*?
DISSERTATIONS
AND '
MISCELLANEOUS PIECES
RELATING TO THE
HISTORY AND ANTIQJUITIES,
THE
ARTS, SCIENCES, AND LITERATURE
OF
ASIA.
V O L. L
t
^^^: A^^^r^^^^
DISSERTATIONS
AND
MISCELLANEOUS PIECES
RELATING TO THE
HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES,
THE
ARTS, SCIENCES, and LITERATURE,
O F
A S I A^
BY
SIR W. JONES, V J. RAWLINS, ESq^
W. CHAMBERS, ESQ^ \ J. SHORE, ESQ^
W. HASTINGS, ESq, •) J. WILLIAMS, ESQ^
GEN. CARNAC, \ ARCH. KEIR, ES(^
H. VANSITTART, ESQ. '5 COL. PEARSE,
C. WILKINS, ESQi ^^ LIEUT. CoL. POLIEK. ;
AND OTHERS.
T N T W O VOLUMES,
VOLUME THE FIRST,
CONTAINING
DISSERTATIONS by Sir W. JONES,
LONDON:
fRTNTED FOR G. NICOL, BOOKSELLER TO HIS MAJESTY,
PALL-MALL J J. WALTER, CHARING-CROSS ; AND
J. SEWELL, CORNHILLo
M DCC XCI I.
» 5 J »
t c
i
r>
:s»
PREFACE.
IT is a confideration which cannot
^ but afford the utmoft pleafure to a
refleding mind, that the Arts and
Sciences, which are rapidly advancing
towards a ftate of perfed:ion in
Europe, are not confined to that quarter
of the globe. la the Eaft, where
Learning feemed to be extinguiflied,
and Civilization nearly loft, amidft the
contention of avarice and defpotifm, a
©i fpirit of enquiry hath gone forth,
A3 which.
\
PREFACE.
which, aided' by the ardour of Philo-
fophy, promifes to diflipate the gloom
of ignorance, and to fpread the adv^an-
tages of knowledge through a region
where its effeds may be expefled to
be mofi: favourable to the general in-
terefts of fociety.
To the exertions of one Gentleman,
whofe various excellencies panegyric
might difplay in the warmeft terms,
without being charged with extrava-
gance, the English fettlements in the
East Indies are indebted for an inffitu-
tion which has already exhibited fpeci-
mens of profound refearch, of bold in-
veftigation, and of happy illuftration,
in various fubjedls of literature; — fub-
jccfts which, until the prefent times,
^' "'" had
PREFACE.
had not excrcifed the faculties of
Europeans; but which, being produced
to pubhck notice, will enlarge the
bounds of knowledge, increafe the
flock of information^ and furnifh ma-
terials for future Philofophers, Biogra-
phers, and Hiflorians.
That fo much has been already at-
chieved by an infant Society, will be a
fubjedt of fur prize to thofe who have
not coriidered the powers of genius and
induflry to overcome obftacles. From
what has already appeared at Calcutta,
a judgment may be formed of what may
hereafter be expeded. The fcores of
Oriental Literature being now accef-
fible to thofe who have ability to
make a proper ufe of them, intelli-
gence
PREFACE,
gence hitherto locked up, it may be
hoped, will delight and inform the en-
quirers after the Hifiiory, Antiquities,
Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia,
Two Volumes of the Society's Tranf-
aftions have been already pubHflied ;
but thefe have been fo fparingly diftri-
butcd in Great Britain that few have
had the opportunity of being informed
of their contents, or of judging of their
value. This circumftance has induced
the Editor to feledl the contents of the
prefent volumes from them and the
Aiiatic Mifceilany, for the amufement
and inftrudion of the publick. They
are fuch as vvill confer honour on their
authors, and afford entertainment to
their readers. They contain a noble
fpecimen
PREFACE.
fpecimen of the talents of our coun-
trymen inhabiting a diflant quarter of
the glooe, employing themfclves fedu-
loufly and honourably in extending the
credit and eflablifliing the reputation
of Britons in new and unexplored re-
gions of Science and Literature.
I' H
r-r^ TJ r^<
MB W i ' -M- L]iiM " -m* »a
THE
CONTENTS
OF THE
FIRST VOLUME.
DPage
ISSERTATION on the Gods of Greece, Italy,
and India - w - I
II. On the Literature of JJIa, » -^ 8i
III. On the Hindus f - - - 95
IV. On the y/ri7^j, -> - - li8
V. On the Tartars, - - - 142
VI. On the Pcrfians, - - 175
VII. On the Chinefe, - - - 209
VIII. On the Ifland of Hinzuan, or Johanna 235
IX. On the Chronology of the Hindus, - 279
X. A Supplement to the Eflay on Indian Chronology, 325
XI. On
THE CONTENT S6
!>age
XI. Oil the Indian Game of Chcfs^ - . 346
X
II. On the Second Claffical Book of the Chlnefe^ 357
XIII. On the Antiquity of the Indian Zodiack, 369
XIV. On the Plants of /;7<^/(7 - - 391
XV. On the Spikenard of the Ancients, * 403
DISSERTATIONS
O N T H E
HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES,
THE
ARTS, SCIENCES, and LITERATURE,
OF
ASIA.
DISSERTATION I.
ON THE
GODS OF GREECE, ITALY, and INDIA;
WRITTTEN IN MDCCLXXXIV.
WE cannot juftly conclude, by arguments
preceding the proof of f .6I5, that one
idolatrous people muft have borrowed their
deities, rites, and tenets from another ; fince
Gods of all fhapes and dimenfions maj be framed
by the boundlefs powers of imagination, or by
the frauds and follies of men, in countries never
connected ; but when features of refemblance,
too ftrong to have been accidental, aie obferv-
able ill different fyftems of polytheifm, with-
out fancy or prejudice to colour them and im-
B prove
2 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
prove the likenefs, we can fcarce help believ-
ing, that feme conne6lion has immemorially
fubfifted between the feveral nations who have
adopted them : it is nny defign in this effay to
point out Inch a refemblance between the po-
pular worfhip of the old Greeks and Italians and
that of the Hindus ; nor can there be room to
doubt of a great fimilarity between their Grange
religions and that of Egypt, China, Ferjia,
Phrygia, Phanice^ Syria ; to which, perhaps,
we naay fafely add fome of the fouthern king-
doms and even iflands of America ; while the
Gothick fyftem, which prevailed in the northern
regions of JLurope, was not merely {im.ilar to
thofe of Greece and Italv, but almofl: the fame
in another drefs with an embroidery of images
apparently Jfiatick. From all this, if it be fa-
tisfaftcrily proved, we may infer a general union
or affinity between the mofl: diflinguifhed in-
habitants of the primitive world at the tim.e
when they deviated, as they did too early de-
viate, from the rational adoration of the only
true God.
There feem to have been four principal fources
of all mythology. I. Hiflorical, or natural, truth
has been perverted into fable by ignorance, ima-
gination, flattery, or ftupidity ; as a king of
Crete, whofe tomb had been difcovered in that
ifland, was conceived to have been the God of
Olyjnpus^
ITALY, AND INDIA. 3
Olympus, and Minos, a legiflator of that coun-
try, to have been his fon, and to hold a fu-
preme appellate jurifdidion over departed fouls :
hence too probably flowed the tale of Cadmus,
as BocHART learnedly traces it ; hence beacons
or volcanos became one-eyed giants and mon-
gers vomiting flames; and two rocks, from
their appearance to mariners in certain pofi-
tions, were fuppofed to crulh all veflels attempt-
ing to pafs between them ; of which idle fic-
tions many other inftances might be coUeded
from the Odyjfcy and the various ArgGnautick
poems. The lefs we fay of Julian ftars, deifi-
cations of princes or warriors, altars raifed, with
thofe of Apollo, to the bafefl: of men, and
divine titles beftowed on fuch wretches as
Caius Oct AVI anus, the lefs we fhall expofe
the infamy of grave fenators and fine poets, or
the brutal folly of the low multitude : but we
may be aflured, that the mad apotheofis of truly
great men, or of little men falfely called great,
has been the orio-in of 2;rofs idolatrous errors in
every part of the pagan world. IL The next
fource of them appears to have been a wild ad-
miration of the heavenly bodies, and, after a
time, the fyftems and calculations of aftrono-
mers : hence came a confiderable portion of
'Egyptian and Grecian fable ; the Sahian wor-
Ihip in Arabia ; the Perjlan types and emblems
E 2 ' of
4 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
of Mihr or the fun, and the fir-extended adora-
tion of the elements and the powers of nature ;
and hence perhaps all the artificial Chronology
of the Ch'inefe and Indians^ with the invention
of demigods and heroes to fill the vacant niches
in their extrav^agant and imaginary periods.
]II. Numberlefs divinities have been created
folely by the magic of poetry ; whofc eflentiai
bufmefs it is to perfonify the mofl: abflrail no-
tions, and to place a nymph or a genius in
every grove and almoft in every flower : hence
Hygiela and 'Jafo^ health and remedy, are the
poetical daughters of ^sculapius, who was
either a diftinguifhed phyfician, or medical ikill
perfonified ; and hence Ch'oris^ or verdure, is
married to the Zephyr. IV. The metaphors
and allegories of moralifls and metaphyllcians
have been alfo very fertile in Deities ; of which
a thoufand examples might be adduced from
Plato, Cicero, and the inventive commen-
tators on PIoMER in their pedigrees of the
Gods, and their fabulous leflbns of morality :
the richeft and noblefl flream from this abun-
dant fountain is the charming philofophical tale
of Psyche, or the Progrejs of the Soul; than
which, to my tafte, a more beautiful, fublime,
and well- fupported allegory was nev.er produced
by the wifdom and ingenuity of man. PJence
alfo the Indian Ma'ya', or, as the word is ex-
plained
ITALY, AND INDIA. 5
plained by fome Hindu fcholars, " the firft in-
*' clination of the Godhead to diverfify himfelf
*' (fuch is their phrafe) by creating worlds/*
is feigned to be the mother of univerfal nature,
and of all the inferior Gods ; as a CafJmiinaJi
informed me when I a{ked him, why Ca'ma,
or Love^ was reprefented as her fon ; but the
word Ma'ya^, or delujion^ has a more fubtile
and recondite fenfe in the Vcdanta philofophy,
where it fignifi-'s the fyftem of percept'ons,
whether of fecondary or of primary qualities,
which the Deity was believed by Epichar-
Mus, Plato, and many truly pious men, to
raife by his omniprefent fpirit in the mmds of
his creatures, but which had not, in their opi-
nion, any exiftence independent of mind.
In drawing a parallel between the Gods of
the Indian and European heathens, from what-
ever fource they were derived, I fliail remem-
ber, that nothing is lefs favourable to inquiries
after truth than a fyftematical fpirit, and (hall
call to mind the faying of a Hindu writer,
" that whoever obftinately adheres to any f?t
" of opinions, may bring himfelf to believe
*' that the frefheft fandal-wood is a flame of
*' fire :" this will effectually prevent me from
infiftins: that fuch a God of India was the
Jupiter of Greece ; fuch, the Apollo ; fuch,
f/je Mercury : in fuft, fuice all the caufes of
B 3 poly-
6 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
polytheifm contributed largely to the allem-
blage of Grecian divinities (though Bacon re-
duces them all to refined allegories, and New-
ton to a poetical difguife of true hiftory), we
find many Joves, many Apollos, many Mer-
curies, with diftindl attributes and capacities;
nor ihall I prefume to fuggeft more, than that,
in one capacity or another, there exifts a flrik-
ing nmilitude between the chief objedls of wor-
ihip in ancient Greece or Italy and in the very
interefting country which we now inhabit.
The comparifon which I proceed to lay
before you, mufl: needs be very fuperficial,
partly froni my fliort refidence in Hinduflan,
partly from rny want of complete leifure for
literary amufements, but principally becaufe I
have no European book to refrefli my memory
of old fable^, except the conceited, though not
unlearned, work of Pomey, entitled The Pan-
theon, and that fo miferably tranflated, that it
can hardly be read with patience. A thoufand
more ftroke? of refemblance rnight, I am fure,
be coUeded by any who fhould with that view
perufe Hesiod, Hyginus, Cornutus, and
the other mythologies ; or, which would be
a fhorter and a pleafanter way, fhould be fa^
tisfied with the very elegant Syntagmata of
LlLIUS GiRALDUS.
Disv
ITALY, AND INDIA, 7
I
DisoiTisiTioNS concerning the manners and
condud of our Ipecies in early times, or indeed
at any time, are always curious at leafl: and
amufing ; but they are highly interefting to
fuch as can fay of themfelves with Chremes
in the play, " We are men, and take an inte-
" reft in all that relates to mankind :'* They
may even be of folid importance in an age when
fome intelligent and virtuous perfons are in-
clined to doubt the authenticity of the accounts,
delivered by Moses, concerning the primitive
world ; ilnce no modes or fources of reafoning
can be unimportant v/hich have a tendency to
remove fuch doubts. Either the firfl eleven
chapters of Genejis, all due allowances being
made for a figurative Eaftern ftyle, are true,
or the whole fabrick of our national religion is
falfe ; a conclufion which none of us, I truft,
would wifh to be drawn. I, who cannot help
believing the divinity of the Messiah, from
the undifputed antiquity and manifefl comple-
tion of many prophefics, cfpecially thofe of
Isaiah, in the only perfon recorded by hiftory
to whom they are applicable, am obliged of
courfe to believe the fandity of the venerable
books, to which that facred perfon refers as
genuine : but it is not the truth of our national
religion, as fuch, that 1 have at heart ; it is
truth itfelf ; and if any cool unbiafled reafoner
B 4 vviU
8 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
will clearly convince me that Moses drew his
narrative through Egyptian conduits from the
primeval fountains of Indian literature, I fhall
efleem him as a friend for having weeded my
mind from a capital error, and promife to (land
among the foren:;ofl: in nffifting to circ late the
truth, which he has afcertained. After fuch a
declaration, I cannot but perfuade myfelf, that
no candid man will be dii plea led if, in the
courfe of my work, I make as free with any
arguments that he may have advanced, as I
fliould really de(ire him to do with any of mine
that he may be difpofed to controvert. ''> aving
no fyftem of my own to maintain, I fhall not
purfiie a very regular method*, but iliall take
all the Gods, of whom 1 difcourfe, as they hap-
pen to pref'^nt themfelves ; beginning, how-
ever, like the Roma?js and the Hindus^ with
Janis or Gane'sa.
The titles and attributes of this old Italian
deity are fully pomprifed in two chcriambick
verfes of Sulpii lus ; and a farther account of
him from Ovid would here be fuperfiuous :
Jane -pater^ Jane tuens^ dive h'lceps^ hifor?niSy
O Cute reruni Jatofj O principium deorum !
" Father Janu?, all-beholding Janus, thou divinity with
« tvo heads, and with two forms; O fagacious planter of
*' all things, and leader of deities!"
He
> ITALY, AND INDIA. 9
He was the God, we fee, onVifdom ; whence
he is reprefented on coins with two, and on the
Hetrufcan image found at FaUjci with four
faces ; emblems of prudence and circumfpec-
tion : thus is Gane'sa, the God of JVlfdom in
Hindujian, painted with an Ekphanfs head,
the fjmbol of fagacious difcernment, and at-
tended by a favourite rat^ which the Indians
consider as a wife and provident animal. His
next great chara(5ler (the plentiful fource of
many fuperditious ufages) was that, from
which he is emphatically ftiled the father, and
which the fecond verfe before cited more fully
expreffes, the origin and founder of all things:
whence this notion arofe, unlefs from a tradi-
tion that he firft built fnrines, raifed altarsj
and inftituted facrlfices, it is not eaiy to con-
jecture ; hence it c -me, however, -that his
name was invoked before any other God ; that,
in the old facrcd rites, corn and wine, and, in
later times, incenfe alfo, were firfl offered tq
Janus ; that the doors or entrances to private
houfes were called Januce, and any pervious
paflage or thoroughfare, in the plural number,
fani, or with two beginnings -, that he was re-
prefer; ted holding a rod, as guardian of ways,
and a key, as opening, not gates only, but all
important works and affairs of mankind; that
he was thought to prefide over the morning, or
beginning
lO ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
beginning of day ; that, although the Roman
year began regularly with March, yet the
eleventh month, named Januarius^ was con-
iidered ^sfrjt of the twelve, whence the whole
year was fuppofed to be under his guidance,
and opened with great Iblemnity by the confuls
inaugurated in his fane, Vv^here his ftatue was
decorated on that occafion with frefh laurel ;
and, for the fame reafon, a folemn denunci-
ation of war, than which there can hardly be a
more momentous national a6l, was made by
the military conful's opening the gates of his
temple with all the pomp of his magiftracy.
The twelve altars and twelve chapels of Janus
might either denote, according to the general
opinion, that he leads and governs twelve
months, or that, as he fays of himfelf in Ovid,
all entrance and accefs muft be made through
him to the principal Gods, who were, to a
proverb, of the fame number. We may add,
that Janus was imagined to preiide over in-
fants at their birth, or the beginning of life.
The Indian divinity has precifely the fame
character : all facrifices and religious ceremo-
pies, all addreffes even to fuperior Gods, all fe-
rious compofitions in writing, and all w^orldly
affairs of moment, are begun by pious Hindus
with an invocation of Gane'sa ; a word com^
pofcd of ifa, the governor or leader^ and gan'a^
or
ITALY, AND INDIA. II
or a company of deities, nine of which compa-
nies are enumerated in the A^narcofi, Inftances
of opening bufinefs aufpicioufly by an ejacula-
tion to the Janus ci India (if the hnes of re-
femblance here traced will jnftify me in fo call-
ing him) might be multiplied with eafe. Few
books are begun without the w or As falut at ion to
Gane^s, and he is firft invoked by the Brah-
mans, who condu6i: the trial by ordeal, or per-
form the ceremony of the homa, or facrifice to
fire. M. Sonn'erat reprefents him as highly
revered on the coaft of Coromandel\ " where
the Indians (he fays) would not on any ac-
count build a hcufe without having placed
'* on the ground an image of this deity, whictj
they fprinkle with oil and adorn. every day
with flowers ; they fet up his figure in all
their temples, in the flreets, in the high
roads, and in open plains at the foot of fome
" tree ; fo that perfons of all ranks may inr
"' voke him before they undertake any bulinefs,
" and travellers worfhip him before they pro-
*' ceed on their journey.'* To this I may add,
from my own obfervation, that in the commo-
dious and ufeful town which now rifes at
Dhanndranya or Gayd^ under the aufpices of
the a6tive and benevolent Thomas Law, Efq.
coUeftor of Rotas, every new-built houfe, a-
greeably to an immemorial ufagc of the Hindus,
haq
<(
a
ii.
12 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
has the name of Gane'sa fuperfcribed on its
door; and, in the old town, his image is placed
over the gates of the temples.
We come now to Saturn, the oldeft of
the pagan Gods, of whofe office and actions
much is recorded. The iar2;on of his beiticr the
JO o
fon of Earth and of Heaven, who was the fon
of the Sky and the Day, is purely a confeffipn
of ignorance who were his parents or who his
predeceflbrs ; and there appears more fenfe in
the tradition faid to be mentioned by the inqui-
litive and well-informed Plato, " that both
" Saturn, or Time^ and his confort Cybele,
*' or the Earth., together with their attend-
*' ants, were the children of Ocejfi and The*
*' Tis, or, in lefs poetical language, fprang
*' from the waters of the great deep.*' Ceres,
the goddefs of harvefts, was, it feems, their
daughter; and Virgil defcribes "the mo-
♦* ther and nurfe of all as crowned with tur-
^' rets, in a car drawn by lions, and exults
** ing in her hundred grand-fons, all divine,
^' all inhabiting fplendid celeflial manfions *'
As the God of time, or rather as l'i?ne itfelf
perfonified, Saturn was ufuallv painted bv
the heathens holding a fcythe in one hand, and
in the other a fnake vvith its tail in its mouth,
the fymbol of perpetual cycles and revolutions
p^ ages : he was often reprefented in the a61: of
devour^
ITALY, AND INDIA. I3
devouring years, in the form of children, and,
fometimes, ncircled by the feafons appearing
like boys and girls. By the Latins he was
named Satunnus ; and the moft ingenious ety-
mology of that word is given by Festus the
grammarian; who traces it, by a learned ana-
logy to many fimilar names, a fatu, from
planting, becanfe^ when he reigned in Italy^
he introduced and improved agriculture : but
his diflinguifhing charader, which explains,
indeed, all his other titles and fun6lions, was
exprelfed allegoricaily by the ftern of a fhip or
galley on the rf.verfe of his ancient coins ; for
which Ovid ailigns a very unfatisfaftory rea-
fon, " becaufe the divine ftranger arrived in a
'* fhip on the Italian coaft ;" as if he could have
been expecled on horfe-back, or hovering
through the air.
The account, quoted by Pomky from Alex-
ander PoLYHisToR, calls a clearer light, if
it really came from genuine antiquity, on the
whole tale of Saturn ; " that he predided an
*' exti aordinary fall of rain, and ordered the con-
" ftrudion of a vellel, in which it was necef-
** fary to fecure men, beads, birds, and rep-
*' tiles from a general inundation."
Now it feems not eaiy to take a cool re-
view of all thefe tefl:iraonies concernina; the
birth,
14 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
birth, kindred, offspring, chara£ler, occupa-
tions, and entire life of Saturn, without af-
fenting to the opinion of Bochart, or admit-
ting it at leaft to be highly probable, that the
fable was railed on the true hiftory of Noah ;
from whofe flood a new period of. time was
computed, and a new feries of ages may be
faid to have fprung ; who rofe freih, and, as
it were, newly born from the waves ; whofe wife
was in fa^l the univerfal mother, and, that the
earth might foon be repeorled, was early blefled
W'ith numerous and flourifliins; defcendants : if
we produce, therefore, an Indian king of di-
vine birth, eminent for his piety and bene-
ficence, whofe {lory feems evidently to be that
of Noah difguifed by jifiatick fidtion, we may
fafely offer a conjeilure, that he was alfo the
fame perfonage with Saturn. This was
IV'Ienu, or Satyavrata, whofe patronymick
name was Vaivaswata, or Child of the
Sun ; and whom the Indians believe to have
reigned over the whole world in the earlieft age
of their chronolo2;v, but to have refided in the
country oiDravira^ on the coaft of the Eaftera
Indian Peninfula : the following narrative t)f the
principal event in his life I have literally tranf-
latcd from the Bhdgavat ; and it is the fubject
of the firft Pur ana, entitled that of the Maifya,
or Fijh,
' De-
ITALY, AND INDIA. , . I5
' Desiring the prefervatlon of herds, and
* of Brahmans, of genii and virtuous men, of
' the Vcdas, of law, and of precious things,
' the lord of the univerfe alTumes many bodily
* Ihapes ; but, though he pervades, Hke the
*■ air, a variety of beings, yet he is himfelf
' unvaried, fmce he has no quaUty fubje6l to
' change. At the c\q(q of the laft Calpa^
* there was a general deftru^lion occafioned by
' the fleep of Brahma' ; whence his creatures
' in different worlds were drowned in a vaft
* ocean. Brahma', being inclined to flum-
* ber, defiring repofe after a lapfe of ages, the
* flrong demon Hayagri'va came near him,
' and ftole the Fedas^ which had flowed from
' his lips. When Heri, the preferver of the
* univerfe, difcovered this deed of the Prince
* of Danavas, he took the fhape of a minute
' fifh, called fap'har). A holy king, named
* Satyavrata, then reigned; a fervant of
' the fpirit, which moved on the waves, and
' fo devout, that water was his only fufte-
' nance. He was the child of the Sun, and, in
' the prefent Calpa^ is invefted by Nara'yan
* in the office of Menu, by the name of
* Sra'ddhadeVa, or the God of Obfequies.
* One day, as he was making a libation in the
' river Critamdla, and held water in the palm
* of his hand, he perceived a fmall fifh moving
' in
l6 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
* in it. The king of Dravira immediately
* dropped the fi/h into the river togethep with
* the water, which he had taken from it;
* when the fap'han thus pathetically addrefied
* the benevolent monarch : *' How canftthou^
" O king, who fliowefl: affection to the op-
" preffed, leave me in this river-water, where
" I am too weak to refift the monfters of the
" dream, who fill me with dread ?" He, not
* knowins: who had affumed the form of a fifh,
* applied his mind to the prefervation of the
* fafhari, both from good-nature and from re-
' gard to his ov/n foul ; and, having heard its
' very fuppliant addrefs, he kindly placed it
* under his protedion in a fmall vafe full of
* water ; but, in a fingle night, its bulk was
' fo increafed, that it could not be contained in
* the jar, and thus again addrefied the illuf-
* trious Prince: *' I am not pleafed with living
** miferably in this little vafe ; make me a large
*' manfion, where I may dwell in comfort."
' The king, removing it thence, placed it in
* the water of a ciflern ; but it grew three cu-
* bits in lefs than fifty minutes, and faid :
*' O king, it pleafes me not to ilay vainly in
*' this narrow ciftern : lince thou haft granted
*' me an afylum, give me a fpacious habita-
" tion." He then removed it, and placed it
' in
ITALY, AND INDIA. I7
in a pool, where, having ample fpace around
its body, it became a hfh of conliderable
fize. " This abode, O king, is not conve-
' nient for me, who muff: fwim at large in the
' waters : exert thyfelf for my fafety, and re-
' move me to a deep lake." Thus addreiied,
the pious monarch threw the fuppliant into a
lake, and when it grew of equal bulk with
that piece of water, he caft the vafi: fifh into
the lea. When the fifh was thrown into the
waves, he thus again fpoke to Satyavra-
TA : ** Here the horned Iharks, and other
' monfters of great ftrength will devour me ;
* thou fliouldft not, O valiant man, leave me
* in this ocean.'* Thus repeatedly deluded by
the fifli, who had addrelTcd him with gentle
Words, the king laid : " Who art thou, that
* beguileft me in that aiTumed fhape ? Never
* before have I feen or heard of fo prodigious
* an inhabitant of the waters, who, like thee,
* has filled up, in a lingle day, a lake an hun-
* dred leagues in circumference. Surely, thou
* art Bhagavat, who appeareft before me ;
* the great FJeri, whofe dwelling was on the
* waves ; and who now, in compaffion to thy
' fervants, beareft the form of the natives of
' the deep. Salutation and praife to thee, O
' firll male, the lord of creation, of pre-
* fervation, of dertrudion ! Thou art the
C " highcft
<c
iS ON THE GODS OV GREECE,
*' highefl: objecl, O fnprcme ruler, of vi$
** thy adorers, who pioufly feek thee. All
'' thy delulive defcents in this world give
" exidence to various beings : yet I am anxious
to know, for what caufe that fhape has been
aOumed by thee. Let me not, O lotos-
eyed, approach in vain the' feet of a deit}^
whofe perfe6l benevolence has been extended
** to all ; when thou hail fliown us to our amaze-
*' ment the appearance of other bodies, not in
'* reality exilling, but fucceffively exhibited."
* The lord of the univerfe, loving the pious
* man who thus implored him, and intend-
* ing to preferve him from the fea of deftruc-
*■ tion, caufed by the depravity of the age, thus
' told him how he was to act. " In feven
days from the prefent time, O thou tamer
of enemies, the three Vv^orids will be plunged
" in an ocean of death ; but, in the midft of
the delh-oying waves, a large veflel, fent by
me for thy ufe, fhall ftand before thee.
" Then fhalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all
the variety of feeds, and, accompanied by
feven faints, encircled by pairs of all brute
animals, thou flialt enter the fpacious ark,
and continue in it, fecure from the flood, on
one immenfe ocean without light, except
the radiance of thy holy companions. When
" the fhip {hall be agitated by an impetuous
" w^ind,
4(
it
i6
(4
ITALY, AND INDIA. I9
** wind, thou fhalt faflren It with a laro-e fea-
*' ferpent on my horn ; for I will be near thee:
** drawing the vefTel, with thee and thy attend-
*' ants, I will remain on the oce::n, O chief of
" men, until a night of Brahma^ fhall be com-
pletely ended. Thou fhalt then know my true
greatnefs, rightly named the fupl'eme God-
'^ head ; by my favour, all thy quellions Ihall
*' be anfwered, and thy mind abundantly in-
*' ftrudled." Heri, having thus aireded the
' monarch, difippeared ; and Satyavrata
' humbly waited for the time, which the ruler
' of our fenfes had appointed. The pious
* king, having fcattered toward the Eall: the
' pointed blades of the grafs darhha^ and turn-
^ ing his face toward the North, fat medlta-
* ting on the feet of the God, who had borne
' the form of a fi{h. The fea overwhelming
' its fhores, deluged the whole earth ; and it
'^ was foon perceived to be augmented by
* fhowers from Immenfe clouds. He, flill
' meditating on the command of Bhagavat,
* faw the veflel advancing, and entered it with
* the chiefs of Brahmans^ having carried into
' it the medicinal creepers, and conformed to
* the dlreclionsof Heri. The faints thus ad-
* drefied him : " O king, meditate on Ce'-
'^ SAVA ; who will, furely, deliver us from
*' this "danger, and grant us profperity." The
C 2 ' God,
20 . ON THE GODS OF GRKECE,
God, being invoked by the monarch, ap-
peared again diltindlly on the vaft o^ean in the
form of a fiih, blazino; Hke gold, extending a
milhon of leagues, with one ftupendous horn ;
on which the king, as he had before been
commanded by Heri, tied the lliip with a
cable made of a vafl ferpent, and happy in
his prefervation, ftood praifing the deflroyer
of Madhu. When the monarch had finifhed
his hymn, the primeval male, Bhagavat,
who watched for his fafety on the great ex-
panfe of water, fpoke aloud to his own di-
vine effence, pronouncing a facred Purana,
which contained the rules of the SdncV.ya
philofophy : but it was an infinite myftery, to
be concealed within the breaft of Satya-
VRATA ; who, fitting in the veflel with the
faints, heard the principle of the foul, the
Eternal Being, proclaimed by the preferving
power. Then Heri, rifing together with
Bra'hma from the deflruclive delusre, which
was abat«d, flew the demon HayagriVa,
arid recovered the facred books. Satya-
vrata, inflrudled in all divine and human
knowledge, was appointed in the prefent
Ca'pa, by the favour of Vishki;, thefeventh
Mlnu, furnamed Vaivaswata : but the-
appearance of a horned fiih to the religious
monarch was Maya, or delufion ; and he.
' who
ITALY, AND INDIA. 21
* who fKall devoutly hear this Important alle-
* gorical narrative, will be delivered from the
* bonda2:e of fin.*
This epitome of the firft Ind'an Hiflory that
is now extant, appears to me very curious and
very important ; for the flory, though whim-
lically drefled up in the form of an allegory,
feems to prove a primeval tradition in this
country of the u iverfal deluge defcribed by
Moses, and fixes conlequently the tinic, when
the genuine Hindu Chronology aclually begins.
We find, it is true, in the Pu?'dn, trom which
the narrative is Qxixiditdi^a?iother deluge, which
happened towards the clofe of the third age,
when Yudhishth'ir was labourinsr under the
perfecution of his inveterate foe Duryho'dan,
and when Chrishna, who had recently be-
come incarnate for the purpofe of fuccouring
the pious and of deftroying the wicked, was
performing wonders in the country of yiat^bura ;
but the fecond flood was merely local, and in-
tended only to at^Cvfl the p-^ople of Fraja : they,
it feems, had offended I ndr a, the C^v d of tlie
firmament, by their enthufiaftic adoration of
the wonderful child, " who lifted up the
" mountain Goverdhena as if it had been a
*' flower, and by (lieltering all the herdfmen
** and fiiepherdefiles from the ftorm, convinced
♦* Jndra of his fupremacy.'* That the aSWji'^,
C ^ or
22 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
or (if we may venture fo to call it) the Safur-
nian^ age was in truth the age of the general
flood, v/ill appear from a q\o{q examination of
the ten Avatars, or Defcents, of the deity in
his capacity of preferver ; fince of the four,
which are declared to have happened in the
Satyaytig, the three jirji apparently relate to
fome flupendous convulfion of our globe from
the fountains of the deep, and the fourth exhi-
bits the miraculous punifliment of pride and
impiety. Firil:, as we have Ihown, there was,
in the opinion of the Hindus, an intcrpolition of
Providence to preferve a devout perion and his
family (for all the Pandits agree, that his wife,
though not named, mud: be underflood to have
been faved with him) from an inundation, by
which all tjie wicked vvcre deftroyed ; next, the
poweriOf)the deity defcends in the form of a
Boar^ thq fy;mbol of ftrength, to draw up and
fupport on his tuiks the whole earth, which
had been fui>k beneath the ocean ; thirdly, the
fame power is reprefented as a torioifc fuftaining
the globe, which had been convulfed by the
violent allaults of demons, while the Gods
churned the fea with the mountain ih'Iandar,
and foresee} it; to difgorge the facred things and
animals, together with the water of life, which
it had Ivval levied. Thefe three (lories relate, I
think, to the lame event, fhadowed by a mo-
ral.
ITALY, AND INDIA. 23
ral, a metaphyfical, and an aftronomical alle-
gory ; and all three feem connected with the hi-
erogliphical fciilptures of the old Egyptians. The
fourth Avatar was a Ho?i iflbing from a burft-
ing column of marble to devour a blafpheming
monarch, who would otherwife have flain his
religious fon ; and of the remaining fix, not
one has the leafl: relation to a deluge : the three,
which are afcribed to the Tretaxug, when ty-
ranny and irreligion are faid to have been in-
troduced, were ordained for the overthrow of
tyrants, or, their natural types, giants with a
thoufand arms formed for the mofl: extenfive
oppreflion ; and, in the Dwnparyug^ the in-
carnation of Crishna was partly for a iimilar
purpofe, and partly with a view to thin the
world of unjufl: and impious men, who had
multiplied in that age, and began to fwarm on
the approach of the Calyug^ or the age of co?!-
tention and bafenefs. As to Buddha, he feems
to have been a reformer of the cloftrines con-
tained in the Vecias ; and thous,h his g-ood-na-
ture led him to cenfure thofe antlent books,
becaufe they enjoined lacrifices of cattle, yet
he is admitted as the ninth Avatar even by the
Brahmans of C/is), and his praifes are fung by
the poet JayadeVa : his character is in many
refpedls very extraordinary ; but as an account
of it belonGjs rather to Hiflorv than to Ivlvtho-
C 4 logy,
24- ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
logy, it is reCerved for another Differtation.
The tenth Avatar^ we are told, is yet to come,
and is expelled to appear mounted (hke the
crowned conqueror in the ApocaJyps) on a white
horib, with a cimeter blazing hke a comet to
mow down all incorrigible and impenitent of-
fenders, who fhall then be on earth.
These four Tugs have fo apparent an affi-
nity with the Grecian and Roman ages, that
one origin may be naturally aiiigned to both
fyflems : the firfl: in both is difliinguiflied as
abounding in gohiy though Satya mean truth
znd probity, which were found, if ever, in the
times immediately following fo tremendous an
exertion of the divine pmver as the deftrudion
of mankind by a general deluge ; the next is
charaiflerlfed hyjiiver, and the third by copper \
though their ulual name? allude to proportions
imagined in each between vice and virtue : the
prefent, or earthen,, age feems more properly
difcriminated than by iron, as in antient Europe \
fmce that metal is not bafer or lefs uleful,
though more common in our times, and con-
fequently lefs precious than copper ; while mere
earth conveys an idea of the lowed degradation.
We may here obierve, that the true fliftory of
the V\ orld feems obvioufly divifible \mo four
ag' s or periods ; which may be called, firfl:,
the Diluvian or purefl: age ; namely, the times
preced-
ITALY, AND INDIA. 2$
preceding the deluge, and thofe fiicceeding it
till the mad introdu6lion of idolatry at Babel i
next, the Patriarchal, or pure age ; in which,
indeed, there were mighty hunters of beafts
and of m,en, from the rife of patriarchs in the
family of Sem, to the fmiultaneous eftabHfh-
ment of great empires by the defcendants of his
brother Ha'm ; thirdly, the Mofa'ick, or lefs
pure age, from the legation of Moses, and
durins: the time w4ien his ordinances were
comparatively well obferved and uncorrupted ;
laftly, the Prophetical, or impure, age, begin-
ning with the vehement warnings given by the
Prophets to apoflate Kings and degenerate na-
tions, but ftill fubliil:ing and to lubfift, until
all genuine propheiies Ihall be f dly accom-
plifhed. The duration of the hiftorical ages
muft needs be very unequal and diiproportion-
ate ; while that of the Indian Tugs is dllpofed
fb regularly and artificially, that it cannot be
admitted as natural or probable : men do not
become reprobate in a geomictrical progreffion,
or at the termination of regular p.riods; yet fb
w^ell proportioned are the Tugs^ that even the
length of human life is diminifhed, as they ad-
vance, from an hundred thoufand years in a
fubdecuple ratio ; and as the number of princi-
pal Avatars in each decreai=5 arithmetically
from four, fo the number of years in each de-
crcafcs
25 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
creafes geometfically, and all together conflltute
the extravagant fum of four million three hun-
dred and twenty thoufand years ; which aggre-
gate, multiplied by feventy-one, is the period
in which every IVIenu is believed to prefide
over the vvorld. Such a period, one might
conceive, would have latisfied Archytas, the
meafurcroffea and earthy and the tiumherer of their
fandsy or Archimedes, Vvho invented a nota-
tion that wac capable of expreffing the number
of them ; but the comprehenfive mind of an
Indian chronologifl has no Hmits ; and the
reigns of fourteen Menus are only a lingle day
of Brahma', fifty of which days have elapfed,
accordino; to the Hindus, from the time of the
Creation. That all this pueriUty, as it feems at
firft view, may be only an aftronomical riddle,
and allude to the apparent revolution of the
fixed flars, of which the Brahmans made a
myfliery, I readily admit, and am even inclined
to believe ; but lo technical an arrangement
excludes all idea of ferious Hiftory. I am {^w-
fible how much thefe remarks will offend the
warm advocates for Indian antiquity ; but we
muft not facrifice truth to a bafe fear of giving
offence. That the Vi;d.a5 were actually written
before the flood I ihall never believe ; nor can
we infer from the preceding flory, that the
Jearned Hindus believf ir ; for the allegorical
{lum^
ITALY, AND INDIA. J7
llumber of Brahma' and the theft of the fa-
cred books mean only, in fimpler language,
that the human race was become corrupt ; but
that the Vedas are very antient, and far older
than other Sanfcrit compofitions, I will ven-
ture to affert from my own examination of
them, and a comparifon of their ftyle with that
of the Purdns and the Dherma Sdjlra. A fimi-
lar comparifon juftities me in pronouncing, that
the excellent law-book afcribed to SwaVamb-
HUVA Menu, though not even pretended to
have been written by him, is more antient than
the Bha^gavat ; but that it was compofed in
the firft a2:e of the world, the Brdhmans would
find it hard to perfuaoe me ; and the date,
which has been affigned to it, does not appear
in either of the two copies which I poflefs, or
in anv other that has been collated for me : in
fact, the fuppofed date is comprifed in a verfe
which flatly contradicts the work itfelf ; for it
was not Menu who compofed the fyftem of law,
by the command of his father Brahma', but
a holy perfonage or demigod, named Bhrigu,
who revealed to men what Menu had delivered
at the requeft of him and other faints or patri-
archs. In the Mdnava Scjira, to conclude this
digrefilon, the meafure is fo uniform and me-
lodious, and the ftvle fo perfeclly Sanfirit or
Folipcdy that the book muft be more modern
th.aj^
i8 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
than the fcriptnres of Moses, in which the
fimphcity, or rather nakcdnels, oi thQ Hebrew
dialect, metre, and ftyle, mufl: convince every
unbiaffed man of their fuperior antiquity.
I LEAVE etymologifts, who decide every
thing, to d cide whether the word Menu, or,
in the iiominative cafe. Menus, has any con-
nection v^'ith Minos, the Lawgiver, and fup-
pr.fed fon of Jove : the Cretans, according to
DioDORUs of Sicily, ufed to feign, that moft
of the great men who had been deified in re-
turn for the benefits which they had conferred
on mankind, were born in their ifland ; and
hence a doubt may be raifed, whether Minos
was really a Cretan. The Indian legiflator
was the firfl:, not the feventh Menu, or Sa^
TYAVRATA, whom I fuppofe to be the
Saturn of Italy: part of Saturn's charac-
ter, indeed was that of a great lawgiver,
^d genus indocile ac d'lfpcrfum montlhus altl^
Compafuit^ legefque dedit j
and we may fufpeft, that all the fonrteeu
Menus are reducible to one, who v/as called
KuH by the Jrabs, and probably by the He^
brews, though we have difguifed his name by
an improper pronunciation of it. Some near re-
lation between the feventh Menu and the Gre-
fian MjNOS may l^e mfa^ti ftpm ;he hngular
charade^
ITALY, AND INDIA, 2^
character of the Hindu God Yam a, who was
alfo a child of the Sun, and thence nanmed Vai-
vaswata : he had too the fannc title with his
brother Sra'ddhadeVa ; another of his titles
was Dhermara'ja, or Kmg of Jufice-, and
a third, Pitripeti, or Lord of the Patriarchs',
but he is chiefly diftinguilhed as judge of de-
parted fouls ; for the Hindus believe, that when
a foul leaves its body, it immediately repairs to
Tamapur^ or the cicy of Yam a, where it re-
ceives ajuft fentence from him, and either af-
cends to Szverga, or the firfl: heaven, or is dri-
ven down to NaraCt the region of lerpents, or
affumes on earth the form of Ibme animal, nn-
lefs its offence had been fuch, that it ouglit to
be condemned to a vegetable, or even to a
mineral, prifon. Another of his names is very
remarkable: I mean that of Ca'la, or time,
the idea of which is intimately blended with
the chara<fl:ers of Saturn and of Noah ; for
the name Cronos has a manifed: affinity with
the word chronos ; and a learned follower of Ze-
RA^TusHT allures me, that in the books which
the Behdins hold facred, mention is made of an
nniverfal immdatioHy there named the deluge of
Time.
It having been occafionally obferved, that
Ceres was the poetical daughter of Saturn,
we cannot clofe this head without adding, that
the
^O OF THE GODS OF GREECE,
the Eindus alfo have their Goddefs nf Ahimdance^
whom they ufually call Lacshmi', and whom
they confider as the daughter (not of Menu^
but) of Bhrigu, by whom the firft Code of
facred ordinances was promulgated : flie is alfo
named Pedma' and Camala' from the facred
Lotos or Nymph^ea \ but her mod: remarkable
name is Sri', or, in the firfh cafe, Sri's ; which
has a refemblance totheL<2//?2,and means/or/z/;z^
or profperky. It may be contended, that, al-
though Lacshmi' may be figuratively called
the Ceres of Hrndujian^ yet any two or more
idolatrous nations, who fubfifted by agriculture,
might naturally conceive a Deity to prefide over
their labours, without having the leafl inter-
courfe with each other ; but no reafon appears,
why two nations fhould concur in fuppofing
that Deity to be a female : one at leaft of them
would be more likely to imagine, that the
"Earth was a Goddefs, and that the God of
abundance rendered her fertile. Beiides, in
very ancient temples near Gdya, we fee im.ages
of Lacshmi', with full breafb and a cord
twifted under her arm like a born of pknfy,
which look very much like the old Grecian and
Roman fi2:ures of Ceres.
The fable of Saturn having been thus
analyfed, let us proceed to his defcendants ;
and begin, as the Poet advifes, with Jupiter,
whofe
ITALY, AND INDIA. 3I
whofe fupremacy, thunder, and libertinlfm,
every boy learns from Ovid ; while his great
offices of Creator, Preferver, and Deftroyer,
are not generally confidered in the fyftems of
European mythology. The Romans had, as
we have before obferved, many Jup iters,
one of whom was only the Firmament perforii-
fied, as Ennius clearly exprefles it :
AjYice hoc fubllme candem-y quern imvocant omnes Jovem.
This Jupiter or Diespiter, is the Indian.
God of the vifible heavens, called Indra, or
the A7>?o-, and Divespetir, or Lord of ths
Skv^ who has alfo the characler of the Koman
Genius, or Chief of the good fpirits ; but
mofl of his epithets in Sanfcrit are the fame
with thofeof the Ennian Jove. His confortis
named Sack i'; his celeftial city, Amaruvati';
his palace, Vaijayanta\ his garden, Na7tdana\
his chief elephant, Airavat ; his charioteer,
Mata'li ; and his weapon, Vajra^ or the
thunderbolt : he is the regent of winds and
fhowers, and, though the Eaft is peculiarly
under his care, yet his Olympus is MJru, or the
north pole aliegorically reprefented as a moun-
tain of gold and gems. With all his power
he is confiv'ered as a fubordinate Deity, and far
inferior to the Indian TnaJ, Brahma'', Vish-
nu.
32 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
Ku, and Maha'deva or Siva, who arc three
forms of one and the fame Godhead : thus the
principal divinity of the Greeks and Latians^
whom they called Zeus and Jupiter with Ir-
regular inflexions Dios and Jovis, was not
merely Fulmmator^ the Thunderer, hut, like
the deflroying power of hid'ia^ Magnus Di-
vus, Ultor, Genitor ; like the preferving
power. Conservator, Soter, Opitulus,
Altor, Ruminus ; and like the creating power,
the Giver of Ufe ; an attribute, which I men-
tion here on the authority of Cornutus, a
confummate mafler of mythological learning.
We are advlfed by Plato himfelf to fearch
for the roots of Greek words in fome barbarous,
that is, foreign foil ; but, fince I look upon
etymological conjectures as a weak balls for
hiflorical enquiries, I hardly dare fuggeft, that
Zev, Siv, and Jov, are the fame fyllable diffe-
rently pronounced : it muft, however be ad-
mitted, that the Greeks having no palatial ^^-
ma^ like that of the Indians, might have ex-
prefled it by their %eta, and that the initial let-
ters of zugon and jugiim are (as the inftance
proves) eafily interchangeable.
Let us now defcend, from thefe general
and introdudlory remarks, to fome particular
obfervations on the refemblance of Zeus or
Jupiter
ITALY, AND INDIA. 33
Jupiter to the triple divinity Vishn^t, Siva,
Brahma' ; for that is the orJer in which they
are exprefled by the letters A, U, and M,
which coaiefce and form the myftical word
O'M ; a word which never efcapes the lips of a
pious Hindu^ who meditates on it in liience :
whether the Egyptian ON, which is commonly
fiippofed to mean the Sun, be the Sanfcrit mo-
nofyllable, I leave others to determine. It
inuft always be remembered, that the learned
Indians, as they are inftrudted by their own
books, in truth acknowledge only Or.e Su-
preme Being, whom they call Brahme, or
THE GREAT ONE, in the neuter gender : they
believe his Eii'ence to be infinitely removed
from the comprehenfion of any mind but his
own ; and they fuppofe him to manifeU: his
power by the operation of his divine fpirit,
whom they name Vishnu, the Pervader, and
Na'kaVan, or Moving on the ijvaters, both in
the mafculine gender, whence he is often de-
nominated the Firji Male ; and by this power
they believe, that the whole order of nature is
preferved and fupported ; but the Vcdlmtisj
unable to form a diftind; idea of brute matter
independent of mind, or to conceive that the
work of Supreme Goodnefs was left a moment
to itfelf, imagine that the Deity is everprefent to
D hi^
34 OTSr THE GODS OF GREECE^
his work, and conflantly fupports a feries of
perceptions, which, in one fenfe, they call
illujory, though they cannot but admit the r^-
al'ity of all created forms, as far as the hap-
pinefs of creatures can be afFe61:ed by them.
When they confider the divine power exerted
mcreatwg^ or in giving exiftence to that which
exifted not before, they call the Deity Brah-
ma' in the mafculine gender alfo ; and when
they view him in the light of Defiroycr, or
rather Changer of forms, they give him a thou-
fand names, of which Siva, i'sa or i'swara,
RuDRA, Hara, Sambhu, and Maha^deVa
or M.aHe^sa, are the moil; common. Thefirft
operations of thefe three Powers are varioufly
defcribed in the different Puranas by a num-
ber of allegories, and from them we may de-
duce the Ionian Philofophy of primeval water y
the doclrine of the Mundane Egg, and the
veneration paid to the Ny?nphcea^ or Lotos,
which Vv^as anciently revered in Egypt, as it is
^f^rt^tiMm Hindiifian, Tibet, zwA Nepal : the
^ihetians are faid to embcUifh their temples and
altars with it, and a native of Nepal made?
proiirations before it on entering my fludy,
where the fine plant and beautiful flowers lay
for examination. Mr. HolwelL, in explain-
ing: his iirft plate, fuppofes Brahma' to be
floating on a leaf of betel in the midft of the
abyfj ;
ITALY, AND INDIA. 35
•zhyfs ; but it was manifeftly Intended by a bad
painter for a lotos- leaf or for that of the /zj-
d/'an fig-tree ; nor is the fpecles of pepper,
known in Bengal by the name of TambJla^ and
on the coait of Malabar by tha^ of Betel, held
facred, as he aflerts, by the Hindus, or necef-
farily cultivated under the infpe(£lion of Brah-
inans ; though as the vines are tender, all the
plantations of them are carefully fecured, and
ought to be cultivated by a particular tribe of
Siidras ^ who are thence called 'T(.mbid?s.
That irater was the primitive element and
lirft work of the Creative Power, is the uni-
form opinion Oi t\\Q Indian Philofophers ; but, as
they give fo particular an account of the general
deluge and of the Creation, it can never be
admitted, that their whole fyftem arofe from
traditions concernins; the Flood onlv, and muil
appear indubitable, that their dodrine is In part
borrowed from the opening of Birds)t or Ge^
nefs, than which a fublimer paflage. from the
firft word to the laft, never flovvxd or will flow
from any human pen : *^ In the beginning God
" created the heaven- and the earth. — y^ndthe
^^ earth was void and wafte, and darknefs was
*' on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of
*' God moved upon the face of the waters ; and
'^ God faid : I^et light be — and Light was.^*
Thefublimityof this paffage isconfiderably dimi-
D 2 iiifhed
36 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
niflicd by the Indian paraphrafe of it, with which
]V1enu, the Ton of Brahma', begins his addrefs
to the fages, who confulted him on the formation
of the univerfe: " This world," fliyshe, *'wa3
** alldarknefs, undifcernible, undifhinguifhable,
*' altogether as in a profound deep ; till the felf-
*' exiflent invifible God, making it manifeft
" with five elements and other glorious foims,
perfeftly difpeJled the gloom. He, defiring
to raife up various creatures by an emanation
from his own glory, firll: created the waters^
and imprefled them with a power of mo-
tion : by that power was produced a golden
" ^^^y blazing like a thoufand funs, in which
*' was born Brahma', felf-exifting, the great
*' parent of all rational Beings. The waters
" are called nara^ fince they are the offspring
*' of Nera (or i'swara) ; and thence was
** Na'ra'yana named, becaufehisfirft ^^;/(3,
*' ox moving^ was on them.
*' That which is, the invifible caufe, eter-
nal, felf-exifting, but unperceived, becom-
ing mafculine from neuter^ is celebrated
among all creatures by the name of Brah-
*' ma'. That God, having dwelled in the
*' Egg, through revolving years, Himfelf me-
*' ditatingon Himfelf, divided it into two equal
" parts ; and from thofe halves formed the
" heavens and the earth, placing in the midft
ITALY, AND INDIA. 37
*' the fubtilc ether, the eight points of the
'* world, and the permanent receptacle cf
*' waters."
. To this curious defcription, with which the
Manava Safra begins, I cannot refrain from
fubjoining the four verfes, w^hich are the text of
the Bh^gavat^ and arc believed to have been
pronounced by the Supreme Being to Brah-
ma': the following verlion is moft fcrupulouflj
literal.
" Even I was even at firfl, not anv other
" thing; that, which exifts, unperceived ; fu-r
'' preme : afterwards I am that which is;
'* and he, who mufl remain, am I.
" Except the First Cause, whatever
** may appear, and may not appear, in the
*' mind, know that to be the mind's Ma'ya',
*' (ov DehiJicTi) as light, as darknefs.
" As the great elements are in various be-
ings, entering, yet not entering (that is,
pervading, not defiroying), thus am I in
*' them, yet not in them.
*' Even thus far may enquiry be made by
** him., who feeks to know the principle of
*' mind, in union and feparation, which mufl
" be every where always."
Wild and obfcure as thefe ancient verfes
muft appear in a naked verbal tranflation, it
D 3 will
3$ ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
will perhaps be thought by many, that the
poetry or mythology of Greece or Italy afford
no conceptions m. re awfully ma^niificent : yet
the brevity aid fimplicity of the iVf^/c diftiou
are unequalled.
As to the creation of the world, in the opi-?
nion of the Romans^ Cv d, who m.ight na-
turally have been expelled to defcribe it with
learning and elegance, leaves us wholly in the
dark, which of the Gods was the a5ior in it i
other Mythologifls are more explicit ; and we
may rely on the authority of Cornutus, that
the old European heathens confidered Jove (not
the fon of Saturn, but of the Ether, that is,
of an unknown parent) as the great Life-giver-,
and Eather of Gods and Men ; to which may be
added the Orphean doctrine, preferved by Pro-
CLus, that " the abyfs and empyreum, the earth
*' and Tea, the Gods and Goddeffes, were pro-
*' duced by Zeus or Jupiter." In this cha-
racter he correfponds with Brahma' ; and,
perhaps, with that God of the Babylonians (if
we can rely on the accounts of their ancient re-
ligion), who, like Brahma', reduce i the uni-
verfe to order, and like Bi^ahma'', loft his head^
with the blood of which new animals were in-
flantly formed : I allude to the common ftory,
the meaning of which I cannot difcover, that
Brahma'
ITALY, AND INDIA. 39
Brahma' had five heads till one of them was
cut off by Na'raSv/n.
That, in another capacity, Jove was the
Helper and Supporter of all, we may coUe^fl
from his old Lj^/;^ epithets, and from CicsRo,
who informs us, that his uiuai name is a con-
tra£lion of j/^t;(^?^j" Pater ; an etymology, which
fhews the idea entertained of his charafler,
thous;h we may have iome doubts of its accu-
racy. Callimachus, we know, addreffes
him as the bef.ower of all good ^ and of fecurity
from grief; and, fince neither wealth without
virtue, nor virtue without wealth, give complete
happinefs, he prays, like a wife poet, for both.
An Indian prayer for riches would be directed to
Lacshmi^, the wife of V i shnu, fince the Hindu
goddeiles are believed to be the powers of their
refpedive lords : as to Cuve'ra, the Indian
Plutus, one of whofe names in Faulaflya, he
is revered, indeed, as a magnificent Deity, re-
fiding in the palace of Alaca, or borne through
the fky in a fplendid car named Fufpaca, but
is manifeftly fubordinate, like the other {(t\'^\\
Genii, to the three principal Gods, or rather
to the principal God confidered in three capa-
cities. As the foul of the world, or the per-
vading mind, fo fmely defcribed by Virgil,
we fee Jove reprefented by feveral Roman
D 4 poets ;
40 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
poets; and vvi h great fublimlty by Lucan in
the known fpeech of Cato concerning the Am-
moman oracle, " Ji piter is, wherever we
look, wherever we move." This is precifely
the Indian idea of Vishnu, according to the
four verfes above exhibited ; not that the Brah-
mans imagine their male Divinity to be the di-
vine KJfence of (he great one, which they de-
clare to be wholly incomprehenfible ; but, fince
the power o^ preferving created things by a fu-
perintending Frovidc-nce, belongs eminently to
the Godhead, they hold that power to exift
tranfcendently in the preferving member of the
Triad, Vv'hom they fuppofe to be every where
ALWAYS, not in fubflance, but in fpirit and
energy : here, however, I fpeak of the Vaifo"
navas ; for the Saivas afcribe a fort of pre-
eminence to Si v A, whofe attributes are now to
be concifeiv examined.
It was in the capacity of Avenger and De-
ftroyer, that Jove encountered and overthrew
the lilans and Gia ts, whom Typhon, Bria-
REis, TiryiJs, and the reft of their fraterr.ity,
led againil" the God cf Olympus ; to whom an
Eagle brou2;ht :i^htninP:-AV\^ thunderbolts during^
th-" warfare : thus, in aiimihr contef^ between
Siva and the Daityus^ or children of Diti,
who frequently rebelled againft heaven, Brah-
ma^
ITALY, AND INDIA. 4 1
MA' is believed to have prefented the God of
Deftru6lion wixhferyfiafts. One of the many
poems entitled Rdmdyan, the lad book of
which has been tranflated into Italian, contains
«n extraordinarv dialo2;iie between the crow
Bhufiimda, and a rational Eagle, named Ga-
KUDA, who is often painted with the face of a
beautiful youth and the body of an imaginary
bird ; and one of the eighteen Purdnas bears his
name and comprizes his whole hiftoi-y. M,
SoNNERAT informs us, that Vishnu is repre-
fented in fom.e places riding on the Garuda,
which he fuppofes to be the Pondicheri Eagle of
Brisson, efpecially as the Br.ihmans of the Coaft
highly venerate that clafsof bird>, and provide
food for numbers of them at ftated hours : I ra-
ther conceive the Garuda to be a fabulo-is bird,
but agree with him, that the Hindu God, who
rides on it, refembles ihe ancient J pite \ la
the old temples at Gayn, Vishnu is either
mounted on this poetical bird, or attended by it,
together with a little page ; but, left an etvmo-
logift fhould find Ganymi.d in Garud, 1 mufl
obferve, that the Sanfcrit word is pronounced
Garura ; though I admit, that the Grecian and
Indian ilories of the celeftial bird and the page
appear to have fome refemblance. As the
Olympan JiiViTE-R. fixed his court and held his
councils
42 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
councils on a lofty and brilliant mountain, fq
the appropriated feat of Maha'deVa, whom
the Sahas conlider as the Chief of the Deities,
was mount Cailafa^ every fplinter of whofe
Tocks was an ineftimable gem : his terreflrial
haunts are the fnowy hills oi Himalaya^ or that
branch of them to the Eaft of the Brahmaputra^
which has the name of Chandrafic hara^ or the
Mountain of the Moan. When, after all thefe
circumflances, we learn that Siva is believed
to have three eyes, whence he is named alfo
Trilo'chan, and know from Pausanias,
not only that Trtophthahnos v/as an epithet of
Zeus, but that a ftatue of him had been found
{o early as the taking of 'Troy with a third eye-
in his forehead, as we ice him reprefented by
the Hindus, we muft conclude, that the identity
of the two Gods falls little fhort of being de-
^lon ft rated.
In the character nf De,^royer alfo we mav look
upon this Indian Deity as correfpondijig with
the Stygian Jovr, or Plhto ; cibccially iince
Ca^'li', or Time in the feminine gender, is a
name of his coniort, who will appear hereafter to
be Prosekpine : indeed, if we can rely on a
Perfa?i tranfiation of the Bhagavat (for the
original is not yet \\\ my polieffion), the fove-
reign of Pcitcda, or the Infernal Regions., is the
]\ing of Serpents, named Se^'shana^ga ; for
Crishna
ITALY, AND INDIA. 43
Cristtna is there fliid to have defcended with
his favourite Arjun to the feat of that formi-?
dable divinity, from whom he inftantly ob^
tained the favour w^iich he requeued, that the
fouls of a Erabman^s fix fons, who had been
llain in battle, might reanimate their refprftive
bodies; and S^/shana^ga is thus defcribed :
^' He had a gorgeous appearance, with a thou-
'' fand heads, and on each of them a crown
*' fet with refplendent gems, one of which w^as
" larger and brighter than the reft ; his eyes
^' gleamed like flaming torches ; but his neck,
'* his tongues, and his body w^ere black ; the
1' fkirts of his habiliment were yellowy and a
^^ fparkling jewel hung in every one of his
^' ears ; his arms were extended, and adorned
*' with rich bracelets, and his hands bore the
^' holy fhell, the radiated weapon, the mace
'* for v/ar, and the lotos." Thus Pluto was
often exhibited in painting and fculpture with a
diadem and fceptre ; but himfelf and his equi-
page were of the blackefl (liade.
There is yet another attribute of Maha''-
DE Va, by which he is too vifibly diflinguifhed
in the dravv^ings and temples of Bengal. To
deftroy, according to the Vedanti s of India, the
Suji^s of Pe?'Jia, and many Philofophers of our
European fchools, is only io generate and repro-
duce in another form : hence the God of De-
JiruSiion
,44 ON THE GODS OF GREECE
?
jlrtiBion is holden in this country to prefide
over Generation ; as a fymbol of which he rides
,on a white bull. Can we doubt that the loves
and feats of Ji'PiTER Genitor (not forgetting
•the 'white bull o^ Eur op a) and his extraordi-
nary title of Lapis, for which no fatisfidiory
reafon is comn:ionly given, have a connedlion
with the Indian Philofophy and Mythology ?
As to the deity of hampfacus^ he was originally
a mere fcarecrow% and ought not to have a
place in any mythological fyftem ; and in re-
gard to Bacchus, the God Oi Vintage (between
whole acls and thofe of Ji'Piter vv-e find, as
Baco\ obferves, a wonderful affinity), his
IthyphalUck images, meafures, and ceremonies
alluded probably to the iuppofed relation of
Love and Wine ; unlefs we believe them to
have belonged originally to Siva, one of whofe
Dames is Vagis or Ba'ci^s, and to have been
afterwards improperly applied. Though, in aii
Eflay on the Gods of India^ w^hcre the Brlih-
mans are politively forbidden to taile fermented
liquors, we can have little to do with Bacchus,
as God of Wine, v/ho was probably no more
than the imaginary prefident over the vintage
in Itah^ Greece^ and the Lower Afia^ yet we
muft not omit Sura'di/v/, the Goddefs of
Wine, who arofe, fay the Hindus., from the
ocean, when it was churned with the mountaiti
Mandari
ITALY, AND INDIA^ 45
Mandar : and this fable leems to indicate, that
the Indiajis came fronri a country in which wine
was antiently made and confidered as a bleffing ;
though the dangerous efFeds of intemperance
induced their early legiflators ta prohibit the
ufe of all fpiriruous liquors ; and it were much
to be wifhed that fo wife a law had never been
violated.
Here may be introduced the Jupiter Ma-
rJnus, or Nf.pt une, of the Romans^ as re-
femblins: Maha'deVa in his generative cha-
ra£ler ; efpecially as the Hindu God is the huf-
band of Bhava'ni', whofe relation to the iva-
ters is evidently marked bv her ima2;e beins; re-
ilored to them at the conclufion of her great
feftival called Dui-gotfava : fhe is known alio to
have attributes exa6tlv fimilar to thofe of
Venus Marina, whofe birth from the lea-foam
and fplendid rife from the Conch, in which
file had been cradled, have afforded fo many
charming fubjeds to antlent and modern artiflis;
and it is very remarkable, that the Rembha'
of Ikdra's court, who feems to correfpond
with the popular Venus, or Goddefs of Beauty,
was produced, according to the Indian Fabulifts,
from the froth of the churned ocean. The
identity of the trifula and the trident^ the wea-
pon of Siva and of Neptune, leems to efla-
blifh this analogy ; and the veneration paid all
over
46 ON THE GODS OF GREECE
9
over Itid'ia to the large bucciniim, efpecially
when it can be found with the Ipiral line and
mouth turned from left to right, brings in-
ftantly to our mind the mullc of Triton.
The ^enius of Water is Varuna ; but he^
like the reft, is far inferior to Mahe'sa^, and
even to Ind: a, who is the Prince of the be-
neficent genii.
This way of confidering the Gods as indi-
vidual fubftances, but as diftinct perfons in di-
ftinfl: chara6lers, is common to the European
and Ind'um lyftems ; as \vell as the cuftom of
givins: the hirheft of them the g;reateft number
of names : hence, not to repeat what has been
faid of jiJPiTFR, came the triple capacity of
Diana ; and hence her petition in Calli-
MACHUS, that ^^ might be polyonymous or
many-titled. The confort of Siva is more emi-
nentlv marked by thefe diftin-flions than thofe
of Brahma' or Vishnu: fhe refembles the
Isis Mvr/onvmos, to whom an antient marble,
defcribed by Gi^ute,^, is dedicated; but her
leadi':g names and characters are Fa'kvati',
Durga', Bhava'n/.
As \.\\Q Mountain-born Goddefs, orPA^R vati",
nie has many properties of the Olympian Juno :
her majeftic deportment, high fpirit, and ge-
neral attributes are the fame ; and we find her,
both on Mount Callafa^ and at the banquets
of
ITALY, AND INDIA. 4J
of the Deities, uniformly the companion of her
hiiibanci. One circumftance in the parallel is
extremely lingular : flie is ufnally attended by
her ion Ca^rtice'ya, who rides on z peacock i
and, in fome drawings, his own robe feems to
be fpangled with eyes ; to which muil: be add-
ed that, in fome of her temples, a peacock,,
without a rider, ftands near her ima2;e. I'houoh
Ca'rtice'ya, with his fix faces and numerous
eyes, bears fome refemblance. to Akgus, whom
Juno employed as her principal wardour, yet,
as he is a Deity of the fecond clafs, and the
Commander of celeftial Armies, he feems clearly
to be the Orus of 'Egypt and the Mars of Italy:
his name Scanda, by which he is celebrated
in one of the Pur anas ,^ has a conneclion, I
am perfuaded, with the old Secander of
Perjia^ whom the poets ridiculoufly confound
with the Maccdojiian.
The attributes of Durga^, or d'lfflcult of
accefs, are alfo confpicuous in the feflival above-
mentioned, which is called by her name ; and
in this characrer i'aQ refembles Minerva,
not the peaceful inventrefs of the fine and ufe-
ful arts, but Pallas, armed with a helmet and
fpear : both reprefent heroic Virtue^ or Valour
united with Wifdom ; both (lew Demons and
Giants v/ith their own hands ; and both pro-
ted:ed the v»ile and virtuous Vv4io paid them
due
4^ ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
due adoration. As Pallas ^^^^y %'> takes
her name from vibratijig a lance, and ufually
appears in complete armour, thus Curis, the
old Latianwoxd forafpear, xvas one of Juno's
titles; and fb, if GiRALDUs be correal, was
HoPLosMiA, which at Elh, it feems, meant a
female dreffed in panoply or complete accoutre-
ments. The unarmed Minerva of the Ro-
mans appa'ently correfponds, as patronefs of
Science and Genius, with Sereswati', the
wife of Brahma', and the emblem of his prin-
cipal Creative Pozver : both goddeffes have
given their names to celebrated grammatical
works ; but the Sarefwata ot Saru'pa'cha'-
RYA is far more concife as well as more ufeful
and agreeable than the Minerva of Sangtius,
TheMiNERVA of Italy invented the fiute', and
Seres wATi' prelides over melody : the protec-
trefs o^ Athens was even, on the fame account,
furnamed Musice^
Many learned Mvtholodfts, with Giral-
Dus at their head, confider the peaceful
Mi nek v A as the Isis o{ Egypt; from whofe
temple at Sais a wonderful infcription is quoted
by Plutarch, which has a refemblance to the
four Sanfcrit verfes above exhibited as the text
of tht Bhi'jgavat : " I am all, that hath been,
*' and is, and fliall be ; and my veil no mortal
*' hath ever removed." For my part I have no
doubt.
ITALY, AND INDIA. 49
doubt, that the i'swara and I'si' of the Bindus
are the Osir;s and Isis of the Egyptians-,
though a diftinft eflay in the manner of Plu-
tarch would be requifite m order to demon-
ftrate their identity : they mean, I conceive,
the Powers of Natwe ccnfidered as Male and
Female ; and Isis, like the other goddeiles,
reprefents the a6live power of her lord, whofe
eight forms, under which he becomes vifible to
man, were thus enumerated by Ca''lida'sa
near two thoufand years ago : *' Water was the
firft work of the Creator ; and Fire receives
the oblation of clarified butter, as the law
ordains ; the Sacrifice is performed with fo-
lemnity ; the two Lights of heaven diftin-
guifhtime; the fubtile £//6^r, which is the
vehicle of found, pervades the univerfe ;
the Earth Is the natural parent of all in-
creafe ; and by Jir all things breathing are
animated: may i'sa, the /oiy^r propitioufly
apparent in thefe eight forms, blefs and fuf-
tain you !" Thtfive elements therefore, as
well as the Sun and Moon, are confidered as I's A
or the Ruler, from which word I'si^ maybe re-
gularly formed, though i'sa^m' be the ufual
name of his a^ive Pozver, adored as the God-
defs of Nature. 1 have not yet found in San-
y^r// the wild, though poetical, tale of lo ; but
am perfuaded, that, by means of the Puranas,
E ' we
<0 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
we {hall in time difcover all the learnuig of thft
Egypt iuus without decyphering their hierogly-
phics : the bull of i'swara feems to be Apis
or Ap, as he is more corre£lly named in the true
reading of a paffagein Jeremiah ; and if the
veneration fhewn both in Tibet and hidia to fo
amiable and ufeful a quadruped as the Cow, to-
gether with x\it regeneration of the Lama him-
ielf, have not fome affinity with the religion of
Egypt and the idolatry of Ifi-a'il, we mull at
leafl allow that circumfiances have wonderfully
coincided. Bhava'ni' now demands our at-
tention ; and in this character I fuppofe the
wife of Maha'deva' to be as well the Juno
Cinxia or Luc in A of the Romans (called alfo
by them Diana Sohizona^ and by the Greek i:
IlitiiyIx^) as Venus herfelf ; not the Idalian
queen of laughter and jollity, who, with her
Nymphs and Graces, was the beautiful child
of poetical imagination, and anfv/ers to the In-
dian Rembha' with her celeftial train of Ap-
faras^ or damlcls of paradife ; but Venus
Urania^ fo luxuriantly painted by LucRETiuSy
and fo properly invoked by him at the opening
of a poem on nature ; Venus, prefiding over
generation^ and, on that account, exhibited
fometimes of both fexes, (an union very com-
mori in the Indian fculptures) as in her bearded
ftatue at Rnme, in the images perhaps called
Hermathena,
ITALY, AND INDIA. 5 1
Heniiatheha, and in thofe figure^ of her which
had the form of a conical marble % " for the
*' reafon o'i which figure we are left," fays
Tacitus, " in the dark :" the reafon appears
too clearly in the temples and paintings q{ Hln-
dujlan\ where it never feems to have entered
the heads of the legiilators or people that any
thing natural could be ofFenflvely obfcene ; a
fingularity, which pervades all their writings
and converfation, but is i.o proof of depravity
in their morals. Both Plato and Cicero
fpeak of Eros, or the heavenly Cupid, as the
foil of Venus and Jlipiter; which proves,
that the monarch of Olympus and the Goddefs
'of Fecundity were connedled as Maha'de'-
va and Bhava'ni : the God Ca'ma, indeed,
had Ma'ya' and Casyapa, or Ut'amis^ for
his parents, at lead: according to the Mytholo-
gies of Cajl'mir ; but, ia mofl: refpe6ls, he
feems the twin- brother of Cupid with richer
and more lively appendages. One of his
many epithets is D'lpaca, \hQ InfLimer^ whxh
is erroneouily written D'lpuc \ and I am novv
Convinced, that the ibrt of refemblance which
has been oblerv^ed between his Latin and Saji-
fcrit names, is accidental : in each name the
three firil; letters are the root, and between
them there is no affinitv. Whether any Mv-
tholo'i-ical connection fubiifted between the
E 2 amaracus^
52 ON THE GODS OF GREfiCE,
mnaracus^ with the fragrant leaves of vvhicli
Hymen bound his tennples, and the tuJasi of
India, muft be left undeternained ; the bota-
nical relation of the two plants (if amaracus.
be properly tranflated marjorani) is extremely
near.
One of the mofl: remarkable ceremonies in
the feftival of th.^ Indian Goddefs is that before-
mentioned of cafring her image i^ito the river :
the Pandits, of whom I inquired concerning
its origin and import, anfwered, " that it was
" prefcribed by the Veda, they knew not
" why;" but this cu {lorn has, I conceive, a
relation to the doctrine, that water is -nform of
I'swARA, and confequently of I'sA^Ni', who is
even reprefented by fome as the patronefs of
that element, to which her figure is reftored,
after having received all due honours on earth.,
which is confidcred as another^/ir?w of the God
of Nature, though fubfequent, in the order of
Creation, to the primeval fluid. There feeros
no decifive proof of one original fyflem among
idolatrous nations in the worfliip of river- gcds
and river-goddefles, nor in the homage paid to
their ftreams, and the ideas of purification an-
nexed to them ; fince Greeks, Italians, Egyp-
tians, and Hindus might (without any com-
munication with each other) have adored the
feveral divinities of their g-reat rivers, from
which
ITALY, AND INDIA. 5^
which they derived pleafure, health, and
abundance. The notion of Do£lor Musgrave,
that large rivers were luppofed, from their
ilrengthand rapidity, to be conduced by Gods,
while rivulets only were protected by female
deities, is, like moft other notions of Gram-
jnarians on the genders of nouns, overthrown
by fa6ts. Mofl: of the great Indian rivers are
feminine ; and the three goddefles of the wa-
ters whom the Hmdus chiefly venerate, are
Ganga', who fprang, like armed Pallas,
from the head of the Indian Jove ; Yamuna',
daughter of the Sun, and Sereswati' : all
three meet at Prayaga^ thence called Triven'i, or
the three plaited locks ; but Sereswati', ac-
cording to the popular belief, links under
ground, and rifes at another Triveni, near
Hugli, where fhe rejoins her beloved Gang a'.
The Bramaputra is, indeed, a male river ; and
as his name fignifies the fon of Brahma', I
thence took occafion to feign that he was mar-
ried to Ganga', though I have not yet i^^w
any mention of him, as a God, in the Safifcrit
books.
Two incarnate deities of the firft rank,
RA'MAand Crishna, muft now be introduced,
and their feveral attri^butes diftindly explained.
The firft of them, I believe, was the Dyony-
gos of the Greeks^ whom they named Brqmius,
]^ 3 ' without
54 ^ ON THE GODS OF GIIEFCE,
without knowing why, and Eugenes, when
they repreiented him horned^ as well as Lyaios
and Eleutherios, the Deliverer, and Tri~
AMBOS or DiTHYRAMBOS, the Triun^phant :
moll of thofe titles were adopted by the Ro~
mans^ by whom he was called Bruma, Tau-
RiFORMis, Liber, 'Jriumphus; and both
nations had records or traditionary accounts of
his giving laws to men and deciding their con-
tefts, of his improving navigation and com-
merce, and, v/hat may appear yet more obferv-
able, of his conquering India and other countries
with an army of Satyrs^ commanded by no
lefs a peif na2;e than Pan ; whom Lilius
GiRALDUs, on what authority I know not^ aflerts
to have refided in loeria, *' when he had re-
*' turned," fays thelearnedMythologlfr, '*from
** the Indian war, in which he accompanied
*' Bacchus." It were fuperfluous, in a mere
effay, to run any length in the parallel between
this European God and the fovereign of Ayod-
hya^ whom the Hindus believe to have been au
appearance on earth of the Preferving Pozver ;
to have been a Conqueror of the highefh re-
nown, and the Deliverer of nations from ty-
rants, as well as of his confort Si'rA'' from the
giant RA" an, king of Lanca, and to have
commanded in chier a numerous and intrepid
race of thofe large Monkeys, which our natu-
ral ills.
ITALY, AKD INDIA, 55
ralifts, or fome of them, have denominated
Indian Satyrs : his General, the Prince of Satyrs,
was named Hanumat, or with high cheek-
bones ; and, with workmen of fuch agiUty, he
foon raifed a bridge of rocks over the fea, part
of which, lay the Hindus, yet remains ; arid
it is, probably, the ferics of rocks, to which
the Mufelmans or the Portuguefe have given the
foohili name of i\DAM's (it Ihould be called
Raima's) bridge. Might not this army of
S^atyrs have been only a race of mountaineers,
whom Ra'ma', if fuch a monarch ever ex-
ited, had civilized ? However that may be,
the large breed of Indian Apes is at this mo-
ment held in high veneration bv the Hindus,
and fed with devotion by the Brabmans, who
feem, in two or three places on the banks of
the Ganges, to have a regular endowment for
the fupport of them : they live in tribes of
three or four hundred, are wonderfully gentle
(I fpeak as an eye-vvitnefs), and appear to have
fome kind of order and fubordination in their
little fylvan polity. We muft not omit, that
the father of Hanumat was the God of Wind,
named Pavan, one of tiic eight Genii ; and
as Pan improved the pipe by adding lix reeds,
and " played exquiiitely on the cithern a few
*' moments after his birth," fo one of the
four lyflems of Indian mufic bears the name of
E 4 Ha-
5^ ON THE GODS OF GRET-CE,
Hanumat, or Hanuma^n in the nominative,
as its inventor, and is now in general efti-
mation.
The war of La?ica is dram'tically rep re-
fented at the feftival of R a^ma on the ninth day
of the new moon of Chaitra ; and the drama
concludes (fays Holwell, who had often
feen it) with an exhibition of the fire-ordeal,
by which the viO:or's wife S/ta^ gave proof of
her connubial fidelity : " the dialogue,'* he
add?, " is taken from one of the Eighteen holy
" books," meaning, I fuppofe, the Puranas ;
but the Hindus have a srreat number of recrular
dramas at lead two thoufand years old, and
among them are feveral very fine ones on
the ftory of Ra'pvIA. The firft poet of the
limdiis was the great Va'lmi^c, and his
Rdmayan is an Epic Poem on the fame fubje(fl,
which, in unity of a6lion, magnificence of
imagery, and elegance of ftyle, far furpafles
the learned and elaborate work of Nonnus,
entitled Dionyjiaca^ half of which, or twenty-
four books, I peril fed with great eagernefs,
when I was very young, and fliould have tra-
velled to the conclufion of it, if other purfuits
had not engaged me. 1 fliall never have leifure
to compare the Dionyjiacks with the Ramayan,
but am confident, that an accurate comparifon
of the two poems would prove DiOiNYsos and
Ra'ma
ITALY, AND INDIA. K'J
Ka'ma to have been the fame perfon ; and I iin
cHneto think, that he was Ra^ma, the fon of
Cu'sH, who might have eilabhflied the firft re-^
gular government in this part of j^JIa. I had
almofl forgotten, that Meros is faid by the
Greeks to have been a mountain of India^ on
which their Dionysos was born, and that
Meru, though it generally means the north
pole in the hidlan geography, is alfoa moun-
tain near the city of Naijlmda or Nyfa^ called
by the Grecian geographers DionyfopoJis, and
univerfally celebrated in the Sanjcrk poems ;
though the birth-place of Ra'ma is fuppofed to
have been Ayodhya or yludb. That ancienC
pity extended, if we believe the Erahmans^
over a line of ten Tojans^ or about forty miles,
and the prefent city of hachnau^ pronoupxed
Luc?tow. was onlv a lodse for one of its spates
called LacJJjmanadwara, or the gate of Lacsh-
MAN, a brother of Ra'ma. M. Sonni.rat
fuppofes Ayodhya, to have been ^iam ; a raoft
erroneous and unfounded fuppoft on ! which
would have been of little confequence, if he
had not grounded an argument on it, that
Ra'ma was the fame perfon with Biddha,
who mufl hav^e appeared many centuries after
the conqneft of Latica.
The feconJ great divinity, Crishna, pafTcd
a life, according to the Ifidians, of a mofl: ex-
traordinary
5^ ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
traordinary and incomprehenfible nature. He
was the fon of De'vaci' by Vasud'eva ; but
his birth was concealed through fear of the ty-
rant Cansa, to whom it had been predidted,
that a child born at that time in that family
would ceflroy him : he was foftered, there-
fore, mMafhura by an honefh herdfman, fur-
named Ananda, or Happy, and his amiable
wife Yaso'da', who, like another Pales, was
conftnntly occupied in her paflures and her
dairy. In their family were a multitude of
youne Go-has or cowherds, and beautiful GgP?s.
or milkmaids, who were his play-fellows during
h-s infancy; and, in his early youth, he fe-
Icfled nine damlels as his fav^ourites, with whom
he pafled his gay hours in dancing, fporting,
and playing on his flute. For the remarkable
num.ber ol^ his Gcp?s I have no authority but a
whimfical pi6lure, where nine girls are grouped
in the form of an elephant, on which he lits
and pipes; and, unfortunately, the word «^^'«
fignifies both nine and fiew or young ; fo that,
in the following franza, it may admit of two
interpretations :
taranijupulhu; navahallavi
pcr'ijadafaha ceUcutuhalat
ilrutavilafnwitacharuviharinain
herimaham hrldayena facia vahL
^^ I beas"
ITALY, AND INDIA. 59
*■' I BEAR in my bofom continually that God,
** who, for fportive recreation, v/ith a train
^' of 7i'ine (young) dai-y- maids, dances gracc-
^' fully, now quick now flow, on the fands
^' juit left by the Daughter of the Sun.''
Both he and the three Ra'mas are defcribed
as youths of perfect beauty; b;,t the princef-
fes of HinJuJIdn, as well as the damlels of
Nanda's farm, were pafiionately in love Vvith
Cri--hna, who continues to this hour the dar-
ling God of the 7;^ ^//^/;z women. 7 be fe6l of
Hindus^ who adore him with cnthuiiai'.ic,
and almoft exclufive, devotion, hav^ broached
a doctrine, which they maintain with eage-nefs,
and which feems general in thefe provinces, that
he was diftin£l from iill the Ava urs, who had
only&n anja, or portion of his divinity ; while
Crishna was the per/on of Vishnu himifelf in
ahpman form: hence they confi er the third
Ra'ma, hib elder brother, as the eighth Ava^
^^r inveiled with an emanation of his divine ra-
diance ; and, in the principal Sojifcrit die*
tionary, compiled about two thoufand years ago
Crishna, Va'sade'va, GoVinda, and other
names of the Shepherd God, are intermixed
with epithets of Na'raVan, or the Divine
Spirit. All the Avatars are painted with gem-
med Ethiopian, or Parthian, coronets ; with
rays encircling their heads ; jewels in their
ears ; two necklaces, one ftraight and one
pendciita
Co ON TPIE GODS OF GREECE,
pendent, on their bofoms with dropping gems *
garlands of vvell-difpofed many- coloured flow-^
crs, or collars of pearls, hanging down below
their waifts ; looie mantles of golden tiffue or
dyed filk, embroidered on their hems with
flowers, elegantly thrown over one fhoulder,
and fulded, like ribbands, acrofs the breads
with bracelets too on one arm, and on each
wrift : they are naked to the waifts, and uni-
formly with dark azure JieJI?^ in allufion, pro-
bably, to the tint of that primordial fluid, on
which Na'ra'y AN moved in the beG-inning of
time ; but their ikirts are brightyellow, the colour
pf the curious pericarpium in the centre of the
water-lily, where Nature, as Dr. Murray ob-
ferves, in fome degree dlfclofes berfecrets, ed.ch{eed
containing, before it germinates, a (cw perfect
leaves : they are ibmetimes drawn with that
flower in one hand ; a radiated elliptical ring,
tifed as a miffile weapon, in a fecond ; the fa-
cred fhell, or left-handed buccinum, in a third ;
and a mace or battie-ax, in a fourth : but
Crishna, wben he appears, as he fometimes
does appear, among the ^vaii'rs, is more
fplendidly decorated than any, and wears a rich
garland of ly Ivan flowers, whence he is named
Vanama'li, as low as hi^ ankles, which are
adorned with firings of pearls. Dark blue,
approaching to l^/ack, which is the meaning of
\he word CriJImay is believed to hayc been hi$
conx-
ITALY, AND INDIA. €t
Complexion ; and hence the large bee of that
colour is confecrated to him, and is often drawn
fluttering over his head : that azure tint, which
approaches to blacknefs, is peculiar, as we have
already remarked, to Vishnu; and hence, in.
the great refervoir or cidern at Catmlindu the
capital of Nepal, there is placed in a recumbent
pofture a large well-proportioned image of bluf:
marble, reprefenting Na'ra^y an floating on
the waters. But let us return to the actions of
Crishna; who w^as not lefs heroic than
lovely, and, Vv^hen a boy, flew the terrible fer-
pent Cal'iya with a number of giants and mon-
ilers : at a more advanced age, he put to death.
his cruel enemy Cansa ; and, having taken
under his prote6lion the king Yudhisht'hir
and the other Pcmdus^ who had been grievoufly
opprelTed by the Cums, and their tyrannical
chief, he kindled the war defcribed in the great
Epic Poem, entitled the Mahahharaty at the
profperous conclufion of which he returned to
his heavenly feat in Vakonfha, having left the
inftrudlions comprized in the G'tta w^ith his dif-
confolate friend Arjun, whofe grandfbn be-
came fovereign of India.
Jn this pidture it is impoffible not to difcover,
at the firft glance, the features of Apollo,
furnamed JSJomios, or the Pafioral, in Greece^
and Opifer, in Italy ; who fed the herds of
Admetus, and flew the ferpent Python ; a
God,
62 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
God, amorous, beautiful, and warlike : th^
word Gtfomda may be literally tranflated Nomios^
as Cejava is Cr'mitus, or with fine hair ; but
whether GopLla^ or the herjfman, has any rela-
tio 1 to Apollo^ let our Etymologilis determine^
Colonel Vallancey, whofe learned enqui-
ries into the ancient literature of Ireland are
highly interefting, afilires me, that Crifi.ma iii
IriJJo means the Sun ; and we find Apollo and
Sol confidered by the Roman poets as the fame
deity. I am inclined, indeed, to believe, that
not only Crishna or Visfinu, but even
Brahma^ and Siva, when united, and ex-
prefled by the myftical word O'M, were de-
ligned by the firil: idolaters to reprefent the
Solar fire ; but Pfioeeus, or the orb of the Sun
perfonified, is adored by the Indians as the God
Su'rya ; whence the feci who pay him parti-
cular adoration, are called Sauras : their poets
and painters defcribe his car as drawn by feveii
green horfes, preceded by Arun, or the
Dawn, who ads as his charioteer, and fol-
lowed by thoufands of Genii worshipping him
and modulating his praift:s. He has a multi-
tude of names, and among them twelve epi-
thets or titles, which denote his did'md: powers
in each of the twelve months : thofe powers ai'Q
CdWed Jdityas, or fons of Aditi byCAsYAPA^
the Indian Uranus ; and one of them has,
according to fome authorities, the name of
Vishnu
ITALY, AND INDIA. 63
Vishnu, or Pervader, Su'pxYA is believed to
have defceiided frequently from his car in a hu-
man fhape, and to have left a race on earth,
who are equally renowned in the Indian
ftories with the Heliadai o^ Greece: it is very
lino-ular, that his two Tons called Asvy^nau or
Aswini'cuma'rau, in the dual, fliould be
confidered as twin-brothers, and painted like
Castor and Pollux ; but they have each the
characler of ^^sculapius among the Gods,
and are believed to have been born of a nymph,
who, in the form of a mare, was impregnated
with fun-beams. I fufpeft the whole fable of
Casyapa and his progeny to be aftronomicai;
and cannot but imagine, that the Greek name
Cassiopeia has a relation to it. Another great
Indian family are called the Children of the
Moon, or Chandra ; who is a male Deity,
and confequently not to be compared with
Artemis or Diana ; nor have I yet found a
parallel in India for the Goddefs of the Chafe,
who feems to have been the daughter of an
TLuropean fancy, and very naturally created by
the invention of Bucolick and Georgick poets :
yet, iince the Moon is 2. form of i'swara, the
God of Nature, according to the verfeof CA^Li-
DA^sAjandimcc i'sa'ni has been (hewn to be his
confort or power, we may confider her, in one of
her charadlers, as Luna ; efpecially as we fliall
foOQ
ON THE GOPS OF GRi^ECE,
foon be convinced, that, In the fhades belovv^
file correiponds with the Hecate of Ez/rop^?.
The worlhip of Solar, or Veflal, Fire mav
be afcribeJ, like that of Osiris and Isis^ tothe
fecond fonrce of mythology, or an enthuliaftic
admiration of Nature's wonderful powers;
and it feems, as far as I can yet underfliand the
Vedas, to be the principal worfliip recom-^
mended in them. We have fecn, that Maha^»
deVa himfclf is perfonated by Fire ; but^
fubordinate to him, is the God Agni, often
called PaVaca, or the Furijier^ who anfwers
to the Vulcan of Egypf^ where he was a
Deity of high rank -, and his wife Swa^ha^
refembles the younger Vesta, or VestiAj
as the EoHans pronounced the Greek word for a
hearth: Bhava'ni, or Venus, is the con fort
of the Supreme Defl:ru6live and Generative
Power ; but the Greeks and Kornans^ whofe
lyftem is lefs regular than that of the Indians^
married her to their divine artiji, whom thej
alfo named Hephaistos and Vulcan, and
w^ho feems to be the Indian Viswacarman^
the forger of arms f^r the Gods, and inventor
of the agnyajlra^ or fiery fijaft^ in the war be-
tween them and the Daily as or Titans. It is
not eafy here to refrain from obferving (and, if
the obfervation give offence In England, it is
contrary to my intention) that the newly dif-
Govered planet (hould unquefl:ionably be named
Vulcan :
ITALY, AND INDIA. 49
Vulcan ; fince the confufion of analo?v in
the names of the planets is inelegant, vinicho-
iarly, and unphilofophical : the name Uranus
is appropriated to the firmament ; but Vulcan,
the flow eft of the Gods, and, according to the
Egyptian priefts, the oldeft of them, agrees ad-
mirably with an orb which muft perform its
revolution in a very long period; and, by giv-
ing it this denomination, w^e fliall have kvtw
primary planets with the nam.es of as many
Rofjian Deities, Mercury, Venus, Tellus,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Vulcan.
It has already been intimated, that the
Muses and Nymphs are the Go'pya of
MathUira, and of Giver dhan^ the ParnajJ'us of
the Hindus ; and the lyric poems of jay adl'va
will fully juflify this opinion ; but the Nyjuphs
.q( Mujick are the thirty Ra'gini's or Fe,nak
Paffions, whofe various functions and properties
are fo richly delineated by the Indian pair.ters,
and fo finely defcribed by the poets : but 1 will
not anticipate what will require a ieparate Eftay,
by enlarging here on the beautiful allegories of
the Hindus in their fyftem of mufical modes,
w^hich they call Ra'ga's, or Pa/Jions, and fup-
pofe to be Genii or Demigods. A very diftin-
guifhed fon of Brahma', named Ka'red,
whofe aftions are the fubjed of a Purcina^
bears a ftrong refemblance to Hermes or Mer-
cury ; he was a wife legiflator, great in arts
F and
50 ON THE GODS CF GREECE,
and in srms, an eloquent mefTengcr of the
Gods, either co one ancther or to fiwoured mor-
tals, and a nriufician of exquifite fkill ; his in-
vention of the Vma^ or Indian lute, is thus de-
fcribed in the poem entitled Mdgha: *' Na'red
" fat watching from time to time his large
*' Vinii^ which, by the im.pulfe of the breeze,
*' yielded notes that pierced fucceffively the re-
'* gions of his ear, and proceeded by mulical in-
" tervals." The law trad, fuppofed to have
been revealed by INa^red, is at this hour cited
by ths Pandits ; and we cannot, therefore, be-
lieve him to have been the patron of Thieves ■;
though an innocent theft of Crishna's cattle^
by way of putting his divinity to a proof, be
ftrangely imputed, in the Bhagavat, to his fa-
ther Brahma^
The lafl of the G?'eek or Italian divinities,
for vi^hom we find a parallel in the Pantheon of
India, I'ilht Stygian or Taiirick Diana,' other-
wife named FIecate, and often confounded
with Proserpine ; and there can be no doubt
of her identitv with Ca'li', or the wife of
Siva in his charader of the Stygian Jove.
To this black Goddefs, with a collar of golden
fkuUs, as we fee her exhibited in all her prin-
cipal temples, human facrificcs were antiently
offered, as the Vedas enjoined ; but, in- the pre-
fent age, they are abfolutely prohibited, as are
alfo the lacriiices of bulls and horfes : kids are
lliU
ITALY, AND IND^A. 5 I
ftill ofrered to her ; and, to p'alliat'? the cruelty
of the {laughter, which gave fuch offence to
Buddha, the Er'hmans inculcate a belief, that
the p^or vi£lims rife in the heaven of Indra,
tvhere they becorhe ihe muliciat'is bf bis band.
Inftead of the obfolete, and now illegal, facri-
ilces of a man, a bull, and a horfe, called
Neramedha^ Gomedha, and As\vamedha^ the
powers of nature are thought to be propitiated
by the lefs bloody ceremonies at the eiid of au-
tumn, when the feflivals of Ca'li' and Lacsh-
Mi' are folemnized nearly at the fame time ;
ROW, if it be afked how the Goddefs of Death
came to be united with the mild patronefs of
Abundance, I muft propofe another queftion.
How came Proserpine to be reprefented
in the European fyftem as the daughter of
Ceres ?'* Perhaps both queftions may be
anfwcred by the propofition of natural philofo-
phers, that *' the apparent defl:ru6lion of a fub-
fiance is the production of it in a different
form." The wild mulic of Ca'li''s priefts
at one of her feftivals, brought inftantly to my
recollection the Scythian meafures of Diana's
adorers in the fplendid opera of Iphigenia in
TaurtSy which Gluck exhibited at Paris with
lefs genius, indeed, than art, but with every
advantage that an orcheftra could fupply.
That we may not difmifs this allcmblage
of European and AJlatic divinities with a fub-
F 2 jcCt
&(
(«
««
66
Si
52 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
jedt To horrid as thealtars of Hecate and Ca'li'^
let us conclude with two remarks, which pro-
perly, indeed, belong to the /«^/^;^.Philofophy,
A'ith which we are not at prefent concerned.
First, Elyjiujn (not the place, but the
bhfs enjoyed there, in which fenfe Milton"
ufes the word) cannot but appear, as defcribed
by the poets, a very tedious and infipid kind
of enjoyment : it is, however, more exalted
than the temporary Elyftum in the court of
Indra, where the plealures, as in Muham-
Med's paradife, are wholly fenfual ; but the
Mu^ij or Elyjiaji happinefs of the Vcdanta
fchool, is far more fublime ; for they reprefent
it as a total abforption, though not fuch as to
deftroy confcioufnels, in the divine effence ;
but, for the reafon before fuggef}:ed, I fay no
more of this idea of beatitude, and forbear
touching on the doftrine of tranfmigration, and
the iimiiarity of the Vedunta to the Sicilian^
Italicky and old Acadernkk fchools.
Secondly, In the myftlcal and elevated
charader of Pan, as a perfonification of the
Un'iverfe^ according to the notion of lord BacoNj
there arifes a fort of limiHtude between him
and Crishna confidered as Na'ra'yan. The
Grecian God plays divinely on his reed, to ex-
prefs, we are told, ethereal harmony ; he has
his attendant Nymphs of the paflures and the
dairy ; his face is as radiant as the Iky, and his
head
ITALY, AND INDIA. ^^
head illumined with the horns of a crefcent ;
whiiil his lower extremities are deformed and
fhaggy, as a fymbol of the vegetables which
the earth produces, and of the beafts who roam
over the face of it. Now we may compare
this portrait, partly with the general charaifler
of Crishna, the Shepherd God, and partly
with the defcription in the Bhagavat of the di-
vine Tpirit exhibited in the form of this Univerfal
F/orld; to which we may add the following
ilory from the fame extraordinary poem. The
Nymphs had complained to Yaso'da', that the
child Crishna had been drinking their curds
and milk ; on being reproved by his fofter-
mother for this indifcretion, he requefted her
to examine his mouth ; in which, to her jufh
amazement, flie beheld the njohoje univcrfe in
all its plenitude of magnificence.
We mufl: not be lurprlfed at finding, on a
clofe examination, that the chara£lers of all the
Pagan deities, male and female, melt into each
other, and at laft into one or two ; for it feems
a well-founded opinion, that the whole croud
of Gods and G.>ddefles in antient Kome^ and
modern Var lines ^ mean only the powers of na-
ture, and principally thofe of the jUN, ex-
preffed in a variety of ways and by a multitude
of fanciful names.
Thus have I attempted to trace, imperfe(5lly
gt prefent for want of ampler materials, but
F 3 with
54 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
with a confidence continually increafing as I
sdvancc^d, a parallel between the Gods adored
in th ee very different nations, Greece, Italy ^
and India ; but which was the original fyftem,
and which the copy, I will not prefunae to
decide ; nor are we likely, 1 believe, to be foon
furniilied with fufficient grounds for a decifion :
the fundamental rule, xhitnaturdl- andnioji hu-
man operations proceed from thejimple to the com-
pound, will afford no aflifl:ance on this point ;
lince neither the j^Jiatic nor European fyflem
has any fimplicity in it ; and both are fo com-
plex, net to fay abfurd, however intermixed
with the beautiful and the fublirne, that the
honour, fuch as it is, of the invention cannot
be allo'-ted to either with tolerable certainty.
Since Egypt appears to have been the grand
fource of knowledge for the wcjiern, and India
for the more eaflern, parts of the globe, it may
feem a material queftion, whether the Egyp'ians
commAinlcated iheir Mythology and Philoibphy
to the HnduSy or converfely ? But what the
learned of Memphis wrote or faid concerning
India no mc^rtal knows ; and what the learned
of Vurcnes have afl'erted, if any thing, concern-
ing ^gypt^ can give us little fatisfadion : fuch
circumfrantial evidence on this queftion as I
hav° been able to colled, ihall, neverthelefs, be
ftnted ; becaufe, unlatisfaOory as it is, there
m^ty be fomething in it not wholly unworthy
of
ITALY, AND INDIA. ^^
of notice ; though after all, whatever colonies
may have come froiii the Nik to the Ga^iges^
we {hall, perhaps, agree at lad: with Mr.
Bryant, that Egyptians, hidians^ Greeks and
Italians, proceeded originally from one central.
place, and that the fame people carried their
religion and fciences into China and Japan : may
we not add even to Mexico and Peru f
Every one knows that the true name of
Egypt is Mis'r, fpeiled with a palatial fibilant
both in Hebrew and Arabick: it feems in
Hebrew to have been the proper name of the firft
fettler in it ; and when the Arabs ufe the word
for a great city, they probably mean a city
like the capital of Kgypt Father Marco, a
Roman Miillonary, who, though not a icholar
of the firft rate, is incapable, I am perfuaded, of
deliberate faifehood, lent me the laft book of a
Ramayan, which he had tranflated through the
Hindi into his native language, and with it a
ihort vocabulary of Mythological and Hiftorical
names, wdiich had been explained to him by
the Pandits of Betyd, where he had long re-
fided : one of the articles in his little dictionary
was, " 'Jirut, a town and province in which
** the priefts from Egypt lettled ;" and when
I alked him what name Egypt bore among the
Hindus, he faid Mis'r, but obferved, that they
fometimes confounded it with Aby/Jinia, I per-
^eiv^d that his memory of what he had written
F 4 was
56 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
was correct ; for Mis'r was another word la
his index, *' from which country, he faid, came
" the Egyptian prieils who fettled in T^irut,^'
I fufpec'led immediately that his intelligence
flowed from the Mujehnansy who call fugar-
candy M'lfri or Kgyptian ; but when I examined
him clolely, and earneftly defired him to re-
colle6t from who'Ti he had received his infor-
mation, he repeatedly and pofitively declared,
that " it had been given him by feveral Hindus^
*' and particularly by a 'Brahman^ his intimate
*' friend, who was reputed a conliderable Pan-
*' dit^ and had lived three years near his houfe."
We then conceived that the feat of his Egyptian
colony muft have been Tirohit, commonly pro-
nounced liiriit^ and antiently called Mifhila^
the principal town of Jafiacadesa, or north
Bahar ', but Mahe'sa Pandit, who was born
ii> .hat very diftrid, and who fubmitted pa-
tiently to a long examination concerning Misr,
ov^rfet all our conclufions : he denied that the
Brahmans of his country were generally fur-
named MisR, as we had been informed, and
faid, that the addition of Misra to the name
of Va'chespeti, and other learned authors,
was a title formerly conferred on the writers
of mijcellanies or compilers of various trails on
religion or icience, the word being derived
from a root fignifying to mix. Being afked,
where
ITALYj AND INDIA. ^J
where the country of M/s'r was, ** There are
^' two, he anfwered, of that name ; one of
^' them in the wejf^ under the domuiion of
** Mufehndns, and another which all the Saflras
** and Fur anas mention, in a mountainous re-
" gion to the north oi Ayodhya'''' It is evident,
that by the firil: he meant Egypt ; but what he
meant by the fecond, it is not eafy to afcertain.
A country, called -Tlruhnt by our geographers,
appears in the maps b;:twecn the north-eafleni
frontier o'i Audh and the mountains of Nepal;
but whether that was the T'mit mentioned to
father Marco by his friend of Betya, I cannot
decide. This only I know with certainty, that
Mifra is an epithet of two Brahmans in the
drama of Sacontala^ which was written
near a century before the birth of Christ ;
that fome of the greateft lawyers, and two of
the finefl: dramatic poets, of Inelia have the
iame title ; that we hear it frequently in court
added to the names of Hhidu parties ; and that
none of the Pandits, whom I have fince con-
fulted, pretend to know the true meaning of
the word, as a proper name, or to give any
other explanation of it than that it is a [urncmie
of Brahmaus m the weji. On the account
given to Colonel Kyd by the old R-^ja of CriJJj-
nanagar^ ^' concerning traditi.ns amonsf the
*' Hindus, that fome Egyptians had fettled in.
" this
58 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
*' this country," I cannot rely ; becaufe I <vn
credibly informed, by fome of the R/ijas own
family, that he was not a man of folid learning,
though he polTefled curious book?, and had
been attentive to the converfacion of learned
men : befides, I know that his fon and moft
of his kinlmen have been dabblers in Perjian
literature, and believe them very likely, by
confoundinsf one iource of information with
another, to puzzle themlelves and miflead thofe
with whom they converfe. The word Mis'r,
Ipelled alfo in Sanfcrit with a palatial fibilant,
is very remarkable ; and, as far as Etymology
can help us, we may fafely derive Nilus from
the Sanfcrit word n'lla, or b!uc; iince DlONY-
Sius exprefsly calls the v.'aters of that river
*' an azure flream ;" and, if u^e can depend on
Makco's Italian veriion of the Rlimayafi, the
name of N'la is given to a lofty and facred
inountani with a fummit of pure gold, from
which flowed <« river of clear ^ fweet^ andfrcJJ)
water. M. Sonnerat refers to a diflertation
by Mr. ScHMiT, which gained a prize at the
Academy of Infcriptions, *' On an Egyptian
<•' Colony eflablifhed in India i^"* it would be
worth while to examine his authorities, and
either to overturn or verify them by fuch higher
authorities as are now acceffible in thefe pro-
vinces. I ftrongly incline to think him right,
z\\(\ to believe that hgyptian prieAs have a<?:ually
com©
ITALY, AND INDIA. 59
come from the Nik to the Ganga and Tamuna^
which the Brahmans mofl: aifiiredly would ner
ver have left : thej might indeed have come
either to be in'^ruded or to in{l:ru61: ; but it
feems more probable that they viiited the Sar^
mam of India as the fages of Greece vifited them,
rather to acquire than to impart knowledge;
nor is it likely that the felf-fufiicient Brahmans
would have received tnem as their preceptors.
Be all this as it may, I am perfuaded that a
conne6lion lubfifted between the old idolatrous
nations of Egypt, Ind'ia, Greece, and Italy, long
before they migrated to theii feveral fettlcments,
and confequently before the birth of IVIoses;
but the proof of this propolition will in :io de-
gree affeifl the truth and fanftity of the Mofaick
Jiiflory, which, if confirmation were neceflarv,
it would rather tend to confirm. The Divide
Legate, educated by the daughter of a king,
and in all refpecfts highly accompliflied, could
not but know the mythological iyftem of I gvpt ;
but he priuft have condemned t!ie fuperfiitions
of that people, and defpifed the fpeculative ab-
furdities of theiu priefts ; though fome of their
traditions concerrano- the Creation and the Flood
were grounded on truth. Who was better ac-
quainted with the mythology of Athens than
Socrates? Who more accuratelv vcrfed in
the Rabbinical do£lrines than Paul ? Who
pofiefied clearer ideas of allantient aftrono-^ ic?|l
fyftems
6o ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
fyftems than Newton, or of fcholaftic meta-*
phyficks than Locke ? In whom could the
]R.omi/h Church have had a more formidable op-
ponent than in Ckillingv/orth, whofe deep
knowledge of its tenets rendered him fo com^
petent to diipute them ? In a word, who more
exactly knew the abominable rites and (hockine
idolatry of Canaan than Moses himfelf ? Yet
the learning of thofe great men only incited
them to feek other fources of truth, piety, and
virtue, than thofe in which they had long been
immerfed. There is no fhadow then of a
foundation for an opinion that Moses borrowed
the drd nine or ten chapters of Genejis from the
literature of Egypt: flill lefs can the adaman-.
tine p; 11a IS of our LhnjVian faith be moved by
the relult of any debates on the comparative
antiquity of the Hindus and Egypia?is, or of
9ny inquiries into the Indian Theology. Very
refpe(5lahle natives hav; aflbred me, that one
or two miffionaries have been abfurd enough,
in their zeal for the converfion of the Gt utiles,
to urge, " that the Hindus were even now al-
'' mofl: Chrijiians^ becaufe their Br.h.ma^,
*' VispiNu, and Mahe'sa, were no other than
*' the Chrijlian Trinity ;'' a fentence in which
we can only doubt whether folly, ignorance,
or impiety predominates. The three powers
Crea'rue^ Prefsrjative, and De/iruuiive, which
the Hindus exprefs by the triliteral word OA/,
. were
ITALY, AND INDIA. 6l
were grofsly afcribed by the firft laolaters to
the beaty light, and fajue of their miftakeu
divinicy the Sun ; and their wifer I'ucceffors in
the Eaft, who oerceived that the Sun was onlv
a created thing, applied thofe powers to its
creator ; hut the hid'mn Triad, and that of
Plato, which he calls the Supreme Good, the
Reafon, and the Soul, are infinitely removed
from the holinefs ard fublimity of the dodlrine
which pious Chr'ijl'ums have deduced from te5its
in the Gofpel, though other Chnjiians^ as pious,
openly profefs their dillent from them. Each
fe6l muft be juftified by its own faith and good
intentions : this only 1 mean to inculcate, that
the tenet of our Church cannot without pro-
fanenefs be compared with that of the //;'.. iui^
which has only an apparent refemblance to it,
but a very different meaning. One (inp-ular
fadl, how^ever, mufl: not be lufFered to pafs
unnoticed. That the name of Crishna, and
the ojeneral outline of his florv, w^ere lonsf an-
terior to the birth of our Saviour, and proba-
bly to the time of Homer, we know very cer-
tainly ; yet the celebrated poem entitled hhd-
gavat, which contains a prolix account of his
life, is filled with narratives of a mod extra-
ordinary kind, but ftrangely variegated and in-
termixed with poetical decorations : the incar-
nate deity of the Sanfcrif romance was cradled,
as it informs us, among Herdfmcn, but it aidds,
that
6i ON THE GODS OF GREECE,
?
that he was educated among them, and palTecJ
his youth in playing with a party of milkmaids i
a tyrant, at the time cf his birth, ordered all
new-born males to be (lain ; yet this wonderfui
babe was preferved by biting the bread inftead
of lucking the poifond nipple of a nuife com-
miffioned to kill him ; he performed amazing^
but ridiculous, miracles in his infancy, and, at
the age of {even years, held up a mountain on
the tip of his little finger ; he faved multitudes
partly by his arms and partly by his miraculous
powers ; he raifed the dead by defceilding for
that purpofe to the lowefl: regions ; he was th6
meekeft and beft-tempered of beings, wafhed
the feet of the Brahmans, and preached very
iiobly, indeed, and fublimely, but always in
their favour ; he was pure and chafte in reality,
but exhibited an appearance of exceffive liber»
tinifm, and had wives or miftrefles too nume-
rous to be counted ; laftly, he was benevolent
and tender, yet fomented and conduced a tet-
rible war. This motley ftory milfl induce an
opinion that the fpurious Gofpeis, which
abounded in the firfl: age of Chrijiiantty^ had
been brought to India, and the wildeft parts of
them repeated to the Hindus, who ingrafted
them on the old fable of Ce'sava, the Apoll6
of Greece,
As to the general extenfion of our pure faith
in Hindtijian, there are at prefent many fad ob-
ftacles
ITALY, AND INDIA. 6^
ftacles to It. The Mufelmlms are already a fort
of heterodox Cy6r//?/W7i ; they are Chrijiians^ if
Locke reafons juftly, becaufe they firmly be-
liev^e the immaculate conception, divine cha-
radler, and miracles of the Messiah ; but they
are heterodox in denying vehemently his cha-
ra£ler of Son, and his equality, as God, with
the Father, of whofe unity and attributes they
entertain and exprefs the moil awful ideas ;
while they confider our doctrine as perfed blaf-
phemy, and infifl that our copies of the Scrip-
tures have been corrupted both by Jews and
Chr'ijiians. It will be inexpreffibly difficult to
luideceive them, and fcarce poffible to diminifii
their veneration for Mohammed and Ali, who
were both very extraordinary men, and the fe-
cond a man of unexceptionable morals : the
Koran fhines, indeed, with a borrowed light,
fince mod: of its beauties are taken from our
Scriptures ; but it has great beauties, and the
Miijelm.ns will not he convinced that they w^ere
borrowed. The Hindus, on the other hand,
would readily a^'niit the truth of the Gofpel ;
but they contend, that it is perfectly confident
with their SaJIras : the Deity, they fay, has
• appeared innumerable tim.es, in many parts of
this world and of all worlds, for the falvatiou
of his creatures ; and though we adore him in
one appearance, and they in others, yet we
adore,
64 ON THE GODS OF GREECE, SzC.
adore, they lav, the fame God, to whom oitr
leveral vvorfhips, though different in form, are
equally acceptable, if they be iiiicere in fiib-*
ftance. We may afl'ure ourfelves, that neither
Mufclmans nor Hindus will ever be converted
by any miffion from the Cliurch of Rome, or
from any other Church ; and the only human
* mode, perhaps, of cauling fo great a revolu-
tion will be to tranilate into Sanfcr'it and Pcr-
Jtan fuch chapters of the Prophets, particularly
of Isaiah, as are indifputably Evangelical, to-
gether with one of the Gofpels, and a plain
prefatory difcourfe contaiinng full evidence of
the very diftant ages, in which the predictions
themfeives, and the hiftory of the divine per-
lon predicted, were fe'verally made public; and
then quietly to difperfe the work among the
well-educated natives ; Vv-ith whom if in due
time it failed of producing very falutarv fruit
by its natural influence, we could only lament
more than ever the flrength of prejudice and the
weaknefs of unafiifled reafon.
DIS-
( 8i )
DISSERTATION IL
ON TH E
LITERATURE of ASIA.
BEING THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE
DELIVERED TO THE SOCIETY FEB. I785.
GENTLEMEN,
IF the Deity of the Hmdus^ by whom all
their jull; requefts are believed to be granted
with fmgular indulgence, had propofed laft
year to gratify my warmeft wifhes, I could
have defired nothing more ardently than the
fuccefs of your inftitution ; becaufel can defire
nothing in preference to the general good,
which your plan feems calculated to promote,
by bringing to light many ufeful and interefting
tra61:s, which, being too fhort for feparate
publication, might lie many years concealed,
or, perhaps, irrecoverably perifh : my wiflies
are accompli(hed, without an invocation to
Ca'madhe'nu; and your Society, having al-
ready palled its infant ftate, is advancing to
G maturity
82 ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA.
maturity with every mark of a healthy and ro^
buft conftitution. When I refleft, indeed, on
the variety of fubje£ls, which have been dif-
cufl'ed before yon, concerning the hiftory, laws,
manners, arts, and antiquities of AJla^ I am
imable to decide whether my pleafure or my
furprife be the greater ; for I will not dif-
femble, that your progrefs has far exceeded my
expe£lations : and though we mufl ferioufly de-
plore the lofs of thofe excellent men, who have
lately departed from this capital, yet there is a
prorpe(^ ftill of large contributions to your
ftock of JfiaUch learning, which, I am per-
fuaded, will continually increafe. ' My late
jourirey to Benares has enabled me to affure
you, that many of your members, who refide
at a diftance, employ a part of their leifure in
preparing additions to your archives ; and,
unlefs I am too fanguine, y(;u will foon receive
light from them on feveral topicks entirely new
in the republic of letters.
It was principally with a defign to open
fources of fuch information, that I long had
meditated an expedition up the Ganges during
the fuipenfion of my bufniefs ; but, although I
had the fatlsfadlion of vifiting two ancient feats
of Hindu fuperftition and literature, yet, ill-
nefs having detained me a confiderable time in
the way, it was not in my power to continue
in
ON THE LITERATURE OF ASTA. S^
in them long enough to purdie ray inquiries ;
iand I left them, as ^.\eaS is feigned to have
left the fhades, when his guide m.ade him re-
bolle»5t t be fiv iff fight of irrevorab'e time, with
a curiofitj raifed to the height, and a regret
hot eafy to be defcribed.
Whoever travels in A/ia efDecIally if he
be converfant with the literature of the coun-
tries through which he pafies, muft naturally
remark the fuperiority oi Rurxjpean talents : the
obfervation, indeed, is at leafl: as old as Alex-
ander ; and though we canno^ agree with
the fage preceptor of that ambitious Prince,
that " the AJiaticks are born to be flaves," yet
the Athenian poet leems perfedly in the right,
when he reprefents Et^rope as a fovereign Prin-
tefs, and A/ia as her Handmaid: but if the
mifirefs be tranfcendantly majeftick, it cannot
be denied that the attendant has many beauties,
and fome advantages peculiar to herfeK. The
ancients were accuflomed to pronounce pane-
gy?'icks on their own countrvmen at thetxpence
of all other nations, with a political viev/, per-
haps, of Simulating them by praife, and ex-
citing them to Hill greater exertions; but fuch
arts are liere unnecellary ; nor would they, in-
deed, become a Society who feek nothing but
truth unadorned by rhetorick ; and although
we muft be confcious of our fuperior advance-
ment in all kinds of ufeful knowledge, yet we
G 2 ought
84 ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA.
ought not therefore to contemn the people of*
Afia^ from whofe refearches into nature, works
of art, and inventions of fancy, many valu-
able hints may be derived for our own improve-
ment and advantage. If that, indeed, w^ere
not the principal objed of your inftitution, little
elfe could arife from it but the mere o-ratifica-
tion of curio fity ; and I fhould not receive fo
much delight from the humble (hare which
you have allowed me to take in promoting it.
To form an exa6l parallel between th=e works
and a£lions of the Weflern and Eaftern worlds,
would require a tradl of no inconiiderable
length ; but we may decide on the whole, that
reafon and tafte are the grand prerogatives of
European minds, while the JifiaUch have
foared to loftier heights in the fphere of ima-
gination. The civil hiflory of their vaft em-
pires, and of Jndla in particular, muft be
highly interefting to our common country;
but we have a ftill nearer intereft in knowing
all former modes of ruling thefc mejlimable pro-
vinces^ on the profperity of which fb much of
Our national welfare, and individual benefit,
feems to depend. Kvciv^wlt geographic al^wow-
ledge, not only of Bengal and Bahar, but, for
evident rcafons, of ^// the kingdoms bordering on
ihem, is clofelv connedted with an account of
their many revolutions : but the natural pro-
dudions of thefe territories, efpecially in the
vegetable
ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA. S5
^vegetable and mineral fyflems, are momentous
objeds of refearch not only to an imperial,
but, which is a characler o[ equal dignity, a
commercial people.
If Botafiy may be cefcilbcd by metaphors
drawn from the fcience itfelf, we may julfly
pronounce a minute acquaintance with plants,
their c/afft's, orders, kinds, zwdifpecies, to be its
fiowers, which can only produce fruit by an
application of that knowledge to the purpofes
of life, particularly to diet, by which difeafes
may be avoided, and to medicine, by which
they may be remedied : for the improvement
of the lad mentioned art, than which none
furely can be more beneficial to mankind, the
virtues of minerals alfo iliould be accurately
known. So highly has medical ikill been prized
by the ancient Indians, that one of the fourteen
Ketnd s, or precious things, which their Gods
are believed to have produced by churning the
ocean with the mountain Mandara, was a
learned phyfician. What their old books con-
tain on this fubje^t we ought certainly to dif-
cover, and that without lofs of time ; left the
venerable but abltrufe language in which they
are compofed, fhould ceafe to be perfectly in-
telligible, even to the befh educated natives,
through a want of powerful invitation to ftudy it.
Bernier, whowas himfelfof the Faculty, men-
dons approved medical books in Sa?ifcrit, and
G 3 cites
S6 ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA.
cites a few aphorifms, which appear judicious
and rational ; but we can expe£l nothing fo im^
portant irom the works of Hindu or Mufelman
phyficiuiis, as the knowledge, which experience
mull: have giyen them, oi fimpk rnedicines. I
have ieen an Indian prefcription of fifty-four^
and another oi Jixty-fix, ingredients ; but fuch
compofitions are always to be fufpe6led, fince
the efFe6t of one ingred'ent may deftroy that of
another ; and it were better to find certain ac-
count> of a lingle leaf or berry, than to be ac-
quainted with the mod elaborate compounds,
unlels they too have been proved by a multi-
tude of fuccefsful experiments. The noble
deobflruent oil, extraded from the TLranda nut,
the V. hole family of BaJfims, the incompa- •
rable flomach.ck root from Coluvibo^ the fine
aftringent ridiculoufly called Japan earth, but
in truth produced by the decodion of an In-
dian plant, have long been ufed in Afia ; and
who can foretel what glorious dilcoveries of
other oils, roots, and falutary juices, may be
made by your Society ? If it be doubtful
whether the ^^erinnan bark be always effica-
cious in this country, its place may, perhaps,
be iupolied by fome indigenous vegetable equally
antifept'ck, and more congenial to the climate.
Whether any treatifeson Agriculture have been
written by experienced natives of thefe pro«
vinceSj
ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA, B7
vlnces, I am not yet informed ; but fince the
court of Spain expe(5l to find ufeful remarks in
an /irahkk tra6t preferved in the Efcurial, on
the culthat'on of land in that kingdom^ we fhould
inquire for fimilar compofitions, and examine
the contents of fuch as we can procure.
The fublime fcienceof Chymifliry, which I
was on the point of calling divine, muft be
added, as a key to the richeft treafuries of na-
ture ; and it is impoflible to forefee how greatly
it may improve our maniifadtures, elpecially if it
can fix thofe brilliant dyes, which want nothing
o£ p'erfe6t beauty but a longer continuance of
their fplendour ; or how far it may lead to new
methods of fluxing and compounding metals,
which the Indians, as well as the Chinefe, are
thought to have pra(5lifed in higher perfection
than ourfelves.
In thofe elegant arts which are called fine
and liberal, though of lefs general utility than
the labours of the mechanic, it is really won-
derful how much a iingle nation has excelled
the whole world : I mean the ancient Greeh,
whofe Sculpture, of which we have exquilite
remains both on gems and in marble, no mo-
dern tool can equal ; whofe ArchiteEiure we
can only imitate at a fervile diflance, but are
unable to make one addition to it^ without de-
ffroying its graceful iimplicity ; whofe I'oetry
itill delights us in youth, and amufes u> at a
G 4 matu^ar
88 ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA.
matnrerage ; and of wh fe Painting and Mufick
we h ive the concurrent relations of fo many
grave authors, that it would be ftrange incre-
dulity to doi'bt their excellence. Paintings as an
art belonging to the powers of the imagination,
or what is commonly called Getiius^ appears to
be yet in its infancy among the people of the
Eafl: : but the Uitidu lyftem o^ tniijick has, I ber
lieve, been formed on truer principles than oui;
own ; and all the ikill of the native compofers
is directed to the great obje£t of their art, the
natural expreffion of Jirong pajjions, to which
melody^ indeed, is often facrificed ; though feme
of their tunes are pleafing even to an E.urGpea,j
ear. Nearly the fame may be truly averted of
the Arabian or Perjian lyflem ; and, by a cor-
rect expl uiation of the beft books on that fub-
je6l, much of the old Grecian theory may pro-
bablv be recovered.
Tpie poetical works of the Arabs and Per-
Jians^ which differ furpriiingly in their ftyle
and form, are here pretty generally known ;
and though tafles, concerning which there can
be no difputing, are divided in regard to their
merit, yet we may falely fay of them, what
Abulfazl, pronounces of the Mahahh'-rat^
that, " although they abound with extravagant
** images and defcriptions, they are in the
^* hic^heft degree entertaining and iqftruc-
'* tive.''.
A
ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA, 89
f' tive.'* Poets of the greateft genius, Pindar,
,/EscHYLus, Dante, Petrarca, Shake-
speare, Spenser, have moft abounded in
images not far from the brnik of abfurdity ;
but if their luxuriant fancies, or thofe of
Abulola, Firdausi, Niza'mi, were pruned
away at the hazard of their flrength and ma-
jefty, we fhould lofe many pleafures by the
amputation. If we may form a juft opinion of
the Sanfcrit poetry from the fpecimens ah'eady
exhibited, (though we can only judge perfeftly
by confulting the originals), we cannot but
thirft for the whole work of Vya'sa, with
which a member of our Society, whofe pre-
fence deters me from faying m re of him, will
in due time gratify the public. The poetry of
Mathura, which is the FarnaJJian land of ;he
H'mchis, has a fofter and leis elevated ftrain ;
but, fince the inhabita:its of the diftricls near
jigra^ and principally of the Duab, are find
tofurpafs all pther Indians in eloquence, and to
have compofed many agreeable tales and love-
fongs, which are iiill extant, the Bij^Jci, or
vernacular idiom of Vraja, in which they are
written, fhould not be negle£ted. No fpeci-
mens of genuine Oratory can be expected from
nations, am.ong whom the form of government
precludes even the idea of popilar eUquence ;
but
go ON THE JLITERATURE OF ASIA.
but the art of writing, in elegant and modulated
periods, has been cuhivated in y^J;a from the
eariieft ages : the Fe'^as, as well as the jilkoran^
are written in meafured profe ; and the compo-
iitions of Isocrates are not more highly po-
liihed than thofe of the beft Arabian and Ferfian
authors.
Of the Hindu and Mufelman architecture
there are yet many noble remains in Bahar^
and fome in the vicinity of Malaa ; nor am I
•unwilling to believe, that even thofe ruins, of
which you will, I trul>., be prefented with
corred delineations, may furnifh our own ar-
chitects with new ideas of beauty and fuh-?
limity.
Permit me now to add a few words on the
Sciences, properly fo named ; in which it muH
be admitted, that the A/ialicks, if compared
with our Weftern nations, are mere children.
One of the mofr figacious men in this age,
who continues, I hope, to improve and adorn
it, Samuel Johnson, remarked in my hear-
ing, that '' if Newton had flourifheu in
" ancient Greece^ he would have been wor-
*' fliipped as a divinity f how zealoufly then
would he be adored in HinduJIa?i, if his in-
comparable writings could bp read and compre-
hended by the Pandits of Capmr or Benares I
I have itzw a mathematical book in Sqnjcrit of
the
ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA. p|
the higheft antiquity ; but foon perceived from
the diagrams, that it contained only limple ele-
ments : there may, indeed, have been, in the
favourable atmofphere of jljia^ fome diligent
pbfervers of the celeftial bodies, and fuch ob-
fervations as are recorded, fhould indifputably
be madepiiblick ; but let us not exped any new
methods^ or the anal v lis of new curves^ from
the geometricians of Iran^ Ttirkifian, or India,
Could the works of Archimedes, the Nev/-
TON of Sicily^ be refrored to their genuine
purity by the help o^ Arahkk verlions, we
might then have reafon to triumph on the
fuccefs of our fcientitical inquiries; or could
the fuccefiive improvements and various rules
of Ahebra be traced throu2:h Arah'um channels,
to which Cardan boafied that he had accefs,
the modern Hiftory of Mathematicks would re-
ceive confiderable ilkillration.
The Jurifprudence of the Hindus and Mu-
Jelmans will produce more immediate advan-
tage ; and if fome flandard law tracts were
accurately tranflated from the Sanfcrit and
Arabick, we might hope in time to fee fo com-
plete a Digeft of Indian Laws, that all difputes
among; the natives misrht be decided with-
out uncertainty^ which is in truth a difgrace,
though fatirically called a glory ^ to the fo-
renfick fcience.
All
92 ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA.
All thefe objetls of inquiry miifl: appear to
you, Gentlemen, in fo ftronga light, that bare
intimations of them will be fufficient ; nor is
it neceffiry to make ufe of emulation as an in-
centive to an ardent purfuit of them : yet I
cannot forbear expreffing a vvifli, that the ac-
tivity of th French in the lame purfuits may
not be fiperior to ours, and that the refearches
of M. SoNjJERAT, whom the court of Ver-
failles employed for {qw^w years in thefe cli-
jmates, merely to colle(5l fuch materials as we
are feeking, may kindle, in (lead of abating,
our own curiofity and zeal. If you aflent, as
j flatter myfelf you do, to thefe opinions, you
will aUb concur in promoting the obje6l of
them ; and a few ideas having prefented them-
fdvcs to mv mind, 1 prefume to lay them be-
fore you, with ail entire iubmiirion to your
judgment.
No cont.ibutions, except thofe of the literary
kind, will be requifite for the fupport of the
Society; but if each of us were occafionally
to contribute a fuccind defcription of fuch ma-
nufcripts as he had perufcd or infjjecled, v/ith
their dates and the names of their owners, and
to propofe for folution fuch queftwns as had oc-
curred to him concerniiig^-^^/zV/^ Art, Science,
f^nd iJidory, natural or civil, we (hould pol^efs
without labour, and almoft by imperceptible
degrees^
ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA. pj
decrees, a fuller catalo2:vie of Oriental books
than has hitherto been exhibited, and our cor-
refpondents would be apprifed of thofe points^
to which we chiefly direct our inveftigations.
Much may, I am confident, be expefted from
the communications of /?^r;Z(?(^;^<2/r<?j, whether
lawyers, phylicians, or private fcholars, who
would easrerlv, on the firfl: invitation, fend us
their Mekamat and Rifalahs on a variety of
fubjeds ; fome for the lake of advancing ge-
neral knowledge, but mofi: of them from a
defire, neither uncommon nor unreafonable,
of attracting notice, and recommending them-
lelves to favour. With a view to avail our-
felves of this difpofition, and to bring their
latent fcience under our infpeclion, it might
be advifeable to print and circulate a fliort me-
morial, in -Ferjian and Hindi., fetting forth, in a
ilyle accommodated to their own habits and pre-
judices, the defign of our inftitution ; nor would
it be impoflible hereafter to give a medal an-
^ nually, with infcriptions, in P erf an on one
lide, and on the reverfe in Sanfcrit, as the
prize of merit, to the w'riter of the befl: eflay
or diflertation. To inftrud others is the pre-
fcribed duty of \Q2in\ed Brdhmans, and, if they
be men of fubftance, %vithout reward ; but
they would all be flattered with an honorary
mark of diftindion ; and the Mahomedans have
not
94 ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA.
not only the perrr.Iffion, but the pofitive com-
tnand, of their law-giver, to fearch for karn^
ing even in the remofejt parts of tide globe. It
were fuperfiuous to luggell:, with how much
corredtneis and facility their i ompofitions
might be trauHated for our ule, fmce their
languages are now more generally and perfe6liy
underilood than they have ever been by any
nation of Europe.
DISSEli-
( 95 )
ISSERTATION III
ON THE
H I N D U'S,
BEING THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE
DELIVERED TO THE SOCIETY FEB. 2, I786.
jF all the works which have been publifhed
in our own age, or, perhaps, in any other,
on the Hiftory of the Ancient World, and the fir fi
population of this habitable globe, that of Mr.
Jacob Bryant, whom I name with reverence
and affedtion, has the beft claim to the praife of
dee}) erudition ingenioafly applied, and new
theories happily ilhiftrated by an aflemblage of
Dumberlefs converging rays from a moll: exten-
live circumference: it falls, neverthelefs, as
every human work muft fall, {hort of psr-
fedtion ; and the leaft fatisfaclory part of it
feems to be that which relates to the deri-
vation of words from JJlatick languages. Ety-
mology h^s, no doubt, fome ufe in hiftorical
refearches ; but it is a medium of proof fo very
fallacious.
96 ON THE LITERATURE OF ASIA,
fallacious, that, where it elucidates one fadj,
it obfcures a thouland, and more frequently
borders on the ridiculous than leads to any
folid concluliori : it rarely carries with it any
i7iternal power of convi6>ion from a refemblance
of founds or iimilarity of letters ; yet often,
where it is wholly unaffifted by thofe advan-
tages, it may be indilputably proved hy extriti/ick
evidence. Wc know a pofierwri, that both
Jitz and hijo^ by the nature of two feveral
dialei5ls, are derived from fiUus^ that uncle
comes from avus^ and Jfrcmger from extra ;
that jour is deducible, through the Italian^
from dies ; and rojjignol from iufcinia, or the
Jlnger in groves ; that fciuro^ ecureu'il^ and
fquirrel, are compounded of tw^o Greek words
defcriptivc of the animal ; which etymologies,
though they could not have been demonilrated
cL priori^ might ferve to confirm, if any fucli
confirm.atlon were neceffary, the proofs of a
conne6lIon between the members of one srfeat
Empire; but, when we derive our hanger^ or
Jldort pendent /word, from the Ferjtan, becaufe
ignorant travellers thus mis-fpell the word
khanjar, which in truth means a different w^ea-
pon, or fandcd-wood from the Greek, becaufe
we fuppofe that fandals were fometimes made
of it, we gain no ground in proving the affinity
of nations, and only weaken arguments, which
might
ON THE HINDU^S. (^^
might otlierwlfe be firmly fupported* That
Cu's then, or, as it certainly is written in one
ancient dialect, Cu't, and in others^ probably,
Ca^s, enters into the compoiition of many pro-
per names, we may very rcafonably believe ;
and that Aigeziras takes its name from the
Arabic k word for an ijland, cannot be doubted :
but when we are told from Europe, that
places and provinces in India were clearly de-
nominated from thofe words, we cannot but
obferve, in the firft inftance, that the town,
in which we now are affembled, is properly
written and pronounced Calicatd ; that both
Cata and Cut unqucftionably mean places of
Jlrength, or, in general, any inclofures ; and
that Gujarat is at leafl as remote from Jezirah
in found as it is in fituatic n.
Another exception (and a third could
hardly be difcovered by any candid criticifm) to
the Analyjis of Ancient Mythology,, is, that the
method of reafoning and arrangement of to-
picks adopted in that learned work are not quite
agreeable to the title, but almofl wholly fyn-
thetical; and, though Jynthejis may be the
better mode in pure fcience, where the prin-
ciples are undeniable, yet it feems lefs calcu-
lated to give complete fatisfadtion in hiftorical
difquifitions, where every poftulatum will per-
haps be refufed, and every defmition contro-
H verted :
9^ ON THE Hindu's.
verted : this may feem a flight obje6lion, but
the fubjed is in itfelt lb interefting, and the
full convi<5tion of all reafonable men fo de-
firable, that it may not be loft labour to difcufs
the fame or a fimilar theory in a method purely
analytical ; and, after beginning with fads of
general notoriety or undifputed evidence, to in-
veftigate fuch truths as are at firfl unknown or
very imperfeclly difcerned.
The Jive principal nations, who have in dif-
ferent ages divided among themfelves, as a kind
of inheritance, the vaft continent oi AJia^ with
the many iflands depending on it, are the In-
d'uins^ the Chineje, the Tartars, the Arabs ^ and
the Pcrjimis : who they feverally were, whence
and when they came, where they now are
fettled, and what advantage a more perfect
knowledc-e of them all may brinsf to our Em-
ropean world, will be fhewn, I truft, in fve
diftinct eflays ; the lall of which will demon-
ftrate the connexion or diverfity between them,
and folve the great problem, whether they had
any common origin, and whether that origin
was the fa??ie which we generally afcribe to
them.
1 BEGIN with India, not becaiifel find reafon
to believe it the true centre of population or of
knowledge, but, becaufe it is the country
which we now inhabit, and from which we
may
bN THE Hindu's. 99
tiiay oefl furvey the regions around us ; as, in
l^opular language, we fpeak of the rijing {un^
and of his prog?'efs through the Zodiac k^ al-
though it had Ions: ^2:0 been ima2;ined, and is
how demonftrated, that he is himfelf the centre
of our planetary fyftem. Let me here pre-
mife, that, in ^11 thefe inquiries concerning
the hiftory of Ind'ia^ I fhall confine my re-
fearches downwards to the Mohammedan con-
queflisat the beginning of the eleventh z^iViwxy j
but extend them upwards, as high as poffible,
to the earliefl authentic records of the human
fpecies. ' •
India then, on its moft ' enlarged fcale, in
which the ancients appear to have underflood
it, comprifes an area of near forty degrees on
each fide, including a fpace almofl as large
as all Europe-, being divided on the weft
from Pcr/ia by the Arachofian mountains, li-
mited on the eaft by the Ch'mefe part of the
farther peninfula, connned on the north by the
wilds of Tartary, and extending to the fouth
as far as the ides of Java. This trapezium,
therefore, comprehends the ftupendous hills of
Poty id or 'Tibet ^ the beautiful valley of Cajhmr^
and all the domains of the old IndofcythianSy
the countries of Nepal and Bufant, Cam?~iip or
Afam^ together with Siam^ Ava, Racan^ and
the borderins; kin2:doms, as far as the Cbma of
H 2 the
ICO ON THE Hindu's.
the Hindus or S'ln of the Arabian Geographers ;
not to mention the whole weftern peninfula
with the celebrated ifland of S'mhala, or Lion-
like men, at its fouthern extremity. By India,
in fhort, I mean that whole extent of country
in which the primitive religion and languages of
the Hindus prevail at this day with more or lefs
of their ancient purity, and in which the Nd-
gari letters are ftill ufed with more or lefs de-
viation from their original form.
The Hindus themfelves believe their own
country, to which they give the vain epithets
qI Medhyama^ or Ce?itral, and Punyabhumi, or
the Land of Virtues, to have been the portion of
Bharat, one of nine brothers, whofe father
had the dominion of the whole earth ; and they
reprefent the mountains of Himalaya as lying
to the north, and, to the weft, thofe of
Vindhya, called alfo Findian by the Greeks ;
beyond which the Sindbu runs in feveral
branches to the fea, and meets fit nearly op-
pofite to the point of Dzvliraca, the celebrated
feat of their Shepherd God : in the fouth-eajl
they place the great river Saravatya ; by which
they probably mean that oi Ava^ called alfo
Airdvati, in part of its courfe, and giving
perhaps its ancient name to the gulf of Sabara,
This domain of Bharat they confider as the
middle of the Jamhudzv'ipa, which the libetians
alfo call the Land of Za?nbu ; and the appella-
tion
ON THE Hindu's. ioi
tlon Is extfemely remarkable ; for jfamhu is the
Sanfcnt name of a delicate fruit called "J avian
by the Mufelmans^ and by us rofe-apple ; but
the largeft and richefl: fort is named Amrita^
or Immortal', and the Mythologifls of Thibet
apply the fame word to a celeftial tree bearing
nmbrojtal fruit, and adjoining lofour vaft rocks,
from which as many facred rivers derive their
feveral flreams.
The inhabitants of this extenfive tra£l are
defcribed by Mr. Lord with great exa6lnefs,
and with a pidurefque elegance peculiar to our
ancient language : "A people," fays he, " pre-
fented themfelvcs to mine eyes, clothed in
linen garments fomewhat low defcending,
of a gefture and garb, as I may fay, maid-
enly, and well nigh effeminate, of a coun-
tenance fhy and fomewhat eftranged, vet
fmiling out a glozed and bafhful familiarity."
Mr. Or ME, the Hill orian oi India ^ w^ho unites
an exquilite tafte for every fine art with an ac-
curate knowledge of /Ijmtick manners, ob-
ferves, in his elegant preliminary Difleitation,
that this ** country has been inhabited from
*' the earlieft antiquity by a people, who have
" no refemblance, either in their figure or
" manners, with any of the nations contiguous
to them ;" and that, '* although conquerors
** have eflabliihed themfelves at different times
H 3 *^ ill
(,(,
102 ON THE Hindu's.
" in different parts of India, yet the original
*' inhabitants have loft very little of their ori«
" ginal charafter." The ancients, in fa£l:, give
a defcription of them, which our early travel-
lers confirmed, and our own perfonal know-
ledge of them nearly verifies ; as you will per-
ceive from a pafikge in the Geographical Poerri
of DioNYSius, which the Analyft of Ancient
Mythology has tranfiated with great fpirit :
*' To th' eaft a lovely country wide extends,
" India, whofe borders the wide ocean bounds j
" On this the fun, new rifing from the main,
^^ Smiles pleas'd, and fheds his early orient beams.
" Th' inhabitants are i'wart, and in their looks
** Betray the tints of the dark hyacinth.
" Various their functions ; fome the rock explore^
" And from the mine extract the latent gold ;
** Some labour at the woof with cunning (kill,
*■ And manufacture litien J others fhape
*'- And polifli iv'ry with the niceft care ;
** Many retire to rivers fhoal, and plunge
** To feek the beryl flaming in its bed,
*' Or glitt'ring diamond. Oft the jalj^er's found
" Green, but diaphanous; the topaz too,
" Of ray ferene and pleaftng ; laft of all,
" The lovely arjiethyil, in which combine
** All the mild fhades of {)urple. The rich foil,
** Wafli'd by a thoufand rivers, from all fides
** Pours on the natives wealth v/ithout control.
Their fjurces of wealth are flill abundant,
even after fo many revolutions and conquefts ;
in
ON THE Hindu's. 103
In their manufa6liires of cotton they flill fur-
pafs all the world ; and their features have, mofi:
probably, remained unaltered fince the time of
DioNYSius ; nor can we reafonably doubt,
how des:enerate and aba fed foever the Hitidus
may now appear, that in fome early age they
\vere fplendid in arts and arms, happy in go-
vernment, wife in legillation, and eminer-t in
various knowledge : but, lince their civil hif-
tory beyond tlie middle of the ?ihietcenth cen-
tury from the prefent time is involved in a
cloud of fables, v/e feem to pofiefs only frjur
general media cf fatisfying our curioiity con-
cerning it ; namely, firfl, their Languages and
Letters ; fecondjy, their Phlkfophy and Reli-
gion ; thirdly, the adual remains of their old
Sculpture and ArchiteSiure ; and fourthly, the
written memorials of their Sciences and Arts.
I. It is much to be lamented, that neither
the Greeks who attended Alexander into
India, nor thofe who were long connecled with
it under the Ba^rian Princes, have left us any
means of knowing with accuracy, what ver-
nacular languages they found on their arrival in
this Empire. The Mohammedans, we know,
beard the people of proper Hindu if an, or India
on a limited fcale, fpeaking a Bhc.fhd, or living
tongue, of a very fingular conftruclion, the
pureft dialedl of which was current in the
II 4 diflrias
104 ^N THE HINDU S,
difl;ri£ls round ^Igra, and chiefly on the poetical
ground of Mafhura ; and this is commonly
called the idiom of Vraja, Five words in fix,
perhaps, of this language were derived from
the Sanfcrit, in which books of religion and
fcience were compofed, and v^'hich appears to
have been formed by an cxquhite grammatical
arrangement ^ as the name itfelf implies, from
fome unpolifhed idiom ; but the bafis of the
H'mdufani, particularly the inflexions and re-
gimen of verbs, differed as widely from both
thofe tongues, as Arahick differs from Perjtan^
or German from Greek. Now the general eife£t
of conqneft is to leave the current language of
the conquered people unchanged, or very httle
altered, in its ground-work, but to blend with
it a confiderable number of exotick names both
for things and for actions ; as it has happened
in every country, that 1 can recolle^l, where
the conquerors have not preferved their own
tongue unmixed with that of the natives, like
the 'Itirks in Greece^ and the Saxojis in Britain %
and this analogy might induce us to believe,
that the pure Hind) whether of Tartarian or
Chaldean ou'^wi, was primeval in Upper India ,
into which the Sanfcrii was introduced by con-
querors from other kingdoms in fome very re-
mote age ; for we cannot doubt that the lan-
guage of the Vedds was ufed in the great extent
pf
ON THE HINDU S. IO5
of country which has before been delineated,
jislong as the rehgion of Brahma has prevailed
in it.
The Sanfcrit language, whatever be its anti-
quity, is of a wonderful ftrudure ; more per-
fe£t than the Greek, more copious than the
Latin, and more exquifitely refined than either,
yet bearing to both of them a ftronger affinity,
both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of
grammar, than could pofiibly have been pro-
duced by accident ; fo flrong indeed, that no
philologer could examine them all three, without
believing them to have fprung from fome com-
mon fource, which, perhaps, no longer exifts :
there is a iimilar reafon, though not quite fo
forcible, for fuppofing that both the Gothick and
the Cehick, though blended with a very dif-
ferent idiom, had the fame origin with the
Sanfcrit ; and the old Perjtan m.ight be added to
the fame family, if this were the place for
difcuffuig any queftion concerning the anti-
quities of Perjia,
The charadiers, in which the lanojua2:es of
India were originally written, are called Ni'.gari,
fromNagar, a City, with the word Deva fome-
times prefixed, becaufe they are believed to have
been taught by the Divinity himfelf, who pre-
fcribed the artificial order of them in a voice from
heaven, Thefe letters, with no greater varia^
tioa
iq6 on the Hindu's.
tlon in their form by the change of flraight lines
to curves, or converfely, than the Cujtck alphabet
has received in its way to Ind'ia^ are ftill adopted
jn more than twenty kingdoms and Hates, from
the borders of CaJJjgar and Khoten, to Ratnas
J:)ridge, and from the S'nidhu to the river of
Siam\ nor can I help beUeving, although the
polifhed and elegant Devanugar'i may not be
fo ancient as the monumental characlers in the
cavern§ of Jarafandha, that the fquare Cbal^
daick letters, in which moft Hebrew books are
popied, were originally the fame, or derived
from the fame prototype, both with the Indiait
and Arabian charader? : that the Phenician,
' from which the Gree^ and Roman alphabets
were formed by various changes and inveriions,
)iad a iimilar origin, there can be little doubt 5
and the infcriptions ^t Canarah, of which you
now poflefs a mod accurate copy, feem to be
compounded of Nligari and Ethiopick letters,
which bear a c\o{q relation to each other, both
in the mode of writing iVom the left hand, and
in the lingular manner of cpnncding the vowels
with the confonaiits. Theie remarks may fa-
vour an opinion entertained by many, that all
the fymbols of /2?2if//^/, which at firft, probably,
were only rude outlines of the different organs
of fpeech, had a common origin : the lymbpls
of ideas now uf^d in China and Japan^ an;^
formerly
ON THE HINDU^S, IQJ
formerly, perhaps, in Egypt and Mexico, are
quite of a diftind nature ; but it is very re-
markable, that the order of founds in the Chi-
nefe grammars correfponds nearly with that
obferved in Thibet, and hardly differs from that
which the Hindus confider as the invention of
their Gods.
II. Of the Indian Religion and Philofophy,
I fliall here fay but little ; becaufe a full account
of each would require a feparate volume : it
will be fufficient in this Diliertation to affume,
what might be proved beyond controverfy, that
>ve now live among the adorers of thofe very
deities, who were worflilpped under different
I7>ames in old Greece and Italy, and among the
profeffors of thofe philofophical tenets, which
the lonick and Att'ick writers illuHirated with all
the beauties of their melodious language. Oa
one hand we fee the trident of Neptune, the
eagle of Jupiter, the fatyrs of Bacchus,
the bow of Cupid, and the chariot of the
Sun ; on another we hear the cymbals of Rhea,
the fongsof the MufcSy and the paftoral tales of
Apollo NoMTUS. In more retired fcenes, in
groves, and in feminaries of learning, we may
perceive the Brahmans and the Sarmancs, men-
tioned by Clemens, difputing in the forms of
logkk, or difcourfing on the vanity of human
pnjoyments, on the immortality of the foul,
, ' her
io8 ON THE Hindu's.
her emanation from the eternal mind, her de-
bafement, wandermgs, and final union with
her fource. The ftx philofophical fchools,
ivhofe principles are explained in the Dcrfana
Saftra, comprife all the metaphyficks of the old
Academy^ the Stoa^ the Lyceum ; nor is it pof-
fible to read the Vedanta, or the many fine com-
pofitions in ilkiftration of it, without believing,
that Pythagoras and Plato derived their
fublime theories from the fame fountain with
the fages of hidia. The Scythian and Hyper-
horean .(lodinwQ^ and mythology may alfo be
traced in every part of thefe eaftern regions ;
nor can we doubt, thatWoD or Oden, whofe
reho-ion, as the northern hiftorians admit, was
introduced into Scandinavia by a foreign race,
was the fame with Buddha, whofe rites were
probably imported into India nearly at the fame
time, though received much later by the Chi-
nefc, who foften his name into FO'.
This may be a proper place to afcertain an
important point in the Chronology of the
Hindus ; for the priefts of Buddha left in Tibet
and China the precife epoch of his appearance,
real or imagined, in this empire ; and their in-
formation, which had been preferved in writing,
was compared by the Chrifiian Miffionaries and
fcholars with our own era. Couplet, De
GuiGNES, GioRGi, and Bailly, differ a little
in.
ON THE HINDU S. I09
la their accounts of this epoch, but that of
Couplet fcems the moft corre<£l : on taking, how-
ever, the mediuna of the four feveral dates, we
may fix the time of Buddha, or the ninth great
incarnation of Vishnu, in the year one thou^
[and and fourteen before the birth of Christ,
or two thoufand /even hundred and ninety-nine
years ago. Now the CciJJjmirians, who boaft
of his defcent in their kingdom, aflert that he
appeared on earth about two centuries after
Crishna, the Indian Apollo, who took fo
decided a part in the war of the Mahabhiirat ;
and, if an Etymologlft were to fuppofe that
the Athenians had embeUiflied their poetical
hiftory of Pandion's expulfion and the reftora-
tion of tEgeus with the AJiatick tale of the
Pa'ndus and Yudhishth'ir, neither of which
words they could have articulated, I fhould
not haftily deride his conjecture : certain it is,
that Pdndumandel is called by the Greeks the
country of Pandion. We have therefore de-
termined another interefting epoch, by fixing
the age of Crishna near the three thoufandth
year from the prefent time ; and as the three
firfl Avatars^ or defcents of Vishnu, relate no
lefs clearly to an Univerfal Deluge, in which
eight perfons only were faved, than \.\\q fourth
^wAffth do to \\\t punifment of impiety and the
humiliation of the projid, we may for the pre-
fent
lib ON THE Hindu's;
ferit affnme, that the fecond, or Jihe}\ age of
the Bindus was fubfequent to the difperfion
from Babel ', fo that we have only a dark in-
terval of about a thoufcmd years, which were
employed in the fettlement of nations, the
foundstion of dates or empires, and the culti-
vation of civil fociety. The great incarnate
Gods of this intermediate age are both named
Ra'ma, but with different epithets ; one of
i^4iom bears a wonderful refemblance to the
Indian Bacchus, and his wars are the fubje6t
of feveral heroick poems. He is reprefented as
a defcendant from Su'rya, or the Sun, as the
hu{band of Si'ta^, and the fon of a princefs
named Cau'selya': it is very remarkable, that
the Peruvians, whofe Incas boafted of the fame
defcent, ftyled their greateft feftival R.amaJitoa%
whence we may fuppofe, that South America
was peopled by the fame race, who imported
into the fartheil: parts of Afia the rites and fa-
bulous hiftory of Ra^ma. Thefe rites and this
hiftory are extremely curious ; and although I
cannot believe with Newton, that antient
mythology was nothing but hilforical truth in
a poetical drefs, nor, v/ith Bacon, that it con-
fided folely of moral and metaphyseal allego*
ries, nor, with Bryant, that all the heathen
divinities are only different attributes and re-
prefentations of the Sun or of deceafed proge-
nitors, but conceive that the whole fyftem of
religi'
ON THE HINDUV. Ill
rello-ious fables rofe, like the Ni!e, from feve-
ral diftinft fources, yet I cannot but agree, that
one great fpring and fountain of all idolatry in
the four quarters of the globe, was the vene-
ration paid by men to the vaft body of fire
which " looks from his fole dominion like the
** God of this world-/* and another, the im-
moderate refpedt fhewn to the memory of pow-
erful or virtuous anceftors, efpec rally the foun-
ders of kingdoms, legiflators, and warriors, of
whom the Sun or the Moofi were v,dldly fup-
pofed to be the parents.
III. The remains of architculure and fculp"
iure in India, which I mention here as mere
monuments of antiquity, not as ipecimens of
ancient art, feem to prove an early connection
between this country and Africa: the pyra-
mids of Egypt, the coloflal ftatues defcribed by
PAUSANIAS and others, the fphinx, and the
Hermes Canis, which lafl bears a great refem-
blance to the Farahavatar, or the incarnation
of Vishnu in the form of a Boar, indicate the
ilyle and mythology of the fam.e indefatigable
workmen who formed the vaft excavations of
Canhrah, the various temples and images of
Buddha, and the idols which are continually
dug up at Gay a, or in its vicinity. The let-
'ters on many of thofe monuments appear, as I
have before intimated, partly of Indian, and
partly
112 ON THE Hindu's.
partly of Ahvffmian or Ethlop'ick^ origin ; and
all thefe indubitable fa6ls may induce no ill-
grounded opinion, that Ethiopia and HindufLuu
were peopled or colonized by the fame extra-
ordinary race ; in confirmation of which it
may be added, that the mountaineers of Bengal
and Bahar can hardly be diftinguifhed in fome
of their features, particularly their lips and
nofes, from the modern Ahvjfinians^ whom the
Arabs call the children of Cu'sh : and the an-
tient Hindus^ according to Strabo, differed in
nothing from the Africans but in the ftraightnefs
and fmoothnefs of their hair, while that of the
others was crifp or woolly ; a difference proceed-
ing chiefly, if not entirely, from the refpeclive
humidity or drynefs of their atmofpheres :
hence the people who received the Jirjl light of
the rifng fun, according to the limited know-
ledge of the antients, are faid by Apuleius to
be the Arii and Ethiopians^ by which he clearly
meant certain nations of India ; where we fre-
quently fee figures of Buddha with curled hair,
apparently defigned for a reprefentation of it in
its natural flate.
IV. It is unfortunate, that the Silpi Saftra,
jor Collettion of Treatifs on Arts and ManifaC"
iures, which mull: have contained a trea-
fure of ufeful information on dyeing, painting,
and metaUiirg-j, has been fo long neglected,
that
ON THE Hindu's. ii:?
that few, if any, traces of it are to be found;
but the labours of the Indian loom and needle
have been univerfaliy celebrated ; and^;^*? linen
is not improbably fuppofed to have been called
Sindon^ from the name of the river near which
it was wrough't ij^ the higheft perfe£lion : the
people of Colchis were alfo famed for this ma-
nufacture, and the Egyptians yet more, as we
learn from feveral pafTages in fcripture, and par-
ticularly from a beautiful chapter in Ezekiel,
containing the mofl: authentic delineation of
antient commerce, of which Tyre had been the
principal mart. Silk was fabricated immemo-
rially by the Indians, though commonly iaf-
cribed to the people of Serica or Tanciit, among
whom probably the word Ser, which the Greciks
applied to i\\q filk-wbrm, fignified ^o/J; a fenfe
which it now bears in Ti'bet. That the Hitidus
were in early ages a commercial people, we have
many reafons to believe ; and in the firfl of
their facred law-tra6ls, which they fuppofe to
have been revealed by Menu many millions of
years ago, we find a curious paflage oh the
legal iritereji of ilioney, and the limited rate of
it in different cafes, with an exception in re-
gard to advenUires at fea \ an exception which
the fenle of mankind approves, and which com-
merce abfolutely requires, though it was not
before the reign of Charles I. that our own
I jurif-
i 14 ON THE Hindu's*
jurifprudence fully admitted it in fefpe^l or
maritime contra els.
We are told by the Grecian writers, that the
Indians were the wifefl of nations ; and in
moral wifdom they were certainly eminent :
their Niti Sajlra^ or Syjiem of Ethicks^ is yet
preferved, and the Fables of Vishnusep.mam,
whom we ridiculoufly call Pilpay, are the moft
beautiful, if not the moft ancient, coUeclion of
apologues in the world : they were firfl tran-
flated from the Sanfcrit in the jlxlh century, by
the order of Buzerchumihr, or Bright as the
Sun, the chief phylician, and afterwards Fez/r of
the great Anu'shireva'n, and are extant under
various names in more than twenty languages ;
but their original title is Hitopadefa^ or Jlmica-
hie InJiru5iion ; and as the very exigence of
Esop, whom the Arabs believe to have been
an Ahyjfmian^ appears rather doubtful, I am
not difuiclined to fuppofe, that the iiifl moral
fables which appeared in Europe, were of
Indian or Ethiopian origin.
The Hindus are faid to have boafled of fhred
inventions, all of which, indeed, are admirable,
the method of inftructing by apologues, the
decimal fc ale adopted now by all civilized na-
tions, and the game of Chefs, on which they
have fome curious treatifes; but if their nu-
merous works on Grammar, Logick, Rheto-
rick.
ON THE Hindu's. 115
rick, Miifick, all which are extant and accef-
fible, were explained in fome language gene-
rally known, it would be found that they had
yet higher preteniions to the praife of a fertile
'and inventive genius. Their lighter poems are
lively and elegant ; their Epick, nriagnificent
and fublime in the higheft degree ; their Pu-
7- anas comprife a feries of mythological Hillo-
ries in blank verfe from the Creation to the fup-
pofed incarnation of Buddha ; and their Vedas^
as far as we can judge from that compendium
of them which is called JJpan'iJlmt^ abound
with noble fpeculations in metaphyficks, and
fme difcourfes on the being and attributes of
God. Their mod ancient medical book, en-
titled Chereca, is believed to be the work of
Siva ; for each of the divinities in their Triad
has at leaft one facred compofition afcribed to
him ; but, as to mere human works on Hiftory
and Geography, though they are i^\id to be ex-
tant in Cafhm'ir, it has not been yet in my
power to procure them. What their ajlrono-
m'lcal and raathematical writings contain, will
not, I truft, remain long a fecret : they are
caiily procured, and their importance cannot
be doubted. The philofopher whofe works
are faid to include a fyflem of the univerfe
founded on the principle of AttraSlion and the
0«/r^/ pofition of the fun, is named Yavan
I 2 Ac ha'-
Il6 ON THE HINDU^S.
Acha'rya, becaufe he had travellecl, we arc
told, into Ionia : if this be true, he might have
been one of thofe who converfed with Pytha-
goras ; this at leafl is undeniable, that a book
on aftronomy in Sanfcrit bears the title of
Tavana Jatica, which may fignify the lonick
SeSl ; nor is it improbable, that the names of
the planets and Zodiacal flars, which the Arabs
borrowed from the Greeks^ but which we find
in the oldeft Indian records, were originally
devifed by the fame ingenious and enterprifing
race, from whom both Greece and India were
peopled ; the race, who, as Dionysius de-
fcribes them,
-' firft aflayed the deep,
* And wafted merchandize to coaits unknown, *
' Thofe, who digefted firft the ftarry choir,
, * Their motions mark'd, and cail'd them by their names."
Of thefe curfory obfervations on the Hindus^
which it would require volumes to expand and
illuftrate, this is the refult : that they had an
immemorial affinity with the old Perjians^
Ethiopians, and Egyptians, the Pbenlclans,
Greeks, and 'Tufcans, the Scythians or Goths,
and Celts, the Chinefe, Japaneje and Peruvians ;
whence, as no reafon appears for believing*
that they were a colony from any one of thofe
nations, or any of thofe nations from them, we
may fairly conclude that they all proceeded
from
ON THE HINDtr S. 11^
from fome deiitral country, to inveftigate which
will be the object of my future Difcourfes ;
and I have a fanguine hope, that your collec-
tions during the prefent year will bring to light
many ufeful difcoveries ; although the departure
for Europe of a very ingenious member, who
firft opened the ineftimable mine of Sanfcrit li-
terature, will often deprive us of accurate and
folid information concerning the languages and
antiquities of ///^y/^.
I 2 DIS«
( ^i8 )
DISSERTATION IV.
ON T II E
ARAB
BEING TKEFOURTH ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSJ?;
DELIVERED TO THE SOCIETY FEB. I5, 1787c.
GENTLEMEN,
I HAD the honour lafl year of opening to you
my intention, to difcourfe at our »jjnniial
meetings on the jive principal nations who
have peopled the continent and iflands o'i yifia %
fo as to trace, by an hiilorical and philological
analylis, the niinaber of ancient flems from
which thofe f^ve branches have feverally
fprurg, and the centrr.l region from which
they appear to have proceeded : yon may,
therefore, expeft, that, having fubmitted to your
confideration a fe\v general remarks on the old
inhabitants oi India., I Ihould now offer my {tii-
timents on fome other nation, who, from a
fimilarity of language^ religion^ arts and man-
ners^ may be fuppofcd to have had an early
- .4 conne£lioa
ON THE ARABS. II9
conne6lIon with the Hindus ; but, fince we
find fome Afuitick nations totally diffimilar to
them in all or mod of thofe particulars, and
iince the difference will ftrike you more forcibly
-by an immediate and clofe comparifon, I deiign
at prefent to give a (hort account of a wonderful
people, who feem in every refpe(£t fo ftrongly
contrafted to the original natives of this coun-
try, that they muft have been for ages a
diilinft and feparate race.
For the purpofe of thefe Difcourfes, I con-
lidered India on its largcfl: fcale, defcribing it
as lying between Perfui and China, Tartary
and Java ; and for the fame purpofe, I now
apply the name of Arabia, as the Arabian
Geographers often apply it, to that extenlive
peninfula, which the Red Sea divides from
Africa, the great AJjyrian river from Iran, and
of which the B,rythrean Sea waihes the bafe ;
without excluding any part of its weftern fide,
which would be completely maritime, if no
ifthmus intervened between the Mediterranean
and the Sea of Kolzom : that country, in fhort,
I call Arabia, in which the Arabick lan-
guage and letters, or fuch as have a near
affinity to them, have been immemorially
current.
Arabia, thus divided from 7;^^'"^ bv a vaft
ocean, or at leaft by a broad bay, could hardly
liave been conne(51:ed in any degree with this
I 4 country,
I20 ON THE ARABS.
country, until navigation and commerce had
been confiderably improved : yet, as the Hindus
and the people of Temen were both commercial
nations in a very early age, they were probably
the firil: inftruments of conveying to the wei^ern
world the gold, ivory, and perfumes of India^
as well as the fragrant wood, called alluwwa
in Aj-ablck and aguru in Sanfcrit, which grows
in the greateft perfe(^ion in Anam or Cochin-
china. It is poffible too, that a part of the
Arabian idolatry might have been derived from
the fame fource with that of the Hindus ; but
fuch an intercourfe may be conlidered as partial
and accidental only ; nor am I more convinced,
than I was fifteen years ago, when I took the
liberty to animadvert on a pafiage in the Hif-
tory of Prince Cantemiry that the Turks have
any juft reafon for holding the coafl- of Temen
to be a part of India, and calling its inhabitants
Yellow Indians.
The Arabs have never been entirely fub-
dued ; nor has any impreffon been made on
them, except on their borders ; where, indeed
the Phenicians^ Perftans, Ethiopians ^ EgyptiafiSy
and, in modern times, the Othman lartarsy
have feverally acquired feitlements ; but, wit^
thefe exceptions, the natives, of Hejaz and
Temen have pr^ferved for ages the fole dominion
of their deferts and paJfi?ures, their mountains
and
ON THE ARABS. 12^
ami fertile vallies : thus, apart from the reft of
mankind, this extraordinary people have retained
their primitive manners and language, features
and chara(3:er, as long and as remarkably as the
Hindus themfelves. All the genuiney^r^^j of ^Sy-
ria, whom I knew in Eu7'ope, thofe of Temen,
whom I faw in the idand of Hinzuan, whither
many had come from Majhat for the purpofe of
trade, and thofe of Hejaz, whom I have met ia
Bengal, form a ftriking contrail to the H'mdu
inhabitants of thefe provinces : their eyes are
full of vivacity, their fpeech voluble and ar-
ticulate, their deportment manly and dignified,
their apprehenfion quick, their minds always
prefent and attentive; with a fpirit of inde-
pendence appearing in the countenances even
of the loweft among them. Men will always
differ in their ideas of civilization, each mea-
furing it by the habits and prejudices of his own
country ; but if courtefy and urbanity, a love
of poetry and eloquence, and the pradice of
exalted virtues, be a jufter meafure of perfect
fociety, we have certain proof, that the people
of Arabia, both on plains and in cities, in re-
publican and monarchical ftates, were eminently
civilized for many ages before their conqueft of
Ferjia.
It is deplorable, that the ancient hiftory of
this majeflick race fliould be as little known in
detail
3 22 OK THE ARABS.
detail before the time of Dhi'i fezen, as that of
the Hindus before Vicramaditya ; for, although
the vail hiftorical work of Alnuwa'in and the
Murujuldhahab , or Golden Meadows, of Alma"
Jtlud), contain chapters on the kings of Htmyar^
Ghajan^ and U'lrah, with lifts of them and
iketches of their feveral reigns, and although ge-
nealogical tables, from which chronology might
be better afcertained, are prefixed to many
compofitions of the old Arabian Poets, yet moft
manufcripts are fo incorrect, and fo many con-
tradidions are found in the bed of them, that
we can fcarce lean upon tradition with fecurity,
and muft have recourfe to the fame media for
invefti gating the hiftory of the Arabs ^ that \
before adopted in regard to that of the Indians ;
namely, their language, tetters^ and religion^
^heir ancient monuments, and the certain re-
mains of their arts ; on each of which heads I
il-iall touch very concifely, having premifed,
that my obfervations will in general be confined
to the fcate of Arabia before that fmgular re-
volution at the beginning of the feve?ith ceur:
tury, the effecrs of v/hich we feel at this day,
from the Fyrenean mountains and \\\e Danube^
to the farthed: parts of the Indian E?npre, and
even to the Eafiern lilands.
I. For the knowledge which any European^
who pleaies, may attain of the Arabian lan-
guage, we are principally indebted to the uni-
vcrfitj
ON THE ARABS. %2^
yerfity of Lcvden ; for, though feveral Italiani
jiave affiduoiilly laboured in the fame wide field,
yet the fruit of their labours has been rendered
alnaofh ufelefs by more commodious and more
accurate works printed in Holla7id\ aud, though
PococK certainly accompliihed much, and
was able to accomplifh any thing, yet the
Academical eafe which he enjoyed, and his
theological purfuits, induced him to leave un-
finifhed the valuable work of Maidhit, which
he had prepared for publication ; nor, even if
that rich mine of Arabian philology had {&ti\
the light, would it have borne any comparifon
with the fifty differtations oi Hanri^ which the
firfl Albert Schultens tranflared and ex-
plained, though he fent abroad but few of
them, and has left his worthy grandfon, fi'orn
whom, perhaps, Maidan'i alfo may be expe^ed,
the honour of publifhing the reft : but the
palm of glory in this branch of literature is
due to GoLius, whofe works are equally pro-
found and elegant ; fo perfpicuous in method,
that they may always be confulted without
fatigue, and read without languor, yet fo
abundant in matter, that any man, who fhall
begin with his noble edition of the Grammar,
compiled by his mafcer Ebpenius, and pro-
ceed, with the help of his incomparable dic-
tionary, to fludy his Hifl:ory of Taimur, by
Ibni Arabjhdh, and fhall make himfelf com-
plete mader of that lublime workj v/ill under-
fland
124 ON THE ARABS.
ftand the learned Arabkk better than the deepeft
fcholar at Conjiantinople or at Mecca. The
Arabkk language, therefore, is almofl: wholly
in our power ; and as it is unqueftionably one
of the niofl antient in the world, fo it yields
to none ever fpoken by mortals in the number
of its words and the precifion of its phrafes;
but it is equally true and wonderful, that it
bears not the lead refemblance, either in words
or the firufture of them, to the Sanjcrit^ or
great parent of the Indian diale6:s ; of which
diflimilarity I will mention two remarkable in-
{lances : the Sanfcrit^ like the Greeks Perjian,
and German^ delights in compounds, but in a
much higher degree, and indeed to fuch excefs,
that I could produce w^ords of more than twenty
fyllables, not formed hidlcroufly, like that by
%vhich the buffoon in Aristophanes defcribes
a feaft, but with perfed ferioufnefs, on the
moft folemn occafions, and in the mofl: ele-
gant works; \v\i\\q xh& Ai'abtck^ on the other
hand, and all its fifter dialeds, abhor the com-
pofition of words, and invariably exprefs very
complex ideas by circumlocution ; fo that if a
compound word be found in any genuine
language of the Arabian Peninfula (%c7imerdah
for indance, which occurs in the Hamiifah),
it may at once be pronounced an exotick.
Again; it is the genius of the Sanfcnt^ and
other languages of the fame flock, that the
3:oots of verbs be almofl; iiniverfelly biliteral^ fo
that
ON THE ARABS, 125
that jive and twenty hundred fuch roots might
be formed by the compofitioii of the fifty Indian
letters ; but the Arabick roots are as uni-
verfally trlliteraly fo that the compofition of
the twenty-eight Arabian letters would give
near two and twenty thoufand elements of the
language : and this will demonftrate the fur-
prifing extent of it ; for although great num-
bers of its roots are confeiTedly lod, and fomc,
perhaps, were never in ufe, yet if we fuppofe
ten thoufand of them (without reckoning
quadriUterah) to exift, and each of them to
admit only fi''oe variations, one with another,
in forming derivative nouns, even then a perfed:
Arabick di(5lionary ought to contain ffty thou-
fand words, each of which may receive a mul-
titude of chan2:es bv the rules of tn-ammar.
The derivatives in Sanjait arc confiderably
more numerous : but a farther comparilbn be-
tween the two languages is here unneceflary ;
fuice, in whatever light we view them, they
ieem totally diftind, and muft have been in-
vented by two different races of men ; nor do I
recollect a finde word in common between them,
except *S>/r^*, the plural oiSlraj^ m.eaning both a
lamp and the Jlun^ the Sanfcrlt name of which
is, in Bengal, pronounced Surja ; and even,
this refemblance may be purely accidental.
We may eafily believe with the Hindus , that
not even Indra hlmfelf and his heavenly bands ^
much lefs any mortal, ever comprehended In his
mind
126 ON THE ARABS.
•'■*
7nind fuch afi ocean of 'Words as their f acred lat^
giiage contahis ; and with the Arabs^ that no
man uninfplred was ever a complete maOer of
Arabic k : m fa 61, no perfon, I believe, now
living in Europe or Afia, can read without
ftndy an hundred couplets together in any col-
Ie6lion of ancient Arabian poems ; and we are
told, that the great author of the Klimils learnecl
by accident from the mouth of a child, in a
village of Arabia^ the meaning of three words,
which he had long fought in vain from gram-
rnarians, and from books, of the higheft re-
putation. It is bv approximation alone, that a
knowledo-e of thefe two venerable Ian2^ua2:es
can be acquired ; and, with moderate attention 5
enough of them both may be known, to de-
light and inflruft us in an infinite degree. I
conclude this head with remarking, that the
nature of the Eth'opick dialect feems to prove
an early ertablifhment of the Arabs m part of
Ethiopia, from which they were afterwards
expelled, and attacked even in their own coun-
try by the Abyjfmians, who had been invited
over as auxiliaries againfl: the tyrant of Tcfjien,
about a century before the birth of Muhammcd.
Of the characters in which the old compo-
fitions of Arabia were written, v/e know but
little ; except that the Koran originally ap-
peared in thole of Cz^y6, from which the modern
Arabian letters, with all their elegant variations,
were
ON THE ARABS. I 2 ;^
were derived, and which unqueflionably had a
common origin with the Hl brew or Chaldaiclz ;
but as to the Himyarkk letters, or thofe which
we fee mentioned by the name of Ahmifnady
we are ftill in total darknefs ; the traveller
Niebuhr having been unfortunately prevented
from vifiting fome ancient monuments in
Temen, which are faid to have infcriptions on
them: if thofe letters bear a ftrong refem-
blance to the Nagan, and if a ftory current in
India be true, that fome Hindu merchants
heard the Sa?ifcrit language fpoken in Arabia
the Happy J we might be confirmed in our opi-
nion, thatanintercourfe fDrmeriy fubiifted be-
tween the two nations of oppofite coafts, but
ihould have no reafon to believe, that they
fprans; from the lame immediate flock. The
firll: lyllable of Hamyar, as many Europeans
write it, might perhaps induce an Etymologiit
to derive the Arabs of Tenien from the great an-
' ceftor of the Indians ; but we mufl: obferve,
that Hemyar is the proper appellation of thofe
Arabs ; and many reafons concur to prove,
that the word is purely Arabick : the iimilarity
fome proper names on the borders of hidia to
thofe of Arabia, as the river Arabius, a place
icalled Araba, a people named Aribes or Ara-
hies, and another called Sabai, is indeed re-
markable, and may hereafter furnhh me with
obfervations of fome importance, but not at all
inconfiftent with my prcfcnt ideas.
IL It
i2^ oh THE AIRLAbV.
ir. It is generally aflerted, that the old re«
ligion of the Arabs was entirely Sabian ; but I
can offer fo little accurate information concern-
in ^ the Sabian faith, or even the meanino; of the
word, that I dare not yet fpeak on the fubjeift
with confidence. This at lead is certain, that the
people of Temen very foon fell into the cona-
mon, but fatal error of adoring the Sun and
the Firmament ; for even the third in defcent
from YccKTAN, who was confequently as old
as Nahor, took the furname of Abdushams,,
or Servant of the Sim ; and his family, we are
affured, paid particular honours to that lumi-
nary : other tribes worfhipped the planets and
fixed {liars ; but the religion of the poets at leaft
feems to have been pure Theifm ; and this wc
know with certainty, bec?aile we have Arabian
verfes of unfufpefted antiquity, which contain
pious and elevated featiments on the goodnefs
and juftice, the power and omniprefence, of
Allah, or the God. If an infcription, faid
to have been found on marble in Temen, be
authentlck, the ancient inhabitants of that
country preferved the religion of Eber,' and
profeiTed a belief In miracles and a future Jlate.
We are alfo told, that a ftrong refemblancc
may be found between the religions of the'
pagan Arabs and the Hindus ; but though this
may be true, yet an agreement in worfhipping
the fun and ftars will not prove an affinity be-
tween
CN THE AKABS. 129
tween the two nations : the powers of God
reprefented as female deities, the adoration ot
jlones^ and the name of. the Idol Wudd, may
lead us indeed to 'fufpeifl, that fome of the
H'mdu fuperftitions had foiuid their way into
Arabia ; and though we have no traces in
Arabian Hlflory of fuch a conqueror or legifla-
tor as the great Sesac, who is Hiid to have
raifcd pillars in Yemen as well as at the mouth
of the Ganges^ yet fince we know, that
Sa'cya is a title of Buddha, whom I fuppofe to
be Woden, fince Buddha was not a native of
India, and (ince the age of Sesac perfedlly agrees
with that of Sa'cya, we may form a plaii-
iible conje6lure that they were in facl the fame
perfon w^ho travelled eafUvard from Ethiopia, ei-
ther as a warrior or as a law-giver, about a thou-
fand years before Christ, and whofe rites we
now fee extended as far as the country of Nifcn,
or, as the Chtnefe call it, "Japuen, both words
fignifying the Rifing Sun. Sa'cya may be
derived from a word meaning power, or from
another denoting vegetable food \ lb that this
epithet will not determine whether he was a
hero or a philofopher ; but the tide Buddha,
or wife, may induce us to believe that he was
rather a benefadlor than a dellroycr of his fpe-
cies : if his religion, however, was really in-
troduced into any part of Arabia, i: could not
K have
1^0 ON THE ARABS.
have been general in that country ; and we
may fafely pronounce, that before the Moham-
medcm revokition, the noble and learned Arabs
were 'Theijts, but that a flupid idolatry pre-
vailed among the lower orders of the people.
I FIND no trace among them, till their emi-
gration, of any philofophy but Ethicks ; and
even their fyflem of morals, generous and en-
larged as it feems to have been in the minds of
a few illuftrious chieftains, was on the whole
miferably depraved for a century at leafl: before
Muhammed : the didinsiuifhino; virtues which
they boafled of inculcating and pra<5liiing, were
a contempt of riches, and even of death ; but,
in the age of the Seven Poets, their liberality
had deviated into mad profufion, their courage
into ferocity, and their patience into an obfli-
nate foirit of encounterinsr fruitlefs dano;ers :
but I forbear to expatiate on the manners of
the Arabs in that age, becaufe the poems en-
titled Almodllakat, which have appeared in our
own language, exhibit an exa6t pi6lure of their
virtues and their vices, their wifdom and their
folly ; and fhew what may be conflantly ex-
peded from men of open hearts and boiling
paffions, with no law to control, and little re-
ligion to reftrain them.
III. Few monuments of antiquity are pre-
ferved in Arabia^ and of thofe few the befl: ac-
. counts
ON THE ARABS. 131
counts are very iincertairi ; but we are afTured,
that infcriptions on rocks and mountains are
ftill feen in various parts of the Peninfula ;
which, if they are in any known language,
and if correal copies of them can be procured,
may be decyphered by eafy and intallible rules.
The firft Albert Schultens has pre-
ferred in his Antient Memorials of Arabia, the
moil: pleafmg of all his works, two little poems
in an elegiack ftrain, which are fjid to have
been found, about the middle of the feventh
century, on fome fragments of ruined edifices
in Hadramut near Aden^ and are fuppofed to
be of an indefinite, but very remote, age. It
may naturally be alked. In what characlers
were they written ? Who decyphered them ?
Why were not the original letters preferved in
the book where the verfes are cited? What
became of the marbles, which Abdurrahman^
then governor of Yemen ^ mofl: probabl7 fent to
the Khal'ifah at Bagdad? If they be genuine,
they prove the people of Yemen to have been
" herdfmen and warriors, inhabiting a fertile
*' and well-watered country full of game, and
** near a fine fea abounding with fifh, under a
*' monarchical government, and drefled in
*' green filk or vefl:s of needlework,'* either of
their own manufacture, or imported from India,
The meafure of thefe verfes is perfedly regular,
and the dialed undiftinguifhable, at leafl by me,
K 2 from
1^2 ON THE ARABS.
from that of Kuraijlj ; fo that if the Arah'ia'A
writers were much adclided to literary impof-
tures, I fliould ftrongly fufped them to be
modern compofitions on the inftability of hu-
inan greatnefs, and the confequences of irre-
ligion, illuflrated by the example of the H'tm-
yarick princes ; and the fame may be fufpc6led
of the firil: poem quoted by Schultens, which
he afcribes to an Arab in the age of Solomon.
The fuppofed houfes of the people called
Thamud 2ir& alfo ftill to be {ttu. in excavations
of rocks ; and, in the time of Tabrizi, the
grammarian, a caftle was extant in Temen^
which bore the name of Aladbat, an old
bard and warrior, who firlf, we are told,
formed his army, thence called alkhamh^ in
Jive parts, by which arrangement he defeated
the troops of Hhnyar in an expedition againfl
oanaa.
Of pillars erecled by Sesac, after his inva-
iion of Tenien^ we find no mention in Arabian
hiftories ; and, perhaps, the flory has no more
foundation than another told by the Greeks
and adopted by Newton, that the Arabs wor-
shipped Urania, and even Bacchus byname,
which, they fay, means great in Arahick ; but
where they found fuch a word we cannot dif~
cover : it is true, that Bcccah lignifies a great
and tumultuous croud, and, in this fenfe, is one
name of the facred city commonly called Meccah,
Thb
ON THE ARAB?. 1 33
The Cdbabf or quaclrangubr edifice at
Meccah^ is indifputably fo antient, that its ori-
ginal life, and the name of its builder, are lofl
ill a cloud of idle traditions. An jlrab told me
gravely, thnt it *\vas ralfed by Abraham, who,
as I affured him,- was never there : others al-
cribe it, with more probability, to Ismail, or
one of his immediate defcendants ; but whether
it was built as a place of divine w^orfhip, as a
fortrefs, as a fepulchre, or as a monument of
the treaty between the old polIe(ibrs of Arabia
and the fons of Kedak, antiquaries may dii-
pute, but no mortal can determine. It is
thought by Reland to have been the mafifon
of fomc antient Patriarch, and revered on that
account by his pojieritv ; but the room, in which
we now are aflembled, w^ould contain the whole
Arabian edifice; and if it were laro;e enough
for the dwelling-houfe of a Patriarchal family,
it would feem ill adapted to the pafLoral man-
ners of the Kedarites : a Perfan author infifts,
that the true name of Meccah is Mahcadah, or
the I'emple of the Moon ; but, although we may
fmile at his etymology, we cannot but think it
probable that the Cdbah was originally defigned
for religious purpofes. Three couplets are
cited in an. Arabick Hiflory of this building,
w^hich, from their extreme fimplicity, have leis
appearance of impoflure than other verfes of the
K ^ ' fame
134 ON THE ARABS.
fame kind : they are afcribed to A sad, a Tobbdy
or king by fuccejfton, who is generally allowed
to have reigned in l^cmen an hundred and
tweuty-eight years before Christ's birth, and
they commemoraie, without any poetical
inriagery, the magnificence of the prince in
covering the holy temple with jiriped cloth mid
fine Unen^ and in making keys for its gate. This
temple, however, the fanclity of which was
reftored by Muhammed, had been ftrangely
profaned at the time of his birth, when it was
ufual to decorate its walls with poems on all
fubjeds, and often on the triumphs of Jlrabian
gallantry and the praifes of Grecian wine, which
the merchants of Syria brought for file into
the deferts.
From the want of m.ateriais on the fubje£t
of ^r^^/^?z antiquity, \ye find it very difficult
to iiY. the Chronology of the ifmailites with
accuracy beyond the time of Adnan, from
whom the impoftor w^as defcended in the
twenty -fir fi ^it^xtt ; and although we have
genealogies of Alkamah and other Himyarick
bards as high as the thirtieth degree, or for a
period of nine hundred years at leaft, yet we
can hardly depend on them fo far as to eftablifh
a complete chronological fyflem : by reafoning
downwards, however, we may afcertain fome
points of confiderable importance. The uni-
verfal
ON THE ARABS.
^35
verfal tradition of 7^emen is, that Yoktan, the
foil of Eber, firfh fettled his family in that
country ; which fettlement, by the computation
admitted in Europe^ muft have been above three
thoufand fix hundred years ago, and nearly at
the time when the Hindus, under the condu6l
of Rama, were fubduing the firft inhabitants
of thefe regions, and extending the Indian em-
pire from AyLdhyjy or Aiidh^ as far as the ifle
oi Sinhal ox Silcin. According to this calcula-
tion, NuuMAN, king of Temen, m the nifith
generation from Eber, was contemporary with
Joseph ; and if a verfe compofed by that prince,
and quoted by Abulfeda, was really prelerved,
as it might eafily have been by oral tradition, it
proves the great antiquity of the yfr^Z-zW language
and metre. This is a literal veriion of the cou-
plet : ' When thou, who art in power, con-
' du6lefi: affairs with courtefy, thou attainefl the
' hisih honours of thofe who are moil: exalted,
^ and whofe mandates are obeyed.' We are told,
that from an elegant verb in this diftich the
royal poet acquired the furname oi Almudafer^
or the courteous. Now the reafons for believ-
ing this verfe genuine, are its brevity, which
made it eafy to be remembered, and the good
fenfe conprifed in it, which made it become
proverbial ; to which we may add, that the
diale6l is apparently old, and differs in three
K 4 words
136 ON THE ARABS.
words from the idiom of Hejaz. The reafons
for doubting are, that fentences and verfes of
indefinite antiquity are fometimes afcribed by
the Arabs to particular perfons of eminence ;
and they even go fo far as to cite a pathetick
elegy of Adam himfelf on the death of Abel,
but in very good Arablck and correct meafure.
Such are the doubts which neceffarily muft
arife on fuch a fubjedl, yet we have no need of
ancient monuments or traditions to prove all
that our analvfis requires ; namely, that the
Arabs, both of Hejdz and Yemen, fprang from
a flock entirely different from that of the Hindus^
and that their firft eftablifhments in the re-
l'pe6live countries where we now find them,
were nearly coeval.
I cannot finifh this article without obferv-
jng, that when the king of Demnark''?', mini-
fters inflrucced the DaniftJ travellers to collect
hijiorical books in Arabic k, but not to bufy
themfelves with procuring Arabian foems, they
certainly were ignorant that the only monu-
ments of old Arabian Hiftory are coUeSions of
poetical pieces, and the commentaries on them;
that all memorable traniaclions in Ai-.ahla were
recorded in verfe ; and that more certain fa£ls
may be known by reading the Hamafah, the
Diwan of Hudhail, and the valuable work of
ObaiduIIah, than by turning over a hundred
volunacs
ON THE ARABS. I37
volumes in profe, unlefs indeed thofe poems are
cited by the hiftorians as their authorities.
IV. The manners of the Hejaz) Arabs, which
have continued we know from the time of
Solomon to the prefent age, were by no means
favourable to the cultivation of arts ; and as to
fciences, we have no reafon to believe that they
were acquainted w^th any ; for the mere amufe-
ment of giving names to ftars, wdiich were
iifeful to them in their pafroral or predatory
rambles throusih the deferts, and in their obfer-
vations on the weather, can hardly be con-
fidered as a material part of aftronomy. The
only arts in which they pretended to excellence
(I except horfemanfliip and military accom-
plifhments), were poetry and rhetor'ick: that
we have none of their compofitions in profe
before the Koran, may be afcribed, perhaps,
to the little (kill which they feem to have had
in writing ; to their prediiedtion in favour of
poetical meafure, and to the facility with which
verfes are committed to memory ; but all their
flories prove that they were eloquent in a high
degree, and pofiefled wonderful powers of
fpeaking without preparation in flowing and
forcible periods. I have never been able to
difcover what was meaned by their book called
Rawhhn, but fuppofe that they were collec-
tions of their common or cuflomary law.
Writing
iqS ON THE ARABS..
^
Writing was fo little pra6tlfecl among them^
that their old poems, which are now accefiible
to us, may almoft be conlidered as originally
■unwritten ; and I am inclined to think, that
Samuel Johnson's reafoning on the extreme
imperfection of unwritten languages, was too
general ; fince a language that is only fpoken
may neverthelefs be highly poliflied by a peo-
ple who, like the ancient Arabs, make the
improvement of their idiom a national concern,
appoint folemn allemblies for the purpofe of dif-
playing their poetical talents, and hold it a duty
to exercife their children in getting by heart
their mofi: approved comipoiitions.
The people of Tcmen had pofiibly more me-
chanical arts, and, perhaps, roore Jcz en ce ; but
although their ports mufl: have been the em-
pona of conliderable commerce between Egypi
and India, or part of Per/ia, yet we have no
certain proofs of their proiiciency in navigation
or even in manufaclures. That the Arabs of
the Defert had mufical inftruments, and names
for the ditTerent notes, and that they were
greatly delighted with melody, wc know from
themfeives \ but their lutes and pipes were
probably very limple, and their raufick, I fuf-
pe£t, was little more than a natural and tune-
ful recitation of their elegiack verfes and love-
fongs. The fingular property of their lan-
guage in fliunnipg compound words, may be
urgedj
ON THE ARABS. 1391
urged, according to Bacon's idea, as a proof
that they had made no progrefs in arts^ * which
' require, fays he, a variety of combinations to
* exprefs the complex notions arifing frorn.
* them ;' but the fmgularity may perhaps be
imputed wholly to the genius of the language,
and the tafte of thofe who fpoke it ; fmce the
old Germans^ v/ho knew no art, appear to have
delighted in compound words, which poetry
and oratory, one w'ould conceive, might re-
quire as much as any meaner art whatfoever.
So great on the whole was the ftrength of
parts or capacity, either natural or acquired
from habit, for which the Arabs were ever dil-
tinguiilied, that we cannot be furprifed wheri
we fee that blaze of genius which they dif?
played as fir as their arms extended ; when
they burft, like their own dyke of Arim,
through their ancient limits, and fpread, like
an inundation, over the great empire of Iran,
That a race of I'azis, or Courfers, as the Per-
jians call them, ' who drank the milk of ca-
* mels and fed on lizards^ fhould entertain a
' thought of fubduing the kingdom of Fe-
* RiDUN,* was confidered by the general of
Yezdegird's armv as the ftronoeft inftance of
fortune's levity and mutability ; but Flrdauji
a complete mailer of AJiat'ick manners, and
fingularly impartial, reprefents tlie Arabs y even
in
140 ON THE ARABS.
in the age of Feridun, as ' difclaiming any
* kind of dependance on that monarch, ex-
' ultlng in their liberty, dehghtlng in elo-
* quence, a61:s of liberality, and martial at-
* chievements ; and thus making the whole
^ earth, fays the poet, red as wine with the
^ blood of their foes, and the air like a foreft of
^ canes with their tall fpears.' With fuch a
ehara(fter they were likely to conquer any
country that they could invade ; and if Alex-
ander had invaded their dominions, they
would, uriqueflionably, have made an obftinate,
and probably a fuccefsful, refiftance.
But I have detained you too long, Gentle-
men, with a nation who have ever been my fa-
vourites, and hope, at oiu' next anniverfary
meeting, to travel with you over a part of ^fta,
which exhibits a race of men diftincl both from
the Hindus and from the Arabs.- In the mean
time it fhall be my care to fuperintend the
publication of your Tranfa6lions ; in which, if
the learned in Europe have not raifed their ex-
pedations too high, they will not, I believe,
be difappointed : my own imperfecl eflays I
always except ; but, though my other en-
gagements have prevented my attendance on
your Society for the greatefl: part of laft year,
and I have fet an 'example of that freedorn
from reftraint, without which no Society cau
flourifli^.
ON THE ARABS. I41
flonrifli, yet as my few hours of lelfure will
now be devoted to Sa7ifcnt literature, I cannot
but hope, though my chief object be a know-
ledge of Hindu law, to make fome difcovery in
other fciences, which I fhall impart with hu-
mility, and which you will, I doubt not, re-
ceive with indulgence.
DIS-
( M2 )
DISSERTATION V,
ON THE
TARTARS.
^^EING THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE
DELIVERED TO THE SOCIETY FEB. 21, I 788;
AT the clofe of my laft addrefs to yoii^
Gentlemen, I declared my delign of in-
troducing to your notice a people oi Afia^ who
feemed as different in mofh refpeds from the
Hindus and Arahs^ as thofe two nations had
been fhewn to differ from each other ; I mean
the people whom we call Tartars: but I
enter with extreme diffidence on my prefent
fubje^l, becaufe I have little knowledge of the
Tartarian diale6ls ; and the srrofs errors of Hii-
ropean writers on Afiatick literature have long-
convinced me, that no fatisfadory account can
be given of any nation, with whofe language
we are not perfectly acquainted. Such evi-
dence, however, as I have procured by attentive
readins:
ON THE TARTARS. lAj
leading and fcrupuloiis inquiries, I will now
lay before you, interfperfing fuch rennarks as I
could not but make on that evidence, and fub-
mittingthe whole to your impartial decifion.
Conformably to the method before adopted
in defcribing Arabia and India, I confider Tar^
tarv alfo, for the purpofe of this difcourfe, on
its moft exteniive fcale, and requefl your at-
tention, whilil: I trace the larged: boundaries
that are aflignable to it. Conceive a line drawn
from the m.outa of the Ohy to that of the
Dnieper, and, bringing it back eaflward crofs
the Euxine, fo as to include the peninfula of
Krim, extend it along the foot of Caucafus, by
the rivers Cur and AraSy to the Cafpia?i lake,
from the oppofite fliore of which, follow the
courfe of the Jaihun and the chain of Cciu-
cajian hills as far as thofe of Imaus ; whence
continue the line beyond the Chinefe' \W2\\ to the
White Mountain and the country of Teifo ;
Ikirting the borders of P^r/?^, India, China, Corea,
but including part of Kujjla, with all the dif-
tri6ls which lie between the Glacial fea and
xk\2X o{ 'Japan. M. De Guignes, whofe great
work on the Hum abounds more in folid learn-
ing than in rhetorical ornaments, prefents us,
however, with a ma2;nificent imag-e of this
wide region ; defcribing it as a ftupendous edi-
fice, the beams and pillars of which are many
ranges
J44 ^N '^"■^ TARTARS^
ranges of lofty hills, and the dome, one pro*
digbus mountain, to which the Chhlefe glv^
the epithet of cckjlial^ with a confiderabk
number of broad rivers flowing down its fide?.
If the manfion be fo amazingly fublime, the
land around it is proportlonably extended, but
more wonderfally diverfified ; for fome parts of
it are incrufted with ice, others parched with
inflamed air, and covered with a kind of lava;
here we meet with immenfe trails of fandy de-
ferts and forefh almoft impenetrable ; there,
with gardens, groves, and meadows, perfumed
with mulks, watered by numberlefs rivulets,
and abounding in fruits and flowers ; and from
call: to weft lie many conflderabie province?,
which appear as v^aiieys in comparifon of the
hills towering above them, but in truth are the
flat fummits of the higheft mountains in the
world, or at leaft the higheft in Afia. Near one
fourth in latitude of this extraordinary region is
in the fame charming climate with Gr^^^r^, Italy ^
and Frovence ; and another fourth in that of £;2^-
land^ Germany^ and the northern parts oiFrance ;
but the Hyperborean countries can have few
beauties to recommend them, at leaft in the pre-
fent ftate of the earth's tem.peratu re : to the fouth,
on the frontiers of Ircji are the beautiful vales
o^ So^hd. with the celebrated cities oi Samarkand
TiwA Bokhara •, on thofe of T/^^/ arc the territories
of
, dN THE TARTARS. ' I45
Xyi'Cnpghar^KhGte'n.ChegiU^w^Khath^ all famed
forpeifames, and for the beauty of their inha-
bitants ; and on thofe of China lies the country
of Ch'm^ anciently a powerful kingdom ; which
ilame, like that of Khata^ has in modern times
been given to the whole Chinefe empire, where
fuch an appellation would be thought an infult.
We muft not omit the fine territory of Tancut^
which was known to the Greeks by the name of
Suica, and confidered by them as the fartheft
eaflern extremity of the habitable globe.
ScYTHiA feems to be the general name
which the ancient Europeafis gave to as much
as they knew of the country thus bounded and
defcribed ; but, whether that word be derived,
as Pliny feems to intimate, from Sacai, a
people known by a fimilar name to the G?~eeks
and Terfians \ or, as Bryant imagines, from
Cuthia ; or, as Colonel Vallancey believes,,
from w^ords denoting ;z^zr/g"^//57r, or, as it mighc
have been fuppofed, from a Greek root imply-
ing wrath and ferocity ; this at lead: is certain,
that as India, China^ Perfa, Japan, are not
appellations of 'thofe countries in the languages
of the nations who inhabit them, fo neither
Scythia nor Tartary are names by which the
inhabitants of the country now under our con-
fideration have ever diftinsjuifhed themfelves.
'Tatarijii'in is, indeed, a word ufed by the Per-
L ' Jians
146 ON THE TARTARS.
Jians for the fbuth-vveflern part of Scythld^
where the mulk-deer is faid to be common ; and
the name I'atar is by fome confidered as that
of a particular tribe ; by others, as that of
a fmali river only ; while T'uran, as oppofed to
Ja7//, feems to mean the ancient dominion of
Afroftah to the north and eaft of the Oxus.
There is nothing more idle than a debate con-
cerning the names, which after all are of little
confequence, when our ideas are diftiniSb with-
out them. Having given, therefore, a correct
notion of the country which I propofe to ex-
amine, I Ihall not fcmple to call it by the ge-
neral name of Tartary\ though I am confcious
of ufmg a term equally improper in the pro-
nunciation and the application of it.
Tartar Y then, which contained, accord-
ing to Pliny, an innumerable multitude of
nations, by whom the reft oi AJla and all Ett-
rope has in different ages been over-run, is
denominated, as various images have prefented
themfelves to various fancies, the great hive of
the northern fwarms, the nurfery of irrefiftible
legions, and, by a ftronger metaphor, the
foundery of the human race ; but M. Bailly,
a wonderfully ingenious man, and a very lively
writer, feems firfl: to have confidered it as the
ci'adle of our fpecies, and to have fupported am
opinion, that the whole ancient world was en-
lightened
ON THE TARTARS. 14^
lightened bj fciences brought from the moft
northern parts of Scythuiy particularly from
the banks of the Jenifea, or from the Hype?--
horean regions : all the fables of old Greece^
Italy ^ Per/ta, India^ he derives from the north ;
and it mufl: be owned, that he maintains his
paradox with acutenefs and learning. Great
learning and great acutenefs, together with the
charms of a moft engaging flyle, were indeed
neceffary to render even tolerable a fyftem
which places an earthly paradife, the gardens
of Hefpo'us, the iflaiids of the Macares^ the
groves of Elyjium if not of Ede?i, the heaven
of India, the Ferijian^ or fairy-land, of the
Perftan poets, with its city of diamonds and
its country of Shadcam, fo named from Plea-
fure and hove^ not in any climate which the
common fenfe of mankind confiders as the leat
of delights, but beyond the mouth of the Ohy
in the Frozen Sea, in a region equalled only by
that, where the wild imagination of Dante
led him to fix the worft of criminals in a flate
of punifhment after death, and of which he
could not, he fays, even think without fhiver-
ing. A very curious paflage in a tra61: of Plu-
tarch on the figure in the moon's orb, na-
turally induced M. Bailly to place Oo-j^'o-/^ in
the north, and he concludes that ifland, as
others have concluded rather falbcioufly, to be
L 3 the
3 4^ CN THE TARTARS.
the Atlantis of Plato, but is at a lofs to de-*
terminc, whether it was Iceland or Greenland^
Spitzbcrg or New Zcmhla. Among fo manj
charms, It was difficult, indeed, to give a pre-
ference ; but our philofopher, though as much
perplexed by an option of beauties as the (liep-
herd of Ida, feems, on the whole, to think
Zemhla the moft worthy of the golden fruit ;
becaufe it is indifputably an ifland, and lits
oppofiCe to a gulph near the Continent, from
which a 2;reat number of rivers dcfcend into
the ocean.
He appears equally diftreiTed among five na-
tions, real and imaginary, to fix upon that
which the Greeks named Atlantes ; and his con-
clufion in both cafes muft remind us of the
Showman at VAo'n^ who, having pointed out
in his box all the crowned heads of the world,
and being alked by the fchool-boys, who
looked through the glafs, which was the Em-
peror, which the Popi^, which the Sultan, and
which the Great Mogul, anfwered eagerly,
*' Which you pleafe, young gentlemen, which
*' you pleafe." Hii letters, however, to Vol-
taire, in which he unfolds his new fyftem to
his friend, whom he had not been able to con-
vince, are by no means to be derided ; and his
general propofition, that arts and fciences had
their fource in T^artary^ deferves a longer exa-
mination than can be given to it in this Dif-
courfe :
ON THE TARTARS. 149
courfe : I Ihall, neverthelefs, with your per-
mlffion,. fliortly difcufs the queftion under the
Icveral heads that will prefent themfelves in
order.
Although we niay naturally fuppofe,
that the numberlefs conr.munities of Tartars,
fome of whonn are eflabliihed in great cities,
and fome encan:iped on plains in ambulatory
manfions, which they remove from pafture to
pafture, muft be as different in their features as
in their dialects, yet among thole who have not
emierated into another country, and mixed
with another nation, we m,ay dilbcrn a family
likenefs, efpecially in their eyes and counte-
nance, and in that configuration (;f lineaments
which we generally call a Tartar face ; but,
without making anxious inquiries, whether all
the inhabitants of the vafl: region before de-
fcribed have fimilar features, we may conclude,
from thofe whom we havefeen, and from the
original portraits of Tai^mu'r and his dcfcend-
ants, that the Tartars, m general, differ wholly
in complexion and countenance from the Hin-
dus and from the ylrabs ; an obfervation, which
tends in fome degree to confirm the account
given by modern Tartars themfeUes, of their
defcent from a common ancefror. Unhappily
their lineage cannot be proved by autbentick
.pedigrees or hiftorical monuments ; for all their
writings extant, even thofc in the Mogul dia-
L 3 lea,
15^ C>N THE TARTARS.
le£l, are long fubfeqnent to the time of
MuHAMMED ; nor is it poflible to diftinguiili
their genuine traditions from thofe of the Arahs^
whofe reHgious opinions they have in general
adopted. At the beginning of the fourteenth
century, Khwajah, furnamed Fad'Lu^llah, a
native of iiT^^ziv';/, compiled his account of the
Tartars and Mongals from the papers of one
Pu'la*d, whom the great-grandfon of Hol acu^
had fent into 'Tatnrijidn for the fole pur-
pofe of collefting hiflorical information ; and
the commiffion itfelf flievvs, how little the
Tartarian Princes really knew of their own
origin. From this work of Rashi^d, and from
other materials, Abu'lgha'zi', King o^ Khwa-r
rezfn^ compofed in tlie Mogul language his
Genealogical Hifiory, which having betn pur-
chafed from a merchant at Bokhara by fomo
SwediJId officers, prifoners of war in Siberia^
has found its way into feveral European tongues :
it contains much valuable matter, but, like all
Muhammeijan hiftories, exhibits tribes orna-
tions as individual fovereigns ; and if Baron
De Tott had not ftrangely negle^ed to pro-
cure a copy of the Tartarian hiilory, for the
orklnal of which he unnecefiarilv offered a
large fum, v/e fhould probably have found, that
it begins with an account of the Deluge, taken
from the Koran, and proceeds to rank Turc,
ON THE TARTARS. I _5 I
ChiV, Tata'r, and Mongal, among the
fons of Ya'fet. The genuine traditional hif-
tory of the Tartars^ in all the hooks that I
have infpe(5led, feems to begin with Oghu^z,
as that of the H'maiis does with Ra'ma : they
place their miraculous Flero and Patriarch four
thoufand years before Chengiz Kha'n, who
was born in the year 1164, and with whofe
reign their hiftorical period com^mences. It is
rather furprifuig, that M. Bailly, who
makes frequent appeals to Etymological argu-
ments, has not derived Ogyges from Oghu'z,
and Atlas from Altai, or the Golden Moun-
tain of Taf'tarv : the Greek terminations mieht
have been reje^led from both words ; and a
mere tranfpofition of letters is no difficulty
with an Etymologifl.
My remarks in this addrefs, Gentlemen,
will be confined to the period preceding
Chengiz ; and althou2;h the learned labours
of M. De GuiGNEs, and the Fathers Visde-
Lou, Demailla, and Gaubil, who have
made an incomparable ufe of their Chhiefe lite'
rature, exhibit probable accounts of the Tar^
tars from a very early age, yet the old hifto-
rians of China were not only foreign, but ge-
nerally hoftile, to them ; and for both thofe
reafons, either through ignorance or malignity,
may be fufpefted of mifreprefenting their tran-
fadlions : if they fpeak truth, the ancient hiflory
L 4 of
152 ON THE TARTiMlS,
of the Tartars prefents us, like moft other hif?
torieF, with a leries of affaflinations, plots,
treafons, mafiacres, and all the natural fruitsi
of fclfilh ambition. I fhould have no inclina-
tion to give you a fketch of fuch horrors, evea
if the occailon called for it ; and will barely ob-
ferve, that the firft King pf the Byhu-min^ or
Huns, began his reign, according to V'isdelou,
about three thoufand five hundred and fixty
years ago, not long after the rime fixed in my
former Difcourfes for thefirfl: regular eftabliih-
raent of the Hindus and Arabs in their feveraj
countries.
I. Our firfl: inquiry, concerning the lan^
guages and letters of the Tartars^ prefents ug
with a deplorable void, or with a profpe(5l as
barren and dieary as that of their deferts. The
Tartars, in general, had no literature (in this
point all authorities appear to concur) -, the Turcs
had no letters; the Buns, according to Proco-
pius, had not even heard of them ; the mag-
nificent Cheng !Z, whofe empire included aa
area of near eighty fquare degrees, could finti
none of his own Mongai.s, as the bell: authors
inform us, able to write his difpatches ; and
Tai'mu'r, a favage of ftrong natural parts,
and paflionatcly fond of hearing hiilories read to
him, could himfelf neither write nor read. It
is true, that Ibnu Arabsha'h mentions a fet of
chara6lers, called Dilbcrjm, which were ufed in
Khata :
ON THE TARTARS, . I5]
Khaih: " he had {qqu. them/* he fays, " and
^* found them to confift of forty-one letters,
?' a diftui6l fymbol being appropriated to each
*' long and fhort vowel, and to each confonaat
^'' hard or foft, or otherwife varied in pronun-
*' ciation :" but Khata was in fouthern Tar^
tary^ on the confines of hidia ; and, from his
defcription of the chara6lers there in ufe, we
cannot but fufpecl them to have been thofe of
Tibet, which are manifeftly India?!, bearing a
greater refemblance to thofe of Bengal than ta
Tiivanagari. The learned and eloquent Jlrah
adds, " that the Tatars of Khata write
^' in the DUberj'm letters all their tales and hiA
^' tories ; their journals, poems, and mifcel-
^' lanies ; their diplomas, records of ftate and
'' juftice, the laws of Chengiz, their publick
*' regifters, and their compofitions of every
^' fpecies.'* if this be true, the people of
Khata mufl have been a polifhed and even a
lettered nation ; and it may be true, without
afFe61:ing the general poiition, that the Tartars
were illiterate; but Ibmu Arabsha'h was a
profeffed rhetorician, and it is impoffible to read
the original paflage, without full convicflion
that his object in writing it was to difplay his
power of words in a flov/ing and modulated
period. He fays further, that in Jaghatde, the
people of O'ghur, as he calk them, have a
fyftem
154 ^^ 'r^^E TARTARS.
fyftem of fourteen letters only, denominated
from themfelves 0'ighiir\\ and thofe are thecha-
raclers which the Mongals are fuppofed, by
fome authors, to have borrowed. Abid^ha%i
tells us only, that Chengiz employed the na-
tives of £/^/6//r as excellent penmen, but the
Chinefe affert that he was forced to employ
them, becaule he had no writers at all amone
his natural born fubje'5s ; and we are affured
by many, that KublaikhaV ordered letters
to be invented for his nation by a Tihetian,
whom he rewarded with the dignity of Chief
Lama. The fmall number of EWMn letters
might induce us to believe, that they were
Zend or Pahiav), which mufl have been cur-
rent in that country, when it was governed by
the fons of Feeidu^n ; and if the alphabet
afcribed to the Etghurians by M. Des Hau-
TESRAYEs be corrctl, we may fafely decide,
that in many of its letters it refembles both the
Ze?id and the Syriack, with a remarkable dif-
ference in the mode of conne6ling them ; bur,
as we can fcarce hope to fee a genuine fpecimen
of them., our doubt mud: remain in regard to
their form and origin. The page exhibited by
Hyde as Khatavan writing, is evidently a
fort of broken Cu'sick ; and the fne m.anu-p
fcript at O^^/d/r^/, from vvhieh it was taken, is
fQore probably a Mendsan work on fome re^-
lij^ious
ON THE TARTAHS. I55
}igious fubje6l, than, as he imagined, a code of
Tartarian laws. That very learned man ap-
pears to have made a worfe miilake in givi'^g
us for Mongal chara£lers a page of writing,
which has the appearance cf Japafiefe or mu-
tilated Chinefe letters.
If the T^artars in general, as we have every
reafon to believe, had no written memorials, it
cannot be thought wonderful, that their lan-
o-uao-es, like thofe of America^ fliould have
been in perpetual flu6luation, and that more than
fifty dialeds, as Hyde had been credibly in-
formed, fhould be fpoken between Mofcow and
Ch'ma, by the many kindred tribes, or their fe-
veral branches, which are enumerated by
Abu'lghV^i'. What thofe dialeds are, and
whether they really fprang from a commoi>
flock, we fliall probably learn from Mr,
Pallas, and other indefatigable men employed
by the Ruffian Court ; and it is from \.\\<t Rufians
that we muft exped the mofl accurate in-
formation concerning their Afiatick fubjecls. I
perfuade myfelf, that if their inquiries be ju-
dicioufiy made and faithfully reported, the re-
fuhof them will prove, that all the languages
properly Tartar ia?i arofe from one common
fource ; excepting always the jargons of luch
wanderers or mountaineers, as, having long
been divided from the main body of the nation,
mufl
Ij;6 ON THE TARTARS.
mufl in a courfe of ages have framed feparate
idioms for themfelves. The only Tartarian
language of which I have any knowledge is,
the Turkijfj of Conjiantinople^ which is, how-
ever, fo copious, that whoever (hail know it
perfectly, will eafily iinderftand, as we are
afllired by intelligent authors, the diale(51:s of
fTatarijidn % and we may collect from Abu'l-
GHA^zi', that he would find little difficulty ir»
the Calmac and the Mogul. I will not offend
your ears by a dry catalogue of fimilar words in
thofe different languages ; but a careful invefti-
gation has convinced me, that as the hi-
dian and Arabian tongues are feverally de-
fcended from a common parent, fo thofe of
*Tartary might be traced to one ancient flcm,
efientially differing from the two others. It
appears indeed, from a ftory told by Abu'lgha'-
^i', that the Firats and the Mongals could not
vinderftand each other ; but no m.ore can the
Danes and the Englifi, yet their dialects, be-
yond a doubt, are branches of the fame Gothic k
tree. The dialect of the Moguh, in which
fome hiftories of Tai^mu'r and his defcendants
were originally compofed, is called in India y
where a learned native fet me right when I
u fed another word, 7ura', not that it is pre-
eifely the fame with the TurkiJJj of the 0th-
f^atilus, but the two idioms differ, perhaps,
ON THE TARTARS.
157
lefs than SwediJJo and German^ or Spantfn and
Fortuguefe, and certainly lefs than /^^ and
/r//Z'. In hope of afcertainingthis point, I hav^e
Ions: fearched in vain for the ori spinal works
afcribed to Tai'mu'r and Ba'ber ; but all the
Moguls with whom I have converfed in this
country, refemble the crow in one of their
popular fables, who, having long afl-eded to
walk hke a pheafant, was unable after all to
acquire the gracefulnefs of that elegant bird,
and in the mean time unlearned his own na-
tural gait : they have not learned the dialecl of
Perjta, but have wholly forgotten that of their
anceftors.
A VERY confiderable part of the old Tarta--
rian language, which in Afia would probably
have been loft, is happily preferved in Europe ;
and if the ground-work of the Weftern
Turki/h^ when feparated from the Perjian and
Arahkk^ with which it is embelliflied, be a
branch of the loft Oghuzian tongue, I can afiert
with confidence, that it has not the leaft re-
fern blance either to Arabic k or Sanfcrit, and
muft have been invented by a race of men
wholly drftindt from the Arabs or Hindus,
This fa6l alone overfets the fyftem of M,
Bailly, whoconftdersth Sanfcrii^ of which he
gives in feveral places a moft erroneous account,
as a hae monument of his primeval Srjhians,
the
158 ON THE TARTARS.
the preceptors of mankind, and planters of i
fublime philofophy even in Imiia ; for he
holds it an inconteflible truth, that a lanofuaee
which is dead, fuppofes a nation which is de-
flroyed ; and he fecms to think fuch reafoning
perfectly decifive of the qiieltion, without hav-
ing Tecourfe to agronomical arguments, or
the fpirit of ancient inftitutions : for my part^
I defire no better proof than that which the
language of the Bra^hmans affords, of an
immemorial and total difference beween the
Savages of the mountains, as the old Chinefe
jufliy called the Tartars^ and the iludious,
placid, contemplative inhabitants of thefe
Indian plains.
II. The geographical reafoning of M. Bailly
may, perhaps, be thought equally fnallow^
if not inconfiftent in lome degree with itfelfi
" An adoration of the Sun and of the Fire,""
fays he, " mud neceflarily have arifenin a cold
" region ; therefore, it mufl have been foreign
*' to India^ Perjia^ Arabia -y therefore it mufl
*' have been derived from Tartary,'*' No
man, I believe, who has travelled in winter
through Bahar^ or has even pafied a cold fea-
fon at Calcutta^ within the tropick, can doubt
that the folar warmth is often defirable by all,
and might haVe been confidered as adorable by
the ignorant, in thefe climates ; or that the re-
turn
ON TliE TARTARS. IJ^
turnof fpringdeferves all the falutations which
it receives from the Perjtan and Indian poets ;
not to rely ou certain hiftorical evidence, that
AntARAH, a celebrated warriour and bard,
actually periihed with cold on a mountain of
Arabia. To meet, however, an obje6lion,
which might naturally be made to the volun-
tary fettlement, and amazing population, of
his primitive race in the icy regions of the
north, he takes refuge in the hypotheiis of
M. BuFFON, who imagines that our whole
slobe was at firfl of a white heat, and has been
gradually cooling from the poles to the equa-
tor ; fo that the Hyperborean countries had once
a delightful temperature, and Siberia itfelf was
even hotter than the climate of our temperate
zones, that is, was in too hot a clim^ate, by his
firft proportion, for the primary worinip of the
fun. That the tem.perature of countries has
not fuftained a change in the iapfe of ages, I
will by no means inliil ; but we can hardly
reafon concluiively from a variation of tempe-
rature to the cultivation and diffufion of fcience.
If as many female elephants and tygreffes as
we now find in Bengal had formerly littered
in the Siberian foreils, and if their young, as
the earth cooled, had fought a genial warmtk
in the climates of the fouth, it vvould not fol-
low that other fava2:es, w^ho mi2:rated m the
fame
l6o ^ ON THE TAfiTAivS',
fame cIlre<flion, and on the fanne accoirnt^'
brought rehgion and philofophy, language and
writing, art and fcienccj into the fouthera
latitudes.
We are told by Abu*lgha'zi^ that the pri-
mitive religion of human creatures, or the pure
adoration of One Creator, prevailed in Tartary
during the firft generations from Ya'fet, but
was extin6: before the birth of Oghu'z, who
rellored it in his dominions ; that, fome ages
after him, the Mongah and the Turcs relapfed
into grofs idolatry ; but that Cheng jz was a
Theill, and, in a converfation with the Mu-
hammedan Dodlors, admitted their arguments
for the being and attributes of the Deity to be
tinanfvverable, while he contefled the evidence
of their Prophet's legation. From old Grecian
authorities we learn, that the MujJ'agetce wor-
fhipped the Sun ; and the narrative of an em-
bally from Justin to the Khaka'n, or Em-
peror, who then redded in a fine vale near the
fource of the Irtijh, mentions the Tartarian
ceremony of purifying t\\Q Roman Aiiibajfadors^
by condu6ling them between two fires. 1 he
Tartars of chat asie are reprefented as adorers of
the four elements, and believers in an invifible
fpirit, to whom they facrificed bulls and rams.
Modern travellers relate, that, in the feftivals
of fome Tartarian tribes, they pour a few drops
of
ON THE TARTARS, l6l
of a confecrated liquor on the ftatues of their
'Gods ; after which an attendant fprinkles a
little of what renaains three times towards the
Touth in honour of fire, towards the weft and
eaft in honour of water and air, and as often
towards the north in honour of the earth,
•which containe ; the reliques of their deceafed
anceftors : now all this may be very true,
without proving a national affinity between the
Tartars and Hindus ; for the Arabs adored the
planets and the pov/ers of nature ; the Arabs
had carved images, and made libations on a
black ftone ; the Arabs turned in prayer to dif-
ferent quarters of the heavens ; yet we know
with certainty, that the Arabs are a diiiintfl
race from the Tartars ; and we might as well
infer, that they were the f\me people, becaufe
they had each his Nomades, or wanderers for
pafture ; and becaufe the lurcmans, defcribed
bylsNU Arabsha'h, and by him called Tatars,
are like muft. Arabian tribes, paftoral and war-
like, hofpitable and generous, wintering and
fummering on different plains, and rich in
herds and flocks, horfes and camels ; but this
agreement in manners proceeds from the fimi-
lar nature of their feveral deferts, and their limi-
lar choice of a free rambling life, without
evincing a community of origin, which they
could fcarce have had without preferving fome
remnant at leaft of a common language.
M Many
l62 ON THE TARTARS.
Many Lamas, we are affured, or Priefls
of Buddha, have been found fettled in Siberia ;
but it can hardly be doubted, that the Lamas
had travelled thither from Tibet, whence it is
more than probable, that the reUgion of the
Buddha's was imported into Southern Chinefe
I'arlary ; fince we know, that rolls of 'Tibeiian
writing have been brought even from the bor-
ders of the Cafpian. The complexion of
Buddha himfelf, which, according to the Htn-
dus, was between white and ruddy, w^ould per-
haps have convinced M. Bailly, had he
known the Indian tradition, that thelaft great
legiflator and God of the Eaft was a Tartar ;
but the Chinefe confidcr him as a native of
India \ the Brahmins infift, that he was born in
a foreft near Gay a ; and many reafons may lead
us to fufpecl, that his religion was carried from
the weft and the fouth to thofe eaftern and
northern countries, in which it prevails. On
the whole, we meet with f^w or no traces in
Scythia of Indian rites and fuperilitions, or of
that poetical mythology with which the xS"^;?-
fcrit poems are decorated ; and we may allow
the Tartars to have adored the Sun with more
reafon than any fouthern people, without ad-
mittino; them to have been the fole ori2;inal in-
ventors of that univerfal folly : w^e may even
-doubt the originality of their veneration for the
four elements, which forms a principal part of the
ritual
ON THE TARTARS. 163
ritual introduced by Zera'tusht, a native of
Rat in Perjta, born in the reiga of Gushtasf,
whofe fon Pashu^ten is believed by the P.'^rfi^s
to have refided long in T^artary^ at a place called
Cangidir^ where a magnificent palace is faid to
have been built by the father of Cyrus, and
where the Perjia7i prince, who was a zealot in
the new faith, would naturally have diiiemi-
nated its tenets among the n'eighbouring Tar-
tars.
Of any philofophy, except natural ethicks,
which the rudeft fociety requires and experience
teaches, we find no more veftiges in j^fiatkk
^artary and Scythia, than in ancient Arabia -,
nor would the name of a philofopher and a
Scythian have been ever connecled, if Aiincharjis
had not vifited Athens and Lydia for that in-
fl:ru61:ion which his birth-place could not have
afforded him. But Anacharsis was the fon
of a Grecian woman, who had taught him her
language, and he foon learned to defpife his
own. He was unqueftionably a man of a found
luiderftanding and fine parts ; and among the
lively fayings which gained him the reputa-
tion of a wit even in Greece, it is related by
Diogenes Laertius, that when an Athenian
reproached him with being a Scythian, he an-
fwered, * My country is indeed a difgrace to
' me, but thou art a dilgrace to thy country.^
What his country was in regard to manners and
M z civil
164 ON THE TARTARS.
civil duties, we may learn from his fate in it 5
for when, on his return from Athens, he at-
tempted to reform it hy intruding the wife
laws of his friend Solon, he was killed in a
hunting party with an arrow fhot by his own
brother, a Scythian chieftain. Such was the
philofophy of M. Bailly's Atlantes, the
iirft and moft enlightened of nations ! We are
aflured, however, by the learned author of the
t)ahijlan^ that the Tartars under Chengiz and
his deicendants were lovers of truth ; and
would not even preferve their lives by a viola-
tion of it. De Guignes afcribes the fame ve-
racity, the parent of all virtues, to the Huns ;
and Strabo, who might only mean to lafh
the Greeks by praifing Barbarians as Horace
extolled the wandering Scythians, merely to
fatirize his luxurious countrymen, informs us,
that the nations of Scythia deferved the praife
due to wifdom, heroick friendfliip, and juftice ;
and this praife we may readily allow them on
his authority, without fuppofing them to have
been the preceptors of mankind.
As to the laws of Zamolxis, concerninsf
whom we know as little as of the Scythiayi
Deucalion, or of Abaris the Hyperborean^
and to whofe ftorv even Herodotus eave no
credit, I lament, for many reafons, that if
ever they exifted they have not been preferved :
it is certain that a fyflem of laws, called Tafdc,
has
ON THE TARTARS. 1 65
has been celebrated in Tariary fince the time of
Chengiz, who is faid to have repubUlhed
them in his empire, as his inilitutions were
afterwards adopted and enforced by Taimu'r ;
but they feem to have been a common or tra-
ditionary law, and were probably not reduced
into writing till Chengiz had conquered a
nation who were able to write.
III. Had the religious opinions and allegorical
fables of the Hindus been a61:ually borrowed
from Scythia, travellers mud have difcovered
in that country fome antient monuments of
them, fuch as pieces of grotefque fculpture,
images of the Gods and Avatars, and infcrip-
tions on pillars or in caverns, analogous to thofe
which remain in every part of the weftern pe-
ninfula, or to thofe which many of us have
feen in Bahar and at Banaras ; but (except a
few detached idols) the only great monuments
of Tartarian antiquity are a line of ramparts
on the weft and eaft of the Cafpian, afcribed
indeed by ignorant Mufelmans to Ya'ju'j and
MajuJ, or Gog and Magog, that is to the Scy-
thians, but manifeftly raifed by a very dif-
ferent nation, in order to ftop their predatory
inroads through the paffes of Caucafus. The
Cbineje wall was built or finished on a iimilar
conftruiflion, and for a Iimilar purpofe, by an
Emperor who died only two hundred and ten
years before the begin nnig of our era ; and the
M 3 other
l66 ON THE TARTARS.
Other mounds were very probably conftrucled
by the olei Pe Jlans^ though, hke many works of
unknown or gin, they are given to Secander ;
not the Macedonian^ but a more ancient hero,
fuppofed by fome to have been Jemifj'/d. It is
related, that pyramids and tombs hive been
found in Tatlirifilm, or V/eftern Scyihia, and
fbme remnaiits o( edifices in the lake Saifan ;
that veftiges of a deferted city have been re-
cently difcovered by the KuJJlam near the
Cafpian fea, and the Mountahi of Eagles ; and
that golden ornaments and uteniiis, figures of
elks and other quadrupeds in metal, weapons of
various kinds, and even implements for mining,
but made oi copper inflead of iron, have been
dug up in the country of the Tfimdes ; whence
M. Bailly infers, with great reafon, the
high antiquity of that people : but the high an-
tiquity of the -lartars, and their eflabUfliment
in that country near four thoufand years ago,
no man difputcs ; we are enquiring into their
ancient religion ainl pliilofcphy, which neither
ornaments of gold, nor tools of copper, will
prove to have had an affinity v/ith the religious
rites and the fciences of India, The golden
uteniiis might poifibly have been fabricated by
the Tartars i\i^ix\(t\vt?>\ but it is poffible too
that they were carried from Rome or from
China^ \vhence occafional embaffies were fent
to
/
ON THE TARTARS. 167
to the Kings of Eighur. Towards the end of
the tenth century, the Chinefe Emperor dif-
patched an ambaflador to a prince named
Ersla'n, which, in the Turk'ifi of ConJianU-
7iople, fignlfies a hon, who refided near the
Golden Mountain, in the fame ftation, perhaps,
where the Romans had been received in the
middle of the fixth century. The Chinefe on his
return home reported the Eighuns to be a
o-rave people, with fifir complexions, diligent
workmen, and ingenious artificers, not only
in gold, filver, and iron, but in jafper and fine
ftones ; and the Romans had before defcribed
their magnificent reception in a rich palace
adorned with Chinefe manufadures : but thefe
times were comparatively modern ; and even
if we fhould admit that the Eiglm')s, who are
faid to have been governed for a period of two
.thoufand years by an Vdecut, or fovereign of
their own race, were, in fome very early age,
a literary and polilhed nation, it would prove
nothing in favour of the Huns, Turcs, Mo?igals,
and other favages to the north of Pekin, who
feem in all ages, before Mu hammed, to have
been equally ferocious and illiterate.
Without a6i:ual infpeftion of the manu-
fcripts that have been found near the Cafpian^
it would be impofiible to give a correal opinion
concerning; them ; but one of them, defcribed
M 4 33
I 68 ON THE TARTARS.
as written on blue filky paper in letters of gold
and filver, not unlike Hebrew^ was probably a
Tibetian compofition of the fame kind with that
which lay near the fource of the IrtJJJj^ and of
which CossiANO, I believe, made the firft
accurate verfion. Another, if we may judge
from the defcription of it, was probably modern
Turkijh ; and none of them coula have been of
great antiquity.
IV. From ancient monuments, therefore, we
have no proof that the Tartars were themfelves
well inftrucled, much lefs that they intruded
the world ; nor have we any Wronger reafon to
conclude from their general manners and cha-
racter, that they had made an early proficiency
in arts and fciences : even of poetry, the mofl
univerfal and moft natural of the fine arts, we
find no genuine fpecimens afcribed to them,
except lume honible war-fongs, exprelfed in
Ferf,a7i by Ali of Yezd, and poffibly in-
vented by him. After the conqueft of Pt'^^
by the Mongals^ their princes, indeed, encou-
raged learning, and even made aftrc^nomical, ob-
fervations at Samarkand ; and, as the Tiirks^ be-
came pplifhed by mixing with the Ftrfians and
Arabs, thoMgh their very nature, as one of
their own writers confefles, had before been
like an incurable diflemper, and their minds
clouded with ignorance. Thus alfo the Man-
ch
eu.
ON THE TARTARS.
cheii monarchs of China have been patrons of
the learned and ingenious ; and the Emperor
TiENLONG is, if he be now living, a fine
Lh'inefe poet. In all thefe inftances the Tartars
have refembled the Komans ; who, before they
had fubdued Greece^ were little better than
tigers in war, and Fauns pr Sy Ivans ir^ fcience
and art.
Before I left Europe, I had infilled, in con-
verfation, that the Tu%uc^ tranflated by Major
Davy, was never written by Taimu'r himfeif,
at leaft not as C^s ar wrote his Commentaries,
for one very plain reafon, That no Tartarian
king of his age could write at all; and in fup-
port of my opinion I had cited Ibnu Arabsh a'h,
who, though juftly hoftile to the favage by
whom his native city Damafcus had been ruined,
yet praifes his talents and the real greatnefs of
his mind, but adds, " He was wholly illiterate ;
he neither read nor wrote any thing ; and he
knew nothing of Arahick, though q{ Perjtan,
Turkijhj and the AjOgul dialecl he knew as
?' much as was fufficient for his purpofe, and
f' no more : he iifcd with pleafure to hear hif-
** tories read to him, and fo frequently heard
" the fame book, that he was able by memory
** to corre<5l an inaccurate reader." This pal-
fage had no effed on the tranflator, whom great
and learned men in India had afllired, it feems,
that the work was authentic ; by which he
means
ft
lyo ON THE TARTARS.
means compofed by the conqueror hlmfelf : but
the great in this country might have been un-
learned, or the learned might not have been great
enough to anfvver any leading queftion in a man-
ner that oppofed the declared inclination of a
Brit'ijh inquirer ; and in either cafe, fnice no
witnefles are named, fo general a reference to
them v/ill hardly be thought conclufive evi-
dence. On my part I will name a Mufelman,
"whom we all know, and who has enough both of
greatnefs and of learning to decide the queftion
both impartially and fatisfaftorily : the Nainj-
wab vlozuFFER Jung informed me of his own
accord, that no man of fenfe in Windujlan be-
lieved the work to have been compoied by
Taimu^r, but that his favourite, furnamed
Hindu Sha'h, was known to have written
that book and others afcribed to his patron,
after many confidential difcourfes with the Etiiir,
and perhaps nearly in the Prince's words as
well as in his perfon ; a ftory which i^Li of
Yezd, who attended the court of Taimu'r,
and has given us a flowery panegyrick inftead
of a hiftory, renders highly probable, by con-
firming the latter part of the Arabian account,
and by total {ilence as to the literary productions
of his mafter. It is true, that a very ingenious,
but indigent, native, whom Davy fupported,
has given me a written memorial on the fub-
jed, in which he mentions Taimu'r as the
author
ON THE TARTARS. I7I
author of two works in Turkish ; but the
credit of his information is overlet by a ftrange
apocryphal ilory of a king of Temen who in-
vaded, he fays, the £;///r's dominions, and in
whofe library the manufcript was afterwards
found, and tranflated by Oider of Al'ijlw, firfl
minifter of Taimu'r's grandfon ; and Major
Davy himfelf, before he departed from Bengal^
told me, that he was greatly perplexed by
finding in a very accurate and old copy of the
T^u'zuc, which he defigned to republiih with
confiderable additions, a particular account
written, unqueftionably, by Taimu'r of his
own death. No evidence, therefore, has beeri
adduced to {hake my opinion, that the Moguls
and Tl'artars, before their conqueft oi India and
Perjia., w^ere wholly unlettered ; although it
may be poflible that, even without art or fci-
ence, they had, like the Hmis^ both warriors
and law-givers in their own country fome cen-
turies before the birth of Christ.
If learning was ever anciently cultivated in
the regions to the north of Indla^ the feats of
}t, I have reafon to fufpe£l, mufl: have been
JE'igbur, CaJI?ghar, Kbatci, Ch'm, Tancut, and
other countries of Chinefe fartary, which lie
between the thirty-fifth and forty-fifth degrees
of northern latitude ; but I fhall, in another
Difcourfe, produce my reafons for fuppofing
that
172 ON THE TARTARS.
that thofe very countries were peopled by a racq
allied to the Hindus^ or eiilighcened at leaft by
their vicinity to Itidla and China ; yet in Tancut^
which by fome is annexed to Tibet ^ and even
among its old inhabitants, the Seres y we have
no certain accounts of uncommon talents or
great improvements : they were famed, indeed,
for the faithful difcharge of moral duties, for
a pacifick difpolition, and for that longevit7
which is often the reward of patient virtues and
a calm temper ; but they are faid to have been
wholly indifferent, in former ages, to the ele-
gant arts, and even to commerce ; though
Fadlu'llah had been informed, that, near
the clofe of the thirteenth century, many
branches of natural philofophy were culti-
vated in Cam-chew, then the metropolis of
Ser'ica,
We may readily believe thofe who aflure
tis that fome tribes of wanderins: Tartars had
real fkill in applying herbs and minerals to the
purpofes of medicine, and pretended to ikill in
magic ; but the general character of their na-
tion feems to have been this : they were pro-
fefled hunters or fifhers, dwelling ori that ac-
count in forefts or near great rivers, under huts
or rude tents, or in waggons drawn by their
cattle from ftation to (lation ; they were dex-
trous archers, excellent horfemen, bold comba^
tants.4
ON THE TARTARS. I7j[
tants, appearing often to flee in dlforder for the
fake of renewing their attack with advantage 5
•drinking the milk of mares and eating the flefh
of colts ; and thus in many refpefls refembhng
the old Arahs^ but in nothing more than in
their love of intoxicating liquors, and in no-
thing lefs than in a tafte for poetry and the im-
provement of their language.
Thus has it been proved, and, in my hum-
ble opinion, beyond controverfy, that the far
greater part of Afia has been peopled, and im-
memorially poffeffed, by three confiderable na-
tions, whom, for want of better names, we
may call Hindus^ Arabs, and 'Tartars ; each
of them divided and fubdivided ir.to an infi-
nite number of branches, and all of them fb
different in form and features, language, mian-
ners, and religion, that if they fprang origi-
nally from a common root, they muil: have
been feparated for ages : whether more than
three primitive ftocks can be found, or, in
other words, whether the Ch'mefe^ Japaneje^
and Perjians, are entirely difriri6l from them,
or formed by their intermixture, I Ihall here-
after, if your indulgence to me continue, di-
ligently inquire. To what conclufions thofe
inquiries will lead, I cannot yet clearly dif-
cern ; but if they lead to truth, we (hall not
regret our journey through this dark region
of ancient hiftory,. In whish, while we pro-
ceed.
174 ^N THE TARTARS.
Ceed ftep by ftep, and follow every glimmer-
ing of certain light that prefents itfelf, we
muil: beware of thofe falfe rays and luminous
vapours which miflead Afiatick travellers by an
appearance of water, but are found, on a near
approach, to be deferts of fand.
DIS"
( ^7S )
ISSERTATION VI.
ON THE
PERSIANS.
BEING THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE
DELIVERED TO THE SOCIETY FEB. I9, I789.
GENTLEMEN,
1TURN with delight from the vafl moun-
tains and barren deferts of 'Turan, over-
which we travelled lafl: year Vv^Ith no perfect
knowledge of our courfe, and requeft you now
to accompany me on a literary journey through
one of the moft celebrated and mod beautiful
countries in the world ; a country, the hiftory
and languages of which, both ancient and mo-
dern, 1 have long attentively fludied, and on
which I may without arrogance promife you
more pofitive information, t,han I could poffibly
procure on a nation fo difiinited and fo unlettered
as the Tartars : I mean that which Europeans
improperly call Per/la, the name of a iingle
province being applied to the whole Empire of
Ira^i,
376 ON THE PERSIANS.
Iran J as it is corre£lly denominated by the pfe^
fent natives of it, and by all the learned Mufei-
mans who refide in thefe BritiJJo territories.
To give you an idea of its largeft boundaries,
agreeably to my former mode of defc ribing
Ind'ia^ Arabia, and Tartary, between which it
lies, let us begin with the fource of the great
jijjyrian fcream Euphrates^ (as the Greeks^ ac-
cording to their cuftom, were pleafed to mif-
call the Forat) and thence defcend to its mouth
in the Green Sea, or Perfian Gulf, including
in our line Ibme confiderablediflrifts and towns
on both fides of the river ; then coafling
Pcrfia properly fo named, and other Ira-
nian provinces, we come to the Delta of
the S'mdhu or Indus ; whence afcending %o
the mountains of CaJJjghar^ we difcover its
fountains and thofe of the y<2//&/)//, down which
we are conducted to the Cafpian^ which for-
merly perhaps it entered, though it lofe itfelf
now in the fands and lakes of Khwarezm : we
next are led from the fea of Khozar, by the
banks of the Cur, or Cyrus, and along the
Caucafean ridges, to the fliore of the Euxine^
and thence by the feveral Grecian feas, to the
point, whence we took our departure, at no
confiderable diftance from the Mediterranean,
We cannot but include the Lower ^^<^ within this
outline, becaufe it was unqueftionably a part
of the Perjian, if not of the old Ajfjyrian
Empire ;
ON THE PERSIANS. I JJ
Empire ; for we know that it was under the
dominion of Caikhousrau ; and Diodorus,
we, find, aflerts, that the kingdom of l^roas
was dependent on Afjyriay lince Priam im-
plored and obtained fuccours from his Emperor
Teutames, vvhofe name approaches neaier to
Tahmu'ras, than to that of any other y^ljjyrjan
Monarch. Thus may we look on Iran as the
iiobleU: ifland (for fo the Greeks and the Arabs
would have called it), or at leaft as the nobleft
peninfula, on this habitable globe ; and if M.
Bailly had fixed on it as the Atlantis of
Plato, he might have lupported his opinion
with far flronger arguments than any that he
has adduced in favour of New Zemhla. If the
account, indeed, of the Atlantes be not purely
an Egyptian or an Utopian fable, I fhould
be more inclined to place them in Irony than
in any region with which I am acquainted.
It may feem flrange, that the ancient hiftory
of fo diflinguiflied an Empire fhould be yet fo
imperfe6l:ly known ; but very fatisfadory reafons
may be afligned for our ignorance of it : the
principal of ihem are, the fuperficial knowledge
of the Greeks and Jews, and the lofs of Perjian
archives or hiflorical compofitions. That the
Grecian writers, before Xenophon, had no
acquaintance with Perfia, and that all their
accounts of it are wholly fabulous, is a p-^radox
too extravagant to be ferioufly maintained ; but
N their
178 ON THE PERSIANS.
their connedlion with it in war or peace had,
indeed, been generally confined to bordering
kingdoms, under feudatory princes ; and the
iiril: Pcrfan Emperor whole life and character
they feem to have known with tolerable ac-
curacy, was the great Cyrus, whom 1 call,
without fear of contradidion, Caikhosrau;
for I fhall then only doubt thattheKnosRAU of
FiRDAUsi' was the Cyrus of the firfl: Greek
hiftorian, and the Hero of the oldeft political
and moral romance, when I doubt that Louis
QuATORzE and Lewis the Fourteenth were
one and the lame French King : it is utterly
incredible, that two different Princes o{ Perf,a
Ihould each have been born in a foreign and
hoflile territory ; fhould each have been doomed
to death in his infancy by his maternal grand-
father, in confequence of portentous dreams,
real or invented ; fhould each have been
faved by the remorfe of his deftined murderer ;
and fhould each, after a fimilar education
among herdfmen, as the fon of a herdfman,
have found means to revifit his paternal king-
dom, and have delivered it, after a long and
triumphant war, fiom the tyrant who had
invaded it ; fhould have reftored it to the lum-
mit of power and miagnificence. Whether fo
romantic a ftory, which is the fubjeft of an
Epic Poem as m'ajeftick and entire as the Iliad,
bs
ON THE PERSIANS. 1 79
be hiftorically true, we may feel perhaps an
inclination to doubt ; but it cannot with reafon
be denied, that the outhne of it related to a
fingle Hero, whom the AJtatich^ conv^erfing
with the Father of Europea?i hiftory, defcribed
according to their popular traditions by his true
name, which the Greek alphabet could not ex-
prefs : nor will a diiference of names affe^l the
queftion ; fince the Greeks had little regard for
truth, which they facrihced willingly to the
graces of their language, and the nicety of
their ears ; and, if they could render foreign
Words ilielodious, they were never lolicitous
to make them exadl. Hence they probably
formed .Cambyses from Ca'mbakhsh, or
Granting Dejires, a title rather than a name; and
Xerxf.s from Shi'ru'vi, a Prince and War-
rior in the Shlihnamah, or from Shi'rsha'h,
which might alfo have been a title ; for the
Jljlatkk Princes have conftantly afiumed new
titles or epithets at different periods of their
lives, or on ditFereiit occafions ; a cuftom,
which we have feen prevalent in our own times
both in Iran and Hindujian, and v/hich has
been a fource of great confufion even in the
fcriptural accounts of Eabyloman occurrences.
Bo th Gri?^/{' J and y^Te; J- have^ in fad", accommodated
Perjian names to their own articuhition ; and
both feem to have difregarded the native litera-
N 2 ture
iSo ON THE PERSIANS,
. ture of Iran, without which they could at moil:
attain a general and imperfe6t knowledge of the
country. As to the Perjians themfelves, who
wtTQ^ contemporary with the Jews and Greeks,
they mull: have been acquainted w^th the hif-
tory of their own times, and with the tradi*
tiona] accounts of pall: ages ; but, for a reafon
which will prefently appear, they chofe to con-
fider Cayu'mers as the founder of their em-
pire ; and, in the numerous diil:rad:ion3 which
tollowed the overthrow of Da'ra', efpecially
in the sreat revolution on the defeat of Yezde-
GIRD, their civil hiftories were loft, as thofe
oi India have unhappily been, from the folici-
tudeof the priefts, the only depofitarics of their
learning, to prelerve their books of law and
religion at the expence of all others : hence it
has happened, that nothing remains of genuine
Ferftcm hiftory before the dynafty of Sa'sa'n,
except a few ruftick traditions and fables, which
furnifhed materials for the Shahnlunah, and
which are ftill fuppofed to exifl: in the Pahlavi
language. The annals of the P'/JJjdad'i on A/jy-
rlan race mufl: be confidered as dark and fibu-
lous; and thofe of the Caylmt family, or the
Medes and Perfa?is, as heroick and poetical ;
though the lunar eclipfes, faid to be mentioned
by Ptolemy, fix the time of Gushtasp, the
Prince by whom Zera'tusiit was proteifled.
Of the Partbia7i Kings defcended from Arshac
or
ON THE PERSIANS. l8l
or Arsaces, we kiow little more than the
names ; but the Safnii had lo long an inter-
courfe with the iimperors of Rome ^nd Byzan-
tium, that the period of their dominion may
be called an hiftorical age.
In attempting to afcertain the beginning
of the AJfyriafi Empire, we are deluded,
as in a thoufand inftances, by names ar-
bitrarily impofed. It had been fettled by
chronologers, that the firft monarchy efta-
blifhed in PerJIa was the Jffyrian ; and N i w-
TON, finding fome of opinion, that it rofe in
the firft century after the Flood, but unable by
his own calculations to extend it farther back
than feven hundred and ninety years before
Christ, rejeded part of the old fy flem and
.adopted the reft of it; concluding, that the
Affynan Monarch s began to reign about two
hundred years after Solomon, and that in all
preceding ages, the government of Iran had
been divided into feveral petty Statcj; and Prin-
cipalities, Of this opinion I confefs myfelf to
have been; when, difregarding the wild chro-
nology of the Mufehmns and Gahrs, I had al-
lowed the utmoft natural duration to the reigns
of eleven F'ljlodadt Kings, without being able to
add more than a hundred vears to Newton*s
computation. It feems, indeed, unaccountably
ftrange, that, although Abraham had found
^ regular monarchy in Egyft ; although the
M ^ :_„ Icitio-don^
l83 ON THE PERSIANS.
kingdom of Teme?t had juft pretenfions to very
high antiquity ; although the Chinefe in the
twelfth century before our era had made ap-
proaches at lead to the prefent form of their
exienfive dominions; and ahhough we can
harc^ly fuppofe the iirfl Indian Monarchs to
have reigned lefs than three thoufand years ago ;
yet Perjza, the mod dehghtful, the moft com-,
pad, the moil: defirable country of them all,
fliould have remained for fo many ages un-r
fettled and difunited. A fortunate difcoverv,
f^r which I was firft hidebted to Mi'r
MuHAMMED HusATN, One of the mof!: intel-
ligent Mufelmuns in India^ has at once difhpated
the cloud, and cafl a gleam of light on the pri-
meval hiftory of Iran^ and of the human race,
of which I had long defpaired, and which
could hardly have dawned from any other
quarter.
The rare and intereding traft on twelve dif-
ferent religions, entitled 'The Dabijian, and
compofed by a Mohammcdcm traveller, a native
of CaJJjm)r., namied Mohsan, but diilinguiflied
by the afiumed furname oF Fa'ni', or PeriJJj-
able^ begins with a v/onderfully curious chapter
on the religion of Hu'shang, which was long
anterior to that of Zera'tusht, but had con-
tinued to be fecretly profeffed by many learned
P^"r/?^;?j even to the author's time ; and feveral
o
ON THE PERSIANS. 1 83
of the moll: eminent of them, diflenting ][i
many points from the Gabrs, and perfecuted by
the ruUng powers of their country, had re-
tired to India, where they compiled a number
of books, now extrernely fcarce, which Muh-
SAN had peruled, and with the writers of
which, or with many of them, he had con-
tracted an intimate frienofhip. From them he
learned, that a powerful monarchy had been
eftablifiied forages in Iran j before the accellion
of Cayi/mers ; that it was called iheMahaba-
dian dynafty, for a reafon which will foon be
mentioned ; and that many Princes, of whom
feven or eight only are named in The Dabifian,
and among them Mahbul, or Ma ha' Beli,
had raifed their Empire to the zenith of human
sJory, If we can rely on this evidence, which
to me appears unexceptionable, the Iranian
Monarchy muf!: have been the oldeil: in the
world ; but it will remain dubious, to which
of the three flocks, Hindu, Arabian, or Tar-
tar, the firfl Kines of Iran belon2;ed ; or whe-
ther they fprang from a fourth race diflincl
from any of the others : and thefe are queftions
which we fhall be able, I imap-ine, to anfwer
precifely, when we have carefully inquired into
the languages and letters, religion and philo-
fophy, and incidentally into the arts and
fciences, of the ancient Perjians^
N 4 L In
184 ON THE PERSIANS.
I. In the new and important remarks whieh
I am s^oinsf to offer on the ancient lano;ua2;es
and charadlers of Iran, I am ienfible, that you
muft give me credit for many afiertions, which
on this occafion it is impofiible to prove ; for I
fliould ill deferve your indulgent attention, if I
were to abufe it by repeating a dry lift of de-
tached words, and prefenting you with a voca-
bulary inftead of a diflertation ; but, fmce I
have no fyflem to maintain, and have not fuf-
fered imagination to delude my judgement;
iince I have habituated myfelf toform opinions
of men and things from evidence, which is
the only folid bafis of civil, as experiment is of
natural, knowledge; and fince I have maturely
confidered the queilions which I mean to dif-
cufs ; you will not, 1 am periuaded, fufoe6t
my teflimony, or think that 1 go too far, v^^hen
I afiure you, that I will .iflert nothing pofitively,
which I am not able fatisfadorily to demon-
ftrate When Muhammed was born, and
Anu'shi'rava'n, wh m he calls the Jujl
King, lat on the throne of rerfia^ two lan-
guages appear to have been generally prevaleiU
in the great Empire of /r:/?/ ; that of the Court,
• thence named Deri^ which was only a refined
and elee-nt dialect of the Farsi, fo called from
the province of which Sh'iraz is now the capi-
tal ; and that of the Learned, in which moil
bojks
ON THE PERSIANS. 185
books were compofed, and which had the name
of Pahlav), either from the Heroes who fpoke
it in former times, or from Pahlu, a tra6l of
land, which included, we are told, fome con-
fiderable cities of Irak. The ruder dialers of
both were, and I believe fl:ill are, fpoken by
the rufticks in fcveral provinces ; and in many
of them, as Herat ^ Zabul^ S't/iati, and others,
diftincfl idioms were vernacular, as it happens
in every kingdom of great extent. Belides
the Pars) and Pahlav), a very ancient and ab-
ftrufe ton2;ue was known to the Priefts and
Philofophers, called the language of the Zend„
becaufe a book on religious and moral du ies,
which they held facred, and which bore that
nam.e, had been written in it ; while the Pa-
%end^ or Comment on that work, was com-
pofed in Pahlavi, as a more popular idiom ; but
a learned follower of Zera'tusht, named
Bahman, who lately died at Calcutta, where
he had lived with me as a Perjian reader about
three years, allured me, that the letters of his
Prophet's book were properly called Zend, and
the language, Avejla, as the words of the Vedas
are Sanfcrit, and the charatlers, Nagari ; or
as the old Sagas and poems of IfelandwtxQ ex-
preffed in Runick letters. Let us however, in
compliance with caOom, give the name of
Zend to the facred language of Perfia, unt.l we
can
l86 ON THE PERSIANS.
can find, as we fnall very loon, a fitter appel-
lation for it. The Zend and the old Pahlcwi
are aln:iofl extinct in Irm ; for among fix or
feven thoufand Gahrs who reiide chiefly at
T'ezd^ and in C'lrman there are very {^\n who
can read Pahictvi, and fcarce any who even
boaft of knowing the Zend; while the Pars\
which remains almofl pure in the Shdhnamah^
has now become, by the intermixture of num-
berlefs Arah'ick words, and many imperceptible
changes, a new language, exquifitely polillied
by a feries of fine writers in profe and verfe,
and analogous to the different idioms gradually
formed in Europe after the fubverfion of the
Roman Empire : but with modern Ferfians wc
have no concern in our prefent enquiry, which
I confine to the ages that preceded "The Moham-
tncdan conqueft.
tlAviNG twice read the works of Firdausi'
with ereat attention, fince I applied mylelf
To the ftudy of old Indian literature, I can
afiiure you, with confidence, that hundreds
of Plirsi nouns are pure Sanfcrit, with no.
other change than inch as may be oblerved
in the numerous Chaflhis^ or vernacular dia-
lecls, of India ; that very many imperatives
are the roots of Sanfcrit verbs ; and that even
the moods and tenfes of the Perfian verb fiab-
flantive, which is the model of all the refl:,
are deducible from the Sanfcrit by an eaJy and
clear
ON THE PERSIANS, l^y
t
clear analogy. We may hence conclude, that
the Pars) was derived, like the various Indian
dialects, from the language of the Brahmans ;
and I muft add, that in the pure Perjhn I faid
no trace of any Arabian tongue, except what
proceeded from the known intercourfe between
the Perjians and Arabs, efpecially in the time
of Bahra^m, who was educated in Arabia^ and
w^hofe Arabick verfes are ftill extant, together
with his heroick line in Deri, which many
fuppofe to be the firft attempt at Perjian verfi-
fication in Arabian mtlxt. But, without hav-
ing recourfe to other arguments, the compojitioii
f words, in which the genius o1 \}i\^ Perjian
delights, and which that of the Arabick ab-
hors, is a decifive proof, that the Pars) fprang
from an Indian, and not from an Arabian iiock.
Coniiderins: lansuagres as mere inftruments of
knowledge, and having flrong reafon to doubt the
exiftence of o;enuine books iw^heZendoxPahlaih
(efpecially fince the well-informed author of The
T>abijla7i affirms the work of Zera'tusht to
have been lofl:, and its place lupplied by a re-
cent compilation), I had no inducement, though
I had an opportunity, to learn what remains of
thofe ancient languages ; but I often converfed
on them with my friend Bahman, and both of
us were convinced, after full coniideration,
that the T^end bore a ftrong refemblance to Sanf-
criiy and the Pahlavi to Arabick. He had at
my
i8S
ON THE PERSIANS.
my reqnefl tranflated into Pahlav) the fine in<»-
fcription, exhibited in the Gu/ijicjn, on the diadem
of Cyrus ; and I had the patience to read thehil:
of words from the Pazend^ m the Appendix to
the Farhangtjehimg'ir'i. This examination gave
me perfect convi6lion, that the Pahlavt was a
dialect of the Chaldakk ; and of this curious
fa6l I will exhibit a fhort proof.
By the nature of the Chaldean tong-ue moil
words ended in the firil: long vowel XAs.^ Jhemia^
Heaven ; and that very \vord, unaltered in a fingle
letter, we find in the Pazcnd, together with iaiHa,
night, ?/Zd^«, water, n'lrci, fire, matra^ rain, and a
inukitude of others, all uirab'ick or Hebrew^
with a Chaldean termination. So zamar. bva
beautiful metaphor from pruning trees^ means
ill Hebrew to compofc verfes ; and thence, by an
eafy tranfition, to fitg them : and in Pah lav),
we fee the verb zamrunrten^ to /ing, with its
forms zamrimemi, I iing, and zamri'm'/d, he
fjing ; the verbal terminations of the Perftan
being added to the Chahia'ick root. Now all
thofe words are integral parts of the lans^uage,
not adventitious to it, like the Arabick nouns
and verbals engrafted on modern Perjian ; and
this diftinftion convinces me, that the dialect
of the Gabrs, which they pretend to be that of
Zf.raVusht, and of which Bahman gave
me a variety of written fpecimens, is a late
invention
ON THE PERSIANS. l8^
invention of their Priefts, or fubfequent at
leaft to the Mtifehnan invalion. For, although
it may be poffible, that a few of their facred
books were preferved, as he ufed to affert, in
(heets of lead or copper at the bottom of wells,
near Tezd, yet as the conquerors had not
only a fpiritual but a political interefl in
perfecuting a warlike, robuft, and indignant
race of irreconcileable conquered fubjedls, a long
time mull: have elapfed before the hidden
fcriptures could have been fafely brought to
light ; and few who could perfectly under-
iland them, mud: then have remained : but, as
they continued to profeis among themfelves the
religion of their forefathers, it became expe-
dient for the Miibeds to fupply the loil: or muti-
lated works of their legiflator by new compo-
fitions, partly from their imperfe^i; recolleftiori,
and partly from fuch moral and religious know-
ledge as they gleaned, mofl: probably, among
the Chri/iiafis^ with whom they had an inter-
courfc. One rule we may fairly eftabliih in
deciding the queftion, Whether the books of
the modern Gahrs were anterior to the invafion
of the .Arabs ? When an Arabkk noun occurs
in them, changed only by the fpirit of the
Chaldean idiom, as ijcerta for werd^ a rofe ;
daha for dhahab, gold, or demchi for %eman^
time, We may allow it to have been ancient
FahlwSi ;
IpO ON THE PERSIANS.
Pahlav) ; but when we meet with verbal nouns
or infinitives evidently formed by the rules of
Arabian grammar, we may be fure, that the
phrafes in which they occur are compara-
ratively modern ; and not a finglc pafiage
which Bah MAN produced from the books of
his religion would abide this tefl.
We come now to the language of the Zend.
And here I mull impart a difcovery which I
lately made, and from which we may draw the
moH: interefting confequences. M. Anquetil,
who had the merit of undertaking a Voyage to
India, in his earlieft youth, with no other
view than to recover the writino-s of Ze-
Ra'tusht, and who would have acquired a
brilliant reputation in France, if he had not
fullied it by his immoderate vanity and viru-
lence of temper, which alienated the p-ood-
will even of his own countrymen, has ex-
hibited in his work, entitled Zcndavejia, two
vocabularies in Zend and PahlaVt, which he
had found in an approved colleftion oiRawdyat^
or T^raditional Pieces, in modern Perfian. ' Of
his PahlaiSiwo more needs be faid, than that it
ftrongly confirms my opinion concerning the
Chaldaick origin of that language ; but when
I perufed the Zend gloifary, 1 was inexprefhbly
furprifed to find, that fix or feven words in ten
were pure Sanfcrit, and even fome of their in-
flexions
ON THE PERSIANS. ipi
flexions formed by the rules of the Vy'icaran ;
as yujijmacam, the genitive plural of yujiomad.
Now M. Anquetil moft certainly, and the
Perfian compiler moft probably, had no know-
ledge of Sanfcrit ; and could not, therefore,
have invented a lift of Sanfcrit w^ords : it is,
therefore, an authentick lift of Zend words
which had been preierved in books or by tra-
dition ; and it follows, that the language of the
Zend was at leaft a dialect of the Sanfcrit, ap-
proaching perhaps as nearly to it as the Prcxrit^
or other popular idioms, which we know to
have been fpoken in India two thoufand years
agro.
From all thefe f^i61:s it is a neceff",ry con-
fequence, that the oldeftdifcoverable languages
of Perjia were Chaldaick and Sanfcrit ; and
that, when they had ceafed to be vernacular,
the Pahlav\'SL\\di ZendwQYt deduced from them
refpe6lively ; and the Pars} cither from the
Ze7id, or immediately from the dialcdl of the
Brahmans : but all had, perhaps, a mixture of
Tartarian ; for the beft lexicographers aflert,
that injmberlefs words in ancient Perfian are
taken from the lano-uac-eof the Cimmerians, or
the T^artars of Ripchak : fo that the tbree fa-
milies, whofe lineage we have examined in
former Difcourfes, had left vifible traces of
themfelves in Iran, long before the Tartars
and yJrabs had ruflied from their deferts, and
returned
192 ON THE PERSIANS.
returned to that very country from which in-
all probabiUty they originally proceeded, and
which the Hindus had abandoned in an earlier
age, with pofitive commands from their le-
gifiators to reviiit it no more.
I CLOSE this head with obferving, that no fup-
pofition of a mere political or commercial inter-
courfe between the different nations will account
for the Sanfcrit and Chaldaick words which w^e
lind in the old Perjian tongues; becaufe they are,
in the firft place, too numerous to have been in-
troduced by fuch means, and, fecondly, are not
the names of exotick animals, commodities, or
arts, but thofe of material elements, parts of
the body, natural objcftsand relations, affedions
of the mind, and other ideas common to the
whole race of man.
If a nation of Hindus^ it may be urged,
ever poliefied or governed the country of Jran^
we fhould find in the very ancient ruins of the
temple or palace now called the throne of
Jemshi'd, fome infcriptions in Di'vanagar), or
at leafl in the characters on the ftones at Ele-
phanta^ where the fculpture is unqueftionably
Indian^ or in thofe on the Staff of F/ru'z
Sha'ii, which exill: in the heart of India-, and
fuch infcriptions we probably fhould have
found, if that edifice had not been ereClcd after
the migration of the Brahmans from Iran, and
the
OK THE PERSIANS. I93
the violent fchifm in the Perjian religion, of
which we (hall prefently fpeak : for, although
the popular name of the building at JJIakhr^ or
Perfepolis^ be no certain proof that* it was
raifed in the time of Jemshi'd, yet fuch a fa£):
might eafily have been preferved by tradition ;
and we fhall foon have abundant evidence, that
the temple was pofterior to the reign of the
Hindu Monarchs. The cyprejfcsy indeed, which
are reprefented with the figures in proceffion^
might induce a reader of the Shmamah to be-
lieve, that the fculpturcs related to the new
faith introduced by Zera^tusht ; but as a
cyprefs is a beautiful ornament, and as many of
the figures appear inconfiftcnt with the re-
formed adoration of fire, we muft have recourfe
toflronger proofs, that the Takhti Jemshi'd
was ere6led after Cayu^mers. The buildino:
has lately been vifited, and the characters on it
examined, by Mr. Franklin ; from whom
we learn, that Niebuhr has delineated them
with great accuracy : but without fuch tefti-
mony 1 fhould have fufpefted the corrednefs of
the delineation ; becaufe the DaniJJj traveller
has exhibited two infcriptions in modern
Terfian^ and one of them from the fame place,
which cannot have been exa6Vly tranfcribed.
They are very elegant verfes of Ni'za'mi' and
Sadi', on the hiflabifity of human great nefs ', but
fo ill engraved, or fo ill copied, that if I had
O not
194 ON THE PERSIANS.
/^v
not had them nearly by^art, I fhoulcl not
have been able to read them ; and M. Rous-
seau of Isfahan^ who tranflated them with
fhameful inaccuracy, mud have been de-
ceived by the badnefs of the copy, or he never
would have created a new King VVakam, by
forming one word of Jim, and the particle
prefixed to it. Affumiiig, however, that we
may reafon as conclufively on the charadlers
publiflied by Niebuhr as we might on the
monuments themfelves, were they now before
us, we may begin with obferving, as Chardin
had obferved on the very fpot, that they bear
no refemblance whatever to the letters ufed by
the Gabrs in their copies of the Vendidad. This
I once urged, in an amicable debate with
Bahman, as a proof, that the Zend letters
were a modern invention ; but he feemed to
hear me without furprife ; and inlifted that the
letters to which I alluded, and which he had
often feen, were monumental chara6lers never
ufed in books, and intended either to conceal
fome religious myfteries from the vulgar, or to
difplay the art of the Sculptor, like the embel-
iillied Cujick and Nagan in feveral Arabian and
Indian monuments. He wondered, that any
man could ferioufly doubt the antiquity of the
Tahlavi letters; and, in truth, the infcription
behind the horfe of Riijlaniy which Niebuhr
has
'ON THE PERSIANS. I95
has alfo given lis, is apparently Pahlav), and
might with fome pains be decyphered. That
eharacfler was extremely rude, and fcems to
have been written, like the Rornafi and the
Arahick^ in a variety of hands ; for I remem-
ber to have examined a rare colledion of old
Perjtan coins in the Mufeum of the great Ana-
tomifl: William Hunter, and though I be-
lieve the legends to be Pahlav), and had no
doubt that they were coins of Parthian Kings,
yet I could n,ot read the infcriptions without
w'afting more time than 1 had then at com-
mand, in comparing the letters, andafcertaining
the proportions in which they feverally oc-
turred. The grofs Pahlavi was improved by
Zera'tusht^ or his difciples, into an elegant
and perfpicuous charader, in which the Zenda-
vejia was copied; and both were written from
the right hand to the left like other Chaldakk
alphabets, for they are manifeftly both of ChaU
dean origin ; but the Zend has the fmgular ad-
vantap-e of exDrefnno; all the lona; and fhort
vowels, by diilindl marks, in the body of each
Word, and all the words are diftinguilhed by
full- points between them ; fo that if modern
Perjiafi were unmixed with Arablclz, it might
be wTitten in Zend with the greateA conve-
nience, as anyone may perceive by cv-ving in
that chara£ler a few pages of the Shd7iamah»
O 2" As
!g6 ON THE PERSIANS.
As to the unknown infcriptions in the palace of
Jemshi'd, it may reafonably be doubted,
whether they contain a fyftem of letters which
any nation ever adopted. In^"j^ of them, the
letters, which are feparated by points, may be
^"educed to forty, at leaft I can diftinguifh no
more effentially ditferent ; and they all feem to
be regular variations and compofuions of a
ftraio-ht line and an ano'ular fissure like the head
of a javelin, or a leaf (to ule the language of
hotanifts) hearted and laiiccd. Many of the
Rutiick letters appear to have been formed of
iimilar elements ; and it has been obferved,
that the writings at Perfepolis bear a ftrong
refemblance to that which the Irijh call Ogham.
The w^ord ylgajn, in Sanjcrh^ means inyjler'wus
kiio'iplcdge ; but I dare not affirm, that the two
words had a common origin ; and only mean
to fuggeft, that if the characters in queflioa
be really alphabetical, they were probably fee ret
and facerdotal ; or a mere cypher, perhaps, of
which the priefts only had a key. They
might, I imagine, be decyphered, if the lan-
guage were certainly known ; but in all the
other infcriptions of the fame fort, the cha-
racters are too complex, and the variations of
them too numerous, to admit an opinion, that
they could be fymbols of articulate found ; for
even the A^c/^^nfyflem, which has more diflinct
letters
ON THE PERSIANS. I97
letters than any known alphabet, confifts only
of forty-nine fimple characlers, two of which
are mere fubftitutions, and four of little ufe ia
Sa?ifcrit, or in any other language ; while the
more complicated figures, exhibited by Nie-
nuHR, mufl: be as numerous at lead: as the
Chhiefe keys, which are the ligns of ideas only,
and fome of which refemble the old Pcrjian
letters at IJlakhr : the DaniJJj traveller was con-
vinced, from his own obfervation, that they
were written from the left hand, like all the
chara<flers ufed by Hindu nations. But I mud
leave this dark fubject, which 1 cannot illu-
minate, with a remark formerly made by my-
felf, that the fquare Chaldaick letters, a few of
which are found in the Ferfian ruins, appear to
have been originally the fame with the Devd-
nagar), before the latter were enclofed, as we
now fee them, in angular frames.
II. The primeval religion of Iran, if we rely
on the authorities adduced by Mohsani Fa'ni',
was that which Newton calls the oldefi: (and
it may juftly be called the noblefl) of all reli-
gions ; *' a firm belief that one Supreme God
** made the world by his power, and con-
*' tinually governed it by his providence ; a
♦* pious fear, love, and adoration of him ; a
*' due reverence for parents and aged perfons ;
** a fraternal affedion for the whole human
^' fpecies ; and a compaffionate tendernefs even
O J ♦' for
ipS ON THE PERSIANS.
*' for the brute creation." A fyftem of devor
tion lb pure and fublime could hardly, among
mortals, be of long duration ; and we learn
from Tbe Da^ifian, that the popular woriliip of
the Iranians, under Hu'shang, was purely
Sabian ; a word of which I cinnot offer any
certain etymology, but which has been deduced
by grammarians from Saba, a hojl, and particu-
larly the hojl of heaven, or the celeftial bodies,
in the adoration of which the Sabian ritual is
believed to have confifted. There is a defcrip-
tion in the learned work jufl: mentioned of the
feveral Perfan temples dedicated to the fun and
planets, of the images adored in them, and of
the magnificent proceflions to them en pre-
fcrihed feflivals, one of which is probably re-
prefented by fculpture in the ruined city of
Jemshi'd. But the planetary worfhip in Pe?jm
feems only a part of a far more complicated
religion which we now find in thefe IrJian
provinces ; for Mohsan affures us, that, in
the opinion of the heft informed Per/tans who
profefled the faith of Hu'shang, diftinguiflied
from that of Zera'tusht, the firfl monarch
of Iran and of the whole earth was Maha'j^a'd,
a word apparently Sanfcrit, who divided the
p-ople into four orders, the religious, the mili-
tary., the commercial y and \\\^fervile\ to which
he afligned names unqueflionably the fame in
their origin vvith thofe now applied to the four
primary
ON TH2 PERSIANS. ipp
primary claffes of the Hindus. They added,
that he received from the Creator, and promul-
gated among men, a f acred book in a heavenly Ian'
guage, to which the Mitfclman author gives the
Arabick title oi Dcp.t'ir, or Regulations, but the
original name of which he has not mentioned ;
and xhdiX. fourteen iViAPiA''BA''Ds had appeared or
would appear in human fliapes for the govern-
ment of this world. Now when we know that
the Hindus believe in fourteen Menu's, or ce-
leftial perfonages with fimilar functions, the
firfl: of whom left a book o^ regulations y or divine
ordinances, which they hold equal to the Fcda^
and the language of which they believe to be
that of the Gods, we can hardly doubt, that
the firft corruption of the pureft and oldeft re-
ligion was the fyftem of Indian theology in-
vented by the Brahmans, and prevalent in thofe
territories where the book of Maha'ba'd, or
Menu, is at this hour the ftandard of all religious
and moral duties. The acceflion of CayVmers
to the throne of Perjia, in the eighth or ninth
century before Christ, feems to have been
accompanied by a confiderable revolution both
in government and religion . He was mofl: pro-
bably of a different race from the Mahnbddiajis,
who preceded him, and began perhaps the new
fyftem of national faith which Hu'shang, whofe
iiame it bears, completed ; but the reformation
O 4 was
10O ON THE PERSIANS.
was partial ; for, while they reje<Sled the com-r
plex polytheifm of their predecellbrs, they re-
tained the laws of Maha'ba b with a fuperAi-
tious veneration for the fun, the planets, and
fire ; thus refembling the Hindu fefts called
Sauras and Sagnicas ; the fecond of which is
very numerous at Banares, where many agni-
hotras are continually blazing; and where the
Sagnicas, when they enter on their facerdot^l
office, kindle, with two pieces of the hard
wood Sem'h a fire which they keep lighted
through their lives for their nuptial ceremony,
the performance of folemn facrifices, the obfc-
quies of departed anceftors, and their own fu-
neral pile. 1 his remarkable rite was conti-
nued bv Zera'tusht ; who reformed the old
religion by the addition of genii, or angels, pre-
fiding over months and days ; of new ceremo-
nies in the veneration fhewn to fire ; of a new
work which he pretended to have received from
heaven ; and, above all, by eOabli(hing the ac-
tual adoration of One Supreme Being. He was
born, according to Mohsan, in the diftric^ of
Kal ; and it was he, not, as Ammianu^s afferts,
his protetflor Gushtasb, who travelled into
India, that he might receive informatio;i from
the BrcJ.mans in theology and ethicks. It is
barely pofiible that Pythagoras knew him in
the capital of Irak j but the Grecian fage miifl
then
ON THE PERSIANS. 20I
then have been far advanced in years, and we
have no certain evidence of an intercourfe be-
tween the two philofophers. The reformed reli-
gion of Perjta continued in force till that country
was fubdued by the Mufelmans ; and, without
ftudying the "Zend, we have ample information
concerning it in the modern Perfian writings
offeveral who profeded it. Bahman always
named Zera'tusht with reverence; but he
was in truth a pure Theift, and ftrongly dif-
claimed any adoration of the fire or other ele-
ments : he denied that the do6lrine of two co-
eval principles, fupremely good and fupremxiy
bad, formed any part of his faith ; and he often
repeated with emphafis the verfes of Firdausi
on the proftration of Cyrus and his paternal
grandfather before the blazing altar : " Think
*' not that they were adorers of fire, for that
*' element was only an exalted obje61:, on the
^' luftre of which they fixed their eyes; they
^' humbled themfelves a whole week before
" God; and, if thy underflanding be ever fo
*' little exerted, thou muft acknowledge thy
*' dependence on the Being fupremely pure.'*
In a (lory, Sadi, near the clofe of his beautiful
Bujian, concerning the idol of So'MANA'T'ii,
or Maha'deVa, confounds the religion of the
Hindus with that of the Gabrs, calling the
Brabmafis not only Mogbs (which might be
juflified by a paflage in the Alepiav}'), but even
readers
202 ON THE PERSIANS.
readers of the Zend 2,\\^ P/izejid. Now, whe-»
ther this confuiion proceeded from real or pre-
jtended ignorance, 1 cannot decide ; but am as
£rmly convinced that the doilrines of the Zend
were difl:in6i: from thofe of the Feda^ as I am
that the rehgion of the Brdhmans^ with whom
we converfe every day, prevailed in Perjia before
the acceffion of Cayu'mers, whom the Parsts^
from refped to his memory, confider as thefirfl:
of men, although they believe in an univerjal
deluge before his reign.
With the religion of the old Perfans their
fhilofophy (or as much as we know of i{:) was
intimately connected ; for they were affiduous
obfervers of the luminaries, which they adored
and eftablifhed, according to Mohsan, who
confirms, in fome deg^ree, the frasrm.ents of
Berosus, a number of artificial cycles with
diftind: names, which feem to indicate a know-
ledge of the period in which the equinoxes ap-
pear to revolve : they are faid aifo to have
known the moft wonderful powers of nature,
and thence to have acquired the fame of majri-
cians and enchanters. But I will only detain
you with a few remarks on that metaphyiical
theology which has been profefied immemo-
rially by a numerous fed: of Perfians and Hindus^
was carried in part into Greece, and prevails
pven now among the learned Mufehiiafis, wdio
fqmcT
ON THE PERSIANS. 20^
fometimes avow it without referve. The mo-
dern phllofophers of this perfiiaiion are called
Sufis, either from the Greek word for ^fige^ or
from the 'woollen mantle which they ufed to
wear in fome provinces of Perjta. Their funda-
mental tenets are, That nothing exifls abfolutely
but God ; that the human foul is an emanation
from his efience, and, though divided for a
time from its heavenly fource, will be finally
re-united with it ; that the higheft poffible hap-
pinefs will arife from its re- union; and that the
chief good of mankind, in this traniitoiy world,
conlifts in as perfe£l; an union with the Eternal
Spirit as the incumbrances of a mor^al frame
will allow ; that, for this purpofe, they fliould
break all connexion (or tadlluk, as they call it)
with extriiifick objeds, and pafs through life
without attachments, as a fwimmer in the ocean,
ftrlkes freely withoutlhe impediment of cloihes ;
that they fhould be flraight and free as the cy-
prefs, whofe fruit is hardly perceptible, and
not {ink under a load like fruit-trees attached to
a trellis ; that if mere earthly charms have
power to influence the foul, the Idea of celeftial
beauty muft overwhelm it in extatick delight;
that, for want of apt words to exprefs the di-
vine perfedions and the ardour of devotion, we
mufl borrow fuch expreffions as approach the
iiearefl to our ideas, and fpeak of Beauty and
hove.
304 ON THE PERSIANS.
JLove in a tranfcendant and myflical fenfe ; that,
like a reed torn from its native bank, like wax
feparated from its delicious honey, the foul of
man bewails its difunion with melancholy mujickj
and fiieds burning tears, like the lighted taper,
waiting paffionately for the moment of its ex-
tinction, as a difengagement from earthly tram-
mels, and the means of returning to its Only
Beloved. Such in part (for I omit the minuter
and more fubtile metaphyficks of the Sufis^
which are mentioned in The Dabijlati) is the
wild and enthufiaftick religion of the modern
Perjian poets, efpecially of the fweet Ha*fiz
and the great Maidavi: fuch is the fyftem of
the Vedant'i philofophers and bell: lyrick poets of
India ; and as it was a fyilem of the higheft an-
tiquity in both nations, it may be added to the
many other proofs of an immemorial affinity
between them.
III. On the ancient monuments of Perftan.
fculpture and architedlure, we have already
made fuch obfervations as were fufficient for
our purpofe ; nor will you be furprifed at the
diverfity between the figures at Elephanta,
which are manifeftly Hindu, and thofe at Per-
fepolis, which are merely Sabian, if you con-
cur with me in believine;, that the Takhti
j^tv/z/i'/y was creeled after the time of Ca y'umers,
when the Brahmans had mis;rated from Iran.
.. ^ . . . , J
ON THE PERSIANS. 205
and when their intricate mythology had been fu-
perfeded by the fimpler adoration of the planets
and of fire.
IV. As to the fciences or artsof the old Per-
Jiansy I have little to fay ; and no complete evi-
dence of them is found to exift. Mohsan fpeaks
more than once of ancient verfes in the Pahlavl
language; and Bahman affured me, that fome
fcanty remains of them had been preferved.
Their mulic and painting, which Naza^mi ce-
lebrated, have irrecoverably perillied ; and in
regard to Ma'ni', the painter and impoftor,
whofebook of drawings called Artang^whioh he
pretended to be divine, is fuppofed to have been
deftroyed by the Cbinefe, in whofe dominions
he had fought refug-e, the whole tale is too mo-
dern to throw any light on the queftions before
ns concernino; the orig-in of nations and the in-
habitants of the primiciv^e world.
Thus has it been proved, by clear evidence
and plain reafoning, that a powerful monarchy
was eftablifhed in Iran long before the A[]yriany
or P'.JJjddd)., government ; that it was in truth
a Hindu monarchy, though if any chufe to call
it Cufian^ Cafdea?i, or Scythian, we fhall not
enter into a debate on mere names ; that it fub-
iifted many centuries ; and that its hiftory has
been ingrafted on that of the Hindus^ who
tounded the monarchies of Ayodhya and Indra*
prejlba ;
106 ON THE PERSlAlvl
preftha ; that the language of the firft Perjtafi
empire was the mother of the Sanfcrit, and con-
fequently of the Ze/id and Par ft, as well as of
Greeks Latin, and Gothick ; that the language
of x\\QJfJyrians was the-parentof Chaldakk and.
Pahlavi ; and that the primary Tartarian lan-
guage alfo had been current in tiie fame empire ;
although, as the Tartarsh^^ no books, or even
letters, we cannot with certainty trace their un-
polifhed and variable idioms. We difcover
therefore in Perfta, at the earl i eft dawn of hif-
tory, the three diftind races of men, whorri
I delcribed on former occalions as poffefibrs of
India, Arabia, Tartary ; and whether they
were colle6lcd in Iran from diftant regions, or
diverged from it, as fi-om a common center, we
ihall eafiiy determine by the following confidera-
tions.
Let us obferve in the firfl place the cen-
tral pofition of Iran, which is bounded hj Ara-
bia, by Tartary, and by India ; whiift Arabia
lies contiguous to Iran only, but is remote from
Tartar"^, and divided even from the ikirts of In-
dia by a confiderable gulf ; no country, there-
fore, but Perjia feems likely to have fent forth
its colonies to all the kingdoms of Afta. The
Brdhniam could never have migrated from In^
dia to Iran, becaufe they are expfefsly forbid-
den by their oldefl exifting laws to leave the re-
gion which they inhabit at this day ; the
Arabs
ON THE PERSIANS. 207
Arabs have not even a tradition of an emigra-
tion into Perfia before Mohammed, nor had
they indeed any inducement to quit their beauti-
ful and extenfive domains : and as to the TartarSy
we have no trace in hillory of their departure
from their plains and forefts till the invalion of
the Medes, who, according to etymologifts,
were the fons of Madai ; and even they were
condu61:ed by princes of an AJfyrian family.
1 he three races therefore, whom we have al-
ready mentioned (and more than three we
have not yet found), migrated from Iran^ as from
their common country. And thus the Saxon
chronicle, I prefume from good authority,
brings the firfl: inhabitants of Britain from
Armenia ; w4iile a late very learned writer con-
cludes, after all his laborious refearches, that
the Goths or Scythians came fi'om Perfia ; and
another contends vi^ith great force, that both
the Irifi and old Britons proceeded feverally
from the borders of the Cajpian ; a coincidence
of conclufions from different media, by perfons
W'holly unconnected, which could fcarce have
happened, if they were not grounded oil folid
principles. We may therefore hold this propo-
rtion firmly eftablifhed, 1 hat Iran, or Fcrfa in
its largeft fenfe, was the true center of popu-
lation, of knowledge, of languages, and of arts;
which, inftead of travelling weftward only, as
it has been fancifully fuppoied, or eaftward, as
m!2;ht
o
208 ON THE PERSIANS*
mip"ht with equal reafon have been afferted,
were expanded in all dire6lIons to all the regions
of the world in which the Hindu race had fet-
tled under various denominations. But, whe-
ther udjta has not produced other races of men
diflind from the Hindus^ the Arabs, or the Tar^
tars, or Vv'hether any apparent diverfity may not
have fprungfrom an intermixtureofthofe three
in different proportions, mufl be the fubje6b of
a future enquiry.
DIS-
( 209 )
DISSERTATION VIL
ON THE
CHINESE.
BEING THE SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE
DELIVERED TO THE SOCIETY FEB. 25, I 79O.
•GENTLEMEN,
ALTHOUGH we are at this moment con-
liderably nearer to the frontier of China
than to the fartheft limit of the Britijh domi-
nions in Hindujlan, yet the firft flep that we
Ihall take in the philofophical journey which
Ipropofe for your entertainment at the prefent
meeting, will carry us to the utmofl verge of
the habitable globe known to the beft geogra-
phers of old Greece and Egypt-, beyond the
boundary of whofe knowledge we fhall difcern,
from the heights of the northern mountains, an
Empire nearly equal in furface to a fquare of
hfteea degrees ; an Empire, of which I do not
P mean
2IO ON THE CHINES^.
mean to aflign the precife limits, but which we
may confider, for the purpofe of this Differ-
tation, as embraced on two fides by Tartar/
and India, while the ocean feparates its other
iides from various Afmtick ifles of great im-
portance in the commercial fyfiiem of Europe:
annexed to that immenfe tra6l of land is the
peninfula of Corea, which a vaft oval bafon di-
vides from Islifon or Japan ; a celebrated and
imperial ifland, bearing in arts and in arms, in
advanta2;e of iituation, but not in felicitv of 2;o-
vernment, a pre-eminence among eaflern king-
doms analo2:ou3 to that of Britain amons; the
nations of the weft. So many climates are in-
cluded in fo prodigious an area, that while the
principal emporium of China lies nearly under
the tropiek, its metropolis enjoys the tempera-
ture of Samarkand : fuch too is the diveriity of
foil in its fifteen provinces, that, while fome
of them are exquifitely fertile, richly culti-
vated, and extremely populous, others arc
barren and rocky, dry and unfruitful, with
plains as wild or mountains as rugged as any in
Scythia ; and thofe either wholly deferted, of
peopled by favagc hordes, who, if they be not
flill independent, have been vmy lately fubdued
by the perfidy, rather than the valour, of a
monarch, who has perpetuated his own breach
of faith in a Chinefe poem, of which I have feeii
a tranflation.
The
ON THE CHINESE. 211
The word China, concerning which I fhall
offer fome new remarks, is well known to the
people whom we call the Ch'mefe ; but they
never apply it (I fpeak of the learned among
them) to themfclVes, or to their country :
themielves, according to Father Visdelou,
they defcribe as t\\Q people of Han, or of fome
other illuflrious family, by the memory ofwhofe
actions they flatter their national pride ; and
their country they call thmi-cue, or the Central
Kingdom^ reprefenting it in their fymbolical
charadters by a parallelogram exa6lly bifeded :
at other times they diftinguifh it by the words
Tien-hia, or JVbat is under Heaven, meaning
^il that is valuable on Earth. Since they never
name themfelvxs wath moderation, they would
have no right to complain, if they knew that
European authors have ever fpoken of them in
the extremes of applaufe or of cenfure : by
fome they have been extolled as the oldeft and
the wifeft, as the moil learned and moll inge-
nious, of nations ; whilfl others have derided
their pretenfions to antiquity, condemned their
government as abominable, and arraigned their
manners as inhuman, without allowing them
an element of fcience, or a fingle art, for which
they have not been indebted to fome more an-
cient and more civilized race of men. The
truth perhaps lies, where we iifually find it,
between
tI2 ON THE CHINESE.
between the extremes ; but it is not my defign to
accufe or to defend the Chinefe^ to deprefs or to
aororrandlze them : I (hall confine mvfelf to the
difcuffion of a queftion connected with my
former Difcourfes, and far lefs eafy to be folved
than any hitherto ftarted : *' Whence came
*' the lingular people, who long had governed
'* Cbina, before they were conquered by the
" Tartars .^'* On this problem, the folution
of which has no concern, indeed, with our
political or commercial interefts, but a very
material connection, if I miflake not, with in-
terefts of a higher nature, four opinions have
been advanced, and all rather peremptorily
aflerted, than fupported by argument and evi-
dence. By a few writers it has been urged,
that the Chine fe are an original race, who have
dwelled for ages, if not from eternity, in the
land which they now poiTefs : by others, and
chiefly by the mifllonaries, it is aflerted,that they
fprang from the fame flock with the Uehrews
and Arabs : a third aflertion is, that of the^r^a^j-
themfelves, and of M. Pauw, who hold it in-
dubitable that they were originally Tartars
defcending in wild clans from the fleeps of
Imaus : and a fourth, at leaft as dogmatically
pronounced as any of the preceding, is that of
the Brcihfnans, who decide, without allowing
any appeal from their decifion, that the Ch'mas
(for
ON TPIE CHINESE. 213
(for fo they are named in Sanfcrit) were
Hindus of the Cfiatriya^ or military, clafs,
who, abandoning the privileges of their tribe,
rambled in different bodies to the north-eafl: of
Bengal', and forgetting by degrees the rites
and religion of their anceftors, eftablifhed fe-
parate principalities, which were afterwards
united in the plains and valleys which arc
now poffeffed by them. If any one of the three
lafl opinions be juft, thefirfl: of them mufl; ne-
ceffarily be relinquifned ; but of thofe three,
the firfl: cannot poffibly be fuftained ; becaufe
it refts on no firmer fupport than afoolifli re-
mark, whether true or falfe, that Sem, in Chi-
nefe^ mcd.ns /i/e ^nd procreation ; and becaufe a
tea- plant is not more different from a palm,
than a Chinefe from an Arab : they are men,
indeed, as the tea and the palm are vegetables ;
but human fagacity could not, I believe, dif-
cover any other trace of refemblance between
them. One of the Arabs, indeed, an acccunt
of whofe voyage to India and China has been
tranflated by Renaudot, thought the Chinefe
not only handfomer (according to his ideas of
beauty) than the Hindus, but even more like
his own countrymen in features, habiliments,
carriages, manners and ceremonies; and this
may be true, without proving an actual re-,
iemblance between the Chinefe and Arabs, ex-
P 3 cept
114 ON THE CHINESE.
cept in drefs and complexion. The next op'^-
nion is more con nefted with that of the Brab-
mans than M. Pauw, probably, imagined;
for though he tells us exprefsly, that by Scy-
thram he meant the lurks or Tartars^ yet the
dragon on the ftandard, and fome other pecu-
liarities, from which he would infer a clear
•affinity between the old Tartars and the Chi^
nefe^ belonged indubitably to thofe Scythians
who are known to have been Goihs ; and the
Goths had man ife illy a common lineage with
the Hindus^ if his own argument, in the Pre-
face to his Refearches, on the fmilarity of
languap-e be, as all men aeree it is, irrefra-
gable. That the Chinefe were anciently of a
l^artarian flock, is a piopofuion, which I can-
not other wife difprove for the prefent, than by
infifring on the total diffimilarity of thetwo races
in manners and arts, particularly in the fine arts
of imap-ination, which the Tartars, by their
own account, never cultivated : but if we mew
ftions: o-rounds for beiievins; that the firftC/^/-
nefe were aftually of an Indian race, it will fol-
low, that M. PAUwandthe^r^/^jaremiftaken :
it i^ to the difcuffonof this new, and, in my
opinion, very interefting point, that I ihall con-
fine the remainder of my Difcourfe.
In the Sanjcrit Inftitutes of Civil and Reli-
gious Duties, revealed, as the Hindus believe,
by
ON THE CHINESE. aij
by Menu, the fon of Brahma', we find the
followmg curious paflage : " Many families of
the mihtary clafs, having gradually aban-
doned the ordinances of the Feda^ and
the company of Brahmans, lived in a ftate
of degradation ; as the people of Pundraca
and Odra, thofe of Drav/ra and Gz;?z-
hoja, the Tavajias and Sacas, the Paradas
and Pahlavas, the Chinas and fome other
*' nations." A full comment on this text
would here be fuperfluous ; but fince the tef-
timop.y of the Indian author, who, though
certainly not a divine perlonage, was as cer-
tainly a very ancient lawyer, moraliil:, and hif-
tofian, is direct and pohtive, dihnterefted and
unfufpe£led, it would, I think, decide the
queftion before us, if we could be fure that
the word Ch'na fignified a Ch'inefe^ as all the
Pandits^ whom 1 have feparately confulted,
afiert with one voice : they aflure me, that
the Chinas of Menu fettled in a fine country
to the north-eaft of Gaur, and to the eaft of
Camarup and Nepal \ that they have long been,
and frill are, filmed as ingenious artificers ; and
that they had themfelves feen old Chlnefe idols,
which bore a manifeft relation to the primitive
religion of India^ before Buddha's appear-
ance in it. A wellrinform.ed Panddt fnewed
me a Sanfcrii book io Cajlmiirian letters, which,
P 4 he
2l6 ON THE CHINESE.
he faid, was revealed by Siva hlmfeif, and
entitled SaSl'ifangama : he read to me a whole
chapter of it on the heterodox opinions of the
Chinas^ who were divided, fays the author,
into near two hundred clans. I then laid before
him a map of Afia ; and when I pointed to
Cajhm'ir^ his own country, he inftantly placed
his finger on the north-weftern provinces of
China, where the Chinas^ he faid, firft efla-
blifhed themfelves ; but he added, that Maha-
ch'ina, which was alfo mentioned in his book,
extended to the eaflern and fouthern oceans,
I believe, neverthelefs, that the Chineje Em-
pire, as we now pall it, was not formed when
the laws of Menu were colleded ; and for this
belief, fo repugnant to the general opinion, I
am bound to offer my heft reafons. If the
outline of hiftory and chronology for the laft
two thoufand years be corredly traced, (and
we mufl: be hardy fcepticks to doubt it) the
poems of Ca'li'da's were compofed before the
beginning of our era : now it is clear from in-
ternal and external evidence, that the Rlimayan
and Mahabharat were confiderably older than
the productions of that poet ; and it appears
from the ftyle and metre of the Dhenna Siifra,
revealed by Menu, that it was reduced to
writing long before the age of Va'lmic or
Vya'sa, the fecond of whom names it with
applaufe :
ON THE CHINESE. 21^
^pplaufe : we fhall not, therefore, be thought
extravagant, if we place the compiler of thofe
laws between a thoufand and fifteen hundred
years before Christ ; efpecially as Buddha,
whofe age is pretty well afcertained, is not
jTientioned in them ; but in the twelfth cen-
tury before our era, the Chine fc Empire was at
leafl in its cradle. This fad it is qeceffary to
prove ; and my firft witnefs is Confucius
himfelf. I know to vvhat keen fatire I fhall
expofe myfelf by citing that philofopher, after
the bitter farcafms of M. Pauw againfl him
and agaiaft the tranflators of his mutilated, but
valuable, works ; yet I quote, without icruple,
the book entitled Lu'n Yu', of which I pofiefs
the original with a verbal tranflation, and which
1 know to be fufficiently authentick for my
prefent purpofe : in the fecond part of it
CoN-FU-Tsu declares, that " although he,
^' like other men, could relate, as mere leflons
" of morality, the hiftories of the firft and
" fecond imperial houfes, yet, for want ofevi-
" dence, he could give no certain account of
*' them.'* Now, if the Chlnefe themfelves
do not even pretend, that any hiflorical mo-
nument exifted, in the age of Confucius,
preceding the rife of their third dynafty about
eleven hundred years before the Chri/iian epoch,
we may juftly conclude, that the reign of
VuVam was in the infancy of their Empire,
which
21 8 ON THE CHINESE.
which hardly grew to maturity till fome ages af-
ter that prince ; and it has been afferted by very
learned Europeans^ that even of the third dv-
nafty, which he has the fame of having rai fed, no
unfulpeded mem.orial can now be produced.
It was not till the eighth century before the
birth of Our Saviour, that a fmall kingdom was
erected in the province of Shen-st, the capital
of which ftood nearly in the thirty -Jifth degree
of northern latitude, and about ^tv^ degrees to
the w^ft of Si-gan : both the country and its
metropolis were called Ch'm^ and the dominiou
o^ its princes was gradually extended to the eafl
and weft. A king of Ch'n, who makes a figure in
iht Shahnama among the allies of Afra'siya'b,
was, I prefume, a fovereign of the country
juft mentioned ; and the river of Chit?., which
the poet frequently names as the limit of his
eaftern geography, feems to have been ih^Tellow.
River, which the Chificfe introduce at the be-
ginning of their fabulous annals, I fhould be
tempted to expatiate on fo curious a fubjeft ;
but the prefent occalion allows nothing fuper-
fluous, and permits me only to add, that Man-
gukha'n died in the middle of the thirteenth
century, before the city of Chin, which was
afterwards taken by Kublai ; and that the poets
of Iran perpetually allude to the diftrifts around
it which they celebrate, with Chegil and Kha-
ON THE CHINESE. 21^
fen, for a number of mufk-aiiimals roving on
their hills. The territory of Chrnf fo called
by the old Hindus, by the Perjians, and by the
Chine fe (while the Greeks and Arabs were
obliged, by their defective articulation, to mif-
call it Shi)^ gave its name to a race of Emperors,
whofe tyranny made their memory fo unpopu-
lar, that the modern inhabitants of China hold
the word in abhorrence, and fpeak of them-
felves as the people of a milder and more vir-
tuous dynafty ; but it is highly probable that
the whole nation defcended from the Ch'jias of
Menu, and mixing with the Tartars^ by
whom the plains of Honan and the more
fouthern provinces were thinly inhabited,
formed by degrees the race of men whom we
now fee in pofieffion of the nobJefl empire in
AJia.
In fupport of an opinion, which I offer as the
refult of long and anxious inquiries, I fliould
regularly proceed to examine the language and
letters, religion and phllofophy, of the prefent
Chinefe^ and fubjoin fome remarks on their an-
cient monuments, on their fcience, and on their
arts, both liberal and mechanical : but their
fpoken language^ not having been preferved by
the ufual fymbols of articulate founds rnufh
have been for many ages in a continual flux ;
their letters^ if we may fb call them, are
merely the fymbols of ideas ; their popular
religion
220 ON THE CHINESE.
religion was imported from India in an age
comparatively modern ; and their phllofophy
feems yet in fo rude a ftate, as hardly to delerve
the appellation : they have no ancient monuments^
from vv^hich their origin can be traced even by
plaufible conjedure ; their fciences are wholly
^xotick, and their mechanical arts have nothing
\n. them chnra^leriftic of a particular family ;
nothing \vhich any fet of men, in a country 1q
highly favoured by nature, might not have dif-
covered and improved. They have, indeed,
both national mulic and national poetry, and
both of them beautifully pathetick ; but of
painting, fculpture, or architefture, as arts of
imagination, they feem (like other Jljtaticksy
to have no idea. Inftead, therefore, of enlarg-
ing feparately on ^ach of thofe heads, I fhall
briefly enquire, how far the literature and re-
ligious practices of China confirm or oppofe the
propoiition which I have advanced.
The declared and fixed opinion of M. de
GuiGNEs, on the fubjecl before us, is nearly
connected with that of the Brahmam : he main«
tains, that the Chinefe. were emicrrants from
'Egypt ; and the 'Egyptians^ or Ethiopians (for
they were clearly the fame people), had indubi-
tably a common origin with the old natives of
India, as the affinity of their languages, and of
iheir inftniftlons, both religious and pohtical,
fully evinces ; but that China was peopled a few
centuries
ON THE CHINESE. 221
centuries before our era by a colony from the
banks of the Nile, though neither Perfans nor
Arabs, Tartars nor Hindus, ever heard of fuch
an emigration, is a paradox, which the bare
authority even of fo learned a man cannot fup-
port ; and fince reafon grounded on fafts can
alone decide fuch a queftion, we have a right to
demand clearer evidence and ftronger arguments
than any that he has adduced. The hierogly-
phicks of Egypt bear, indeed, a ftrong refem-
blance to the mythological fculptures and paint-
ings of Ind'ia^ but feem wholly diflimilar to
the fymbolical fyftem of the Chine fe^ which
might eaiily have been invented (as they afiert)
by an individual, and might very naturally have
been contrived by the firH: Chinas, or out-caft
Hindus, who either never knew, or had for-
gotten, the alphabetical characters of their
wifer anceftors. As to the table and buft of
I SIS, they feem to be given up as modern
forgeries ; but, if they wxre indifputably ge-
nuine, they would be nothing to the purpofe ;
for the letters on the buft appear to have been
deiigned as alphabetical ; and the fabricator of
them (if they really were fabricated in 'Europe)
was uncommonly happy, lince two or three of
them are exadly the fame with thole on a metal
pillar yet {landing in the north of India, In
Egypt, if we can rely on the tcftimony of the
Greeks, who ftudied no language but their own,
there
122, ON THE CHINESE.
there were two fcrs of alphabetical characters i
the one popular, like the various letters nfed in
cur Indian provinces ; and the oxh^r facer dotal,
like the Dtvanogari^ efpeci'ally that form of it
which we fee in the Feda : befides which, they
had two forts of /acred Jculpture ; the one lim-
ple, like the figures of Buddha and the three
Ra'mas ; and the other allegorical, like the
images of Gane'sa, or Divine Wifdom, and
Isa'ni'', or Nature, with all their emblematical
accompaniments : but xht real char a5fer of the
Chinefe appears wholly diflind from any EgyP" '
lian writing, either myfterious or popular ; and
as to the fancy of M. de Guignes, that the
complicated fymlx)ls of China were at firfl no
more than Pke?tician monograms, let us hope,
that he has abandoned lb wild a conceit, which
he ftarted probably with no other view than to
difplay his ingenuity and learning.
We have ocular proof, that the few radical
chara6lers of the Chinefe were originally (like
our aftronomical and chymical fymbols) the
pictures orout-Hnes of viiible objeCls, or figu-
rative ligns for fimple ideas, which they have
multiplied by the mod: ingenious combinations
and the livdiefl; metaphors ; but as the fyftem
is peculiar, I believe, to themfelvesand the Ja-
pancfe, it would be idle and oilentatious to enlarge
on it at prefcnt ; and, for the reafons already
intimated, it neither corroborates nor weakens
the
ON THE CHINESE. 223
the opinion which I endeavour to fupport.
Tiie fan:ie may as truly be Hiid of their Jpokcn
language ; for, independently of its conflant
fluctuation during a feries of ages, it has the
peculiarity of excluding four or five founds
which other nations articulate, and is clipped
into monofvllables, even when the ideas ex^
prefled by them, and the wTitten fymbols for
thofe ideas, are very complex. This hasarifen,
I fuppofe, from the lingular habits of the peo-
ple ; for though their common tongue be fo
mufically accented as to form a kind of recitative,
yet it wants thofe grammatical accents, with-
out which all human tongues w^ould appear n:io-
Bcfyllabick : thus Amir a, with an accent on
the firfl: fyllable, means, in the Sanfcrit lan-
guage, immeafurable ; and the natives of Ben-
gal pronounce it Omito ; but when the reli-
gion of Buddha, the fbn of Muya^ was carried
hence into China, the people of that country,
unable to pronounce the name of their new
God, called him Foe, the ion of N-oye, and
divided his epithet Amita into three IvHables
O-Mi-To, annexing to them certain ideas of
their own, and exprefling them in writing by
three diftin61: fymbols. We may judge from
this in fiance, whether a comparifon of their
fpoken tongue with the dialeds of other na-
tions can lead to any certain conclufion as to
their origin ; yet the inflance which I have
given
224 ^N THE CHINESE.
given fupplies me with an argument from
analogy, which I produce as conjedural only,
but which appears more plaufible the oftener I
confiderit. The Buddha of the Hindus is un-
queftionably the Foe of China ; but the great
progenitor of the Chine fe is alfo named by them
Fo-Hi, where the fecond monofyllable fignifies.
it feems, a Fiairn : now the anceflor of that
military tribe whom the Hindus call the Chan-
Jra'Oanfa, or children of the Moon, was, ac-
cording to their Purdnas or legends, Buddha^
or the genius of the planet Mercury^ froni
whom, in \he Jifth degree, defcended a prince
named Druhya ; whom his father Yaya'ti
fent in exile to the eafl: of Hinduftdn, with this
imprecation, *' May thy progeny be ignorant of
'* the VedaV The name of the banifhed prince
could not be pronounced by the modern Chi-
neje ; and though I dare not conje6lure, that
the lad fyllable of it has been changed inta
Yao, I may neverthelefs obferve, that Yao
was xhcjifth in defcent from Fo-Hi, or at leaft
the fifth mortal in the fird: imperial dynafly ;
that all Chinefe hiftory before him is confidered,
by the (^/6/«f/^ themfelves, as poetical or fabu-
lous; that his father Ti- CO, like the 7;^^/^;^ king
Yaya'ti, was the firil: prince who married fe-
veral women ; and that Fo-Hi, the head of
their race, appeared, fay the Chinefe^ in a pro-
vince of the wefl, and held his court in the ter-
ritory
6^r TH^ CHINESE. 2^j
rkory of Chk, where the rovers mentioned
by the India legiflator are fuppofed to have
fettled. Another circumftance in the parallel
is very remarkable : according to Father De
pREMARE, in his Tra6lon Chinefe Mythology,
the mother of Fo-hi was the daughter of
Heaven^ furnamed Flower-loving ; and as the
nymph was v/aiking alone on the bank of a
river with a fimilar name, fhe found herfeif on
a fudden encircled by a rainbow ; foon after
which flie became pregnant, and at the end of
twelve years was delivered of a fon radiant as
herfeif, who, among other titles, had that of
Su'i, or Star of the Tear . Now, in the my- "
thological fyftem of the Hindus^ the nymph
Ro'hini', who prefides over the fourth lunar
manfion, was the favourite miflrefs of So'ma,
or the Moon, among whofe numerous epithets^
we find Cumudandyacd, or delighting in a fpe-
cies of water-flower, that bloflbms at night ;
and their ofl^spring was Budha, regent of a
planet, and called alfo, from the names of his
parents, Rauhinl^ya or Saumya. It is true,
that the learned Miffionary explains the word
Su'i by Jupiter ; but an exacTt refemblance
between two fuch fi\bles could not have been
expected ; and it is fufxirient for my purpofe
that they feem to have a fimilv likencfs. The
God BuDHA, {^y the Indians, married Ila^,
Q^ . whofe
226 OxV THE CHINESE.
whofe fluher was prefervcd in a miraculous ark
from ail univerfal deluge : now, although I
cannot infift with conHdence, that the rain-
how in the Ch'inefe fable alludes to the Mofaick
narrative of the Flood, nor build any folid ar-
gument on the divine perfonage Niu-VA, of
w^iofe character, and even of whofe fex, the
hiftorians of China fpeak very doubtfully ; I
may, neverthelefs, allure you, after full en-
quiry and confideration, that the Chinefe, like
the Hi?idus, believe this earth to have been
wholly covered with water, which, in works
of undifputed authenticity, they defcribe as
Jlowing abundantly, then fuhji dingy and fepa-
- rating the higher from the lower age of mankind',
that the divifion of time^ from which their poe^
tical hiftory begins, jufl: preceded the appear-
ance of Fo-Hi on the mountains of Ch'My but
that the great inundation, in the reign of Yao,
was either confined to the low-lands of his
kin2;dom, if the whole account of it be not a
fable, or if it contain any allufion to the Flood
of Noah, has been ignorantly mifplaced by
the Chine fe Annalifts.
The importation of a new religion into
China, in the firfl century of our Era, rnufl
lead us to fuppofe, that the former fyftem,
whatever it was, had been found inadequate to
the purpofe of reftraining the great body of the
people from thole offences againfl confcience
and
CN THE CHINESE; 22 ^
and virtue which the civil power could not
reach ; and it is hardly poflible that, without
fuch reftri£lions, any government could long
have fubfifted with felicity ; for ho government
tan long fubiiiT: without equal juftice, and juf-
tice cannot be adminiftered without the fan6lion3
of religion. Of the religious opinions enter-
tained by Confucius and his followers we
rnay glean a general notion from the fragments
of their w^orks tranflated by Couplet : they
prdfefl'ed a firm belief in the Supreme God,
and gave a demonftration of his Being, and of
his Providence, from the exquifite beauty and
perfection of the celeftial bodies, and the won-
derful order of nature in the whole fabrick of
the vifible world. From, this belief thev de-
duceda fyftem of Ethicks, which the philofo-
pher fums up in a few words at the clofe of the
Lunyii: *' He," fays Confucius, " who
•' (hall be fully perfuaded, that the Lord of
*' Heaven governs the Univerfe, who Ihall in
*' all things chufe moderation, who ihall pcr-
*' fe£lly know his own fpecies, and fo a6t
among them, that his life and manners may
conform to his knowledge of God and Man,
may be truly faid to difjharge all the duties of
a fage, and to be far exalted above the com-
" mon herd of the human race.'* But fuch
a religion and fuch morality coul4 never have
Q^ 2 been
6(
228 ON^IIE CHINESE.
been general ; and we find, that the people of
China had an ancient fyftenn of ceremonies and
fuperflitions, which the government ' and the
philofophers appear to have encouraged, and
which has an apparent affinity with fome parts
of the oldefl: Indian worfhip : thej beHeve in
the agency of genii, or tutelary fpirits, pre-
liding over the flars and the clouds, over lakes
and rivers, mountains, valleys, and Vv'oods, over
certain regions and towns, overall the elements
(of v\/hich, like the Hindus^ they reckon^\;^)^
and particularly over fre, the moft brilliant of
them : to thofe deities they offered victims on
high places ; and the following paffage from
the Sh't-cin, or Book of Odes, is very much in
the flyle of the Brdhmans : " Even they who
perform a facrifice with due reverence can-
not perfectly affure themfelves, that the di-
vine fpirits accept their oblations ; and far
*' lefs can they vv^ho adore the Gods with lan-
guor and ofcitancy clearly perceive their
lacred illapfes."
These are imperfect traces indeed, but they
are traces of an affinity between the religion of
AIenu and that of the Chinas, whom he names
among the apofiates from it. M. Le Gen-
til, obferved, he fays, a flrong refemblancc
between the funeral rites of the Chinefe
and the Sraddha of the Hindus ; and M.
BaillYj after a learned inveftigation,
' " • " ' concludes
ON THE CHINESE. 229
concludes, that " even the puerile and abfurd
" ftories of the Chinefe fabulifts contain a renn-
*' nantof ancient Indian hiftory, with a faint
'* Iketch of the firfl: Hindu ages."
As the Batiddhas^ indeed, were Hindus, it
may naturally be imagined, that they carried
into CJoina many ceremonies pradifed in their
own country; h\iXt\\Q Bauddhas pofuively for-
bad the immolation of cattle; yet we know,
that various animals, even bulls and men, wxre
anciently facrihced by the Chirtcfe ; befides
which we difcover many fingular marks of re-
lation between them and the old Hindus : as in
the remarkable period of four hundred and
thirty-two thonjand, and the cycle of fixty\
years ; in the predile£lion for the myflical num-
ber nine ; in many fimilar falls and great
feftivals, efpecially at the folllices and equi-
noxes ; in the juft micntioned obfequies, con-
fiding of rice and fruits, offered to the manes
of their anceil:ors ; in the dread of dying child-
lefs, left fuch offering fhould be intermitted ;
and, perhaps, in their common abhorrence of
r^^objefts, which the Indians carried fo fiir,
that Menu himfelf, where he allows a Brah-
man to trade, if he cannot otherwife fupport
life, abfolutely forbids '* his trafficking in any
" fort of red cloths, whether linen or w^ooUen,
'^' or made of woven bark."
0.3 All
230 ON THE CHINESE.
All the circumftances which have been
mentioned uiider the two heads of literature.
snd religion feem colleclivelv to prove (as far as
fuch a queftion admits proof) that the Chinefe,
raid Hindus were originally the fame people ; but
having been feparated near four thou fan d years,
have retained few ftrong features of their an-
cient confanguinity, efpecially as the Hindus-
have preferved their old language and ritual,
while the Chinefe very foon loft both ; and the
Hindus have conilantlv intermarried among
themfelves, while the Chinefe,, by a mixture
pf Tartarian blood from the time of their frfl
eftablifhment, have at length form.ed a race
^liflin6l in appearance both from Indians and
'Tartars.
A SIMILAR div^erfity has arifen, I believe,
from fimilar caufes, between the people of
China and fapan ; in the fecond of which na-
tions we have now, or foon fhall have, as cor-
rect: and as ample inilruftion as can poffibly be
obtained without a perfedl: acquaiRtance with
the 0/)/;^^^^ characlers.
Kfmfffr has taken from M. Titsingh the
honour of being the firft, and he from Kemp-
FER that of being the only European^ who,
by a long refidence in Japan, and a familiar in-
tercourle with the principal natives of it, has
been able to collect authentic materials for the
natural
ON THE CHINESE. 23I
natural and civil hiflory of a comMxy fecluded,
as the Romans u fed to fay of our own Ifland,
from the rejl of the World, The works of
thofe illuflrious travellers will confirm and em^
bellidi each other; and w^hen M. Titsikgh
fliall have acquired a knowledge of Chincfe^ to
which a part of his leifure in Java will be de-
voted, his precious collection of books in that
lansuasre, on the laws and revolutions, the na-
tural productions, the arts, manufa6tures, and
fciences, of Japan, will be in his hands an
inexhauftible mine of new and important in-
formation. Both he and his predeceHbr aflert
with confidence, and I doubt not with truth,
that the Japanefe would refent, as an infult on
their dignity, the bare fuggeftion of their de-
fcent from the Chinefe, whom they furpafs in
feveral of the mechanical arts, and, what is of
greater confequence, in military fpirit ; but
they do not, I underhand, mean to deny, that
they are a branch of the fune ancient ftem with
the people of China ; and, were that fa6l ever
fo warmly contefted by them, it might be
proved by an invincible argument, if the pre-
ceding part of this Difcourfe, on J;he origin of
the Chinefe, be thought to contain juft reafoning.
In the firfl place, it fcems inconceivable,
that the Japanefe, who never appear to have
been conquerors or conquered, fhould have
0^4 ^^dopted
^33 ON THE CHINESE,
adopted the whole lyflem of Chlnefe literature
with all its inconveniences and intricacies, if an
immemorial connexion had not fubfifted be-
tween the two nations ; or, in other words, if
the bold and ingenious race who peopled Japan
in the middle of the thirteenth century before
Christ, and about fix hundred years after-
wards eftabliflied their monarchy, had not
carried with them the letters and learnino-
which they and the thinefe had poflefled iu
common ; but my principal argument is, that
the Hindu or Egyptia?i idolatry has prevailed
in Japan from the earliefl: ages ; and among tjie
idols worflnipped, according to Kempfer, in
that country before the innovations of Sa'cya
or Buddha, whom the Japanefe alfo call
Amida, we find many of thofe which we fee
everyday in the temples oi Bengal; particu-
larly the Goddejs with many arms, reprefentino-
the powers of nature, in Egypt named Isis,
and here Isa'ni^ or Isi', whofe image, as it is
exhibited by the German traveller, all the Brahr
mans to whom I fiiewed it immediately recoe-
nized with a mixture of pleafureand cnthufiafm^
'it is very true, that the Chincfe differ v/idely from
the natives of Japan in their vernacular dia-
lecls, in external manners, and perhaps in the
ftrength of their mental faculties ; but as wide
a difference is obfervable among all the nations
of
ON THE CHINESE.
233
of the Gothic family ; and we might accouat
even for a greater diiiimilarity, by coniidering
the number of ages during which the feveral
fvvarms have been feparated from the great
Indian hive, to which they primarily belonged.
The modern Japanefe gave Kempfer the
idea of polifhed tartan ; and it is reafonable
to believe, that the people of Japan, who were
originally Hindus of the martial clafs, and ad-
vanced farther eaftward than the Ch'/nas, have,
like them, infeniibiy changed their features
and characlers by intermarriages with various
Tartarian tribes, whom they found loofely
fcattered over their iiles, or who afterwards
fixed their abode in them.
Having now {hewn, in five Difcourfes, that
the Arabs and Tartars were originally aifi:in£t
races, while the Hindus^ Chinefe, and Japanefe^
proceeded from another ancient ftem, and that
all the three ftems may be traced to Iran, as to
a common centre, from which it is highlv pro-
bable, that they diverged in various dire(£tions .
about four thoufand years ago, I may feem to
have accomplilhed mv defign of inveftieatinsr
the origin of the Aftatick nations ; but the
queftions which I undertook to difcufs are not
yet ripe for a fi:ri5: analytical arguoient ; and it
will fird be neceff^ry to examine with fcrupu-
lous attention all the detached or infulated races
of
^^4- ^^ '^^2 CHINESH.
of men, who cither inhabit the borders of
Jndia, j^rabia, Tartary^ Perjia^ and China, of
are interfperfed in the mountainons and uncul-
tivated parts of thofe extenfive regions.
To this examination I fhall, at our next An-
nual Meeting, allot an entire Difcourfe ; and
if, after all our inquiries, no more than three
primitive races can be found, it will be a fubfe-
queut confideration, whether thofe three ftocks
had one common root, and, if they had, by
what means that root was preferved amid the
violent fhocks which our whole globe appears
evidently to have fuflained, , ' •
4^
DIS.
( ^3S )
DISSERTATION VIIL
REMARKS.
ON THE
ISLAND
F
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA,
JJ^IN Z V' AN {jx name which has been gra-
dually corrupted into Anzuame^ Aiijuan^
"Juanny, and Johanpa) has been governed about
two centuries by a (Colony of ^^r^^j, and exhibits
acurious inflance of ••he flow approaches towards
civilization which are made by a fmall commu-
nity, with many natural advantages but with
few means of improving them. An account of
this African ifland, in which we hear the
language and fee the manners of Arabia, may
neither be uninterefling in itfelf, nor foreign to
the objeds of enquiry propofed at the inftitutiou
of pur Society. ^
. On
236 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
On Monday the 28th of July 1783, after
a voyage in the Crocodile of ten weeks and
two days from the rugged iflands of Cape Verd^
our eyes were delighted with a profpe£l fo
beautiful, that neither a painter nor a poet could
perfedly reprefent it, and fo cheering to us,
that it can juftly be conceived by fuch only as
have been in our preceding iituation. It was
the fun rifing in full fplendour on the ifle of
Mayata (as the feamen called ir.), which we
had joyfully diftinguidied the preceding after-
noon by the height of its peak, and which now
appeared at no great diftance from the windows
of our cabin ; while Hinzuan^ for which we
bad fo long panted, was plainly difcernible
a-head, where its high lands prefented them-
ielves with remarkable boldnefs. The weather
was fair ; the water fmooth ; and a gentle
breeze drove us eafily beforp dinner-time round
a rock, on which the Brilliant fl:ruck jufl a year
before, into a commodious road *, where we
dropped our anchor early in the evening : we
had feen Moh'ila^ another fifler illand, in the
courfe of the day.
The frigate was prefently furrounded with
canoes, and the deck foon crowded with na-
tives of all ranks, from the high-born chiefs
who waflied linen, to the half-naked flave,,
* Lat. 120. 10'. 47". S. Long. 44". 25' 5". E. by the
Mafter. ,
• who
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 237
who only paddled. Moft of them had letters
of recommendation from EfigHJImien, which
none of them were ahie to read, though they
fpoke EngUJJj intelligibly ; and fome appeared
vain of titles which our countrymen had
given them in play, according to their fup-
pofed ftations ; we had lords, dukes, and
princes on board, foliciting our cuftom, and
importuning us for prefenrs. In fa6l, they were
too fenfible to be proud of empty founds, but
juftly imagined, that thofe ridiculous titles
would ferve as marks of diftindlion, and, by
attracting notice, procure for them fomething
fubftantial. The only men of real confequence
in the ifland, whom we law before we landed,
were the Governor Abdullah, fecond coufiii
to the King, and his brother Alwi', Vv'ith their
feveralfons; all of whom will again be parti-
cularly mentioned : they underftood Arahick^
feemed zealots in the Mohammedan faith, and
admired my copies of the Alkoran ; fome verfes
of which they read, whilft Alv/i' perufed the
opening of another Arabian manufcript, and
explained it in EngUfo more accurately than
could have been expeded.
The next morning fhewed us the ifland in
all its beauty ; and the fcene was fo diverfified,
that a diftincl view of it could hardly have been
exhibited by the beft pencil : you mufl, there-
fore, be fatisfied wtth a mere defcription, writ-
ten
%^% REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
ten on the very fpiDt, and compared attentively
with the natural landfcape. We were at an-
chor in a fine bay, and before us was a vaft am-
phitheatre, of which you may form a general
notion by picturing in your minds a multitude
of hills infinitely varied in fize and figure, and
then fuppofing them to be thrown together,
with a kind of artlefs fymmetry, in all imagi-
nable pofitionsi The back ground was a feries
of mountains, one of which is pointed, near
half a mile }-erpendicularly high from the level
of the lea, and little more than three miles
from the (hore : all of them were richly clothed
with wood, chiefly fruit-trees, of an exquifite
verdure. I had {ten manv a mountain of a
flupendous height in Wales and Sw^Jferland,
but never faw one before, round the bofom of
which the clouds were almoft continually rol-
lins;,while its 2:reenfummitrofefiourilhino; above
them, and received from them an additional
brightnefs. Next to this diftant ran'2;e of hills
was another tier, part of which appeared
charmingly verdant, and part rather barren ;
but the contrafl: of colours changed even this
nakednefs into a beauty : nearer fliill were in-
numerable m.ountains, or rather cliffs, which
brought down their verdure and fertility quite
to the beach ; fo that every fhade of green, the
fweeteft of colours, was difplayed at one view
by
HIN2UAN OR JOHANNA. l^t)
by land and by water. But nothing conduced
more to the variety of this enchanting profpe^t
than the many rows of palm-trees, efpecially
the tall and graceful Areca's, on the fhores, in
the valleys, and on the ridges of hills, where
one might almofl fuppofe them to have been
planted regularly by delign. A more beautiful
appearance can fcarce be conceived, than fuch
a number of elegant palms in fuch a fituation,
with luxuriant tops, like verdant plumes, placed
at juil: intervals, and fhewing between them
part of the remoter landfcape, while they left
the refl to be fupplied by the beholder* s imagi-
nation. The town of Matfaniudo lay on our
left, remarkable at a diftance for the tower of
the principal Mofque, which was built by
Hali'mah, a Queen of theifland, from whom
the prefent King is defcended : a little on our
right was a fmall town, called Bantiini, Neither
the territory of Nlce^ with its olives, date-
trees, and cypreflcs, nor the ifles of Hicres,
with their delightful orange-groves, appeared
fo charming to me as the view from the road of
H'lnzuan ; which, never thelefs, is far furpaffed,
as the Captain of the Crocodile alTured us, by
many of the iflands in the fouthern ocean. If life
were not too fliort for the complete difcharge of
all our refpedllve duties, publick and private,
and for the acqulfition even of necefTary know-
ledge
240 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
ledge in any degree of perfetlion, with hoW
much pleafiire and improvement might a great
part of it be fpent in admiring the beauties of
this wonderful orb, and contemplating the na-
ture of man in all its varieties !
Wf, haftened to tread on firm land, to which
we had been fo long difufed, and went on fhore,
after breakfafl, to fee the town, and return the
Governor's viiit. As we walked, attended by a
crowd of natives, I furprized them by reading
aloud an /^r.z^/Vi infcription over the gate of a
Mofque, and ftill more, when I entered it, by
explaining four fentences, which were written
very diftinclly on the wall, fignifying, " that
" the world was sjiven us for our own edifica-
** tion, not for the purpofe of raifing fump-
*' tuous buildings ; life, for the difcharge of*
*' moral and religious duties, not for plealurable
" indulgences ; wealth, to be liberally be-
*' fcowed, not avaricioufly hoarded ; andlearn-
*' ing to produce good a61:ions, not empty dif-*
*' putes." We could not but refpe61: the
temple even of a falfe prophet, in which we
found fuch excellent morality : we faw nothing
better among the Romijh trumpery in the
church at Mddera.
When we came to Abdullah's houfe^
we were conduced through a fmall court-yard
into an open room, on each fide of which was
a la roe
lilNZUAN OR JOHANNA. 24I
a large and convenient fofa, and above It a high
bed- place in a dark recefs, over which a chintz
counterpane hung down from the ceiHng : this
is the f^eneral form of the heft rooms in the
ifland ; and moft of the tolerable houfes have a
fimllar apartment on the oppolite fide of the
court, that there may be at all hours a place in
the fhade for dinner or for repofe. We were
entertained with ripe dates from Icemen, and
the milk of cocoa-nuts ; but the heat of the
room, which feem.ed accefhble to all who chofe
to enter it, and the fcent of muik or civet,
with which it was perfumed, foon made us de-
firous of breathing a purer air ; nor could I be
detained long by the Arabic k manufcripts
w^hich the Governor produced, but which ap-
peared of little ufe, and coniequently of no
value, except to fuch as love mere curiofities :
one of them, indeed, relating to the penal law
of the Mohammedans^ I would gladly have
purchafed at a jufl price ; but he knew not what
to afk, and I knew that better books on that fub-
jed: might be procured in Befigal. He then
offered me a black boy for one of my Alkorans,
and prefled me to barter an hidian drefs, which
he had feen on board the flilp, for a cow and calf;
the golden flippers attradled him moff, fincehis
wife, he laid, would like to wear them ; and
for that reafon I made him a prefent of them ;
R but
242 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
but had deflined the book and the robe for his
fuperior. No high opinion could be formed of
Sayyad Abdullah, who feemed very eager
for gain, and very fervile where he expeOed it.
Our next vifit was to Shaikh Sa'lim, the
King's eldefl fon ; and if we had feen him firft,
the ftate of civihzation in Hinzuan would have
appeared at its loweft ebb ; the worft Englijh
hackney in the worft ftable is better lodged,
and looks more princely than this heir ap-
parent ; but though his mien and apparel were
extremely favage, yet allowance ihould have
been made for his illnefs, which, as we after-
wards learned, was an abfcefs in the fpleen, a
diforder not uncommon in that country, and
frequently cured, agreeably to the Arabian
pra£lice, by the a6lual cautery. He was iii-
ceflantly chewing pieces of the Areca-mit with
fhell-lim.e ; a cuftom borrovv'ed, I fuppofe, from
the Indians^ who greatly improve the com-
pofition with fpices and betel-leaves, to which
they formerly added camphor : all the natives
of rank chewed it, but not, 1 think, to fo great
an excefs. Prince Sa'lim from time to time
gazed at himfelf with complacency in a piece
of broken looking-glafs, which was glued on a
fri.all board, a fpccimen of wretchednefs which
we obferved in no other houfe ; but many cir-
cumftauces convinced us that the apparently
low
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 243
low condition of his Royal Highnefs, who
was not on bad terms with his father, and
Teemed not to want authority, proceeded wholly
from his avarice. His brother Hamdullah,
who generally relides in the town of Dofnoni^
has a very different charatfter, being efteemed a
man of worth, good fenfe, and learning : he
had come the day before to Matfamitdoy on hear-
ing that an EngUJh frigate was in the road ; and
1 havino; g-one out for a iQw minutes to read aa
Arabick infcription, found him on my return
devouring a manufcript, which I had left with
fome of the company. He is a Klid't or Mo-
hammedan judge ; and as he feemed to have
more knowledge than his countrymen, I was
extremely concerned that I had fo little conver-
fation with him. The King, Shaikh Armed,
has a younger fon, named Abdullah, whofe
ufual reiidence is in the town of Warn, which
he feldom leaves, as the ftate of his health is
very infirm. Since the fucCeffion to the title
and authority of Sultan is not unaltet-ably fixed
in one line, but requires confirmation by the
Chiefs of the iflandj it is not improbable that
they may hereafter be conferred on Prince
Hamdullah.
A LITTLE beyond the hole in which Sa'lim
received us, was his Haram^ or the apartment
of his women, which he permitted us all to fee,
R 2 not
244 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
not through politenefs to Grangers, as we
believed at firft, but, as I learned afterwards
from his own lips, in expe£lation of a prefent :
we faw only two or three m.iferable creatures
with their heads covered, while the favourite,
as we fuppofed, ftood behind a coarfe curtain,
and fhewed her ankles under it loaded with
filver rings ; which, if fhe was capable of re-
flecflion, fhe muft hav^e conlidered as sflitterine
fetters rather than ornaments ; bur a rational
being would have preferred the condition of a
wild beaft, expofed to perils and hunger in a
forell:, to the fplendid mifery of being wife or
miftrefs to Sa'lim.
Before we returned, Alwi' was defirous of
fhewing me his books ; but the day was too
far advanced, and I promifed to vifit him fome
other morning. The Governor, however, pre-
vailed on us to fee his place in the countrv,
where he invited us to dine the next day : the
walk was extremely pleafant from the town to
the fide of a rivulet, which formed in one part
a fmall pool very convenient for bathing, and
thence, through groves and alleys, to the foot
of a hill ; but the dining-room was little better
than an open barn, and was recommended only
by the coohiefs of its fliade. Abdullah would
accompany us on our return to the fhip, toge-
ther w^ith two Mufti s^ who fpoke Arahick in-
- ' ' • ' ... differently.
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA, j 245
dlfFerendy, and leemed eager to fee all my ma-
nufcripts ; but they were very moderately
learned, and gazed with llupid wonder on a fine
copy of the Hamafah and on other collections
of ancient poetry.
Early the next morning a black meffenger,
with a tawney lad as his interpreter, came from
Prince Sa^lim ; who, having broken his per-
fpeclive-glafs, wiihed to procure another by
purchafe or barter : a polite anfwer was re-
turned, and fteps taken to gratify his wifhes.
As we on our part exprelTed a defire to vifit the
King at Domon':, the Prince's meilenger told us,
that his mafter would, no doubt, lend us pa-
lanquins (for there was not an horfe in the
ifland), and order a fufficient number of his
vaflals to carry us, whom we might pay for
their trouble, as we thought juft : we com-
miffioned him, therefore, to alk that favour,
and begged that all might be ready for our ex-
curlion before fun- rife, that we might efcape
the heat of the noon, which, though it was
the middle of winter, we had found exceffive.
The boy, whofc name was Combo Madi'
ftaid with us longer than his companion : there
Vv^as fomething in his look fo ingenuous, and iix
his broken Englifi fo fimple, that we en-
couraged him to continue his innocent prattle.
He wrote and read Arahick tolerably well, and
R 3 ' fet
REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
fet down at my deiire the names of feveral towns
in the ifland, which, Hefirft told me, was prOf
perly called Htnzuan. The fi\ult of begging
for whatever he liked, he had in common with
the Governor and other nobles ; but hardly in ^
greater degree : his firfl petition for fome laven-
der-water was readily granted ; andafmall bottle
of it was fo acceptable to him, that, if we ha4
fuffered him, he would have kiifed our feet :
but it was not for himfelf that he rejoiced fo
extravagantly ; he told us, with tears ftarting
from his eyes, that his mother would be pleafed
with it, and the idea of her pleafure feemed to
fill him with rapture : never did I fee filial af-
fedion more warmly felt, or more tenderly
and, in my opinion, unaffededly exprefled 5
yet this boy was not a favourite of the officers,
who thought him artful. His mother's name,
he faid, was Fa^tima ; and he impor-
tuned us to vilit her ; conceiving, I fuppofe,
that all mankind muft love and admire her ;
wcpromifed to gratify him ; and, haying made
him feveral prefents, permitted him to return.
As he reminded me of Aladdin in the Ara-
bian tale, 1 deligned to give him that name in a
recommendatory letter, which he prefled me
to write, inftead of St. Domingo, as fome
European vilitor had ridiculoufly called him ;
but, fi^e the allu^Qn would not have been ge-t
nerally
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA, 247
nerally known, and fince the title of Aiau^ldm,
or Eminence in Faith, might have offended his
fuperiors, I thought it advifeable for him to
keep his yffrican name.
A VERY indifferent dinner was prepared for
us at the houfe of the Governor, whom we did
not fee the whole dav, as it was the besfinnine
of Ramadan, the Mohammedan Lenty and he
was engaged in his devotions, or made them
his excufe ; but his eldeH: fon fat by us, while
we dined, together with Mu'sa, who was em-
ployed, jointly with his brother Husain, as
purveyor to the Captain of the frigate.
Having obferved a very elegant fhrub, that
grew about fix feet high in the court-yard, but
was not then in flower, I learned with pleafure,
that it was hifind, of which I had read fo much
in Arabian poems, and which European bota-
nifts have ridiculoufly named JL^ieyow/^. Mu'sa
bruifed fome of the leaves, and, having moift-
ened them with water, applied them to our
nails, and the tips of our fingers, which in a
Ihort time became of a dark orange-fcarlet. I
had before conceived a different idea of this
dye, and imagined, that it was uled by the
Arahi to imitate the natural rednefs of thofe
parts in young and healthy perfons, which in
all countries mufl be confidered as a beauty :
perhaps a lefs quantity of hinna, or the fame
R 4 differently
248 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
differently prepared, might have produced that
effe6t. The old men iiiy^r^/^/^ufed the famedye
to conceal their gray hair, while their daugh-
ters were dyeing their lips and gums black, to let
off the whitenefs of their teeth ; fo univerfal
in all nations and ages are perlbnal vanity, and
a love of difguiiing truth ; though in all cafes,
the farther our fpecies recede frcm nature, the
farther they depart from true beauty ; and men
at leaft fliould difdain to ufe artifice or deceit
for any purpofe or on any occafion : if the wo-
men of rank at Paris, or thofe in Lofidon who
wifh to imitate them, be inclined to call the
Arabs barbarians, let them view their own
head-dreffes and cheeks in a glafs, and, if they
have left no room for blufhes, be inwardly at
leaft aftiamed of their cenfure. . - •
In the afternoon I walked a long way up the
mountains in a winding path amid plants and
trees no lefs new than beautiful, and regretted
exceedingly that very few of them were in
bloflbm, as I fliould then have had leifure to ex-
amine them. Curiofity led me from hill to hill ;
and I came at laft to the fources of a rivulet,
which we had paffed near the fhcre, and from
which the Ihip was to be fupplied with excellent
water. I faw no birds on the mountains but
Guinea-fowl, which might have been eallly
caught : no infects were troublefome to me but
ofquitos \
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 249
rnofquitos ; and I had no fear of venomous rep-
tiles, having been affured that the air was too
pure for any to exift in it ; but I was often un-
willingly the caufe of fear to the gentle and
harmlefs lizard, who ran among the fhrubs.
On my return I miffed the path by which I
had afcended ; but having met fom.e blacks laden
with yams and plantains, I was by them di-
reded to another, which led me round, through
a charmino; 9:rove of cocoa-trees, to the Gover-
nor's country-feat, where our entertainment
was clofed by a fillabub, which the EriQ-li/Jj had
taught the Mufehnans to make for them.
We received no anfwer from Sa'lim ; nor,
indeed, expe6led one, fince we took for granted
that he could not but approve our intention of
vifiting his father; and we went on Ihore be-
fore fun- rife, in full expectation of a plealant
excurfion to Dojnoni, but we were happily dif-
appointed. 1 he fervants at the Prince's door
told us coolly, that their mafter was indifpofed,
and, as they believed, afieep; that he had given
them no orders concerning his palanquins, and
that they durft not difturb him. Alwi' fuon
came to pay us his compliments, and was fol-
lowed by his eldeil fon Ahmed, with whom we
walked to the Sfardens of the two Princes Sa'lim
and Hamdullah ; the fituation was naturally
good but wild and defolate; and in Sa'lim's
garden.
%^0 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
garden, which we entered through a miferable
hovel, we f^iw a convenient bathing-place, well
built with ftone, but then in great diforder ;
-and a fhed by way of fummer-houfe, like that
inider which we dined at the Governor's, but
fmaller, and lefs neat. On the ground lay a
kind of cradle, about fix feet long, and little
more than one foot ia breadth, made of cords
twifted in a fort of clumfy net-work, with a
long thick bamboo fixed to each fide of it : this
we heard with furprizc was a royal palanquin,
and one of the vehicles in which we were to
have been rocked on men's fhoulders over the
mountains. I had much converfation with
Ahmed, whom I found intelligent and com-
municative, He told me, that feveral of his
countrymen compofed fongs and tunes ; that
he was himfelf a paflionate lover of poetry and
mufic, and that if we would dine at his houfe
he would play and fing to us. We declined his
invitation to dinner, as we had made a condi-
tional promife if ever we pafled a day at Matja^
miido to at our currv with Ba'na' Gibu, an
honefl: man, of whom w^e purchafed eggs and
vegetables, and to whom fome TLngUJlomen \\^A
given the title of Lord, which made him ex-
tremely vain ; we could therefore make Say-
YAD Ahmed only a morning vifit. He fung a
hymn or tvv'o in Arab'ick^ and accompanied his
di;.wling tho'igh pathetic pfalmody with a kind
of
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 25 1
pf mandoline, which he touched with an awk-
ward quill : the inftrument was very imperfect,
but feemed to give him delight. '1 he names
of the ftring-s were written on it in Arabian or
Indian figures, fimple and compounded ; but I
could not think them worth copying. He gave
Captain Williamson, who wiflied to preient
fome literary curiofities to the library at Dublin,
a fmall roll, containing a hymn in Arabick let-
ters, but in the language of Mombaza^ which
was mixed with Arabick ; but it hardly deferved
examination, fincethe il:udy ofl nguages hasHt-
tle Intrinfic value, and is only uieful as the inrtru-
ment of real knowledge, which we can
fcarce expe6l from the poets of Mozambique,
Ahmed would, I believe, have heard our E^ro-
fean airs (I always except French melody) with
rapture ; for his favourite tune was a common
JriJIo jig, with which he feemed wonderfully
afFe6led.
On our return to the beach I thought of vi-
fiting old Alwi', according to my promife, and
Prince Sa'lie.!, whofe character I had not then
discovered. I refolved for that purpofe to ftay
on fhore alone, our dinner with Gibu having
been fixed at an early hour. h'Lwx' fliewed me
his manufcripts, which chiefly related to the ce-
remonies and ordinances of his own religion ;
and one of them, which I had formerly (ttn in
Europe y
252 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
Europe, was a colledioii of fublime and elegant
hymns inpraifeof Mohammed, with explana-
tory notes in the margin. I requefted him to
read one of them after the manner of the Arabs^
and he chaunted it in a ftrain by i\o means un-
pleafing ; but I am perfuaded that he underftood
it very imperfeclly. The room, which was
open to the ftreet, was prefently crowded with
vifitors, moft of whom were Mufti's, or ex-
pounders of the law ; and Alwi', defirous, per-
haps, to difplay his zeal before them at the ex-
pence of good -breeding, dircfted my attention
to a paiTage in a Commentary on the Kora'n,
which I found levelled at the Chr'ifiians. The
commentator, having related with fome addi-
tions (but, on the whole, not inaccurately) the
circumftancesof the temptation, puts this fpeech
into the mouth of the tempter : " Though I am
" unable to delude thee, yet I will miflead by thy
*' means more human creatures than thou wilt
" fet right," " Nor was this menace vain,'* fays
the Mohammedan writer, " for the inhabitants
** of a region many thoufand leagues in extent,
" are flill fo deluded by the devil, that they im-
*' oufly call TfcA thcfon of God. Heaven pre-
" ferve us," he adds, " from blafphemingChri-
" flians, as wellas blafpheming Jews!" Altho' a
religious difpute with thofe obflinate zealots
would have been unieafonable and fruitlefs, yet
they deferved, I thought, a flight reprehenfion,
as the attack feemed to be concerted among
them.
IIINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 25^
them. " The commentator," laid I, " was
" much to blame for paffing fo indiicrimiiiate
'* and hafty a cenfure : the title which gave your
*• legiflator, and gives you luch offence, was of-
" ten applied in Judea, by a bold figure, agree-
*' able to the Hebi^ew idiom, though unufual in
** Arabic k^ to angels, to holy men, and even to ail.
*' mankind, who are commanded to call God
" their fat her ; and in this large {qi\(q rhQ^pojlIi;
*' to the Romans calls the eled: the children of
'* God, and the Messiah t\\e fir fi -born among
** 7nany brethren ; but the words only -begot ten
*' are applied tranfcendently and incomparably
'* to him alone * ; and as for me, who believe
'* the fcriptures, which you alfo profefs to be-
*' lieve, though you afiert without proof that
" we have altered them, I cannot refufe him an
*' appellation, though far furpaffing our reafon,
" by which he is diftinguifhed in the Gofpel ;
" and the believers in Muhammed, who ex-
" prefsly names him the Messiah, and pro-
" nounces him to have been born of a vir2;in,
" which alone might fully juilify the phrafe
" condemned by this author, are themfelves
*' condemnable for cavilling at words, when
*' they cannot object to the fubftance of our faith
" confidently with their own.'* The Mufel-
mans had nothing to fw in reply ; and the
converlation was changed.
*Rom.viu.29. See i.Johnjiii. i, 2. Barrow, 231, 232,251.
^ * I WAS
254 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OI^
I WAS aftoiiiflied at the queilions which Al«
wi'put to me concerning the late peace and the
independence of America ; the feveral powers
and refources of Britain and France^ Spain and
Holland \ the character and fuppofed views of
the Emperor ; the comparative ftrength of the
RuJJlan Iinperuii^ and Othman armies, and their
refpe6live modes of bringing their forces to ac-
tion. 1 anfwered him without referve, except on
the ftate of our poffeflions in India ; nor werd
my anfwers loft ; for I cbferved that all the com^
pany were variouily affected by them, generally
with amazement, often with concern ; efpe-
ciallv when I defcribedto them the great force
and admirable difcipline of the Aujlrlan army^
and the ftupid prejudices of the ^nrh, whom
norhing can induce to abandon their old Tarta-
rian habits, and expofed the weaknefs of their
empire in /frlca^ and even in the more diftant
provinces of Afia. In return he gave me clear
but general information concerning; the Q:overn-
mentand commerce of his ifland : '' his coun-
*' try," he faid, *' WTispoor, and produced few ar-
" tides of trade ; but if they could get monev,
*' which they now preferred to play -things ^'^
thefe were his words, " they might eaiily,'*
he added, " procure foreign commodities, and
" exchange them advantaeeouily with their
" neighbours in the iilands and on the continent :
*' thus with a little money," faid he, " w^e
*' purchafe mulketc, powder, balls, cutlafTes,
** knives.
HiNZUAN OR JOHANNA. 255
knives, cloths, raw cotton, and other articles
brought from Bombay, and with thofe we
trade to Madagafcar for the natural produce
of the country or for dollars, with which the
French buy cattle, honey, butter, and fo forth,
in that ifland. With gold, which we receive
from your (hips, we can procure elephants
teeth from the natives of Mozambique, who
barter them alfo for ammunition and bars of
iron ; and the Portuguefe in that country give
us cloths of various kinds in exchange for oar
commodities : thofe cloths we difpofe of lu-
cratively in the three neighbouring iflands ;
whence we bring rice, cattle, a kind of bread-
fruit which grows in Comara, and (laves,
which we buy alfo at other places to which
we trade ; and we carry on this traffic in our
own veffels.'*
Here I could not help exprefling my abhor-
rence of their Slave Trade, and alked him by
what law thev claimed a property in rational be»
ings, lince our Creator had given our fpecies
a dominion, to be moderately exercifed, over
the beafts of the field and the fowls of the air,
but none to man over man. " By no law, an»
fweredhe, *« unlefs neceffity be a law." There
" are nations in Madagafcar and in Africa who
" know neither God nor his Prophet, nor
*« Moses, nor David, nor tlie Messiah :
<* thofe nations are in perpetual war, and take
" manv
:l^6 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF*
many captives, whom, if they could not fellj
they would certainly kill. Individuals among
them are in extreme poverty, and have num-
bers of children, w^ho, if they cannot be dif-
pofed of, muft perifh through hunger, toge-
ther with their miferable parents. By purchaf-
ing thefe wretches we preferve their lives,
and, perhaps, thofe of many others, whom
our money relieves. The fum of the argu-
ment is this : If we buy them, they will live
— if they become valuable fervants, they will
live comfortably ; but if they are not fold, they
muft die miferably." " There may be," faid
I, " fuch cafes, but you fallacioufly draw a ge-
neral conclufion from a few particular in-
llances ; and thi<^ is the very fallacy which,
on a thoufand other occafions, deludes man-
kind. It is not to be doubted that a conflant
and gainful traffic in human creatures foments
war, in which captives are alwavs made, and
keeps up that perpetual enmity which you
pretend to be the cdufe of a practice in itfelf
reprehenfible, while in truth it is its eff'eSl.
The fame traffic encourages lazinefs in Ibme
parents, who might in general fupport their
families by proper induflry, and feduces
others to fcifle their natural feelings. At moft,
your redemption of thofe unhappy children
can amount only to a perfonal contrail, im-
plied between you, for gratitude and reafon-
^'able
tllNZUAN OR JOHANNAi ^^^
** able fervice on their part— for klndiiefs and
*' humanity on your's ; but can you think your
" part performed by difpofingof them againft
"' their wills, with as much indifference as if
** you were felling cattle ; efpecially as they
" might become readers of the Kora'n, and
*' pillars of your Faith ?" " The law," faid he,
^' forbids our felling them, when they are be-
" lievers in the Prophet ; and little children
*• only are fold, nor they often, or by all maf-
" ters." " You who believe in Muhammed,'*
faid I, '* are bound by the fpirit and letter of his
*' laws to take pains that they alfo may believ^e
*' in him ; and if you negle6l fo important a
*' duty for fordid gain, I do not fee how you
*' can hope for profperity in this v/orld, or for
*' happlnefs in the next.'* My old friend and
the Muftis aflented, and muttered a few
prayers, but probably forgot my preaching be-
fore many minutes had paiTed.
So much time had flipped away in this con-
verfation, that 1 could make but a fl^iort vifit to
Prince Sa'lim : my view in vifiting him way to
fix the time of our journey to T)om'jni as early as
poflible on the next morning. His appearance
was more favage than ever, and I found him in
adifpofition to complain bitterly of the Englifli.
" No acknowledgement," he faid, ' had been
** made for the kind attentions of himfclf and
*' the chief men in his country to the officers
*' and people of the Brillia?it, though a whole
S *' vear-
2^8 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
J
*' year had elapfed (ince the wreck." I really
wondered at the forgerfulnefs to which alone
llich a negle£t could be imputed ; and aflured
hin:i, that I would exprefs my opinion both in
Bengal and in letters to JLngland. *' We have
^' little," faid he, " to hope from letters, for
*' when we have been paid with them inflead
'^ of money, and have (hewn them on board
*' your fliipSj we have commonly been treated
*' with difdain, and often with imprecations,"
I allured him, that either thofe letters muft
have been written coldly and by very oblcure
perfons, or fhewn to very ill bred m.en, of
whom there were too many in all nations, but
that a few inflances of rudenefs ought not to
give him a general prejudice againfl our national
charafter. " But you," faid he, *' are a wealthy
" nation, and we are indigent ; yet though all
*' our groves of cocoa-trees, our fruits, and
" our cattle are ever at your fervice, you al-
" ways try to make hard bargains with us for
" what you chufe to dilpofe of, and frequently
" will neither fell nor give thofe things which
" we principally want." " To form," faid I,
*' a jufl: opinion of EngliJJjmen, you muft
" vifit us in our ovv'n ifland, or at leaft in India ;
" here we are flrangers and travellers : many
" of us have no defign to trade in any coun-
*' try, and none of us think of trading in
'" H'lnzUiin^ where we flop only for refrefh-
' *' ment. The clothes, arms, or inftruments
** which
tllNZtJAN OR JOHANNA. ^59
** which you may want are commonly
^' neceflary or convenient to us ; but if Say-
^' YAD Al\Vi' or his fons were to be ftrans^ers
*' in our country, you (houldhave no reafon to
*' boaft of fuperiorhofpitality." He then ihewed
me a fecond time a part of an old filk veft, with
the ftar of the Order of the Thifile, and begged
me to explain the motto ; expreffinga wifh that
the Order might be conferred on him by the
King of England in return for his good offices
to the Englijh. I reprefented to him the im-
poffibility of his being gratified, and took occa-
iion to fay, that there was more true dignity in
their own native titles than in thofe of Prince,
Duke and Lord, which had been idly given
them, but had no conformity to their manners
or the conftitution of their Government.
This converfation being agreeable to neither
of us, 1 changed it by deliring that the palan-
quins and bearers might be I'eady next morning
as early as poffible : he anfwered, that his pa-
lanquins were at our fervice for nothing, but
that we mud pay him ten dollars for each fet of
bearers ; that it was the flated price, and that
Mr. Hastings had paid it when he went to
viiit the King. This, as I learned afterwards,
was falfe ; but in all events I knew that he would
keep the dollars himfelf, and give nothing to the
bearers, who deferved them better, and whom
S 2 he
26o REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OP
he would compel to leave their cottages and toll
for his profit. " Can you imagine, I replied,
that we would employ four and twenty men
to bear us fo far on their flioulders without
rewarding them amply ? But iince they are
free men (fo he had ailiired me), and not
your flaves, we will pay them in proportion
to their diligence and good behaviour ; and
it becomes neither your dignity nor ours to
make a previous bargain.'* 1 {hewed him an
elegant copy of the Koran, which 1 deftined
for his father, and defcribed the reft of my
prefent ; but he coldly alked, if that was all.
Had he been King, a purfe of dry dollars
would have given him more pleafure than the
fineft or holieft manufcript. Finding him, in
converfing on a variety of fubjedts, utterly void
of intelligence or principle, I took my leave,
and faw him no more, but promifcd to let him
know for certain whether wc fhould make our
intended excurfion. . - .-
We dined in tolerable comfort, andhadocca-
fion, in the courfe of the day, to obferve the
manners of the natives in the middle rank, who
are called Ba''nas, and all of whom have flaves
conftantly at work for them. We vhited the mo-
ther of Comboma'de, whofeemedinaftationbut
little raifed above indigence ; and her hufband,
who was a mariner, bartered an Jrabick Treatife
on Aftronomy andNavigation,whichhehad read,
for afea-compafs, of which he well knew the ufe.
In
HINZUAN OPx JOHANNA. 261
In the morning I had converfed with two
very old Arabs of Yemen, who had brought
fome articles of trade to Hinzuan ; and in the
afternoon I met another who had come froni
Majhat (where at that time there was a civil
war) to purchafe, if he could, an hundred ftand
of arms. I told them all, that I loved their na-
tion, and they returned my compliments with
great Vvarmth, efpecially the two old men, who
were near fourfcore, and reminded me of
ZoHAiR and Ha'reth.
So bad an account had been given me of
the road over the mountains, that I diiTuaded
my companions from thinking of the journey,
to which the Captain became rather difin-
- clined ; but as I wifhed to be fully acquainted
with a country which I might never fee again,
. I wrote the next day to Sa'lim, requefting
' him to lend me one palanquin, and to order a
fufficient number of men ; he fent me no writ-
ten anfwer, which I afcribed rather to his in^
capacity than to rudenefs : but the Governor,
with Alwi' and two of his fons, came on board
in the evening, and faid, that they had feeii
my letters ; that all fhould be ready ; but that
I could not pay lefs for the men than ten dollars.
I faid, I would pay more, but it fhould be to
the men themfelves, according to their beha-
viour. They returned fomewhat diflatisfied,
after I had played at chefs with Alwi's younger
S 3 fon.
262 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
fon, in whofe manner and addrefs there was
fomething remarkably pleafing.
Before fun-rile, on the 2d of Auguft^ I
went alone on fhore, with a fmall balket of
fuch provifions as I might want in the courfe
of the day, and with fome cuihions to make
the Prince's palanquin at leafi a tolerable ve-
hicle ; but the Prince was refoived to receive
the dollars to which his men were entitled ;
and he knew that, as I was eager for the jour-
ney, he could prefcribe his own terms. Old
Alwi' met me on the beach, and brought ex-,
cufes from Sa'lim, who, he faid, was in-
diipofed. He coiiduded me to his houfe ; and
feemed rather defirous of pcrfuading me to
abandon my delign of vifiting the King ; but I
afured him, that if the Prince would not fup-
ply me with proper attendants, I would walk
to Donioni \m\.h. my own lervantsanda guide.
" Shaikh Sa'lim,'* he faid, " was mifcr-
^'- ably avaritious ; that he was afhamed of a
** klijfman with fuch a difpofition ; but that
" he was no lefs obftinate than covetous, and
" that without ten dollars paid in hand it would
'' be impoffible to procure bearers." I then
o-ave him three guineas, which he carried or
pretended to carry to Sa'lim, but returned
without the change, aliedging that he had no
iilver, and promiling to give me on niy return
the few dollars that remained. In about an
hour the ridiculous vehicle was brought by
■!\in^
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 263
nine Aurdy blacks, who could not fpeak a word
of Arab'ick\ fo that I expected no information
concerning the country through which I was
to travel ; but Alwi' aflifted nrie in a point of
the utmoil: confequence. '* You cannot go,"
faid he, *' without an interpreter ; for the King
fpeaks only the language of this ifland ; but
1 have a Icrvant whofe name is Tumu'ni, a
feniible and worthy man, who underftands
EngliJJj, and is much efteemed by the King :
" he is known and valued all over H'mzuan.
*' This man f!iall attend vou ; and vou will
*' foon be fenfible of his w^orth."
Tumu'ni defu'ed to carry my bafket, and
we let outw^ith a profpe6l of fine weather, but
fome hours later than I had intended. I w^alked
by the gardens of the two Princes to the Ikirts
of the town, and came to a little village con-
fiding of feveral very neat nuts made chiefly
with the leaves of the cocoa<-tree ; but the road
a little farther w\as fo flony, that I fat in the
palanquin, and was borne with perfect fafety
over fome rocks. I then defired my guide to
aflure the men, that I would pay them liberal-
ly i but the poor peafiuits, who had been
brought from their farrns on the hills, were not
perfedly acquainted with the ufe of money,
and treated my promife with indifference.
About five miles from Matfamudo lies the
town of V/i'im, where Shaikh Abdullah, who
has already been mentioned, ufually refides. I
S 4 iaw
Ii64 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF '
faw it at a diftance, and it feemed to be agree-
ably lituatcd. Wherj I had pafled the rocky
part of the road I came to a ftony beach, where
the fea appeared to have loft fome ground, fince
there was a fine fand to the left, and beyond it a
beautiful bay, which refembled that of JVey-^
mouthy and feemed equally convenient for bath-
ing ; but it did not appear to me, that the ftonesi
over which I w^as carried had been recently co-
vered with water. Here I faw the frigate, and
taking leave of it for tv\^o days, turned from the
coaft into a fine country very neatly cultivated,
and confining partly of hillocks exquiiitely green,
partly of plains w^iich w^ere then in a gaudy
dreis of rich yejlow blofioms : my guide \\\~
formed me that they were plantations of a kind
of VLtch which was eaten by the natives. Cot-
tages and fiirms w^ere interfperfed all over this
gay champaign, and "the whole fcene was de-
lightful ; but it was foon changed for beauties
of a different fort. AVe defcended into a cool
valley, through which ran a rivulet of perfe£lly
clear water; and there finding my vehicle un-
eafv, thousfh from the lauduer and merriment
pf my bearers I concluded ihem to be quite at
their eafe, I bade them fet me down, and
walked before them all the reft of the w^ay.
Mountains clothed with fine trees and flovvering
fnriibs prefented themfelves on our afcent from
the vale, and we proceeded for half an hour
through pleafant wood-walks, w^here i regret-
ted
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 265
ted the impoffibility of loitering a while to ex-
amine the variety of new blofioms, which fuc-
ceeded one another at every ftep, and the vir-
tues as well as names of which feemed fami-
liar toTuMu'ra. At length we defcended into
a valley of greater extent than the former ; a
river or large wintry torrent ran through it, and
fell down a fteep decliviiy at the end of it,
w4iere it ieemed to be loft among rocks. Cat-
tle were grazing on the banks of ihe river, and
the huts of the owners appeared on the hills :
a more agreeable fpot I had not before feen even
in Swijferland or MerlonethJlAre ; but it was
followed bv an aflem.blage of natural beauties,
which 1 hardly expe6led to hnd in a little ifland
twelve degrees to the fouth of the Line. 1 was
not fufficiently pleafed with my (blitary jour-
ney to difcover charms which had not actual
exiftence, and the firfl: effecl of the contraft be-
tween St. yago and Hinziian had ceafed. But,
without any difpofition to give the landfcape a
high colouring, I may truly fay what I thought
at the time, that the whole country which
next prefented itfelf as far furpafled Ermenonville
or Blenheim, or any other imitations of nature
which 1 had feen in France or England, as the
fineft bay furpafi'es an artificial piece of water.
Two very high mountains covered to the
fummit with the richeft verdure, were at fome
diftance on my right hand, and feparated from
me by meadows diverlified with cottages and
herds.
266 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OP
herds, or by vallies refonnding with torrents
and water-falls : on my left was the fea, to
which there were beautiful openings from the
hills and woods ; and the road was a fmooth
path, naturally w^inding through a forefl of fpicy
{hrubs, fruit-trees, and palms. Some high
trees were fpano;led with white bloflbms equal in
fi-agrance to orange flowers : my guide called
them M(mo7igQ%^ but the day was declining fo
fafl: that it was impoffible to examine them. The
variety of fruits, flowers, and birds, of which
I had a rranfient view in this magnificent gar-
den, would have fupplied a naturalift with
amufement for a month ; but I faw no remark-
able infe£l, and no reptile of any kind. The
w^oodland was diverfified by a few plealant
glades, and new profpe6ts were continually
opened ; at length a noble view of the fea burPc
upon me unexpectedly, and having pafled a hill
or two we came to the beach, beyond which
were feveral hills and cottages. We turned
from the fliore, and on the next eminence I faw
the town of Domoni ^at a little diflance below
us : I was met by a number of natives, a few
of whom fpoke Arabick, and thinking it a con-
venient place for repofe, 1 {qwI my guide to ap-
prize the King of my intended vilit. He re-
turned in half an hour v/ith a polite meilage ;
and I walked into the town, which feemed
large and populous. A great crowd accompa-
nied me, and 1 was coududed to a houfe built
on
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 267
pn the fame plan with the befl: hoiifes at MaU
famtido. In the middle of the court yard itood a
large Monongo tree, which perfumed the air : the
apartment on the left was empty ; and in that
on the rig-ht fat the Kino- on a fofa or bench
o o
covered with an ordinary carpet. He rofe when
I entered, anc*, grafping my hands, placed me
near hirn on the right ; but as he could fpeak
only the language of H/;z'2 «<;?;?, I had recourfe
to my friend TuMuVi, than whom a readier or
more accurate interpreter could not have been
found. I prefenteJ the King with a very hand-
fome Indian drefs of blue filk with golden
flowers, which had been \vorn only at one mal-
querade, and with a beautiful copy of the
KoRA^N, from which 1 reada few verfes to him:
he took them with great complacency, and faid,
*' he wiflied I had come by fea, that he might
. " have loaded one of my boats with fruit and
" fome of his fined cattle. He had {^tw
*' me,'- he faid, " on board the frigate, where
*' he had been according to his cullom in dif-
" suife, and had heard of me from his fon
*' Shaik Hamdullah." I gave him an ac-
/ count of my journey, and extolled the beauties
of his country : he put many queftions con-
cerning mine, and profelled great regard for my
nation. " But I hear,'- faid he, " that you are
*' a magiftrate, and confequently profefs peace ;
*« why are you armed with a broad-fword f •'
\^ I was a man," I faid, " before I was a ma-
*' giftrate \
263 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OF
*' giilrate ; and if it (hould ever happen that law
*' conld not proted: me, I mufl protect my-
*' {di\' He feemed about fixty years old, had
a very cheerful countenance, and a great appear-
ance of goodnature mixed with a certain dip--
jiity which diftinguiflied him from the croud of
miniflers and officers who attended him. Our
converfation was interrupted by notice, that it
was the time for evening prayer ; and when he
arofe he faid, *' This houfeis yours, and I will
" vifit you in it after you have taken fome re-
^' frefhment.*' Soon after his fervants brought
a roaH: fowl, a rice pudding, and fome other
diihes, with papayas and very good pomegra-
nates : my own badiet fupplied the reft of the
iupper. The room was hung with old red
cloth, and decorated with pieces of porcelain
and feftoons of Engliih bottles : the lamps
were placed on the ground in large fea fhells ;
and the bed-place was a recefs, concealed by a
chintz hanging, oppofite to the fofa on which
he had been fitting. Though it was not a place
that invited repofe, and the gnats were inex-
predibly troublefome, yet the fatigues of the
day procured me a comfortable fiumber. I was
waked by the return of the King and his train ;
fome of whom were Arabs^ for 1 heard one
fay, '' H^joarlikid^'' or, '* he isfleeping :** there
was an immediate hlence, and I pafled the night
with little diilurbance except from the unwel-
come
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. z(i^
come longs of the mufcpitos. In the morn-
ing I was equally filent and folitary ; the houle
appeared to be deferted, and I began to
wonder what was become of Tumu'ni : he
came at lens^th, with a concern on his conn-
tenance, and told me, that the bearers had
run away in the night ; but that the King^
who wifhed to fee me in another of his houfes,
would fupply me with bearers, if he could not
prevail on me to fray till a boat could be fent
for. I went immediately to the King, who I
found fitting on a raifed fofa in a large room., the
walls of which were adorned w4th fen fences
from the Kora'n in very legible charaders :
about fifty of his fubjedts were feated on the
ground in a femicircle before him, and my inter-
preter took his place in the midft of them. The
s:ood old Kinc^lau2;hed heartily when he heard
the adventure of the night, and faid, " You
" will now be my guefl: for a w^eek, I hope ;
" but ferioufly, if you muft return foon, I will
*' fend into the country for fome peafants to
** carry you." He then apologifed for the
behaviour of Skaik Sa'lim, which he had
r
heard from Tumu'ni, who told me afrervv\ards
he was much difpleafed with it, and v/ould
not fail to exprefs his difpleafure : he con-
cluded with a Ions: harano;ue on the advanta2;es
which the EnglrjJj might derive from fendiriga
fhip
2^D REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OP
r
fliip every year from Bombay to trade vvItK
his fubjed:s, and on the wonderful cheap-
iiefs cf their commodities, efpecially of their
cowries. Ridiculuus as the idea may feem, it
fhowed an enlargement of the mind, a defire to'
promote th. intereft of his people, and a fenfe
of the benefits arifmg from trade, which could
only have been expelled from a petty African
chief, and which if he had been fovereign of
Yemen might have been expanded into rational
proje6ls, proportioned to the extent of his do-
minions. I anfwered, that I was imperfe(5lly
acquainted with the commerce of hidia ; but
that 1 would report the fubftance of his conver-
iluion, and would ever bear teflimony of his
noble zeal for the good of his country, and to
the mildnefs with which he governed it. As I
had no inclination to pafs a fecond night in the
ifland, I requefted leave to return without wait-
ing for bearers : he feemed very fincere in pref-
hng m.e to lengthen my vlfit, but had too much
Arabia)! politencfs to be importunate We
there ore parted ; and at the requefl of
'1 umu'ni, who allured me that little time would
be lofl in ihevving attention to one of the wor-
thiefl men in hinzuan, 1 made a vifit to the
Goveriior of the town, whofe name was'
Mu TCKKA : his manners were very pleafing, and
he (hewed me iome letters from the officers of the
Br Hit ant i
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA; i'jt
Brilliant, which appeared to flow warm from
the heart, and contained the llrongeft eloge of
his courtefy and liberahty. He inlifled on fil-
ling my balkets with fome of the fineil: pome-
granates I had ever ^etn ; and I left the town
imprelicd with a very favourable opinion of the
King and his Governor. When I reafcended the'
hill attended by many of the natives, one of
them told me in Arahick^ that I was going to re-
ceive the higheft mark of diftincflion that it was
in the King's power to fhew me ; and he had
fcarce ended, when I heard the report of a
lingle gun : Shaikh Ahmed had faluted me
with the whole of his ordnance. I waved my
hat, and faid, '* Allah Achar.^'' The people
fhouted, and I continued my journey, not with-
out fear of inconvenience from exceliive heat
and the fatigue of climbing the i-ocks. The
walk, however, was not on the whole unplea-
fanr. I fbmetimes refied in the valleys, and
forded all the rivulets, which refrefhed me with
their coolnefs, and fupplied me with exquiiice
water to mix with the juice of my pomegranates,
and occalionally with brandy. We were over-
taken by fome peafmts, who came from the
hills by a nearer way, and brought the King's
prefent of a cow with her calf, and a ihe-goat
with two kids : they had apparently been fc-
le6led for their beauty, and w^ere brought fafe to
BejigaL The proipects which had fo greatly de-
lighted
272 HEMARKS ON THE ISLAND OP
lighted me the preceding day had not yet lof!
their charms, though they wanted the recom-
mendation af novelty ; but I muH: confefs, that
the moil dehghtful objed in that day's walk of
near ten miles wa.s the black frigate, which I
difcernedat fun-fet from a rock near the Prince's
gardens. Clofe to the town I was met by a na-
tive, who, perceiving me to be weary, opened
a fine cocoa-nut, which afforded me a delicious
draught : he informed me, that one of his
countrymen had been punifhed that afternoon
for a theft on board the Crocodile ; and added,
that in his opinion the punifhment was no lefs
juft, than the offence was difgraceful to his
country. The offender, as I afterwards learned^
was a youth of a good family who had married
a daughter of old Aiwi' ; but being left alone
for a moment in the cabin, and feeing a pair of
blue morocco flippers, could not r-fift the
temptation, and concealed them, fo ill under his
gown that he was detec5led with the mainer;
This proves that no princi} le of honour is in-
IHlled by education into the gentry of this
iiland : even Alwi', when he had obfcrved, that
*' in the month of Ramadhi it was not lawful to
*' paint with h'lnna or to tell lies,'" and when I
afked, whether both were lawful all the reft of
the year, anfwered, that '* lies were innocent,
" if no man Vv^as injured by them." Tt/MuVi
took his leave, as well fatisfied as myfelf with our
excurfion :^
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 273
fexcurfion : 1 told him before his mafler, that I
transferred alfo to him the dollars which were
due to me out of the three guineas ; and that if
ever they fhould part, I fliould be very glad to
receive him into my fervice in Inda.
Ms. Roberts, the mafler of the fhip, had
palled the day with Sayyad Ahmed ; and had
learned from him a few curious circumftances
boncernlne the government of Hinzuan. which
he found to be a monarchy limited by an ariflo-
bracy. The King, he was told, had no power
of making war by his own authority; but if the
afiembly of nobles, who were from time to time
Convened by him, refolvedon a war with any of
the neighbouring iflands, they defrayed the
charges of it by voluntary contributions, in re-
turn for which they claimed as their own, all
the booty aiid captives that might be taken.
The hope of gain or the warit of flaves is
iifually the real motive for fuch enterprizes, and
bftenfibie pretexts are ealily found : at that very
time, he underflood, they meditated a war, be-
fcaufe they wanted hands for the following har-
veH:. Their fleet confifted of fixteen or feven-
ictw fmall veilels, which they manned witlj.
about two thoufuid five hundred iflanders,
armed with mulkets and cutlafies, or with bows
and arrows. Near two years before they had
poflelTed themfelves of two towns in Maycita^
which they flill kept and garrifoned. The or-
T diuary
274- REMARKS ON THE ISLAND OP
dinary expences of the government were de-
frayed by a tax from two hundred villages ; but
the three principal towns were exempt from all
taxes, except that they paid annually to the
chief Mufti, a fortieth part of the value of all
their moveable property, and from that payment
neither the king nor the nobles claimed an ex-
emption. The kingly authority, by the prin-
ciples of their conftitution, was confidered as
eledive, though the line of fucceflion had not
in fa6l been altered iince the firfl: election of a
Sultan. He was informed, that a wander-
ing Arab, who had fettled in theifland, had, by
his intrepidity in feveral wars, acquired the rank
of a chieftain, and afterwards of a king, with
limited powers ; and that he was the grand-
father of Shaikh Ahmed : 1 had been aflured
that queen Hali'mah was his grandmother %
and that he was ihtfiXth king ; but it mufl: be
remarked, that the words jeJd and jeddah m
Arah'ick are ufed for a male and female a7tceJlor
indefinitely ; and, without a correct pedigree
of Ahmed's family, which I expelled to pro-
cure but was dilappointed, it would fcarce be
poffible to afcertain the time when his fore-
father obtained the higheft rank in the govern-
ment. In the year 1600, Captain John Davis,
who wrote an account of his voyage, found
Mayata governed by a king, and Anfuame, or
Hmzuan^ by a queen, who lliewed him great
marks
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 275
marks of friendfhip : he anchored before the
town of Demos (does he mean Domonif) which
was as large, he fays, as Flymouth ; and he
concludes from the ruins around it, that it had
once been a place of flrength and grandeur. I
can only fay, that I obferved no fuch ruins.
Fifteen years after, Captain Peyton and Sir
Thomas Roe touched at the Comara iflands ;
and from their feveral accounts it appears, that,
an old Sultanefsthenrefided in Hrnzuan, but had
a dominion paramount over all the iiles, three
of her fons governing Moh'da in her name. If
this be true, Sghaili' and the fuccelTors of Ha-
li'M/\h mufl; have lofl their influence over the
Other iflands ; and, by renewing their dormant
claim as it fiiits their convenience, they may al-
ways be furnilhed with a pretence for hoftilities.
Five o-enerations of eideft fons would account
for an hundred and feventy of the years which
have elapfed fince Davis and Peyton found
Hinzuan ruled by aSultanefs ; and Ahmed was
of fuch an age, that his reign may be reckoned
equal to a generation : it is probable, on the
whole, that Hali'mah was the widow of the
firil: Arabian king, and that her mofque has been
continued in repair by his defcendants ; fo that
we may reafonably fuppofe two centuries to
have pafled, iince a fingle Arab had the courage
and addrefs to eftablifli in that beautiful ifland a
form of government, which, though bad enough
T 2 in
276 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND Ot'
in itfelf, appears to have been adminiflcred
with advantacre to the original inhabitants. We
have lately heard of civil commotions in Hmzuan^
which we may venture topronounce,werenot ex-
cited by any cruelty or violence of Ahmed, but
were probably occaiioned by the infolence of an
oligarchy naturally hoflile to king and people.
That the mountains in the Comara iflands con-
tain diamonds, and the precious metal?, which
are ftudioufly concealed by the policy of the fe-
veral governments, may be true, though I have
no reafon to believe it, and have only heard it
aflerted without evidence ; but I hope that
neither an expeOation of fuch treafures, nor of
any other advantaoe, will ever induce an Eio'o-
pean power to violate the firft principles of juf-
tice, by aiuiming the fovereignty of H'uizjian^
which cannot anfwer a better purpofe than that
of fupplying our fleets with feafonable refrefh-
ment : and althouo;h the natives have an interefl
in receiving us with apparent cordiality, yet,
if we wiih their attachment to be unfeis;ned
and their dealings juft, we muft fet them an
example of Ariel honeily in the performance of
our engagements. In truth, our nation is not
cordially loved by tlie inhabitants of Hifiztuin^
W'ho, as it commonly happens, form a general
opinion from a few inftances of violence or
breach of faith. Not many years ago an Euro-
HINZUAN OR JOHANNA. 277
■pean, who had been hofpitably received and li-
berally fupported at Nhtfamudo^ behaved rudely
to a young married woman, who, being of low
degree, was w^alking veiled through a flreet in
the evening : her hufband ran to protect her,
and refented the rudenefs, probably wnth me-
naces, poilibly with a6lual force ; and the Eu-
ropean isfaid to have given him a mortaHvound
with a knife or bayonet, which he brought, af-
ter the fcuffie, from his lodging. This foul
murder, which the law of nature w^ould have
juftified the magiftrate in punching w'wh. death,
was reported to the king, who told the Gover-
nor (I ufe the very words of Alwi') that " it
" would be wiferto hufh it up. "Alwi'' men-
tioned a civil cafe of his own, wdiich ought not
to be concealed. When he was on the coafl: of
Africa in the dominions of a very favage prince,
a fmall European vefid was wrecked ; and the
prince not only feized all that could be faved
from the wTeck, but claimed the Captain and
the crew as his flaves, and treated them with
ferocious infolence. Alw'i aflured me, that
when he heard of the accident, he haftened to
the prince, fell proftrate before him, and by
tears and importunity prevailed on him to give
the Ejuropeans their liberty ; that he fupported
them at his own expence, enabled them to build
another vefTel, in which they failed to Hinzuan,
and departed thence for Europe or hdia : he
T 3 ihewed
278 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND, &:c.
ftiewed me the Captain's promiflbry notes for
funfis which to an Afr'icmi trader muH: be a
coniiderable object, but which were no price
for hberty, fafety, and perhaps hfe, which
his good, though difinterefttd, offices had
procured. 1 lamented, that, in my fituation,
it was wholly out of my power to affift Alwi'
in obtaining juftice ; but he urged me to deliver
an Arahick letter from him, inclofing the notes,
to the Governor-General, who, as he faid,
knew him well ; and I complied with his re-
quefl. Since it is poffible that a fubftantial de-
fence may be made by the perfon thus accufed
of injufiice, I will not name either him or the
veflel which he had commanded ; but if he
be living, and if this paper ihould fall into his
hands, he may be induced to refledl how highly
it imports our national honour, that a people
whom we call favage, but who adminifter to
our convenience, m.ay have no juft caufe to re~
proach us with a violation of our contradls.
DIS-
r
( 279 )
DISSERTATION IX.
ON THE
CHRONOLOGY
OF THE
t
HINDUS,
WRITTEN IN JANUARY I 788.
TH E great antiquity of the Hindus is be-
lieved fo firmly by themfelves, and has
been the fubjeft of fo much converfation among
'Europeans, that a fhort view of their chrono-
loo-ical fyftem, w^hich has not yet been ex-
hibited from certain authorities, may be ac-
ceptable to thofe who feek truth without par-
tiality to received opinions, and without re-
garding any confequences that may refult from
their inquiries : the confequences, indeed, of
truth cannot but be defirable, and no reafon-
able man will apprehend any danger to fociety
from a general diffufion of its light ; but we
muft not fuffer ourfelves to be dazzled by a fldfe
T 4 gl^re,
280 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
glare, nor mldake enigmas and allegories for
hiftoric 1 verity. Attached to no fyflem, and
as much difpofed to reje6^ the Mofaick hiilory,
if it be proved erroneous, as to believe it if it
be confirmed by found reaf^ning from indubi-
table evidence, 1 propofe to lay before you a
concife account of Indian chronology, ex-
traded from Sanfcrit books, or colletled from
converfations with Pandits, and to fubjoin ^
few remarks on their fyftem, without attempt-
ing to decide a queftion, which 1 (hall venture
to il:art, " Whether it is not in facl the fame
" with our own, but embeHiflied and obfcured
f by the fancy of their poets and the riddles
f of their aflronomers ?*'
One of the moil curious books in Sanfcrit^
and one of the oldefl: alter the Fedas, is a traft
On Rel'igious and Civil Duties^ taken, as it is be-
lieved, from the oral inftruclions of Menu, fon
of Brahma', to the firft inhabitants of the
earth A weli-coliated copy of this intereiling
law traft is now before me ; and 1 begin my
difi'ertation with a few couplets from tlie firft
chapter of it ; *' The fun caufes the divilion
*' of day and night, which are of two forts,
*' thofe of men and thole of the Gods ; the
*' day for the labour of all creatures in their
*' levera] employments ; the night for their
*' flumber. A month is a day and night of the
*' Patriarchs, and it is divided into two parts ;
the
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 281
*.' the bright half is their day for laborious ex-
.^' ertions, the dark half their night for fieep,
** A year is a day and night of the Gods, and
** that is aifo divided into two halves ; the day
f is when the {vi\\ moves toward the noithj
'' the night when it moves toward the fouth.
f Learn now the duration of a night and day
'^' of Brahma', with that of the ages refpec-
*' tively and in order. Four thoufmd years of the.
f Gods they call the Cr\ta {ox Sat yd) age; and
^' its limits at the beginning and at the end are^
f^ in like manner, as many hundreds. In the
" three fucceflive ages, together with their limits
^' at the beginninG; and end of them, are thou-
f fands and hundreds diminifhcd by one. This
^' aggregate of four ages, amounting to twelve
** thoufand divine years, is called an age of
" the Gods ; and a thoufand luch divine i^ges
f added together, mufl; be confidered as a day
*' of Brahma': his night has alfo the fame
** duration. The before-mentioned age oi thq
*' Gods, or tv^'elve thoufand of their years
f* multiplied by feventy-one, form what is
** named here below a Manwantara. There
'f are alternate creations and deftru^tions of
f* worlds through innumerable Manipjantaras :
** the Being fuprem^iy dehrable performs all
'* this again and again."
Such is the arrangement of infinite time,
v/hich the Hhidus believe to have been revealed
from
282 ONTHE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
from Heaven, and which they generally uiu
derftand in a literal fenfe : it feems to have in»
triniick marks of being purely agronomical ;
but I will not appropriate the obfervations of
others, nor anticipate thofe in particular which
have been made by two or three of our Mem-
bers, and which they will, 1 hope, communi-
cate to the Society. A conjedure, however,
of Mr. Paterson has fo much ingenuity in it,
that I cannot forbear mentioning it here, eipe-
cially as it fecms to be confirmed by one of
the couplets juil: cited : he fuppofes, that as a
month of mortals is a day and night of the Fa-
triarchs from the analogy of its bright and
dark halves, fo, by the fanie analogv, a day
and nic'ht of mortals mieht have been con-
fidered by the ancient Hindus as a month of the
lower world ; and then a year of fuch months
will confifl only of twelve days and nights, and
thirty fuch years will compofe a lunar year of
mortals ; whence he fnrmifes, that the four
million three hundred and twe?ity thotifand years,
of which the four Indian ages are fuppofed to
confift, mean only years of twelve days ; and,
in fa^l, that fum divided by thirty, is reduced
Xo an hundred and forty-four thoufand: now, a.
thoufand four hundred and forty years are one
pada^ a period in the Hindu afironomy ; and that
fum multiplied by eighteen, amounts precifelv to
^wenty-fve thoufand nine hyjidred and twefity^
thQ
ONTHECHRONOLOGYOFTHEHINDUS, 28^
the number of years in which the fixed flars
" appear to perform their long revolution eaft-
ward. The laft-mentioned fum is the product
alfo of an hundred and forty -four ^ which, ac-
cording to M. Bailly, was an old Indian
cycle, into ai} hundred and eighty, or the Tarta-
rian period, called Van^ and of two thoufafid
eight hundred and eighty into nine, which is not
only one of the lunar cycles, but coniidered by
the Hindus as a myfterious number and an
emblem of Divinity ; becaufe, if it be multi-
plied by any other whole number, the fum of
the figures in the different produ<fls remains al-
ways nine, as the Deity, who appears in many
'forms, continuQS' one immutable effence. The
important period oi twenty -five thoufand nine
hundred and twenty years is well known to
arife from the multiplication of three hundred
andfixty mto feventy~two, the number of years
in which a fixed fiar feems to move throuo-h.
a degree of a great circle ; and although M. Le
Gentil aflures us, that the modern Hindus be-
lieve a complete revolution of the ftars to be
made in twejity-four thou fand yQ?iX:s, ^^ fifty -four
feconds of a degree to be pafled in one year,
yet we may have reafon to think, that the old
Indian aftronomers had made a more accurate
calculation, but concealed their knowledge from
the people under the veil oifourtee7i Manwan-
TARAS, feventy-one divine ages, compound
- cycles.
284 ON THE CHROiVOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
cycles, and years of different forts from thofe
of Brahma' to thofe o^ PairJa^ or the mfemal
regions. ]f we tollow the analogy fuggefted by
Menu, and fuppofe only a day and night to
be called -a year ^ we may divide the number of
jears in a divine age by three hundred and Jtxty,
and the quotient will be i-zvehe thoufand^ or
the number of his divine years in one age :
but, conjecture apart, we need only compare
the two periods 4,320,000 and 25,920, and
:we fhall find that, among their common divifors,
are 6, 9, 12, &c. 18, 36, 72, 144, &c,
which numbers, with their feveral multiples,
efpcciaJly in a decuple progreffion, conftitutc
fome of the moft celebrated periods of the
Chaldeans, Greeks, 'Tartars, and even of the
Indians. We cannot fiil to obferve, that the
number 432, which appears to be the bafis of
the Indian fyftem, is a 60th part of 25,920,
and, by continuing the comparifon, we might
probably folve the whole enigma. In the pre-
face to a Vurdnes almanack, I find the follow-
ing wild ftanza : " A thoufand '2Jt2X ages are a
*' day of Brahma ; a thoiifand fuch days arc
*' ?n Indian hour of Vishnu \ Jix hundred thou-
'^' fand lucii hours make a period of Rudra ;
*' and a million o^ Rudrd"?, (or two quadrillions^
" j-ve hundred end ninety-tivo thou [and trillions.
^' of lunar years') arc but a fecond to the Su-
'' prems;
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 285
" preme Being." The Hindu theologians de«
ny the conclufion of the flanza to be orthodox :
time, they fay, exijls not at all with God ;
and they advife the aftronomers to mind their
own biifinefs without meddhng with theology.
The aftronomical verfe, however, will anfwer
our prefent purpofe ; for it Ihews, in the firft
place, that cyphers are added at pleafure to fwell
the period*; and if we take ten cyphers from
a Rudra, or divide by ten thoufand millions,
we fhall have a period of 259,200,000 years ;
which, divided by 60 (the ufual divifor of
time among the Hindus), will give 4,320,000,
or a sreat ao:e, which v/e find fubdivided in
the proportion of 4, 3, 2, i, from the notion
oi virtue decreafing arithmetically in the golden,
filver, copper, and earthen ages. But fhould it
be thought improbable that the Indian aftrono-
mers in very early times bad made more ac-
curate obfervations than thofe of Alexandria^
Bagdad, or Maraghah, and flill more impro-
bable that they (hould have relapfed without
apparent caufc into error, we may fuppofe,
that they formed their divine age by an arbi-
trary multiplication of 24,000 by 180, accord-
ing to M.Le Gentil, or of 2i,6co by 200, ac-
cording to the comment on the Surya Siddhanta,
Now, as it is hardly pollible that fuch coinci-
dences fliould be accidental, we may hold it
nearly,
^ _..:^..._.. . t ...
286 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS,
nea7-ly demo nfl rated, that the period of a divine
age was at firft merely aftronornical, and may
confequently reje6l it from our prefent enqiiirv
into the hiftorical or civil chronology of India*
Let us however proceed to the avowed opinions
of the Hindus, and fee, w^hen we have afcer-
tained their fyfiem, w^h ether we can reconcile
it to the courfe of nature and the common fenfe
of mankinds
The aggregate of their four ages they call a
divine age, and believe that in evtry thoufand
fuch ages, or in every day of Brahma^ yoz/r-
ieen Menus are fucceffively invefted by him
with the fovereignty of the earth : each Menu,
they fuppofe, tranfmits his empire to his fons
and grand fons during a period of feventy-one
divine ages ; and fuch a period they name a
Manwantara i but lince fourteen multiplied by
feventy-one are not quite a thoifind, we muft
conclude, that fx divine ages are allowed for
intervals between the Manwantaras, or for the
twihght of Brahman's day. Thirty fuch days,
.or Calpas, conftitute, in their opinion, a month of
Brahma' ; twelve fuch months one of his years ;
and an hundred fuch years his <^^^; of which age
ihey aflcrt that fifty years have elapfed. We are
jnov/ then, according to the Hindus, in the firft
day, or Culpa, of the firft month of the fifty-firfl
year of Br ahma' 's age, and in the twenty-eighth^
divine-
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 287
divine age of the feventh Manwantara ; of
which divine age the three jirji human ages
have paded, zi\^ four thoufand eight hundred and
eighty-eight of the fourth.
In the prefent day of Brahma' the fird
Menu was furnamed Swa'yambhuva, of Son
of the Self-exifient ; and it is He by whom the
Injiitiites of Religious and Civil Duties are fup-
pofed to have been dehvered : in his time the
Deity defcended at a Sacrifice^ and by his Vv^ife
Sataru'pa' he had two diftinguifhed fons and
three daughters. This pair was created, for
the multiplication of the human fpecies, after
that new creation of the v»orld which the
Brahmans call Pa'dmacalpi'ya, or the hotos
creation.
If it were worth while to calculate the aere
o
of Menu's Inflitutcs accordins; to the Br ah-
mans^ we muft multiply four million three
hundred and twenty thoufand by fix times
feventy-one, and add to the produ6t the num-
ber of years already paft in the feventh Man"
tvantara. Of the five Menu's who fucceeded
him^ I have feen little more than the nam.es ;
but the Hindu writings are very difFufe on the
life and poflerity of the fevenih Menu, fur-
jiamed Vaivaswata, or Child of the Sun. He
is fuppofed to have had ten fons, of whom the
iQldefl was Icshvva'cu, and to have been
accom^
2§8 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HIls^DUS;
accompanied bv feven R.ijhis^ or holy per=
fons, whofe names were, CasYapa, Atri,
Vasishtha, Viswa'mitra, Gautama,'
JamadAgni, and Bharadwa'ja ; an ac-
count which explains the opening of the fourth,
chapter of the G'-ita: '' This immutable fyftemi
*' of devotion," fays CrishnA, *' I revealed td
*' VivAswAT, or the Suji ; Vivaswat de-
'* clared it r.o his Son Menu ; Menu explained
" it to Icshwa'cu : thus the Chief i?//7j/j know
" this fublime docirhie delivered from oile t(5
*^ another/*
In the reign of this Sun-born Monarch, the
Hindus believe the Vv'hole earth to have been
drowned, and the whole human race deftroyed
by a flood, except the pious Prince himielf,
the feven R'lfbis^ and their feverai wives ; for
theyfuppofe his children to have been bom
after the Deluge. This general pra^aya, or de-
fl:ru61;ion, is the fubje61: of the firft Purana, or
Sacred Poem, which coniifrs of fourteen
thoufand ftanzas; and the ftory is concifelyj,
but clearly and elegantly told in the eighth
book of the Bhiigawafa, from which I have
extracted the whole, and tranllated it with great
care, but will only prefent you here with an
abridc-ement of it. "The demon HAYAGRI^^A
" having purloined the Fcdas frorh the cuftodj*-
** of Brahma', while he was repofing at th^
*' clofe
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 289
*'' clofe of the fixth Mdmvantara, the whole
^' race of men became corrupt, except the
*' {even Ri/hPs, and Satyavrata, who then
*' reigned in Dravira, a maritime region to
*' the foLith of Carnata t this Prince was per-
" forming his ablutions in the river Critam'Ha,
*' when Vishnu appeared to him in the fhape
*' of a fmall fifh, and, after feveral augmen-
*' tations of bulk in different waters, was
*' placed by Satyavrata in the ocean, where
he thus addreffed his am.azed votary : *' In
* /even days all creatures who have offended
me fhall be deftroyed by a deluge ; but thou
fhalt be fee u red in a capacious veffel, mira-
culoufly formed ; take therefore all kinds of
*' medicinal herbs and efculent grain for food,
*' and, together with the feven holy men, your
*' refpe61:ive wives, and pairs of all animals,
*' enter the ark without fear ; then flialt thou
*' know God face to face, and all thy quef-
*' tions fhall be anfwered." Saying this, he
** difappeared ; and after feven days the ocean
*' began to overflovv^ the coails, and the earth to
*' be flooded by conftant fhowers, when
*' Satyavrata, meditating on the Deity,
" favv^ a large veilel moving on the waters: he
** entered it, having in all refpe^ls conformed
*' to the inftru6lions of Vishnu, who, in the
*' form of a vafl fifh, fuffered the veflel to be
U " tied
(S
«(
t^O ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS,
tied with a great fea ferpent, as with a cable,
to his meafurelefs horn. When the delu2;e
had ceafed, Vishnu flew the demon and re-
covered the Vedus, infl:rud:ed Satyavrata
in divineknowledge,and appointed him the fe-
venth Menu bythe name of Vaivasw^ata.'*
Let us compare the two Indian accounts of
the Creation ciiid the Deluge with thofe dehvered
by Moses. It is not made a queftion in this
imdc. Whether the firil: chapters of Gene/Is are
to be underflood in a Uteral, or merely in an al-
legorical fenfe ? The only points before us are.
Whether the creation defcribed by the Jirji
Menu, which the Brah?nans call that of the
Lotos, be not the fame with that recorded in
our Scripture ; and whether the ftory of the fe-
venth Menu be not one and the fame with that
of Noah ? I propofe the queftions, but affirm
nothing ; leaving others to fettle their opinions,
whether Adam be derived from lidim, which
in Sanfcrit means the JirJi, or Menu from
NuH, the true name of the Patriarch ; whe-
ther the Sacrifice at which God is believed
to have dcfcended, allude to the offering of
Abel ; and, on the whole, whether the two
Menu's can mean any other perfons than the
great Progenitor, and the Reftorer of our fpecies.
On a fuppofition that Vaivaswata, or
Sun-born, was the Noah of Scripture, let us
proceed to the Indian account of his pofterity,
which
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 29I
which I extraft from The Ftiranart' paprccc.fd^ or
ne Furanas Explained, a work lately compofed
in Sanfcrit by Ra'dha'ca'nta Sarman, a
Pandit of exteniive learning and great fame
among the Hindus of this province. Before we
examine the genealogies of kings which he has
colle£ted from the PuranaSy it wdll be necef-
fary to give a general idea of the Avataras, or
Defcents, of the Deity : the Hindus believe in-
numerable fuch defcents or fpecial interpofitions
of Providence in the affairs of mankind, but
they reckon ten principal Avatdras in the cur-
rent period of four ages ; and all of them are
defcribed, in order as they are fuppofed to occur,
in the following Ode of JayadeVa, the great
Lyrick Poet of India,
I. *' Thou recovered the Veda in the water
of the Ocean of Dellruftion, placitig it joy-
fully in the bofom of an ark fabricated by
thee, O Ce'sava, aflliming the body of ^jijlz
Be vidlorious, O HeRi, Lord of the Uni-
te
<c
ve
rfe !
1, '* The earth flands firm on thy im-
** menfely broad back, which grows larger
*' from the callus occafioned by bearing that
** vail: burthen, O Ce'sava, afliimins: the bodv
*' of a tortoife t Be vi(5lorious, O Heri, Lord
*'* of theUniverfe !
3. " The earth, placed on the point of thy
** tufk, remains fixed like the fisrure of a black
U 2 *' antelope
6i
292 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
*' antelope on the moon, O Ce'sava, afilim-
" ing the form of a l?oar : Be vidorious, O
*' Heri, Lord of the Univerfe !
4. " The claw with a ftupendous point, on
*' the exquifite lotos of thy lion's paw, is the
'' black bee that flung the body of the em- '
bowelled Hiranyacasipu, O Ce^sava, af-
fuming the form of a man-lion : Be vidlorious,
" O Heri, Lord of the Univerfe !
5. "By thy power thou beguilefl: Bali,
O thou miraculous dwarf, thou purifier of
men with the water (^of Ganga) fpringing
" from thy feet, O Ce'sava, afluming the
*' form o^ 2. dwarf I Be vidorious, O Heri,
** Lord of the Univerfe !
6. ** Thou bathefl in pure water, conlifling
*' of the blood oi CjJjatriyas, the world, whofe
" offences are removed, and who are relieved
"from the pain of other births, O Ce'sava,
" affuminsf the form of Paras^u-Ra^ma : Be
** vi(5loriou3, O Heri, Lord of the Univerfe I
7. "With eafe to thyfelf, with delight to
*' the Genii of the eight regions, thou fcat-
*' tereft on all fides in the plain of combat the
" demon with ten heads, O Ce'sava, aflummg
" the form of Ra'ma Chandra : Be vi<Slo-
*' rious, O Heri, Lord of the Univerfe !
8. " Thou weareft on thy bright body a
" mantle fhininglikea blue cloud, or like the
*' w^ater of Tamuna tripping towards thee
*' throueh
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 293
*' through fear of thy furrowing phngh-fiare^
" O Ce'sava, affuming the forai of Pala-
" Ra'ma : Bevidlorlous, O Heri, Lord of the
" Univerfe !
9. *' Thou blameil: (oh wonderful !) the
*' whole V^duy when thou feeft, O khid-hearted,
" the (laughter of cattle prefcribed for facrifice,
*' O Ce'sava, afTumingthe body of Buddha:
** Be victorious, O Heri, Lord of the Uni-
" verfe !
10. " For the deflru^lion of all the impure,
" thou draweft thy cimeter like a blazing co-
'* met (how tremendous !) O Ce^sava, af-
*' fuming the body of Calci : Be vidoriouSj
" O Heri, Lord of the Univerfe !
These ten Avatar as are by fome arranged
according to the thoufands of divine years in
each of the four ages, or in an arithmetical pro-
portion from four to one, and if fuch an ar-
rangement were univerfally received, we fhould
be able to afcertain a very material point in the
Hindu chronology ; I mean the birth of Bud-
dha, concerning which the different P andits
whom I have confulted, and the fame Pandits
at different times, have exprefled a ftrange diver-
fity of opinion. They all agree that Calci is
yet to come, and that Buddha was the laft con-
iiderable incarnation of the Deity ; but the
Aflronomers at Varanes place him in the third
age, and Ra'dha'ca'nt infills, that he ap-
U 3 peared
294 f>N THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
pearedafte> thGthoufaficItb ye^r o{ xh^ fourth : th©
Jearned and accurate ai thor of the iabtfin^
whofe information concerning the lihJus is
wonderfully correct, mentions an opinion of the
T audits with whom he had converfer., that
Buddha began his career ten years before the
clofe of the third age ; and Gl/verdhana of
CaJJ.miir, who had once iiiformed me, that
Ckishna delcen ed two centuries before Bud-
dha, affured me lately, that the Cafim'r'ians
admitted an interval of twenty-four year$
(others allow only twelve^ between thofe two
divme perfons. The beft authority, after all,
is the Bhdgawat itfelf, in the firfl: chapter of
which it is exprefsly declared, that " Buddha,
** the fon of Jina, would appear at Ckata^
■*' for the purpofe of confounding the demons,
*' jiifi at the beginning of the Caliyug.'*' I have
long been convinced, that, on thefe fubjects,
we can only reafon fatisfadorily from written
evidence, and that our forenfick rule miifl: be
invariably applied, to take the declarations of
the Bra'hmans moji Jirongly againjl thcmfelves,
that is, againjl their pretenjions to antiquity %
io that on the whoie we mav fafely place Bud-
-DUAJuJi at the begin7iing of the prefent age : but
4' . what is the begifining of it ? When this quef-
tion was propofed to Ra'dha'ca'nt, he an-
iwpred : *' Of a period comprifmg more than
^^ four h;indred thoufond years, the lirft two
«^ 01^
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 295
<
' or three thoufand may reafonably be called the
beginning.''^ On my demanding wr/V/^« evi-
dence, he produced a book of feme authority,
compofed by a learned Gojwdm'i^ and entitled
Bhagawatiwinta, or, The A'i?(S'<7r of the Bhliga-
*Dat^ on which it is a metrical comment ; and
the couplet which he read from it deferves to be
cited : after the jufl: mentioned account of Bud-
dha in the text, the commentator fays,
*' Afau vya(5l:ah calerabdafahafi'adwitaye gate,
*' Murtih patalaverniiTya dwibhuja chicurujj'hita.
*' He became vilible, the-thoufand-and-fe-
*' cond-year-of-the-Cali-^^^ being pafl: ; his
** body of-a-colour-between-white-and-ruddy,
*' with-two-arm.s, without-hair on his JdeadJ*^
Ctcata, named in the text as the birth-place
of Buddha, the Gofwami fuppofes to have been
Dhermliranya^ a wood near Gaya, where a co-
loflal image of that ancient Deity ftill remains :
it leemed to me of black {lone ; but, as I faw
it by torch-light, I cannot be politive as to its
colour, which may, indeed, have been changed
by time.
The Brahmans univerfally fpeak of the
Bauddhas with all the malignity of an into-
lerant Ipirit ; yet the mofl orthodox among
them conlider Buddha himfelf as an incarna-
tion of Vishnu : this is a contradidion hard to
be reconciled, unlefs we cut the knot inftead of
U 4 untying
296 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS*
untying it, by fuppofing with Giorgi, that
there were two Buddhas, the younger of
whom eftabUlhed the new rehgion, which gave
fo great oftence in India, and was introduced
into China in the firfl: century of our era. The
CaJJjfnirian, before mentioned, afierted this fii6t,
without being led to it by any queil:ion that
imphcd it ; and we may have reafon to fup-
pofe, that Buddha is in truth only a general
word for a FhUofopher, The author of a cele-
brated Sanfcrit Di£lionary, entitled from his
name Amaracnffja, who v/as himfelf a Bauddha^
?.nd flourifhed in the firft century before
Christ, begins his vocabulary with nine
words that lignify Heaven, and proceeds to
thofe which mean a Deity in general', after
which come different clajfes of Gods, Demi-
gods, and Demons, all by generick names ; and
they are followed by two very rem.arkable
heads : firfl, (j\ottht ge?ier a! najnes of Buddha,
but) the nam.es of a Buddba-in-general, o{ which
he gives us eighteen, fuch as* Muni, Sajiri^
Munmdra, Vinayaca, Sajnantabhadra, Dherfna-
raja, Sugata, and the like, mofl: of them fig-
nificative of excellence, wifdom, virtue y and
JanBiiy ; fecondly, the names of a particular
^W<^y6i:?-/^/2//;/-who-defcended-in-the-family-of-
Sa'cya (thofe are the very words of the ori-
ginal), and his titles are, Sacyamuni, Sacya-
jinhd-i
ONTHE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 297
iinha, Servdrfhajtddha, Saudhodani^ Gaulama^
Arcahandhu^ or Kinfman of -the Sun, and Md-^
yadevifuta, or Child of Maya : thence the au-
thor paiTes to the different epithets of particular
Hindu Deities. When I pointed out this curious
paflage to R a'd H a'c a'n t , he contended, that the
firH: eighteen names were general epithets, and
the following feven, proper names, ox patrony-
micks of one and the fame perfon ; but Ra'ma-
Lo^CHAN, my own teacher, who, though not
a Brahman, is an excellent fcholar and a very
fenfible unprejudiced man, afflired me, that
Buddha was a generic k word, like Diva, and
that the learned author, having exhibited the
names of a Devatd in general, proceeded to
thofe of a Buddha in general, before he came
to particulars : he added, that Buddha might
mean a Sage or a Philofopher, though Buddha
was the word commonly ufed for a mere wife
man without fupernatnral powers.
It feems highly probable, on the whole,
that the Buddha, whom JayadeVa cele-
brates in his Hymn, was the Sacyafnha, or
laion of Sa^cy A, who, though lie forbad the
facrifices of cattle, which the Vedas enjoin,
was believed to be Vishnu himfelf in a human
form, and that another Buddha, one perhaps of
his followers in a later age, aflliming his name
and charadler, attempted to overfet the whole
fyftem
298 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
fyflem of the Brahmans, and was the caufe of
that perfecution, from which the B auddha'i zx^
known to have fled into very diftant regions.
May we not reconcile ih lingular difference of
opinion among the Hindus as to the time of
Buddha's appearance, by fuppofing that they
have confounded the Two Buddha s, the firil of
whom was born a few years before the clofe of
the laft age, and the fecond, when above a
thoufand years of the prefent age had elapfed ?
We know, from better authorities, and with as
iTiiich certainty as can juftly be expelled on fb
doubtful a fubje6l, the real time, compared with
our own era, when the ancient Buddha began
to diftinguiih himfelf; and it is for this
reafon principally, that I have dwelled with
minute anxiety on the fubjecl of the laft
Avatar,
The Brahmans, who affifted Abu'lfazl in
his curious but fuperficial account of his mal^
ter's empire, informed him, if the figures in the
Ayini Achan be corredly written, that a pe-
riod of 2962 years had elapfed from the birth
of Buddha to the 40th year of Acbar's reign,
which computation will place his birth in the
ijj6th year before that of Our Saviour ; but
when the Chinefe government admitted a new
religion from India in the firft century of our
era, they made particular inquiries concerning
the age of tlie old India Buddha, whofe birth,
according
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS, 299
according to Couplet, they plice in the 4ifl
year of their ...8th cycle, or 1036 years before
Christ, and they call him, fays he, Foe the
fon of MoYE or MaS'a^ ; but M. De Guig-
NEs, on the authority of four Chincfe Hiftori-
ans, afferts, that Fo was born about the year
before Christ 1027, in the kingdom of Cafn-
m'lr : Giorgi, or rather Cassiano, from
whofe papers his work was compiled, alT'ures
us, that, by the calculation of the Tibetians^ he
appeared only 959 years before the Chrijlian
epoch ; and M. Bailly, with fomehefitation,
places him 1031 years before it, but inclines to
think him far more ancient, confounding him,
as I have done in a former tra£l, with the jirjl
BuDHA, or Mercury, whom the Go//6i called
Woden, and of whom I fhall prefently take
particular notice. Now, whether we affume
the medium of the four lafl mentioned dates, or
implicitly rely on the authorities quoted by De
GuiGNES, we may conclude, that Buddha was
firft diftinguifhed in this country ahouf^ a thou-
Jandytzx^ before the beginning of our era ; and
whoever, in fo early an age, experts a certain
epoch unqualified with about or nearly^ will be
greatly difappointed. Hence it is clear, that,
whether the fourth age of the Hindus be-
gan about one thoufand years before Christ,
accordinsf to Goverdiian's account of Bud-
PHa's birth, or two thoufand according to
that
goo ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
that of Ra'dha'ca'nt, the common opiiiionj
that 4888 years of it are now elapfed, is erro-
neous. And here, for the prefent, we leave
Buddha, with an intention of returning to
him in due time; obferving only, that if
the learned Indians differ fo widely in their ac-
counts of the age when their ninth Avatar
appeared in their country, we may be allured,
that they have no certain chronology before
him, and may fufpecl the certainty of all the
relations concerning even his appearance.
The received Chronology of the Hindus
begins with an abfurdity fo monftrous, as to
overthrow the whole fyftem ; for, having efta-
blifhed their "^tKioAol feventy-one divine ages as.
the reign of each Menu, yet thinking it in-
congruous to place a holy perfonage in times of
Imjjuriiy, they iniifl:, that the M^;^// reigns only
in every golden age, and difappears in the thret
human ages that follow it, continuing to dive
and emerge like a water-fowl, till the clofe of
his Ivlanwantar a. The learned author of the
Puraniirt'hapracdfa, which I will now follow^
flep by fl:ep, mentioned this ridiculous opinion
with a ferious face ; but as he has not in-
ferted it in his work, we may take his account
of the feventh Menu accordins; to its ob-
vious and rational meaning, and fuppofe, that
Vaivaswata, the fon of Su^rya, the fon of
Casyapa, or C^rj;/?^j the fon of Mari'chi, or
Light, the fon of Brahma, which is clearly an
. .. alle«'
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 30I
allegorieal pedigree, reigned in the lafl: golden
age, or, according to the Hindus, three mil-
lion eight hundred and ninety-two thoufand
eight hundred and eighty-eight j^ears ago. Bui
they contend, that he a£lually reigned on earth
one million /even hundred and twenty-eight thou-
fand years of mortals, or four thoufand eight
hundred jt^xs of the Gods ; and this opinion is
another monfler fo repugnant to the courfe of
nature and to human reafon, that it muft be
rejected as wholly fabulous, and taken as a
proof, that the Indians know nothing of their
Sunborn Menu, but his name and the principal
event of his life ; I mean the univerfal deluge^
of which the three firfl Avatars are merely al-
legorical reprefentations, with a mixture, ^fy^^
cially in \hefecond, of aftronoraical mythology.
From this Menu the whole race of men is
believed to have defcended ; for the Hcyqvl
Rift's, who w^ere preferved with him in the
ark, are not mentioned as fathers of human fa-
milies ; but fince his daughter I la'' was mar-
ried, as the hidians tell us, to the firft
Budha, or Mercury, the fon of Chandra,
or the Moon, a male Deity, whofe father was
Atri, fon of Brahma' (where again we meet
tvith an allegory purely aftronomical or poeti-
cal), his poderity are divided into two great
branches, called the Children of the Sun from
his own fuppofed father, and the Children of the
Moon from the parent of his daughter's huf-
band :
^02 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDtJS.
band : the lineal male defcendants in both tliefc
families are fuppofed to have reigned in the ci-
ties of Ayodhya, or Audh^ and PratiJJjfhana^
or Vitora, refpe£lively, till the thoiifandth year of
the prefent age-, and the names of all the princes
in both lines having been diligently coUeded by
Ra'dha'ca'nt from feveral Puranas, i exhi-
bit them in two columns arranged by myfelf
with 2:reat attention.
SECOND AGE,
CHILDREN OF THE
SUN.
Icshwa'cu,
Vicucjhi,
Cucutfl'ha,
Anenas,
5. Prit'hu,
Vifwagandhi,
Chandra,
Yuvanafwa,
Srava,
io. Vrihadafwa,
Dhundhumara,
Drid'hafvva,
Heryafwa,
Nicumbha,
\ 5 . Crifafvva,
Senajit,
Yuvanafwa,
MOON.
BUDHA,
Pururava^f
Ayufh,
Nahuftia,
Taydti, 5*
Ptiru,
Janamejaya,
Prachinwat,
Pravira,
Menafyu, lo«
Charupada,
Sudyu,
Bahugava,
Sanyati,
Ahanyati, 15,
Raudrafwa,
Riteyufh,
Mandhatri,
ON THE CHRONOI
SUN.
Mandhatri,
Purucutfa,
20. Trafadasyu,
Anaranya,
Heryafwa,
Praruna,
Trivindhana,
aj.Satyavrata,
Trifancii,
Harifchandra,
Rohita,
Harita,
30. Champa,
Sudeva,
Vijaya,
Bharuca,
Vrica,
35. Bahuca,
Sagara,
Afamanjas,
Anfumat,
B bag' rat'' ha,
40. Sruta,
Nabha,
Sindhudwipa,
Ayutayufli,
Ritaperna,
45. Saudafa,
Almaca,
OGY OF THE HINDUS. 303
MOO N.
Rantinava,
Sumati,
Aid, 20.
DuJJimianfa,
Bharata, *
(Vitat'ha,
Mauyu,
Vrihatcfhetra, 25.
Haftin,
Ajamid'ha,
Ricflia,
Samwarana,
CurUf 30,
Jahnu,
Surat'ha,
Vidurat'ha,
Sarvabhauma,
Jayatfena, ^S*
Radhica,
Ayutayufh,
Acrodhana,
Devatit'hi,
Ricfha, 40.
Dil'ipa,
Pratipa,
Santanu,
Vich'itrav\rya,
Pandu, 45.
Yudhlfifhir),
Mulaca,
304. OM THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE UlNDVii
SUN.
Miilaca,
Dafarat'ha^
Aidabidi,
50. Vifwafaha,
C'hatw'anga^
Dirghabahu,
Rag/ju,
Aja,
^^. Da far a f ha,
Ra'ma.
It is as:reed amon"; all the Pandits that Ra™-
MA, xh-Qir /event h incarnate divinity, appeared a?
"king of Ayodhya in the interval between the
Jilver and the brazen ages ; and, if we fuppofe
him to have begun his reign at the very begin-
ning of that interval, flill three thoujand three
hundredytzr^ of the Gods, or a million ojie hun-
dred a7id eighty -eight thoufand lunar years of
mortals will remain in the Jilver age, during
which the ffty-Jive princes between Vaivas-
WATA and Ra'MA muft have governed the
world ; but, reckoning thirty years for a ge-
neration, which is rather too much for a long
fucceiiion oi eldefl fons^ as they are faid to have
been, we cannot, by the courfe of nature, ex-
tend the fecond age of the Hindus beyondy/^;-
teen hundred and fifty folar years : if we fup-
pofe them not to have been eldeft fons, and
even to have lived longer than modern princes
in
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 305
in a diflblute age, we fliall jBnd only a period of
two thoufand years ; and if we remove the
difficulty by admitting miracles, we mufl ceafe
to reafon, and may as well believe at once what-
ever the Brahmans chufe to tell us.
In the Lunar pedigree we meet with another
abfurdity equally fatal to the credit of the Hin-
du lyflem : as far as the twenty- fecond degree
of defcent from Vaivaswata, the iyn-
chronifm of the two families appears tolerably
regular, except that the children of the Moon
were not all elde/i fons ; for king Yaya'ti ap-
pointed the youngeft of his five fons to fucceed
h-imin/i^^/W, and allotted inferior kingdoms to the
Other four, who had offended him ; part of the
DacJIjin ov ih.Q South' loY Ajyv^ the anceftor of
Crishna ; the North, toANU; the Eaft, to
Druhya ; and the Weft, to Turvasu, from
whom the Pandits believe, or pretend to l?elieve,
in compliment to our nation, that we are de-
fcended. But of the fubfequent degrees in the
lunar line they know fo little, that, unable to
fupply a confiderable interval between Bha-
RAT and Vitat'ha, whom they call his fon
and fuccelTor, they are under a neceffity of af-
ferting, that the great anceflor of YuDFiisHT"-
HiP, a6lually xtigp^eA /even tuid twenty thoufand
years ; a fable of the fame clafs with that of his
wonderful birth, which is the fubje(fl of a beau-
tiful Indian drama : now, if we fuppofe his life
X to
306 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS,
to have lafled no longer than that of other mor*
tals, and admit Vitat'ha and the reft to have
been his regular fuccefibrs, we ihall fall into
another abfurdity ; for then, if the generations
in both hnes were nearly equal, as they would
naturally have been, we fhall find Yudhisht''*
iiiR, who reigned confeftedly at the clofe of the
bra%en age, nine generations older than Ra'ma,
before whofe birth xhe filver age is allowed to
have ended. After the name of Bharat,
therefore, I have fet an afterilk to denote a con^-.
{iderable chafm in the Indian Hiftory, and have
inferted between brackets, as out of their places,
his twenty-four fuccefibrs, who reigned, if at
all, in the following age immediately before
the war of the Mahabharat, The fourth Ava-^
idr, which is placed in the interval between the
Jirjl 2ii\^fecond ages, and the fifth, which foon
followed it, appear to be moral fables grounded
on hiftorical fa6ls : the fourth was the punifh^
ment of an impious monarch by the Deity him*
felf burfrng from a marble colunin in the fliape
of a Hon ; and the fifth was the* humiliation of
an arrogant Prince, by fo contemptible z\\
agent as a mendicant dwarf. After thcfe, and
immediately before Buddha, come three great
warriors all named Ra'ma ; but it may jufily
be made a queftion, whether they are not three
reprefentations oi one perfon, or three different
ways of relating the fam? hiftory : the firft and
fecon4
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 307
fecond Ra'xMas are faid to have been contem-
porary ; but whether all or any of thein mean
Rama the fon of Cu'sh, I leave others to de-
termine. The mother of the fecond Rama
was named Cau'shalya', which is a derivative
of CusHALA, and though his father be diftin-
guiflied by the title or epithet of Da'sarat'ha,
Signifying, that his war-chariot bore him to all
quarters of the worlds yet the name of Cush,
as the Cafiimrians pronounce it^ is preferved en-
tire in that of his fon and fucceflbr, and fha-
dowed in that of his anceftor Vicucshi ;
nor can a jufl: objedlion be made to this opinion
from the nafal Arabian vowel in the word Rd.
mah mentioned by Moses, fince the very
word Arab be2;ins with the fame letter which
the Greeks and Indians could not pronounce,
and they v/ere obliged, therefore, to exprefs it
by the vowel which moft refembled it. On
this queflion, however, I alTert nothing ; nor
on another, which might be propofed : '* Whe-
*' therthe fourth and fifth Avatars be not al-
*' legorical ftories of the two prefumptuous
" monaichSjNiMRODandBELUs ?'*The hypo-
\S\%^i^^^X\'iX. government was firft eftablifhed, laws
enafted, and agriculture encouraged in India bv
Rama, about three thoufand e'gkt hundred ytzx'^
a^ro, ao;rees with the received account of
Noah*s death, and the previous fettlement of
his immediate defcendants.
X 2 THIRD
308 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS,
THIRD AGE.
CHILDREN OF THE
SUN.
CuJIja,
Atit'hi,
NiJJdadha^
Nabhas,
5. Pun'darica,
Cfliemadhanwas,
Devanica,
Ahin'agu,
Paripacra,
10. Ranach'hala,
Vajranabha,
Area,
Sugana,
Vidhrlti,
15. Hiranyanabha,
Pufhva,
Dhruvafandhi,
Suderfana,
Agiiiverna,
JO. Sighra,
Maru, fuppofed to
flill alive.
Prafufruta,
SandhI,
Amerfana,
25. Mahafwat,
MO N.
be?
Vitat*ha,
Manyu,
Vrihatcfhetra,
Haflin,
Ajamid'ha, 5,
Ricfha,
Samwarana,
CurUy
yahfiUy
Surat'ha, 10.
Vidurat'ha,
Sarvabhauma,
Jayatfena,
Radhica,
Ayutayufh, 15,
rAcrodhana,
Devatit'hi,
Ricdia,
Dilipa,
Pratipa, 20.
/ Vifwabahu,
t)N THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 3C9
S UN. MO N.
Vifwabhahu, Santanu,
Prafenajit, Vichitraviiya,
Tacfliaca, Pandu,
Vrihadbala, TudhiJJjf hira,
30. Vrihadraiia, Y. B. C.?p ,^.
3100. J «/ -^
Here we have only n'me-and-twenty Princes
of the Solar line between Ra^ma and Vrihad-
RANA exclulively ; and their reigns, during
the whole brazen age, are fuppofed to have
lafted near eight hundred zwdjixty-four thoufand
years, a fuppoiition evidently ygainft nature;
the uniform courfe of which allows only a pe-
. riod oi eight hundred p.ndfeventy, or at the very
utmofl:, of a thoufond yQ3.TS for twenty-nine ge-
nerations. Pari'cshit, the great nephew and
fucceflbr of Yudhisht'hir, who had recovered
the throne from Duryo^dhan, is allowed with-
out controverfy to have reigned in the interval
between the brazen and earthen ao;es, and to
have died at the fetting-in of the Caliyug ; fo
that if the Pandits of Cafmiir and Varanes have
made a right calculation of Buddha's ap-
pearance, the prefent, o^ fourth^ age muil have
begun about a thoufand years before the birth
of Christ, and confequently the reign of
IcsiiwA^cu could not have been earlier than
four thoufand years before that great epoch ;
and even that date will peiiiaps appear, when
X 3 it
310 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE ttlKCtJS.
it fTiall bs ftridly examined, to be near two
thoufafidyt^vs earlier than the truth. I cannot
leave the third Indian age, in which the virtues
and vices of mankind are faid to have been
equal, v^ithout obferving, that even the clofe of
it is manifeflly fabulous and poetical, with hardly-
more appearance of hiftorical truth than the
tale of Troy, or of the Argonauts ; for
Yudhisht'hir, it feems, was the fon of
Dherma, the Genius of Jtijiice j Bhi'ma of
Pavan, or the God of Wind; Arjun of
Indra, or the Firmament : Nacul and
SahadeVa, of the two Cuma'rs, the Castor
and Pollux oi India ; and Bhi'shma, their re-
puted great uncle, was the child of Ganga',
or the Ganges, by Sa'ntanu, whofe bro-
ther DeVa'pi is fuppofed to be ftill alive in the
city of Calapa; all which fidions may be
charming embellifhments of an heroick poem,
but arejuft as abfurd in civil hiftory, as the de-
fcent of two royal families from the Sun and the
Mo en.
FOURTH AGE.
CHILDREN OF THE
SUN. MOON.
Urucriya, Janamejayay
Vatfavriddha, Satlinica^
Prativyoma, Sahafranica,
Bhanu,
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS, git
MOON.
Aswamedhaja,
Asimacriflina, 5.
Nemichacra,
SUN.
Bhanu,
5. Dcvaca,
Sahad6va,
VIra,
Vrihadafwa^
Bhanumat,
10. Praticaswa,
Supratica,
Marudeva,
Suiiacfliatra^
Pufhcara,
15. Antaricfhaj
Sutapas^
Amitrajit,
Vrihadraja,
Barhi,
to. Critanjay^,'.
Rananjaya^
Sanjaya,
Slocya,
Suddhoda,
a5.Langaladaj
Prafenajit,
Cfhudraca,
Upta,
Chitrarat'h^^
Suchirat'ha,
Dhritimatj io»
Sufhena,
Sunit*ha,
Nrichacfhuh,
Suc'hinala,
Parlplava, 15,
Sunaya,
Medhavin,
Nrlpanjaya,
Derva,
Timi, 20«
Vrihadrat*ha,
Sudafa,
Satanica,
Durmadana,
Rahinara, 25
Dandapani,
Nimi,
Sumitra, Y.B. C. 2100. Cfhemaca.
In both families, we fee thirty generations
are reckoned from Yudhisht*hir, and from
X 4 VRIHADIiALA
5 12 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OP 1 HE HINDUS.
VriHadbala his contemporary (who was
killed, in the war of ^/'cfri?/, by Abhimanyu,
fon of Arjun, and father of Pari'cshit), to
the time when the Solar and Lunar dynaflies
are believed to have become extin£l in the pre-
fent divine a?-e ; and for thefe o-enerations the
Hindus allot a period of one thoujand years
only, or a hundred years for three generations ;
which calculation, though probably too large,
is yet moderate enough, compared with their
abfurd accounts of the preceding ages : but they
reckon exadliy the fam.e number of years for
twenty generations only in the family of
Jara^sandha, whofe fon was contemporary
with Yudhisht'hir, and founded a new
dynafty of Princes in Magadha^ or Bahar ;
and this exa<fl coincidence of the time, in which
the three racesare fuppoiedto have been extind",
has the appearance of an artificial chronology,
formed rather from imagination than from
hiflorical evidence ; efpecially as twenty kings,
in an age comparatively modern, could not have
reigned a thou land years.
I, NEVERTHELESS, exhibit the lift of them
as a curiofity ; but am far from being con-
vinced, that all of them ever exifted : that, if
they did exift, , they could not have reigned
more thany^i;^;^ hundred yQzrs, I am fully per-
fuaded by the courfe of nature and the concur-
rent opinion of mankind.
Kings
©KTHECHRONOLOGYOFTHEHINDUS. 313
KINGS OF
MAGADHA.
Sahadcva,
Suchi,
Marjari,
Cfhema,
Srutafravas,
Siivrata,
Ayiitayufh,
Dhermafutra,
5. Niramitra,
Srama,
Sunacfhatra,
Drid'hafena,
Vrihetfena,
Sumati,
Carmajit,
Subala,
Srntanjaya,
Sunita,
10. Vipra,
Satjajit,
IS-
PuRANjAYA, fon of the twentieth king,
wzs put to death by his nainifter Sunaca, wk«
placed his own fon Pradyo'ta on the throne
of his mafter ; and this revolution conftitutes
an epoch of the highefl importance in our pre-
fent inquiry ; firft, becaufe it happened ac-
cording to the Bhagawatlimrita, two years ex-
av^ily before Buddha's appearance in the fame
kingdom ; next, becaufe it is believed by the
Hindus to have taken place three thoufand eight
hundred and eighty-eight years ago, or two
thoufand one hundred years before Christ ;
and, laftly, becaufe a regular chronology, ac-
cording to the number of years in each dynafly,
has been eftabliihed from the acceffion of
Pradyo'ta to the fubverfion of the genuine
Hindu government ; and that chronology I will
now
314 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS*
now lay before yon, after obferving only, that
Ra'dha ca'nt himfelf fays nothing of Buddh A
in this part of his work, though he particularly
mentions the two preceding Avataras in theif
proper places.
KINGS OF MAGADHA.
Y. B. C,
Pradyota^ 2ioo
Palaca,
Vifac*hayupa,
Rajaca,
Nandiverdhana, 5 reigns— i^%y eats ^
Sifunaga, 196a
Cacaverna,
Cfhemadherman,
Cftietrajnya,
Vidhilara, 5*
Ajatafatru,
Darbhaca, '
Ajaya,
Is^andiverdhana,
Mahanandi, 10 r 3: ^(^o y*
Nanda, 160^
This prince, of whom frequent mention is
made in xh.^ Sanfcrit books, is faid to have been
murdered, after a reign of a hundred years,
by a very learned and ingenious, but paflionate
and
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 315
and vindi£live, Brahman^ whofe name was
Cha'nacya, and who raifed to the throne a
man of the Maury a race, named Chandra-
Gupta : by the death of Nanda, and his
fens, the Cfiatriya family of Pradyo'ta be-
came extin(^.
MAURYA KINGS,
Y. B. C,
Chandragupta, 1502
Varifara,
Afocaverdhana,
Suyafas,
Defarat'ha, 5.
Sangata,
Salifuca,
Soma farm an,
Satadhanwas,
Vrihadrat'ha, 10 r rz I37_>^
On the death of the tenth Maury a king,
his place was alTumed by his Commander in
Chief, Pushpamitra, of the Sunga nation or
family.
SUNGA KINGS.
Y. B. C.
Pufhpamitra, 1365
Agnimitra,
Sujy^fht'ha,
3l6 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS*
SUNDA KINGS.
Y. B. C«
Sujyefiit^ha, 1365
Vafumitraj
Abhadraca, 5,
Pulinda,
Ghofha,
Vajramitra,
Bhagavata,
Devabhuti, 10 r r: 112 f.
The laft prince was killed by his miniflei'
Vasude Va, of the Canna race, who ufurped
the throne of Magadha^
CANNA KINGS.-
s • B» C^»
Vafudeva,
1253
Bhumitra,
Narayana,
Sufarman,
\r-
345 y-
A Siidra, of the Andhra family, having muf*
dered his mafter Susarman, and feized the
government, founded a new dynafty of
ANDHRA KINGS,
Y. B.C.
Balln, 908
Crifhna,
Srifantacarua,
0N THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS, 317
ANDHRA KINGS.
Y» B. C9
Srifantacarna, ^c8
Paurnamafa,
Lambodara, 5,
Vivilaca,
Meghafwata,
Vatamana,
Talaca,
Sivafwati, 10.
Purifliabhcru,
Sunandana,
Chacoraca,
Bataca,
Gomatin, 15.
Purimat,
Medafiras,
Sirafcand'ha,
Yajnyafri,
Vijaya, 20.
Chandrabija, 21 r — 456/.
After the deathof Chandrabi'ja, which
happened, according to the Hindus, 396 years
before Vicrama'ditya, or 452 B. C. we hear
no more of Magadha as an independent king-
dom ; but Ra'dha^ca'nt has exhibited the
names oi fevcn dynafties, in which /even ty-Jix
princes are laid to have reigned oiie thoufand
three
JlS ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
three hundred and ninety-nine yt'Axs, in Avabhriti,
a town of the DacJIj'm, or South, which we
commonly call Decan : the names of the feven
dynaflies, or of the families who eftablifhed
them, are, AbMra, Gardahhin^ Cajica, Tavana,
"Turiificara, Bhurunda, Mciula ; of which the
Tavana i, areby fome, not generally, fuppofed to
have been Io?2ia?2s, or Greeks, but the TuruJJj-
caras and Mania s are univerfally believed
to have been T^urcs and Moguls ; yet Ra'dha'-
ga'nt adds : " when the Maula race was ex-
** tin^L, five Princes, named Bhimanda, Bangira,
*' Sifunandi, Tasonandi^zwd. Prav'iraca, reigned
** an hundred and Jlx years (or till the year
*' 1053) ^^^ ^^^ ^^^y ^^ Cilacila,^'' which, he
tells me, he underftands to be in the country of
the Maharafitrdz, ox Mahratd s : and here ends
his Indian Chronology ; for ** after Pra-
" vi'raca,'* fays he, '* this Empire was
" divided among MlecFhas, or Infidels."
This account of the fevcn modern dynajlics
appcriTs very doubtful in itfelf, and has no re-
lation to our prefent enquiry ; for their domi-
nion feems confined to the T)ecan, without
extending to Magadba ; nor have we any reafon
to believe, that a race of Grecian Princes ever
eftablifhed a kingdom in either of thofe coun-
tries : as to the Moguls, their dynafly flill
iubfiils, at leall nominally j uulefs that of
Chengiz
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OFTHE HINDUS. 319
Chengiz be meant, and his fuccelTors could not
have reigued in any part of hdia for the period
of three hundred years, v/hich is affigned to
the Maulas ; nor is it probable, that the word
Turc^ which an Indian could have easily pro*
nounced and clearly exprelTed in the Nagaj^
letters, ihould have been corrupted into ^u^
rtijfjcara. On the whole, we may fafely clofe
the mofl: authentick fyftem of Hindu Chrono-
logy, that I have yet been able to procure,
with the death of Chandrabi'ja. Should any
farther information be attainable, we fhall,
perhaps, in due time attain it, either from books
or infcriptions in the Sanfcrit language ; but
from the materials with which we are at prefent
fupplied, we may eftablifh as indubitable the
two following proportions ; that the three jirjl
ages of the Hindus are chiefly mythological^
whether their mythology was founded on the
dark enismas of their aftronomers or on the
heroick fidions of their poets ; and, that the
fourth^ or hijiorical^ age cannot be carried farther
back than about two thoufand years before
Christ. Even in the hiftory of the prefent
3ge, the generations of men and the reigns of
kings are extended beyond the courfe of nature,
and beyond the average refulting from the ac-
counts of the Brahmans themfelves ; for they
gffign to an hundred and forty-t-ivo modern
rci2:ns
320 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
reigns a period of three thoufand one hundred and
fifty-three years, or about twenty-two years to a
reign, one with another ; yet they reprefent
only four Canna Princes on the throne of Ma^
gadha for a period of three hundred cLud forty-
five years ; now it is even more improbable, that
four fucceilive kings fliould have reigned eighty-
fix years and four months each, than that N and a
fhould have been king an hundred years, and
murdered at lafl:. Neither account can be cre-
dited ; but, that we may aiiow the higheft
probable antiquity to the Hindu government,
let us grant, that three generations o^ men were
equal on an average to an hundred years, and
that Indian Princes have reigned, one with
another, two and twenty ; then reckoning
thirty generations from Arjun, the brother of
Yudhisht'hira, to the extin6lion of his race,
and taking the Chinefe account of Buddha's
birth from M. De Guignes, as the moil: au-
thentic medium between Abu'lfazl and the
^ibetians, we may arrange the correcled Hindu
Chronology according to the following table,
fnpplying the word about or nearly (iince per-
fed accuracy cannot be attained and ought not
to be required), before every date.
y. B. c.
Abhimanyu, yo;/ o/* Arjun, 2029
Fradyota, ^— — 1029
Buddha,
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS. 321
Y. B. C.
feuDDHA, ' 1027
Nanda, — — 699
Balin, — — • 149
Vicrama'ditya • 56
DeVapa'la, king o/'Gaiir, 23
If we take the date of Buddha's appearance
from Abu'lfazl, we mult place Abhimanyu
2368 years before Christ, unlefs we calculate
from the twenty kings of Magadha^ and allow
/even hundred y&2.Ys, inftead of a thoufand, be-
tween Arjun and Pradyo'ta, which will
bring us again very nearly to the date exhibited
in the table; and, perhaps, we can hardly ap-
proach nearer to the truth. As to R/ja
Nanda, if he really fat on the throne a whole
century, we muft bring down the Andhra
dynafty to the age of Vicrama^ditya, who
with his feudatories had probably obtained fo
much power during the reign of thofe princes,
that they had little more than a nominal fo-
vereignty, which ended with Chandrabi'ja,
in t\\Q third o'c fourth century of the ChriJJian
era ; having, no doubt, been long reduced to
infignificance by the kings of Gaur, defcended
from Go^pa'la. But, if the author of the
'Dabtjian be warranted in fi:-.ing the birth of
Buddha ten years before the Ca/iyug, \^e muft
thus correal the Chronological Table :
Y Buddha,
322 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDtJ.
Y. B. C.
Buddha, — 1027
Paricfliit, — 10 17
Pradyota, freckonincr 20 or 7
^ ^ • N^ }.Qi7ori7
30 generations,) j
Y. A. C.
Nanda, — — 1 3 or 313
This corre£l'ion would oblige us to place
ViCR AM a'ditya before Nanda, to whom, as
all the Pandits agree, he was long pofterior ;
and, if this be an hiflorical fa6l, it feems to
confirm the Bhagawaidmrit a^ which fixes the
beginning of the Callyug about a thoufand ytSirs
before Buddha : befides that, Balin would then
be brouo-ht down at leaft to the fixth and
Chandrabi'ja to the tenth century after
Christ, without leaving room for the fubfe-
quent dynafties, if they reigned fucceflively.
Thus have v/e given a iketch of Indian Hif-
tory through the longeil period fairly aflignable
to it, and have traced the foundation of the
Indian empire above three thoufand eight hun-
dred years from the prefent time ; but, on a
fubje6lin itfelf fo obfcurev and fo much clouded
by the fidlions of the Brdhmans^ who, to ag-
grandize themfclves, have defignedly raifed
their antiquity beyond the truth, we muft be
fatisfied with probable conjedlure and juft rea-
foning
..:/- ^
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDtTS. 323
foning from the bed: attainable data ; nor can
we hope for a fyftem of Indian Chronology to
which no objection can be made, imlefs the
aftronomical books in Smifcr'it fhall clearly
afcertain the places of the colures in fbme pre- "
cife years of the hiftorical age ; not by loofe
traditions, like that of a coarfe obfervation bv
Chiron, who poffibly never exiilied, for " he
" lived, fays Newton, in the golden age,'* ,
which muft long have preceded the Argonautick
expedition) but by fuch evidence as our own ,
aftronomers and fcholars fhall allow to be
unexceptionable.
y 2 A CHRO-
324 ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE,
according to one of the Hypotheses intimated
in the preceding TraSf.
Christian
FTrMnTr,
Tearsfromi']%%
<2«^ MUSELMAN.
of our era.
Adam,
Menu I. Age T.
5794
Noah,
Menu II.
4737
Deluge,
4138
hlimrodj
Biranyacajipu. Age
IT. 4006
Bel,
Bali, •
3892
Rama,
Rama. Age III.
3817
Noah's death.
31^
Pradyota,
2817
Buddha. Age IV.
2S15
Nanda,
2487
Balin,
1937
Vacramaditya,
1844
Devapala,
1811
Christ,
'
1787
Narayanpala,
1721
Sacuy
1709
mnd.
1080
Mah?nud,
786
Chengiz,
548
Taimury
39^
Babur,
276
Niidirjhdb^
49
DIS.
( 2^5 )
DISSERTATION X.
SUPPLEMENT
TO THE
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY.
,UR ingenious afibciatc Mr. Samuel
Davis, whom I name with refpec^ and
applaufe, and who will foon, I trufl-, convince
M. Bailly, that it is very poflible for an
Europea?i to tranflate and explain the Surya
Siddhlinta, favoured me lately with a copy, taken
by his Pandit, of the original pafTage men-
tioned in his paper on the Aftronomical Compu-
tations of the Hindus, concerning the places
of the colures in the time of Vaka'ha, com-
pared with their pcfition in the age of a certain
Muni, or ancient Indian philofopher ; and the
paflage appears to afford evidence of two actual
obfervations, which will afcertain the chrono-
logy of the Hindus, if not by rigorous demon-
flration, at leafl by a near approach to it.
The copy of the Varah'-fanhita, from which
the three pages, received by me, had been tran-
fcribed, is unhappily fo incorredl (if the tran-
Y 3 icript
326 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE
fcript itfelf was not haflily made) that every
line of it muil be disfigured by feme grofs er-
ror ; and my P<7;z(^//, who examined the'paf-
fage carefully at his own houle, gave it up as
inexplicable ; fo that, if I had not (ludied the
iyffem of 5"^;//^'/ profody, I fhould have laid it
afide in defpair : but though it was written as
profe, without any fort of diltindion or punc-
tuation, yet, when 1 read it aloud, my ear
caught in fome fentences the cadence of verfe,
and of a particular metre, called A'rya^ which
is regulated (not by- the number of lylla'oles, like
other /;z^//<2;/ mealures, but) by the proportion
of times ^ ox fyllabick motnents^ in the four divi-
iions, of which evevy flanza confifts. By
numbering thoie nioments and fixing their pro-
portion, 1 was enabled to reflore the text of
Vara'ha, with the perfe(?c aflent of the learned
Brahmen who attends me ; and, with his af-
ilflance, I alfb corredted the comment v^-ritten
by Bhat'i o'tpala, who, it feems, was a fon
of the author, together with three curious paf-i
faees which are cited in it. Another Pa?idit
afterwards brought me a copy of the whole ori-
ginal work, which confiri^rcd my conje6lural
emendations, except in two immaterial fylla-
bies, a-^.^ except, that the fir ft of the fix cou-
plets in the text is quCed in the commentary
from a different work entitled P anchajiddhlmtica :
five of them w^ere compofed by Vara^ha hlm-
felf,
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. 327
felf, and the third chapter of his treatife begins
with them.
Before I produce the original verfes, it may
be ufeful to give you an idea of the Aryo. mea-
fure, which will appear more diftindtly in La-
tin than in any modern language of Europe :
Tigridas, apros, thoas, tyrannos, peffima monftra, venemur ;
Die hinnulus, die lepus male quid egerint graminivori.
The couplet might be fo arranged, as to begin
and end with the cadence of an hexameter and
pentameter, fix moments being interpofed in the
middle of the long, and {qwcw in that of the
{hort, hemiflich :
Thoas, apros, tigridas nos venemnr-f pejorefque tyrannos ;
Die tibi cerva, lepus tibi die ?nale quid egerit herbivorus.
Since the A'rya meafure, however, may be al-
moft infinitely varied, the couplet would have
a form completely Roman, if the proportion of
Jyllahkk injlants, in the long and fhort verfes,
were twenty -four to twenty^ inftead of thirty to
twenty-feven ;
Venor apros tigridafque, et, peflima monftra, tyrannos :
Cerva mali quid agunt herbivorufque lepus ?
I now exhibit the five flanzas of Vara'ha
in European c\\?i.x2i&.QVs.
Aflefhardhaddac(hinamuttaramayanan raverdhanifht'hadyan
Niinan eadachidasidyen66lan purva faftreftiu.
Sampratamayanan favituh earcatacadyan mrigaditafchanyat :
Ui^hibhave vicritih praty'aefhaperfcflianair vyaclih.
P uraft'hachihnavedyadudaye'ftamaye'piva fahafranfoh,
Y 4 Ch'h-^-
328 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE
Ch'hayapravefanirgamachihnairva mandale mahati.
Aprapya macaramarco vinivrittp hanti faparan yamyan,
CarcatacainaHinprapto vinivrittafchottaran faindri'n.
Uttaramayanamatitya vyavrittah cfnemafafya vriddhicarah,
Pracritiil'hafchapyevan vicritigatir bhayacriduHinanfuh.
Of the five couplets thus exhibited, the fol-
lowing tranflation is mnfl fcrupuloufly literal :
*' Certainly the fonthern folftice was
once in the middle of yf/IeJlM, the northern
in the firft degree o^ DhanifJjt^ha, by what is
recorded in former Saffras. At prefent one
•* folflice is in the firft degree of Carcaia^ and
*' the other in the firll: oiAiacara : that which
is recorded not appearing, a change mufi
have happened ; and the proof arifes from
ocular demonftrations ; that is, by obferving
** the remote objeft and its marks at the rifing
or fettingof the fun, or by the marks, in a
large graduated cjrcle, of the fliadow's in-
** grefs and egrefs. The fun, by turning back
" without having reached Mjicara, defiiroys the
** fouth and the weft ; by turning back with-
*' out havincr reached Carcata. the north and
** eafl. By returning, when he has juft
** pafled the winter follHtial point, he makes
^' wealth fccure and gr lin abundant, fince he
** moves thus according to nature ; but the fun,
** by moving unnaturally, excites terrour."
Now the Hi?tdu Aflronomers agjree, that
the I ft January 1790 was in the year 4891 of
the
t (
CSSAY ON INDIAN CHI^ONOLOGY. 359
the Caliyuga, ox xhtxx fourth peri-d, at the be-
ginning of which, they fay, the equinoclial
points were in the firil degrees of Mejlm and
^ula ; but they are alfo of opinion, that the
vernal equinox ofcillates from the third of
Mma to the tweilty-feventh of Mejha and back
again in 7200 years, which they divide into four
piidas, and coniequently that it moves, in the two
intermediate plidas, from the firH: to the twenty-
feventh of Mefia and back again in 3600 years;
the colure cutting their echptick in the firft of
JVJeJha, which coincides with the firll: o^Afwini^
at the beginning of every fuch ofcillatory pe-
riod. VARA'HA,furnamedMiHiRA, or the Sun,
from his knowledge of aftronomy, and ufualiy
diftinguidied by the title of Achiirya^ or teacher
of the Vcda^ lived confefledly when the Cali-
yuga was far advanced ; and, lince by a6lual ob-
fervation he found the folftitial points in the firft
degrees of C areata and Macara, the equinoc-
tial points were at the fame time in the firft of
Me/ha and I'ula : he lived, therefore, in the
year 3600 of the fourth India?i ^Qnod, or 1291
years before ift January 1790, that is, about
the year 409 of our era. This date correfponds
with the ayananfa, or preceliion, calculated by
the rule of the Suryajiddhanta ; for 19° 2 1' 54''
would be the preceffion of the equinox in 1291
years, according to the Hindu computation of
54'' annually, which gives us the origin of
the
53^ A SUPPXEMENT TO THE
the Indian Zodiack nearly ; but, by New-
ton's demonflrations, which agree as well
with the phenomena, as the varying denfity of
our earth will admit, the equinox recedes
about 50'' every year, and has receded 1 7* 5 9' 50''
fince the time of Vara'ha, which gives
MS more nearly in our own fphere the firft de-
^YQt of M{flja in that of the Hindus. By
the obfervation recorded in older Scifiras^
the equinox had gone back 22" 20', or about
i&8o years had intervened, between the age of
the Muni and that of the modern aftronomer:
the former obfervation, therefore, muft have
been made about 2971 years before ift Ja^
nuary 1790, that is 1181 before Christ.
We come now to the commentary, which
contains information of the greatefl importance.
By former Sajlras are meant, fays Bhatto'p-
TALA, the books of Para'sara and of other
Munis\ and he then cites from the Pdrafara
Sanhita the following paiTage, which is in modu-
lated profe, and in a ftylc much refembling that
of the Vedas,
Sravishta'dya^t paufim'ardhantan charah
fi'siro J vafantah paufhnardhat rohinyantan ;
faum.yadyadafltlhardhantan grifhmah ; pravri-
daflelhardhat haftantan ; chitradyat jyefh't'hard-
hantan sarat ; hemanto jyeih't'hardhat vaifh-'
n'avantan.
*' The
/
6i
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. ^^^
" The feafon of S?/ira is from the flrft of
jyhanijht' ha to the middle of Revat) ; that of
Vafanta from the middle of Revat) to the
end Q){Kohini\ that of GnJlJma from the be-
ginning of Mngriijiras to the middle of
yjjle/jja ; that of Verpa from the middle of
*' Afidpa to the end of Hajl.a\ that of Sarad
^' from the firft of Chitrd to the middle of
" 'Jy^fii'ha ; that of Hemanta from the middle
'' oi Jyefifha to the end of Sravana.''
This account of the fix Indian leafons, each
of which is co-extenlive with twoligns,or four
lunar flations and a half, places the folfli-
tial points, as Vara'ha has allerted, in the
firfi degree of D/janiJIjt'ha, and the middle,
or 6° 40', of Afttpciy while the equinoctial
points were in the te!f2tb degree of Bharan)
and 3° 20' of Visac^ha ; but, in the time of
Vara'ha, the folflitial colure pafled through
the 10th degree of Punarvafu and 3" 20' of
Uttarafiara^ while the equino<5lial colure cut
the Hindu ecliptick in the firft of Jfwin^
and 6° 40' of Chitra, or the Toga and only ftar
of that manfion, which, bv the wav, is in-
dubitablv the Spike of the Virgin, from the
known longitude of which all other points in
the Indian Zodiack may be computed. It can-
not efcape notice, that Para'sara does not ufe
in this paflage the phrafe at prefent, which oc-
curs
2^2 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE
curs In the rext of Vara^ha ; fo that the places
of the colures might have been afcertained h-
fore his time, and a confiderable chanee mio-hr
have happened in their true pofition without
any change in the phrafes by which thefeafons
were diflinguifhed ; as our popular language in
aftronomv remains unaltered, though the Zo-
diacal aileriims are now removed a whole iisrn
from the places where they have left their
names : it is manifeft, neverthelefs, that Pa-
ra'saka mud have written within twelve cen^
tur'ies before the beginning of our era, and that
jingle fa£t, as we fhall prelently iliow, leads to
very momentous conlequences in regard to the
lyflem of hidian hiftory and literature.
On the comparifon, which might eafily be
made, between the colures of Para'sara and
thofe afcribed by Eudoxus to Chiron, the
fuppofcd affill:.;nt and inilru£lor of the Argo-
nauts^ I fhall {-Aj very little ; becaufe the whole
Argonautkk ilory (which neither was, ac-
cording to Herodotus, nor, indeed, could
have been, originally Grecian) appears, even
when ftripped of its poetical and fabulous or-
naments, extremely difputable ; and, whether
it was foiuided on a league of the Helladlan
princes and dates for the purpofe of checking,
on a favourable opportunity, the overgrown
power of F.gypt, or with a view to fecure the
commerce^
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. ^33
commerce of the Euxine and appropriate the
wealth of Colchis, or, as I am difpofed to be-
lieve, on an emigration from Africa and Afia
of that adventurous race who had firfl: been
eftablifhed in Chaldea ; whatever, in fhort,
gave rife to the fable, w^hich the old poets have
fo richly embL-Uiflied, and the old hillorians
have fo inconliderately adopted, it feems to me
very clear, even on the principles of Newton,
and on the fame authorities to which he refers,
that the voyage of the Argonauts mufl have
preceded the year in which his calculations
led him to place it. Battus built Cyrene,
lays our great philofopher, on the fite of
Irafa, the city of Ant^us, in the year
(^2,3 before Christ ; yet he foon after calls
EuRiPYLUS, with whom the Argonauts had
a conference, king of Cyrcne, and in both
paflages he cites Pindar, whom I acknow^-
ledge to have been the moft learned, as
well as the fublimeil:, of poets. Now, if I
underftand Pindar (which I will not af-
fert, and I neither poiTefs nor remember at
prefent the Scholia, which I formerly peru fed)
the fourth Pythian Ode begins with a fhort pa-
negyrick on Arcesilas of Cjj/r^;/^: " Where,
" fays the bard, the prieftefs, who fat near
" the golden eagles of Jove, prophefied of
" old, when Apollo was not abfent from his
" manfion,
<i
334 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE
manfion, that Battus, the colonizer of*
fruitful hybia^ having juft left the fa-
cred iile ('J her a), fhould build a city
excelling in cars, on the fplendid breaft of •
earth, and, with the feventeenth generation^
fhould refer to hirnfelf the Therean pre-
didion of Medea, which that princefs of
the Colchians, that impetuous daughter of
vEetes, breathed from her immortal mouth,
" and thus delivered to the half-divine ma-
" riners of the warriour Jason.'* From this
introduction to the nobleft and mod animated of
the Argo7iauiick poems, it appears, that fifteen
complete generations had intervened between the
voyage of Jason and the emigration of
Battus; fo that confidering //t;rf^ generations
as equal to an hundred o\- an hundred and twenty
years, which Newton admits to be the Grecian
mode of computing them, we muft place that
voyage at lead yfe ox fix huftdr ed yezr?, before '
the time fixed by Newton hirnfelf, according
to his own computation, for the building of
Cyrene \ that is, eleven or tzvehe hundred and
thirty-three years before Christ; an ao-e very
near on a medium to that of Para'sara. If
the poet means afterwards to fav, as I under- '
ftand him, that Arcf.silas, his contemporary,
was the eighth in defcent from Battus, wx
fl:iall draw nearly the fame conclufion, without
bavin 2:
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. ^^^
having recourfe to the unnatural reckoning of
thirty-three or forty years to a generation ; for
Pindar was forty, years old, when the Pcr-
Jtans^ having crofled the Helkfpont^ were nobly
reiifted at Thermopylc^e, and glorioufly defeated
2X.Salams: he was born, therefore, about the
lixty-fifth Olympiad^ or five hundred and twenty
years before our era ; fo that, by allowing
more naturally fix or feven hundred years to
twenty-three generations, we may at a medium
place the voyage of Jason about one thoufand
one hundred and feventy years before Our
Saviour, or about forty five years before the
beginning of the Newtonian chronology. .
The defcription of the old colures by
EuDoxus, if we implicitly rely on his tefli-
mony and on that of Hipparchu?, who was,
indifputably, a great aftronomer for the age in
which he lived, affords, I allow, fuixicient evi-
dence of fome rude obfervation about 937 years
before the Chrlfiian epoch ; and, if the cardinal
points had receded from thofe colures 36° 29'
\o" at the beginning of the year 1690, and
37° 52^ 30" on the firft oifanuary in the pre-
fent year, they muft have gone back 3" 23' 20''
between the obfervation implied by Para'sar
and that recorded by Eudoxus ; or, in other
words, 244 years muil: have elapfed between
the two obfervations : but, this difquifiiioir
having
^^6 A supplement' to the
having little relation to our principal fiibje^l, f
proceed to the laft couplets ot our Indian aftro-
iionncr Vara'ha Mihtra : which, though
merely aftrological and confequently abfurd,
will siv'C occafion to remarks of no fmall im-
portance. They imply, that, when the fol-
flices are not in the firft degrees of Carcata and
Macara, the motion of the fun is contrary to
nature, and being caufed, as the commentator
intimates, by fome utpata^ or preternatural
agency, mud: neceflarily be produ6live of mif-
fortune ; and this vain idea feems to indicate
a very fuperficial knowledge even of the
fydem which Varaha undertook to explain ;■
but he might have adopted it folely as a religi-
ous tenet, on the authority of Garga, a priefl
of eminent fandity, who exprefles the fame
wild notion in the following couplet :
Yada nivertate'praptah fravlflitamuttarayane,
Afleihandacfhine'praptaftadavidyaumahadbhayan.
*' When the7?/« returns, not having reached
" Dha?ufJjfha in the northern folftice, or nothav-
** ing reached Jfl-cjha in the fouthern, then
*' let a ??2^?« feel great apprehenfion of danger."
Para'sara himfelf entertained afimilar opi--
nion, that any irregularity in the folfliices would
indicate approaching calamity ', Tadaprafto
^aijhnavantani, fays he, tidanmarge prepadyate,
dacjhim^ ajlcplim va mahab hayaya^ that is,
** When having reached thp end of Sravana^
in
E5SAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. 3J7 .
*' in the northern path, or half of Jijlepii in
*' the fouthern, he ftill advances, it is a caiife .
" of great fear." This notion poffibly had its
rife before he regular preceffion of the cardi-
nal points had been obferved ; but we may alfo
remark, that fome of the lunar manfions were
conlidered as inaufpicious, and others as fortu-
nate : thus Menu, the firfl: hidian lawgiver,
ordains, that certain rites ihall be performed
under the influence of a happy NacJJjatra ; and
where he forbids any female name to be taken
from a eonflellation^ the mofl learned commen-
tator gives y^Vi/ra and Revafi as examples of ill-
omened nafnes, appearing by delign to flcip over
others that muft firil: have occurred to him.
Whether Dhan'iflH''ha and Ajl'Jhcl were inaufpi- '
, cious or profperous I have not learned ; but,
whatever mis^ht be the s;round of Vara'ha's
aftrological irule, we may called: from his
aftronomy, which was grounded on obfervatlon,^
that the folftice had receded at ledji 23^ 20'. be-
tween his time and that of Para'sara ; for
though he refers its pofltion to \he.fgns^ inftead
of the lunar manfiojts^ yet all the Pandits with
whom I have eonverfed on the fubjecfl, unani-
moufly afiert, that the firft degrees of Mejljd
and Jljhviiii are coincident,. Since the two an-
cient fages name only the lunar ailerifms, It i
probable, that the folar divilion oi the zodiack
int(.' twelve figns was not generally ufed in their
Z days ^
J .
33^ A SUPPLEMENT TO THE
days ; and we know, from the comment on the
Surya Siddhanta, that the lunar month, by
which all religious ceremonies are fiill regulated,
was in ufe before the folar. When M. Bailly
ail^:s, " Why the Hindus eflablifhed the begin-
" ning of the preceffion, according to their
" ideas of it, in the year of Christ 499 ?*' to
which his calculations alfo had led him, we
anfvver, Becaufe in that year the vernal equinox
was found by obfervation in the oridn of their
ecliptick ; and {ince they were of opinion, that
it muft have had the fame polition in the firft
year of the Caliyiiga^ they were induced by
their erroneous theory to fix the beginning of
their fc irth period 3600 years before the time of
VARA'HA,and to account forPARA'sARA*s ob-
fervation by fjppoling an utpata, ox pj'odlgy.
To what purpofe, it may be alked, have we
afcertained the age of the Muni's ? Who was
Para'sara ? Who was Garga ? W^ith
whom were they contemporary, or with whofe
age may their' s be compared ? What light will
thefe inquiries throw on the hiftory of India or
of mankind ? I am btppy in being able to an-
fwer thofe quellions with confidence and pre-
cilion.
All the Brdhmens agree, that only one Pa-
ra'sara is nam.ed in their lac red records ; that
he compofed the aftronomical book before cited,
gnd a law tra^l, which is now in my poflefiion ;
that
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. 339
that he was the graudfon of Vasisht'ha, an-
other aftronomer and leglflator, whofe works
are ftill extant, and who was the preceptor of
Ra'ma, king of Ayodhyciy that he was the
father of Vya'sa, by whom the Vcdas were
arranged in the form which they now bear,
and whom Crishna himfelf names with ex-
alted praife in the G'lta ; fo that, by the admif-
iion of the Pandits themfelves, we find only
three generations between two of the Ra'mas,
whom chey confider as incarnate j6<?;//o;^j- of the
divinity ; and Para'sara might have lived till
the beginning of the Cal'iyuga^ which the mif-
taken do£lrine of an ofcillation in the cardinal
points has compelled the Hindus to place 1920
years too early. This error, added to their fan-
ciful arrangement of the four ages, has been the
fource of many abfurdities ; for they infifl:, that
Va'lmic, whom they cannot but allow to have
been contemporary with Ra^machandra,
lived in the age of Vya'sa, who confulted him
on the compofition of the Mahabhdrat^ and
who wasperfonally knowntoBALARA^MA, the
brother of Crishna. When a very learned
Brahmen had repeated to me an agreeable flory
of a converfation between VaYmic and
Vya'sa, I expreffed my furprize at an inter-
view between two bards, whofe ages were fe-
parated by a period of 864,000 years ; but he
Z 2. fooR
34^ -A. SUPPLEMENT TO THE
foon reconciled himfelf to fo monftrous an ana-*
chronilm, by obferving, that the longevity of
the Munis was preternatural, and that no limit
could be fetto divine power. By the fame re-
courfe to niiracles or to prophecy, he would
have anfvvered another objeclion equally fatal to
his chronological fyflem : it is agreed by ?.ll,
that the lawyerYA'oYAWALCYA was an attend-
ant on the court of Janaca, whofe daughter
Si'ta' was the conftant, but unfortunate wife
of the great Ra'ma, the hero of Va'lmic's
poem ; but that lawyer himfelf, at the very
opening of his work, which now lies before me,
names both Paba'sara and Vya'sa among;
twenty authors, whofe tradls form the body
of original J7idja?i law. By the way, fince
Vasisiit'ha is more than once named in the
Manuv'/fanhita, we may be certain, that the
laws afcribed to Menu, in whatever age they
might have been frft promulgated, could not
have received the form in wliich we now fee
them above three thoufand years ago.
Thf age and funflions of Gap.g A lead to con-
feauences vet more intereHino- : he wasconfef-
{edly the piirohita^ or officiating prieft, of
Crishna himfelf, who, when only a herdfman's
boy at Mat^hurci, revealed his divine charader to
Garga, bv runnins: to him with more than
mortal benignity on his countenance, when the
prieft had invoked Na'ra'yan. His daughter
- was
(4
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. 341
was eminent for her piety and her learning, and
the Brlihnans admit, without coniiJering the
confequence of their admifhon, that Ihe is thus
addrefled in the Veda itfelf : Tata vrdhwan no
Vii fa?nopi, Ga'rgi, ejha dd'ityo dyamurdhiinan
iapait, dyciva bhuwtn tapati, bhlimya fuhhran ta-
pati^ Iccan tapat'i^ antaran tapatyancvntaran fa-
pati; or, " That Sun, O daughter of Garga,
than which nothing- is higher, to which no-
thing is equal, enlightens the fummit of the
** Ikv ; with the ikv enli2:htens the earth :
** with the earth enlightens the lower worlds ;
*' enliglitens the higher worlds ; enlightens
*■' other \\orlds ; it enlightens the hreafl:,
" enlightens all hefides the breaft." From
thefe fads, which the Brahina?u cannot
deny, and from thefe concefiions, which they
iinanimoufly make, we may reafonably infer,
that if Vya'sa was not the compofer of the
Vedas, he added at leaft lomething of his own
to the fcattered frag-ments of a m.ore ancient
work, or Dcrhaps to the looie traditions Vvhich
he had colleded ; but whatever be the compa-
rative antiquity of the Hindu fcriptures, we
may fafely conclude, that the Mofaick and Indian
chronologies are perfedlly confident ; that
Menu, fon of Bi^aiima', was the ^-^'^w^, or
frfi-, created mortal, and confeq-jentlv our
Adam ; that . Menu, child of the Sun, uas
preferved \N\^\-\fcven others^ in a bahitra^ or ca-
Z ^ p:\cious
342 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE
pacioiis ark, from an luuverfal deluge, and mud
therefore be our Noah ; that HiRANYACAr
sipu, the giant with a golden axe^ and Vali
or Bali., were impious r.nd arrogant monarchs,
and, moft probably, our Nimrod and Belus ;
that the three Ra'mas, two of whom were in-
vincible warriors, and the third, not only va-
liant in war, but the patron of agriculture and
wine^ which derives an epithet from his name,
were different reprefentations oi the Grecian
Bacchus., and either the Ra'ma of fcripture, or
his colony perfonified, or the Sun, firft adored
by his idolatrous family ; that a confiderable
emigration from Chaldea into Greece .^ Italy, and
/W/^,happened about /w^/i;^ centuries before the
birth of Our Saviour ; that Sa'cya, or Si's a k,
about two hundred years after Vya'sa, either
in perfon or by a colony from 'Egypt imported
into this country the mild herefy of the ancient
Bauddhas ; and that the dawn of true Indian.
hiftory appears only three or four centuries be--
fore the Chriflian era, the preceding ages be-
ing clouded by allegory or fable.
As a fpecimcn of that fabling and allego-
rizing fpirit which has ever induced the Brah^
mens to difguife their whole fyftem of hidory,
philofophy, and religion, I produce a paflage
from the Bhdgavat, which, however ftrange
and ridiculous, is very curious in itfelf, and
clofely connected with the fubjed of this Eflay ;
it"
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. 343
it is taken from the fifth Scandha, or Se6lion,
which is written in modulated profe. *' There
are fome," fays the Ind'ian author, *' who, for
the purpofe of meditating intenfely on the
holy fon of VasudeVa, imagine yon ce-
leflial fphere to reprefent the figure of that
aquatick animal which we call Sh'timlira ; its
head being turned downwards, and its body
bent in a circle, they conceive Dhruva, or
*' the pole ftar, to be fixed on the point of its
tail ; on the middle part of the tail they fee
four ftars, Prejdpaii, Agn't^ Inclra, Dhernia^
^' and on its bafe two others, Dhatri and V^id'
*' hixtri I on its rump are the SeptarJJjis^ or
'* (tYcn flars of the Sacata^ or Wain ; on its
back the path of the Sun, called Ajavtt'h), or
the Series of Kids ; on its belly the Ga?iga of
the Iky : Punarvafu and Pufiya gleam re-
*' fpeclively on its right and left haunches ;
*' Ardra and AJlcpa on its right and left feet or
" fins ; Abhijit and Uttarafiad^ha in its right
«' and left noftrils ; Sravana and PurvafJ/ad''ha
*' in its right and left eyes; Dhanififha and
" Mula on its right and left ears. Fight con-
" ftellations, belonging to the fummer Solftice,
*' Magha, Pw'vapbalgun), Uttarafhalgtin\'Haf-
" ta, Chitra, Swat), Vifacha, Anuradha,
*' may be conceived in the ribs of its left fide ;
** and as many ailerifms, connected with the
X j^ '* winter
*(
<(
((
((
((
it
ii
ii
ii
ti
ti
6i
i(
ii
344 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE ,
^' winter Solftice, Mrigasiras, Rohin), Cnttlca^
** Bharam, Afwinl, Revafi, Uttarabhadrapada,
" Piirvahhadra'pada^ may be iiTiagined on the
" ribs of its right fide in an inverfe order : let
*' Satabhijka w\6. Jyefl.fhah^ placed on its right
*' and left fhoukers. In its upper jaw is
Jgajiyaj in its lower Tama ; in its mouth the
planet MangaJa ; in its part of generation,
Sanaijchqra ; on its hump, Vr'ihafpati ; in
its breafl:, the Sun ; in its heart, Narayan ;
in its front, the Moon ; in its navel, Usanas ;
on its two nipples, the two Afw'inas ; in its
afcending and defcending breaths, Budha\
on its throat, Rahu ; in all its limbs, Cetus,
or comets ; and in its hairs, or briftles, the
*' whole multitude of Stars.*'
It is necefiary to remark, that, although
the fisuuiara be generally defcribed as the fea-
hog or por pot fe, which we frequently have feen
placing in the Ganges, yttfiifmar, which feerns
derived from the Sanfcr'u, means in Perftan a
large lizard: the pafiagejuft exhibited may ne-
verthelels relate to an animal of the cetaceous-
order, and poffibly to the dolphin of the an-
cients.
Before I leave the fphere of the H'tn-
dtiSy I cannot help mentioning a iingular fa6t :
ill the Sanfcrit language, i^/r/7j^ means d^confiei-
latmi and a bear, fo that Maharcjha may denote
either a great hear, or a great af.erifm. Etymo-
logiiU
ESSAY ON INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. 345
iogifls may, perhaps, derive the Megas ArSfos of
the Greeks from an Indian compound ill un-
derftood; but I will only obferve, with the
wild American, that a bear ivith a very lojig
//z/7 could never have occurred to the imagination
of any one who had feen the animal. I may
be permitted to add, on the fubje6l of the Indian
Zodiack, that, if I have erred in a former
Effay, where the longitude of the lunar man-
■fions is computed from the firft ftar in our con-
flellation of the Ram, I have been led into
error by the very learned and ingenious M.
Bailly, who relied, I prefume, on the au-
thority of M. Le Gentil : the origin of the
Hindu Zodiack, according to the Siirya Sidd-
bi'mta, mufh be nearly r I9^ 21'. 54". in our
fphere, and the longitude of Chitra, or the
Spike, mull of courle be 199°. 21', 54'^ from
the vernal equinox; but, hnce it is difficult by
that computation to arrange the twenty-feven
manfions and their feveral ftars, as they are de-
lineated and enumerated in the KeUiamala, I
muft for the prefent fuppofe, with M. Bailly,
that the Zodiack of the Hindus had two origins,
, one conftant and tlie other variable ; and a far-
ther inquiry into the fubje6l muft be referved
for a feafoa of retirement and leifure.
pis-
( 3+6 )
DISSERTATION XI.
ON THE
INDIAN GAME OF CHESS,
IF evidence be required to prove that Chefs
was invented by the Hindus, we may be fa-
tisfied with the teflimony of the Perjtansi
who, though as much inchned as other nations
to appropriate the ingenious inventions of a fo-
reign people, unanimoufly agree, that the game
was imported from the weft of India, together
with the charming fables of Vishnusarman,,
in the fixth century of our era. It fecms to have
been immemorlally known in Hmdiijlan by the
name of Chaturanga, that is, the four angas,
or members J of an army, which are faid in the
Amaracoflm to be haflyaswaraf haplidatam, or
elephants, horfes, chariots, and foot-foldiers ;
and in this itnic the word is frequently ufed
by
ON THE INDIAN GAME OF CHESS. 34^
by Epick poets in their defcriptions of real
armies. By a natural corruption of the pure
Sanfcrit word, it was changed by the old Per-
Jians into Chatrang ; but the Arabs, who foon
after took pofleliion of their country, had nei-
ther the initial nor final letter of that word ii^
their alphabet, and confeqiietitly altered it fur-
ther into Shairanj^ which found its way pre-
fently into the modern Perjian, and at length
into the dialers of India^ where the true deri-
vation of the name is known only to the
learned. Thus has a very lignificant word in the
facred language of the Brahmans been tranf-
formed by fucceflive changes into axcdrcz^
Jcacchi^ echecs, chefsy and, by a whimfical con-
currence of circumfrances, given birth to the
Englifi word check, and even a name to the
Jixcheqiier of Great Britain, The beautiful
iimplicity and extreme perfection of the gamcj
as it is commonly played in Europe and AJia^
convince me, that it was invented by one effort
of fome great genius ; not completed by gra-
dual improvements, but formed, to ufe the
phrafc of Italian criticks, by the fir Jl intention :
yet of this iimple game, fo exquilitely con-
trived, and fo certainly invented in India, I
cannot find any account in the claflical writings
of the Brahmans, It is, indeed, confidently
aflerted, that Sanfcrit books on Chefs exift in
this
348 ON THE INDIAN GAME OF CHESS.
this country, and, if they can be procured at
Banares^ they will afluredJy be lent to us: at
prefent I can only exhibit a defcription of a very
ancient Indian game of the fame kind ; but
more complex, and, in my opinion, more mo-
dern, than the fimple Chefs of the Per/lam^
This game is alfo called Chaturanga, but more
frequently Chaturap^ or the four Khigs, fince
it is played by four perfons reprefenting as many
princes, two allied armies combating on each
iide : the defcription is taken from the Bba-
wip:ya Purdn, in which Yudhisht'hir is re-
prefented converfing with Vva'sa, who ex-
plains at the king's requefl: the form of the fic-
titious warfare, and the principal rules of it :
*' Having marked cigbl: fquares on all fides," favs
the Sage, ** place the rf^army to the eail, the
*' green to the louth, the yellow to the weft,
*' and the black to the north : let the elephant
^' Hand on the left of the king ; next to him the
'^ horfe ; then x\\e boat ; and, before them all,
*' four foot'foldiers ; but the boat muft be placed
*' in the angle o\^ the board." From this paf-
fage it clearly appears, that an army, with
its four anQ-a\s, mull be placed on each fide of
the board, fince an elephant could not fland, in
?^.ny other pofition, on the left hand of each
king', and IIa^dma'ca'nt informed me, that
t[ie board ccnfifted, like our;?, of fxty-fom
fquareSj
ON THE INDIAN GAME OF CHESS. 349
fquares, halt of them occupied by the forces,
and half vacant : he added, that this game is
mentioned in the oldeft law-books, and that it
was invented by the wife of RaVan, King of
Lancci^ in order to amufe him with an image of
war, while his metropolis was clofely befieged by
Ra'ma in the fecond age of the world. He had
not heard the iliory told by Firdausi near the
clofe of the Shahnamah, and it was probably
carried into Fcrjia from Ciuiyacuvja by Borzu,
the favourite phvjician, thence called Faidya-
priya^ of the great Anu'shirava'n ; but he
faid, that the Brahmans of Gaur^ or Bengal,
were once celebrated for fuperior fkill in the
game, and that his father, together with his
fpiritual preceptor, Jaganna't'h, now living an
'Tribeniy had inftru6led two young Brahmans in
all the rules of it, and had fent them to Jaya-
nagar at the requeft of the late Raja^ who had
liberally rewarded them. A yZ'//, or boat^ is
fubftituted, we lee, in this complex game for
the rafh, or armed chariot^ which the Beyiga-
bfe pronounce rofh^ and which the Ferjiam
changed into rokh, whence came the rook of
fome Europeaji nations ; as the v'lerge and fol
of the French 2XQ fuppofed to be corruptions of
• fer% and //, the prime minijier and elcphnnt of
the Per/urns and Arabs, It were vain to fcek an
€tymology of the word rook in the modei-n Fer-
Jtan
c i
66
^SO ON TllE INDIAN GAME OF CHESS.
fan language ; for, in all the paiTages extra^VccI
from FiRDAUsi and Ja'mi, where rokb is con-
ceived to mean a hero, or a fabulous hird^ it
fignifles, I believe, no more than a cheek or a
face : as in the following defcription of a pro-
ceffion in Egypt: " when a thoiifand youths,
*' likecyprefles, box-trees, and firs, with locks
*' as fragrant, cheeks as fair, and bofoms as
delicate, as lilies of the valley, were march-
ing gracefully along, thou wouldft have faid»
that the new fpring was turning his face
(not as Hyde tranflates the words, carriect
on rokhs) from ftation to flation ;" and, as to
the battle of the duwazdch rokh^ w^hich
D'Herbelot fuppofes to mean douze preux
chevaliers^ I am ftrongly inclined to think,
that the phrafe only fignifies a combat of twelve
ferfons face to face ^ or fix on a fide, I cannot!
agree with my friend Ra^dha^ca'nt, that Siflp
is properly introduced in this imaginary warfare
inflead of a chariot^ in which the old Indian
warriours conftantly fought ; for though the
king might be fuppofed to fit in a car^ io that
the four angd's would be complete, and though
it may often be neceflary in a real campaign to
pafs rivers or lakes, yet no river is marked on
the Indian, as it is on the Chinefe chefs-board,
and the intermixture of ihips with horfes, ele-
phants, and infantry embattled on a plain, is
an
ON THE INDIAN GAME OF CHESS. 35I
an abfurdity not to be defended. The iife of dice
may, perhaps, be juftified in a reprefentation
of war, in vjhich. for tune has unqueftionably a
great fhare, but it feems to exclude Chefs from
the rank which has been affigned to it among
the fciences, and to give the game before us the.
appearance of whijl, except that pieces are ufed
openly, inftead of cards which are held con-
cealed : neverthelefs we find, that the moves
in the game defcribed by Vya^sa were to a
certain degree regulated by chance ; for he
proceeds to tell his royal pupil, that " if
*' cinque be thrown, the king or a pawn muft
*' be moved ; if qtiatre, the elephant ; if trois,
" the horfe ; and if deux^ the boat.'"*
He then proceeds to the moves : " the king
** pafles freely on all fides but over one fquare
'' only ; and w-ith the faj^ limitation the
" pawn moves, but he advances fl:ra:ght for-
«' ward, and kills his enemy through an angle ;
" the elephant marches in all directions, as far
" as his driver pleafes ; the horfe runs obliquely
" traverfing three fquares; and the Pdip goes
" over two fquares diagonally." The elephant,
we fmd, has the powers of our queen ^ as we
are pleafed to call the jnini/ier^ or general^ of
the Perfa7is ; and &.Qfip has the motion of the
piece to w-hich we give the unaccountable ap-
pellation of hifiop., but with a reflriclicn which
muft greatly lefTen his value.
The
353 ON THE INDIAN GAME OF CHESJ.
The bard next exhibits a few sreneral rule#
and fuperficial diredlions for the condudlofthe
game : ** the pawns and the jl'tp both kill' and
" may be voluntarily killed ; while the k'lngy
the elephant y and the horfe may flay the foey
but cannot expole themfelv^es to be flainv
*' Let each player preferve his own forces with
•' extreme care, fecuring his king above ally
*' and not facrificing a luperior, to keep an in-
*' ferlor, piece." Here the commentator on
the Furan obferves, that the horfe^ who has
the choice of eight moves from any cenn-al po-*
iition, mufl be preferred to the fiip^ who has
only the choice oi four \ but this argument
would not have equal weight in the common
game, where the b'ljhop and tower command a
whole line, and where a biiQ-ht is alwavs of lefs
value than a towciHn acllon.orthe biJJjop of that
fide on which the attack is begun, *' it is by
the overbearing pov/er of the elephant, that
X.]\tkwg fights boldly ; let the whole army,
** therefore, be abandoned, in order to fecure
xh^ elephant : the /vV;^ mufl: never place one
elephant before another, according to the rule
*' of Go't AMA, unlefi he be compelled by want
** of room, for he would thus commit a dan-
« gerous fault ; and if he can flay one of two
*' hoflile clepha?JtSy he mufl: deftroy that on his
" left hand." The lafl: rule is extremely ob-
fcurc ;
cc
<c
cc
ON THE INDIAN GAME OF CHESS. ^fj
fcure ; but, as Go'tama was an illuftrioiis
lawyer and philoibpher, Vie would act have
condefcended to leave direftions for the gan^e of
C/jaturanga, if it had not been held in great
eftimation by the ancient Sages of hidia.
All that remains of the paflage, which wa?.
copied for me by Ra'dha'ca''nt and explained
by him, relates to the feveral modes in which
a partial fuccefs or complete victory may be ob-
tained by any one of the four players ; for we
ihall fee, that, as if a difpute had arifen between
two allies, one of the ki?igs may aflijme the
command of all the forces, and aim at feparate
conquefl:. Firft ; *' When any one king has
** placed himfelf on the fquare of another a:/;/^,
*' which advantage is called Smhafana^ or the
** throne^ he wins a flake ; which is doubled,
*' if he kill the adverfe monarch, when he
** feizes his place ; and, if he can feat him-
** felf on the throne of his ally, he takes the
** command of the whole armv." Second-
ly ; " If he can occupy fucceffively the
thrones of all the three princes, he obtains
the victory, which is named Cbaturaj), and
" the flake is doubled, if he kill the lafl of the
** three, jufl before he takes pofleffion of his
** throne, but if he kill him on his throne*
*' the flake is quadrupled.** Thus, as the com-
mentator remarks, in a real warfare, a king
A a may
4f
(C
ti
6(
354 ON THE INDIAN GAME OF CHESS.
may be confidered as viclonous, when he felzes
the metropolis oi his adverfary ; but if he can
deftroy his foe, he difplays greater heroifm, and
reheves his people from any further folicitude.
Both in gaining the S'nihafatia and the Cha-
tiirap, fays Vya'sa, the king mufl: be fup-
ported by the elephants or by all the forces
united." Thirdly; " When one player has
his own king on the board, but the king of
his partner has been taken, he may re-
'' place his captive ally, if he can feize both
** the adverfe k/ngs; or, if he cannot effed:
** their capture, he may exchange his king for
one of them, againll the general rule, and thus
redeem the allied^r;V/a', who will fupply his
plicc.'* Tliis advantage has the name of
iSripcJcy-iffjtci, or, rcc-ccred by the king ; and the
Naucacjijhta fccms to be analogous to it, but
confined to the cafe o'i f:ips. Fourthly ; " If
■" 2i pawn can march to any Iquare on the op-
** pofite extremity of the board, except that
** of \.\\Q king, or that of the yZv/), he afTumes
*"* whatever power belonged to that fquare ;
'* and this promotion is called Shatpada, or
*' the Jix /hides.''' Here we find the rule,
with a lingular exception, concerning the ad-
vancement of pa'vcm, which often occafions
a mod intereiling llrugglc at our common
chefs, and which ha> furniHied the poets and
moralifts
&(
<(
<(
6n the INDIAN GAME OF CHESS. 355
rnoralifts of Arabia arid Perjia with many lively
i'efledlions ori Human life. It appear^, that
*' this privilege of Shat'pada was dot allowable,
•* in the opinion of Go'tamA, when a player
*' had three pawns on the board ; but, when
*' only one fawn and one JJiip remained, the
*' pawn might advance even to the fquare of a
*' kmg or a fi'ip-, and alTume the power of
** either." Fifthly; *' According to the 7^j<:-
** jl:)a[as^ or giants (that is, the people of
*' Lancc^.^ where the game was invented), there
** could be neither vi6lory nor defeat, if a king
*' were left on the plain without force : a
*' iituation which they named CcicataJJ^fba.^'*
Sixthly ; *' If threeyZ'//>j- happen to meet, and the
*' fourth yZ*/^ can be brought up to them in the
** remaining angle, this has the unmeof Tribafr-
*' 7/auca ; and the player of the fourth feizcs ail
*' the others." Twoor three of the remainlno-
couplets are i'o dark, either from an error in the
manufcrlpt or from the antiquity of the lan-
guage, that I could not underftand the Pan-
dit^s explanation of them, and fufpect that they
^ave even him very indlilinCl: ideas ; but it
would be eafy, if it were worth while, to play
at the game by the preceding rules ; and a little
pra6tice would, perhaps, make the whole in-
telligible. One circumrtance, in this extract:
trom the Furv.n^ feems very furprizing: all
A a 2 gunes
35^ ON THE INDIAN GAME OF CHESS.
games of hazard are pofitively forbidden by
Menu, yet the game of Chattiranga^ in which
dice are ufed, is taught by the great Vya'sa
himfelf, whofe law-tra<ft appears with that of
Go'tama among the eighteen books which
form l\\Q Dherinafaftra \ but as Ra'diia'ca'nt
and his preceptor Jaganna't'h are both em-
ployed by Government in compiling a Digefl: of
Indian laws, and as both of them, cfpecially
the venerable Sage of Tnbciii^ iinderfland the
game, they are able, I prelume, to affign rea-
fons, whv it fhould have been excepted from
the general prohibition, and even openly taught
by ancient and modern Brdbmam,
DIS-
[ ■'6S1 3' '
«
DISSE RTATION XII.
O N T H E
SECOND CLASSICAL BOOK
OF T II E r
I
CHINES E.
^l~^HE vicinity of China to our Indian ter_
X ritories, from the capital of which there
are not more than Jhc hundred miles to the pro-
vince of Yu'na'n, mufi: necefiarily draw our
attentioii to that moft ancient and wonderful
Empire, even if we had no commer<!r;l inter-
courfe with its more diftant and maritime
provinces ; and the benefits that might be de-
rived from a more intimate connexion with a
nation long famed for their uleful arcs and for
the valuable productions of ilicir country, arc
too apparent to require uiv proof or ill ufhra-
tion. My own inclinations and the courfe of
mv fludies lead me rather to ::onfider at prelent
their laws^ politicks, and morals^ Vv-ith v/'uch
their general literature is clofely blended, than
A a 3 theif
35? ON THE SECpND CLASSICAL
their manufactures and trade ; nor will I fpare
c ther pains or expence to procure tranflatipns
of their rnoft approved law-traBs^ that I may
return to Europe with diltintl ideas, drawn
from the fountain-head, of the wifeft Jifiatick
legillation. It will probably be a long time be-
fore accurate returns can be made to my in-
quiries concerning the Chinefe Laws ; and, in
the interval, the Society will not, perhaps, be
difpleafed to know, that a tranOation of a mod
venerable and excellent work may be expelled
from Canton through the kind afhllance of au
ineftimable correfpondent.
According to a Chine fs Writer, named Li
Yang Ping, ' the ancient characters ufed in
* his country were the outlines of vifible ob-
* jects earthly and celeftial ; but, as things
* merely intelle£lual could not be expreiled by
f thofe figures, the grammarians of China
' contrived to reprelL^nt the various operations
* of the mind by metaphors drawn from the
' produclions of nature : thus the idea of
* roughnefs and of rotundity, of motion and
* reft, were conveyed to the eye by ligns re-
* prcfeL*'ing a mountain, the flcy, a river and
* the earth ; the figures of the fun, the moon,
* and the ftars, different! v combined, flood for
* fmoothnefs and fplendour, for any thing art-
* fully wrought, or woven with delicate work^
' manihip ;
BOOK OF THE CHINESE. 359
manfhip; extenlion, growth, increafe, and
many other qualities, were painted in cha-
racters taken from clouds, from the firma-
*" ment, and from the vegetahle part of the
creation ; the different ways of moving, agi-
lity and flowneis, idlenefs and diligence,
were exprefTed by various infects, birds, fifh,
and quadrupeds : in this manner paffions
and lentiments were traced by the pencil,
and ideas not fubjecft to any fenfe were exhi-
bited to the li2;ht ; until bv desirees new com-
binations were invented, new expreliions ad-
ded ; the characters deviated imperceptibly
from their primitive iliape, and the Chincfe
language became not only clear and forcible,
but rich and ele2;ant in the hisiheft deorce.'
In this language, fo ancient and fo wonder-
fully compofed, are a multitude of books
abounding in ufcful, as well as agreeable, know-
ledg^e ; but the higheft clafs confifts of Five
works ; one of which, at lead, every Ch'tnefe
wiio aipires to literary honours muft read
igain and again, until he pol^efs it perfectly.
TV'.'^firJi is ^\iYt\y Hijiorical ^ contaiiiing annals
of the iimpire from the two thoufcuid-three bun-
drcd-ihh'ly fevi-'-b year before Christ : it is
entitled Shi' King, and a vcriion of ithas been
publiflied in France ; w!^ich cou.ntry vvc ara
indebted for the mod auchenticK. and moflvalu-
A a 4 abl
360 ON THE SECOND CLASSICAL
able fpecimens of Chinefe Hiftory and LItera«
ture, froiTi the compolitions which preceded
thoie of HoMtR, to the poetical works of the
prefenc Emperor, who feems to be a man of
the brighteil: genius and the ixiod amiable affec-
tions. We may fmile, if we pleafe, at the levity
of the French, as they laugh without fcruple
at our ferioufnefs ; but let us not fo far under-
value our rivals jn arts and in arms, as to deny
them their juft commendation, or to relax
our efforts in that noble ftruggle, by which
alone we can preferve cur own em^inence.
The Second Claffical work of the Chinefe
contains //^rf^ hujidred O^^.^^ or fliort Poems,
inpraifeof ancient foyereigns and legiflators,
or defcriptive of ancient manners, and recom-
mendiiig an imitation pf them in the difcharge
of all pul'hck and domeftick duties : they
abound in wife, maxims, ar^d excellent precepts,
' their v\ hole dodlrine, according to Cun-fur-tfu,
*■ in the L'j'nyu' or I'oral Difcourjes, being
' reducible to th's grand ride., that we fliould
* not even entertain a thought of any thing
bafe or culpable ;' but the copies of the
Shi' King, for that is the title of the book,
are fuppofed to have been much disfigured,
fince the time of that great Philolopher,
by ipiiiious pallages and exceprionable interpo-
lations ; and the llyle of the Poems is in fome
parts
V -^
BOOK OF THE CHINESE. ' ^dl
parts too metaphorical, while the brevity of
other parts renders them obfcure ; though
many think even this obfcurity fublime and ve-
nerable, like that of ancient cloyfters and tem-
ples, ' JJjedding^ as Milton exprefles it, a
*" dim religious light.'' There is another paflage
in the Lu'nyu^, which deferves to be fet down
at lens;th: ' Why, my fons, do you not
^ ftudy the book of Odes ? If we creep on
' the ground, if we lie ufelefs and inglorious,
* thofe poems w'ill raife us to true glory : in
^ them we fee, as in a mirror, what may befl
^ become us, and what will be unbecomlns: •
* by their influence we fhall be made focial,
' affable, benevolent ; for, as mufick combines
* founds in juft melody, fo the ancient Doetry
* tempers and compofes our paffions : the Odes
* teach us our duty to our parents at home
* and abroad to our prince; they infl:ru(5l us
' alfo delightfully in the various productions of
' nature.' * Haft thou ftudied, fetid the Phi-
' lofopher to his fon Peyu, the firft of the
' three hundred Odes on the nuptials of Prince
* Ve'nva^m and the virtuous Tai Su ? He
^ who ftudies them not, refembles a man with
' his face af^ainfl: a wall, unable to advance a
' Hep in virtue and wifdom.* Moft of thofe
Odes are near three thoufand years old, and
forne, if we give credit to the Chincfc annals,
confider^blv
362 ON THE SECOND CI.ASSICAL
O
confiderably older ; but others arc fomevvhat
more recent, having been compofed under the
later Emperors of the third family, called
Shf.u. The work is printed 'mfiur volumes ;
and, towards the f-nd of iXiq firj}^ we find the
Ode, which Couplet has accurately tranflated
at the beginning of tlie Ta'hio, or Great
Science^ where it is finely amplified by the
philofopher : I produce the original from the
Shi' Ki:>g itfelf, and from the book, in which
it is cited, together with a double verfion, one
verbal and another metrical ; the only method
of doing juftice to the poetical compofitions of
the JJiaticks. It is a panegyrick on Vucu'n,
prince o^ Guey in the province oi Honang, who
died, near a century old, in the th'irtce^itfd year
of the Emperor Pingvang, feven hundred and
ffty-fix years before the birth of Christ, or
one hundred y,nd forly-eight, according to Sir •
Isaac Newton, after the taking of iroy \ fo
that the Ch'inefe. Poet might have been con-
temporary with Hesiod and Homer, or at
Jcaft muft have written the Ode before the
JUad and Odyjft^y were carried ituo Greece by
l^YCUKGUS.
The verbal tranflntiqn of the thirty-two orir»
ginal characlers is this :
" 1 a 4 3^ .1
* Behold yon reach of the r'wer Ki j
567 3 _
^ It? green reeis how luxuriant ! how luxuri^t !
' Thus
BOOK OF THE CHINESE? J^J
9111s 10
f Thus is our Prince adorned with virtues j
.* As a carver, as a filer, of ivory, , -
17 18 19 aa
'Asa cutter as a polifher, of geais,
SI 22
f O how elate and fugacious ! O how dauntlefs and compofed i
* H»w worthy of fame I How worthy of reverence! •"'':
25 27 28 26 ■/
.* We have a Prince adorned with virtues,
.* Whom to the end of time we can not forget.'
THE PARAPHRASE,
Behold, where yon b!ue riv'Iet gUdes
Alon2; the lauo;hin:i dale ; . '
Light reeds bedeck its verdant fides,
And frolick in the gale :
So fhines our Prince ! In bright array ,,
The Virtues round him wait ; . .
And fweetly finilc th' aufpicious day.
That rais'd Him o'er our State.
As pliant hands in fhapes rcfin'd
Rich iv'ry carve and fmoothe.
His Laws thus mould each ductile mind,
And every pafTion foothe.
As gems are taught by patient art
In fparkling ranks to beam,
With ^]</(r7//«t'ri thus he forms the heart,
And fpreads a gen'ral gleam.
What foft, yet awful dignity !
What meek, yet manly, grace! '\
What fvvectntfs dances in his eye.
And bloilbms in his face I '
Se
364 ON THE SECOND CLASSICAL
So fhines our Prince ! A fky- born crowd
Of Virtues round hiir. blaze :
Ne'er ^hall Oblivion's murky cloud
Obfcure his deathlefs praife. ', .
The prediclion of the Poet has hltherro been
accomplifhed ; but he httle imagined, that his
compolition would be admired, and his Prince
celebrated in a language not then formed, and
by the natives of regions fo remote from his
own.
In the tenth leaf of the Ta' Hio a beautiful
comparifon is quoted from another Ode in the
Shi' King, which deferves to be exhibited in
the fame form with the preceding :
I 2 3
« Ths peach-tree, how fair ! how graceful f
4 5 6 _ 7
' Its leaves, how blooming ! how pleafant ! ,
8 9 10 11
* Such is a bride, when fhe enters her bridegroom's houfe,
i- ^ 1,3 14 15 , ,
* And pay,-, due attention to her whole family.* ..
The funile may thus be rendered :
Gay child of Spring, the garden's queen.
Yon peach-tree charms the roving fight : ^
Its fragrant leaves how richly green !
Its blofibms how divinely bright !
So foftly fmiles the blooming bride
By love and confcious Virtue led
O'er her new maniion ro preilde,
Ap-d placid joys around her fpread,
©^
TilE
BOOK OF THE CHINESE. 365
The next leaf exhibits a comparifon of a dif-
ferent nature, rather fublime than agreeable,
and conveying rather cenfure than praife :
» 23 4
O how horridly impends yon fouthern mountain !
56 ' 78
Its rocks In how vaft, how rude a heap ! %
q 10 11 12
ThusloftiJy thou fitteft, O minlfter of YNj ^ . '
All the people loolc up to thee with dread. „ ,,
Which may be thus paraphrafed :
See, where yon crag's imperious height
The funny highland crowns,
And, hideous as the brow of night,
Above the torrent frowns !
So fcowls the Chief, whofe will Is law, ' ; .
Regardlefs of our ftate \
While millions gaze with painful awe.
With fear alUed to hate. '
It was a very ancient pra6lice in Chtna to
paint or engrave moral fentences and approved
verfes on velTels in conftant life ; as the v^ords
Renew Thyself Daily were infcribed on
the bafon of the Emperor Tang, and the poem
of KiEN Long, who is now on the throne, in
praife of tea, has been publifhed on afet of por-
celain Clips ; and, if the defcription juft cited
of a felfifh and infolent flatefman were, in the
fame manner, conflantly prefented to the eyes
and attention of rulers, it might produce fome
benefit
366 ON THE SECOND CLASSICAL
benefit to their fubje6ls and to themfelves j
cfpecially if the comment of Tsem Tsu, who
may be called the Xenophon, as Cun Ftr'
Tsu' was the Socrates, and Mem Tsu the
Plato^ of Chinay were added to illuftratti
and enforce it.
If the reft of the three hwulred Odes be limi-
lar to the fpecimens adduced by thofe great mo*
rahfts in their works, which the Frtncb have
made pubhck, 1 lliould be very folicitous to
procure our nation the honour of brinofine to
light the fecmd claflical book of the Cbifiefe.
The third, called Yeking, or the book of
Changes, believed to have been written by Fo,
the Hermes of the EafI:, and confiftins; of risrht
lines varioufly difpofed, is hardly intelligible to
the mod learned Mandarnis ; and Cun Fu''
Tsu' himfelf, who was prevented by death from
accomplifhing his defign of elucidating it, was-
diflatisfied with all the interpretations of the
"earlieft commentators. As to xhtjifth, or Liki,
which that excellent man compiled fronh^
old monuments, it confifls chiefly of the Chi^
nefe ritual, and of traftson Moral Duties ; but
•ih-t fourth, entitled Chung Cieu, or Sprjng and
Autumn, by which the fime incon^parable
•writer raeancd xhtfouriJJjing ilate of an Enipire
. vnder a virtuous monarch, and the /'cdl of king-
ItU^.J^
BOOK OF THE CHINESE. 367
doms under bad governors, mufl: bean Intereft-
ing work in every nation. The powers, how-
ever, of an Individual are fo limited, and the
field of knowledge is fo vafl, that I dare not
promife more, than to procure, if any exer-
tions of mine will avail, a complete tranflation
of the Shi' King, together with an authentick
iibridgement of the Chi7ieft' laws, civil and cri-
minal. A native of Canton, whom I knew
fome years ago in E?ig!and, and who pafied his
firfl examinations with credit in his way to li-
terary dillindions, but was afterwards allured
from the purfuit of learning by a profped of
fuccefs in trade, has favoured me with the
Three Hundred Odes in the original, toeether
with the Lu'nyu', a futhftd verfion of which
was publifhed at Paris near a centurv ae:o ; but
he feems to think, that it would require three
or four years to complete a tranflation of them ;
and Mr. Cox informs me, that none of the
Chineje, to w^hom he has accefs, poffefe leifurt.
and per fever ancc enough for fuch a tafh ; vet he
hopes, with the ailiflanceof Whang Atong,
to fend me next feafon fome of the poems
Cranilated into Englifi. A Httle encouragement
would induce this young Chhiefe to vifit Indla^
arid fome of his countrymen would, perhans
accompany him ; but, though confiderable ad-
vantage
268 ON THE SECOND CLASSICAL, &C.
vantage to the public, as well as to letters,
snight be reaped from the knowledge and inge-
nuity of fuch emigrants, yet we muft w^ait for
a time of greater national wealth and profperity*
before fuch a meafure can be formally recom-
mended by us to our patrons at the helm of
covernment, .- -
D I S-
[ ?,h ]
DISSERTATION XIII,
ON THE
A N T I Q^U 1 T Y
OF THE
INDIAN ZODIAC K.
I ENGAGE to fupport an opinion (which the
learned and induftrious M, Montucla
feems to treat with extreme contempt), that the
Lid an divifion of the Zodiack was not borrowed
from the Greeks or Arabs, but, having been
known in this country from time immemorial,
and being the fame in part with that ufed by
other nations of the old Hindu race, was pro-
bably invented by the firft progenitors of that
race before their difperfion. " The Indians, he
" fays, have twodivifions of the Zodiack; one,
** like that of the Arabs, relating to the moon,
*' and confiding oi twenty- [even equal parts, by
*' which they can tell very nearly the hour of
'* the night ; another relating to the fun, and,
^' like ours, containing twelve figns^ to which
B b *' they
370 ON THE ANTIQUITY
** they have given as many names, correfpond-
^* ins with thofe v/hich we have borrowed
** from the Greeks.** All that is true ; but he
;idds : " It is highly probable that they received
*' them at Ibme time or another by the inter-
'' ventioii of the ^rSs ; for no man, furely,
'•' can perfuade himfelf, that it is the ancient
" divilion of the Zodiack formed, according
to fome authors, by the forefathers of man-
kind, and Aill pre ferved among the Hindus.**'
Now I undertake to prove, that the Indian Zo-
diack was nor. borrowed mediately or diredly
from the Arabs-QX Greeks ; and fince the folar
divifion of it in India is the fame in fubftance
with that ufed in Greece^ we m,ay reafonably
conclude, that both Greeks and Hindus received
it from an older nation, who firll gave names to
the luminaries of heaven, and from whom both
Greeks and Hindus^ as their fimilarity in lan-
guage and religion fully evinces, had a common
defcent.
The fame writer afterwards intimates, that
** the time when Indian Aftronomy received
its mofl: confiderable improvement, from
which it has now, as he imagines, wholly
** declined, was either the age when the
Arabs ^ who eflabliihed themfelves in Per/ia
and SoQ-diana, had a 2;reat intercourfe with
the Hindus, or that when the fucceflbrs of
" Chengi'z
OF THE INDIAN ZODIACK. 371
" CiiENGi'z united both Arabs and Hindus un-
*' der one vafi: dominioti." It is not the object
of this effay to correcl: the hiftorical errors in
the paffage laft cited, nor to defend the aflro-
nonaers of India from the charge of grofs igno-
rance in regard to the figure of the eartli and the
diftances of the heavenly bodies ; a charge,
which MoNTUCT-A very boldly makes on the
authority, I believe, of Father Souciet : 1 will
only remark, that, in our converfations with
the Pandits^ we mud: never confound the {y{-
tem of the Jyautijhiciis, or mathematical aftro-
nomers, w^ith that of the Patirdnicas^ or poe-
tical fabulifts ; for to fuch a confuiion alone
muft we impute the many miftakes of Euro-
pcans on the fubjedt of Indian fcience. A ve-
nerable mathematician of this province, named
P.a'machandra, now in his eigrhtieth vear,
viiited me lately at CriJJmanagar^ and part of
his difcourfe was fo applicable to the inquiries
which I was then making, that, as foon as he
left rne, I committed it to \\'riring. *' The
" Paurimics, he faid, will tell you, that our earth
*' is a plane figure ftuddcd with eight moun-
'* tains, and furroundedby feven feas of milk,
** neclar, and other fluids ; that the part which
*' we inhabit, is one of feven iflands, to which
*' eleven fmaller ides are fubordinate ; that a
♦' God, riding on a huge elephant, gu:irds each
♦^ of the eight regions ; and that a mountain of
B b 2 '' gold
37^ ^N THE ANTIQUITY ;
*' gold rifes and gleams in the centre ; but wc
** believe the earth to be ftiaped likea CW^;«^<2:
" fruit, or Ipheroidal, and admit only four
*' oceans of fait water, all which we name from
*' the four cardinal points, and in which arc
many great peninfulas with innumerable
iflands : they will tell you, that a dragon's
** head fwallows the mqon, and thus caufes an
*' eclipfe ; but we know, that the fuppofed
*' head and tail of the dragon mean only the
nodes, or points formed by interfedlions of the
ecliptick and the moon's orbit ; in fliort,
they have imagined a fyftem which exiil:^
only in their fancy ; but we confider nothing
'* as true without fuch evidence as cannot be
*' queftioned." I could not perfc£lly undcr^
ll:and the old Gymnofophiii, when he told me,
that the R/ifchdcra, or Circle of Sigr/s (for fo he
called the Zodiack), was like a I) hujiur a ^owes;
meaning the Da/ura, to which the Sanfcrit
name has been foftened, and the flower of
which is conical, or fhaped like a funnel : at firft
I thought, thot he alluded to a piojeftionof the
hemifpbere on the plane of the colure, and to
the angle formed by the ecliptick and equator ;
but a yovuiger ailronomer named VinaS'ACa,
who came afterwards to fee me, aflurcd me
that they meant only the circular mouth of
the funnel, or the bale of the cone, and that it
was
(6
OF THE INDIAN ZODIACK. ^y^
was iifual among their ancient writers to bor-
row from fruits and flowers their appellations of
feveral plane and folid figures.
From the two Br libmans whom I have juft
named, 1 learned the following curious particu-
lars ; and you may depend on my accuracy in
repeating them, fince I wrote them in their prc-
fcnce, and corrected what I had written, till
they pronounced it perfefl:.
They divide a great circle, as we do, into
three hundred and fixty degrees, called by
them anfas or portions ; of which they, like
us, allot thirty to each of the twelve ligns in
this order : „ ,
Alejloa, the Ram. Tulc:-, tlie Balance.
Vrljlia^ the Bull. 8. Vrijhch'ica^ the Scorpion. ''
Mii'hima^ the Pair. DhanuSy the Bow. '■■
4. Carcata^ the Crab. Macara, the Sea-Monfler.
S.'nhaj the Lion. Ciunbha^ the Ewer.
Canyay the Virgin. 12. Mina^ the Fifh. '
The hgures of the twelve allerifms, thus de-
nominated with refpert to the fun, are fpeci-
fied bySRi'pETi, author of the Reinatnala, in
Sanfcnt verfes ; which T product-, as my
vouchers, in the original, with a verbal tranfla-
tion : . '
Mefliiidayo nlma samrinnrupi, ' !
Vinagadadhyam mit'hunam nriyugmam,
Pradipa?asye dadhati carabhyam
Navi st'liitii varini canyacaivn. • '
Tula tuliibhrit pretimannpanir
Dhanur dhanushman ha-.awat paningah,
B b :? Mrlijananah
374 o^ THE A:<iriQi!irr ^ .
Mrigananah syan macaro't'ha cumbhuh .■ .' ,
Scandhe ncro riftagha'tam dadhanah,
Axiyanyapuchch'habhimuc'ho hi minali
JVIatsyadwayamfwast'lialacharinomi.
*' The rd?}i, bull^ crab, lion, and fcorpion^
*' have the figures of thofe five animals refpec-
.*' tively : the pair are a damfel playing on a
** Kmci and a youth wielding a mace : the vh'-
*' gin ftands on a boat in water, holding in one
" hand a lamp, in the other an ear of ricecorn :
" the halance is held by a weigher with a
"•' w^ieht in one hand : the how, by an archer,
*' whofe hinder parts are like thofe of a horle :
" the jea-monjlcr has the face of an antelope -..
*' the ewer is a waterpot borne on the.fhoulder
'' of a man, who empties it : thtfi/Jj are two,
" with their heads turned to each other's tails ;
*•' and all thefe are fuppofed to be in fuch places
*' as fuit their feveral natures.**
To each of the twenty-fcven lunar flations,
which they call naejlatras, they allow thirteen
anfas and one third, or thirteen degrees twenty
minutes ; and their names appear iii the order of
the iigns, but without any regard to the figures
or them :
1 il ■;■■■ V (■'-:* r ^ >
Aswim. Ardra. Purva p'halgum.
Bharani. Punarvafu. \}\.x:AX'\p'halguTn.
Crttka, r-'-i-v ;-^^-A^* Hafta.
Rohini. ' 9. Aslefha. Chitra,
Mrv'afiras. ALigha. Swati.
OF THE INDIAN ZODIACIC. 375
Fifac'ha. VdxYaflja'dha. Satabhiflia. "'
Anuradha. Uttarafliddha* ' ^ Purva bhadropada.
iS. Jyejhfha Sravana. Uttarabhadrapada.
Mvila. Dhanishta. 27. Rcvati.
Between the twenty-firfl and twenty-fe-
tond conftellations, we hud in the plate three
ilars called Abhijit ; but they are the iafl quar-
ter of the afterifm immediately preceding, or the
latter Afiar^ as the word is commonly pro-
nounced. A complete revolution of the moon,
with refpc£l to the ftars, being made in twenty-
feven days, odd hours, minutes, and feconds,
and perfect exadnefs being either not attained by
the Hindus^ or not required by them, they fixed
on the number twenty-feven, and inferted Ah-
hij'it for fome aflrological purpofe in their nup-
tial ceremonies. The drawing, from which the
plate was engraved *, feems intended to reprefent
the figures of the twenty-feven conftellations,
together with Abh^jit, as they are defcribed in
three ftanzasby the author of the Bxtnamala : .
1. Turagamiic'hafadricfl-iam yonirupam cfliurabham,
Saca'tafamam at'hainaiycktamange'ia tulyam,
Manigrihasara chaciabhani salupamam bham,
Sayanafadrisamanyachchatra paryancarupam.
2. Haftacarayutam cha mau(£licaramam
chanyat pravalopamam, .
Dhrifliyam torana fanuibharn ballnibliam,
iatcundalabhain parain ; ^
* The different compartments of the plate alhided to,
are lb nminutely defcribed in the fubfequenc page, that
it is thought uunecefTary to annex it.
B b 4 Crud-
it
^y6 ON THE ANTIQUITY
Crudhyatcefarivicramena f<idrisam,
sayyafamanam param,
Anyad dentlvilafavat irhitamatah
sringatacavyadi bham.
3. Trivicraiiiabhani cha mridangarupam,
Vrittam tatonyadyamalabhwayabham,
Paryancarupam murajanucaram,
Ityevam aswadibhachacrarupain.
' *' A horse's head iyoni or bhaga ; a razor %
a wheeled carriage ; the head of an antelope ;
a gem ; a houfe ; an arrow ; a wheel ; an-
" other houfe ; a bedftead ; another bcdftead ;
'* a hand ; a pearl ; a piece of coral ; a k^-
*' toon of leaves ; an oblation to the Gods ; a
" rich ear-ring ; the tail of a fierce lion ; a
** couch ; the tooth of a wanton elephant,
*' near which is the kernel of the sr'mgataca
*' nut ; the three footfteps of Vishnu ; a ta-
*' bor ; a circular jewel ; a two-faced image ;
" another couch ; and a fmaller fort of tabor :
*' fuch are the figures o'i Afwhit and the refliii
*' the circle of lunar conflellations." ^' '
The Hi?idu draughtfman has v^ery ill repre-
fented mod of the figures ; and he has tranf-
pofed the two /ifnaras as well as the two Bha-
ilrapads ; but his figure q>{ Abhtjlt^ which looks
like our ace of hearts, has a refemblance to the
kernel of the trapa^ a curious water-plant de-
fcribed in a feparate efiay. In another Satifcrit
book the figures of the fame conflcUations are
thus varied :
A horfe's
OP tHE INDIAN ZoblAck. ' ^f?
A horfe's hend. A ftraight tail. A conch.
I'oni or bhaga. Two ftars S. to N. A winnowing fan.
Aflame. Two, N. to S. Another.
A waggon. A hand. An arrow.
A cat's paw. A pearl. • . ^ A tabor.
One bright ftar. Red faftVon. A circle of ftafs,
A bow. A feftoon. A ftaff for burdens.
A child's pencil. A fnake. The beam of a balance
9. A dog's tail. 18. A boar's head. 27. A fifh.
.;■•-, . ■• ./
From twelve of the aflerifmsju ft enume-
rated are derived the names of the tu^lve/w-
dian months in the ufual form of patronymicks ;
.for the Pauranics, who reduce all nature to a
fyftem of emblematical mythology, fuppofe a
celeilial nymph to prelide over each of the con-
fteliations, ai^d feign that the God So'ma, or
Lunus, having wedded twelve of them, became
the father of twelve Genii, or months, who arc
named after their feveral mothers ; but the
JyautJJJ.'kas aflert, that, when their lunar year
was arranged by former aftronomers, the moon
was at the full in each month on the very day
when it entered the 7iacpatra^ from which that
month is denominated. The manner in which
the derivatives are formed, will befl: appear by
a comparifon of the months with their feveral
conftellations :
A'swina.
4. Pauiha. ^ -■ '• "
"..,, 1
Cartica. " ••
Magha.- '■•'■>''
Mar^asirfha* •
P'haiguni. ' '*
1
Chaitra,'
3/8 ON THE ANTiQUIT"^ ;
Chaitra. A'fliara.-
8. Vaifac*ha. Sravana.
Jyai{ht*ha, 12. Bhadra.
The third month Is alio called A'grahayand
(whence the common word^^r^// is corrupted)
from another name of Mrigasiras.
Nothing can be more ingenious than the
memorial verfes, in which the Hindus have a
cuftom of linking together a number of ideas
otherwife uhconnedled, and of chaining, as it
\^'ere, the memory by a regular meafure : thus
by putting teeth for thirty-two, Rudra for*
eleven, feafon for fix, arrow or element for five,
ocean, Feda, 01c age, for four, Ra'm±\, Jire, ot
quality, for three, eye, or Cuma'ra, for two,
and earf/j or ??ioQn for one, they have compofed
four lines, which exprefs the number of ftars^^
in each of the twenty-fcven aflcrifms ;
Vahni tri ritvvifliu guiiendu critagnibhuta, :
Banaswinetra sara bhucu'yugabdhiramah,
■"'" Rudrabdhiramagunavedasata dvviyugma,
- Denta budhairabhihitah cramaso bhatarah^
That is : *' three, three, fix ; five, threC;,
•* one ; four, three, five ; five, two, two ;
" five, one, one ; four, four, three ; eleven,
'' four and three ; three, four, a hundred ; two,
*' two, thirty-tw^o : thus have the ftars of the
*' lunar conftellatlons, in order as they appear,
** been numbered bv the wife."
Il
OF THE INDIAN ZODIACK. 379
If the flanza was correctly repeated to me,
the two JJha?-as are confidered as one afterifm,
and Abhijit as three feparate flars ; but I fufpedt
an error in the third line, becaufe dwlhana^ or
two 2X\^jive^ would fuit the metre as well as .
hahlrama ; and becaufe there were only three
Vedas in the early age, when, it is probable*
the flars were enumerated and the technical ;
verfe compofed.
Two lunar ftations, or manjions, and a quar- .,
ter are co-extenfive, we fee, with one iign;
and nine ftations correfpond with four ligns :
by counting, therefore, thirteen degrees and
twenty minutes from the firlt ftar in the head of
the Ram, inclufively, we find the whole ex-
tent of AJw'ini^ and fhall be able to afcertain
the other ftars with fufficient accuracy : but
firft let us exhibit a comparative table of both
Zodiac ks, denoting the manfions, as in the Va-^
ranes almanack, by the firfl letters or lyllables.
cf their names :
Months.
386
ON THE ANlTQUlTr
n- Solar
Months. Asterisms.
ATwiQ '^ Mcfli
Gartic Vrifh
A'grahayan i Mit'hun
Paufh J Carcat 4.
Magh
JaifiiVh
A'ihar
Sravan
Bhadr'"-
SInh
>
P'halgnii Canya
Chaitr
Vailac'h
Tula ^
Vrifchic 8.
Mansions.
r A + bh + _£_
] IT 4- 1-6 + Jl
T- + a + ^
4 -f p -}- Sl. 9;
ni + PU -f iL
^ + h + '•^
' t "^
+ a -f j 18.
< ^
Dhan
Macar .
Cumbh
L 4
mu 4- pu + " '
-11 + S + iL
lT" "^ ^ +1.27.
Hence ^ve may readily know the ftars hi
each maniion, as they follow in order :
Lunar Solaa
Mansions, Asterisms.
Afwinf.
Ram
Bharani.
— —
Critica,
Bull.
Rohini.
— -
A-Irigafinis.
Pair.
A'ldra.
J
Stars.
Three^ in and near the head.
Three^ in the tail.
S'lx^ of the Pleiads.
F'lve^ in the head and neck.
f Three^ in or near. the feet,
( perhaps in the Galaxy.
One^ on the knee.
:; :::V:
Lunar
CF THE INDIAN ZODIACK.
38?
Lunar
Solar
Stars.
Mansions,
AsTERISMS.
Punarvafa,
5 Fou>\ in theheadsjbreaft,an(l
t fhouider.
Pufhya.
Crab
Three^ in the body and claws.
Aslefha.
Lion
Five^ in the face and mane.
Magha.
Five^ in the leg and haunch.
Purvap'halguni.
Uttarap'haiguni.
Two ; one in the tail.
Tvjo^ on the arm and zone.
Virgin
Hafta.
Five., near the hand.
Chitra.
— —
One., in the fpike.
Swati.
Balance
Ow, in the N. Scale. '
Visac'ha.
Four.) beyond it.
Anuradha.
Scorpion
Fout\ in the bod V.
Jyeflil'ha.
— —
Three., in the tail.
Miila.
Bow
[\ Eleven., to the point of the
\ arroiv.
Purvafhara.
U.ttarafh£ra.
Two^ in the leg.
er. Two., in the horn. '
Sea-monfl:
Sravana.
—
Three, in the tail.
Dhauifht'a.
Ewer
Four, in the arm..
Satabhifhii.
Many, in the ftream.
Purvabhadrapada.
Fifh
Two, in the firft hfli.
Uttarabhadrapada
.
Two, in the cord.
Revati.
— r-
^ Thirty-two, in the fecond
1 fllh and cord.
Wherever the Indian dravv'1112: ditTers from
the memorial verfe In the Retnamala, I have pre-
ferred the authority of the writer to that of the
painter, who has drawn fome terreflrlal things
with fo little limilltude, that we nnift not im-
plicitly rely on his reprefentatlon of obje6ls
merely celeftial : he feems particularly to have
erred in the flars of DhaniJJjfa,
For
■2S2 ON tHE ANTIQUITY
J
For the alliftance of thofe who may be in-
clined to re-examine the twenty- feven conftel-
iations with a chart before them, I lubjoin a
table of the degree? to which the nacjhatras
extend refoe£livelv, from the firfl ftar in the
aflerifm of juries, which we now fee near the
beginning of the fign Taurus^ as it was placed
in the ancient fphere.
N.
n.
M.
N.
D.
M.
N.
D.
M.
I.
^f-
20'.
X.
133°-
20'
XIX.
25a''-
20'.
II.
260.
40'.
xr.
146°.
40'.
XX.
266».
40'.
111.
4uO.
0'.
XII.
160°.
0'.
XXI.
280".
0'.
IV.
53"-
20'.
XUI.
173?.
20'.
XXII.
393°-
ao'.
V.
66".
40'.
XIV.
i85°.
40'.
XXIII.
3o6<?.
40'.
VI.
So«>.
0'.
XV.
900°.
0'.
XXIV.
320°
0',
VII.
93'.
20'.
XVI.
J.3''.
20'.
XXV.
333"-
2'/.
VIII.
106°.
40'.
XV I(.
2260.
40'.
XXVI.
346^
40',
JX.
120?.
XV HI.
7,y)'\
0'.
XXVII.
y6o°.
0'.
The afterifms of the JirJI column are in the
figns of Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo ; thofe
of the Jecond, in Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagii^
tarius ; and thofe of the third, in CapricornuSy
Aquarius, Pi fees, Aries: we cannot err much,
therefore, in any feries of three conftellations ;
for, by counting 13" 20' forwards and back-
wards, we find the fpaces occupied by the
two extremes, and the intermediite fpace be-
longs of courfe to the middle-mofl:. It is not
meaned, that the divifion of the Hindu Zodiack
into fuch fpaces is exa6l to a minute, or that
€very fiar of each afterifm miiit neceflarily be
found
DF THE INDIAN ZODIACK. 3^3
found in the fpaceto which it belongs ; but the
computation will be accurate enough for our
purpofe, and no lunar manlion can be very re-,
mote from the path of the moon : how Father
SouciET could dream, that Vijacha vvas in the
Northern Crown, I can hardly comprehend;
but it furpafies all comprchenlion, that M.
,Bailly fhould copy his dream, and give rea-
ibns to fupport it-, efpecially as four ftars, ar-
ranged pretty much like thofe in the Indian
ngure, prefent themfelves obvioufly near tho
Balance or the Scorpion. I have not the bold-
nefs to exhibit the individual flars in each
maniion, diflinguiflied in Bayer's method by
Greek letters ; becaufe, though 1 have little
doubt, that the five {\zxsoi /IJleJJja, in the form
of a wheel, are „, 7,^,/*, i, oithe Lion, and thofe
of Mula^ y> i, ^, ^, 9, t, <7, v, 0, «> t, of the Sagittary^
and though I think many of the others equally
clear, yet, where the number of ftars in a
manfion is lefs than three, or even than four,
it is not eafy to fix on them with confidence ;
and I muil wait, until fome young Hindu aftro-
nomer, with a good memory and good eyes,
can attend my leifure on ferene nights at the
proper feafons, to point out in the firmament
itfelf the feveral fiars of all the confi-ellations,
for which he can find names in the Scmfrrit
language: the only ftars, except thofe in the
Zodiac!:^
SH
ON THE ANTIQUITY
Zodlack, that have yet been diftin6lly named to
mef arc the Scptarfin^ Dhruva^ Arundhat)^ Vijl:-*
Tiupad^ MdirimandeU and, in the fouthern hemi-
fphcre, /igiify^'i or Canopus. The twenty-feven
Toga fiars, indeed, have particular names, in the
order of the jiacjhatras, to which they belong :
and (niQQ we learn, that the Hindtcs have de-
termined the latitude., longitude^ and right
^fcenfton of eachy it might be ufeful to exhibit
the lift of them ; but at prefent I can only fub-
join the names of tvventy-feveu Togas, or din
vifions of the Ecliptick.
Vifhcambha.
Pnti.
Ganda.
Vriddhi,
Parigha^
Siva.
A'yujl^mat,
JDhruva.
Siddha,^
Sauhhdgya,
Scbhana,
Vyaghata.
. HerJJjana,
Sadhya,
Subha. y
Ati ganda.
Fajra.
Sucra.
Sticarmnjt.
Dhriti,
Vyatipata.
Brahman,
Indra.
Sula.
Var'iyas.
Vaidhriti.
Having fiiown in what manner the Hindus
arrange the Zodiacal ftars with refpe<51: to the
iun and moon, let us proceed to our principal
liibje6t, the antiquity of that double arrangement.
In thefirft place, the Brahnianswtvt always too
proud to borrow their fcience from the Greeks^
Arabs, Moguls, or any nation of Micchch'has,
as
OF Tlir: INDIAN ZODIACK. 385
as they call thofe who are ignorant of the
Vedas, and have not ftudied the language of the
Gods : they have often repeated to me the frag-
ment of an old verfe, which they now life pro-
verbially, na nicho vavanatparah, or ;/o hafc
creature can be lower than a Tavan ; by which
name they formerly meant an Ionian or Greek^
and now mean a Moguls or, generally, a Mti-
felman. When I mentioned to different Pandits y
at feveral times and in feveral places, the opi-
nion of MoNTUCLA, they could not prevail on
themfelves to oppofe it by ferious argument ;
but fome laughed heartily ; others, with a far-
cafiick fmile, faid it was z p leaf ant imagination ;
and all feemed to think it a notion borderins; on
phrenfy. In fa6l, although the figures of the
twelve Indian Signs bear a wonderful refem-
blance to thofe of the Grecian, yet they are too
much varied for a mere copy, and the nature of
the variation proves them to be original ; nor is
the refemblance more extraordinary than that
which has often been obferved between our
Cotbick days of the week and thofe of the
- Hindus, which are dedicated to the fame lu-
minaries, and (what is yet more fin gular) re-
• volve in the fame order : Ravi, the Sun ; Soma,
(the Moon; Mangaia, Tuifco ; Budha, Wo-
den ; Vrihaspati, Thor ; Sucra, Freya ; Sani,
S^ter ; yet no man ever imagined, that the
C c Indian's
586
ON THE ANTIQJJITY
JntJians borrowed Co remarkable an arrangement
from the Goths or Germans. On the planets I
will only obferve, that Sucra, the regent of
Fenus, is, like all the reft, a mak deity, named
alfo Us AN AS, and believed to be a fage of in-
finite learning; biitZoHRAH, the Na'hi'd of
the Per/ians, is a goddefs like the Freya of
our Saxon progenitors : the drawing, therefore,
of the planets -.vhich was brought into Bengal
by Mr. Johnson, relates to the Perfan fyftem^
and reprefents the Genii fuppofed to prefide
over them, exactly as they are defcribed by the
poet Ha'tifi' : " He bedecked the firmament
with ftars, and ennobled this earth with tlic
race of men ; he gently turned the aufpi-^
cious new moon of the feilival, like a bright
jewel, round the ancle of th-e fky ; he placed
the Hrrhlu Saturn on the feat of that refrive
elephant, the revolving fphere, and put the
rainbow into his hand, as a hook to coerce
the intoxicated beaft ; he made filken ftrin^s
of fun-b^ams for the lute of Venus ; and
prefented Jupiter, who faw the felicity of
true relijilion, with a rofarv of clufterincr
Pleiads. '"Ihe bow^ of the fky became that
of Mars, when be was honoured with the
command of the celeflial hofl ; for God
conferred fovereignty on the Sun, and fqua-
drons of ftars were his army."
\ The
OP THE INDIAN ZODIACK. 387
The names and forms of the lunar conflel-
Jations, efpecially of Bharam and Abhljit^ in-
dicate a fimpliciry of manners peculiar to an
ancient people ; and they differ entirely from
thofe of the Arabian fyftem, in which the very
firft afterifm appears in the dual number, be-
caufe it confifts only of two flars. Menzii^ or
the place of aUghthig^ properly (ignlfies ^Jiation
or JiagCy and thence is ufed for an ordinary
<\?Ly*s journey ; and that idea feems better ap-
plied than manjion to fo inceflant a traveller as
the Moon. The ?ne?idzilu'* I kamar^ or lunar
Jiages, of the Arabs have twenty-eight names
in the following order, the particle al being
luiderflood before every word :
Sharatan. Nathrah. Ghafr. Dhabih.
Bu'tain.
Tarf.
Zubaniy.
ih.
Bulaa.
Thurayya.
Jabhah.
icin.
Suiid.
Debaran.
Zubrah.
Kalb.
Akhbiya.
Hakaah.
Sarfah.
Shaulah.
Mukdim.
Hanaah.
Awwa.
Naaiin.
Milkhir.
Dhiraa.
14. Si mac.
21. Beldah,
28.
Rifha.
Now, if we can truft the Arabian lexico-
graphers, the number of ftars in their feveral
menzih rarely agrees with thofe of the Indians ;
and two fuch nations rauft naturally have ob-
ferved, and m.ight naturally have named, the
principal liars, near which the moon pailes in
che courfeof each day, without any communis
C c 2 catiop
qSB .ON THE ANTIQUITY
:>
cation on the fubje6t : there is no evidence,
indeed, of a communication between the Hindus
and Arabs on any fubjeft of literature or fcience ;
for though we have reafon to beUeve, that a
commercial intercourfe fubfifted in very early
times between Temen and the weftern coaft of
India, yet the Brdhmans, who alone are permit-
ted to read the fix Vedangas, one of which is the
aftronomical Safiruy were not then commercial,
and, moil: probably, neither could nor would have
converfed with Arabian merchants. The hoftile
irruptionof they/r^^j- into Hindujlan, in the eighth
century, and that of the Aib^z^/r under Chen-
Gi'z, in the thirteenth, were not likely to
change the agronomical fyftem of the Hindus ;
' but the fuppofed confequences of modern revo-
lutions are out of the queftion ; for, if any
hillorlcal records be true, we know with as
pofitive certainty, that Amarsinh and Ca'li-
DA^s compofed their works before the birth of
Christ, as that Menander and Terence
wrote before that important epoch : now the
twelve Jigns and twenty-feven manjions are
mentioned, by the feveral names before exhi-
bited, in a Sanfcrit vocabulary by the firft of
thofe Indian authors, and the fecond of them
frequently alludes to Rohim and the reft by
name in his Fatal Ring, his Children oftheSun-i
and his Birth o/'Cuma'ra ; from which poem
I pro-
OF THE INDIAN ZODIACIC. 38^
I produce two lines, that my evidence may
not feem to be collected from mere conver-
fation :
Maitre muhurte sasalanch'hanena,
Yogam gatafuttarap'halganifliu.
When the ftars of Uttarafhalgun had
joined in a fortunate hour the faun-fpotted
(6
moon .
>»
This teftimony being decifive againft the
conje6ture of M. Montucla, I need not urge
the great antiquity of Menu's Inftitutes, in
which the twenty-feven afterifms are called the
dausfhters of Dacsha and the conforts of
So^MA, or the Moon, nor rely on the tefti-
mony of the Brahinans^ who afliue me with
one voice, that the names of the Zodiacal ftars
occur in the Vedas ; three of which I firmly
believe, from internal and external evidence, to
be more than three thoufand years old.
Having therefore proved what I engaged to
prove, I will clofe my eflay with a general obfer-
vation. The refultof Newton's refearchcs into
the hiftory of the primitive fphere was, *' that
the practice of obferving the ftars began in
Egypt in the days of Ammon, and was
propagated thence by conqueil in the reign
of his fon Si SAC, into Afric^ 'Europe and
JJta ; fince which time Atlas formed the
it
c 3 '•' fphen
^go ON THE ANTIQniTY, CZC,
** fphcre of the Lybians ; Chiron that of the
*' Greeks-, and the Chaldeans a fphere of their
'' own." Now I hope, on fome other oc-
cafions, to fatisfy the pubUck, as I have per*
fedlly fatisfied myfelf, that " the practice of
*' obferving the ftars began, with the rudi-
*' ments of civil fociety, in the country o^
" thofe whom we call Chaldeans ; from which
*' it v/as propagated into £^/p/, hidia^ Greece^
<* Italy ^ and Scandinavia, before the reign of
•'' SiSAC or Sa'cya, who by conqueft fpread a
" new fyftem of religion and philofophy from
■*' the Nile to the Ganges, about a thoufand
*' years before Christ ; but that Chiron and
** Atlas were allegorical or mythological
•' perfonages, and ought to have no place in
*' the ferious hidory of our fpecies."
:'I
':.y^.. •'■ ■■'■ : •'
[ 391 ] - ■;
DISSERTATION XIV.
THE ' .
DESIGN OF A TREATISE '
O N T H E
PLANTS OF INDIA.
r |-^^HEgreateft, if not the only, obftacle to
X the progrefs of knowledge In thefe pro-
vinces, except in thofe branches of it which
belong immediately to our feveral profeffions,
is our want of leifure for general refearches;
and, as Archimedes, who was happily maftci-
of his time, had not fpace enough to move the
greatefl: weight with the fmalleft force, thus
we, who have ample fpace for our inquiries,
really want time for the purfuit of them.
*' Give me a place to lland on, faid the great
*' mathematician, and I will move the whole
*' earth :'* Give us t'wje, we may fay, for our
mvejl'igations^ and we will transfer to Europe
all the fciences, arts^ and literature of K{\2i*
*' Not to have defpaired," however, was
C c 4 _ thought
3^2 THE DESIGN OF A TREATISE
thought a degree of merit in the Roman general,
even though he was defeated ; and, having
fome hope, that others may occafionally find
more leifure, than it will ever, at lead in this
country, be my lot to enjoy, I take the liberty
to propofe a work, from which very curious in-
formation, and pollibly very folid advantage,
may be derived.
Some hundreds of plants, which are yet im-
perfeOly known to Kuropean botanifts, and
with the virtues of which they are wholly un-
acquainted, grovv^ wildon the plains and in the
forefls of Ind'ia : the AuiarcoJJj^ an excellent
vocabulary of the -S'.'/;/^/^r// language, contains in.
one chapter the names of about three hundred
medicinal vegetables ; the MeJitu may comprife
many more ; and the Dravyr-hiridhima^ or D'lC'
tionary of Natural ProduufJons, includes, I be-
lieve, a far greater number ; the properties of
which are diftindly related in medical tra£l&
of approved authority. "Now the firfl: flep, in
compiling a treatife on the plants of Ind'iay
Ihould be to write their true names in Roman
letters, according to the mofl: accurate ortho-
• graphy, and in Sanfcr'it preferably to any vulgar
dialed ; becaufe a learned language is fixed in
books, while popular idioms are in confl:ant
fluctuation, and will not, perhaps, be under-
ftood a century hence by the inhabitants of
thefc
ON THE PLANTS OF INDIA. 393
thefe Indian territories, whom future botanifts
may confult on the common appellations of
trees and flowers. The childifh denominations
of plants from the perfons who firfh defcribed
them, ought wholly to be rejected ; for Cham,
paca and Hinna feem to me not only more
elegant, but far properer, defignations of an.
Indian and an Arabian plant, than Michelia and
Lawfonia ; nor can I fee without pain, that
the great SwediJJj botanid coniidered it as the
Jiipreme and only reward of labour in this part of
natural hiftory, to preferve a name by hanging
k on a blolfom, and that he declared this mode
of promoting and adorning botany worthy of
being continued with holy reverence ; though fo
high an honour, he fays, ought to be con-
ferred with chajie referve, and not projlittited
for the purpofe of conciliating the good will, or
eternizing the memory, of any but his chofen fol-
lowers ; no, not even of faints. His lift of an
hundred and fifty fuch names clearly (hews,
. that his excellent works are the true bafis of
his juft celebrity, which would have been
feebly fupported by the ftalk of the Unncca,
From what proper name the Plantain is called
Mufa, I do not know ; but it feems to be the
Dutch pronunciation of the jlrabick word for
that vegetable, and ought not, therefore, to
have appeared in his lifl, though, in my opi-
nion.
394 THE DESIGN OF A TREATISS
nion, it is the only rational name in the mufler-
roU. As to the lyftem of LiNN^us, it is the
iyften:! of Nature, fubordiaate indeed to the
beautiful arrangement of natural orders^ of
which he has given a rough Iketch, and which
may hereafter, perhaps, be completed : but the
diflribution of vegetables into claffes, according
to the number, length, and pofition of the lla-
mens and piftils, and of thofe clajjes into kind^
^.ndifpec'ies, according to certain marks of dif-
crimination, will ever be found the clearefl: and
rooft convenient of methods, and fhould there-
fore be fliudioufly obferved in the work which
I now fuffeeft. But I muil: be forg-iven, if I
propofe to rejecL the Lin?ia:an appellations of the
twenty-four claffes, becaufe, although they ap-
pear to be Greek (and, if they really were
fo, that alone might be thought a fufficient ob-
jedion), yet in truth they are not Greek, nor
even formed by analogy to the language of
Grec'imis ; for Polygafjios, Monandros, and the
reft of that form, are both mafculine and fe-
minine ; Folyandria^ in the abftra<^, never
occurs, and Polyandrion means a publick ceme-
tery ; Dicecta and Dicecus are not found in books
of authority ; nor, if they were, would they
be derived from dis, but from diay which would
include the Tr/W/Vz: let me add, that the twelfth
and thirteenth clalies are ill diftinguilhed by
.^».'i their
ON THE PLANTS OF INDIA. 395
their appellations, independently of other ex-
ceptions to them, lince the real diftinilion be-
tween them coniifts not fo much in the number
of their ftamens, as in the place where they
areinferted; and that \k\^. fourteenth andy^-
teenth are not more accurately difcriminated by
two words formed in defiance of grammatical
analogy, lince there are but two powers, oc
two d'lverfitles of lengthy in each of thofe clafles^
Calvcopolyajidros might, perhaps, not inaccu-
rately denote a flower of the twelfth clafs ; buv
fucha compound would ftill ilwour of barbarifm
or pedantry ; and the beft way to amend fuch a
fyftem of words is to efface it, and fupply
its place by a more fimple nomenclature, which
may eafily be found. Numerals may be ufed
for the eleven firil clafles, the former of two
numbers being always appropriated to the /?^-
iTiens, and the latter to t\\Q pijlils : (liort phrafes,
as, on the calyx or callce. In the receptacle, twa
long^ four long, frotn one bafe, from tivo^ or
many, bafes, with anthers con7ie^ed, on thg
pifils^ in two flowers, in two difindi plants^
mixed, concealed, or the like, will anfwer every
purpofe of difcrimination ; but I do not offer
this as a perfe6l fubftitute for the words which
1 condemn. The allegory of [exes and nuptials^
even if it were complete, ought, I think, to
be difcarded, as unbecoming the gravity of
'- men.
39^ THE DESIGN OF A TREATISE
men, who, while they fearch for truth, h^ive
no bulinefs to Inflame their imaginations ; and,
while they profefs to give defcriptions, have
nothing to do with metaphors : few paflages in
Alojfa^ the moft impudent book ever compofed
by man, are more wantonly indecent than the
hundred-forty -iixth number of the Botanical
Philofophy, and the broad comment of its grave
author, who dares, like Octavius in his epi-
gram, to fpeak whh V^omm-iJimpUcity, nor can
the LJn?2a:a?t defcription of the Arum, and many
other plants, be read in EngliJJj without ex-
citing ideas, which the occafion does not re-
quire. Hence it is, that no well-born and
well-educated woman can be advifed to amufe
herfelf with botany, as it is now explained,
though a more elegant and delightful fludy, or
one more likely to affift and embellifli other
female accomplifhments, could not poffibly be
recommended.
When the Sa?ifcrit names of the Indian
plants have been correOly written in a large
paper-book, one page being appropriated to
each, the frefh plants themfelves, procured in
their refpecSlive feafons, muft be concifely, but
accurately, clafj'ed and defcribed -, after which
their feveral ufes in medicine, diet, or manu-
fa^lures, may be colle6led, with the affiftance
of /i/Wz/ phyficians, from the medical books in
^ San ferity
ON THE PLANTS OF INDIA. 397
^anfcrit, and their accounts either difproved or
eftablifhed by repeated experiments, as fafl as
they can be made with exadnefs.
By way of example, 1 annex the defcriptions
of five Indian plants, but am unable, at this
feafon, to . re-examine them, and wholly de-
fpair of leifure to exhibit others, of which I
have coUeded the names, and mofi: of which I
Jiave feen in bloiTom.
I. M U C H U C U N D A.
Twenty, from One Bafe.
Cal. Five-parted, thick ; leaflets, oblong.
Cor, Five petals, oblong.
Stain, From twelve to fifteen, rather long,
fertile ; five fhorter, flerile. In fome flowers,
the unproUfick flamens, longer. . , . '
Pifi. Style cylindrick.
Perk. A capfule, with five cells, many-
feeded.
Seeds: Roundifh, compreiTcd, winged.
Leaves: Of many different fliapes.
Ufes: The quality, refrigerant.
One flower, fteeped a whole night in a glafs
pf water, forms a cooling mucilage of ufe in
virulent gonorrhoeas. The Muchucutida, called
alfo Fichiica^ is exquifitely fragrant : its calyx
is covered with an odoriferous dufl; and the
dried
59 THE DESIGN OF A TREATISE
dried flowers in fiae powder, taken like fniifF,
are faid, in a Sanfcrit book, alinoft iiiftanra-
neoufly to remove a nervous head-ach.
NotCy This plant differs a little from the
Tentapetes o^ \j\^\^:&\ji,
II, BILVA OR MA'LU^RA.
Many on the Receptacle, and One.
CaL Four, or five, cleft, beneath.
Cor> Four, or five, petals ; moflly reflex.
Stam» Forty, to forty-eight, filaments ;
anthers, moflly ere61:.
P'ljl. G^r;;z, round ifli ; .S/)'/i^, fmooth, fhort;
Stigma^ clubbed. .•
Peric. A fpheroidal berry, very large ; m-any*
leeded.
Seeds : Toward the furface, ovate, in a pel-
lucid mucus.
Leaves : Ternatc ; common petiole, long ;
leaflets, fubovate ; obtufely notched, with (hort
petioles ; fome almofc lanced.
Stem: Armed with (harp thorns. .-
ZJJes : The fruit nutritious, warm, cathar-
tick ; in tafte, delicious ; in fragrance, ex qui-
fite : its aperient and deterfive quality, and its
eflicacy in removing habitual coftivenefs, have
been proved by conftant experience. The
muclTsof the feed is, for fome purpofes, a very
good cement.
ON THE PLANTS OF INDIA. 39'^
Note, This fruit Is called Sr'fhala^ becaufe
it fprang, fay the Indian poets, fron the milk
of i'r}, the o-oddefs of abundance, who beftowed
it on mankind at the requeft of Iswara, whence
he alone wears a chaplet of Bllva flowers ; to
him only the Hindus offer them ; and, when
they fee any of them fallen on the ground,
they take them up with reverence, and carry
them to his temple. From the firfl bloflbm of
this plant that I could infpe6t, i had imagined
that it belon2:ed to tlie fame clafs with the
Durio, becaufe the filaments appeared to be
diftributed in five fets ; but in all that I have
fuice examined, they are perfectly diftinct. ^
III. S R I N G A' T A C A.
Four and One.
CfJ, Four-cleft, with a long peduncle,
above.
Cor. Four petals.
Stam. Anthers, kidney-fhaped.
FJJi. Germ, roundiili ; Style, long as the
filaments ; Stigma, clubbed.
Seed: A Nut with four oppofite angles (two
of them JJjarp thorns') formed by the Calyx.
heaves : Thofe which float on the water,
arc rhomboidal ; the two upper fides unequally
notched ; the two lower, right lines. Their
petioles.
400 THE DESIGN OF A TREATISE
petioles, buoyed up by Iplndle-fhaped fpongy
fubftances, not bladders.
Root : Knotty, like coral.
Ufes : The frefh kernel, in fweetnefs and
delicacy, equals that of the filberd. A mucus,
fecreted by minute glands, covers the wet
leaves, which are confidered as coolinof. ,
Note, It feems to be the floating Trafa of
J^INNJCUS.
IV. P U' T I C A R A J A,
Ten and One.
C^L Five-cleft.
Cor. Five equal petals.
Perk. A thorny legumen ; two feeds.
Leaves: Oval, pinnated.
Stem : Armed.
Ufes : The feeds are very bitter, and, per-
haps, tonick ; fince one of them briiifed nnd
given in two dofes, will, as the Hindus aflerta
cure an intermittent fever,
V. M A D HU C A.
Many, ?7o/ on the Receptacle, and One.
Cal. Periant/j four, or five, leaved.
Cor. One-petaled. TA inflated, flefhy,
BorJermue, or ten, parted.
Shim.
OF THE PLANTS OF INDIA. 4OI
St am. Anthers from twelve to twenty-
■sight, creel, acute, iubviilous.
P//?. Germy rouLidifh ; Style, lo"gj ^wl-
fliaped.
Perk. A Drupe, witli two or three Nuts. -
Leaves : Oval, fomewhat pointed.
Ufes : The tubes, efculent, nutritious ; yield-
ing, by diflillation, an inebriating Ipirit, v^^hich,
if the lale of it Vv-eie duly retrained by law,
might be applied to good purpofes. A ufeful
oil is exprefl'ed from the feed.
Note, It refembles the Bajpa of Koenig.
Such would be the method of the work
which I recommend ; but even the fpecimen
which I exhibit might, in ikiiful handsj have
been more accurate. EnG;ravin2;s of the plants
may be annexed ; but 1 have more than once
experienced, that the befl anatomical and bota-
nical prints give a very inadequate, and fome-
times a very falfe, notion of the obje^ls which
they were intended to reprefent. As w-e learn
a new language, by reading approved compo-
iitions in it with the aid of a Grammar and
Dictionary, {q wc can only iliidy v. ith erFe6t
the natural hiftory of vegetables by analyllng
the plants themfelves wich the Pljilofophia Bo-
tanica, w^hich is the Grammar, and the Genera
st Species Plantarwn, \'vhich may be coniid:;red[
*is the P)ictionar\', tf that beautiful ian<>;ua2-e,
D d iii
402 THE DESIGN OP A TREATISE, &C.
in which nature would leach us what plants wo
muft avoid as noxious, and what we muft cul-
tivate as lalutary ; for that the qualities of plants
are in fome degree conne6led with the naiurai
orders and claffes of them, a number of in""
ilances would abundantly prove.
BIS.
[ 403 3
DISSERTATION XV,
ON THE
SPIKENARD
O F T H E '
ANCIENTS.
IT is painful to meet perpetually with words
. that convey no diflin6l ideas : and a natural
defireof avoiding that pain excites us often to
make inquiries, the refult of which can have no
other ufe than to give us clear conceptions.
Ignorance is to the mind what extreme darknefs
is to the nerves : both caufe an uneaiy fenfa-
tion ; and we naturally love knowledge, as we
love light, even when we have no defign of ap-
plying either to a purpofe effentially ufeful.This
is intended as an apology for the pains which
have been taken to procure a determinate anfvver
to a queftion of no apparent utility, but which
ought to be readily anfwercd in Itidia, " What
** is Indian Spikenard ?" All agree, that it is an
odoriferous plant, the befl: fort of which, ac-
cording to Ptolemy, grew about Rangamri^
tica Qi Rangamliti^ and on the borders of the
D d a country
404 ON THE SPIKENARD
country now called Butan : it is mentioned by
DioscoRiDEs, v/ho{« work I have not in my
pofleffion ; but his defcription of it miift be
very imperfeft, iince neither Linn^us nor any
of his difciples pretend to clals it with certainty,
and, in the lated botanical work that we have
received from Europe, it is marked as unknown.
I had no doubt, before I was perfoiially ac-
quainted with KoENiG, that he had afcertained
it ; but he afilired me, that he knew not what
the Greek writers meant by the nard of India ;
be had found, indeed, and defcribed a fixth
fpecies of the nardus, which is called Indian in
the Supplement to Linna.-us ; but ihe nardus is
I a grafs, which, though it bear a Spile, no
. mAn ever luppoled to be the true Spikenard,
. which the great Botanical Philofopher himfelf
was inclined to think a ipecics of Andropo-
; gon, and places, in his Materia Medica, but
. with an ex predion of doubt, among his polyga-
mous plants. Since the death of Koenig I
. have confulted every botanilf and phylician
. with whom I was acquainted, on the hibje6l
before us ; but all have contcfled without re-
ferve, thou9.;h not without fome regret, that
they were ignorant what was meant by the In^
dian Spikenard.
In Older to procure information from the
learned natives, it was necelTary to know the
•.■ ^'^ nam$
i M-T . ^ :. '■: '':
OF THE ANCIENTS. 405
n^tne of tVie plant in feme Afiatick language.
The very word nard occurs in the Song of So-
lomon ; but the name and the thing were both
bxotick : the Hebrew lexicographers imagine
both to be Ind'mn ; but the word is in truth
Verfian, and occurs in the following diftich of
?.n old poet :
A'n chu bikheft, in chu nardcft, an chu fhakhc{^, in chu bar,
A'nchubilchi pfiyidarcft, in chu uardl payidar.
It is not eafy to determine in this couplet,
whether nard mean x\\(t jiem^ or, as Anju' ex-
plains it, the pith ; but it is manifeflly a part
of a vegetable, and neither the root^ \.\\c fruit,
nor the branch, which are all feparately named :
the Arabs have borrowed the word nard, but
in the fenfe, as we learn from the Kdmus, of a
co7npound medicinal unguent. Whatever it fig-
liified in old Pcrfian, the Arabick wox^fumbul,
which, \\\iQ fmnbalah, means an ear ov fpike,
has Ions: been fubftitutcd for it ; and there caix
be no doubt, that by the fumbul of India the
Mufelmam underftand the fame plant with the
nard of Ptolemy and the NardoJIachys, or
Spikenard, of Galen ; who, by the way, v/as
deceived by the dry fpecimens which he had
feen, and miftook them for roots.
A SINGULAR defcription of the fumbul hf
Abu'lfazl, who frequently mentions it as an
D d 3 ingredient
406 ON THE SPIKENArB
ingredient in Indian per fumes, had for ibme tim^
almoll: convinced me, that the true Spikenard Vi2.i
the Ceiaca, or Pafidatitts of our hotanifts : hig-
words are, Sumhtil pan] berg dared, ceh dirdznan
dah angoJJjteJlu pahndi seh : or, ** Thefumbul ha^
*' five leaves, ten fingers long, and three
** broad." Now I well knew, that the mini-
ster of AcBAR was not a botanifl:, and might
eafily have miftaken a thyrfus for a fmgle
flower: 1 had feen no blollbm,' or afiemblage
of bloflbms, of fuch dimenfions, except the
male Cetaca ; and though the Perjtan write?
defcribes the female as a different plant, by the
vulgar name Cycra, yet fuch a miftake might
naturally have been expected in fuch a work \
but what mofl: confirmed my opinion, was the
exquif te fragrance of the Cetaca flower, which
to my fenfe fiir furpafled the richefl perfumes of
Europe or /Ijui. Scarce a doubt remained,
when I met with a defcription of the Cetaca by
FoRSKOHL, whofe words are fo perfeftly appli-
cable to the general idea which we are apt to
form ot Spi,(:efiayd, that! give you a literal trani-.
ationof them r *'The Pandanus is an incom-
*' parable plant, and cultivated for its odour,
*' which it breathes fo richly, tha-t one or two
" Spikes, in a fituation rather humid, would
" be fuliicient to diffufe an odoriferous air for
*'' a long time tliiough a ipacious apartment ;-
'' fo
OF THE ANCIENTS. 407
^' fo that the natives in general are not folicit-
'* ous about the living plants, but purchafe the
*' Spikes at a great priced I learned alfo, that
a fragrant efiential oil was extracted from the
flowers ; and I procured from Banlires a large
phial of it, which was adulterated with fandal ;
but the very adulteration convinced me, that
the crcnuine effence mull: be valuable, from the
great number of thyrfi that muft be required
in preparing a fmall quantity of it. Thus had
I nearly perfuaded myfelf, that the true nard
was to be found on the banks of the Ganges^
"ivhere the Hindu women roll up its flowers in
their long black hair after bathing in the holy-
river ; and I imagined, that the precious ala-i
bajier box mentioned in the Scripture, and the
fmall onyx^ in exchange for which the poet of-
fers to entertain his friend with a cajk of old
kvine, contained an edence of the fame kind,
though differing in its degree of purity, with
the nard which I had procured : but an y^rab^
bf Meccuy who faw in my ftudy fome flowers of
the Cciaca, informed me, that the plant was
extremely common in Arabia, where it was
named Clidh) \ and feveral Mahomedans of rank
and learning have fince afllired me, that the
true name of the Indian Sumbul was not Cetacay
but f atamans). This was important informa-
tion ; finding therefore, that the P^«J<^;///j was
D d 4 not
463 ON THE SPIiilENAKD '
not peculiar to Hindufidn, and confidering that
the Sumbul of Abu'lfazl differed from it in the.
precife number of leaves on the thyrfus, in the
colour, and in the feafon of flowering, though
thelengthand breadth correfponded very nearly,
1 abandoned my firft opinion, and began to in-
quire eagerly for the j'^<;z/ri;7;tiV/j), which grew, 1
was told, in the garden of a learned and inge-
nious friend, and fortunately was then in blof-
fom. A frelh plant was very foon brought to
me : it appeared on infpe6lion to be a mofl: ele-
gant Cypirus with a poliflied three-lided culm,
an umbella with three or four enfiform leaflets
minutely ferrated, naked proliferous peduncles,
crowded fpikes, expanded daggers ; and its
branchv root had a pungent tafte with a faint
aromatick odour ; but no part of it bore the
leail refemblance to the drug known in Europs
by the appellation of Spikenard ; and a MufeU
man phyiician from Dehl'i afilired me poiitively,
that the plant was not Jatamans), but Sudj as it
is named in Arabick^ which the author of the
Tohfafu'I Munienin particularly diftinguiflies
from the Indian Sumbul. He produced on the
next day an extraft from the Dictionary of Na-
tural Hiftory, to which he had referred ; and
I prefent you with a tranllation of all that is
material in it.
'^' r. SuD has a roundiili olive-fhaped root ;
'* externally black, but white internally, and
*'fQ
OF THE ANCIENTS. . 409
<* fo fragrant as to have obtained in Terjta the
" name of Subterranean Mujk : its leaf hag
*' fome refemblance to that, of a leek, but is
*' loncrer and narrov/er, flrong, fomewhat
rough at the edges, and tapering to a point.
2. SuMBUL means a fpike or ear^ and was
*' called nard by the Greeks. There are three
"= fores of Sumbul or Nardm ; but, when the
** word ftands alone, it means the Sumbul of
'* India, which is an herb without flower or
*' fruit (he fpeaks of the drug only), like the
tail of an ermine, or of a fmall weafel, buC
not quite fo thick, and about the length of a
finger- It is darki/li, inclining to yellow,
and very fragrant : it is brought from Hin-
dujlcin^ and its medicinal virtue lails three
years." It was eafy to procure the dry 'fa^
tamans)y which correfponded perfectly with the
defcription o'i xh^ Sumbul ; and though a native^
Mufeiman afterwards gave nie a Perjian paper,
written by himfelf, in which he reprefents the
Sumbul of Bidla, the Sweet Sumbul^ and the Ja-
tam.ins) as three different plants, yet the autho-
rity of the 1'ohfatul Mmienm is dccilive, that
the fiveet Sumbul is only another denomination
of nard, and the phyfician, who produced that
authority, brought, as a fpecimen of Sumbul^
the very fame drug, which ray Pandit, who
is alfo a phyfician, brought as a fpecimen of the
Jaiamam) :
4IO ON THE SPIKENARD
y atamans): a Brahmen of eminent learning gavd
me a parcel of the fame fort, and told me that
it was ufed in their facrifices ; that, when frefh^
it was exquilitely fweet, and added much to
the fcent of rich eflenccs, in which it was a
principal ingredient ; that the merchants
brought it from the mountainous country to tho
north-eafl of Bengal ; that it was the entire
plant, not a part of it, and received its Sanfcrit
names from its rcfemblance to locks of hair ; as
it is called Splke?iard^ I fuppofe, from its refem-
blance to a Spike, when it is dried, and not
from the configuration of its flowers, which the
Greeks y probably, never examined. The Fer-
Jian author defcribes the whole plant as refem-
bling the tail of an ermine ; and the yatcwk'ins\
which is manifeflly the Spiknard oi our drug'
gifts, has precifely that form, confiiiing of*
withered ftalks and ribs of leaves, cohering in
a bundle of yellow ifh brown capillary fibres,
and conflituting a fpike about the fize of a
fmall finger. We may on the whole bealTuredj,-
that the nardus of Ptolemy, the Indian Sum*
bul of the Perfians and Arabs^ the Jatamans) of
the Hindus, znd the Spikenard of our fliops, are
one and the fame plant ; but to what clafsand
genus it belongs in the Li?ina.'an fyflem, can
only be afcertained by an infpetlion of the frefli
UuffomS'; Dr. Patrick Russel, who al-
ways
OF THE ANCIENTS. 4IX
ways communicates with obliging facility his
cxtenfive and accurate knowledge, informed
me by letter, that *' Spikenard is carried over the
" Defert (from India I prefume) to Aleppo ^
" where it is ufed in fubftance, mixed with
*' other perfumes, and worn in fmall bags, or
*' in the form of eflcnce, and kept in little boxes.
*' or phials, like dtar of rofes." He is per-
fuaded, and fo am I, that the Indian nard of
the ancients, and that of our fhops, is one and
the fame vegetable.
Though dilis-ent refearches have been made
at my requeft on the borders of Bengal zudi Be-
har^ yet the jatamans) has not been found
growing in any part of the Brltijh territories.
Mr. Saunders, who met with it in Biiian^
where, as he was informed, it is rery common,
and whenceit is brought in a dry ftate ioRafigpur,
has no heiitation in pronouncing it a fpecies of
the Baccharis ; and fince it is not poffible that
he could miftake the natural order and ejfential
eharaSler of the plant, which he examined, I
had no doubt that the Jatamans) was compofit
and corymbiferous, with flamens connected by
.the anthers, and with female prolifick florets
intermixed with hermaphrodites : the word
Spike was not ufed by the ancients with botanr.
cal precifion, and the St achy s ittfelf is verticil-
hted, with onjy two fpecies out of fifteen, that
could
41 3i ON THE SPIKENARD ; -
eould juflify its generick appellation. I there-^
fore concluded, that the true Spikenard was a
Baccharis, and that, while the philofopher had
been fearching for it to no purpofe,-
■" the dull fwain
Trod on it daily with his clouted flioon;
for the Baccharis^ it feems, as well as i\\t
Conyza, is called by our gardeners, Ploug/j-
tnafi's Spikenard. I fufpeded, neverthelefs, that
the plant which Mr. Saunders defcribed
was not yatamans), becaufe I knew that the
people of Butan had no fuch name for it, but
diftinguiflied it by very different nannes in dif-
ferent parts of their hilly country : I knew al-
fo, that the Biit'ias^ who fet a greater value on
the drug than it feems, asaperfumiC, to merit,
were extremely referved in giving information
concerning it, and might be tempted, by the
narrow fpirit of monopoly, to miflead an
inquirer for the frefn plant. The friendly
zeal of Mr. Purling will probably procure it
in a Hate of vegetation ; for, when he had the-
kindnefs, at my defire, to make inquiries for
it among the Butan merchants, they aflbred
him, that the living plants could not be ob-
tained without an order from their fovereign the
Dtvaraja^ to whom he immediately difpatched
a meilenger with an earueH: requeft, that eight
or
OF THE ANCIENTS. . 4J3
or ten of the growing plants might be fent to
him at Rangpiir : fliould the Devarajd comply
with that requefl:, and flioiild the vegetable
fiourifh in the plain of Bengal, we lliall have
ocular proof of its clafs, order, genus, and
fpecies ; and, if it prove the fame with the
yatam/ms) of Nepal, which 1 now miift intro-
duce to your acquaintance, the queftion, w^ith
which I began this eflay, will be fatisfaclorily
anfvvered.
Having traced the /W/^?^ Spikenard, by the
name of yatdmans), to the mountains of Nepal,
I requeued my friend Mr. Law, who then re-
iided at Gayd, to procure fome of the recent
plants by the means of the Ne'pa'cfe pilgrims ;
who being orthodox Hindus, andpoffefling many
rare books in xhtSanfci'it language, were more
likely than the Butlas to know the true Jatd-
manst, by which name they generally diftin-
guifli it : many young plants w^re accordingly
fent to Gayd, with a Ferftan letter fpecifically
naming them, and apparently written by a man
of rank and literature ; {o that no fufpicion of
• deception or of error can bejuftly entertained.
By a mifliake of the gardener, they were all
planted at Gavd, where they have bloflbmed,
and at firft feemed to flourifh : I muft, there-
fore, defcribe the Jatdfndns) from the report of
Mr. Burt, who favoured me with a drawing
of
4-14 <=>N THE SPIKENARD
of it, and in whofe accuracy we may pcrfeclly
confide ; but, before I produce thedefcription,
I muft endeavour to remove a prejudice, in re-
gard to the natural order of the fpikenard,
which they, who are addi6led to fwear by every
word of their mafler Linnjeus, will hardly
abandon, and which I, who love truth better
than him, have abandoned with fome reludance.
Nard has been generally fuppofed to be a grafs ;
and the word Jiachys or fp'ikc^ which agrees
with the habit of that natural order, gave rife,
perhaps, to the fuppofition. There is a plant
in 'java^ which moll travellers and fome phy-
ficians call fpikenard ; and the Governor of
Chinfura^ who is kindly endeavouring to pro-
cure it thence in a fjate fit for examination,
writes me word, that *' a Butch author pro--
nounces it 2l grajs like the Cypirus^ but infifts
that what we call the /^/;^^ is the fibrous part
" above the root, as long as a man's little fin-
•' ger, of a brownifh hue inclining to red or
*' yellow, rather fragrant, and with a pungent,
** but aromatick, fcent.'* This istooflovenly
a defcription to have been written by a bota-
Jiift ; yet I believe the latter part of it to be
tolerably correal:, and fhould imagine that the
plant was the fame with our Jatdm/im\ if it
were not commonly aflerted, that the Jaruaft
fpikenard was ufed as a condiment, and if a
wxXU
OF THE ANCIENTS. 415
well-informed man, who had feen it in the
idand, had not affured me, that it was a fort
of Pimento, and confequently a fpecies of
Myrtle^ and of the order now called He/per ian.
The refemblance before mentioned between the
Indian Sumbuizn'^ the Arabian Siid, or CvpiruSy
had led me to fufpecl, that the true nard was a
grafs 01' a reed; and as this country abounds.
in odoriferous graffes, I began to colled them
from all quarters. Colonel Kyd obligingly
fent me two plants with fweet-fm.elling roots ;
and as they were known to the Pandits, I foon
found their names in a Sanfcrit dictionary : one
of theia is called gandhasaf Bi, and ufed by the
Hindus to fcent the red powder of Sapan or
Bakkam wood, which they fcatter in the fefti-
val of the vernal feafon \ the other has many
names, and, among them, nagaramafiac and
gonarda, the fecond of which means rujlling
in the water ; for all the Pandits infifl:, that
nard is never ufed as a noun in Satifcrit, and
lignifies, as the root of a verb, tofoundoxto ruf-
fle. Soon after, Mr. Burrow brought me,
from the banks of the Ganges near Heridwary
a very fragrant grafs, which in fome places cO'
vers whole acres, and difFufes, when crufhed,
fo ftrong an odour, that a perfon, he fays,
might eafily have fmelt it, as Alexander is
reported to have fmelt the nard of Gedrofiay
from the back of an elephant : its bloflbms
wesG
4l6 ON THE SPIKENARD
were not preferved, and it cannot, therefore,
"be defcribed. From Mr. Blane of Lucnow
I received a frefli plant, which has not flowered
at Calcutta ; but I rely imphcitly on his autho-
rity, and have no doubt that it is a fpecies of
Jindropogon : it has rather a rank aromatick
odour, and, from the virtue afcribed to it of
curing intermittent fevers, is known by the
Sanjcrit name of jwan'mcusa, which literally
means a fever-hook^ and alludes to the iron-
hook with which elephants are managed. Lailly,
Dr. Anderson of Madras^ who delights in
ufeful purfuits and in affifting the purfuits of
others, favoured me with a complete fpeclmen
of the Andropogon Nardus^ oiiC of the moll:
common graiies on the Coaft, and flourishing
mofl: luxuriantly on the mountains, never eaten
by cattle, but extremely grateful to bees, and
containing an eilential oil, which, he under-
ftands, is extracted from it in many parts of
Hindufio-n^ and ufed as an cit(ir or perfume. Ke
adds a very curious philological remark, that,
in the Tamtil dictionary, moil words beginning
with nar have fome relation to fragrance ; a.s
nlirukeradu to yield an odour, nartum pillu,
lemon- grafs, fU'.rtei^ citron, nl'.rta inanum^ the
wild orange- tree, narumpanei, the Indian Jaf
fn'in^ ndrwn alleriy c\ ftrong fmeUing flower,
and nlirtu^ which is put for 7iard in the T^amul
i-'ji
OF THE ANCIENTS. 417
verfion of our Scriptures : fo that not only the
nard oi the Hebrews 2ivA Greeks, but even the
copia narium of Horace, may be derived from
an Indian root : to this I can only fay, that I
have not met with any fuch root in Sanfcr't, the
oldeO: poliflied language of hid'ta^ and that in
Ferfian, which has a manifefl affinity with it,
nlir means a pomegranate^ and nirgd (a v\ord
originally Sanfcrit) a cocoa-nut, neitiier of
which has any remarkable fragrance.
Such is the evidence in fupport of the opi-
nion, given by the great 6'u'.''^//Z)naturali{l:, that
the true nard was a gramineous plant and a
Ipecies of Andropogon ; but {\nzt no grafs,
that I have yet feen, bears any refembl ;nce to
the yatamans), which I conceive to be the iiar-
dus of the ancients, I beg leave to exprels my
diflent, with fome confidence as a philologer,
though wdth humble diffidence as a fbudeat in
botany. 1 am not, indeed, of opinion, that
the nardum of the Ro?nansv^2i's> merely the efien-
tlal oil of the plant, from which it was dei-o-
minated, but am ftrongly inclined to believe,
that it was a p-ejierick word, meaning; what we
now call atar, and either the afar of rofes from
CaJIm.r and Perjia, that of Celaca, or Panda-
nus, from the weflern coafl: of India, or that
of yJguru, or aloe- wood," from ^/dm or Cochin-
china, the procefs of obtaining which is de-
Icribed by Abu'lfazl, or the mixed perfume'
called ^/Ar, of which the principal ii;igredients
Vol. I, E e were
4l8 ON THE SPIKENARD
were yellow fandal, violets, orange-flowers,
wood of aloes, role-water, mufk, and true
fpikenard : all thofe eilences and com pofit ions
werecoflly ; and moil: of them being fold by
the hidlans to the Perjlans and Arabs, from
whom, in the times of Cctavius, they were
received by the Syrians and Romans, they muft
have been extremely dear at Jerufalem and at
Rome. There might alfo have been a pure nar-
dine cil, as AtheNtEUS calls it ; but nardum
piobably meant (and Koenig was of the fame
opinion) an Indian eflence In general, taking
its name from that ingredient which had, or
was commonly thought to have, the moft ex-
quiiite fcent. But I have been drawn by a
pleaiing fubjecl to a greater length than I ex-
pelled, and proceed to the promiled defcription
of the true nard, or yat-Unansi, which, by the
way, has other names in the Jlmarcojh, the
imootheft of which -s^xt jat'Ad and I'miafa, both
^derived from words meaning ha'tr. Mr. Burt,
after a modefl apology for his imperfe6t ac-
quaintance with the language of bctanifts, has
favoured me widi an account of the plant, on
the corre(5lnefs of which I have a perfect reli-
ance, and from which i colled: the following
natural characters :
Aggregate,
Cal. Scarce zi^y^ Margin, hardly dif-
cernible. ^
Cor*
OF THE ANCIENTS. 41^
Cor, One petal, ^ube fomewhat gibbous.
border five cleft.
Stam. Three Anthers.
Fiji. Germ beneath. One Style erecl.
Seed Solitary, crowned with a pappus.
Koot Fibrous.
heaves Hearted, fourfold ; radical leaves
petioled.
It appears, therefore, to be the Protean
plant Valerian, a fifter of the Mountain
and Celtick Nard, and of a fpecies which I
fhould defcribe in the L'mnean ftyle, Vale-
riana Jata'ma'nsi Jloiibiis triandr'is foliis
cordat'ts quaternis, radlcaUbus petiolatis. The
radical leaves, rifmg from the ground and en-
folding the young (Vem, are plucked up with a
part of the root, and, being dried in the fun,
or by an artificial heat, are fold as a drug,
which from its appearance has been calLdy^/^d'-
nard ; though, as the Ptrfan writer obierves,
it might be compared more properly to the tad
of an ermine : w^hen nothing remains but the
dry fibres of the leaves, which retain their ori-
ginal form, they have lom.e refemblance to a
lock of hair ^ from which xhe Sa?fcrlt name, it
feems, is derived. Two mercantile agents
from Btitan on the part of the Dcvaraja were
examined, at my requeft, by Mr. Harington,
and Informed him, that the drug which the
Bengalefe call Jatcmans), " grew erccl above
. " the
420 ON THE SPIKENARD, &C.
** the furface of the ground, refembhog in
*' colour an ear of green wheat ; that, when
*' recent, it had a faint odour, which was
" greatly increafed by the funple procefs of
*' drying it ; that it abounded on the hills, and
*' even on the plains, of Butatiy where it was
*' collected and prepared for medicinal pur-
*' pofes." What its virtues are, experience
alone can afcertain ; but, as far as botanical ana-
logy can juftify a conje£lure, we may fuppofe
them to be antifpafmodick ; and in our pro-
vinces, efpecially in Bebar, the plant will pro-
bably flourlfh ; fo that we may always procure
it in a ftate Ht for experiment. On the propofed
enquiry into the virtues of this celebrated plant,
I mull be permitted to fay, that although, many
botanifts may have waflied their time in enu-
merating the qualities of vegetables, without
having afcertained them by repeated and fiitis-
fiiclory experiments, and although mere bota7iy
<-rocs no farther than technical arrangement and
defcription, yet it feems indubitable, that the
great end cind aim of a botanical philoibpher is,
to diicovcr and prove tlie feveral ufes of the
veo-etable ivllen), and, while he admits with
Hippocrates the jallncioiijneji of experietice^
to rely on experiment alone as the baiis of his
knowledge,
END OF THE FIRST VOLUMF.
. ^K,iA AT UOS ANGELES
OCT 2
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