| 1. Esmi | eswa | esme. |
| 2. Essi | esta | esti. |
| 3. Esti | esti | esti. |
SANSKRIT.
Asmi = I am.
| 1. Asmi | swah | smah. |
| 2. Asi | sthah | stha. |
| 3. Asti | stah | santi. |
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.