ANTICIPATORY USE OF THE CROSS.—RINGING BELLS FOR THE DEAD.
(Vol. viii., pp. 130. 132.)
I trust that the following information may be acceptable to you and the authors of two interesting papers in "N. & Q." (Vol. viii., pp. 130-2.), viz. "Anticipatory Use of the Cross," and "Curious Custom of ringing Bells for the Dead."
When encamped, in 1823 or 1824, near the town (not the cantonment) of Muttra, on the river Jumna, a place of celebrated sanctity as the scene of the last incarnation of Vishnoo, the protective deity or myth of the Hindoos, an Italian gentleman of most polished manners, speaking English correctly and with fluency, was introduced to me. He travelled under the name of Count Venua, and was understood to be the eldest son of the then Prime Minister of Sardinia. The Count explained to me that his favourite pursuit was architecture, and that he preferred buildings of antiquity. I replied, that while breakfast was preparing I could meet his wishes, and led him to a large Hindoo edifice close by (or rather the remains), which a Mogul emperor had partially destroyed and thereby desecrated, the place having since been occasionally used by the townspeople as a cattle-shed, or for rubbish.
The Count, not deterred by heaps of cattle-dung, paced the dimensions, gazed on the solidity of the stone masonry, approved of the construction and shape of the arched roof, pointed out the absence of all ornament excepting a simple moulding or two as architectural lines, and then broke out into enthusiastic admiration. "The most beautiful building! the greatest wonder of the world! Shame on the English government and English gentlemen for secreting such a curiosity! Here is the cross! the basilica carried out with more correctness of order and symmetry than in Italy! The early Christians must have built it! I will take measurements and drawings to lay before the cardinals!"
I was never more surprised, and assured the Count that I was unacquainted with the cathedral buildings of Europe, and I believed English gentlemen generally to be as ignorant as myself. I could not but acknowledge that the local governments had, as it seemed to him, evinced but little sympathy with Hindooism; and that whatever might be European policy in respect to religion, the East India Company might have participated in the desire which prevails in Europe to develop ancient customs, and the reasons of those customs. It might be presumed that we should then have contemplated this specimen of architecture with a knowledge of its original purposes, and the history of its events, had the Governor-General communicated his wish, and with due courtesy and disinterestedness invited the learned persons and scholars at the colleges of Muttra and Benares to assist such inquiries. It is but little the English now know of the Hindoo organisation, and the little they do know is derived from books not tested nor acknowledged by such learned persons.
I assisted Count Venua as far as I was able, for I rejoiced at his intention to draw the minds of the literati of Italy to the subject. Sad to say, the Count was some time after killed by falling into a volcanic crater in the Eastern Isles!
I may here mention that I first saw the old building in 1809, when a youthful assistant to the secretary of a revenue commission. The party, during the inclement month of September, resided in one of the spacious houses at Muttra, which pious Hindoos had in past times erected for the use of pilgrims and the public. The old temple (or whatever it might have been) was cleaned out for our accommodation during the heat of the day, as it then was cooler than the house. The elder civilians were men of ability, classical scholars, and first-rate Asiatic linguists. They descanted on the mythological events which renders "Brij," or the country around Muttra, so holy with the Hindoos, but not one of them knew nor remarked the "cross and basilica."
In youth, the language assigned to flowers appeared to me captivating and elegant, as imparting the finer feelings and sympathies of our nature. In maturer age, and after the study of the history of the customs of mankind, symbols and emblems seemed to me an universal language, which delicately delineated the violent passions of our kind, and transmitted from generation to generation national predilections and pious emotions towards the God of Creation. That mythology should so generally be interpreted Theism, and that forms or ceremonials of worship should be held to limit and define belief in creed, may, in my apprehension, be partly traceable to the school-book Lamprière's Classical Dictionary. You or your correspondents may attribute it to other and truer causes.
The rose, the thistle, the shamrock, the leek, the lion, the unicorn, the harp, &c. are familiar examples of national emblems. The ivy, the holly, and the mistletoe are joined up with the Christmas worship, though probably of Druidical origin. The Assyrian sculptures present, under the "Joronher," or effulgence, a sacred tree, which may assimilate with the toolsu and the peepul tree, held in almost equal veneration by the Hindoos. The winged lions and bulls with the heads of men, the angels and cherubim, recall to mind passages of scriptural and pagan history. The sciences of astronomy and mathematics have afforded myths or symbols in the circle, the crescent, the bident, the trident, the cross, &c.
The translators of the cuneiform inscriptions represent crucifixion as the common punishment for rebellion and treason. The Jews may have imitated the Assyrians, as crucifixion may have been adopted long before that of Christ and the two thieves (Qy. robbers). The Mahomedans, who have copied the Jews in many practices and customs, executed gang robbers or daccorts by suspending the criminals from a tree, their heads and arms being tied to the branches, and then ripping up the abdomen. I myself saw in Oude an instance of several bodies. It may be inferred, then, that the position of the culprits under execution was designated by crucifixion. The Hindoos mildly say that when their system of government existed in efficiency there was neither crime nor punishment.
To the examples mentioned by your correspondent, I admit that the form of the cross, as now received, may be derived from that of Christ, discovered on Mount Calvary in 236 A.D. Constantine, in 306 A.D., adopted it as a standard in Labarum. Other nations have attached staves to eagles, dragons, fish, &c. as standards and therefore, construing "Crux ansata" literally, the ensign of Constantine might be formed by attaching a staff to the Divine Glory represented in the Egyptian paintings and Assyrian sculptures.
I should be glad to learn the precise shape of the cross on the Temple of Serapis. If it be the emblem of life or the Creative Power, then the mythology of the Nile agrees with that of the Ganges. If it be the symbol of life, or rather of a future state after judgment, then the religious tenets and creed of Muttra should be elucidated, examined, and refuted by the advocates of conversion and their itinerant agents. Moore's Hindoo Pantheon (though the author had at Bombay, as a military officer, little opportunity of ascertaining particulars of the doctrine) sufficiently treats, under the head of the "Krishna," the subject so as to explain to the conversionists, that unless this doctrine be openly refuted, the missionaries may in truth be fighting their own shadow.
The basilica seems to have originally been the architectural plan of the Roman Forum, or court of justice. The Christians may have converted some of these edifices into churches; otherwise the first churches seem to have been in the form of a long parallelogram, a central nave, and an aisle on each side, the eastern end being rounded, as the station of the bishop or presbyter. The basilica, or cathedral, was probably not introduced until the eighth century, or later.
I have not just now access to the works of Tod and Maurice. The former, I doubt not, is correct in respect to the Temple of Mundore, but I believe the latter is not so in regard to Benares. The trident, like that of Neptune, prevails in the province of Benares; and when it, in appropriate size, rises in the centre of large tanks, has a very solemn effect. I, a great many years ago, visited the chief temple of Benares, and do not recollect that the cross was either noticed to me or by me. This, I think, was the only occasion of observing the forms of worship. There is no fixed service, no presiding priest, no congregation. The people come and go in succession. I then first saw the bell, which, in size some twenty-five pounds weight, is suspended within the interior. Each person, at some period of his devotion, touched the tongue of the bell as invocation or grace. The same purpose is obtained by Hindoos, and particularly the men of the fighting classes, previously to commencing a cooked dinner, by winding a large shell, which gives a louder sound than a horn. The native boys however, on hearing it, exclaim in doggerel rhyme, which I translate,
"The shell is blown,
And the devil is flown."
Fear seems so much the parent of superstition, that I attribute this saying to the women, who, as mothers, have usually a superstitious dread not only of evil spirits, but also of the evil eye of mortals towards their young ones. When, some twenty years ago, I was told by a Kentish countryman that the church bell was tolled to drive away evil spirits from a departing soul, I supposed the man to be profanely jocose; but since then I have travelled much in this country and on the Continent, and have seen enough to satisfy me that superstition prevails comparatively less in Asia than in Europe and the pages of "N. & Q." abundantly corroborate the opinion.
H. N.