with the boundless wealth and glory suggested by the title of " The Great Moguls." Under the new rule India began to return to peace, and such prosperity as was possible, with a still brighter day dawning upon her. Shah Alum enjoyed his honors and emoluments till 1806, when he was succeeded on his titular throne by his son, Shah Akbar, who held it until 1836, when its last possessor — the man whose portrait is here given — commenced his occupancy, and retained it till 1857, when a mad and hopeless infatuation led him to violate his treaty, and defy the power of the actual rulers of his empire, and precipitated him from the height to which his ambition had for a few weeks soared, into the depths of ignominious and unpitied exile. no THE LAND OF THE VEDA. A few facts in explanation are necessary here. This monarch, Mohammed Suraj-oo-deen, succeeded his father in 1836. The father, at the instigation of one of his wives, the favorite Begum, had done his best to deprive his son of his inheritance, and to have her own son, Mirza Saleem, acknowledged as his successor by the British Government. To this injustice that Government would not consent ; so his rights were protected, and he mounted the throne of his ancestors. The beautiful steel engraving on the opposite page gives a faith- ful picture of the wife, or, rather, one of the wives, of this old gentleman — the last of " The Great Moguls." Her name is Zeenat Mahal — the Ornament of the Palace — which was conferred on her when she was married to the Emperor in 1833. She was then six- teen years of age, and he was sixty — a disparity by no means uncommon in a land where polygamy prevails, and where such prejudice exists against marrying a widow, no matter how young or fair she may be. Her sexagenarian husband had other wives than Zeenat Mahal, but the beautiful and ambitious girl soon gained a complete control over the mind and heart of her aged lord, and this was made all the more influential when she had added the claims of a mother to the attractions of a wife. Then commenced those intrigues, which she carried on up to the year 1856, to secure the succession to the throne for her child, Mirza Jumma Bukht, to the exclusion of Mirza Furruk-oo-deen, the elder son, whose prior claims the English Government recog- nized and sustained, as in duty bound. Her hostility to British influence, therefore, became intense ; and her hopes of gaining her object were identified with the efibrts of the Sepoy conspiracy to overthrow the English power in India. Poor lady ! she utterly failed ; and she and the son for whom every thing was risked are to-day wanderers in a foreign land, with the bitter reflection of the utter desolation which has overwhelmed the dynasty of which she thus became the last empress. She is the daughter of the Rajah of Bhatneer, a territory about one hundred and eighty miles north- west of Delhi. /.Lj MAT ;G OF DELHI THE KHA8S AND TUB MOGUL SINK TOGETHER II3 The pictures of the Emperor and Empress here presented were painted on ivory by the Court portrait-painter twenty years ago, and are beautiful specimens of native art, and very correct Hke- nesses of them both. We will now turn from these royal persons to their home, and some of their splendid surroundings ; and, first of all, let us look at *heir historical and beautiful Deivan Khass. There was something remarkably significant in the fact that the magnificent and famous Audience Hall of the Moguls should sink to ruin with the dynasty which had so long adorned it. For two hundred and fifty years they had shed luster upon each other ; but, when we remember the crimes which had so long cried to Heaven for vengeance from the polished floor of this marble hall, it did seem fitting th.it the Most High, who ruleth in the kingdoms of men, in the hour when their judgment came should, with the same blow, strike down both the Mogul line and their magnificent memorial. When their cup of iniquity was full, and their hands were red with Christian blood, then came the day of vengeance. It was my lot to be a witness of the wondrous ruin — to behold this imperial head of Oriental Mohammedanism, this " Light of the Faith," as he was designated, sinking into utter ruin and darkness ; " Falling, like Lucifer, Never to hope again." When I reached the Mogul capital of Hindustan, in the autumn of 1856, the Dewan Khass was still the center of state and pagean- try, and its imperial master living in Oriental style on his salary of eighteen lakhs of rupees — $900,000 gold — per annum. Within one year from that day I was again in the Dewan Khass, where he used to sit in his gorgeous array, to witness his trial, and that of his princes and nobles, before a military commission of British officers, by whom he was condemned to be banished as a felon to a foreign shore for the remnant of his miserable life, there to sub- sist on a convict's allowance ; and within a few weeks after, when 1 again visited the once magnificent Dewan Khass, I found it despoiled of its glory, its marble halls and columns whitewashed. 114 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. and the whole turned into a hospital for sick soldiers ! Has the world ever witnessed a ruin more prompt, more complete, more amazing than this ? For seven hundred years the Mohammedan dynasties — of whom this wretched old man was the last representative — had tried to hold the reins of power over India, alien alike in race, language, and religion from the people whom they ruled. Mahmoud of Ghuznee — a contemporary for five years of William the Con- queror — was the founder of this line of monarchs ; and yet such was their character, that when these long centuries of selfish and bigoted misrule were ending, and this old man was in circumstances that might well have evoked compassion and sympathy from those around him, he was allowed to sink out of sight, not only without regret or condolence, but amid the expressed sense of relief of the race over whom he and his ancestors had dominated — a people with whom they had ever refused to amalgamate, whom they had never tried to conciliate, and from whom his race never realized either loyalty or affection. It may be doubted if any royal line on earth has had such a sad record to present to the historian. Of the sixty-five monarchs who thus conquered and ruled India, only twenty-seven of the numbei died a natural death ; all the rest were either exiled, killed in battle, or assassinated, while the average length of each reign was only eleven years. Truly has it been said, " Delhi has been the stage of greatness — men the actors, ambition the prompter, and centuries the audience." It was my opportunity to come in at the close, and behold destruction drawing the curtain over the scene, and writing upon it the realized sentence, and the warning to the nations : "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings • be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." This was all the more significant, because the men by whose instrumentality God wrought out his purposes were the very race ARCHITECTURAL TASTE OF TEE EMPERORS. 1 15 Tvhose new monarchy opened with their own in the tenth century ; bnt a race who received the faith which those Mohammedans repelled and persecuted, and who have consequently risen to supremacy among the nations ; so that, while one portion of them rules the New World, the other inherits the empire of the fallen Moguls, and are there with confidence expecting that the promise of the Almighty shall ere long be made as true as his threatenings now consummated : "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for tliy possession." How expressively does the history of these eight hun- dred years declare, "Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him!" True religion was the only thing this guilty but magnificent race needed for perpetuity. No dynasty ever had a grander oppor- tunity than they — a rich land, the sixth of the world's population, boundless wealth, almost a millennium of time for the trial, with a civilization all their own, and a splendid cultivated taste, which they had the will and the ability to gratify to the utmost, as its memori- als in Agra, and Delhi, and elsewhere, attest, to the surprise and delight of the traveler and tourist from many lands. The Emperor Shah Jehan — A. D. 1627 — alone, for his portion, laid out in Alipoor the celebrated Gardens of Shalimar, at a cost of ^5,000,000. They were about two miles and a half in cir- cumference, and were almost like Paradise in beauty. He then built the world-renowned Taj Mahal, expending upon it nearly ;$6o,ooo,ooo, the present value of money. He also erected the Dewan Khass, the most gorgeous audience hall in the East. This latter we here illustrate. This imperial hall was a gorgeous accessory of the Palace of Delhi. The front opened on a large quadrangle, and the whole stood in what was once a garden, extremely rich and beautiful. This unique pavilion rested on an elevated terrace, and was formed entirely of white marble. It was one hundred and fifty feet long, and forty in breadth, having a graceful cupola at each angle. The roof was supported on colonnades of marble pillars. The solid and Il6 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. polished marble has been worked into its forms with as much deli- cacy as though it had been wax, and its whole surface, pillars, wa'ils, arches, and roof, and even the pavement, was inlaid with the richest, most profuse, and exquisite designs in foliage and aia- besque ; the fruits and flowers being represented in sections of gems, such as amethysts, carnelian, blood-stone, garnet, topaz^ lapis lazuli, green serpentine, and various colored crystals. A bor- dering ran around the walls and columns similarly decorated, inlaid with inscriptions in Arabic from the Koran. The whole had the appearance of some rich work from the loom, in which a brilliant pattern is woven on a pure white ground, the tracery of rare and cunning artists. Purdahs (curtains) of all colors and designs hung from the crenated arches on the outside to exclude the glare and heat. (These purdahs are omitted in the engraving for the sake of the interior view.) In the center of the hall stood the Takt Taous, or Peacock Throne, of Shah Jehan, on the erection of which Price's History tells us he expended thirty millions sterling, ($150,000,000.) This wondrous work of art was ascended by steps of silver, at the sum- mit of which rose a massive seat of pure gold, with a canopy of the same metal inlaid with jewels. The chief feature of the design was a peacock with his tail spread, the natural colors being repre- sented by pure gems. A vine also was introduced into the design, the leaves and fruit of which were of precious stones, whose rays were reflected from mirrors set in large pearls. Beneath all this " glory " sat the Great Mogul. No wonder that the fame of this wealth and extravagance should attract the notice and cupidity of a man like Nadir Shah, the Per- sian, who, in 1739, invaded Hindustan, and carried off this Pea- cock Throne among his trophies. His estimate of it may be understood from the fact that he had a tent constructed to contain it, the outside of which was covered with scarlet broadcloth and the inside of violet-colored satin, on which birds and beasts, trees and flowers, were depicted in precious stones. On either side of the Peacock Throne a screen was extended, adorned with the fig- THE BLUNDER IN LALLA BOOKS. 1 19 ures of two angels, also represented in various colored gems. Even the tent-poles were adorned with jewels, and the pins were of massive gold. The whole formed a load for several elephants. The gorgeous trophy was afterward broken up by Adil Shah, the nephew and successor of the captor. Its place in the Dewan Khass was afterward supplied by another of inferior value, and by the Crystal Throne, which the writer saw in 1857. Inside of the entrance of the Khass, inscribed in black letters upon a slab of alabaster, is the Persian couplet, in the hyperbol- ical language of the East, quoted by Moore in his Lalla Rookh. " If there be an elysium on earth, It is this, it is this." Moore introduces it in "The Light of the Harem," where the Emperor Jehangeer and his beloved and beautiful Nourmahal, in their visit to the Valley of Cashmere, happen to fall into a sort of lovers' quarrel, and in the evening she vails herself, and takes her place among the beautiful female singers who have come to enter- tain the reclining Emperor — one of whom seems disposed to avail herself of the opportunity to attract the wounded and wandering love of Jehangeer in a wrong direction, when the vailed Nourma- hal, at the pause, strikes her lute and sings sweetly : " There's a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told, When two that are linked in one heavenly tie, With heart never changing, and brow never cold, Love on through all ills, and love on till they die ! One hour of a passion so sacred is worth Whole ages of heartless and wandering bliss ; And O, if there be an elysium on earth, It is this, it is this ! " Jehangefer's heart is touched, and there ensues a happy recon- ciliation. Unfortunately, however, for the poet, there is an anach- ronism here, and a violation of historic truth, as well as an inade- quate translation, for Shah Jehan, who built the Dewan Khass, and inscribed the words on the slab of alabaster over the entrance, was the son of Jehangeer, and it is not likely that his father's wife could quote the words before they were composed. Moore's I20 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. picture of Jehangeer and Nourmahal is the very reverse of wha' truthful history, corroborated by the personal observation of Sn Thomas Roe, tells us of that cruel sot and his talented but unprin- cipled Empress. And she could cherish but little true love for the man that had her noble husband, Sheer Afghan, so basely assassinated in order to gain possession of her person. It is a pity that poetry should be so often perverted and its ele- gancies made to adorn the unworthy and the vile. Nevertheless, we know that "the judgments of God are according to truth," and we see here that no wealth, or power, or magnificence, or human adulation, can shield the guilty when the inevitable hand of the Divine verdict has come. " Elysium " is too European, too Northern, a term to express Shah Jehan's word. But Moore, for a good part of his life a Romanist, may have thought the term over-biblical for his use, and chose the heathen phrase "elysium" in preference to the plain rendering of the word. The inscription runs exactly as follows, expressed in English letters : " Ugiir Firdousi ba-roo-i-zameen ust, Ameen ust, ameen ust, ameen ust." And the rendering is : " If there be a paradise on the face of the earth, This is it, this is it, this is it ! " (The original Persian may be found quoted by Dr. Clarke in his Commentary on Nehemiah i, verse 8.) In or near Persia was the region of Paradise, and the fame of the first garden, planted by God, near the banks of the Euphrates, lingered as a tradition in its own vicinity for four thousand years, and led to those imitations of it in the " paradises of Oriental des- pots." Most of the invasions of India were from the regions of the ancient Eden, and the invaders carr^'ed with them their ideas of paradise to the land of the Ganges, and tried to reproduce them there. This Dewan Khass was the central object of the most costly one ever planted in India, or perhaps anywhere else. PARADISE AND ITS PRIVILEGES. 121 Standing in the midst of it, how easy it seemed to transport one's self in thought to that similar scene mentioned in the book of Esther i, 4, 7, where, nearly five hundred years before Christ, Ahasuerus, the Persian, "who reigned from India even unto Ethi- opia," displayed his magnificence during the seven days' feast " in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble ; the beds [or seats] were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble." Verses 5 and 6. As Dr. Clarke has remarked, the term paradise " is applied to denote splendid apartments, as well 2iS fine gardens ; in a word, any place of pleasure and delight." And is not this exactly the idea of the paradise described in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Revelation — the golden city, with its jasper walls and gates of pearl, in the midst of the garden of God, with the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, and the tree of life yield- ing its fruit every month .'' In speaking of it Jesus says, " In my Father's house are many mansions." " I go to prepare a place for you." "They shall walk with me in white." " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." How Oriental are all these thoughts ! I have seen the princely Asiatic host, with his guests around him in their white flowing robes, moving through his beautiful garden, as he entertained them with his fellowship, with music, and the freest use of the bounties around them ; and the earthly scene has been a vivid image of what the heavenly paradise will be to the redeemed, when they shall find themselves at last in the garden of God, with Jesus as their host, having the right of entrance to his glorious audience hall, and the amazing honor of sitting down with him upon his sapphire throne, in the presence of the host of heaven ! See Exod. xxiv, 10; Ezek. i, 26; Rev. iii, 21. The crown worn on the head of the Great Mogul was worthy of the Khass and the throne on which he sat. It was made by the 122 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. great Akbar, in the fashion of that worn by the Persian kings, and was of extraordinary beauty and magnificence. It had twelve points, each surmounted by a diamond of ^-he purest water, while the central point terminated in a single pearl of extraordinary size, the whole, including many valuable rubies, being estimated at a cost equivalent to ;^2,070,ooo sterling, or $10,350,000. Add one thing more, the KoJi-i-noor diamond, on his brow, and you have the Mogul " in all his glory," as he sat on the Peacock Throne in his Dewan Khass, surrounded by Mohammedan princes, by tur- baned and jeweled rajahs, amid splendor which only " the gorgeous East" could furnish, and the fame of which seemed to the poor courts of Europe of that day like a tale of the Arabian Nights. Soon the Portuguese were found making their way around " the Cape of Storms " into the Indian Ocean, and thence to the capital of the Moguls. James I. of England, in 161 5, sent as his embas- sador Sir Thomas Roe, whose chaplain has left us a record of the embassy in A Voyage to the East Indies. Sir Thomas felt keenly the contrast afforded by the unpretending character of the presents and retinue with which his royal master had provided him, to the magnificent ceremonial which he daily witnessed, and in which he was permitted to take part. He remained two years at Jehan- geer's Court. One of the greatest displays occurred on the Em- peror's birthday, when, amid the ceremonies, the royal person was weighed in golden scales twelve times against gold, silver, per- fumes, and other valuables, the whole of which were then divided among the spectators. His description of the splendors of the scene sounds like the veriest romance. On one of the pillars of the Audience Hall is shown the mark of the dagger of the Hindoo Prince of Chittore, who, in the very pres- ence of the Emperor, stabbed to the heart one of the Mohammedan ministers, who made use of some disrespectful language toward him. On being asked how he presumed to do this in tne presence of his sovereign, he answered in almost the very words of Roderic Dhu, "I right my wrongs where they are given, Though it were in the court of Heaven." INQUISITION FOB BLOOD. 1 25 Alas ! what scenes of perfidy and blood have been witnessed A-ithin the walls of this Dewan Khass ! Sleeman and others have narrated scmie of them, but the half has not been told, and all are only known to Heaven. The last of them, in 1857, exhausted the patience of the Almighty, and the dynasty and their Khass were destroyed by that "stone" which then fell upon them, and ground them to powder. Here in this hall, which he himself had built, sat the great Shah Jehan, obliged to receive the insolent commands of his own grand- son, Mohammed, when flushed with victory, and to offer him the throne, merely to disappoint the expectations of the youth's rebel father. Here sat Aurungzebe — Shah Jehan's fourth son — when he ordered the assassination of his own brothers, Dara and Morad, and the imprisonment and destruction by slow poison of his own son Mohammed, who had so often fought bravely by his side in battle. Here, too, stood in chains the graceful Sooleeman, to receive his sentence of death, with his poor young brother, Sipeher Shekoh, who had shared all his father's toils and dangers, and wit- nessed his brutal murder. And here sat the handsome, but effem- inate, Mohammed Shah, in March, 1739, bandying compHments with his ferocious conqueror, Nadir Shah, the Persian King, who had destroyed his armies, plundered his treasury, appropriated his throne, and ordered the murder of nearly one hundred thousand of the helpless inhabitants of his capital, men, women, and children^ in a general massacre. The bodies of these people lay unburied in the streets, tainting the air, while the two sovereigns sat here sipping their coffee in the presence of their courtiers, and swearing to the most deliberate lies in the name of their God, prophet, and Koran ! Sleeman relates that on this occasion the coffee was brought into the Dewan Khass upon a golden salver, and delivered to the two sovereigns by the most polished gentleman of Mohammed Shah's Court. Precedence and public courtesies are, in the East, managed and respected with a tenacity and importance that to us of the Western world seems positively ridiculous. 126 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. Nevertheless, they are vital to the Oriental, and life or death have often hung upon their manifestations. All present on this occasion felt its significance. The movements of the officer, as he entered the gorgeous apartment, amid the splendid trains of the two Emperors, were watched with great anxiety ; if he presented the coffee first to his own master, the furious conqueror, before whom the sovereign of India and all his courtiers trembled, might order him to instant execution ; if he presented it to Nadir first, he would certainly insult his own sovereign out of fear of the stranger. To the astonishment of all, he walked up, with a steady step, direct to his own master. " I cannot," said he, " aspire to the honor of presenting the cup to the king of kings, your majesty's honored guest, nor would your majesty wish that any hand but your own should do so." The Emperor took the cup from the golden salver, and presented it to Nadir Shah, who said with a smile as he took it : " Had all your officers known and done their duty like this man, you had never, my good cousin, seen me and rvij Kuzul Bashus at Delhi. Take care of him for your own sake, and get around you as many like him as you can." All these are now dust — the oppressor and the oppressed gone to their account before God ; but the spirit of bigotry, and reckless- ness of human suffering and life, engendered by the Moslem creed, clung to the place until its gems ceased to shine, and its glory was extinguished forever. For here, too, sat its last occupant — this man whose portrait we present, Mohammed Suraj-oo-deen — on the 1 2th of May, 1857, ^^^ issued those orders under which England's embassador and his chaplain, with every Christian whom they could find in Delhi, male and female, native or European, were butchered amid barbarities the enormity of which has never been exceeded by any of the edicts of cruelty which have gone forth, even from the Dewan Khass. Humanity heaves a sigh of relief to know that this is the last. The house of Tamerlane is no more ; their Dewan Khass is in ruins ; their pomp, and glory, and power, have gone down to the grave forever. "^^ ;- '■ «. - 1 -S ■■ ": iilll 'MS MW THE FIRST SIGHT OF THE TAJ. 1 29 From these, with all their crimes, changes, and sufferings, we turn now to the peaceful and lovely monument which is India's architectural glory, and one of earth's great wonders — the exist- ence of which is probably the only valid apology remaining for the \ast revenues squandered by these irresponsible despots during so many hundred years. About six miles before the traveler reaches the city of Agra the dome and minarets of the world-renowned Taj Mahal burst upon his view from behind a grove of fruit-trees near the road. The effect is wonderful ! The long-anticipated pleasure of beholding earth's most beautiful shrine is now within his reach, and the grat- ified and delighted sight rests upon this first view of its harmony of parts, its faultless congregation of architectural beauties, with a kind of ecstasy. Of the thousands who have traveled far to gaze upon it, it may safely be asserted that not one of the number has been disappointed in the examination of its wondrous beauty. The Queen of Sheba would probably have admitted, had she seen it, that the " half had not been told her." We first look at it from the north side, on the river bank, where the scene is fully presented. The building to the right of the Taj is a Mosque for religious services, and that to the left is a Travelers' Rest House, where visitors can be accommodated. We next go around to the gate of entrance on the other side. The central avenue runs from the gate to the Taj, as shown in the steel engrav- ing, with a system of fountains, eighty-four in number, the entire length, having a marble reservoir in the middle about forty feet square, in which are five additional fountains, one in the center, and one at each corner. On either side of this beautiful sheet of water, into which are falling the silvery jets of spray from the fount- ains, are rows of dark Italian cypress, significant of the great design of the shrine. The river Jumna flows mildly by, as the garden is on its banks, and the birds, encouraged by the delicious coolness and shade of the place, forget their usual lassitude, and pour forth their songs, while the odor of roses, and of the orange, and lemon, and tamarind trees, perfume the air. 130 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. Amid all this loveliness the Taj rises before your view, upon an elevated terrace of white and yellow marble, about thirty feet in height, and having a graceful minaret at each corner. On either side are the beautiful Mosque and the Rest House, facing inward, and corresponding exactly with each other in size, design, and execution. That on the left side is the one used for service, as it allows the faces of the worshipers to be set toward the tomb of their prophet, to the west, at Mecca. The one to the right is used for the accommodation of visitors who come from various parts of the world to enjoy this great sight, and who here receive free quar- ters as long as they choose to remain. From the center of this great platform springs up the Taj itself A detailed description of its general appearance is rendered unnec- essary, as our readers have that before them in the beautiful engraving here given. The mausoleum itself, the terrace upon which it stands, and the minarets, are all formed of the finest white marble, inlaid with precious stones. The marble was brought from the Jeypore territory, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, and the sandstone for the walls, from Dholepore and Futtehpore Secree. A Persian manuscript, preserved in the Taj, professes to give a full account of the stones and materials used in its construc- tion. The white marble was brought from Jeypore, the yellow marble from the Nerbudda, the black from Charkoh, crystal from China, jasper from the Punjab, carnelian from Bagdad, turquoises from Thibet, agate from Yemen, lapis lazuli from Ceylon, diamonds from Punah, rockspar from the Nerbudda, loadstone from Gwalior, amethyst and onyx from Persia, chalcedony from Villiat, and sap- phires from Lanka — and this does not exhaust the list. The dome, " shining like an enchanted castle of burnished silver," is seventy feet in diameter, the Taj itself is two hundred and forty-five feet in altitude, and the cullice, or golden spire on the summit, is thirty feet more, making a height of two hundred and seventy-five feet from the terrace to the golden crescent. It is asserted that the whole of the Koran is inlaid upon the building in the Arabic language, the letters being beautifiilly formed TEE TAJ A MAUSOLEUM. 133 in black marble on the outside, and in precious stones within. Nearly all the external ornamentation which the reader sees in the engraving are these texts. The writer's earnest desire is, that his description may in some measure be worthy of the pictures ; yet, though conscious of having done his best, and venturing to assert that he has here brought together the most complete account of the Taj that has yet appeared, still he realizes to himself how tame and imperfect is any effort to convey to those who never had the privilege of seeing it an adequate idea of what its beauty really is, or of the effect it produces upon the mind of the beholder as he stands within its sacred inclosure and realizes its loveliness as fully displayed before him. Like piety, or like heaven, it may be said of the beauty of the Taj, that " no man knoweth it save him that receiveth it." Let our readers judge of this enthusiasm'by the views before them, and by what follows. The beautiful wood-cut opposite, presenting the view of the gate of the Taj, and the steel engraving which follows, are both made from photographs of the originals, taken in India, so that our readers may be assured that they have here before them the most perfect and worthy representation of this matchless structure that has ever appeared. The Taj is a mausoleum, built by the Great Mogul, Shah Jehan, over his beautiful Empress. It is situated in the midst of a garden of vast extent and beauty, three miles from Agra. The entrance to the garden is through the gateway here shown. This superb entrance is of red sandstone, inlaid with ornaments and with texts from the Koran in white marble, and is itself a palace, both as regards its magnitude and its decoration. The lofty walls that surround the garden are of the same material, having arched colon- nades running around the interior, and giving an air of magnifi- cence to the whole inclosure. The garden is laid out with rich taste. Its paths are paved with slabs of freestone, arranged in fanciful devices. Noble trees, affording a delightful shade and pleasant walks, even in the middle of the day, are planted in suffi- 134 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. cient number through the various spaces, while the fruit-trees, with the graceful palm, the banyan, and the feathery bamboo, mingle their foliage, and are ornamented by the sweet-scented tamarind and by flowers of the loveliest hue, which bloom in profusion around. It is difficult to determine whether the exterior or the interior is the more fascinating ; each has its own matchless claim, and each is perfect in its loveliness. Externally, the best times to see the Taj are by sunrise or by moonlight. The midday sun shining upon its polished surface is too brilliant for the eye to bear with satisfaction : for a position from whence to view it, the gallery on the top of the entrance-gate inside is decidedly the best point of observation. An hour before the sun rises you may see persons taking their places in that gallery, and there, elevated about sixty feet, they wait for the opening day, and the effect produced is thus well described : " The gray light of rnxorning had not yet appeared when we reached the Taj and made our way up to the top of the gate, to look upon it as it gradually grew into shape and form at the bid- ding of the rising sun. The moon had just hidden her face beneath the western horizon, and the darkness was at its deepest, presaging the approaching break of day. We looked down upon the immense inclosure crowded with trees mingled together in one undistin- guishable mass, gently surging and moaning in the night breeze. Above rose, apparently in the distance, a huge gray-blue mass, without shape or form, which rested like a cloud on the gloomy sea of foliage. Soon a faint glimmer of light appeared in the eastern horizon ; as the darkness fled away before its gradually increasing power, the cloud changed first to a light blue, and then developed into shape and proportion ; and the minarets, and the cupolas, and dome defined themselves in clearer lines upon the still dark sky beyond. Soon the first rosy tint of the dawn appeared, and as if by magic the whole assumed a roseate hue, which increased as the sun made its appearance, and the Taj stood before us, dazzlingly brilliant in the purest white, absolutely perfect in its fairy propor- tions. It is impossible to describe it. I had heard of perfection 1 THE TAJ SEEN BY MOONLIGHT. 1 37 of outline and of graceful symmetry of proportion, but never real- ized the true meaning of the words until the morning when I watched the Taj burst into loveliness at the touch of the sun's magic wand." Under the softened light of the moon the beautiful structure Jevelops fresh beauties. The dazzling effect has ceased, and you gaze upon every part of it as it appears bathed in a soft amber light that seems to enter your own soul, and impart its peace and serenity till you wonder that outside these walls there can be a world of sin, and strife, and sorrow. You are conscious of aban- doning yourself to the delightful, if brief, enjoyment of that poetic and mental peace which the charming scene was designed to pro- duce upon the beholder. Let us now enter the wonderful shrine itself, and gaze upon its internal beauty. Before entering the central hall we descend to the vault below, where the real sarcophagi are, in which lie the remains of the Emperor and Empress. Her tomb occupies the very center, and his is by her side. The light is made to fall directly upon her tomb, which is of white marble and beautifully decorated. But the especial splendor is reserved for the tombs in the rotunda above, directly over these, and which, as it were, offi- cially represent them. We ascend to them, and stand amid a scene of architectural glory which has no equal on earth. Above us rises the lofty dome, far up into the dim distance. The floor on which we tread is of polished marble and jasper, ornamented with a wainscoating of sculptured marble tablets inlaid with flowers formed of precious stones. Around are windows or screens of marble filigree, richly wrought in various patterns, which admit a faint and delicate illumination — what Ritualists would love to call "a dim, religious light" — into the gorgeous apartment. In the center are the two tombs, surrounded by a magnificent octagonal screen about six feet high, with doors on the sides. The open tracery in this white marble screen is wrought into beautiful flowers, such as lilies, irises, and others, and the borders of the screen are inlaid with 138 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. precious stones, representing flowers, executed with such wonder- ful perfection that the forms wave as in nature, and the hues and shades of the stems, leaves, and flowers appear as real almost as the beauties which they represent. These ornamental designs are so carefully and exquisitely exe- cuted that several of the flowers have as many as eighty different stones entering into their composition, all polished uniform with the marble, into which they are so delicately inserted that you can hardly trace their joinings. They seem as though they had grown there, instead of being separately prepared and placed in their positions by the hands of the " cunning workman," who designed and executed this imperishable and magnificent memorial of human love. But the richest work of all is on the cenotaph of the Empress within the screen. Upon her tomb — according to universal Moham- medan usage — is a slate or tablet of marble, while on the Emperor's is a small box representing a pen-holder. These always distin- guish a man's or a woman's grave among these people ; the idea being that a woman's heart is a tablet on which lordly man can write whatever pleases him best. And this mark of feminine inferiority was not spared even the beloved occupant of the Taj Mahal. But her tomb — how beautiful ! The snow-white marble is inlaid with flowers so delicately formed that they look like embroidery on white satin, so exquisitely is the mosaic executed in carnelian, blood-stone, agates, jasper, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and other precious stones. Thirty-five different specimens of carnelian are employed in forming a single leaf of a carnation ; and in one flower, not larger than a silver dollar, as many as twenty-three different stones can be counted. Yet these are but specimens of the beauties that are spread in unparalleled profusion over this entire chamber. Indeed, Long asserts that he found one flower upon her tomb tv be composed of no less than three hundred different stones. Her name and date of death, with her virtuous qualities, are recorded in the same costly manner, in gems of Arabic — the sacral REMARKABLE EFFECT OF SOFT MUSIC. 1 39 language of the Mohammedans — on the side of her tomb. There are other inscriptions upon it, which we will hereafter refer to when we come to examine who this lady was that was thus honored in death beyond all her sex. The Emperor's tomb is plainer than the other, has no passages from the Koran, but merely a similar mosaic work of flowers, and his name, with the date of his death, upon it. Over all this richness and beauty rises the magnificent dome, which is so constructed as to contain an echo more pure, and pro- longed, and harmonious than any other in the world, so far as known. A competent judge has declared, " Of all the complicated music ever heard on earth, that of a flute played gently in the vault below, where the remains of the Emperor and his consort repose, as the sound rises to the dome amid a hundred arched alcoves around, and descends in heavenly reverberations upon those who sit or recline on the cenotaphs above, is perhaps the finest to an inartificial ear. We feel as if it were from heaven, and breathed by angels. It is to the ear what the building itself is to the eye ; but unhappily it cannot, like the building, live in our recollections. All that we can in after life remember is, that it was heavenly and produced heavenly emotions." An enthusiast thus more glowingly describes it : " Now take your seat upon the marble pavement beside the upper tombs, and send your companion to the vault underneath to run slowly over the notes of his flute or guitar. Was ever melody like this } It haunts the air above and around. It distills in showers upon the polished marble. It condenses into the mild shadows, and sublimes into the softened, hallowed light of the dome. It rises, it falls ; it swims mockingly, meltingly around. It is the very element with which sweet dreams are builded. It is the melancholy echo of the past — it is the bright, delicate harping of the future. It is the atmosphere breathed by Ariel, and playing around the fountain of Chindara. It is the spirit of the Taj, the voice of inspired love, which called into being this peerless wonder of the world, and elaborated its symmetry and composed its harmony, and, eddying around its young mmarets I40 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. and domes, blended them without a line into the azure of immensity," Let us imagine, if we can, the effect produced here when the funeral dirge was chanted over the tomb of the lovely Empress, and the answering echoes, in the pauses of the strains, would seem to fall like the responses of angel choirs in paradise! Princely provision was made by the gifted originator of the Taj for its care and services. The light that fell upon that tomb day and night was from perfumed oil in golden lamps ; fresh gar- lands of nature's flowers were laid upon it daily ; Mogul musicians furnished appropriate music ; five times in each twenty-four hours the Muezzin's cry to prayers resounded from these minarets ; and a eunuch of high station, with two thousand Sepoys under his orders, held watch and ward without ceasing over the entire place and all its approaches. None but men of Mohammedan faith were per- mitted to come within these precincts, or to draw near her tomb ; and the entire shrine was by the Emperor's orders expressly held sacred from the approach of any Christian foot. Arrangements were made for occasionally exhibiting its loveli- ness by light adequate to bring out its perfect beauty. Rests were provided on the eight corners of the shrine for blue or Bengal lights, and when these were simultaneously fired, as the writer has seen them, the effect was magical. The candles had been pre- viously extinguished and the building left in total darkness, when, at the signal, the brilliant illumination burst forth, and every point and ornament, even to the top of the rich dome itself, was dis- played more gloriously than the light of day could ever have exhib- ited their rich colors. The inlaid ornamentation and filagree of the scenes, now like transparent and delicate lace- work, all seemed, to the astonished vision, like a palace of enchantment, and the mind of the beholder was awed into homage of that rare intellect which could devise and execute this the most beautiful monument on which the human eye can ever gaze on earth ! Perhaps no one has ever rendered such perfect justice to the beauty of this mausoleum as the unnamed author quoted by TEE TAJ MATCHLESS. 141 Stocqueler. He thus sketches it : " 1 have been to visit the Taj. I have returned full of emotion. My mind is enriched with visions of ideal beauty. When first I approached the Taj, eleven years ago, I was disappointed. In after days, when my admiration for the loveliness of this building had grown into a passion, I often inquired why this should have been .-' And the only answer I can find is, that the symmetry is too perfect to strike at first. It meets you as the most natural of objects. It, therefore, does not startle, and you return from it disappointed that you have not been startled. But it grows upon you in all the harmony of its propor- tions, in all the exquisite delicacy of its adornment, and at each glance some fresh beauty or grace is developed. And, besides, it stands so much alone in the world of beauty. Imagination ha& never conceived a second Taj, nor had any thing similar ever befo^o occurred to it. " View the Taj at a distance ! It is as the spirit of some happy dream, dwelling dim, but pure, upon the horizon of your hope, and reigning in virgin supremacy over the visible circle of the earth and sky. Approach it nearer, and its grandeur appears unlessened by the acuteness of its fabric, and swelling in all its fresh and fairy har- mony until you are at a loss for feelings worthy of its presence. Approach still nearer, and that which, as a whole, has proved so, charming, is found to be equally exquisite in the minutest detail. Here are no mere touches for distant effect. Here is no need to place the beholder in a particular spot to cast a partial light upon the performance ; the work which dazzles with its elegance at the coup d' ceil will bear the scrutiny of the miscroscope ; the sculpture of the panels, the fretwork and mosaic of the screen, the elegance of the marble pavement, the perfect finish of every jot and iota, are as if the meanest architect had been one of those potent genii who were of yore compelled to adorn the palaces of necromancers and kings. " We feel, as our eye wanders around this hallowed space, that we have hitherto lavished our language and admiration in vain. We dread to think of it with feelings which workmanship less 8 142 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. exquisite has awakened, and we dare not use, in its praise, lan- guage hackneyed in the service of every-day minds. We seek for it a new train of associations, a fresh range of ideas, a greener and more sacred corner in the repository of the heart. And yet, where- fore should this be, since no terms applying to other works of beauty, excepting the most general, can be appropriated here 1 For those there be phrases established by usage, which their several classifi- cations of style render intelligible to all acquainted with similar works of art. But in the Taj we fall upon a new and separate cre- ation, which never can become a style, since it can never be imi- tated. It is like some bright and newly discovered winged thing, all beauteous in a beauty peculiar to itself, and referable to no class or order on the roll of zoology, which the whole world flocks to gaze upon with solemn delight, none presuming to designate the lovely stranger, nor to conjecture a kindred for it with the winged things of the earth. Suffice it — Love was its author. Beauty its inspiration." There never was erected in this world any thing so perfect and lovely, save Solomon's Temple. In gazing down upon the scene, as the writer did in the closing days of the terrible rebellion in 1858, the effect was wonderful, and akin to those emotions that must thrill the soul which looks out for the first time upon the plains of heaven. Every thing that could remind one of ruin and misery seemed so far away, that as we sat, and the delighted eyes drank in the scene before them, terminated by the gorgeous fane as it rose up toward the blue and cloudless sky, we thought, if John Bunyan could have shared the opportunity, he would surely have imagined his dreams realized, and believed himself looking over the battlements of the New Jerusalem, and viewing that " region of eternal day " where holiness and peace are typified by pearls and gold, and all manner of precious stones, with the fountain of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb ! Two questions now remain to be answered : Who was the lady to whom the Taj was erected ? and. Who was the architect who designed and executed it .-' FOR WEOif WAS THE TAJ ERECTED? 1 43 There has been much misunderstanding upon these subjects. The wrong lady has been named by authors who might have understood better, had they consulted the proper authorities, and it has also been asserted that the architect was unknown. Bayard Taylor, for instance, in his India, China, and yapan, informs his readers that " Shah Jehan — the ' Selim ' of Moore's poem — erected it as a mausoleum to his Queen Noor Jehan, the ' Light of the World,' " and he several times repeats this blunder. Mr. Taylor is not profound in Indian history. Every statement in ifhe above quotation is incorrect. The Selim of Moore's poem was not Shah Jehan, but his father ; Noor Jehan was not Shah Jehan's wife, but his stepmother ; and Noor Jehan was not buried in the Taj, but beyond the Attock, in the North-west, where her tomb is to-day a mere ruin. That Bayard Taylor should write in this superficial style is not very unusual with him : but that such authors as Mont- gomery Martin and Bishop Heber should say it was for Noor Jehan is indeed surprising : for they had acquaintance with the history of India, and had not to depend upon ignorant guides and guide books for the information they would give their readers Our description of Etmad-od-Doulah's Tomb will present the facts, showing that the infant born in the desert afterward became the wife, first of Sheer Afghan, and then of Prince Selim, after he mounted the throne, taking the name of Jehangeer, when he con- ferred upon her the title of Noor Jehan. These were the hero and heroine of Moore's poem. Shah Jehan, who built the Taj, was the son of Jehangeer by a different wife than Noor Jehan. Noor Jehan's brother, Asuf Jan, had a daughter whom Shah Jehan married, and to whom he gave the title of Moomtaj-i-Mahal, and it was to her memory that he built the Taj, long after his father was dead, and while he held his stepmother, Noor Jehan — who died in 1646 — in a state of honorable captivity. Moomtaj-i-Mahal died in 163 1, fifteen years before her aunt, Noor Jehan. The history of Moomtaj is very interesting, and we may give a few of the facts here. She was very beautiful, and obtained an unbounded influence over the mind of the Emperor, exhibiting 144 TEE LANL OF THE VEDA. such capacity for the management of State affairs, that her husband seems for years to have resigned the reins of government into her hands, while he was consuming his time over the wine bottle in the company of a favorite French physician. From this dream of pleasure, the history tells us, Shah Jehan was suddenly awakened by the fatal illness of his beautiful Empress. She died in giving birth to a daughter, who is said to have been heard crying in the womb by herself and her other daughters. She sent for the Emperor, and told him that she believed no mother had ever been known to survive the birth of a child so heard, and that she felt her end was near. " She had," she said, " only two requests to make : first, that he would not marry again after her death, and have children to contend with hers for his favors and dominions ; and, secondly, that he would build for her the tomb with which he had promised to perpetuate her name." Both her dying requests were granted. Her tomb was commenced immediately. No woman ever pretended to supply her place in the palace, nor had Shah Jehan children by any other. But Moomtaj might well, in her dying hours, make the request she did, for she could not be ignorant that Shah Jehan had secured the throne to himself, from the other children of his father, by the use of the dagger and the bow-string. And it was not without reason ; for before she was many years laid in the Taj her own children, even, contended for the throne ; and the magnificent Shah Jehan, realizing that "as he had done so God rewarded him," died in prison in 1666, a captive in the hands of his son, Aurungzebe, who had already followed the example of his father in hunting down and destroying his brothers and nephews in order to secure the throne undisputed to himself But we return to the peaceful Taj. The Empress Moomtaj was a Khadija in her day, a Mohammedan devotee, and a bitter foe of Christianity — such Christianity as she knew. She took care that this animosity should go with her to the grave, and even be inserted on her tomb ; and there it is to-day, in the Taj, amid the flowers and inscriptions on her cenotaph — a prohibition and a prayer against ROMANISITS LOST OPPORTUNITY. 145 Christ's followers, which her race has now forever lost the power to enforce, and which God Almighty has taken providential care shall not only remain unanswered, but be reversed to the very letter. The circumstances were these : Prior to the days of Shah Jehan and his wife, the Portuguese, attracted by the fame and the wealth of the great Akbar and his sons, had found their way to India, establishing themselves as traders and merchants, on the west coast at Goa and on the east at Hooghly, near the present Calcutta. Some, who were artisans, reached Agra, the imperial city, where they were employed by the Government chiefly in the duties of the artillery, the arsenals and founderies, and a few as artists. The emoluments of office, for arts which they were thus introducing, were very large, and soon attracted great numbers to Agra, so that Monsieur Thevenot, who visited Agra in 1666, tells us that the Christian families there were estimated to have been about twenty- five thousand — an exaggeration doubtless. Still their number must have been large ; and among them were some Italians and Frenchmen, as is evident from their tombs, which are still extant in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Agra, where the dates of several are still visible on the head-stones, ranging from the year 1600 to 1650. Akbar and Shah Jehan allowed these people the free exercise of their religion. Indeed, the former built them a church, and used to take pleasure in presiding at discussions where he matched the Romanist priests against his Pundits and Moulvies, and seemed to enjoy the theological battles between them. Feeble as the light was which thus penetrated the imperial household, it did not shine in vain, for some of Akbar's household were actually baptized and professed the Christian faith. Roman Catholicism never had a grander opportunity than it enjoyed at Agra during those sixty years. Had it been a pure Christianity it might have won over the house of Tamerlane to the faith, and perhaps have saved all India long since. But it failed utterly, and vvon only a grave-yard at Agra. These thousands 146 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. of families soon vanished away and left no succession, for Hindoos and Mohammedans learned to perform duties which they saw bringing to the Christians so much honor and profit, and, as they did so, they necessarily hastened the removal of a religion which they detested. What is needed in India is a Christianity inde- pendent of the emoluments of office — one that shall take roct in the soil, and be self-sustaining. But Romanism failed, and not from this cause alone, or even chiefly ; its weak point was the fearful charge of idolatry which the Moulvies triumphantly urged against its priests on all occasions. The skeptical but honest Akbar — the Oriental head of a faith iconoclastic to the core — was confused, as well he might be, when he saw his own Moulvies able to quote the Christian Bible against professed Christian ministers to sustain this terrible charge. Denial of it would not avail ; there were their own teachings and acts : worship and prayers to the Virgin Mary, invocation of saints, and prostrations before pictures and images. The subterfuge of a qualified homage was rejected in view of the prohibition of the Second Commandment of Almighty God, forbidding not only the act, but also its semblance, " Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor v»^orship them." The priests were worsted ; and Akbar and his people, knowing no Christianity but this, concluded that the religion of the Son of God was on a par with Paganism, and that Christians were idolaters. A revulsion set in, which the Empress Moomtaj afterward fully shared. In her case, the hatred of the Christian name was intensified by the remembrance of some insolence shown by the Portuguese at Hooghly, several years before her husband ascended the throne, and when he was a fugitive, after an unsuccessful rebellion against his father. When the power passed into her hands her hatred against " the European idolaters," as she called them, led her to demand their expulsion, at least from Hooghly. Accordingly, the Governor of Bengal received from Shah Jehan the laconic command, "Expel those idolaters from my dominions." It was done. Hooghly was carried by storm, after a siege of three months and a half, involving a terrible destruction of life on A PRATER WHICH GOD REFUSES TO ANSWER. 1 47 the side of the Portuguese, whose fleet was almost entirely anni- hilated. The principal ship, in which about two thousand men, women, and children had taken refuge, with all their treasure, was blown up by her cajDtain sooner than surrender to the Moguls. From the prisoners five hundred young persons of both sexes, with some of the priests, were sent to Agra. The girls were divided among the harems of the court and nobles, the boys cir- cumcised, and the priests and Jesuits threatened with torture if they refused to accept the Koran. After some months of impris- onment, however, they were liberated and sent off to Goa, and the pictures and images, which had excited the ire of the Empress, were all destroyed by her orders. Such wrong did Romanism do Christianity in India, and the name of our God and Saviour was blasphemed among the heathen through its idolatry. The Empress Moomtaj, even in death, could not forget her en- mity to every form of Christianity, and secured that it should be expressed upon her very tomb, and there it remains to-day, and will remain while the world stands or the Taj exists. The inscrip- tion on the tomb, translated, is as follows : " Moomtaj-i-MaJial^ Ranee Begum, died 1631 :" and on the end of the tomb which faces the entrance, so that all may see it as they approach, are these words : " And defend ns from the tribe of unbelievers " — Kafirs ; the word " Kafirs " being a bitter term of contempt for Christians and all who lack faith in Mohammed and the Koran. Heaven would not answer the fanatical prayer of this mistaken woman ; but, instead, has placed even her shrine in the custody of those she hated ; and that very " tribe " now gather from all parts of the civilized world, to enter freely and admire the splendors of the tomb which was raised over her remains, and smile with pity at the impotent bigotry which asked Heaven to forbid their ap- proach ! The writer had the privilege, with a band of Christian missionaries, of standing around her tomb, and, in the presence of these words, of joining heartily in singing the Christian Doxology over her moldering remains, while the echo above sweetly repeated the praise to " Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 148 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. An article on the Taj, without some account of its architecty would be indeed incomplete. But the record, assuming its cor- rectness, enables us to supply this information also. The wonder- ful man whose creation the Taj is, was, it is believed, a French- man, by the name of Austin de Bordeux, a man of great ability.. The Emperor, who had unbounded confidence in his merit and integrity, gave him the title of " Zurrier Dust " — the Jewel-Handed — to distinguish him from all other artists ; but by the native writers he is called " Gostan Esau Nadir ol Asur " — the Wonder ful of the Age. For his office of " Nuksha Nuwes," or architect, he received a regular salary of one thousand rupees per month — ;^6,ooo gold per annum — with perquisites and presents, which made his income very large. He built the palace at Delhi and the palace at Agra, as well as the Taj. Tavernier, the traveler, who saw this building commenced and finished, tells us that the Taj, in its erection, occupied 20,000 men for twenty-two years. Its cost, we are told, was " threescore, seven- teen lakhs, forty-eight thousand and twenty-six rupees ;" that is, p^3, 174,802 sterling, or, in American money, ^15,874,010 gold, of the money of that time, equal to about ^60,000,000 of our money ! But many of the precious stones in the mosaic were presented by different tributary powers, and are not included in the above esti- mate. Having finished the Taj, the architect was engaged in designing a silver ceiling for one of the galleries in the palace at Agra when he was sent by the Emperor on business of great importance to Goa. He died at Cochin on his return, and is sup- posed to have been poisoned by the Portuguese, who were jealous of his influence at Court. Shah Jehan had commenced his own tomb on the other side of the Jumna, and it and the Taj were to have been united by a bridge ; but the death of Austin de Bor- deux, and the wars between Shah Jehan's sons, which then broke out, prevented the completion of these magnificent works, and so the Emperor was laid beside his consort, when he died in 1666, and the Taj contains the remains of both. The Empress's title, translated, is. The Ornament of the Palace, Ml III lull I II III mill I iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniinTii J^TMAD OD-DOULAU'S TOMB. I51 for so Shah Jehan esteemed her. The name of the tomb, Taj Mahal, means, The Crown of Edifices, or Palaces — from Taj, a crown, and Mahal, a palace. It is worthy of its title, and is under the special care of the English Government, and will no doubt be l)reserved in its present perfect and stainless condition for its own Hike, and because it is and must ever remain — notwithstanding the sins and frailties of the couple who beneath its dome await the call to judgment — the most perfect and beautiful testimonial to the virtues of a wife ever raised by an affectionate husband. Among the thousands of her sex who have visi^d the Taj, and felt its peculiar fascination over the susceptible heart of sentiment- al women. Lady Sleeman was not the first, as she certainly will not be the last, to realize the emotion which is recorded of her. Retiring from the Taj, lost in reflection and admiration, she was asked by her husband what she thought of the Taj .'' Her prompt reply was, " I cannot tell you what I think, for I know not how to criticise such a building ; but I can tell you what I feel — / would die to-morrow to have stick another put over me ! " A short distance from the Taj we reach the beautiful tomb of the Premier of the great Emperor Akbar. This splendid pile of white marble, delicately carved into fret-work, its screens and tes- sellated enamels being very fine, is situated on the right hand of the road as you enter the city of Agra. The tomb is not only beautiful in itself, and one of the most inter- esting specimens of Mogul architecture to be met with, even in a city so replete with artistic triumphs as was once imperial Agra, the creation of the renowned Akbar ; but there is a history connected with it so romantic, illustrated by Sleeman and Martin, that it is worthy of its high place among the curiosities of Oriental life. This structure was raised by the famous Noor Jehan, in loving remembrance of her father, Khwaja Accas, one of the most prom- inent characters in the history of India during the reign of Akbar. The liberality and fame of the greatest monarch that ever ruled India, and the patronage he extended to men of genius and worth, attracted to his Court from Persia and the adjacent nations those 152 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. who in his service found wealth and honor. Khwaja Accas was a native of Western Tartary. He had some relations at the Imperial Court of India who encouraged him to join them, under the expec- tation that they could secure his advancement in life. He was of good ancestry, but of reduced means, and possessed of abilities which needed only a fair opportunity for development to insure his suc- cess. He left Tartary for India at the close of the sixteenth cen- tury, accompanied by his wife and children ; their only means for their journey having been provided by the sale of his little prop- erty. The incidents of their long and weary emigration are given with much simplicity. Their stock of money had become ex- hausted, and, in crossing the Great Desert, they were three days without food, and in danger of perishing. In this fearful emer- gency, the wife of Khwaja Accas gave birth to a daughter ; but, worn out with fatigue and privation, the miserable parents con- cluded to abandon the poor infant. They covered it over with leaves, and toward evening pursued their journey. One bullock remained to them, and on this the father placed his wife, and tried to support her on their way, in hope to reach the cultivated coun- try and find relief They had gone about a mile, and had just lost sight of the solitary shrub under which they had left their child, when Nature triumphed, and the mother, in an agony of grief, threw herself from the bullock upon the ground, exclaiming, " My child, my child ! " Accas could not resist the appeal. He re- turned to the spot which they had left, took up his infant, and brought it to its mother's breast. Shortly after a caravan was seen in the distance coming toward them ; their circumstances were made known, and a wealthy mer- chant took compassion upon them, relieved their necessities, and safely conducted them to their destination ; he even lent his influ- ence to advance them in life when they reached Lahore, where the Emperor Akbar was then holding his Court. That little group of five persons, the father and mother, the babe and her two brothers, were destined to fill a place in the page of history more influential than that of any family that ever emigrated TUE DAUOHTEB OF THE DESERT. 1 53 to India ; for, leaving out of view for the present the high positions afterward attained by the father and his sons, that babe of the desert became, a few years subsequently, Empress of India, and bore the famous title of " Noor Jehan " — the Light of the World — while her brother, Asuf Jan, became the father of the equally cele- brated Moomtaj-i-Mahal — to whose memory her husband, Shah Jchan, built the matchless Taj Mahal — the noblest monument ever erected to woman. Asuf Khan, a distant relative of Khwaja Accas, held a high place at Court, and was much in the confidence of the Emperor. He made his kinsman his private secretary. Pleased with his ability and diligence, Asuf soon brought his merits to the special notice of Akbar, who raised him to the command of a thousand horse, and soon after appointed him Master of the Imperial Household. From this he was subsequently promoted to that of Etmad-od-Doulah, oi High Treasurer of the Empire, and first minister. His legislative ability soon produced beneficial results in public affairs, while his modest yet manly bearing conciliated the nobility, who learned to appreciate the value of the control which he exercised over the ill-regulated mind of the Emperor. His daughter, born in the desert, developed into one of the most lovely women of the East, as celebrated for her accomplishments as she was for her beauty, and ultimately she became the wife of the Prince Selim, known afterward by his title of Jehangeer, by whom she was raised to the throne, and had lavished upon her honors and power never before enjoyed by the consort of an Oriental potentate, even to the conjunction of her name with that of Jehangeer on the coins of the realm. On the death of her venerable and honored father she erected tliis tomb over his remains. The building, rising from a broad platform, is of white marble, of quadrangular shape, flanked by octagonal towers, which are surmounted by cupolas on a series of open columns. From the center of the roof of the main building springs a small tomb-like structure, elaborately carved and deco- rated, the corners terminating in golden spires. Immediately 154 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. below this, on the floor of the hall, is the tomb inclosing the body of Etmad-od-Doulah. Interiorly and exteriorly this fairy pile is covered, as with beautiful lace, by lattice -work, delicately wrought in marble, covered with foliage and flowers, and intermingled with scrolls bearing passages from the Koran. Every portion of the mausoleum is thus enriched, and all that wealth could furnish, or Oriental art suggest, or genius execute, in the completion of the structure, was devoted to its adornment. The original idea in the mind of the Empress, as Martin and others relate, was to con- struct her father's shrine of solid silver ; and she was only dis- suaded from this purpose by the assurance that if marble was not equally costly, it was certain to be more durable, and less likely to attract the cupidity of future ages. The photograph of this building, when examined by a good glass, brings out its singular loveliness as no mere engraving can present it. Each slab of white marble is wrought in rich tracery in the most delicate manner, pierced through and through so as to be the same when seen from either side ; the pattern of each slab differs from the next one, and the rich variety, as well as beauty of the designs, fixes the attention of the beholder in amazement at the taste and patient skill that could originate and execute this vision of beauty, which seems like an imagination rising before the fancy, and then, by some wondrous wand of power, transmuted into a solid form forever, to be touched, and examined, and admired. Standing within the shrine, it seems as though it was covered with a rich vail, wrought in curious needle-work, every ray of light that enters coming through the various patterns. You approach and touch it, and find it is of white marble, two inches in thickness ! What mind but that of a lady could have suggested a design so unique and feminine ? According to the usages of the Moguls, a lovely garden was planted around the fair shrine, and ample provision made for its care and preservation in the future. Rare and costly trees, fla- grant evergreens, shady walks, and tanks and fountains, all added their charms to set off the central pile. A small mosque was THE HEROINE OF MOORE'S POEM. 1 55 added, and such religion as they knew lent its influence to the sacredness of the locality ; while the beautiful birds of India, their plumage bearing "The rich hues of all glorious things," made the calm and sweet retreat more gorgeous by their presence. The Daughter of the Desert, forgetting forever the unnatural desertion of him whom she so lavishly honored, thus made a para- dise of the abode of the dead. Let her have the credit of whatever estimable qualities the great act expressed ; she needs this, and every other allowance that fairly belongs to her history, as some offset to the sadder parts of a life and character that, two hundred and fifty years ago, surprised all India by its singularity, its mag- nificence, and its less worthy qualities — a fame that lingered in their legends and history, and which, after such long interval, set- tled so fascinatingly on the imagination of Tom Moore, and came forth in his romance of Lalla Rookh. But the poet left out more than half the life of his heroine ; he gave her loves and fascina- tions, but omitted her labors, and those brilliant exploits which, quite as much as her beauty, commended her to the admiration of Jehangeer and his subjects. Looking at such persons, and their brilliant, yet abused, oppor- tunities, one may well say, " I have seen an end of all perfection." How transitory, at best, is the fame that rests on such foundations ! While we admire the taste, accomplishments, and achievements of this magnificent woman, we seek in vain for any evidence of benev- olence or goodness in what she did. She seems to have left God and humanity entirely out of her calculations. In all the tombs and pal- aces built by her and for her, personal glory and selfish ends — for self and family — alone appear. On these the revenues of a whole people were squandered, and their hard earnings demanded to enable her 'o exhibit, on this lavish scale, her magnificent caprices. But no hospitals, or schools, or asylums for suffering humanity, exist to call her blessed, or to hand down her name as a pattern or pro- moter of purity and goodness. How much more " honorable and glorious" is the character, or the lot, of the humblest saint of God 156 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. who lives to do good to her fellow-creatures ! Her grave may be as lowly and lone as that of Ann Hazeltine Judson, on the rock at Amherst, and without a stone to mark it, as I saw it in 1864 ; but, when Noor Jehan's marble edifices have returned to the dust, those who have thus employed their time and abilities to save the per- ishing will be " had in everlasting remembrance," and " shine as the stars for ever and ever." Few men have visited the East who possessed so highly as did Bishop Heber the capacity to appreciate the taste and skill exhib- ited in the gorgeous buildings of India. Truly and appropriately does he exclaim, while contemplating their wondrous works, " These Patans built like giants, and finished their work like jewelers." The highest illustration of this eulogium is found in the matchless Taj Mahal. We present one more evidence of their taste and skill in the wonderful Kootiib Minar. It has been well observed that this Minar is, among the towers of the earth, what the Taj is among the tombs, something unique of its kind, that must ever stand alone in the recollection of him who has gazed upon its beautiful proportions, its chaste embellish- ments, and exquisite finish. About eleven miles south-west of the modern city of Delhi stands the desolate site of ancient Delhi. This city is supposed to have been founded about 57 B. C. The height of prosperity to which it rose may be imagined from its only memorials — the tombs, columns, gateways, mosques, and masonry, which lie strewn around in silent and naked desolation. Where rose temple and tower now resounds only the cry of the jackal and the wolf; for the voice of man is silent there, and the wanderings of the occasional tourist alone give any sign of human life or presence in the once " glorious city." The ruins cover a circle of about twenty miles in extent. In the midst and above all this wild ruin, like a Pharos to guide the traveler over this sea of desolation, rises the tall, tapering cyl- inder of the Kootub Minar. To archaeologists like Cunningham, travelers like Von Orlich, and learned observers like General Slee- rhe Kootub. — From a Photograph. THE KOOTUB PEERLESS. 1 59 man, Mr. Archer, and Bholanauth Chunder, and the pages of the "Asiatic Researches," we are indebted for the best descriptions of this wonderful relic of antiquity. These authors have necessarily- borrowed largely from each other in representing this city of the dead and its wonderful and unequaled pillar, the towering majesty of which has looked down for centuries only upon ruin and the wild jungle which now grows where once stood the great center of India's glory — its magnificent metropolis. The Kootub forms the left of two minars of a mosque, which, in size and splendor, was to be peerless on the earth as a place of worship, and from the character of this single shaft it is evident that, had the design been completed, it would have been all that its imperial founder intended in that respect. But death, war, and human vacillation make sad havoc of men's hopes and intentions, and this great memorial stands in attestation of the fact. For nearly a century a controversy has existed in India as to the architectural honors of the wonderful Kootub. The Hindoos would fain claim that they built it, and Bholanauth Chunder, on their behalf, makes the best case he can to prove that the honor of its design and creation belongs to his race, and not to the hated Moslem ; yet even he has to concede that the evidences of its Mohammedan origin are so decided that the Hindoos must give up the claim to the glory of its origination. The Baboo's description is very vivid, and as he corrected the measurements of General Sleeman and others, and has made his examinations within the past five years, and was also well qualified for the task which he undertook, we quote him with confidence in the following description : " The Kootub outdoes every thing of its kind — it is rich, unique, venerable, and magnificent. It ' stands as it were alone in India ; * rather, it should have been said, alone in the zvorld; for it is the highest column that the hand of man has yet reared, being, as it stands now, two hundred and thirty-eight feet and one inch above the level of the ground. Once it is said to have been three hun- dred feet high, but there is not any very reliable authority for this I bo THE LAND OF THE VEDA. Statement. In 1794, however, it had been actually measured to be two hundred and fifty feet eleven inches high. The Pillar of Pompey at Alexandria, the Minaret of the Mosque of Hassan at Cairo, and the Alexandrine Column at St. Petersburg, all bow their heads to the Kootub. "The base of this Minar is a polygon of twenty-four sides, alto- gether measuring one hundred and forty-seven feet. The shaft is of a circular form, and tapers regularly from the base to the sum- mit. It is divided into five stories, round each of which runs a bold, projecting balcony, supported upon large and richly-carved brackets, having balustrades that give to the pillar a most orna- mental effect. " The exterior of the basement story is fluted alternately in twenty-seven angular and semicircular faces. In the second stoiy the flutings are only semicircular : in the third they are all angular. The fourth story is circular and plain ; the fifth again has semicir- cular flutings. The relative height of the stories to the diameter of the base has quite scientific proportions. The first, or lower- most story, is ninety-five feet from the ground, or just two diame- ters in height ; the second is fifty-three feet farther up, the third forty feet farther. The fourth story is twenty-four feet above the third, and the fifth has a height of twenty-two feet. The whole column is just five diameters in height. Up to the third story the Minar is built of fine red sandstone. From the third balcony to the fifth the building is composed chiefly of white Jeypoor marble. The interior is of the gray rose-quartz stone. The ascent is by a spiral staircase of three hundred and seventy-six steps to the bal- cony of the fifth story, and thence are three more steps to the top of the present stone-work. Inside it is roomy enough, and full of openings for the admission of light and air. The steps are almost ' lady-steps,' and the ascent is quite easy. The ferruginous sand- stone has been well selected to lend a rich, majestic appearance to the column. The surface of that material seems to have deepened in reddish tmt by exposure for ages to the oxygen of the atmos- phere. The white marble of the upper stories sits like a tasteful OBTGIN OF THE KOOTUB. l6l crown upon the red stone ; and the graceful bells sculptured in the balconies are like a * cummerbund ' around the waist of the majestic tower. The lettering on the upper portions has to be made out by using a telescope." The Kootub does not stand now in all the integrity of its original structure. It was struck by lightning, and had to be repaired by the Emperor Feroz Shah in 1368. In 1503 the Minar happened to be again injured, and was repaired by the orders of Secunder Lodi, the reigning sovereign, a man of great taste and a munificent patron of learning and the arts. Three hundred years after its reparation by Secunder Lodi, in the year 1803, a severe earthquake seriously injured the pillar, and its dangerous state having been brought to the notice of the British, Government on their taking possession of the country, they liber- ally undertook its repair. These repairs were brought to a close in- twenty-five years. The old cupola of Feroz Shah, or of Secunder Lodi, that was standing in 1794, having fallen down, had been sul>. stituted by a plain, octagonal red-stone pavilion. To men of artistic taste this had appeared a very unfitting head-piece for the noble column, so it was taken down by the orders of Lord Hardinge in 1847, and the present stone-work put up in its stead. The con- demned top now lies on a raised plot of ground in front, as shown resting on the platform on the right-hand side in the engraving. Now, as to the origin of the Kootub, a subject on which much speculation has been wasted. Theories professing a Hindoo origin are maintained by one party : theories professing its Mohammedan origin are propounded by the other. The Hindoo party believes the Minar to have been built by a Hindoo prince for his daughter, who wished to worship the rising sun and to view the waters of the Jumna from the top of it every morning. The Mohammedan party repudiates this as an outrage- ous paradox, and would have the Kootub taken for the unmistaka- ble Mazinah of the Musjeed-i-Kootub-ul-Islam. " No man who sees the Minar can mistake it for a moment to be any other than a thoroughly Mohammedan building — Mohammedan in design, and 1 62 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. Mohammedan in its intents and purposes. The object is at once apparent to the spectator — that of a Mazinah for the Muezzin to call the faithful to prayers. The adjoining mosque, fully corre- sponding in design, proportion, and execution to the tower, bears one out in such a view of the lofty column, and there is the recorded testimony of Shams-i-raj and Abulfeda to place the fact beyond a doubt." In addition to its structure, and the vast mosque near which it stands, and of which it so manifestly forms a part, we have the conclusive fact that the history of the Kootub is written in its own inscriptions. None dares to impeach these records, and the Kootub thus seems to have been commenced in about 1200 A. D., and finished in 1220. In the "Asiatic Researches" (vol. XIV, p. 481) is given the fol- lowing translation of the fourth inscription upon the Minar : " The erection of this building was commenced in the glorious time of the great Sultan, the mighty King of kings, the Master of mankind, the Lord of the monarchs of Turkestan, Arabia, and Persia, the Sun of the world and religion, of the faith and of the faithful, the Lord of safety and protection, the heir of the kingdoms of Suhman — Abu Muzeffa Altemsh Nasir Amin ul Momenin." Such was the style and title affected by these high and haughty sovereigns of Oriental Mohammedanism when, reveling in pride and power, like Nebuchadnezzar, they looked around at the " great Babylons" which they had built. How little they imagined with what utter desolation their works would be overthrown, to leave behind only a name and a ruin, and that so nearly undistinguisha- ble that men in future ages could only ascertain the shadowy record by making it a special study ! For six hundred and forty-six years has the gigantic Kootub weathered the rude assaults of the elements, and thousands of strangers from distant lands have come to gaze upon the mighty monument of a departed glory and a dying faith. How many, as they have stood in its shadow, have realized that there must be an adequate supernatural cause to account for all this wondrous RUIN AND DEATH. 1 63 decadence and death, which so quietly, but effectively, has pros- trated its hopes and heaped confusion upon its intentions (despite Its boundless wealth, military power, and fierce religious fanaticism) to defend and diffuse ts dominating faith! Yet, after all, thus it sinks and thus it dies in its chosen homes. The instability and the doom that seems ever impending over the institutions and structures raised by the worshipers of Allah, of Vishnu, of Buddha, or the Virgin Mary, come not causeless. They are Heaven's maledictions upon the fearful crime of false religions, which, while they defy God, degrade and dishonor men — cursing their conditions by poverty, miserable homes, and wretched compensation for their toil ; wasting their revenues, sinking them in ignorance, destroying their morals, depriving them of liberty, and ruining their souls ; till at length, when they have filled up their measure of iniquity, it turns the very centers and cradles of their faiths into the abodes of material or moral ruin, " the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Whether the religion be utterly false or only a perversion of the true, its influence is equally pernicious and manifest. He who runs may read this on its very face in India and in Ireland, in Egypt and Burmah, in Delhi and Rome, in Benares and Mexico ; in the Sepoy, the Gazee, and the Jesuit ; in Tamerlane, Cesare Borgia, and the Nana Sahib ; in Cawnpore, Canton, and St. Bar- tholomew. All equally evince the direful influence of false religions upon the conditions of men and nations. On the other hand, the holy, living faith of a divine Jesus regen- erates the hearts and the communities which yield themselves to its influence — confers freedom, light, education, equal rights, tem- poral prosperity, moral purity, domestic joy, and every thing lovely, virtuous, and of good report — rears up the temples of a true Chris- tianity, and, without a stain of decadence upon its bright prospects of final universality, presents no ruins or desolations amid its evan- gelical conquests or their results. Those once powerful religions and nations that marched so proudly and resolutely to conquest and ascendency under their 1 64 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. Antichristian banners, and raised their vainglorious monuments on the sites of their cruel victories, and then looked forward to such perpetuity of power and glory — where are they now ? " How are the mighty fallen ! " How fast they rushed on to their inevitable ruin, while those behind are to-day sinking into the same desola- *-ion ! And why ? Because there were higher laws than their own vhich they dared to violate — an authority against which they vainly dashed themselves — a power which they had the temerity to oppose, but which, nevertheless, numbered their kingdoms and finished them, by the terrible penalties which they had incurred, and the fearful evidences of which are strewn around in India and so many other localities. How can these facts and results be understood or explained save on the New Testament assumption that Jehovah Christ has all pow-er in heaven and on earth — that he has a dominion here which he must maintain and vindicate, though earth and hell oppose bini, till his enemies are put beneath his feet, and He, the blessed and only Potentate, shall stand at last, amid the overthrow of all oppo- sition, the Conqueror of the world ! "In righteousness he doth judge and make war" upon these enemies of his faith. Before his Holy Word the Veda and the Bana, the Koran and the Missal, must fall. Until that is done he will make good his own awful declaration, that " out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations ; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords." The Kootub Mosque stands deserted ; snakes and lizards now crawl in its ruins, amid which the Mazinah yet stands, solitary, grand, and majestic, as though heaven spurned the attempt to rear up and perpetuate a peerless sanctuary, w^here Moslem blasphemy against the Christ of God might be continually uttered in a grand center toward which all Oriental Islamites might turn, and in which they might glory. God dashed their hopes to pieces like a TEE UNFINISHED MINAB. 1 65 potter's vessel, and changed their ambition and glory into a tomb and a ruin. The unfinished Minar to the right hand has twice the dimen- sions of the Minar here shown. This column was evidently intended for a second mazinah, without which a Mohammedan mosque is essentially defective. The second Minar — or Minaret, to use the modern phrase — is considerably larger in the base than the one shown in the engrav- ing. It stands at a proper distance from the first, and was carried up about thirty feet above ground, and then discontinued. Anti- quarians have been greatly puzzled to account for the variations from the dimensions of the first and finished one ; but it is not neces- sary to trouble the reader with their theories or debates, as Slee- man's solution has been accepted as highly probable and satis- factory. His explanation is, that the unfinished minaret was commenced first, but upon too large a scale, and with too small a diminution of the circumference from the base upward. It is two fifths larger than the finished minaret in circumference, and much more per- pendicular. Finding these errors, when the builders had gone up with it thirty feet from the ground, the royal founder began the work anew, and on qualified and corrected dimensions, and this is the finished one before the reader. Had he lived he would no doubt have carried up the second minaret in its proper place on the same scale, and so completed his mosque ; but his death occur- ring, and being followed by fearful revolutions — so that five sover- eigns sat upon the throne of Delhi in the succeeding ten years — works of peace were suspended in the presence of war, while the succeeding monarchs sought renown in military enterprises, and thus the building of the second minaret was never proceeded with. The great mosque itself, with that exception, seems to have been completed. Nearly all the arches are still standing in a more or less perfect state. They correspond with the magnificent minaret in design, proportion, and execution, it evidently having been the 1 66 THE LAND OF TEE TED A. intention of the founder to make them all sustain and illustrate the matchless grandeur of the finished work. It was in this condition when Tamerlane invaded India A. D. 1 398. ^ That " firebrand of the universe," as he was called, was so enchanted with the great mosque and its minar that he had a model of it made, which he took back with him, along with all the masons that he could find in Delhi, and it is said that he erected a mosque exactly upon this plan at his capital of Samarcund, before he again left it for the invasion of Syria. The west face of the quadrangle, in which the minar stands, was formed by eleven large alcoves, the center and greatest of which contained the pulpit. The court to the eastward is inclosed by a high wall, bordered by arcades formed of pillars carved in the highest style of Hindoo art. Those on the opposite side are dissimilar, and the fair infer- ence is, that the Moslem monarch built his mosque, in part, by materials taken from the great Hindoo temples, which he must have desecrated for the purpose. This was after their fashion, and laid the foundation for those bitter feuds and hatreds of the one people against the other, which have lasted to this day. Close to the minar are the remains of one of those superb port- als, so general in the great works of the Patans. The archway of this gate is sixty feet high, and the ornaments with which it is embellished are cut with the delicacy of a seal engraving, retaining, after the lapse of six hundred years, their sharp, clear outlines. Few who visit the Kootub, if they have strength for the toilsome ascent, fail to go to the summit, and well does it repay the effort. It is sublime to look up to the unclouded heavens, to which you seem so near, while beneath and beyond, the eye wanders over not merely the city beneath, but across to modern Delhi, with its white and glittering mosques and palaces, the silvery Jumna gently pouring along, the feudal towers of Selimghur, and the mausoleums of Humayun and Sufter Jung, all in the soft light of the India sunset ; but what must that view have been when impe- rial splendors, and cultivation like earthly paradises, or " the gar- THE IRON PILLAR. 167 dens of God," combined all their wealth of beauty beneath its shadow, and then away as far as the, eye could reach on every side ! The writer visited the Kootub, on the last occasion, in 1864, in company with Bishop Thomson. The Bishop's description may be found in his "Oriental Missions," Vol. I, p. 65. He justly calls the Minar " the grandest column of the world." It is so. Except the tower of Babel, probably nothing ever erected by human hands has produced the same effect, as one stands awe-struck at its base and gazes up upon its majestic form towering to the skies. It has not been without its tragic incidents. General Sleeman, writing in 1 844, tells us that five years previously, " while the Emperor was on a visit to the tomb of Kootub-ad-deen, an insane man got into his private apartment. The servants were ordered to turn him out. On passing the Minar he ran in, ascended to the top, stood a few moments on the verge, laughing at those who were running after him, and made a spring that enabled him to reach the bottom without touching the sides. An eye-witness told me that he kept his erect position till about half-way down, when I'le turned over, and continued to turn till he got to the bottom, where his fall made a report like a gun. He was, of course, dashed to pieces." Close to the Kootub stands the famous Iron Pillar — the palla- dium of Hindoo dominion — and which, there is evidence for believ- ing, has stood there for fifteen hundred years. The Iron Pillar is a solid shaft of mixed metal resembling bronze, upward of sixteen inches in diameter and about sixty feet in length. The greater part of it is under-ground, and that which is above is less than thirty feet high. The ground about it has marks of exca- vation, said to have been carried down to twenty-six feet without reaching the foundation on which the pillar rests, and without loosening it in any degree. The pillar contains about eighty cubic feet of metal, and would probably weigh upward of seventeen tons. The Iron Pillar, standing nearly in the middle of a grand square. l68 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. " records its own history in a deeply-cut Sanscrit inscription of six lines on its western face." Antiquaries have read the characters, and the pillar has been made out to be " the arm of fame — Kirt- ibhuja — of Rajah Dhava." He is stated to have been a worshiper of Vishnu, and a monarch who " had obtained with his own arm an undivided sovereignty on the earth for a long period." The letters upon the triumphal pillar are called "the typical cuts inflicted on his enemies by his sword, writing his immortal fame." " It is a pity that posterity can know nothing more of this mighty Rajah Dhava than what is recorded in the meager inscription upon this wonderful relic of antiquity. The characters of the inscription are thought to be the same as those of the Gupta inscriptions, and the success alluded to therein is supposed to have been the assistance which that Rajah had rendered in the downfall of the powerful sovereigns of the Gupta dynasty. The age in which he flourished is, therefore, concluded to have been about the year 319 A. D., the initial point of the Balabhi or Gupta era." Antiquarians have tried very earnestly to solve the mystery of this metallic monument. The most probable conclusion is, that it marked the center of the great Rajah's city, and stood in a splen- did temple. But on the invasion and conquest of Delhi by the Mohammedan power the Emperor chose that center for his own purposes, and threw his great mosque across the very site of that temple, taking its marble columns for his colonnades, permitting the Iron Pillar to remain, but erecting the Minar near it, forever to dwarf its proportions and interest. But all are alike in ruin now — their rage, contention, and emulation in the dust, while the Pillar and the Minar alone remain. How little did either the proud Rajah or the fierce Emperor anticipate what a wreck the Ruler of heaven and earth would make of their hopes, and that where they built and embellished, and set forth their glory, would yet be as naked as ruin itself, and that the wild beasts of the forest would howl in their desolate palaces ! That desolation is the more marked, when we remember that very probably, after all these high anticipations, carried out so des- HEAVEN'S CONFUSION ON TEE INTENTION. 1 69 potically, and with the lavish expenditure of such untold millions, this mosque and minar may never have answered, even in a single instance, the purposes for which they were so proudly intended. According to their customs and rules, the mosque would probably not be used till completed. The second minar, being unfinished, would very likely prevent the dedication ; so that ere another hand rould consummate the great design, the death of the founder, the long and fierce wars that followed, and finally the imperial fickle- ness which chose the banks of the Jumna, eleven miles away, as the site of new Delhi, leading to the utter forsaking of the grand old city, with all its monuments, temples, mosques, and palaces, con- signed the Kootub forever to desolation, and after all left it, very likely, a mosque where no prayer was ever offered, and a minaret from whose lofty summit no muezzin's voice ever called the sons of the Koran to their vain devotions. Though fifteen hundred years have gone over it, the Iron Pillar shows no sign of decay ; it is smooth and clean. The metal of which it is composed was so fused and amalgamated that it defies all oxidation, while the characters engraven upon it remain to-day clear and distinct as when they were first cut by the hand of the engraver. The great antiquity, the enormous size, and the interesting inscriptions upon the pillar of Rajah Dhava have led to great rev- erence toward it by all Hindoos, and legends are not wanting to account for its origin and position. One tradition is, that it is the veritable club that great Bheema wielded in the battles of the Mah- abharata, and which was left standing there by the Pandus after their contest. But the more popular story is, that it is a pillar so long that it pierced the entire depth of the earth, till it rested on the head of the gigantic snake called Vasuki, who supports the world — that its stability was the palladium of Hindoo dominion in India. Such were some of the magnificent and unique surroundings of the Mogul Court in 1856; and all this, with much more that might be mentioned, they were then about to risk the possession of in a fearful struggle with the white-faced race. I/O THE LAND OF THE VEDA. CHAPTER IV. ORIGINATING CAUSES OF THE SEPOY REBELLION. "\^ /"IIILE moving amid the gorgeous scenes of the previous ' ^ chapter, we were happily unconscious of the circumstances of danger by which we were surrounded, and which could so easily have victimized us all. We knew not then of that peculiar combi- nation and concurrence of favoring circumstances for the accom- plishment of the purposes which are now well understood and can be explained, and a knowledge of which is essential to those who would comprehend the great Sepoy Rebellion. We will now state them, and, in doing this, will show how it was possible for such a rebellion to be then originated and carried out. I. The first and most important fact was the position of the Emperor of Delhi — he in whose name and for whose interests it was inaugurated. We have already noticed the circumstances under which the alien power of the Mogul entered India, and at last came to rule from Calcutta to Cabul. With the sense of cruelty, injustice, and wrong that rankled in the hearts of the Hin- doos against these foreigners, no length of time had ever reconciled them to their presence in their country. Thus, the last thing we could have imagined possible in 1857 was, that these two peoples could find a common ground of agreement on which they could stand together ; and that expectation was the confidence of English- men in India. They leaned with f-.onfidence upon the Hindoos, whom they had elevated from the rule of Mohammedan injustice, believing that so long as they were content and satisfied the English empire was safe, no matter how the Mohammedans might rage. So they thought, and did not even dream that these ancient and inveterate foes were finding a ground of agreement, and were wide THE EXGLISH BARGAIN WITS THE MOGUL. IJl awake, plotting the terrible arrangements that were so soon to burst in fire and bloodshed over the land. In the East, where there are no constitutions or popular gov- ernments, personal influence in a sovereign is every thing ; the despotic powers have only their individual adaptation and prestige to depend upon to commend their rule. It is a maxim with them, that " a king who has no eyes in his head is useless." In refer- ence to the poor, old, mutilated Emperor of Delhi, {grandfather of the one whose portrait is herein given,) it had much more than a metaphorical meaning. Its literal truth led to that state of general conviction of Mogul imbecility, and the necessity of having the paramount power of India in hands able to maintain its peace, and which would at the same time respect the rights of the falling dynasty, and all others concerned, which led soon after to the con- summation of that Treaty between the Emperor and the English Government, in which his Imperial Majesty consented to surrender to them his authority and power (a poor show it then was) for certain considerations. That is, he agreed that the British were to assume the government of the country, and rule in his name, on condition that they would guarantee to himself and his successors forever the following compensations : (i.) He was to be recognized as titular Emperor. His title was sounding enough to become a higher condition. How absurd it seems, when we quote its translation in full: "The Sun of the Faith, Lord of the World, Master of the Universe and of the Hon- orable East India Company, King of India and of the Infidels, the Superior of the Governor-General, and Proprietor of the Soil from Sea to Sea ! " This is surely enough for any miortal, especially when it is connected with a safe salary nearly as large as itself! (2.) He was still to be the fountain of honor, so that all the sun- nuds (patents) of nobility, constituting Rajahs, Nawabs, etc., were to be made out in his name, and sealed with his signet. (3.) An embassador of England was to reside at his Court, to be the official organ of communication between himself and the English Government. 172 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. (4.) He was to retain his royal residences, the one in Delhi being regularly fortified, and occupying probably one fourth of the area of the city. And, (5.) His imperial revenue was to be made sure, and punctually paid from the British Treasury. He was asked how much that revenue must be "i He replied, "Thirteen and a half lakhs of rupees annually" — $675,000 pet annum. And as matters go in the East, where kings are supposed to own the soil, and can levy their own jumma (tax) upon every cultivated acre of it, this was not considered an unreasonable or unusual demand. The terms were accepted, and the British moved their authority west of the Kurrumnasa, assumed the civil, political, and military control of Hindustan proper, and the Mogul Emperor resigned the heavy cares of State and went to house-keeping on his $675,000 per year. He assuredly might think that he had made a good bargain for himself and his family with his commercial patrons, the East India Company, while the whole resources of Great Britain were pledged to every item of the engagement — and he certainly might have done tolerably well under the circumstances. But one thing stood in the way. He and his outraged the laws of Heaven ; the result was a ruin which in its completeness has had hardly a parallel in the history of any earthly dynasty. With idleness and fullness of bread came mischief and vileness for three generations, increasing in their terrible tendencies, as the sins of the fathers were shared by, and visited upon, their children, until hideous ruin engulphed the whole concern, and left not a wreck behind. To the American reader it must seem amazing to state that the $675,000 per annum proved utterly insufficient to enable the last Emperor to live and keep out of debt ; yet so it was. He really could not "make ends meet" from year to year on this splendid allowance, paid to the day, and paid in gold. But the explanation is at hand. Had the duality of the marriage relation been recognized at the WHY THE MUmFICENT PROVISION FAILED. T73 Court of Delhi, it is very probable that it might have escaped the guilt and misery which hastened its destruction. Men in high or low station cannot violate the laws of God, even when their creed sanctions that violation, without incurring the penalty which is sure to come, sooner or later. Of this truth there never was a more marked example than was exhibited within these high and bastioned walls. The three generations during which this wrath was " treasuring up" its force but made it more overwhelming when its overthrow of desolation came. It was expressly stipulated in the treaty that the munificent provision made for the Emperor was to cover all claims. Out of the ^675,000 per annum he was required to support the retinue of relations and dependents col- lected within the walls of the imperial residence. But fifty years of idleness, and the license of a sensual creed, which permitted unlimited polygamy, made that which would have been easy to virtue impossible to vice. The Eden of God had but one Eve in it, and she reigned a3 queen in the pure affections of the happy and noble man for whom God had made her. Within the walls of that Delhi palace Shah Jchan could inscribe the words, " If there be a paradise on the face of the earth, It is this — it is this — it is this ! " For he loved one only, and was faithful to her, and has enshrined her memory while the world stands in the matchless Taj Mahal. Few, if any, of his race imitated his virtue in this regard ; and least of all his last descendants. Fifteen years ago the Delhi "para- dise" had become changed into a very pandemonium. Here were crowded together twelve hundred kings and queens — for all the descendants of the Emperors assumed the title of "Sulateens" — with ten times as many persons to wait upon them, so that the population of the palaces were actually estimated at twelve thou- sand persons. Glorying in their "royal blood," they held them- selves superior to all efforts to earn their living by honest labor, and fastened, like so many parasites, upon the old Emperor's yearly allowance. " But what was that among so many," and they 174 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. so constantly on the increase ? So here the "kings" and "queens" of the house of Timour were found lying about in scores, like broods of vermin, without sufficient food to eat, or decent clothing to wear, and literally eating up each other. Yet, notwithstanding, their insolence and pride were exactly equal to their poverty ; so that one of these kings, who had not more than fifty shillings per month for his share wherewith to subsist himself and his family, in writing to the Representative of the British Government at the Court, would address him as " Fidwee Khass," 07cr particular slave ; and would expect to be addressed in reply with, " Your Majesty's com- mands have been received by your slave !" Living in royalty on twenty-five dollars per month, or less, each of these worthies, on choosing a wife, or adding another to those he had before, would feel it necessary, for his ra?ik's sake, to settle upon her a dowry of five lakhs of rupees, (two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,) while actually the royal scamp did not own fifty dollars in the world. His only accomplishment or occupation was playing on the " Sitar," and singing the King's verses, for this king was ambitious of a poet's title, and they flattered the old gentle- man's whim. Did the world ever witness such a farce ! Perhaps at the time I first saw the palace of Delhi, with this state of things then in full operation, the eye of God did not look down upon a mass of humanity more dissatisfied, more vile, more proud, and more mean, than the crowd of hungry Shazadahs who pressed against each other for subsistence within the walls of that fortification. All being royal blood, of course they could not soil their hands to gain an honest living ; every man and woman of them must be suppoited out of the imperial allowance. It was a simple impossibility for the English Government to meet the necessities of this case, or satisfy the demands of this greedy, hungry, and rapidly increasing crew. Twice had the Emperor's appeal been yielded to, and the grant increased from thirteen and a half, to eighteen lakhs, so that in 1857 they were receiving $900,000 per annum ; but the limit had been reached at last. The English would neither pay the debts which they con- THE PAGEANT FELT TO BE A BORE. 1 75 tracted nor increase the yearly allowance. The country would not endure it. The humiliating ceremonies, so tenaciously required by the Emperor on receiving any member of the English Government, had become increasingly irksome and annoying as time rolled on and this condition of things developed, until it began to be felt that the Great Mogul pageant was a bore. Lord Amherst, a former Governor-General, at length refused to visit the Emperor if ex- pected, according to Delhi court etiquette, to do so with bare feet, bowed head, and joined hands. He declared he would only visit him on terms of honorable equality, and not as an inferior. Both he and Lord Bentinck refused any longer to stand in " the Pres- ence," but demanded a State chair on the right hand of the Em- peror, and to be received as an equal. This shocked the Emperor's feelings, but he had to give in. Then came the suspension of the " Nuzzer " — the yearly present — a symbol of allegiance or confession of suzerainty. The value was not withheld, but added to the yearly allowance ; but the Emperor refused to accept it in this form. In 1849, on the death of the heir apparent, Lord Dalhousie, then Governor-General, opened negotiations designed to abolish this pageant of the Great Mogul, and offered terms to the next heir to abdicate the throne, vacate the Delhi Palace, and sink their high titles, retiring to the Kootub Palace and a private position, so that the large family might be placed under proper restrictions and required to obtain education, and fit themselves for stations where they could earn their living. But the merciful and wise pio- posal was misapprehended by them : instead of appreciating it, it thoroughly alarmed them. They chose to consider that their very existence was attacked. They would rather continue to fester and starve together within those walls than to separate and rouse them- selves to action and honest employment ; so they began to talk louder than ever about their " wrongs," and the " insults " offered them by the English Government, prominent among which was the refusal any longer to give to each of these princes, whenever 176 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. he chose to show his face in pubHc, the royal salute of his " rank ' But the English had deliberately come to the conclusion that this was a foolish and ridiculous waste of the national powder, and ought to cease forever. Thus the Court — Emperor Begums, Sultans and Sultanas, Shazadas, Eunuchs, and followers, all in a ferment of dissension and hatred of English rule — became a centei to which all disaf- fected elements naturally tended. These men became the life and soul of the great conspiracy for the overthrow of the English power and the expulsion of Chris- tianity from India, and for the elevation once more of Moham- medan supremacy over the Hindoo nations. Yielding to their influence, and that of the Sepoys, as will be narrated in our next chapter, the old Emperor committed himself fully, without count- ing the cost, to the fearful struggle. The reader can well understand what an " elephant " the En- glish Government had here on its hands, and in what perplexity they were as to what they should do with it. This " high-born " population thus pressed for the means of sub- sistence within these walls, instead of being required to shift for themselves and quietly sink among the crowd without. When the writer reached India, in 1856, this state of things was ripening to its natural consummation. The different members of the Em- peror's great family circle were fast becoming rallying points for the dissatisfied and disaffected. Let loose upon the community, they were every-where disgusting people by their insolence and knavery, so that the English magistrates in Delhi had to stand between them and their victims. The prestige of their names was fast diminishing, and they were falling into utter insignificance and contempt. This was true even of the highest of them. It was these " idle hands " that Satan employed to do much of the "mischief" wrought during the fearful rebellion of 1857 — an event which consummated their own ruin, and sent scores of them to the gallows. In the " good old days " of their rule they had their own way ol MOSLEM HATE OF CHRIST AND CHRISTIANS. 177 relieving any financial pressure, as soon as it was felt, by " loani" »vhich were never paid, or by exactions from which there was no appeal or escape. But in 1857 it was no longer possible to prac- tice in this way. The palace people had to let other men's money alone, and were required to live within their means, and those who trusted them had now to do so on their own responsibility. The Government of England refused to pay a dollar of their debts or grant any further increase to their allowance. How they raged over this resolve ! Exhortations to do something, or fit them- selves for positions which would support them, were all thrown away upon them, or, worse, they held the advice to be an insult. They were royal, and could not think of work ; so they raged against the Government that stood between them and those whom they used to victimize, and sighed for the days when they could have relieved their necessities at the expense of other men. It need not be wondered at that such people hated English rule, and resolved that, if ever the opportunity came within their reach, they would be revenged upon the race who compelled them to be honest. Just in proportion to this impotent rage, of which the Govern- ment was well aware, most of the Hindoo princes around were exultant to think that the Great Mogul had found a master at last — that there was a strong hand on the bridle in his jaws, to hold him back from trampling on the rights of other people. The Shroffs (native Bankers) and moneyed men in the bazaars were in high glee, knowing that the rupees in their coffers were all safe under the protection of England's power, and that none could make them afraid. To all this, if you add the religions hate, you have the entire case of the Delhi Court. How these men raged as they remem- bered that their Crescent had gone down before the hated Cross ; that where they had ruled and tyrannized for seven hundred years Christianity was now triumphant. They detest England : they will always do so : not because of her nationality, but for her faith. They would hate Americans all the same if we were there. To 10 178 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. Christianity they are irreconcilably antagonistic. They detest the doctrine of a divine Christ, and his followers have to share his odium at their hands. Alas, it is simple truth to say, that if the Lord Jesus were to come down from heaven to-day, and put him- self in their power, they would as assuredly crucify him afresh in the streets of Delhi for saying he was " the Son of God," as did the Jews in Jerusalem eighteen hundred years ago. You have only to read their " Sacred Kulma " to be assured of this spirit, and understand their rage against him ; while their fearful deeds in 1857-8 upon his followers were a commentary on the Kulma, writ- ten with Christian blood ; a record over which they gloat, and in the extent of which they still glory. Sad and abundant evidence •of this fact is to follow in these pages ; yet all this hatred and determination would have been utterly powerless had it stood alone — had the Hindoos not so strangely and unexpectedly united themselves with it. 2. This leads us to the consideration of the peculiar fact which, for once, brought the Moslem and Hindoo elements of the country into union and a common interest. Lord Lake, the English General, had defeaced the Mahratta chief, Bajee Rao, whose title, the Peishwa, was derived from a Brahmin dynasty founded at Poonah by Belajee Wiswanath. This title formerly meant Prime Minister, but its holders rose from that position to sovereign authority by usurpation and oppor- tunity, and, in view of the high-caste assumptions of the Mahratta nation, their sovereign seems to have laid claim to a sort of head- ship in Hindooism, and so "Peishwa" became a religious as well as a secular title, and carried a great influence with it in the estima- tion of the Hindoos. Duff, the historian of the time, gives a fearful picture of the licentiousness which prevailed at Bajee Rao's capital in 18 16, and of his perfidy in attempting the assassination, by treachery, of Mr. Elphinstone, the English Embassador, and in the death of several Europeans whom he caused to be killed in cold blood, as well as the families of the native troops in their service. His ferocious The " Nana Sahib.' THE NANA SAHIB. l8l and vindictive orders, issued on the 5 th of November, 18 17, fore- shadowed too truly other orders of a similar nature issued in July, 1857, by him to whom he transferred his home and fortune. The adopted son was worthy of his putative father. That son was Nana Sahib. The name of the author of the Cawnpore massacre is, of course, well known. The picture of him here presented was drawn by Major O'Gan- dini, and sent home from India. He was fat, with that unhealthy corpulence which marks the Eastern voluptuary, of sallow complex- ion and middle height, with strongly marked features. He did •lot speak a word of English. His age at the time of the massacre was about thirty-six years. As this man will ever be identified with the sanguinary fame of Cawnpore, it seems appropriate to give the reader a more definite account of who he was, and his ante- cedents, as furnished by Trevelyan. His full name was Seereek DJwondoo Pwith, but the execration of mankind has found his cluster of titles too long for use, and prefers the more familiar appellation of " The Nana Sahib." Bajee Rao, the Peishwa of Poonah, was the last monarch of the Mahrattas, who, for many years, kept Central India in war and con- fusion. The English Government being driven by his faithlessness and treachery to dethrone the old man, assigned him a residence at Bithoor, a few miles from Cawnpore, which he occupied until his death, in 185 1. With his traditions, his annuity of eight lakhs of rupees (^400,000) yearly, and his host of retainers, Bajee Rao led a splendid life, so far as this world was concerned. But the old Mah- ratta had one sore trial: he had no son to inherit his possessions, perpetuate his name, and apply the torch to his funeral pyre. This last office, according to the Hindoo faith, can only be performed properly by a filial hand. In this strait he had recourse to adop- tion, a ceremony which, by Hindoo law, entitles the favored indi- vidual to all the rights and privileges of an heir born of the body. His choice fell upon this Seereek Dhoondoo Punth, who, according to some, was the son of a corn merchant of Poonah, while others maintain that he was the offspring of a poor Konkanee Brahmin, t82 tee land of the VEDA. and first saw the light at Venn, a" miserable little village near Bom- bay. The Nana was educated for his position ; and, on the death of his benefactor, he entered into possession of his princely home and his immense private fortune. But this did not satisfy the Nana. He demanded from the British Government, in addition, the title and the yearly pension which they had granted to his adoptive father. His claim was disallowed, as the pension was purely in the form of an annuity to tlie late King. But the Nana was not to be foiled. Failing with the Calcutta authorities, he transferred his appeal to London, and dispatched an agent to prosecute it there. This opens another amazing chapter in the his- tory of this man. The person selected, and who had so much to do afterward with the massacre of the ladies and children, was his confidential man of business, Azeemoolah KJian, a clever adven- turer, who began life as a kitmutgar — a waiter at table. He thus acquired a knowledge of the English tongue, to which he afterward added French, and came at length to speak and write both with much fluency. Leaving service to pursue his studies, he afterward became a school-teacher, and in this latter position attracted the notice of the Nana, who made him his Vakeel, or Prime Agent, and sent him to London to prosecute his claims. Azeemoolah arrived in town during the height of "the season" of 1854, and was wel- comed into "society" with no inquiry as to antecedents. Passing himself off as an Indian prince, and being abundantly furnished with ways and means, and having, withal, a most presentable con- tour, he gained admission into the most distinguished circles, mak- ing a very decided sensation. He speedily became a lion, and obtained more than a lion's share of the sweetest of all flattery — the ladies voted him " charming." Handsome and witty, endowed with plenty of assurance, and an apparent abundance of diamonds and Cashmere shawls, the ex-kitmutgar seemed as fine a gentleman as the Prime Minister of Nepaul or the Maharajah of the Punjab, both of whom had been lately in London. In addition to the political business which he had in hand, Azee- moolah was at one time prosecuting a suit of his own of a more mS AGENT AZEEMOOLAH. 1 83 delicate nature ; but, happily for the fair Englishwoman who was the object of his attentions, her friends interfered and saved her from becoming an item in the harem of this Mohammedan polyga- mist. He returned to India by Constantinople, and visited the Crimea, where the war was then raging between England and Russia. He bore to his master the tidings of his unsuccessful efforts on his behalf, but consoled him with the assurance that the youthful vigor of the Russian power would soon overthrow the decaying strength of England, and then a decisive blow would be sufficient to destroy their yoke in the East, Subtle and blood- thirsty, Azeemoolah betrayed no animosity until the outburst of the Rebellion, and then he became the presiding genius of the assault and final massacre. Meanwhile he moved amid English society at Cawnpore with such deep dissimulation as to awaken no suspicion ; and he was even the whole time carrying on correspond- ence with more than one noble lady in England, who had allowed herself, in her too confiding disposition, to be betrayed into a hasty admiration of this swarthy adventurer : so that, on the first day of Havelock's entrance, when he and his men came straight from " the Slaughter-House " and fatal Well, to the Palace of Bithoor, they discovered, among the possessions of this scoun- drel, the letters of these titled ladies, couched in terms of the most courteous friendship. How little they suspected the true character of their correspondent ! and how bitter and painful were the emotions which, under such circumstances, their letters raised in the breasts of Havelock's men ! And yet this sleek and wary wretch was edu- cated and courtly, even to fascination, while the heart beneath his gorgeous vest cherished the purposes of the tiger and the fiend. So much for education and refinement without religion or the fear of God. Dr. Russell, " the Times' Correspondent," mentions having met Azeemoolah in the Crimea, seeing with his own eyes how matters were going on there. He was fresh from England, where, a few weeks before, he might have been seen moving complacently in London drawing-rooms, or cantering on Brighton Downs, the 1 84 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. center of an admiring bevy of English damsels ; but in the Crimea the secret of his soul was betrayed when, one evening, in a large party, he was incautious enough to remark that the Russians and the Turks should cease to quarrel, and join and take India. The remark caused some feeling, but aroused no suspicion of the lurk- ing vengeance. India could gain nothing by such a change of masters. He knew this well enough ; but such a change would humble England, and probably suspend or annihilate Christian missions there : and these results would be to him a full compensa- tion for the change. The sensual and superstitious Maharajah of Bithoor — as Nana Sahib was called — had thus found an agent after his own heart to work out his will. Bithoor Palace, where the Nana resided, was spacious, and richly furnished in European style. All the recep- tion-rooms were decorated with immense mirrors, and massive chandeliers in variegated glass, and of the most recent manufac- ture ; the floors were covered with the finest productions of the Indian looms, and all the appurtenances of Eastern splendor were strewed about in amazing profusion ; but it would be impossible to lift the vail that must rest on the private life of this man. No- where was the mystery of iniquity deeper and darker than in this Palace of Bithoor, It was a nest worthy of such a vulture. There were apartments in that palace horribly unfit for any human eye, where both European and native artists had done their utmost to gratify the corrupt master, who was willing to incur any expense for the completion of his loathsome picture-gallery. In the apartments open to the inspection of English visitors there was, of course, nothing that could shock either modesty or humanity, though a person of fastidious taste might take exception to the arrangement of the heterogeneous collection of furniture and decorations with which the Nana Sahib had filled his house when he aimed to blend the complicated domestic appliances of the European with the few and simple requirements of the Oriental. The Maharajah had a large and excellent stable of horses, ele- phants, and camels ; a well-appointed kennel ; a menagerie of A HTPOCRITE WHO HAS NO EQUAL. 185 pigeons, falcons, peacocks, and apes, which would have done credit to any Eastern monarch from the days of Solomon downward. His armory was stocked with weapons of every age and country ; his reception-rooms sparkled with mirrors and chandeliers that had come direct from Birmingham ; his equipages had stood within a twelvemonth in the warehouses of London. He possessed a vast store of gold and silver plate, and his wardrobe overflowed with Cashmere shawls and jewelry, which, when exhibited on gala days, were regarded with longing eyes by the English ladies of Cawn- pore : for the Nana seldom missed an occasion for giving a ball or a banquet in European style to the society of the station, although he would never accept an entertainment in return, because the English Government, which refused to regard him as a royal personage, would not allow him the honor of a salute of twenty-one guns. On these occasions the Maharajah presented himself in his panoply of kincob and Cashmere, crowned with a tiara of pearls and diamonds — as here represented — the great ruby in the center, and girt with old Bajee Rao's sword of State, which report valued at three lakhs of rupees, (^150,000.) The Maharajah mixed freely with the company, inquired after the health of the Major's lady, congratulated the Judge on his rumored promotion to the Supreme Court, joked the Assistant Magistrate about his last mishap in the hunting-field, and complimented the belle of the evening on the color she had brought down from the hills of Simla. All this was going on when the writer was in Cawnpore in the fall of 1856. These costly festivities were then provided for and enjoyed by the very persons — ladies, children, and gentlemen — who were, before ten months had passed, ruthlessly butchered in cold blood by their quondam host. Till his hour arrived nothing could exceed the cordiality which he managed to display in his intercourse with the English. The persons in authority placed implicit confidence in his friendship and good faith, and the young officers emphatically pronounced him " a capital fellow." He had a nod, a kind word, for every Englishman in the station ; hunting 1 86 THE LAND OF THE VELA. parties and jewelry for the men, and picnics and Cashmere shawls for the ladies. If a subaltern's wife required change of air the Ma- harajah's carriage was at the service of the young couple, and the European apartments at Bithoor were put in order to receive them. If a civilian had overworked himself in court, he had but to speak the word, and the Maharajah's elephants were sent to the Ouds jungles for him to go tiger hunting; but none the less did he ever, for a moment, forget the grudge he bore the English people. While his face was all smiles, in his heart of hearts he brooded over the judgment of the Government, and the refusal of his de- spised claim. The men who, with his presented sapphires and rubies glitter- ing on their fingers, sat there laughing around his table, had each and all been doomed to die by a warrant that admitted of no appeal. He had sworn that the injustice should be expiated by the blood of ladies who had never heard his grievance named, of babies who had been born years after the question of that grievance had passed into oblivion. The great crime of Cawnpore blackened the pages of history with a far deeper stain than Sicilian vespers or St. Bartholomew massacres, for this atrocious deed was prompted neither by diseased nor mistaken patriotism, nor by the madness of superstition. The motives of the deed w^ere as mean as the execution was cowardly and treacherous. Among the subordinate villains there might be some who were possessed by bigotry and class hatred, but Nana Sahib was actuated by no higher impulses than ruffled pride and disappointed avarice. The Hindoos, and particularly the military class of them, looked up to this man as their Peishwa. His position gave him immense influence. They would go with him to the side which he espoused. It is understood that he was tampered with, and made a tool of, by the Delhi faction under promise that when the English were ex- pelled the country the Emperor would recognize his claims, and give him the throne of his reputed father at Poonah ; so he threw in his lot with the conspiracy and bided his time. 3. The Mohammedan monopoly of place and power is another THEIR NUMBERS Am) ADVANTAGE. 1 87 consideration to be remembered in understanding the character and extent of this vast combination against Christian civilization. This gave them their opportunity to organize their plans and work up the conspiracy. The Sepoy army, with the " Contingents " at native courts, native police, and, we may also add, the armed followers of the Rajahs and Nawabs who favored the rising, con- stituted an armed body of men fully five hundred thousand strong — the life and soul of the whole being the native " Bengal Army," very largely Brahminical. Over these ignorant, superstitious, and fanatical forces, whether as military, commissariat, civil, legal, or financial subordinate officers, were these Mohammedan officials, so that a perfect organization, from Delhi throughout the whole land, was being formed, and it only now needed safe means of commu- nication between the several parts, so that the central conspiracy could receive information or send its arrangements through men whom it could entirely trust, and who were its willing and ready agents. But this, too, was supplied, as we shall see. The Sepoy army mounted guard upon the forts, the magazines, and the treasuries of India ; and when their hour had come, and all was prepared, they held in their own hands the key of the coined millions of the public money, its vast stores of munitions of war, and its strong places. The total of European troops then in India was exactly 45,522, of all arms ; but of these 21,156 were away in Madras and Bombay, leaving only 24,366 for the East, center, and Punjab, and more than two thirds of these were off on the West- ern frontiers and in Burmah, so that in the entire Valley of the Ganges there were but two half regiments, one with Sir H. Law- rence in Lucknow, and the other at Cawnpore. 4. India was then not only without railroads, but was even desti- tute of common roads, while the rivers were unbridged, and there was every natural difficulty in the way of an army of white men moving through the land, with the heavy impedimenta which they require in such a climate, and in which respect the native troops, being so much less encumbered, so much more at home in the heat, and so well acquainted with the country, had their enemy at 1 88 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. every disadvantage, and especially as they sprung the struggle upon them in the very midst of the hot season, when sun-stroke would be sure to lay low more than were prostrated by the bullet. To show the importance of one aspect of this difficulty : In 1856 there was but one made road in North India — "the Grand Trunk," so called, from Calcutta to the Punjab. General Anson, the English Commander-in-chief, on the first alarm on the loth of May, commenced to collect his forces and march upon Delhi. The distance was under four hundred miles ; but so wretched were the roads, and having to drag his artillery through rivers, it was the 8th of June when his army reached Delhi, and nine tenths of all the massacre and mischief were accomplished during those twenty- eight days. On the other side the river the conditions of travel were equally bad. The Soane River is crossed by this Grand Trunk Road. There was, in 1856, no way but to drag through its deep sands and widespread waters with bullocks — I have been four hours going from one side to the other ; and the wise Government, that for one hundred years had neglected to build a bridge, had erected a dak Bungalow (Travelers' Rest House) on either bank, to meet the clear necessity that if you had breakfasted on one side you would need your dinner when you reached the other ! What it was to take troops, artillery, and commissariat through such a country the reader can imagine. It is a consolation to add, as a sign of that wonderful progress toward a better state of things on which India has since entered, that I had the satisfaction of crossing that same Soane River in 1864 in a few minutes on a first-class railroad bridge, and to-day General Anson could come from Umballa to Delhi in twenty-four hours. 5. The annexation of Oude — the home of the Sepoy — and where, while it was under native administration, the military classes that took service under the British Government had peculiar privileges that annexation would annul, leaving them equal before the law with the rest of the people : this, with the turbulent character of the Talookdars (or Barons) of Oude, who held themselves above DREAD OF CHhibTIAN CIVILIZATION. 1 89 law, and defied their King to collect revenue from them, or exact their obedience, along with the thousands of persons who made a living by the Court, and their relation to its duties, intrigues, necessities, and vices, and whose occupation would be gone were the country annexed and British rule introduced — all these were aroused to a pitch of frenzy when the plot was actually consum- mated, and were ready to join in any enterprise, no matter how vvild or desperate, that promised an overthrow of the new condi- tion of things. And, finally, 6. To these elements of disturbance and eager watchfulness for a change, has to be added the great fact of the growing fear of the extension of the Christian religion, and the founding of new Mis- sions in the land, with the consequent and widespread fear that their own faiths were in imminent danger of overthrow. Confound- ing every white man with the Government, and regarding him as most certainly in the service and pay of the English, they looked upon each Missionary as an emissary, backed up by the entire power and resources of the Administration, and to be correspond- ingly feared. This was the general view, (of course the more enlightened knew better,) and the interested parties took good care to intensify it to the utmost of their ability. The very pains taken by the English officials to deny it, and present the Government doctrine of " Neutrality," only made mat- ters worse ; for Hindoos and Mohammedans could not imagine a ruling power without a religion, or without zeal for diffusion of its own faith. The denial, therefore, was not believed ; it only intensi- fied the conviction of the people that these words were used to conceal the truth, and could only be used as a pretext to blind them for the present, till the English were fully prepared for the most determined action against their castes and their faiths. So that every movement was watched, and every act misinterpreted ; and those in high places were distracted by prejudices which were too blind and fanatical to allow them to listen to reason. My own appearance in Lucknow and Bareilly as a Missionary, and the i-ioneer of a band soon to follow, caused a great deal of [QO TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. talk and excitement, and was pointed to as a part of the plan which the Government was maturing against their religions. They could also refer to the steady encroachments of Christian law upon their cherished institutions. Suttee had been prohibited, female infanticide made penal, the right of a convert to inherit property vindicated, the remarriage of widows made lawful, self- immolation at Juggernaut interdicted, Thuggeeism suppressed, caste slighted — and they dreaded what might come next, ere they should be entrapped into an utter loss of caste, and forced to em- brace the Christian faith. Such was the peculiar combination of circumstances that in 1856 gave to the disaffected portion of the people of India the opportu- nity to concentrate their energies, under the most favorable condi- tions of success, to strike a blow that would at once overthrow Christianity and English rule forever, and restore, as they thought, native supremacy and the abrogated institutions of their respective faiths. They really imagined that if they could but wipe out the few thousand English in- the land their work would be done, and that Great Britain either could not, or would not, replace them, especially in view of the resistance to a re-occupation which they could then present. In addition to the elements of preparation which have been already presented, there was needed, for their safety and success in their terrible enterprise, that the conspirators should have a medium of communication between the various parts of the country and those who were working with them, as, also, an agency to win over the wavering and consolidate the whole power, so that it might be well in hand when the time for action should come. The post-office was soon distrusted as a medium of communica- tion ; nor did it quite answer their purpose. They needed a liidng agency. This was essential, and one, too, whose constant move- ments would occasion no surprise ; but just such emissaries as they required were ready at hand in the persons of the Fakirs, or wan- dering saints of Hindustan. No account of India, or of the Sepoy Rebellion, would be com- THE FAKIRS. I9I plete which did not include a proper description of these Fakirs. They are the saints of the Mohammedan and Hindoo systems. These horrible looking men, with their disheveled hair, naked bod- ies, and painted breasts and foreheads, are constantly roving over the country, visiting shrines, making pilgrimages, and performing religious ser\iices for their disciples. The Sepoys greatly honored and liberally patronized these spiritual guides. The post-office failing them, the chiefs of the conspiracy linked these Fakirs into the enterprise as the medium of communication ; and they were so stationed that the orders transmitted, or the information desired, could be forwarded with a celerity and safety that was amazing. It may be desired, for the sake of the information on this singular topic, to digress a little just here, before proceeding with the narra- tive. Of all the curses under which India and her daughters groan, it may safely be said that this profession of the Fakirs is one of the heaviest and most debasing. The world has not often beheld a truer illustration of putting "darkness for light" than is afforded in the character and influence of these ignorant, beastly-looking men — fellows that in any civilized land would be indicted as "common vagrants," or hooted out of society as an intolerable outrage upon decency. But they swarm in India, infesting its highways, crowding its ghats and temples, creeping into its homes, and leading captive its poor, silly women. They hold the general mind of India in such craven fear that the courtly Rajah, riding in his silver howdah on the back of his elephant, and surrounded by his retinue, will often rise from his seat and salaam to one of these wretches as he goes by. The Law-giver of India, while so jealously providing for the seclusion of the ladies of the land, expressly relaxes the rules in favor of four classes of men — Fakirs, Bards, Brahmins and their own servants — in the following section of the Code : " Mendicants^ encomiasts, men prepared for a sacrifice, cooks, and other artisans are not prohibited from speaking to married women." — Sec. 360, chap. viii. They can exercise their discretion how far they shall unvail themselves before them, though in their intercourse with Brahmins and Fakirs all restriction is usually laid aside. They are 192 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. as absolutely in their power as the female penitents of the Romish Church are in that of their priesthood, and even more so. This state of things has lasted for long ages past. Alexander the Great, in his invasion of India, 326 B. C, found these very men as we see them there to-day. The historians of his expedition give us accurate descriptions of them. The Greeks were evidently amused and astonished at the sight of these ascetics, and, having no word in their language to describe them, they invented a new term, and called them Gyntnosophists, (from ginnnos, naked, and sophos, wise.) The patient endurance of pain and privation, the complete abstraction of some, the free quotations of the Shaster Slokes and maxims of their philosophy by the others, led the amazed Alexander and his troops to designate them as " Naked Philosophers," more literally so than the pictures here presented, for, though in my possession, I did not dare to have those engraved whose nudity would have more fully justified the Greek designa- tion ; but they are still there, and of that class of the Fakirs a few words farther on will be in place. The word " Fakir " (pronounced Fa-keer, with the a broad) is an Arabic term signifying " poor," or a " poor man," because they profess to have taken the vow of poverty, and, in theory, hold them- selves above the necessity of home, property, or money, realizing their living as a religious right from the people wherever they come. Some wander from place to place, some go on pilgrimages, and others locate themselves under a great banyan tree, or in the depths of a forest in some ruinous shrine or tomb, or on the bank of a river, and there receive the homage and offerings of their votaries. I have often stood and looked at them in the wild jungle, miles away from a human habitation, filthy, naked, daubed with ashes and paint, and thought how like they seemed to those wretched creatures whom a merciful Saviour released from the power of evil spirits, and so compassionately restored to decency, to friends, and to their right minds. ■'. til: ;^^^* 7/>' / SELF-TORTURING FAKIRS. 195 Some few of these Fakirs are undoubtedly sincere in their pro- fession of giving up the world, and its social and domestic relations, to embrace lives of solitude, mortification, or self-torture, or to devote themselves to a course of religious contemplation and as:eticism ; others of them do it from a motive of vain-glory, to be honored and worshiped by their deluded followers ; while both of these classes expect, in addition, to accumulate thereby a stock of merit that will avail them in the next transmigration, and hasten their absorption into Brahm. But no one who has seen and known them can doubt that the great majority of the Fakirs are impostors and hypocrites. A glance at the picture will enable the reader more fully to understand the descriptions which follow. These wear some clothing, but not much. The hair of the head is permitted to grow — in some cases not cut, and evidently not combed — from the time when they enter upon this profession. It grows at length longer than the body, when it is wound around the head in a rope- like coil, and is fastened with a wooden pin. The figure on the left hand of the picture in front is one of these. Having some doubts whether there was not some "make-believe" in the huge roll, I questioned a Fakir one day about it. Seizing the big pin, he pulled it out, and down fell the long line of hair trailing after him. It was, sure enough, all his own hair. But even these are not the worst of the class. Quite a number of them give up wandering and locate, and engage in the most amazing manifestations of endurance and self-torture. A few must be mentioned. One will lash a pole to his body and fasten the arm to it, pointing upward, and endure the pain till that limb becomes rigid and cannot be taken down again. The pole is then removed. I saw one of them with both arms thus fixed, his hands some eight- een inches higher than his head, and utterly immovable. Some of them have been known to close the hand, and hold it so until the nails penetrated the flesh, and came out on the other side. Taver- nier and others give engravings of some who have stood on one leg tor years, and others who never lie down, supported only by a stick l()6 TEE LAND Ok THE VEDA. or rope under their armpits, their legs meanwhile growing into hid- eous deformity, and breaking out in ulcers. Sticking a spear through the protruded tongue, or through the arm, is practiced, and so is hook-swinging — running sharp hooks through the small of the back deep enough to bear the man's weight — when he is raised twenty or thirty feet into the air and swung around. Some will liv^ A SELF-TORTURING FAKIR. for years on beds of iron spikes, like the one here represented, read- ing their Shaster and counting their beads ; while their ranks furnish many of the voluntary victims who have immolated themselves be- neath the wheels of Juggernaut. But there are tens of thousands of them who take to the profession simply because it gives them a living off the public, and who are mere wandering vagabonds. Many of them are animated by another class of motives. These hunger for fame — they have become Fakirs for the honor of the thing — are willing to suffer that they may be respected and adored by those who witness in wonder the amazing self-tortures which they will endure. An instance which may be worth relating will niustrate this aspect of the subject. It was turned into verse by a humorous Englishman when the case occurred, and we present it here. One of these self-glorifying Fakirs, after graduating to saint- THE SELF-GLOBIFIGATION MOTIVE. 1 97 ship by long years of austerities and extensive pilgrimages, took it into his head that he could still further exalt his fame by riding about in a sort of Sedan chair with the seat stuck full of nails. Four men carried him from town to town, shaking him as little as possible. Great was the admiration of his endurance which awaited him every-where. At length (no doubt when his condition had become such that he was for the time disposed to listen to some friendly advice) a rich native gentleman, somewhat skeptical as to the value and need of this discipline, met him and tried very ear- nestly to persuade him to quit his uncomfortable seat, and have mercy upon himself But here let Mr. Cambridge give the reasoning of the kind-hearted native, and point the moral of the story. He says to the Fakir : " * Can such wretches as you give to madness a vogue ? Though the priesthood of Fo on the vulgar impose By squinting whole years at the end of their nose — Though with cruel devices of mortification They adore a vain idol of modern creation — Does the God of the heavens such a service direct ? Can his Mercy approve a self-punishing sect ? Will his Wisdom be worshiped with chains and with najls. Or e'er look for his rites in your noses and tails? Come along to my house, and these penances leave, Give your belly a feast, and your breech a reprieve.' This reasoning unhinged each fanatical notion, And staggered our saint in his chair of promotion. At length, with reluctance, he rose from hi^ seat. And, resigning his nails and his fame for retreat. Two weeks his new life he admired and enjoyed ; The third he with plenty and quiet was clayed ; To live undistinguished to him was the pain. An existence unnoticed he could not sustain. In retirement he sighed for the fame-giving chair. For the crowd to admire him, to reverence and stare : No endearments of pleasure and ease could prevail. He the saintship resumed, and new-larded his tail." The reference in the third line — to "squinting whole years at the end of his nose," is a serious subject, and will be explained hereafter. Sometimes Fakirs will undertake to perform a very pamful and lengthened exercise in measuring the distance to the "sacred" city of Benares from some point, such as a shrine or famous temple, 11 IqS the land of tee VEDA. even hundreds of miles away, though months or years may be required to complete the journey. I had once the opportunity of seeing one of these men performing this feat. When I met him he was on the Grand Trunk Road, over two hundred and forty miles from ]5enares. He had already accomplished about two hundred miles. A crowd accompanied him from village to village, as men turn out here to see Weston walk. He was a miserable-looking object, covered from the crown of his head to his feet with dust and mud. He would lay himself down flat on the road, his face in the dust, and with his finger would make a mark in front of his liead on the ground ; then he would rise and put hfs toes in that mark, and down he would go again, flat and at full length, make another line, rise, and put his toes in that, and so on, throughout the live-long day. When tired out he would make such a mark on the ■side of the road as he could safely find next morning, and then go back with the crowd to the last village which he had passed, where he would be feted and honored, and next day would return (to his mark and renew his weary way. I could not find out how much progress he usually made. It must have been very slow work — certainly less than one mile per day ; and what weary months of hard toil lay between him and Benares is apparent. These wretches thus choose, and voluntarily lay upon themselves, penal- ties that no civilized government on earth w^ould venture to inflict upon its most hardened criminals. Some of these Yogees, in view of their supposed sanctity and superiority to all external considerations,' hold themselves above obedience to law or the claims of common decency. I have myself seen one of them in the streets of Benares, in the middle of the day, when they were crowded with men and women — a man evi- dently over forty years of age — as naked as he was born, walking through the throng with the most complete shamelessness and unconcern ! And if it were not for the terror of the English magistrate's order and whip, instead of one in a while, hundreds of these " naked philosophers " would scandalize those streets every day in the year, and " glory in their shame." THE RULES OF HINDOO PERFECTION. 20I There is a further aspect of this subject, and one so singular and serious that the reader will be as much surprised at the alleged divine law which requires it, as the sole and only path to moral purity and ultimate perfection, as he will be that men have ever been found who would undertake to conform themselves to the amazing and unique discipline by which it is to be attained. W may talk of self-denial and cross-bearing, but did the history of human endurance ever present any thing equal to the requirements of the following teachings ? In all the wide range of Hindoo Literature it is conceded that there is nothing so sublime, and even pure, as the disquisitions con- tained in the Bhagvat Gccta, {Bhagvat, Lord, Geeta, song — " the Song of the Lord.") This book is an episode of the celebrated Mahabarata, and consists of conversations between the divine Kreeshna, (the incarnate God of the Hindoos, in his last avatar, or descent to earth in mortal form,) and his favorite pupil, the valiant Arjoona, commander-in-chief of the Pandoo forces. Arjoona is religious as well as heroic, and in deep anxiety to know by what spiritual discipline he may reach perfection and permanent union with God. His Licarnate Deity undertakes to enlighten him in the following instructions. To assist the reader in comprehending the teachings of- this whimsical method of reaching "the higher life," as practiced by the most sincere and yearning of India's religious devotees, I pre- sent a faithful picture of one of the class described, and who is at the same time one of the most celebrated of the Yogee order, just as I have seen him in Delhi, where the photograph was taken. The Yogee is the central figure. The Fakir standing is his attendant ; the man to the right is one of the Yogee's devotees or worshipers, come to pay him the usual homage, expressed by his clasped hands. The Saint is silent, engaged in the meditation and abstraction, the rules of which we are going to present. His body is daubed with ashes till he looks as if covered with leprosy ; the marks on his forehead are red, as they are on the face, and breast, and arms of his attendant. He holds no converse with mortal man, nor has he 202 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. done so for years. The Governor-General of India might pass by, but he would not condescend to look at him, nor deign a word of reply were he to speak to him. He is supposed to be dead to all things here below, and to have every sense and faculty absorbed in the contemplations enjoined in the following words of the Deity : Kreeshna says to Arjoona : " The man who keepeth the outward accidents from entering his mind, and his eyes fixed in contempla- tion between his brows — who maketh the breath to pass through both his nostrils alike in expiration and inspiration — who is of sub- dued faculties, mind, and understanding, and hath set his heart upon salvation, and who is free from lust, fear, and anger — is for- ever blessed in this life ; and being convinced that I am the cher- isher of religious zeal, the lord of all worlds, and the friend of all nature, he shall obtain me and be blessed. " The Yogee constantly exerciseth the spirit in private. He is recluse, of a subdued mind and spirit, free from hope, and free from perception. He planteth his own seat firmly on a spot that is undefiled, neither too high nor too low, and sitteth on the sacred grass which, is called Koos, covered with a skin and a cloth. Here he whose business is the restraining of his passions should sit, with his mind fixed on one object alone, in the exercise of his devotion for the purification of his soul, keeping his head, his neck, and body steady without motion, his eyes fixed on the point of his nose, looking at no other place around. The peaceful soul released from fear, who would keep in the path of one who followed god, should restrain the mind, and, fixing it on me, depend on me alone. The Yogee of an humble mind, who thus constantly exerciseth his soul, obtaineth happiness incorporeal and supreme in me." — Bhagvat Gceta, pp. 46-48. It was one of these men, sitting thus naked, filthy, and supercili- ous, upon the steps of the Benares Ghat, receiving the homage and worship of the people, that drew from Bishop Thomson that strong remark which made such an impression upon those who heard him utter it. The reader will bear in mind that Yog means the practice of NUMBERS AND EXPENSE OF HINDOO SAINTS. 203 devotion in this special sense, and a Yo£-ee is one devoted to God ; and such a man as the one here presented is the highest style of saint that Hindoo theology or its Patanjala (School of Philosophy) can know. The demands of these tenets, and the amazing suprem- acy which their practice confers on such a devotee as this, are so extraordinary and beyond belief, that, instead of my own language, 1 prefer to state them in the words of Professor H. H. Wilson, the translator of the Veda. Describing the discipline of the Yogees, and the exaltations which they aim at, he says : " These practices con- sist chiefly of long-continued suppression of respiration ; of inhaling and exhaling the breath in a particular manner ; of sitting in eighty- four different attitudes ; of fixing their eyes on the tips of their noses, and endeavoring by the force of mental abstraction to effect a union between the portion of vital spirit residing in the body and that which pervades all nature, and is identical with Shiva, consid- ered as the supreme being, and source and essence of all creation. When this mystic union is effected, the Yogee is liberated in his living body from the clog of material encumbrance, and acquires an entire command over all worldly substance. He can make himself lighter than the lightest substances, heavier than the heaviest ; can become as vast or as minute as he pleases ; can traverse all space ; can animate any dead body by transferring his spirit into it from his own frame ; can render himself invisible ; can attain all objects ; become equally acquainted with the past, present, and future ; and is finally united with Shiva, and consequently exempted from being born again upon earth. The superhuman faculties are acquired in various degrees, according to the greater or less perfection with which the initiatory processes have been performed." All this is implicitly believed of them by their devotees, and they are honored accordingly with a boundless reverence. The number of persons in the various orders of Yogees and Fakirs all over India must be immense. D'Herbelot, in his Biblio- t/ieque Orientale, estimates them at 2,000,000, of which he thinks 800,000 arc Mohammedan Fakirs. Ward's estimate seems to sus- tain this. But the influence of the British Government and its 204 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. laws, and the extension of education and missionary teaching, are steadily tending to the reduction of the number, by lowering the popular respect for the lazy crew that have so long consumed the industry of the struggling and superstitious people. The expense of supporting them, at the lowest estimate — say two rupees per month for each Fakir — involves a drain of $12,000,000 per annum upon the industry of the country — a sum equal to what is contributed for the support of all the Christian clergy of the United States. Yet this is only one item of what their religion costs the Hindoos. Besides this come the claims of the regular priesthood, then of the Brahmins, then of the astrologers, encomiasts, etc., which this system creates — and Ward '^ays they, with the Fakirs, make up in Bengal about one eighth of the population — millions of men year after year thus sponging upon their fellows, and engendering the ignorance, the superstition, the vice, the men- dicity, the sycophancy, that necessitate a foreign rule in their magnificent land, as the only arrangement under which the major- ity could know peace, and be safe in possession of the few advan- tages which they enjoy. Truly heathenism — and above all Hindoo heathenism — is an expensive system of social and national life for any people. Error and vice don't pay. They are dearer far than truth and virtue under any circumstances. Welcoming to their ranks, as they did, every vagabond of ability who had an aversion to labor, before the introduction of the British rule, these Fakirs, under pretenses of pilgrimages, used to wander, like the Gypsies of the West, over the country in bands of several thousands, but holding their character so sacred that the civil power dare not take cognizance of their conduct ; so they would often lay entire neighborhoods under contribution, rob people of their wives, and commit any amount of enormities. In Dow's " Ferishta," Vol. HI, there is a singular account of a combination of them, twenty thousand strong, raising a rebellion against the Emperor Aurungzebe, selecting as their leader an old woman named Bistemia, who enjoyed a high fame for her spells and great skill in the magic art. The Emperor's general was something of MILITANT SAINTS. 20S A wit. He gave out that he would resist her incantations by written spells, which he would put into the hands of his officers. His proved the more powerful, for a good reason : a battle, or rather a carnage, -insued, in which the old lady and her Fakir host were simply anni- hilated. Aurungzebe met his general, and, the historian tells us, had a good laugh with him over the success of his " spells." Even as late as 1778 these militant saints thought themselves strong enough to measure swords with English troops, attacking Colonel Goddard in his march to Herapoor. But the Colonel, though much more merciful than the Mohammedan General, taught them by the sacrifice of a score or more of their number that they had better let carnal weapons alone. Though still saucy enough to the weak, they have ceased to act together in masses, or carry a worse weapon than a club in their peregrinations. Usually each wandering Fakir has a religious relation to the high priest of some leading temple, and to him he surrenders some portion of the financial results of each tour at its termination. In view of this fact, they claim free quarters in all the temples which they pass. Their wide range of intercourse tends to make them well acquainted with public affairs — they hear all that is going on, and know the state of feeling and opinion, and communicate to their patron priests the information which they gather as they go. This, then, was "the secret service" organized by the conspirators of the Sepoy Rebellion to convey their purposes and instructions — when they concluded that the post-office was no longer safe to them — and a very efficient and devoted " service " it proved to be for their objects. One of Havelock's soldiers gave me a string of praying beads which he took from one of these Fakirs before they executed him. They intercepted him on his way to a Brigade of Sepoys, who had not yet risen, with a document concealed on his person from the Delhi leaders, directing the brigade to rise at once and kill their officers and the ladies and children of their station, and march immediately for Delhi to help the Emperor against the English. With this missive upon him, the Fakir — a stout, able fellow — was 206 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. passing Havelock's camp, when his movements attracted attention, and he was stopped. The interpreter was sent for, and the man interrogated. He gave a plausible account of himself — was a Holy Fakir, on his way to a certain shrine beyond, to perform his devo- tion — all the time twirling his beads in mental prayer, and so abstracted he could hardly condescend to reply to their inquiries. Some were for letting him go ; others, who did not like his looks, thought it better to search him before doing so, when the terrible missive that was to plunge into a sudden and cruel death some forty English people, more than half of them ladies and children, was found upon him, and he was at once told to prepare for death. They gave him five minutes, and then dropped him by the road- side with the bullet. He held his beads to the last, and the soldier who took them from his hands gave them to me. But there were thousands of such agents at their command, and the loss of a few made little difference to the enterprise. Out of the Presidency cities (Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay) there were then no hotels, and, save the Dak Bungalows (Travelers' Rest Houses) on the leading roads, a stranger was thrown entirely upon the hospitality of the civil and military officers of the English Government as he moved through the country. Freely and cor- dially was this hospitality extended to all comers, our kind hosts seeming to regard each visitant as conferring a favor rather than receiving it. On his departure they furnished him with a note of introduction to a friend in the next station, and Ihere the same courtesy and attention was repeated. Thrown thus so much and so constantly into the society of these gentlemen and their families, we were especial'/, as American strangers and missionaries, regarded with considerible interest, and our future success discussed from a variety of stand-points, according to the degree and character of the rei'gif^us views and feelings of our kind entertainers. We had gone to 1\i'A3. under the idea that it was a country whose tranquillity Wc s fu'.h/ assured, and whose peace could not be disturbed by any ',vents *'J r)/ to arise from any quarter. Our amazement may b.-' im?/>.'<^ A-hen w* ANNEXATION OF OUDE. 20/ discoveied, as we so soon did, that there were apprehensions in the vninds of many of these gentlemen of the existence of something unsafe, and even dangerous, around them ; but as others of them treated the matter very Hghtly, and even ridiculed the idea of any necessity for anxiety, we, on our part, concluded that it was no par- ticular business of ours, so we went on with our duty, leaving the future to be guided and controlled by the great Protector whom we were serving. On reaching Lucknow, November 29, 1856, we found, rather to our surprise, that our note of introduction was to billet us in the " Residency," (so famous for its siege and relief by General Have- lock ten months later.) Lucknow was the splendid capital of the kingdom of Oude, whose sovereign, Wajid Ali Shah, had just been removed to Calcutta, and his dominions annexed by the British Government, on account of the long-continued misrule and oppres- sion that had made Oude a neighborhood of misery and rapine to all the country around it. What the condition of its King and Court were is stated, without exaggeration, in a work issued from the American press about 1854, entitled "The Private Life of an Eastern King," and also in Sleeman's "Recollections," and other publications. Few sovereigns have ever been so utterly forgetful of the duties of a governor of men, or more thoroughly steeped in selfishness and sensuality, than was Wajid Ali Shah. His terri- tories at length, from his misrule and neglect, became an unequaled scene of outrage and bloodshed, and a refuge for the dacoits (rob- bers) of Northern India, who would cross the Ganges at night and plunder in the British Territories all around, making good their retreat into Oude before daylight. Complaints were presented for years, and threats of annexation were served upon him, till they ceased to be heeded by the besotted and reckless man, whose cruel- ties and neglect of his people (in which, however, he only imitated each of his predecessors) led at last to his being removed from the throne he disgiaced. He was transferred to Calcutta in the spring of 1856, and there, on a pension about equal to his royal reve- nues, he prosecutes his debaucheries without ruining a kingdom 2o8 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. any longer. The British Government annexed Oude to their terri- tories, greatly to its relief and advantage. I present a picture of this royal sot, as he loved to display himself in all his jewels and finery. During the week that we remained at Lucknow we were kindly entertained by a member of the new Government, (at the head of which was the celebrated Sir Henry Lawrence.) Every facility was afforded me in prosecuting my inquiries, and all information that I needed about the country, its condition and statistics, were freely communicated. Lucknow then well deserved the character, so far as its external aspect was concerned, which Bayard Taylor gives it in his " India, China, and Japan," when, standing on the iron bridge which spans the Goomtee, he exclaims, " All was lovely as the outer court of Paradise!" But, in what moral corruption were its five hundred thousand inhabitants seething ! I had never before seen any thing approaching its aspect of depravity and armed violence. Every man carried a weapon — even the trader's sword lay beside his goods, ready to defend them against the lawless. I had not supposed there was a community of men in this woiid, such fero- cious Ishmaelites, as I saw in that city. It was not safe for an unarmed man, black or white, to move among them. And, indeed, when I wanted to see the city thoroughly, it was considered essen- tial to my safety that I should not go alone or unattended, so they kindly mounted me on the back of an elephant in a Government howdah, and gave me a Sepoy escort ; and thus elevated, so that I could see every thing on the flat-roofed houses, and in the courts and streets below, I made my first acquaintance with the city of Lucknow, and saw heathenism and Mohammedanism in their unut- terable vileness. I returned to the Residency in the evening sick at heart, and, for the moment, discouraged at the fearful task which we were undertaking, to save and Christianize such people. Outside the city the whole country was a sort of camp. The Sepoy army was drawn chiefly from this military class of men. Indeed, the city of Lucknow was the capital of the Sepoy race Wajid All Shah, last King of Oude. THOSE WHO NEEDED US MOST. 211 The Talookdars (barons) of Oude (each in his own talook, setting up for himself, holding all he had, and taking all he was able to snatch from his neighbors) often defied their King, and refused to ]>ay the junima, (revenue,) and he could not obtain it unless by force of arms ; and even here he was frequently defeated by their combining their fo.'ces against him. Mr. Mead has fully shown in his work — "The Sepoy Revolt" — how truly Oude had been for generations the paradise of adventurers, the Alsatia of India, the nursing-place and sanctuary of scoundrelism, almost beyond a parallel on earth. Sir William Sleeman's work on Oude is probably the most fearful record of aristocratic violence, perfidy, and blood, that has ever been compiled ; yet it is written by one who opposed the annexation of the country to the British dominions, and who was regarded by the natives as their true friend. When I entered Oude there were known to be then standing two hundred and forty-six forts, with over eight thousand gunners to work the artillery on their walls, and connected with them were little armies, or bands of fighting men, to whom they were continually a place of shelter and defense. Annexation involved the razing of these forts, and the incorporation of a large amount of those blood-thirsty freebooters, and of the King's troops, into the Sepoy Army — for Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General, did not know what else to do with them — but what elements of fierceness and lawlessness were thus added to the prejudice and fanaticism of the high caste Brahminical army can be well imagined. Thousands of these mercenaries who could not be employed, and who, with arms in their hands, were sent adrift to seek their fortunes, became the ready instruments of the Talookdars' tyranny and power, when His Excellency an- nounced to them his intention of introducing the British system of land revenue into their country, for they well knew that these public improvements could be established only at the cost of their personal prerogatives and opportunities. The result is before the world. Yet it was in such a country and among such a people, after months of careful inquiry and inspection of unoccupied fields, that 212 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. I concluded the Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church should be established. We, with our gospel of peace and purity, had evidently found " those who needed us most ;" and I had faith to believe that this warlike race, with all their force of char- acter, could be redeemed, and would yet become good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Long after the hand which traces these lines shall have crumbled into the dust will the wide range of that beau- tiful valley, dotted with Christian churches, and cultivated by Christian hands, be bearing the rich fruition of these hopes. Satisfied of the suitability of Lucknow to become the head- quarters of our new Mission, I sought from a member of the Gov- ernment (not Sir Henry Lawrence, however) some statistics of the kingdom, to be incorporated in my Report to the Board at New York. I shall long remember his surprise when he found that we seriously contemplated planting the standard of the cross there. He asked me to look at the people, to consider their inveterate preju- dices, and the venerable character of their systems, and say if I thought any thing could ever be done there .-* So far was he from so believing that he considered it was madness for us to try, nor would our life be safe in attempting it. His mind was so made up on that question that he could lend no countenance to such an effort : in fact, he was no friend to Christian missions, and he intimated pretty plainly that he considered I would manifest more good sense were I retrace my steps to Calcutta, and take the first ship that left for America ! I received no better encouragement when I after- ward called on Sir James Outram — a good man, and one of the bravest generals that ever commanded an army. He could lead the advance that so gallantly captured that city ; but to stand up for Jesus alone and unprotected, exposed to the rage of the Moham- medan and the Hindoo in their bazaars, seemed to the military hero something that ought not to be attempted in such a country as Oude. He shrugged his shoulders when I reminded him that, as to our safety, Christ our Master, whose commission we obeyed, would look to that; while our success was in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and duty alone was ours. But he could not see it, and OUR MISSION FIELD. 213 »ve parted never to meet again. The gallant man, so justly desig- nated " The Bayard of India," sleeps to-day in Westminster Abbey among the illustrious dead whom England delights to honor. Satisfied that we should end our wanderings, and regard Oude and Rohilcund as our mission-field, we sought for a house in Luck- now, but none could be found — all spare accommodation of the kind had been engaged by the officers connected with the increased civil and military establishments of the Government. So we were necessitated, as the next best thing, to go on to Bareilly, where a residence could be obtained, and wait for the future to open our way into Lucknow. We thus escaped the honor and risk of being numbered with those whom the relieving General, speaking for a sympathizing world, was pleased to designate " the more than illus- trious garrison of Lucknow," who for one hundred and forty-two days were shut up and besieged within the walls of the Residency and the adjacent buildings, and whose story we shall illustrate in its place. With many of the survivors, male and female, I was intimately acquainted for years afterward, while my home subsequently was within fifteen minutes' walk of the ruins of the Residency itself. After full examination and inquiry, I had chosen this Kingdom of Oude and Province of Rohilcund (with the hill territory of Kumaon subsequently added) as our parish in India. In a full report to the Board in New York our reasons for the preference were fully given, and the fact was noted in the correspondence that the field chosen was one of those commended to my attention, before leaving America, by the Rev. Dr. Durbin, as one that might probably, on examination, be found pre-eminently suitable. His opinion and sagacity have been fully justified by the unqualified satisfaction of all concerned with the choice thus made. Our field, then, is the Valley of the Ganges, with the adjacent hill range bounded by the river Ganges on the west and south, and the great Himalaya Mountains on the north — a tract of India nearly as large as England without Scotland, being nearly four hundred and fifty miles long, and an average breadth of say one hundred and twenty 214 THE LAND OF TUB VEDA. miles, containing more than eighteen millions of people, who are thus left in our hands by the well-understood courtesy of the other Missionary Societies in Europe and America, who respect our occu- pation, and consider us pledged to bring the means of grace and salvation within the reach of these dying millions. 'The reader's attention is asked to the Map which is at the begmning of the volume for the localities intimated within or near the scenes of the Ramayana and Mahabarata, and its central position, in the very " throne land of Rama," amid the most important of India's " holy shrines," and where our Christianity can tell so powerfully upon the entire country.) On my way to Bareilly I called to see the Missionaries of the American Presbyterian Church at Allahabad ; and, after explaining my plans and our proposed field, I stated to them how much I fell the need of some native young man who knew a little English — one whom I could fully trust, and by whose aid I might do some- thing while awaiting the arrival of the brethren to be sent to me from America. They had one such whom they thought, under the circumstances, they might spare for such a purpose, though he was very dear to them. His name was Joel. They kindly introduced me to him, and at once my heart went out toward him as just the person I needed. I introduce him here to my readers — my faithful helper, destined to become the first native minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India. Joel had been taken when an orphan boy by the missionaries, and by them was educated and trained. He was at this time about twenty-two years of age, married to Emma, a lovely, gentle girl, four years younger than her husband. They had one little babe, and lived with Emma's widowed mother, a good Christian woman called " Peggy," who doted upon her daughter, all the more, I sup- pose, because she was so fair and delicate. I remember them dis- tinctly, because they were the first Christianized Hindoo household beneath whose roof I had yet sat down, and they seemed such a happy family. Joel had then gained so much of the English lan- guage that, by speaking slowly and using simple words, I could JOEL. 215 Joel— _/;■(?/« a P/iotoiiraJ^Ii.) make him understand me with tolerable clearness. He seemed just the kind of native assistant that I needed, if I could but obtain him. But I was going three hundred miles farther into an unex- plored region, in the heart of the country, and where all was new and untried. The proposition to take him away from the friends of his youth, and from Christian services, among utter strangers 21 5 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. \^^f\ heathens, did seem rather trying, particularly in view of the general native timidity to go far from home — for that distance, and into another kingdom, seems to them almost equal to changing their nationality. The case was laid before God, and his direction sought. It was then intimated to Joel himself, and, to my encouragement, he said he would be willing, but that he did not know how Emma would feel about it, or — which seemed to him a greater difficulty — what Emma's mother would say to the proposal. I feared that the mother's objection would be insuperable. However, I sent Joel to consult Emma first, and the faithful, brave little wife at once con- sented to go where he would go. Then came the test on which all depended for success. I resolved to accompany Joel to Peggy's residence, to be present when the proposal was made through Brother Owen, who interpreted for me. When we entered her humble home and sat down, she greeted us with her sweet smile, and there was a pause. Joel looked at me and I at him, but for a few minutes I could not begin. The lonely widow would be so much more lonely when the dutiful and affec- tionate daughter who sat there would be far away. This, with the possibility that she should see her no more, and that the sacrifice was almost too much to ask, seeming as it did, in some humble sense, to rank with the class of self-sacrifices which required him of old to take his son, his " only son Isaac," whom he loved, to give him up to duty and to God, made my task a painful one. The hesitation to speak was embarrassing, but it had to be done ; so, with an anxious heart and some serious doubts, I began and told her where I was going ; that I had no aid of any kind with which to begin God's work in the great Valley of the Ganges, and what a treasure and help some suitable young man would be to me, enabling me to speak to the people at once about Christ, and aid- ing me to gain the language, and assisting in every way. Then, her attention and interest being fixed, I ventured to make the pro- posal which was to lacerate her feelings and to try her faith ; and I said to her, " Joel is my choioj ; I have met no one who can help PEGGT'8 SACRIFICE FOB HER SAVIOUR. 21 7 me as he can ; he is wilHng to go with me, and so is Emma, if yoii can only give your consent." Woman has made many and great sacrifices for Jesus, and largely by such sacrifices has the cause of truth and purity been advanced among men. Since holy Simeon said to the mother of the Lord's Christ, " Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also," how many mothers, especially in resigning their qhij- dren for the service of God at home or in distant lands, 01; Ihp,^^ again in parting with their little ones that they might go, tihier^, Of stay there — how many such in these Christian sacrifices Ijaye felt this anguish pierce their maternal sympathies when, a^, tji-ue follow- ers of the Divine Father, " who spared not his own Spn, but freely delivered him up for us all," they have surrendered] their loved ones to the Lord's work, enduring their pungent sorrows, a,nd trying to say, " My Saviour, I do this for thee ! " Compared with such offerings, how poo-r and small, and easily parted with, were the sacrifices of Jewish saints ! They had only to surrender their corn, or wine, or oil, the best of their barn-yards or their flocks, or a money equivailent, for their first-born. None of these, save in such a case ^s Hannah's, went deeper than the purse. They were only property ; they left the heart unscathed ; they cost no tears, and inflicted no anguish. But it is different with Christian saints, who follow a self-denying Saviour, and who for his sake are willing to bear this peculiar cross. How amply compensated will such mothers feel when, in the presence of Him for whom they made these sacrifices, they shall see the sons or daugh- ters whom they resigned to the work of God, after having turned many to righteousness, "shine as the stars for ever and ever !" A spark of this Christ-like grace in the soul of a humble woman, once a heathen, can produce the same blessed spirit of self-sacrifice as that which animates the breasts of the most cultured ladies of Christendom ; while her prompt and noble reply puts to the blush the selfishness of some mothers in this land, who have dared to stand between their children and convictions of duty to God and a dying world. 12 2l8 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. Peggy — -fi-om a Photograph. When the painful question was presented to Peggy, after a momentary natural struggle, showing how conscious she was of the sacrifice, she answered me with tears — and I would write the poor widow's words in letters of gold if I could : " Sahib, (Sir, a title of respect,) the Saviour came down from heaven to give him self for me, and why should not I give my daughter to his work ?' JOEL'S EXPERIENCE. 219 It is a pleasure to introduce here the likeness of the devoted woman whose words I have quoted, and whose conduct so encour- aged my heart that day. Joel and Emma and their babe accompanied me to Rohilcund. As we were starting, the good missionaries by whom he had been educated, and who appreciated the gift they were conferring, play- fully intimated that Joel had been trained a Presbyterian, knew the Westminster Catechism, and was sound on the Five Points of Cal- vinism, and that they would naturally expect him to continue in the faith, even though he was going with a Methodist missionary ! In reply, I told them that I was more concerned for his religious welfare than for his special theological opinions — a clear conversion was of more moment to me than a creed ; but that his views I would not, under the circumstances, interfere with in any way. Nor did I ever do so. I felt assured these things would regulate themselves thereafter. On our arrival at Bareilly I commenced a little class-meeting, but soon found that Joel did not seem quite at home, and had but little to say in the exercise. So I drew him into private conversation, explained what we meant by the witness of the Holy Spirit, and put into his hands the " Memoir of William Carvosso," telling him that it was composed in very easy English, and was regarded by us as one of the best books ever written to illustrate the faith that saves, advising him to read it through twice, and then tell me what he thought of it. He did so ; but before he finished the second reading told me there was something described there which he had not experienced. He had feared God from his youth, respected the Christian religion, attended the means of grace, was moral and upright, and would stand up for Christ and advocate his cause, but to say that he knew God as his reconciled Father was what he had never been able to profess. He now saw its necessity, and began to seek it with all earnestness. Before long he found it, and was enabled to testify that the " Spirit witnessed with his spirit that he was a child of God." Of course the class-meeting was now appre- ciated, and from that hour to the present, firm and faithful has been 220 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. the character which he has borne among his brethren. Called by God to preach his Gospel, he has done so in its own spirit. I have often seen him antagonized by bitter-minded Brahmins and Moon- shees, using harsh and vexatious language toward him and his cause, but never ruffled or thrown off his guard. " The meekness and gentleness of Christ" has been his protection on these occa- sions, while, with his Bible in his hand — just as represented in the picture — he is ready for all comers ; and in the battles of the Lord with the enemies of the truth he has never turned his back oi sounded a retreat — "a good soldier of Jesus Christ" truly. As to his Calvinism, Joel had read Watson on " General Re- demption," and sustained his Conference examination upon the theme, and when Bishop Thomson laid his hand upon his head he ordained a true preacher of the Gospel, who believed as cordially as did the Bishop himself that the Lord Jesus, in the same sense and with the same intention, died for every human being. His fidehty and his progress must be an occasion of gratitude to those who gave him his early training, and toward whom he will ever entertain the gratitude that is justly due. m PERILS. 221 CHAPTER V. -IN PERILS BY THE HEATHEN, IN PERILS IN THE WILDERNESS.'* ON our arrival at Bareilly in January, 1857, we were most kindly received by the Judge — Mr. Robertson — a member of the Free Church of Scotland. He took us into his home, and entertained us until we could obtain a house and furnish it. He was greatly delighted at our coming, for he believed in Missions, and in the power of the Gospel to reach the hearts of the heathen. For more than thirty years he had been in the civil service, knew the people well, and spoke their language with great fluency. His advice and opinions on our work were freely given and gratefully accepted, and it was evident that we might ever count him among the truest friends of our Mission. We entered our own home just ten weeks before the Rebellion occurred ; settled all things for our work, put up my valued library in its place, and began to study the language, little dreaming that so soon our comfortable arrangements would be consigned to the flames, and we be homeless and hunted for our lives on the adjoin- ing mountains ! Yet, we might have been awakened from our sense of security by many events around us. In particular, one day a native gentle- man called at our house and held a conversation, Joel interpreting, in which I was given to understand that my coming among them was regarded by the people of Bareilly with considerable anxiety ; that for some time they had been led to believe the English Gov- ernment had hostile intentions toward their faith, and really intended, by force or fraud, to break their caste and destroy their religion ; and the supposition was, that I had been brought there by the Government to be ready, when their caste was broken, to baptize them, and so complete their Christianization ! 222 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. My earnest denial of any connection with the Government was received with a look of suspicion, for they confounded every white man (then few and far between in India) with the Government ; and when I proceeded to assure him that I was not even an English- man, the Hindoo looked at me and exclaimed, " Why, Sahib, your face is white, you talk the English language, and are by religion a Christian ; what else can you be but an Englishman ?" I told him I was an American ; but, more confused still, he^sked, "A what ?" " Why, an American." He had never heard the word before, nor perhaps one in ten thousand of his race, and he inquired what "an American" meant. He had no idea there was any other nation than England talking the same language and as white as they, and who were also Christians. This was generally true of his country- men then. But when, five years after, "the cotton famine" raised so wonderfully the value of their staple, and the Hindoo farmer began to receive two, and even three, rupees for the same quantity of cotton for which he obtained only one the year before, men opened their eyes and began to study geography, to find out that there was a nation, and a great one, beyond England, whose faces were white and who spoke the English language, and were Chris- tians too. So that our civil war in this country woke up the dormant intellect of ten thousand homes in the depths of India, and led men to inquire and study, and so far stimulated education, and showed its value, as no foreign event for hundreds of years pre- viously had done. But in 1857 the cotton famine had not occurred, and my Hindoo visitor was perplexed. Notwithstanding the general confidence they have in the truthfulness of the white faces, I have reason to think that this man left my dwelling under the conviction that I had tried to deceive him ; that I was what he supposed, and had denied it to screen myself and my purpose. It is probable that that interview and its impressions exposed my family and myself to their more special vengeance when the day came. With Joel's aid I commenced the work, hoping to have some- thing done by the time the first party of our brethren should reach THE GREASED CARTBIBGES. 223 (IS from America. On the Sabbath we had two services — at eleven o'clock in the Hindustanee language, conducted by Joel, at which our family and a few natives attended ; after this service we had our class-meeting, led by myself, six persons (Mrs. B., Joel and his wife, Ann, and Isaac, and Maria) being present, Joel translat- ing for me what had to be said in Hindustanee. In the afternoon I held a little English service, at which a few of the officers and civilians attended. On Tuesday evening, also, we had an Hindus- tanee service, and an English one on Thursday. Thus our work opened, but it was truly " the day of small things." The year in which I arrived in India saw the introduction of new arrangements for arming the Sepoy army. Instead of the old " Brown Bess," or regulation musket, with which they had hitherto fought the battles of the British, the rulers of India concluded to arm their Sepoys with the new Enfield rifle. For this weapon a peculiar cartridge had to be prepared, samples of which had been sent out from England to be manufactured at the arsenal of Dum Dum, eight miles from Calcutta. The rifles were distributed to the forces, and the wily Fakirs, ever on the look-out for something new to foment disaffection and distrust, at once declared that these, too, were a part of the insidious plan to injure their faith. The Sepoys received them with suspicion. Lock, stock, and barrel were taken asunder and carefully scrutinized, but nothing dangerous to their faith could be discovered. Yet the Fakirs had assured them there was danger, and that settled the matter. Then came the intense excitement about the "greased cartridges" for these guns, the purpose being, I suppose, to lubricate the bore of the rifle. It was given out that this grease was " a compound of hogs' lard and bullocks' fat." Only those who have lived among these people, and realized what a horror the Mohammedan has of the hog, and what a reverence the Hindoo has for the cow, can appreciate the storm of excitement and frenzy this simple an- nouncement caused through the whole Bengal army. The Fakirs exultantly pointed to the alleged fact as corroborating all they had asserted of the designs of the English against their religions. 224 TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. It has never been definitely settled whether the charge as to the composition of the unguent was correct or not. The Government did what it could to allay the excitement and fears of the Sepoys, even to the withdrawal of the obnoxious cartridges, offering the men the right to make them up themselves with such grease as was not offensive to them. But it was all too late ; midnight meet- ings now began to be held and plans of resistance discussed, and immediate and open mutiny was proposed. General Hearsey at Barrackpore, by a well-timed and judicious address to the Sepoys of his command, in which he showed them the folly of supposing the Government inclined to attempt their forcible conversion, and the Governor General by proclamation to the whole army, tried to arrest the fearful tendency of affairs, and tranquilize the troops ; but the effect was temporary. The lull was only the prelude to the storm. The General's manly and straight- forward address to the men, with whom he had served nearly forty years, ought, if any thing could have done so then, to have satisfied and appeased them. He told them, among other things, that " the English are Christians of the Book, (that is, Protestants,) and Christians of the Book admit no proselytes, and baptize none, except those who fully understand and believe in the tenets therein inculcated." But rebellion was a foregone conclusion with these infatuated men; so they dissembled and professed to be "koosh" (pleased) with his address, yet they only awaited their hour. Twenty days after this, on that same parade ground, a Brahmin Sepoy named Mungul Pandy turned out armed, and in the presence of his regi- ment, not a man of whom interfered to save their officers or to arrest the Sepoy, shed the first blood of the Rebellion by firing on and wounding Adjutant Baugh and Sergeant-Major Hewson. The firing drew General Hearsey and his son to the spot. Mungul took aim at the General, who drew his sword, and with the words, " John, if I fall, rush upon him and put him to death," spurred his horse for- ward. The man was overpowered, and after attempting suicide was tried and executed, and died refusing to make any statement to METHODS EMPLOYED. 225 implicate his comrades, who were known to sympathize with him. We heard all this, and as the toils closed around us, began fully to realize how helpless we were, and how entirely in the power of those people and their instruments. In addition to the officials connected with the public offices already mentioned, there were any number of Moulvies and Moonshees, connected with the mosques and with tuition, available for their purposes. These men could control the consciences of the Moslem servants in our fam- ilies — the servants, of course, had eyes and ears — so that, while we lived in entire ignorance of what they said, oi did, or purposed, our whole Hfe lay open to our enemies, and our domestic conversations could be reported to them daily. The influence of the Nana Sahib, and other Hindoo authorities, could equally operate through their Pundits and Priests, and we were helpless between the two, as the full glare of observation and suspicion fell upon us, while those who watched every movement, and waited for our lives, could stand back in the shade and work in darkness. One of the methods employed was the fabrication and diffusion of false news and prophecies. All that they required was tem- porary effect to rouse the fanaticism of the fighting class to a white heat of fury, until they committed themselves. As the Sepoys were utterly ignorant, and their minds entirely under the influence of their Fakirs, whom they believed implicitly, nothing promulgated by. them was too monstrous for belief For instance, it was asserted that " the English had imported several cargoes of flour mixed with bones, which had been ground fine, and one mor- sel of which would destroy the caste of any man ;" that " this flour had been covertly introduced, and was then on sale in all the lead- ing bazaars, but so well disguised that even those who bought and sold it could not discover the difference!" All this was believed. It was no use denying it, or asking them to trace it, or name the ship that brought it, or who had landed it ; it was enough that the Fakirs had said it ; it was certainly so. Thus Brahmin and Sepoy bought their food with suspicion, and eat it with fear. Another 226 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. report was, that there was a plan for transporting to India the numerous widows of the Englishmen slain in the Crimea. The principal zemindars (landholders) of the country were to be com- pelled to marry them, and their children, who would not of course be Hindoos, were to be declared the heirs of the estates ; and thus the territorial rights of the people of India, as well as their religion, were to be annihilated ! With much more of the same sort. Prophecies were invented, and arrangements made to fulfill them. The leading one was, that " the power which rose on the battle-field of Plassey should fall on the centennial anniversary of that great day." Another form of it, that better suited the Mohammedan mind, was, that "on the hundredth anniversary of Plassey the power that rose should fall, and the power that fell should rise." The meaning of all this is clear enough. Allegorical expressions in letters and remarks were much used, such as " Pearls (that is, white-faces) are quoted as low in the mar- ket ; Red Wheat (that is, colored-faces) is looking up." Then in February came that singular movement, the circulation of the " Chupatties," (small unleavened cakes,) the full significance of which has never been explained. Each recipient of two cakes was to make ten others, and transmit them in couples to the Chokey- dars (constables) of the nearest village, and they to others, so that in a few days the little cakes were distributed all over the country, causing amazing excitement. It was known that sugar had been used as a signal for the Vellore mutiny, (July, 1806.) And the idea of thus conveying a warning to be in readiness for a precon- certed rising, had precedent enough in the " Feast of the Moon Loaves," still held in commemoration of a similar device, in the conspiracy by which the Mogul dynasty was overthrown five hun- dred years ago in China, as the reader will find narrated in Gabet and Huq's "Travels in Tartary," chapter iii. No other explana- tion has ever been given of this singular transaction. Every supernatural means to which they looked for aid and direction were invoked and propitiated to lend their help in the coming struggle. Hunooman's assistance was confidently expected THE MOTIVES USED. 227 to render them invincible when they should cross bayonets with the dreaded white-faces. So they sharpened their weapons, lawful and unlawful, and awaited the day Meanwhile the more intelligent and elevated of the conspirators cautiously sounded the native princes of the semi-independent States, to enable them to understand what part they would proba- bly take in the great effort. Suitable motives were carefully held out to them, and also to the nobles and military classes, founded upon freedom from annexation, restoration of ancient dynasties, the bitter payment of old grievances, with patronage and rank when the Mogul should have " his own again," and be once more paramount in India. The Sepoys were promised pro- motion, higher pay, and better times generally : the Priests were assured of a deliverance forever from the growing power of Chris- tianity, or even its presence, with a swift reversal of those enact- ments which had so seriously curtailed their dignity and perquisites, in usages and rites which humanity had swept away. The loose and vagabond classes (called *' Budmashes ") were linked in with the enterprise by promises of license and plunder; and it was not a secret that they disputed together in advance as to the particular shares to which they should become entitled. Even the criminals in the jails were to become personally interested in the results. In Bareilly, where we lived, was the great central jail, containing nearly three thousand, the convicts of the province of Rohilcund, with its eight millions of people. These wretches, confined there for all crimes, from murder downward, understood that their time would come to be avenged upon the Government and the race that were punishing them. None can say now how we gained the information, only that "a bird of the air" would carry such a mat- ter ; l)ut weeks in advance of our flight from Bareilly, the English ladies had heard that those wretched criminals, in their chains and cells, understood that they were to be let loose upon the day of the mutiny, receiving their liberty on condition of consummating the atrocities which the high caste of the Sepoys prohibited them from pei-petrating. And, accordingly, let loose they were on that dreadful 228 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. 31st of May; but, thank Heaven! we had been led by a merciful Providence to anticipate the infernal intention, and removed to a place of safety nearly all of those whom they intended to victimize. Alas ! for the few women and children who, tardy in their flight, did fall into their fiendish hands on that ever memorable afternoon. Incendiary fires in the officers' quarters, which Sepoys refused to aid in extinguishing, now became matters of nightly occurrence in different stations. Partial mutinies took place at Fort William, Berhampore, and Lucknow, until, on the loth of May the three regiments stationed at Meerut (near our position at Bareilly) rose and set fire to the houses, shot some of their officers, and then ruthlessly murdered all the Europeans on whom they could lay their cruel hands, men, women, and children, over forty in number. All this was done in a station where there were European troops within one mile of this scene of blood, and yet the miserable old General who commanded was so stupefied that he would not permit his men either to attack or pursue them ! So the Sepoys hurried up their work undisturbed, and marched off to Delhi. They reached that city the next day. Here the other Sepoy troops, five thousand in number, joined them, and, taking their artiller)', they proceeded to the palace of the Emperor, where they hauled down the old flag of England, ran up the green standard of the Moslem, and fired a royal salute in honor of the resumption of Mohammedan sovereignty in India. They then began one of the most ruthless and fiendish massacres of the Europeans which even Delhi (the city of cruelty) had ever witnessed. The Shazadahs were foremost in this devilish work, which was done chiefly in public, before thousands of raging foes, at the Kotwallee (Police Station) of the city. All the Europeans within the palace were slaughtered, with the concurrence, if not by the orders, of the Emperor, including the English Embassador, the Chaplain, Mr. Jennings and his daughter, and Miss Clifford — the latter said to be one of the most beau^'iful English ladies then in the East. Amid the record of these horrors, it makes one feel proud of his Anglo-Saxon blood to think of some of the daring deeds which WILLOUQHBY'S DEFENSE. 229 were done against such fearful odds, and in the face of almost certain death. One of the most notable of these was Lieutenant Willoughby's defense of the Delhi magazine on that dreadful day. I know the place, and enjoy the honor of a personal acquaintance with some of the brave men whom he commanded then. I have also had the privilege, in company with one of the survivors, to wander over the ruins into which he blew the whole structure when he found he could not save it for his country. There were no European troops in Delhi to oppose the entrance of the red-handed Sepoys that day ; none, except the nine men in charge of the magazine, and which it v/as of the first moment to Sepoy success that they should seize. In the Lieutenant's judg- ment it was of equal importance to his nation that they should never have it, and his resolution was promptly taken, that, if it cost his life and the lives of those under his orders, it never should be surrendered. The names of the eight heroes whom he commanded were Lieutenants Forrest and Raynor ; Conductors Buckley, Shaw, Scully, and Crow ; Sergeants Edwards and Stewart. He first put his guns and howitzers in position for the defense of the place, and then, so as to be prepared for the worst, laid his trains to connect all parts of the magazine. A handful of native assistants happened then to be with them in the magazine, whom they could not open the gates to turn out, for they soon discovered that they were play- ing them false ; so they had to watch them also. The firing and yells resounded all over the city, coming nearer and nearer to them. But there these men stood, with one hope in their hearts, that the European troops whom they knew to be at Meerut would follow up the mutineers, and that they might be able to hold out till they arrived, and so save the magazine and Delhi too. Vain hope — they came not. Soon the Palace Guards were thundering at the gates, and, in the name of the Emperor, demanded the surrender of the magazine. No reply was given. The mutineers then brought scaling ladders from the Palace, and the Sepoys swarmed up upon the high walls all around them. One of the bastions commanded a view of the countn coward 230 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. Meerut — a long reach of the road could be seen from it. There Willoughby took his position. Conductor Scully had volunteered to fire the train, should the last emergency come. There he stood, with his lighted port-fire in his hand, watching every movement of his chief Seeing all was lost, and chafing with impatience, in presence of the raging foes around upon the walls, he would now and then cry out, "Shall I fire her, sir.?" But the Lieutenant, who still hoped for the sight of help from Meerut, would reply, " Not yet, Scully — not yet." The despairing but brave man would again look along the road and sigh, while Scully watched for the signal. Lieutenant Forrest, with the other six men, worked the guns. The gallant little band never once thought of betraying their trust by capitulation. The escalade from without was the signal for a similar movement from the traitorous natives within. In the confu- sion they managed to hide the priming pouches ; they then deserted the Europeans, climbing up the sloped sheds on the inside of the magazine, and descending by the ladders without. The insurgents had by this time swelled into multitudes upon the walls, pouring a deadly musketry discharge upon them at less than fifty yards, but the brave besieged kept up an incessant fire of grape, which told well. At length Conductor Buckley — who had been loading and firing with the same steadiness as if on parade — received a ball in his arm ; and Lieutenant Forrest was at the same time struck by two balls. Further defense was hopeless. No help from Meerut. Lieutenant Willoughby saw that the supreme moment had arrived. He lifted his hat, which was the signal, and Conductor Scully instantly fired the trains, and with an explosion that shook all Delhi, up went the magazine into the air, and its vast resources were annihilated. From five hundred to one thousand Sepoys on the walls were killed, and every thing around destroyed. Wil- loughby, Forrest, and Buckley, though wounded, actually escaped death, and managed to crawl from beneath the smoking ruins under cover of night, and retreated through the sally-port on the river-face, and Forrest and Buckley lived to tell the story of their PROVIDENTIAL COMPENSATION. 23 1 great deed. Lieutenant Willoughby himself was killed in a village close to Delhi. No trace of Scully or the rest was ever found. This was a great service for the English cause, but could not turn the tide for them. Unfortunately, there was an arsenal and an immense park of artillery in another part of the city, both which fell into the hands of the mutineers ; while the sixty thousand Sepoys who soon found their way to Delhi brought with them from other cities abundant munitions for its defense. After the destruction of the magazine, the murder of the officers and missionaries and other Europeans, the violation of their wives and daughters, and the spoliation and burning of their homes, was proceeded with. Then followed the demolition of the courts of law, the church, the college, and the printing-office, and deeds were done that day which devils themselves might blush to own. It was an unutterable woe ; yet it was not without its great compensation. There is a permissive providence of our God which sometimes allows a limited calamity to fall upon individuals and communities in order to preserve them from a sorrow that would be overv/helm- ing and unmitigated ; in the sense of Caiaphas's words, " It is expe- dient that one man die for the people," etc. But in such cases, and indeed in general, it requires that we patiently wait until time gives the Almighty the requisite opportunity to be his own interpreter. We could not then understand God, In the midst of these agonies it seemed as if he had " forgotten to be gracious, and in anger had shut up his tender mercies." But what light the succeeding events, and the history of the last dozen years, have shed upon his over- ruling providence and his wise designs ! Two facts of this class belong just here : one general, and one particular to ourselves. But for the anticipation on the part of the Meerut mutineers of the contemplated universal rising, it seems to me that not a Christian life could have been preserved in all India. Had they patiently waited till the 31st of May, and all had risen, as was intended, so that on the same day and hour, in every place, they had commenced their work of blood, not a lady nor a babe 232 TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. could have been saved. All must have been overwhelmed in one common ruin, and none left to tell the tale. But those demented Sepoys of Meerut struck twenty-one days too soon, thus throwing the whole country into such an excitement and effort to meet the hour, which was then manifestly inevi- table, that every expedient that men could adopt, to remove the ^adies, children, and non-combatants to some, to any, place of safety, and the best possible measures for their defense and preserva- tion, were taken. So that to that three weeks of opportunity each lady owes her life, and the world was saved the agony of a tale of horror that would have been even a hundred fold greater than the terrible tragedy which horrified them in 1857-8. The other fact was personal to ourselves, yet having a kindred significance in its results. Our commanding General in Bareilly was a gentleman of the name of Sibbald. Like many other old officers, he had an infatuated confidence in his Sepoy troops. If he had been at home when the news of the Meerut massacre reached us, the probability is that not a soul of us would have escaped. But, just before the event took place, he was led to pro- ceed upon a tour of military inspection of the province under his authority, and was most providentially away in the mountain dis- trict when the news arrived. He left in command our brave friend, Colonel Troup — a man who knew the Sepoys well, and who did not trust them. Acting on his own judgment and discretion, though he knew the old Gen- eral would probably disapprove his action, he took that course, in the hour and opportunity afforded him by his temporary command, which proved the salvation of all those under his care who obeyed his orders. In our flight to Nynee Tal, myself and family brought up the rear. I met General Sibbald half-way down, at Bahari Dak Bunga- low, and he was wild -with excitement, declaring that Colonel Troup's head was turned to do such a thing as to send away the ladies and children out of Bareilly, and he swore that if he had been at home not one of them should have left. He knew, he OUR WARNING TO FLEE. 233 said, that his Sepoys were staunch and true, and could be depended upon to defend them ! I looked after the old man as he hurried awav from me, with the sad presentiment that he was mistaken. He " blew up" Troup, and was so firm in his reliance on the Sepoys that, had it not been for the influence of his officers, he would, in Older to show his confidence in his troops, have yielded to their request to order back the ladies to Bareilly. On such a thread as this our fate hung. Yet this very man, to whom his Sepoys swore such fidelity and made such promises, was the first person whom they shot on that Sabbath morning, May 31st. In his dying hour, if he thought of them, he must have felt that the safety of his own wife and daughters was due to the precaution of the officer he had blamed ! But we are anticipating what follows. Forty-eight hours after the Meerut massacre (and three days before the account of that of Delhi reached us) a mounted horse-^ man entered Bareilly, with a letter from the English Governor of the North-west, Mr. Colvin, to the commanding officer, narrating the terrible deeds done at Meerut, and suggesting that every pre- caution should be taken to provide for the safety of the ladies and children. Colonel Troup, being in command, received the letter and acted as we have stated. The telegraphs had been cut all over the country, and the mails on the Delhi side stopped ; so that had it not been for the precaution of Mr. Colvin in sending a message direct, we should have been in ignorance of what had been done, and of our own fearful danger. Many such facts might be given to show the merciful Providence which watched over us to save us. But these may suffice here. I now turn to our personal narrative, and, in presenting it, have carefully looked over the letters addressed to the Corresponding Secretary of our Missionary Society, in various dates from May 26 to July 10, 1857, when I gave the facts as they occurred ; and in the light of the explanations which subsequent years have devel- oped, I find only a few words that I need at all to qualify ; so that the facts and impressions are given in the form in which they came from an anxious heart, which, in the midst of danger and in the 13 234 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. face of death, tried to trust in God for all events, and yet looked for a happy issue out of these afflictions, and for the life and extension of the mission which we had begun. On Thursday, May 14, the commanding officer kindly sent his Adjutant over to our house with a serious message. Not knowhig what he specially wanted, we engaged for nearly an hour in relig- ious conversation. But I thought from his manner that he looked anxious. With gentlemanly delicacy he was unwilling to mention his message before Mrs. Butler, lest it might injuriously affect her, as she was in circumstances where any shock was undesirable. He, accordingly, asked to see me alone, and then communicated the intelligence of the mutiny at Meerut, stating that word had arrived from the Governor that the insurrection was spreading to Delhi and other places, and that fears were entertained as to the intention of the Sepoys at Bareilly. Under those circumstances, the command- ing officer felt it his duty to request that all ladies and children should be sent off quietly, but at once, to the hills, and also that he considered it prudent, from the reports in circulation concerning us and our objects, that I also should accompany Mrs. B. and the chil- dren, as he considered me in rather special danger in the event of a mutiny. I promised the Adjutant that I would prayerfully con- sider the message, and let my conclusion be known to the com- manding officer that evening. As soon as the Adjutant had gone, I communicated the message to Mrs. Butler, She received it with calmness, and we retired to our room to pray together for divine direction. After I had concluded my prayer, she began, and I may be excused in saying that such a prayer I think I never heard ; a martyr might worthily have uttered it, it was so full of trust in God and calm submission to his will. But when she came to plead for the preservation of " these innocent little ones," she broke down completely. We both felt we could die, if such were the will of God ; but it seemed too hard for poor human nature to leave these little ones in such dreadful hands, or perhaps to see them butchered before our eyes ! We knew that all this had been done on Sunday last in Meerut, and we had no reason to expect CONCLUDED NOT TO 00. 235 more mere} from those in whose power we were, should they rise and mutiny. But we tried hard to place them and ourselves, and the mission of our beloved Church, in the hands of God ; and he did calm our minds, and enable us to confide in him. On rising ft om our knees I asked her what she thought we ought to do ? Her reply was that she could not see our way clear to leave our post ; she thought our going would concede too much to Satan and to these wretched men ; that it would rather increase the panic , that it might be difficult to collect again our little congregation if we suspended our services, and, in fact, that we ought to remain and trust in God. I immediately concurred, and wrote word to the commanding officer. He was not pleased at all with our decision. The evening wore on, and we held our usual weekly English serv- ice. I tried to preach from Deut. xxxiii, 25, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be," and administered the holy Sacrament. The commanding officer was present. I felt much for him. His re- sponsibility was great, for on his discretion and judgment our entire safety, under God, depended. We passed a restless night, startled at every sound, feeling that we slept over a volcano that might burst forth at any moment, and scatter death and destruc- tion on every side. Before going to bed we arranged our clothes for a hasty flight, should an alarm be given. But we beheld the morning light in safety, and the mail brought me the Christian Advocate of March 19, and one of the first things I saw was the little para- graph which was headed with the words "Pray for your lonely William Butler!" How much I needed to be prayed for! Before that simple sentence my hear^f gave way, and I could not resist the tears that came. The past and the present were such contrasts ! But God graciously soothed my feelings, till I wondered why I had ever doubted for a moment, or failed to see that God, who had brought us hitherto, would not now forsake us, or allow our mission to be broken up. I felt assured that thousands in this happy land did pray for their " lonely William Butler." Three times between that and Saturday evening did my kind friend send to warn me to 236 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. leave, as did also other friends among the military By that time nearly all the ladies and children had left. The place looked ver) desolate, and I began to question whether I was right in resisting advice any longer. My Moonshee told me candidly he thought I " ought to go." Being a Mohammedan, and having a pecuniary loss in the suspension of my lessons in the language, his warning had much weight with me. I had then to settle the question, raised by the commanding officer, whether our resistance to going, under those circumstances, was not more a tempting of, rather than a trusting in, Providence .-* I hated to leave my post, even for a limited time. Yet to remain looked, as he argued, should an insur- rection occur, and I become a victim, like throwing away my life without being able to do any good by it ; and the Missionary Board would probably have blamed me for not taking advice, and acting on the prudence which " foreseeth the evil," and takes refuge " till the indignation is overpast." Still, had I been alone, or could I have induced Mrs. B. to take the children and go without me, (a proposition she met by declaring she would never consent to it, but would cling to her husband and cheerfully share his fate, what- ever it might be,) I would have remained. But when to all the preceding reasons, the reflection was added that Mrs. B.'s situation required that, if moved at all, it must be then, as a little later flight would be impossible, and she and the children and myself must remain and take whatever doom the mutineers chose to give us, I consulted Joel, and asked his advice as to what had better be done. He thought it safest that we should go, say for three or four weeks, to Nynee Tal, and, if all remained quiet, we could then return. Meanwhile he promised to sustain our humble service, and keep every thing in order. How little he or I then imagined that he himself, or any native Christian, would be in peril, or that before we again stood together on that spot, events would transpire around him that would fill the civilized world with horror ! I, therefore, arranged to suspend my English service, (indeed most of those who attended were already gone,) hoping soon to OUR FLIOET. 237 return and resume it. Saturday night we lay down to rest, not to sleep. The mounted patrols that went round every fifteen minutes would call out to the watchman attached to each house in such boisterous tones that sleep was impossible ; and it almost became distracting, from the manner in which it made the poor children startle and cry until daylight broke. It was a solemn Sabbath. We had but ten persons at the native service, and less at the English one ; people seemed afraid to come out. A rumor got afloat that Sunday was to be our last day ; that the Sepoys intended to murder the Europeans on that Sabbath. Our class-meeting was a solemn, but profitable, time. We used it as if it were our last. Had it been, I think each of that little band (seven in number) would have been found of God in peace. We lay down again to seek rest, but it was short and disturbed repose. Monday morning came ; I tried to find palankeens for our journey, but all were away ; so I obtained some bamboos and rope, and took three charpoys, (an article like what our Lord referred to when he bid the man "take up his bed diwd walk,") turned the feet uppermost, put on the bamboos, and threw a quilt on each, and we were equipped. I left three native Christians in the house with Joel, besides two watchmen for night. That evening, at six o'clock, the news arrived that the Sepoys had risen in Delhi, murdered the Europeans, and proclaimed the Emperor. The details were fright- ful. Just then Judge Robertson appeared upon the scene, and inquired if I too was yielding to the panic .'' I told him all. He was incredulous. I asked him why he thought so confidently that there would be no rising .^ He told me he was so advised by Khan Bahadur, the native judge, who assured him there was no cause for alarm, and guaranteed him personal protection under the hospital- ity of his own roof. Judge R. expostulated with me for leaving, and had not my arrangements been made for going, the influence of his words might have prevailed to lead me to put it off, and we should have shared his sad fate. We were ready when our bearers came at nine o'clock, and I went into my study once more. I looked at my books, etc.. and the thought flashed across my mind 238 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. that perhaps, after all my pains in collecting them, I shoul'^. oca'ct see them again ! I took up my Hindustanee Grammar, two volumes of manuscript Theological Lectures, a couple of works on India, my Passport, my Commission, and Letter of Instructions, with my Bible, Hymn Book, and a copy of the Discipline, and sorrowfully turned away, leaving the remainder to their fate. The children, poor little fellows, were lifted out of their beds and placed in the dooley. Quietly, and under cover of the night, we started, leaving the keys of our house and all things in Joel's charge. Shaking hands with him and the others, we moved off by the light of the Mussal- chee's torch, crossed the Bazaar, but no one molested us ; they simply asked the men, " Whom have you } " The reply was, " The Padre Sahib," (the missionary,) and we passed through the crowd unmolested. We moved on in the silent darkness, having seventy- four miles to go. About midnight I happened to be awake, and saw we were passing a gig with two ladies in it, and a native lead- ing the horse. It seemed hazardous to stop, but I became so uneasy that I did, and walked back. The ladies knew my voice. There I found them, on that wretched road, twenty miles from Bareilly, in the middle of the night ; the ladies, scantily dressed, and crowded, with an Ayah, (a native nurse,) into a small gig, one of them holding up (for there was no room for it to lie down) a poor little sick child. In that posture they had been for nearly eio-ht hours. They were just sitting down to dinner when the news of the massacre of Delhi arrived, and such was the panic produced that the gig was instantly brought to the door, and they put into it and sent off. They must go alone, for their husbands were military officers and must remain. I have witnessed desolate scenes, but never saw any thing so desolate looking as those two ladies and that child on that road that night. I took the lady with the child out of the gig and put them into my dooley, and it did my heart good to see them lying down. I then sent them on and took charge of the other lady and the gig. We overtook them, and about five ladies more, next morning, at the travelers' bungalow at Behari. There they remained, as directed, until dooleys overtook AZV AKSWEM TO PRATER. 239 them next evening. Here I met General Sibbald, as already stated, hurrying down in a fury ; too late, thank God ! to carry out his purpose to prevent the departure. We rested till the heat of the day subsided, and then I started with my family again. We reached the first Chowkee safely, changed bearers, and then entered the Terai — a belt of deep jungle, about twenty miles wide, around the Himalayas, reeking with malaria, and the haunt of tigers and elephants. The rank vegetation stood in places like high walls on either side. At midnight we reached that part of it where the bearers are changed. The other palankeens had their full comple- ment of men ; but, of the twenty-nine bearers for whom I paid, I could only find nine men and one torch-bearer ; and this, too, in such a place ! Darkness and tigers were around us ; the other palankeens were starting one after another, each with its torch to frighten away the beasts, the bearers taking advantage of the rush to extort heavy " bucksheesh." All but two had gone off, and there we were with three dooleys and only men enough for ojte, and no village where we could obtain them nearer than twelve miles. What to do I knew not. I shall never forget that hour. At length I saw there was but one thing to be done ; I took the two children and put them into the dooley with Mrs. Butler ; a bullock-hackrey, laden with furniture, was about a quarter of a mile ahead, with its light fading in the distance ; desperation made me energetic ; at the risk of being pounced upon, I ran after the hackrey, and by main force drove round the four bullocks and led them back, sorely against the will of the five men in charge of it. But I insisted that they must take Ann (our servant) and me, with what little baggage we had with us. I put her and the luggage up, the driver grum- bling all the while about his heavy load and the delay. I then turned around to see Mrs. Butler off, but her bearers did not stir. I feared they were about to spoil all. They were exhausted by extra work, and might have even fairly refused to carry two chil- dren with a lady ; and to have taken either of them on the hackrey was impossible. I dreaded the bearers would not go. Delay seemed ruinous to the only plan by which I could get them on at all. If 240 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. the men refused the burden and left, they would take with them, for their own protection, the only torch there was, which belonged to them, and we should have been left in darkness, exposed to the tigers and the deadly malaria. Mrs. C. and Miss Y.'s bearers had laid them down, and were clamoring for larger "bucksheesh." My ten men looked on. The hackrey-driver turned his bullocks around, and, out of all patience, was actually putting his team in motion. But, in spite of urging, there stood my men. It was an awful moment. For a few minutes my agony was unutterable ; 1 thought I had done all I could, and now every thing was on the brink of failure. I saw how "vain" was "the help of man," and I turned aside into the dark jungle, took off my hat, and lifted my heart to God. If ever I prayed, I prayed then. I besought God in mercy to influence the hearts of these men, and decide for me in that solemn hour. I reminded him of the mercies that had hith- erto followed us, and implored his interference in this emergency. My prayer did not last two minutes, but how much I prayed in that time! I put on my hat, returned to the light, and looked. I spoke not ; I saw my men at once bend to the dooley ; it rose, and off they went instantly, and they never stopped a moment, except kindly to push little Eddie in, when in his sleep he rolled so that his feet hung out. Having seen them off, I turned around, and there were our two dooleys. I could do nothing with them, so left them for the tigers to amuse themselves with, if they chose, as soon as the light was withdrawn. I ran after the hackrey and climbed up on the top of the load, and gave way to my own reflections. I had known what it was to be " in perils by the heathen," and now I had had an idea of what it was to be " in perils in the wilderness." But the feeling of divine mercy and care rose above all. The road was straight, and what a joy it was to see the dooley-light grow dim in the dis- tance, as the bearers hurried forward with their precious burden. We moved on slowly after them, owing to the rugged road, the swaying furniture, and the wretched vehicle ; but we were too grateful for having escaped passing the night in the miasma and NYNEE TAL. 24 1 danger of the jungle to complain, though every movement swung as about till our bones ached. We were ten hours going those fifteen miles. At last day broke, and our torch-bearer was dismissed. " Hungry and thirsty, our souls fainted in us" indeed. But at last we reached Katgodan, and found the mother and babes all safe. They had slept soundly the whole distance, and at daybreak were laid safely down at the door of the travelers' bungalow. It was twenty-two hours of traveling and exposure since we had tasted food, and when it was served up it was indeed welcome. Mrs. C. and Miss Y. did not arrive for some hours after my wife, having lost the difference of time on the road in contentions with their bearers, and extra bribing to induce them to go on. On my arrival, one of the first remarks I met was from Miss Y. : " Why, what could have happened to Mrs. Butler's bearers, that they started so cheerfully and arrived here so soon, without giving her the least trouble !" Ah ! she knew not, but I knew, there is a God who heareth and answereth prayer ! O for a heart to trust him as 1 ought ! The divine interposition in the case will appear all the muivj manifest when I add that even the "bucksheesh" for which the bearers were at first contending, (and which I was only too willing to pay them,) they started off without staying to ask for or receive ; nor did they even require it from Mrs. B., when they safely laid her down at the end of their run. I shall never forget the experience and the mercy of that night in the Terai ! We stopped all night at the bungalow, which was crowded, and the heat was beyond any thing I ever felt before. Major T. had kindly sent down jampans (a kind of arm-chair with a pole on each side, carried by four men) to bring us up the mountain. We began the ascent at three o'clock next morning, having eleven miles to go to reach Nynee Tal. As soon as day broke the view was sublime — something of the Swiss scenery in its appearance, but more majestic. The road (a narrow path) wound round and up one mountain after another, by the brink of precipices and land- slips. As we rose the cold increased, till we came to a region 242 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. where trees and shrubs of European growth were flourishing, bil- berries and raspberries made their appearance, and the cuckoo was heard. The last two miles was up the face of a mountain as nearly perpendicular as was possible and yet permit a very zigzag path to be cut on it. At length, after seven hours' toiling, we gained the summit, 7,000 feet above the plains below What a prospect ! In the bosom of those cool mountains lay the sani- tarium of Nynee Tal, with its beautiful lake, while behind it rose up the "snowy range," 21,000 feet higher still. Those who may visit the place for health or pleasure in the days to come can have little idea with what feelings the panting fugi- tives of 1857 caught this first glimpse of it on that morning. Nynee Tal occupies a high upland valley or gorge in the Gaghur range, south and east of the point where that range attains its highest elevation at Cheenur Peak, 8,732 feet above the sea. This peak sends off a spur to the south and south-east, called Deoputta and Aytir Pata, and the hollow between the spur and the main range of the Gaghur — here called Shere ke Danda and Luria — is occupied by the flat portion of the station, by the bazaar, and by the lake which gives its name to the place, and which forms the principal feeder of the Bulleah River. The valley is half land and half water, the lower end being occu- pied by the lake, and it is only open to the south-east, where the outlet for the water is situated. The length of the whole hollow is a mile and a half, and its average breadth is under half a mile. The length of the lake is a few yards less than one mile. The water is at all times beautifully clear and transparent, and in calm weather reflects the surrounding scenery like a mirror. The place is approached by two narrow paths from the foot of the hills on the Moradabad and Bareilly sides. The ascent is in places very steep and on the verge of fearful precipices. It had been used for a few years past as a sanitarium by the English resi- dents, and was chosen now for us because the military men be- lieved that it could be easily defended. All looked so peaceful and felt so delightfully cool ! After some ITS VALUE AS A SANITARIUM. 245 searching, I was fortunate enough to find a little furnished house of four rooms still unengaged, which I gladly hired for ^225 for " the season." A bachelor Captain was in it as a day tenant, but he most kindly turned out and let us in at once, and within five hours of our arrival we laid our weary little ones to rest in our new and strange home, not knowing for how long a time we should be able to occupy it. Yet we were even then deeply impressed with the value of such a place for a sanitarium for our mission in the better days of the future, when the brethren and sisters, whose health would require the change, would feel thankful to have with- in their reach such a refuge from the heat. But under what dif- ferent feelings and circumstances is it now visited by them fiom those with which their fugitive superintendent first entered it ! Immediately on reaching Nynee Tal I wrote a few words to Dr. Durbin, and as they express the' feelings of the hour, and an un- shaken faith in God in the future of our mission, they may be quoted here : " I had hoped by this mail (which closes here to-day) to have sent you a full account of our situation ; but this is imprac- ticable until the next mail. We have only just arrived here, and are all in confusion. I can, therefore, only write a few lines. The commanding officer required all non-combatants to leave Bareilly and take refuge here until the Government has put down this insurrection. We delayed till the last moment, but had to leave. Our experiences on the way up were, in many respects, trying enough, but God preserved us in safety, so we " ' — praise him for all that is past. And trust him foi all that 's to come.' " What awaits us we know not ; but should any thing happen to us, tell our beloved Church that we had prepared ourselves through grace for all results, and that our last thoughts were given to our mission in the confident hope that the Methodist Episcopal Church would do her part faithfully in redeeming India. Beyond this we had no anxiety except for our poor children. Doc- tor, you will think of them if I fall ! We need now, O how much ! the prayers of God's people." 246 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. This note worked its way through all the dangers to which the mails, then rapidly breaking up, were exposed, and managed to reach the seaside, and so on to its destination ; a better fate than many of its successors had. For more than ten days all moved on as usual ; the mails came and went ; Joel wrote and kept me informed how matters pro- gressed till, seeing no further sign of danger, some of our party became impatient, asking ourselves why did we leave at all, and even proposing to return to Bareilly. It was, however, only the lull before the storm. On the 25 th we heard of the mutiny at Allyghur. Sabbath, the 31st of May, I preached twice (the first Methodist sermons ever uttered on the Himalaya mounta,ins) from Acts xx, 21, and Rom. viii, 16. I tried to preach as "a dying man to dying men." At the same hour in Bareilly Joel was conducting the service. He preached — for he had already begun to take a text — the very morn- ing of the mutiny from the words, " Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom," when, in the midst of his closing prayer, the guns opened fire, and the slaughter of the Europeans commenced. But we knew it not. Our Sabbath passed peacefully over, while many of the ladies of our party were widows, and the mangled bodies of their husbands were then lying exposed to every form of insult m the streets of Bareilly. Monday came, and no mail from Bareilly. We feared some- thing must be wrong, and our fears were all verified by the arrival of the first of the fugitives in the evening, bearing the terrible news that at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning the Sepoys had risen and commenced shooting their officers. An understanding had existed among the officers that, in case of a rising, the rendez- vous should be the cavalry lines ; so, as soon as the firing began, each officer that could do so jumped on his horse and galloped to where the cavalry were drawn up, Brigadier-General Sibbald being killed on the way there. As Lieutenant Tucker, of the Sixty-eighth Native Infantry, was flying on horseback, he saw the Sepoys firing THE ESCAPE. 247 into the houses of the English sergeants ; and calHng out to one of them, "Jennings, jump up behind me," he was shot dead by the Sepoys, and fell from his horse. Jennings mounted it. They shot the horse under him. He jumped off, ran for his life, and escaped. Captain Patterson, with other officers, was fired on in the orderly room. They escaped by the opposite door, ran to their stab'es, got their horses, and fled. Colonel Troup heard the firing, and was leaving his house when his own orderlies tried to stop him. He got out by another door, and escaped on foot, but was followed by his sjce (groom) with his horse. Dr. Bowhill, of the Eight- eenth, was in his bath when he heard the firing. He jumped out, drew on his clothes, got out his watch and one hundred rupees, ran to the stable to order his horse, returned, and found that his rascally bearer had made off with money and watch too. I have only heard of one who had time to save a single thing except the clothes they had on them. Captain Gibbs had to ride across the parade ground through a volley of musketry, and the artillery men fired on him with grape. He escaped unhurt. All was so sud- den, so unexpected, there was no time for preparation — nothing but to mount and fly. Two minutes after Colonel Troup left his house lie saw it in flames ; and before ten minutes every bungalow in the cantonmvints seemed on fire. The road to Nynee Tal was direct through the city. A band of officers and gentlemen, about forty in number, evaded the city, took a by-road for a couple of miles, and escaped. Those who tried the city I believe all perished. Of Lieutenant Gowan (our good friend of the Eighteenth Native Infantry) we could hear nothing ; but he was saved by his own Sepoys, who liked him. Under cover of night, when it came, they took him out of a house where they had concealed him, and escorted him, with their Sergeant-Major Belsham and his wife and five children, and conducted them two miles beyond Bareilly to the south, giving the sad party what money they could spare, and theit good wishes for their escape. They were joined during the night by four officers that had escaped the massacre, and they resolved to keep together for mutual protection ; but the slow 24^ THE LAND OF THE VEDA. pace at which the poor woman and her infants could move soon irritated the officers, and they resolved to leave them behind. Lieutenant Gowan would not listen to the proposal. His human- ity saved his life. The four officers pushed on and were murdered, while the little party with the Lieutenant were all saved by the wonderful generosity of a Hindoo farmer, who found them con- cealed in his field, and who hid them for seven months within his own house at the risk of his life. This was at Khaira Bajera, a place now on our Minutes, and where good Lieutenant (now Colonel) Gowan has built and endowed Christian schools as a memorial of his gratitude to the Thakoor who sheltered him, and to God who inclined him to do so. They are under the charge of our mission. When the firing first began, at eleven o'clock, some of the officers when they reached the lines of the native cavalry suggested a charge on the artillery and infantry, hoping the cavalry would prove true, as they all professed great loyalty. It was attempted, but the rascals, after going a few paces, hoisted the "green flag" and deliberately rode over to the infantry, leaving the officers in a body, with about twenty-five of the cavalry, who stood faithful. The artillery then opened upon them with grape, and they had to fly. Poor fellows ! they rode the seventy-four miles without re- freshment or a change of horses ; and when they came up the hUl to us next morning they were all sun-burned and ready to drop from sheer exhaustion. Some of them had nothing on but shirt and trousers ; few of them were completely dressed, as the hour of mutiny was the general hour for bath and breakfast, and they had to spring to their horses without losing a moment to look for any. Fully one half of our little English congregation were murdered. Two of the sergeants who used to attend escaped, and got half way to Nynee Tal, but were attacked by the people of Bahary, One of them, who had become very serious, was there murdered ; he fell with his hands clasped and calling upon the Lord. The other was left for dead, but managed to crawl to the foot of our hill, and recovered from his wounds. Mr. Raikes, the chief TEE NUMBER KILLED. 249 magistrate, Mr. Orr, and Mr. Wyatt, were all murdered, and Dr. Hansbrow, the Governor of the jail, was killed by the convicts, the native jailer helping them. Mr. Laurance, a widower with four chililren, was made to sit in a chair while his children were exe- cuted before his eyes, and then he was killed. Mrs. Aspinall, who lived next to us, with her son and his wife and child were mur- dered in their garden. It is said the murderers flung the baby, five weeks old, into the air, and cut at it with their swords as it fell. Some of the accounts are too dreadful to repeat. We cannot but hope that many of them were exaggerated. In all they killed forty-seven Christian people, men, women, and children, in Bareilly that day. As soon as the officers fled, the Sepoys fired their houses, after which they broke open the treasury and took the money ; and then, as if possessed with the demon of madness, they went to the Jail, broke open the gates, and let loose the criminals. These wretches completed what the Sepoys had begun. The homes of the civil- ians were sacked and burned. All the gentlemen that had not fled, or were overtaken, were either killed or taken prisoners. The Sepoys then proclaimed the Emperor of Delhi ; elected as Nawab Khan BahadiirKhan, who had held the office of Deputy Judge under our friend Judge Robertson, and who so deceived him, as already noticed. It is understood that the prisoners were all brought before the new Nawab next morning, (Judge Robertson, Dr. Hay, and Mr. Raikes being of the number,) and this wretch deliberately con- demned them to death by the law of the Koran : " They were infi- dels, and they must die ! " He ordered them to be publicly hanged in front of the jail. The rebels went to my house, and expressed great regret at not finding me. They are said to have declared they specially wanted me. They then destroyed our little place of worship, and burned my house with its contents. All was lost, save life and the grace of God ; but the sympathy and prayers of our beloved Church were still our own, so the loss was not so great after all. r. would be affectation if I were to profess that I was unmoved 2t;o THE LAND OF THE VEDA. at my loss. So far from it, I felt overwhelmed by it. Every thing was so complete and well arranged for my work. But all was destroyed, and some things gone that could never be restored. All my manuscripts ; my library, (about one thousand volumes, the collection of my life, and which, perhaps, T loved too well,) so com- plete in its Methodistic and theological and missionary depart* ments ; my globe, maps, microscope ; our clothes, furniture, melo deon, buggy, stock of provisions — every thing, gone ; and here we were, like shipwrecked mariners, grateful to have escaped with life. But we tried to say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." I had the consola- tion to know that my goods had been sacrificed for Christ's sake. When we looked around us and saw the anguish that wrung the hearts of the bereaved of our number, we felt that our loss was light, and could be easily borne. So we were " cast down, but not destroyed." When the Sepoys had thus slaughtered all the Europeans on whom they could lay their hands, they remembered that there were a few native Christians, and they eagerly sought them out, resolved not to leave a single representative of the religion of Jesus in Bareilly when the sun of that day should set. Their full purpose thus became apparent, and God alone could prevent them from consummating it. We had in all six Christians, of whom two or three were then regarded as converted, the rest were seekers ; but all were equally exposed to the dreadful rage which that noon burst so unexpectedly upon them. In the cloud of darkness and terror which settled over them they were at once hidden from my view. Where they were, or whether alive or dead, I could not find out. Those Euro- peans who escaped and joined us could tell me nothing at all about them, though I anxiously questioned all who might by any possi- bility know. I also succeeded in bribing two natives, who remained faithful to us and came up with the ladies, to venture down and seek for Joel and the rest, jiromising a large reward for any intelli- gence of him or them ; but the messengers did not return to us, JOEL'S ESCAPE. 251 and we were left to suppose that they — our Christians — were nowhere to be found in or around Bareilly. Of the death of any of them we received no information ; so we kept on hoping that heathen rage had confined itself to the Europeans, and that the others, though scattered, were uninjured. How little we knew what they had suffered ! Though at the risk of anticipating events which date further on, I must here give the facts as I was enabled to ascertain them. As soon as any communication was established between Calcutta and the Upper Provinces on the south side of the Ganges — for all north of that river was still held by the Sepoys — I sent off letters to every place to which I thought it likely Joel could have escaped. He also was trying to reach me by letters, but could not. One of my communications at last found him, as I had hoped, in Allaha^ bad, and, in response to my request, he gave me a narrative of" what befell him and the rest on that dreadful day. All his state- ments we afterward confirmed together on the spot in every particular. Instead of giving the facts myself, I prefer to present his deeply interesting letter, assured that the reader will kindly excuse its occa- sional imperfect English and Hindustanee idioms, rendering some words in a few places when it is necessary to give his meaning. I had told him that we had heard of the arrival at Calcutta of the first party of our missionaries, and that if he were outside the circle of danger and at Allahabad, and could communicate with Calcutta, to try and have them come where he was, as the seat of the North- west Government had been fixed at Allahabad, and all was safe there then; also, that I felt assured, as the armies were rapidly breaking up the Sepoy forces, we at Nynee Tal who were still pre served, though besieged, would soon be relieved, and our mission be once more established at Bareilly. I tried to cheer him, and sustain his faith in God. My letter took twelve days to reach him, having to go out through the mountains behind us, and then along their crest till it could reach the Ganges, and get beyond the range of the rebels in Rohilcund. In reply he writes : 14 252 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. "Allahabad, February ^, 1858. "My Dear Sir, — Your long-expected letter, dated the i8th January, reached me on the ist instant. Though the interval is very long, still it was a source of very great consolation to me. It has given fresh vigor and courage. I became happy, exceedingly happy, from its perusal. And nothing could exceed my joy then to hear of the safety and welfare of self and Mrs. Butler, and the little bachchas, (children ;) increased more by the joyous news that another precious little darling [our daughter Julia, born after our flight] has been added to the number of the family, for which I must congratulate you. You ask in your letter why I did not write to you .-^ True, I knew you were in Nynee Tal ; but I could ■see no way of safety for months and months. I could not know \whether communication with Nynee Tal was open or not. The ■whole country was in such a dreadful disorder I was conscious that it would never reach you ; but the moment that I was assured communication was open, and my letter would fall in your hands, I immediately addressed you two letters in succession, but I am «orry to see it did not reach you. According to your request, I sit down with the greatest pleasure to give you an account of how I