CHAPTER IV.

THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE.—ITS RELATIONS TO CERTAIN MODERN LANGUAGES OF INDIA; TO THE SLAVONIC AND LITHUANIC OF EUROPE.—INFERENCES.—BRAHMINISM OF THE PURANAS—OF THE INSTITUTES OF MENU.—EXTRACT.—OF THE VEDAS.—EXTRACT.—INFERENCES.—THE HINDÚS.—SIKHS.—BILUCHI.—AFGHANS.—WANDERING TRIBES.—MISCELLANEOUS POPULATIONS.—CEYLON.—BUDDHISM.—DEVIL-WORSHIP.—VADDAHS.

The language called Sanskrit has a peculiar alphabet. It has long been written, and embodies an important literature. It has been well studied; and its ethnological affinities are understood. They are at least as remarkable as any other of its characters.

Like most other tongues, it falls into dialects; just like the ancient Greek. Like the Doric, Æolic, and Ionic, these dialects were spoken over distant countries, and cultivated at different periods. Like them, too, each is characterized by its peculiar literature.

The Sanskrit itself, in its oldest form, is the Vedaic dialect of the religious hymns called Vedas—of great, but of exaggerated, antiquity.

Another form of equal antiquity is the language[151] of the Persepolitan and other arrow-headed inscriptions. These are of a known antiquity, and range from the time of Cambyses to that of Artaxerxes.

By old is meant old in structure, i.e., betraying by its archaic forms, an early stage of development. It is by no means old in chronology. In the way of chronology, the English of Shakespeare is older than the German of Goethe; yet the German of Goethe is the older tongue, because it retains more old inflections.

The third form is called Pali. In this is written the oldest Indian inscription; one containing the name of Antiochus, one of Alexander's successors. It is also the dialect of the chief Buddhist works.

A fourth form is the Bactrian. This occurs in the coins of Macedonian and other Indianized kings of Bactria, and is best studied in the "Ariana Antiqua," of Wilson.

A fifth is the Zend of the Zendavesta, the Scriptures of the followers of Zoroaster.

Others are called Pracrit. Some of the Sanskrit works are dramatic. In the modern comedies of Italy we find certain characters speaking the provincial dialects of Naples, Bologna, and other districts. The same took place here. In the Sanskrit plays we find deflexions from the standard language, put into the mouths of some of[152] the subordinate characters. It is believed that these Pracrits represented certain local dialects, as opposed to the purer and more classical Sanskrit.

Every spoken dialect of Hindostan has a per-centage of Sanskrit words in it; just as every dialect of England has an amount of Anglo-Norman. What does this prove? That depends upon the per-centage; and this differs in different languages. In a general way it may be stated that, amongst the tongues already enumerated, it is smallest in the isolated Tamulian tongues; larger in the Tamul of the Dekhan; and largest in the tongues about to be enumerated; these being the chief languages of modern Hindostan.

1. The Marathi of the Mahrattas. Here the Sanskrit words amount to four-fifths in the Marathi dictionaries.

2. The Udiya, of Cuttack and Orissa, with a per-centage of Sanskrit greater than that of the Marathi, but less than that of—

3. The Bengali. Here it is at its maximum, and amounts to nine-tenths.

4. The Hindú, of Oude, and the parts between Bengal and the Punjâb, falling into the subordinate dialects of the Rajpút country.

5. The Gujerathi of Gujerat.

6. The Scindian of Scinde.

7. The Multani of Múltan; probably a dialect of either the Gujerathi or[153]—

8. The Punjabi of the Punjâb.

By going into minor differences this list might be enlarged.

None of the previous languages were mentioned in the last chapter; in fact, they were those different Hindú tongues which were contrasted with the Tamulian, and which, in the northern part of the Peninsula had effected those displacements which separated, or were supposed to separate, the Rajmahali, Kól, and Khond dialects from each other. They formed the sea of speech, in which those tongues were islands.

Now what is the inference from these per-centages? from such a one as the Bengali, of ninety out of one hundred? What do they prove as to the character of the language in which they occur? Do they make the Sanskrit the basis of the tongue, just as the Anglo-Saxon is of the English, or do they merely show it as a superadded foreign element, like the Norman—like that in kind, but far greater in degree? The answer to this will give us the philological position of the North-Indian tongues. It will make the Bengali either Tamul, with an unprecedented amount of foreign vocables, or Sanskrit, with a few words of the older native tongue retained.

If the question were settled by a reference to authorities, the answer would be that the Bengali was essentially Sanskrit.[154]

It would be the same if we took only the primâ facie view of the matter.

Yet the answer is traversed by two facts.

1. In making the per-centage of Sanskrit words it has been assumed that, whenever the modern and ancient tongues have any words in common, the former has always taken them from the latter,—an undue assumption, since the Sanskrit may easily have adopted native words.

2. The grammatical inflections are so far from being as Sanskritic as the vocables, that they are either non-existent altogether, unequivocally Tamul, or else controverted Sanskrit.

Here I pause,—giving, at present, no opinion upon the merits of the two views. The reader has seen the complications of the case; and is prepared for hearing that, though most of the highest authorities consider the languages of northern India to be related to the Sanskrit, just as the English is to the Anglo-Saxon, and the Italian to the Latin; others deny such a connexion, affirming that as the real relations of the Sanskrit are those of the Norman-French to our own tongue, and of the Arabic to the Spanish, there is no such thing throughout the whole length and breadth of Hindostan as a dialect descended from the Sanskrit, or a spot whereon that famous tongue can be shown to have existed as a spoken and indigenous language.[155]

But, perhaps, we may find in Persia what we lack in India; and as the modern Persian is descended from the Zend, and as the Zend is a sister to the Sanskrit, Persia may, perhaps, supply such a locality. The same doubts apply here.

Such are the doubts that apply to an important question in Asiatic ethnology. I am not, at present, going beyond the simple fact of their existence. Rightly or wrongly, there is an opinion that the Sanskrit never was indigenous to any part of India, not even the most north-western; and there is an extension of this opinion which—rightly or wrongly—similarly excludes it from Persia. So much doubt should be relieved by the exhibition of some universally admitted fact as a set-off.

Such a contrast shall be supplied, in the shape of a comment on the following tables.[41] It is one of Dr. Trithem's.

ENGLISH.LITHUANIC.RUSSIAN.SANSKRIT.
Fathertewasotetspitr.
Mothermotinamat'mātr.
Sonsunaisuinsūnu.
Brotherbrolisbratbhratr.
Sistersessusestrasvasr.
Daughter-in-law—snokhasnushā.[42]
Father-in-law—svekor[43]śvasúra.
Mother-in-law—svekrov'[44]śvas ru.[156]
Brother-in-law—dever'[45]devr.
Onewienasodineka.
Twodudvadvā.
Threetrystritri.
Fourketurichetuirechatvārah.
Fivepenkipiat'pancha.
Sixszessishest'shash.
Sevenseptynisedm'saptan.
Eightasstuoniosm'ashtan.
Ninedewynideviat'navan.
Tendessimtisdesiat'dasá.

The following similarities go the same way, viz., towards the proof of a remarkable affinity with certain languages of Europe, there being none equally strong with any existing and undoubted Asiatic ones.

ENGLISH.LITHUANIC.SANSKRIT.ZEND.
Iassahamazem.
Thoututwamtūm.
Yeyusyūyamyūs.
The[46]tasta-dtad.
—szisahho.

LITHUANIC.
Laups-inni = I praise.

Present.

1. Laups-innu-innawa-inname.
2. —-inni-innata-innata.
3. —-inna-inna-inna.

[157]

SANSKRIT.
Jaj-ami = I conquer.

Present.

1. Jaj-āmi-āvah-āmah.
2. —-ăsi-ăthah-ătha.
3. —-ăti-ătah-anti.

LITHUANIC.
Esmi = I am.

1. Esmieswaesme.
2. Essiestaesti.
3. Estiestiesti.

SANSKRIT.
Asmi = I am.

1. Asmiswahsmah.
2. Asisthahstha.
3. Astistahsanti.

The inference from the vast series of philological facts, of which the following is a specimen, has, generally—perhaps universally—been as follows, viz., that the Lithuanic, Slavonic, and the allied languages of Germany, Italy, and Greece—numerous, widely-spread, and unequivocally European—are Asiatic in origin; the Sanskrit being first referred to Asia, and then assumed to represent the languages of that Asiatic locality. I merely express my dissent from this inference; adding my belief that the relations of the Sanskrit to the Hindú tongues are those of the Anglo-Norman to the English, and that its relation to[158] those of the south-eastern Slavonic area, is that of the Greek of Bactria, to the Greek of Macedon—greater, much greater in degree, but the same in kind.[47]

The Brahminic creed of Hindostan is the next great characteristic. Brahminism may be viewed in two ways. We may either take it in its later forms, and trace its history backwards, or begin with it in its simplest and most unmodified stage, and notice the changes that have affected it as they occur. At the present its principles are to be found in the holy book called Puranas; the Brahminism of the Puranas standing in the same relation to certain earlier forms, as the Rabbinism of the Talmud, or the Romanism of the fathers does to primitive Judaism and Christianity. The pre-eminence of a sacred caste—the sanctitude of the cow—an impossible cosmogony—the worship of Siva and Vishnu—and an indefinite sort of recognition of beings like Rama, Krishna, Kali, and others, are the leading features here; the recognition of the Ramas and Krishnas being of an indefinite and equivocal character, because the extent to which the elements of their divine nature are referable to the idea of dead men deified, or the very opposite notion of Gods[159] become incarnate, are inextricably mixed together. The Puranas are referable to different dates between the twelfth and sixth centuries A.D.

The germs of the Brahminism of the Puranas are the two great epics, the Ramayana, or the conquest of Hindostan by Rama, and the Mahabharata, or great war between the Sun and Moon dynasties. If we call the worship of dead men deified, Euhemerism, it is the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, to which the Euhemerist elements of the present Brahminism are to be attributed. They increased the personality of the previous religion. This is the natural effect of narrative poetry, and one of which we may measure the magnitude by looking at the influence and tendencies of the great Homeric poems of Greece. It is these which give us Kali, Rama, Krishna, Siva, and Vishnu, and which helped to determine the preponderance of the two last over Brahma—Brahma being the Creator; Vishnu, the Preserver; and Siva, the Destroyer. The highest antiquity which has been given to the epics is the second century B.C.; and this is full high enough.

The Brahminism of the "Institutes of Menu," the oldest Indian code of laws, is simpler than that of the epics. Its Euhemerism is less. Nevertheless, it contains the great text on the caste-system, the fulcrum of priestly pre-eminence.[160]

INSTITUTES OF MENU.

Sir Graves Haughton's Translation.

1. For the sake of preserving this universe, the Being, supremely glorious, allotted separate duties to those who sprang respectively from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and his foot.

2. To Bráhmins he assigned the duties of reading the Veda, of teaching it, of sacrificing, of assisting others to sacrifice, of giving alms, if they be rich, and, if indigent, of receiving gifts.

3. To defend the people, to give alms, to sacrifice, to read the Veda, to shun the allurements of sensual gratification, are, in a few words, the duties of a Cshatriya.

4. To keep herds of cattle, to bestow largesses, to sacrifice, to read the scripture, to carry on trade, to lend at interest, and to cultivate land, are prescribed or permitted to a Vaisya.

5. One principal duty the Supreme Ruler assigns to a Súdra; namely, to serve the before-mentioned classes, without depreciating their worth.

6. Man is declared purer above the navel; but the Self-Creating Power declared the purest part of him to be his mouth.

7. Since the Bráhmin sprang from the most excellent part, since he was the first born, and since he possesses the Veda, he is by right the chief of this whole creation.

8. Him, the Being, who exists of himself, produced in the beginning, from his own mouth, that having performed holy rites, he might present clarified butter to the gods, and cakes of rice to the progenitors of mankind, for the preservation of this world.

9. What created being then can surpass Him, with whose[161] mouth the gods of the firmament continually feast on clarified butter, and the manes of ancestors, on hallowed cakes?

10. Of created things, the most excellent are those which are animated; of the animated, those which subsist by intelligence; of the intelligent, mankind; and of men, the sacerdotal class.

11. Of priests those eminent in learning; of the learned, those who know their duty; of those who know it, such as perform it virtuously; and of the virtuous, those who seek beatitude from a perfect acquaintance with scriptural doctrine.

12. The very birth of Bráhmins is a constant incarnation of Dherma, God of Justice; for the Bráhmin is born to promote justice, and to procure ultimate happiness.

13. When a Bráhmin springs to light, he is borne above the world, the chief of all creatures, assigned to guard the treasury of duties, religious and civil.

14. Whatever exists in the universe, is all in effect, though not in form, the wealth of the Bráhmin; since the Bráhmin is entitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence of birth.

15. The Bráhmin eats but his own food; wears but his own apparel; and bestows but his own in alms: through the benevolence of the Bráhmin, indeed, other mortals enjoy life.

16. To declare the sacerdotal duties, and those of the other classes in due order, the sage Menu, sprung from the self-existing, promulged this code of laws.

17. A code which must be studied with extreme care by every learned Bráhmin, and fully explained to his disciples, but must be taught by no other man of an inferior class.

18. The Bráhmin who studies this book, having performed sacred rites, is perpetually free from offence in thought, in word, and in deed.

19. He confers purity on his living family, on his ancestors,[162] and on his descendants, as far as the seventh person; and He alone deserves to possess this whole earth.

Subtract from the Brahminism of the Institutes, the importance assigned to caste; substitute for the Euhemerism of the Epics, an elemental religion, and we ascend to the religion of the Vedas; the nominal, but only the nominal basis, of all Hinduism. In the following Vedaic hymns, Agni is fire; Indra, the sky, firmament, or atmosphere; and Marut, the cloud.

RIGVEDA SANHITA.

Wilson's Translation.

I.

1. I glorify Agni, the high priest of the sacrifice, the divine, the ministrant, who presents the oblation (to the gods), and is the possessor of great wealth.

2. May that Agni, who is to be celebrated by both ancient and modern sages, conduct the gods hither.

3. Through Agni the worshipper obtains that affluence, which increases day by day, which is the source of fame and the multiplier of mankind.

4. Agni, the unobstructed sacrifice of which thou art on every side the protector, assuredly reaches the gods.

5. May Agni, the presenter of oblations, the attainer of knowledge; he who is true, renowned, and divine, come hither with the gods!

6. Whatever good thou mayest, Agni, bestow upon the giver (of the oblation), that verily, Angiras, shall revert to thee.[163]

7. We approach thee, Agni, with reverential homage in our thoughts, daily, both morning and evening.

8. Thee, the radiant, the protector of sacrifices, the constant illuminator of truth, increasing in thine own dwelling!

9. Agni, be unto us easy of access, as is a father to a son; be ever present with us for our good!

II.

1. Aświns, cherishers of pious acts, long-armed, accept with outstretched hands the sacrificial viands!

2. Aświns, abounding in mighty acts, guides (of devotion), endowed with fortitude, listen with unaverted minds to our praises!

3. Aświns, destroyers of foes, exempt from untruth, leaders in the van of heroes, come to the mixed libations sprinkled on the lopped sacred grass!

4. Indra, of wonderful splendour, come hither; these libations, ever pure, expressed by the fingers (of the priests), are desirous of thee!

5. Indra, apprehended by the understanding and appreciated by the wise, approach and accept the prayers (of the priest), as he offers the libation!

6. Fleet Indra with the tawny coursers, come hither to the prayers (of the priests), and in this libation accept our (proffered) food.

7. Universal Gods! protectors and supporters of men, bestowers (of rewards), come to the libation of the worshipper!

8. May the swift-moving universal Gods, the shedders of rain, come to the libation, as the solar rays come 'diligently' to the days!

9. May the universal Gods, who are exempt from decay, omniscient, devoid of malice, and bearers of riches, accept the sacrifice!

10. May Saraswatí, the purifier, the bestower of food, the[164] recompenser of worship with wealth, be attracted by our offered viands to our rite!

11. Saraswatí, the inspirer of those who delight in truth, the instructress of the right-minded, has accepted our sacrifice!

12. Saraswatí makes manifest by her acts a mighty river, and (in her own form) enlightens all understandings.

III.

1. Come, Indra, and be regaled with all viands and libations, and thence, mighty in strength, be victorious (over thy foes)!

2. The libation being prepared, present the exhilarating and efficacious (draught) to the rejoicing Indra, the accomplisher of all things.

3. Indra, with the handsome chin, be pleased with these animating praises: do thou, who art to be reverenced by all mankind, (come) to these rites (with the gods)!

4. I have addressed to thee, Indra, the showerer (of blessings), the protector (of thy worshippers), praises which have reached thee, and of which thou hast approved!

5. Place before us, Indra, precious and multiform riches, for enough, and more than enough, are assuredly thine!

6. Opulent Indra, encourage us in this rite for the acquirement of wealth, for we are diligent and renowned!

7. Grant us, Indra, wealth beyond measure or calculation, inexhaustible, the source of cattle, of food, of all life.

8. Indra, grant us great renown and wealth acquired in a thousand ways, and those (articles) of food (which are brought from the field) in carts!

9. We invoke, for the preservation of our property, Indra, the lord of wealth, the object of sacred verses, the repairer (to the place of sacrifice), praising him with our praises!

10. With libations repeatedly effused, the sacrificer glorifies[165] the vast prowess of Indra, the mighty, the dweller in (an eternal mansion)!

IV.

1. The Maruts who are going forth decorate themselves like females: they are gliders (through the air), the sons of Rudra, and the doers of good works, by which they promote the welfare of earth and heaven: heroes, who grind (the solid rocks), they delight in sacrifices!

2. They, inaugurated by the gods, have attained majesty, the sons of Rudra have established their dwelling above the sky: glorifying him (Indra) who merits to be glorified, they have inspired him with vigour: the sons of Prisni have acquired dominion!

3. When the sons of the earth embellish themselves with ornaments, they shine resplendent in their persons with (brilliant) decorations; they keep aloof every adversary: the waters follow their path!

4. They who are worthily worshipped shine with various weapons: incapable of being overthrown, they are the overthrowers (of mountains): Maruts, swift as thought, intrusted with the duty of sending rain, yoke the spotted deer to your cars!

5. When Maruts, urging on the cloud, for the sake of (providing) food, you have yoked the deer to your chariots, the drops fall from the radiant (sun), and moisten the earth, like a hide, with water!

6. Let your quick-paced smooth-gliding coursers bear you (hither), and, moving swiftly, come with your hands filled with good things: sit, Maruts, upon the broad seat of sacred grass, and regale yourselves with the sweet sacrificial food!

7. Confiding in their own strength, they have increased in (power); they have attained heaven by their greatness, and have made (for themselves) a spacious abode: may they, for[166] whom Vishnu defends (the sacrifice) that bestows all desires and confers delight, come (quickly) like birds, and sit down upon the pleasant and sacred grass!

8. Like heroes, like combatants, like men anxious for food, the swift-moving (Maruts) have engaged in battles: all beings fear the Maruts, who are the leaders (of the rain), and awful of aspect, like princes!

9. Indra wields the well-made, golden, many-bladed thunderbolt, which the skilful Twashtri has framed for him, that he may achieve great exploits in war. He has slain Vritra, and sent forth an ocean of water!

10. By their power, they bore the well aloft, and clove asunder the mountain that obstructed their path: the munificent Maruts, blowing upon their pipe, have conferred, when exhilarated by the soma juice, desirable (gifts upon the sacrificer)!

11. They brought the crooked well to the place (where the Muni was), and sprinkled the water upon the thirsty Gotama: the variously-radiant (Maruts) come to his succour, gratifying the desire of the sage with life-sustaining waters!

12. Whatever blessings (are diffused) through the three worlds, and are in your gift, do you bestow upon the donor (of the libation), who addresses you with praise; bestow them, also, Maruts, upon us, and grant us, bestowers of all good, riches, whence springs prosperity!

If we investigate the antiquity of these hymns we shall find no definite and unimpeachable date. Their epoch is assigned on the score of internal evidence. The language is so much more archaic than that of the Institutes, and the mythology so much simpler; whilst the Institutes themselves are similarly circumstanced in respect[167] to the Epics. Fixing these at about 200, B.C.; we allow so many centuries for the archaisms of Menu, and so many more for those of the Vedas. For the whole, eleven hundred has not been thought too little, which places the Vedas in the fourteenth century, B.C., and makes them the earliest, or nearly the earliest records in the world.

It is clear that this is but an approximation, and, although all inquirers admit that creeds, languages, and social conditions present the phenomena of growth, the opinions as to the rate of such growths are varied, and none of much value. This is because the particular induction required for the formation of anything better than a mere impression has yet to be undertaken—till when, one man's guess is as good as another's. The age of a tree may be reckoned from its concentric rings, but the age of a language, a doctrine, or a polity, has neither bark nor wood, neither teeth like a horse, nor a register like a child.

Now the antiquity of the Vedas, as inferred from the archaic character of their language, has been shaken by the discovery of the structure of the Persepolitan dialect of the arrow-headed inscriptions. It approaches that of the Vedas; being, in some points, older than the Sanskrit of Menu. Yet its date is less than 500, B.C. Again, the Pali is less archaic than the Sanskrit; yet the[168] Pali is the language of the oldest inscriptions in India, indeed, of the oldest Indian records of any sort, with a definite date.

One of the few cases where the phenomena of rate have been studied with due attention, is in the evolution of the three languages of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden out of the Icelandic. What does this tell us? The last has altered so slowly that a modern Icelander can read the oldest works of his language. In Sweden, however, the speech has altered. So it has in Denmark; whilst both these languages are unintelligible to the Icelander, and vice versâ. As to their respective changes, Petersen shows that the Danish was always about a hundred years forwarder than the Swedish, having attained that point at (say) 1200, which the Swedish did not reach till 1300. Both, however, changed; and that, at a uniform rate; the Danish having, as it were, the start of a century. The Norwegian, however, comported itself differently. Until the Reformation it hardly changed at all; less than the stationary Icelandic itself. Fifty years, however, of sudden and rapid transformation brought it, at once, to the stage which the Danish had been three hundred years in reaching. How many times must the observation of such phenomena be multiplied before we can strike an average as to the rate of change in languages, creeds, and polities?[169]

Again—it is by no means certain that the Institutes and the Vedas represent a contemporary state of things. All doctrinal writings contain something appertaining to a period older than that of their composition.

Lastly,—the proof that all the writings in question belong to the same linear series, and represent the growth of the same phenomena in the same place is deficient. The Ægyptologist believes that contemporary kings are mistaken for successive ones; the philologist, that difference of dialects simulates a difference of age. Doubts of a more specific nature dawn upon us when we attempt to realize the alphabet in which an Indian MS. of even only eight hundred years B.C., was written. No Indian MS. is fifteen hundred years old; no inscription older than Alexander's time. Nevertheless,—though I write upon this subject with diffidence—the Devanagari characters of the Sanskrit MSS. can be deduced from the alphabet of the inscriptions; whilst these inscriptions themselves approach the alphabets of the Semitic character in proportion to their antiquity: so that the oldest alphabet of the Vedas is referable to that of the inscriptions, and that of the inscriptions betrays an origin external to India. Its introduction may be very early; nevertheless its epoch must be investigated with a full recognition of the[170] comparatively modern date of even the earliest alphabets of Persia, and the parts westward; early as compared with such a date as 1400, B.C., the accredited epoch of the Vedas; an epoch, perhaps, a thousand years too early.

Nevertheless, the existence of an alphabet, an architecture, a coinage, and an algebra at a period which no scepticism puts much later than 250, B.C., is so undoubted, that they may pass as ethnological facts, i.e., facts sufficiently true to be not merely admitted with what is called an otiose belief, but to be classed with the most unexceptionable data of history, and to be used as effects from which we may argue backwards—more ethnologico—to their antecedent causes; the appreciation of these requiring a philosophy and an induction of its own.

We cannot detract from the antiquity of Indian civilization without impugning its indigenous origin, nor doubt this without stirring the question as to the countries from which it was introduced. These have been Persia, Assyria, Egypt, and Greece; the introduction being direct or indirect as the case might be.

In this way are contrasted the views of the general ethnologist, with those of the special orientalist, in respect to the great and difficult question of Indian antiquity. Yet, how far does the scepticism of the former affect our views concerning[171] the descent of the Hindús, the Mahrattas, the Bengali, and those other populations, to the languages whereof they applied? Not much. Whichever way we decide, the population may still be Tamulian; only, in case we make the language Sanskritic, it is Tamulian in the same way as the Cornish are Welsh; i.e., Tamulian with a change of tongue.

The doubts, too, as to the antiquity of the Sanskrit literature unsettle but little. They merely make the introduction of certain foreign elements some centuries later.

Whatever may be the oldest of the great Hindú creeds, that of the Sikhs is the newest. Its founder, Nanuk, in the fifteenth century, was a contemplative enthusiast; his successor, Govind, a zealous man of action; himself succeeded by similar gúrús, or priests, who eventually, by means of fanaticism, organization, and union with the state raised the power of the Khalsa to the formidable height from which it has so lately fallen. Truth is the great abstraction of the Sikh creeds; and the extent to which it is at once intolerant and eclectic may be seen from the following extracts.[48] They certainly present the doctrine in a favourable light.

[172]

I.

The true name is God; without fear, without enmity; the Being without death; the Giver of salvation; the Gooroo and Grace.
Remember the primal truth; truth which was before the world began.
Truth which is, and truth, O Nânuk! which will remain.
By reflection it cannot be attained, how much soever the attention be fixed.
A hundred wisdoms, even a hundred thousand, not one accompanies the dead.
How can truth be told, how can falsehood be unravelled?
O Nânuk! by following the will of God, as by Him ordained.

II.

Time is the only God; the First and the Last, the Endless Being; the Creator, the Destroyer; He who can make and unmake.
God who created angels and demons, who created the East and the West, the North and the South; How can He be expressed by words?

III.

Numerous Mahomets have there been, and multitudes of Bruhmas, Vishnoos, and Sivas.
Thousands of Peers and Prophets, and tens of thousands of saints and holy men:
But the chief of Lords is the one Lord, the true name of God.
O Nânuk! of God, His qualities, without end, beyond reckoning, who can understand?

IV.[173]

Many Bruhmas wearied themselves with the study of the Veds, but found not the value of an oil seed.
Holy men and saints are sought about anxiously, but they were deceived by Maya.
There have been, and there have passed away, ten regent Owtârs, and the wondrous Muhadeo.
Even they, wearied with the application of ashes, could not find Thee.

V.

He who speaks of me as the Lord, him will I sink into the pit of hell!
Consider me as the slave of God; of that have no doubt in thy mind.
I am but the slave of the Lord, come to behold the wonders of creation.

VI.

Dwell thou in flames uninjured,
Remain unharmed amid ice eternal,
Make blocks of stone thy daily food,
Spurn the earth before thee with thy foot,
Weigh the heavens in a balance,
And then ask of me to perform miracles.

VII.

Since he fell at the feet of God, no one has appeared great in his eyes.
Ram and Ruheem, the Poorans, and the Koran, have many votaries, but neither does he regard.
Simruts, Shasters, and Veds, differ in many things; not one does he heed.
[174]O God! under Thy favour has all been done, nought is of myself.

VIII.

All say that there are four races,
But all are of the seed of Bruhm.
The world is but clay,
And of similar clay many pots are made.
Nânuk says man will be judged by his actions,
And that without finding God there will be no salvation.
The body of man is composed of five elements;
Who can say that one is high and another low?

IX.

There are four races and four creeds in the world among Hindoos and Mahometans;
Selfishness, jealousy, and pride drew all of them strongly;
The Hindoos dwelt on Benares and the Ganges, the Mahometans on the Kaaba;
The Mahometans held by circumcision, the Hindoos by strings and frontal marks.
They each called on Ram and Ruheem, one name, and yet both forgot the road.
Forgetting the Veds and the Koran, they were inveigled in the snares of the world.
Truth remained on one side, while Moollas and Brahmins disputed,
And salvation was not attained.

X.

God heard the complaint (of virtue or truth), and Nânuk was sent into the world.
He established the custom that the disciple should wash the feet of his Gooroo, and drink the water;
[175]Pâr Bruhm and Poorun Bruhm, in his Kulyoog, he showed were one.
The four feet (of the animal sustaining the world) were made of faith; the four castes were made one;
The high and the low became equal: the salutation of the feet (among disciples) he established in the world;
Contrary to the nature of man, the feet were exalted above the head.
In the Kulyoog he gave salvation; using the only true name, he taught men to worship the Lord.
To give salvation in the Kulyoog, Gooroo Nânuk came.

PARTS BEYOND THE INDUS.

The Punjâb is the most western locality of the Indian stock, whether we call the members of it Hindú or Tamulian. On crossing the Indus we reach a new ethnological area, only partially, and only recently British; viz., the country of the Bilúch, and the country of the Afghans. And here we must prepare for new terms; for hearing of tribes rather than castes; and for finding a polity more like that of the Jews and Arabs than the institutions of the Brahmins.

The Bilúch.—Biluchi-stan means the country of the Bilúch, just as Hindo-stan and Afghani-stan mean that of the Hindús and Afghans. It is the south-western quarter of Persia, that is the chief area of the tribes in question. Hence, however, they extend into Kutch Gundava, Scinde, and Múltan, and the northern parts of Gujerat.[176] Between Kelat, the Indus, and the sea, they are mixed with Brahúi.

The Biluchi is a dialect of the Persian—sufficiently close to be understood by a Persian proper.

There are no grounds for believing the Bilúch to have been other than the aborigines of the country which they occupy; as their advent lies beyond the historical period; beyond the pale of admissible tradition. We may, perhaps, be told that they came from Arabia; an origin which their Mahometanism, their division into tribes, and their manners, suggest; an origin, too, which their physiognomy by no means impugns. Yet the tradition is not only unsupported, but equivocal. The Arabia that it refers to is, probably, the country of the ancient Arabitæ; and that is neither more nor less than a part of the province of Mekran, within—or nearly within—the present Bilúch domain. Hence, they may be Arabite, though not Arabian; or rather the old Arabitæ of the Arabius fluvius were Bilúch.

But the Arabs are not the only members of the Semitic family with which the Bilúch have been affiliated. A multiplicity of Jewish characteristics has been discerned. These are all the more visible from their contrast to the manners of the Hindús. Intermediate in appearance to the Hindú and the Persian, the Bilúch "cast of[177] feature is certainly Jewish;"[49] his tribual divisions are equally so; whilst the Levitical punishment of adultery by stoning, and the transmission of the widow of a deceased brother to the brothers who survive, have been duly recognized as Hebrew characteristics. We know what follows all this; as surely as smoke shows fire. Levitical peculiarities suggest the ubiquitous decad of the lost tribes of Israel. We shall soon hear of these again.

Tribes under chiefs—hereditary succession—pride of blood—clannish sentiments—feuds between tribe and tribe—the sacro-sanctity of revenge as a duty—the suspension of private wars when foreign foes threaten—greater rudeness amongst the mountains—comparative industry in the plains—the business of robbery tempered by the duties of hospitality—black mail, &c. All this is equally Bilúch, Arabian, and Highland Scotch; and it all shows the similarity of details which accompanies similarity of social institutions. Ethnological relationship it does not show.

The word Bilúch is Persian. The bearer of the designation either calls himself by the name of his tribe, or else glorifies himself by the term Usul or Pure. The tribes or khoums are numerous.[178] Sir H. Pottinger gives the names of no less than fifty-eight; without going into their subdivisions.

If, however, instead of details, we seek for classes of greater generality we find that three primary divisions comprise all the ramifications of the Bilúch. The first of these is the Rind; the other two are the Nihro and the Mughsi. The daughter of a Rind may be given to a Rind as a wife; but to marry into a tribe of Nihro or Mughsi extraction is a degradation. Here the elements of caste intermix with those of tribe or clan.

Afghans.—Afghani-stan means the country of the Afghans, just as Hindo-stan and Biluchi-stan mean that of the Hindús and Biluchi, respectively.

In India the Afghans are called Patan.

Their language is called Pushtu. It is allied to the Persian—but less closely than the Bilúch.

Fully and accurately described in the admirable work of Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone, the Afghans have long commanded the attention of the ethnologist; and all that has been said about the Judaism of the Biluchi has been said in respect to them also, though not by so good a writer as the one just quoted. No wonder. Their tribual organization, if not more peculiar in character, has been more minutely described; a[179] greater massiveness of frame and feature has been looked upon as eminently Judaic; and, lastly, an incorrect statement of Sir William Jones's, as to the Hebrew character of the Pushtu language, has added the authority of that respected scholar to the doctrine of the Semitic origin of the Afghans. Against this, however, stands the evidence of their peculiar and hitherto unplaced language. I say unplaced, because the criticism that separates the modern dialects of Hindostan from the Sanskrit, disconnects the Pushtu and the old Persian. Nevertheless, it is anything but either Hebrew or Arabic.

Similarity of political constitution, and its attendant spirit of independence, have given a political importance to both the Bilúch and the Afghan. Each is but partially—very partially—British; and each became dependent upon Britain, not because they were the Afghans and Bilúch of their own rugged countries, but because they were part and parcel of certain territories in India. It was on the Indus that they were conquered; and it as Indians that they are British.

Four great patriarchs are the hypothetical progenitors of the four primary Afghan divisions—though it is uncertain whether any such quaternion be more of an historical reality than the four castes of Brahminism. Subordinate to these four heads is the division called Ulús (Ooloos).[180]

A minuter knowledge of the Afghan affiliations—real or supposed—is to be gained by premising that khail has much the same meaning as the Bilúch khoum, so that it denotes a division of population which we may call clan, tribe, or sept; whilst the affix -zye, means sons or offspring. Hence, Eusof-zye is equivalent to what an Arab would call Beni Yusuf; a Greek, Ioseph-idæ; or a Highland Gael, MacJoseph. All this is clear. When, however, we try to give precision to our nomenclature, and ask whether the khail contains a number of -zye, or the -zye a number of khails, difficulties begin. Sometimes the one, sometimes the other is the larger class. And a khail in one case may be divided into groups ending in -zye; in others, a group denoted by -zye may contain two or more khails. Each is a generic or specific designation as the case may be.

However, to proceed to instances, the following groups of Afghans may be constituted.

1. Three sections—the Acco-zye, the Mulle-zye, and the Lawe-zye—are subdivisions of the—

2. Eusof.—The Eusof and Munder being branches of the—

3. Eusof-zye.—Now the Eusof-zye is one out of four divisions of the—

4. Khukkhi.—The Guggiani, Turcolani, and Mahomed-zye, being the other three.

5. Lastly, the Khukkhi, the Otman-khail, the[181] Khyberi, the Bungush, the Khuttuk and, probably, some others form the Berdurani Afghans.

But as Berdurani is a geographical, or political, rather than a tribual designation; as it is the name by which the north-eastern Afghans were known to the Moghuls; and as it is equivalent to such an expression as Western or Eastern Highlander, rather than to names so specific as Campbell or MacDonald, it may be excluded from the true Afghan affiliations.

With this deduction, however, the classification is sufficiently complex; besides which, it is, probably, much more systematic on paper than in reality. This, however, can only be indicated.

The valley of Peshawar is the valley of the Guggiani, and Mahomed-zye Afghans.

The parts round it belong to the Eusof-zye, the Otman-khail, the Turcolani, the Momunds, and the Khyberi of the Khyber Range and Pass. These last fall into the Afridi, the Shainwari, and the Uruk-zye. Their country is chiefly to the north of the Salt Range.

The river Kúrúm gives us the two valleys of Dowr and Bunnú[50]—the Bunnúchi being as pre-eminently[182] a mixed, as the mountaineers around them—the Vizeri—are a pure branch. These, and others, appear to belong to the great Khuttuk division.

The south-eastern Afghans are called Lohani; and, as a proof of this designation being of the same geographico-political character as Berdurani, the Khuttuk Afghans are divided between the two sections; at least the particular Khuttuks called Murwuti are mentioned as Lohani, though the Khuttuk class in general is placed in the Berdurani branch. The chief Lohani Afghans are the Shiráni near the Tukt-i-Solimán mountain, and the Storiáni (Storeeanees, Oosteraunees) conterminous with the most northern of the Bilúch.

Of these the Búgti and Murri are the chief populations of the frontier; whilst the Nútkani, Kúsrani, Lund, Lughari, Gurkhari, Mudari, and others, help to fill up the Muckelwand (or the parts immediately along the course of the Indus), and the Bilúch portions of Múltan.

The Brahúi.—The Brahúi, with whom it has been stated that the Bilúch are intermixed, are pastoral tribes, with a coarser physiognomy, and a stouter make than their neighbours. Their language also is different. A specimen of it may be found amongst the well-known and important vocabularies of Lieutenant Leach; and this forms the subject of a memoir of no less a scholar than[183] Lassen. Without placing it, he remarks that the numerals are South-Indian (or Tamulian) rather than aught else. He might have said more. The Brahúi is a remarkable and unexplained branch of the Tamul; but whether it be of late introduction or indigenous origin in the parts where it now occurs is uncertain. The mountains between Kutch Gundava and Mekran seem to form the area of the Brahúi; some eastern branches of which population I presume to be British, mixed with Bilúch.[51]

Ceylon.—The inhabitants of the northern part of Ceylon speak the Tamul language, and are Brahminists in creed. They are not, however, the true natives of the island. These latter use a Hindú tongue, called the Singhalese. Its philological relations are exactly those of the Mahratta, Bengali, and Udiya,—neither better nor worse defined, more or less unequivocal. Some make it out to be of Sanskrit, others of Tamulian origin. All that is certain is, that it is more Sanskritic than the proper Tamul, and more Tamul than the Bengali. It is written; and embodies a copious, but worthless literature, its alphabet being derived from that of the Pali language.[184]

This introduces a new characteristic. The Pali has the same relation to Buddhism, that the Sanskrit has to Brahminism. It is the language of the Scriptures, the priest, and the scholar, and, although, at the present moment, it is as little recognized as a holy tongue on the continent of India, as the Greek of the New Testament is at Rome, it divides with the Arabic and Latin, the honour of being the most widely-spread literary language of the world. All the forms of Buddhism in the transgangetic peninsula are embodied in Pali writings. So are those of the Mongols; and so, to a great extent, those of the Tibetans as well. This makes the language and the creed nearly co-extensive. In China, however, and Japan, where great changes have taken place, and where either the development, or the deterioration of Buddhism has gone far enough to abolish the more palpable characteristics of the original Indian doctrine, the Pali language is no longer the medium. It is so, however, for the vast area already indicated.

In Buddhism, as opposed to Brahminism, there is a greater tenderness of animal life in general, whilst less respect is paid to the ox-tribe in particular. There is less also of the system of caste; and, in consequence of this, fewer of those elements of priestly influence, which originate in the ideas of the hereditary transmission of sacro-sanctitude.[185] Buddhism, too, has the credit of running further in the dream-land of subjective metaphysics than Brahminism,—though this, as far as my own very imperfect means of judging go, is doubtful. Into practical pantheism, and into the deification of human reason it does run.

When self-contemplation has reached its highest degree of abstraction, the state of Nirwana is induced. This seems to mean the absorption of the spirit within itself; a condition which at once suggests adjectives like impassive, subjective, exalted, and supra-sensual, or substantives like transcendentalism, egoism, &c., and the like; in some cases with definite ideas to correspond with the term; oftener as mere meaningless words. Such, however, is the nomenclature which is requisite; a nomenclature to which I have recourse, not for the sake of illustrating my subject, but with the view of giving a practical notion of its indistinctness.

Buddha himself is a specimen and model of self-absorption, consummation, perfection, or exaltation rather than a deity, or even a prophet. He shows what purity can effect, rather than teaches what purity consists in. He may even have become what he was, by his own unaided powers of supra-sensual abstraction.

All this is but a series of negations, at least in the way of theology. But his spirit, after the[186] departure of his body from the earth,[52] became incarnate in the body of some successor—and so on ad infinitum. This connects Buddhism with the doctrine of metempsychosis; a doctrine which the incarnations of Brahminism also suggest.

Such are some of the speculative points of Buddhism. Its morality has been greatly, and, perhaps, unduly extolled. So much contemplation can scarcely exist without the condemnation of the more palpable sins of commission. Hence, those vices which are the offspring of passion and ignorance are condemned; as is but natural. The suspension of exertion precludes active vice. Of the active virtues, however, the recognition is as slight as may be; so slight as to make it doubtful whether Buddhism be a better rule for the formation of good citizens than Brahminism. Which has been the most resistant to the influences of Christianity is doubtful.[53]

Just as the Anglo-Saxon language, although it originated in Germany, has survived and developed itself in Britain only, the Buddhist creed, once indigenous to the continent of Hindostan, is now found nowhere between the Himalayas and Cape Comorin; whilst beyond the pale[187] of India, it is as widely extended as the English language is beyond the limits of Germany. The rival religion of the Brahmins expelled it. Which of the two was the older is uncertain. Still more difficult is it to determine how far each is a separate substantive mythological growth, or merely a modification of the rival creed.

I lay but little stress upon the internal evidence derivable from the character of the religions themselves. Both are complicated and artificial—both, perhaps, equally so. In contrast, however, to the more speculative and transcendental points, suggestive of recent development, there are others indicative of great antiquity. Nevertheless, it is as difficult to affirm that the primitive parts of the one creed are older than the most primitive parts of the other, as it is to affirm that the highest transcendentalisms are more recent.

The fact of the oldest inscriptions being in the Pali dialect, is favourable to the greater antiquity of Buddhism, but it is not conclusive. The notion that Sanskrit itself is comparatively recent, of course subtracts from that of Brahminism. But this is far from being admitted. Besides which, it by no means follows, that because Brahminism is, comparatively speaking, recent, Buddhism must be ancient.

The best clue in this labyrinth of conflicting[188] opinions is the study of the superstitions of the ruder tribes of the hill-ranges of India itself, of the sub-Himalayas, and of the Indo-Chinese peninsula; the result of which investigation will be that that creed which has most points in common with the primitive and unmodified mythologies of the Tamulian stock, and of those branches of the monosyllabic populations nearest akin thereto, has also the best claim to be considered as the older.

In my own mind, I believe that the Bedo of the Rajmahali mountaineers, is the Batho of the Bodo, the Pennu of the Khonds, and the Potteang of the Kukis,[54]—name for name. I believe this without doubt or hesitation. But if I ask myself the import of this identity, the answer is unsatisfactory. There is doubt and hesitation in abundance. Bedo, Batho, Petto, and Potteang, may represent the germ of what afterwards became Buddh-ism. They may exhibit the Indian creed in its rudiments. True. But they may also represent it in its fragments, so that Bedo and Batho may be but Buddh, distorted in form, and but imperfectly comprehended in import. In our own Gospel, the name for the place of punishment, which the Greeks called Hades, and the Hebrews typified by Gehenna, is the name of a Saxon goddess Hela; and, in this particular instance,[189] a point of our original paganism has been taken up into our present Christianity. The same is the case with the Finnic nation, where Yumala signifies God; Yumala being as truly heathen as Jupiter. On the other hand we find amongst the genuine pagan Gallas of Africa, an object of respect or worship called Miriam. What is this? No true piece of heathendom at all. Dr. Beke has given good reasons for believing that it means the Virgin Mother of the Saviour, the only extant member of the Christian Revelation now known to that once imperfectly Christianized community.

Buddhism, then, may claim a higher antiquity than Brahminism under the two following conditions.

1. That the names Batho, &c., be really a form of Buddh.

2. That they have belonged to superstitions in which they occur from the beginning; and are not in the same category with the Miriam of the Gallas, i.e., recent introductions from a wholly different religion—grafts rather than embryos.

How far this latter is the case must be ascertained by a wide and minute inquiry, foreign to the present work.

It is no wonder that, side by side with a semi-philosophical creed like Buddhism, we should have such a phenomenon as Devil-worship. When[190] the spirit falls short of its due degree of self-sustained hardihood, fear finds its way to the heart. The evil powers are then propitiated; sometimes in a manner savouring of dignity, sometimes with groveling and grotesque cowardice. The Yezid of Mesopotamia, whose belief in the power of an evil spirit is derived from the Manicheism of old, shows his fear of the arch-enemy by simple and not unreasonable acts of negation. He does nothing that may offend; never mentions his name; and dwells on his attributes as little as possible. The devil-worshipper of Ceylon uses such invocations as the following:—

I.

Come, thou sanguinary Devil, at the sixth hour. Come, thou fierce Devil, upon this stage, and accept the offerings made to thee!

The ferocious Devil seems to be coming measuring the ground by the length of his feet, and giving warnings of his approach by throwing stones and sand round about. He looks upon the meat-offering which is kneaded with blood and boiled rice.

He stands there and plays in the shade of the tree called Demby. He removes the sickness of the person which he caused. He will accept the offerings prepared with blood, odour, and reddish boiled rice. Prepare these offerings in the shade of the Demby tree.

Make a female figure of the planets with a monkey's face, and its body the colour of gold. Offer four offerings in the four corners. In the left corner, place some blood, and for[191] victims a fowl and a goat. In the evening, place the scene representing the planets on the high ground.

The face resembles a monkey's face, and the head is the colour of gold. The head is reddish, and the bunch of hair is black and tied. He holds blood in the left-hand, and rides on a bullock. After this manner make the sanguinary figure of the planets.

II.

O thou great devil Maha-Sohon, preserve these sick persons without delay!

On the way, as he was going, by supernatural power he made a great noise. He fought with the form of Wessamoony, and wounded his head. The planet Saturn saw a wolf in the midst of the forest, and broke his neck. The Wessamoony gave permission to the great devil called Maha-Sohon.

O thou great devil Maha-Sohon, take away these sicknesses by accepting the offerings made frequently to thee.—The qualities of this devil are these: he stretches his long chin, and opens wide his mouth like a cavern: he bears a spear in his right-hand, and grasps a great and strong elephant with his left-hand. He is watching and expecting to drink the blood of the elephant in the place where the two and three roads meet together.

Influenced by supernatural power, he entered the body of the princess called Godimbera. He caused her to be sick with severe trembling sickness. Come thou poor and powerless devil Maha-Sohon to fight with me, and leave the princess, if thou hast sufficient strength.

On hearing these sayings, he left her, and made himself like a blue cloud, and violently covered his whole body with flames of fire. Furiously staring with his eyes, he said, "Art thou come, blockhead, to fight with me who was born in the world of men? I will take you by the legs, and dash you[192] upon the great rock Maha-meru, and quickly bring you to nothing."

Thou wast born on Sunday, the first day of the month, and didst receive permission from the King of Death, and didst brandish a sword like a plantain-leaf. Thou comest down at half-past seven, to accept the offerings made to thee.

If the devil Maha-Sohon cause the chin-cough, leanness of the body, thirst, madness, and mad babblings, he will come down at half-past seven, and accept the offerings made to him.

These are the marks of the devil Maha-Sohon: three marks on the head, one mark on the eye-brow and on the temple; three marks on the belly, a shining moon on the thigh, a lighted torch on the head, an offering and a flower on the breast. The chief god of the burying-place will say, May you live long!

Make the figure of the planets called the emblem of the great burying-place, as follows: a spear grasped by the right-hand, an elephant's figure in the left-hand, and in the act of drinking the blood of the elephant by bruising its proboscis.

Tip the point of the spear in the hand with blood, pointed towards the elephant's face in the left-hand. These effigies and offerings take and offer in the burying-place,—discerning well the sickness by means of the devil-dancer.

Make a figure of the wolf with a large breast, full of hairs on the body, and with long teeth separated from each other. The effigy of the Maha-Sohon was made formerly so.

These are the sicknesses which the great devil causes by living among the tombs: chin-cough, itching of the body, disorders in the bowels; windy complaints, dropsy, leanness of the body, weakness and consumptions.

He walks on high upon the lofty stones. He walks on the ground where three ways meet. Therefore go not in the roads by night: if you do so, you must not expect to escape with your life.[193]

Make two figures of a goose, one on each side. Make a lion and a dog to stand at the left-leg, bearing four drinking-cups on four paws—and make a moon's image, and put it in the burying-place.

Comb the hair, and tie up a large bunch with a black string. Put round the neck a cobra-capella, and dress him in the garments by making nine folds round the waist. He stands on a rock eating men's flesh. The persons that were possessed with devils are put in the burying-place.

Put a corpse at the feet, taking out the intestines through the mouth. The principal thing for this country, and for the Singhalese, is the worship of the planets.[55]

In the centre of the island is the kingdom of Kandy; naturally fortified by impervious forests, and long independent. This creates a variety; the Kandyans being somewhat ruder than the other Singhalese. It is not, however, an important one. The really important ethnology of Ceylon is that of the Vaddahs, in the eastern districts, inland of Battacaloa. They are still unmodified by either the Hindú habits, or the great Indian creeds,—the true analogues of the Khonds, and Kóls, and Bhils, &c. Their language, however, is Singhalese; an important fact, since it denotes one of two phenomena,—either the antiquity of the conquest of Ceylon supposing the extension of the Singhalese language to have been gradual, or the thorough-going character of it, if it be recent.[194]

Who were the Padæi of the following extract from Herodotus?[56]—"Other Indians there are, who live east of these. They are nomads, eaters of raw flesh; and called Padæi. They are said to have the following customs. Whenever one of their countrymen is sick, whether man or woman, he is killed. The males kill the males, and amongst these the most intimate acquaintance kill their nearest friends; for they say that for a man to be wasted by disease is for their own meat to be spoilt. The man denies that he ails; but they, not letting him have his own way, kill and feast on him. If a female be sick, the women that are most intimate with her treat her as the males do the men. They sacrifice and feast upon all who arrive at old age. Few, however, go thus far, since they kill every one who falls sick before he reaches that stage of life."

Name for name, the Vaddahs of Ceylon have a claim to be Padæi. Besides which they are Indian.

But, name for name, the Battas[57] of Sumatra have a claim as well; and although they are not exactly Indian, they are cannibals of the sort in question—or, at any rate, cannibals in a manner quite as remarkable.

This gives us a conflict of difficulties. The solution of them lies in the fact of neither Vaddah[195] nor Batta being native names; a fact which leaves us a liberty to suppose that the Padæi of Herodotus were simply some wild Indian tribe sufficiently allied in manners to the Vaddahs of Ceylon, and the Battas of Sumatra, to be called by the same name, but without being necessarily either the one or the other; or even ethnologically connected with either.

Now look at the gipsies of Great Britain. They are wanderers without fixed habitations; whilst, at the same time, they are more abundant in some parts of the island than others. They have no very definite occupation; yet they are oftener tinkers and tinmen than aught else equally legal. They intermarry with the English but little. All this is caste, although we may not exactly call it so. Then, again, they have a peculiar language, although it is so imperfectly known to the majority of the British gipsies, as to have become well-nigh extinct.[58] These gipsies are of Indian origin, and a wandering tribe of Hindostan, called Sikligurs, reminded Mr. Pickering of the European gipsies more than any other Indians he fell in with. Like these, the Sikligurs are coves, or tinkers.

[196]

This, however, is by the way. Although it is as well to make a note of the Indian extraction of the English and other European gipsies, it is not for this reason that they have been mentioned. They find a place here for the sake of illustrating what is meant by the wandering tribes of India, whilst at the same time they throw a slight illustration over the nature of castes. Lastly, they are essentially parts of an ethnological investigation—ethnological rather than either social or political. Their characteristics are referable to a difference of descent; and they are tinkers, wanderers, poachers, and smugglers, not so much because they are either gipsies, or Indians, as because they are of a different stock from the English. They are foreigners in the fullest sense of the term; and they differ from their fellow-citizens just as the Jew does—though less advantageously.

Now India swarms with the analogues of the English gipsy; so much so as to make it likely that the latter is found as far from his original country as Wales and Norway, simply because he is a vagabond, not because he is an Indian.

Of the chief of the tribes in question a good account is given by Mr. Balfour. This list, however, which is as follows, may be enlarged.

1. The Gohur are, perhaps, better known under the name of Lumbarri, and better still as[197] the Brinjarri, the bullock-drivers of many parts of India, but more especially of the Dekhan. They are corn-merchants as well. Their organization consists of divisions called Tandas, at the head of which is a Naek. Two Naeks paramount over the rest, reside permanently at Hyderabad, on the confines of the Mahratta and Telugu countries. The bullock, Hatadia, devoted to the God Balajee, is an object of worship. In a long line of Brinjarri met by Mr. Pickering,[59] one of the females was carrying a dog, which neither a Hindú nor a Parsi would have done. Many of them are Sikhs. There are, certainly, three divisions of the Gohuri—the Chouhane,[60] the Rhatore, and the Powar, and probably—

The Purmans are another branch of them; consisting of about seventy-five families of agriculturists on the Bombay islets.

2. The Bhowri, called also Hirn-shikarri and Hern-pardi, though Bhowri is the native name, are hunters. They also fall into subordinate divisions.

3. The Tarremúki; so-called by themselves, but known in the Dekhan as Ghissaris, or Bail-Kumbar, and amongst the Mahrattas, as Lohars, are blacksmiths.[198]

4. The Korawi, fall in tribes which neither eat with each other, nor intermarry, viz.:—

a. The Bajantri, who are musicians.

b. The Teling—basket-makers and prostitutes.

c. The Kolla.

d. The Soli.

5. The Bhattu, Dummur, or Kollati, are exorcists and exhibitors of feats of strength.

6. The Muddikpur, so called by themselves, though known under several other names, follow a variety of employments; some being ferrymen.

All these tribes wander about the country without any permanent home, speak a peculiar dialect with a considerable proportion of Non-Sanskritic words, and preserve certain peculiarities of creed; though in different degrees—the Muddikpur being wholly or nearly pagan, the Tarremúki Brahminic.

The wandering life of these, and other similar tribes is not, by itself, sufficient to justify us in separating them from the other Hindús. But it does not stand alone. The fragments of an earlier paganism, and the fragments of an earlier language are phenomena which must be taken in conjunction with it. These suggest the likelihood of the Gohuri, the Bhatti, and their like, being in the same category with the Khonds and Bhils, &c., i.e., representatives of the earlier and more exclusively Tamulian populations. If the gipsy language of England had, instead of its Indian[199] elements, an equal number of words from the original British, it would present the same phenomena, and lead to the same inference as that which is drawn from the Bhatti, Bhowri, Tarremúki, and Gohuri vocabularies,[61] viz.: the doctrine that fragments of the original population are to be sought for amongst the wanderers over the face of the country, as well as among the occupants of its mountain strongholds.

In a country like India, where differences of habit, business, extraction, and creed, are accompanied by an inordinate amount of separation between different sections and subsections of its population, and where slight barriers of diverse kinds prevent intermixture, the different sects of its numerous religions requires notice. This, however, may be short. As sectarianism is generally in the direct ratio to the complexity of the creed submitted to section, we may expect to find the forms of Brahminism and Buddhism, not less numerous than those of either Christianity or Mahometanism. And such is really the case. The sects are too numerous to enlarge upon. The Sikh creed has been noticed from its political importance. That of the Jains is also remarkable, since it most closely resembles Buddhism, without being absolutely[200] Buddhist in the current sense of the word. It is, possibly, the actual and original Buddhism of the continent of India—supposed to have been driven out bodily by Brahminism, but really with the true vitality of persecuted creeds, still surviving in disguise. Again, in India, though in a less degree than in China, Philosophy replaces belief—so much so, that the different forms of one negation—Natural Religion—must be classed amongst the creeds of Hindostan; by the side of which there stand many kinds of simple philosophy; just as was the case in ancient Greece, where, in one and the same city, there were the philosophers of the Academy and the believers in Zeus.

There is, then, creed within creed in the two great religions of India—to say nothing about the numerous fragments of modified and unmodified paganism.

And besides these there are the following introduced religions—each coinciding, more or less, with some ethnological division.

1. Christianity from, at least, four different sources—

a. That of the Christians of Thomas on the Malabar Coast. Here the doctrine is that of the Syrian Church, and the population being perhaps (?) Persian in origin.

b. The Romanism of the French and Portuguese;[201] the latter having its greatest development in the Mahratta country, about Goa.

c. Dutch and Danish Protestantism.

d. English and American Protestantism. To which add small infusions of the Armenian and Abyssinian churches.

Of these it is only the Christians of St. Thomas that are of much ethnological importance.

2. Judaism on the coast of Malabar; or the Judaism of the so-called Black Jews.

3. Parseeism in Gujerat; of Persian origin, and, probably, nearly confined to individuals of Persian blood.

4. Mahometanism.

Of foreign blood there are numerous infusions.

1. Arab.—On the western coast, more especially amongst the Moplahs of the neighbourhood of Goa; where the stock seems to be Arabian on the father's, and Indian on the mother's side.

2. Persian.—Amongst the Parsees and Saint Thomas Christians (?); and, far more unequivocally, and in greater proportions, amongst the Moghul families—these being always more or less Persian; but Persian with such heterogeneous intermixtures of Turk and Mongol blood besides as to make analysis almost impossible.

3. Afghan.—The Rohillas of Rohilcund are Afghan in origin; so are the Patani—indeed, the[202] term Patan means an Afghan of Hindostan wherever he may be.

4. Jewish.

5, 6, 7.—Chinese, Malay, Burmese, &c.

8. European.

Of the Indians out of India, by far the most are—

1. The Gipsies.

2. The Banians, who are the Hindú traders of Arabia, Persia, Cashmir, and other parts of the East.

3. The Hill Coolies, individuals of the Khond and Kúli class, upon whom England is trying the experiment of what may end in a revival of the old crimping system, as a substitute for slave-labour in our intertropical colonies.

Such is a sketch of the ethnology of India; pre-eminently complex, but not pre-eminently mysterious; its chief problems being—

1. The general ethnological relations of the Tamulian stock.

2. Those of the intrusive Brahminical Hindús.

3. The relation of the intrusive population to the aboriginal.[62]

FOOTNOTES:

[41] "Transactions of Philological Society," No. 94.

[42] Latin nurus, from snurus.

[43] Latin socer, Greek ἕκυρος.

[44] Latin socrus, Greek ἕκυρα.

[45] Latin levir (devir), Greek δαηρ.

[46] Or that, this.

[47] The full exposition of this doctrine is in the present writer's ethnological edition of the "Germania" of Tacitus; v. Æstyi.

[48] Taken from the Appendix to Captain Cunningham's "History of the Sikhs."

[49] Captain Postans, in "Transactions of Ethnological Society," who, along with Sir H. Pottinger, is my chief authority.

[50] For a description of these parts see Major Edwardes' "Year on the Punjâb Frontier."

[51] The best account of the Brahúi is to be found in Sir H. Pottinger's Travels.

[52] In the sixth century, B.C. according to the Buddhist chronology.

[53] Such, at least, is the opinion of the author of "Christianity in Ceylon," Sir E. Tennent.

[54] Names explained in Chapter iii.

[55] From Callaway's "Translation of the Kolán Nattannawa."

[56] Book iii. §. 99.

[57] The same, probably, is the case with the Bidi of Java.

[58] From this language, I imagine that the three following words have come into the English—two of them being slang and one a sporting term—rum, cove, jockey.

[59] "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," No. 145.

[60] These names introduce a difficulty: They are Rajpút as well.

[61] All of which may be found in the paper already quoted; and all of which contain numerous Tamul roots.

[62] Since this was written Major-General Briggs' valuable paper on the Aboriginal Tribes of India, has been published in "Transactions of the British Association," &c., for 1851. Having been seen in MS. by the present writer it has been freely used.

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