because its followers have monastic institutions, and make use of a kind
of rosary; but as the political idolatry of the Chinese for their state
and sovereign is widely different from the true principle of Christian
government, _that all power is from God_, so this false religion of
Buddha is further removed than any other from Christianity: it is on the
contrary adverse to our religion, and, so far from being half similar to
Christianity, is a decidedly anti-Christian creed.[47]
We may thus sum up the result of our enquiries:--among the great nations
of primitive antiquity who stood the nearest, or at least very near, to
the source of sacred tradition--the word of primitive revelation,--the
Chinese hold a very distinguished place; and many passages in their
primitive history, many remarkable vestiges of eternal truth--the
heritage of old thoughts--to be found in their ancient classical works,
prove the originally high eminence of this people. But at a very early
period, their science had taken a course completely erroneous, and even
their language partly followed this direction, or at least assumed a
very stiff and artificial character. Descending from one degree of
political idolatry to a grade still lower, they have at last openly
embraced a foreign superstition--a diabolic mimicry of Christianity,
which emanated from India, has made Thibet its principal seat, prevails
in China, and, widely diffused over the whole middle Asia, reckons a
greater number of followers than any other religion on the earth.
END OF LECTURE III.
LECTURE IV.
Of the Institutions of the Indians--the Brahminical caste, and the
hereditary priesthood.--Of the doctrine of the transmigration of
souls, considered as the basis of Indian life, and of Indian
philosophy.
When Alexander the Great had attained the object of his most ardent
desires and, realizing the fabulous expedition of Bacchus and his train
of followers, had at last reached India, the Greeks found this vast
region, even on this side of the Ganges--(for that river, the peculiar
object of Alexander's ambition, the conqueror in despite of all his
efforts, was unable to reach)--the Greeks found this country extensive,
fertile, highly cultivated, populous, and filled with flourishing
cities, as it was, divided into a number of great and petty kingdoms.
They found there an hereditary division of castes, such as still
subsists; although they reckoned not four, but seven castes, a
circumstance, however, which, as we shall see later, argues no essential
difference in the division of Indian classes at that period. They
remarked, also, that the country was divided into two religious parties
or sects, the _Brachmans and the Samaneans_. By the first, the Greeks
designated the followers of the religion of Brahma, as well as of
Vishnoo and Siva, a religion which still subsists, and is more deeply
rooted and more widely diffused and prevalent in India than any other
religious system; distinguished as it is by its leading dogma of the
transmigration of souls, which has exerted the mightiest influence on
every department of thought, on the whole bearing of Indian philosophy,
and on the whole arrangement of Indian life. But by the Greek
denomination of _Samaneans_ we must certainly understand the Buddhists,
as, among the rude nations of central Asia, and in other countries, the
priests of the religion of Fo bear at this day the name of _Schamans_.
These priests indeed appear to be little better than mere sorcerers and
jugglers, as are the priests of all idolatrous nations that are sunk to
the lowest degree of barbarism and superstition. The word itself is pure
Indian, and occurs frequently in the religious and metaphysical
treatises of that people; for originally, and before it had received
such a mean acceptation among those Buddhist nations, it had quite a
philosophical sense, as it still has in the Sanscrit. This word denotes
that equability of mind, or that deep internal equanimity which,
according to the Indian philosophy, must precede, and is indispensably
requisite to the perfect union with the God-head. In general all the
names by which Buddha, the priests of his religion, and its important
and fundamental doctrines are known, whether in Thibet, or among the
Mongul nations, in Siam, in Pegu, or in Japan--in general, we say, all
those names are pure Indian words; for the tradition of all those
nations, with unanimous accord, deduces the origin of this sect from
India.
The name of Buddha, which the Chinese have changed, or shortened into
that of Fo, is rather an honorary appellation, and is expressive of the
divine wisdom with which, in the opinion of his followers, he was
endowed; or which rather, according to their belief, became visible in
his person. The period of his existence is fixed by many at six hundred
years, by others again at a thousand years, before the Christian era.
His real and historical name was Gautama; and it is remarkable that the
same name was borne by the author of one of the principal philosophical
systems of the Hindoos, the Nyaya philosophy, the leading principles of
which will be the subject of future consideration, when we come to speak
of the Indian philosophy. Indeed, the dialectic spirit, which pervades
the Nyaya philosophy would seem to be of a kindred nature and like
origin with the confused metaphysics of the Buddhists. But the names,
notwithstanding their identity, denote two different persons; although
even the founder of the dialectic system, like almost all other
celebrated names in the ancient history, traditions and science of the
Indians, figures in the character of a mythological personage. But we
must first take a view of the state of manners, and the state of
political civilization, in India, in order to be able to form a right
judgment and estimate of the intellectual and scientific exertions of
its inhabitants, and of the peculiar nature and tendency of the Indian
opinions.
By the manner in which the Greek writers speak of the two religious
parties, into which Alexander found the country divided, it can scarcely
be doubted that the Buddhists at that period were far more numerous, and
more extensively diffused throughout India, than they are at the present
day, and this inference is even corroborated by many historical vouchers
of the Indians themselves. Although the Buddhists are now but an obscure
sect of dissenters in the Western Peninsula, they are still tolerably
numerous in several of its provinces; while, on the other hand, they
have complete possession of the whole Eastern and Indo-Chinese
peninsula. Besides this sect, there are many other religious dissenters
even in Hindostan; such for instance, as the sect of _Jains_, who steer
a middle course between the followers of the old and established
religion of Brahma, and the Buddhists; for, like the latter, they reject
the Indian division and system of castes. Even the established religion
itself is divided into three parties, which, though they do not form
precisely separate sects, still are marked by no inconsiderable
differences in their opinions, views, and conduct: according as each of
these parties acknowledges the supremacy, or renders a nearly exclusive
worship to one or other of the three principal Hindoo divinities,
Brahma, Vishnoo, and Siva. And, although in the empire of the great
Mogul, the number of the Mahometan conquerors, and of those that
accompanied them into India, was very small, compared with the mass of
the native population, yet, after the total destruction of this empire,
there still remain several millions of Mahometans in the country. Even
the Persian language, or a corrupt dialect of it, which these conquerors
introduced, is still in many places in use as the language of ordinary
life, trade, and business; in the same way as the Portuguese in the
maritime and commercial cities of India, or the Lingua Franca in our
eastern factories, serves as the usual and convenient medium of
communication.
The Indian is not the only, or exclusively prevailing, language in the
whole peninsula; in several provinces, as for instance, on the southern
coast, and in the Isle of Ceylon, quite a different language prevails;
and the old cultivated and classical speech of India is there unknown.
The name of Sanscrit, by which the latter is designated, denotes a
cultivated or highly wrought language; but the Pracrit, which is
employed together or alternately with the Sanscrit in the theatrical
pieces of the Indians, signifies a natural and artless speech, and is
not so much a distinct dialect as a softer pronunciation of the
Sanscrit, which smoothes, suppresses, or melts down the hard and crowded
consonants, and pays less regard to the more elaborate grammatical forms
of this language. The Pracrit, which is used in dramatic pieces,
particularly in the female parts, stands from its more simple grammar,
in the same relation to the Sanscrit as the softer Italian or Portuguese
is to the old Latin, without however the same heterogeneous alloy. But,
independently of these variations in the later and beautiful language of
Indian poetry, the language of that country is split and divided into a
number of dissimilar and widely dissimilar dialects, such as the
Malabar, for example; and almost in every province the common language
undergoes a variety of changes; and this is the case even in Bengal. The
country of the Upper Ganges, especially Benares, is renowned for being
the chief seat of the Sanscrit tongue,--the place, at least, where it is
best understood, and spoken with the greatest purity.
Those languages which differ totally from the Indian belong in part to
quite a different race of men, mostly, perhaps, to the Malays: for, so
far is India from being entirely peopled by one single race of
inhabitants, that we find in several of its provinces tribes of an
origin totally different from that of the Hindoos. This great variety in
the whole life, manners, and political institutions of the Indians,
forms a striking contrast with the absolute unity, and internal
uniformity of the Chinese Empire. It was perhaps this variety in the
moral and political aspect of ancient India that gave rise to the
denomination which it has received in the old sacred Median books of
Zoroaster, where, in the first _fargard_, or section of the Vendidat, it
is described as the fifteenth pure region of the earth, created by
Ormuzd, and designated by the name of _Hapte Heando_--a name which
signifies the seven Indias. As India is still split into a multitude of
sects and religions, and divided into different tribes, speaking various
languages; so, as Herodotus long ago observed, it has for the most part
been ever composed of a multitude of great and petty states, although
from its natural boundaries it might easily have been formed into one
great monarchy, and really constitutes but one country in its
geographical circumscription.
The historian of India would have principally to speak of the successes
of a long series of foreign conquerors, who, from Alexander the Great to
Nadir Shah, have invaded this country by the North-west side from
Persia. The Greeks were indeed told that, before Alexander the Great, no
foreign conqueror had ever invaded India; and even after this invasion,
and on the death of Sandracottus, when the Indians were liberated from
the transient dominion of the Greeks, they were for a long lapse of ages
governed by native princes; and their country was parcelled out into a
number of great and petty kingdoms, such as those of Magadha, Ayodha,
&c. It is a striking incident in the moral, and intellectual history of
the Hindoos that amid all the revolutions under their ancient and native
rulers, and amid all the later vicissitudes of foreign conquest, their
peculiar modes of life and their institution of castes should have been
preserved, and, in despite of all the changes of time and of empire,
should have stood unchanged, like the one surviving monument of the
primitive world. In the administration and government of this country,
the absolute monarchical sway which exists in China, and the unlimited
despotism of other oriental countries, could never be realized; for that
hereditary division of classes, and those hereditary rights belonging to
each, which, as they form a part of the Indian constitution, have taken
such deep root in the soil; and which, as they rest on the immoveable
basis of ancient faith, have become, as it were, the second nature of
this people--all these present an unassailable rampart, which not even a
foreign conqueror could ever succeed in overthrowing. We can hence
understand what led the Greeks to believe and assert that there were
Republican states in India. If from prepossessions, which were natural
to that people, they asserted too much, or thought they saw more than a
nearer investigation proves to be actually the case; still their
assertion is not totally without foundation, for the Indian system of
castes is in many respects more favourable to institutions of a
Republican nature, or at least Republican tendency, than the
constitution of any other Asiatic state. When those modern writers
therefore, who were the declared enemies of all hereditary rank and
hereditary rights, spoke with contempt and abhorence of the Indian
constitution of castes, represented it as the peculiar basis of
despotism, and even applied the name of caste as a party-word to the
social relations of Europe; their assertions were false and utterly
opposed to history. The invectives of these writers may be easily
accounted for, from their very democratic views, or rather from their
doctrine of absolute equality, as this equality itself is ever the
attendant of despotism, produces it, or proceeds from it, and is one of
its most distinctive characteristics. In confirmation of what we have
said, we may observe, that even at the present day most of the cities of
India possess municipal institutions, which are much admired by English
writers, who attest from their personal experience and observation,
their salutary influence on individual and public prosperity. In general
the English have paid very great attention to the jurisprudence and
civil legislation of India; as the fundamental principle of their Indian
government is to rule that country according to its own laws, customs
and privileges; while, on the contrary, the other European powers that
once had obtained a firm footing in India, formed alliances with, and
attached themselves by preference to, the Mahometan sovereigns of the
country. By this simple, but enlightened principle in their Indian
policy and administration, the English have obtained the ascendency over
all their rivals or opponents, and have become complete masters of the
whole of this splendid region.
The scholars of Europe began their Indian researches by the study and
translation of the laws and jurisprudence of the Hindoos, the text as
well as commentaries, and it was only at a later period they extended
their inquiries to other subjects. The Indian jurisprudence is
undoubtedly a standing proof and monument of the comparatively high and
very ancient moral and intellectural refinement of that people; and a
more minute and profound investigation of that jurisprudence would no
doubt give rise to many interesting points of comparison, and to many
striking analogies, partly with the old Athenian, or first Roman laws,
partly with the Mosaic legislation, and even in some particular points,
with the Germanic constitution. As the caste of warriors in India, who
constitute the class of landed proprietors, and the aristocracy of the
country, are founded on exactly the same principle as the hereditary
nobility of Germany, it cannot excite surprise, if we find in India, not
indeed the elaborate and complex feudality of the Germans, but a more
simple system of fiefs.
But, according to the plan we have proposed to ourselves, in the history
of all ancient, and especially of the primitive Asiatic nations, the
matter of greatest moment must be to trace their intellectual progress,
their scientific labours, and predominant opinions; all those views of
divine and human things, that have a mighty influence on life; and
finally the peculiar religious feelings and principles of each of those
ancient nations. In the second part of this work, when we shall have to
speak of the progress of mankind in modern times, we may perhaps change
our point of view, and find it of more importance to trace the mutual
relations between the external state of society and the internal
development of intellect. But in that remote antiquity, which is
contiguous to the primitive ages, the points of greatest moment, as we
have already observed, are the intellectual character, the modes of
thinking, and the religion of those nations. On the other hand, their
civil legislation, and even their political constitutions, however
important, interesting and instructive the closer investigation of those
subjects may be in other respects, can occupy in this history but a
secondary place; and it will suffice for our purpose to point out some
leading points of legislation that serve as the foundation and principle
of the moral and intellectual character of those nations. In India this
leading point is the institution of castes, the most remarkable feature
in all Indian life, and which in its essential traits existed in Egypt.
This singular phenomenon of Indian life has even some points of
connexion with a capital article of their creed, the doctrine of the
transmigration of souls--a doctrine which will be later the subject of
our enquiries, and which we shall endeavour to place in a nearer and
clearer light. In shewing the influence of the institution of castes on
the state of manners in India, I may observe, in the first place, that
in this division of the social ranks there is no distinct class of
_slaves_ (as was indeed long ago remarked by the _Greeks_); that is to
say, no such class of bought slaves--no men, the property and
merchandise of their fellow-men--as existed in ancient Greece and Rome,
as exist even at this day among Mahometan nations; and, as in the case
of the Negroes, are still to be found in the colonial possessions of the
Christian and European states. The labouring class of the _Sudras_ is
undoubtedly not admitted to the high privileges of the first classes,
and is in a state of great dependance upon these; but this very caste of
Sudras has its hereditary and clearly defined rights. It is only by a
crime that a man in India can lose his caste, and the rights annexed to
it. These rights are acquired by birth; except in the instance of the
offspring of unlawful marriages between persons of different castes. The
fate of these hapless wretches is indeed hard,--harder, almost, than
that of real slaves among other nations. Ejected, excommunicated as it
were, loaded with malediction, they are regarded as the outcasts of
society, yea almost, of humanity itself. This terrible exclusion,
however, from the rights of citizenship occurs only in certain clearly
specified cases. There are even some cases of exception explicitly laid
down, where a marriage with a person of different caste is permitted; or
where at least the only consequence to the children of such marriage is
a degradation to an inferior class of society. But the general rule is
that a lawful marriage can be contracted only with a woman of the same
caste. Women participate in all the rights of their caste; in the high
prerogatives of Brahmins, if they are of the sacerdotal race (although
there are not and never were priestesses among the Indians as among the
other heathen nations of antiquity); or in the privileges of nobility,
if they belong to the caste of the _Cshatriyas_. These privileges which
belong and are secured to women, and this participation in the rights
and advantages of their respective classes, must tend much undoubtedly
to mitigate the injurious effects of polygamy. The latter custom has
ever prevailed, and still prevails, in India; though not to the same
degree of licentiousness, nor with the same unlimited and despotic
controul, as in Mahometan countries; but a plurality of wives is there
permitted only under certain conditions, and with certain legal
restrictions; consequently in that milder form, under which it existed
of old in the warm climes of Asia, and according to the patriarchal
simplicity of the yet thinly peopled world. The much higher social rank,
and better moral condition of the female sex in India, are apparent from
those portraits of Indian life which are drawn in their beautiful works
of poetry, whether of a primitive or a later date; and from that deep
feeling of tenderness, that affectionate regard and reverence, with
which the character of woman and her domestic relations are invariably
represented. These few examples suffice to show the moral effects of the
Indian division of castes; and while they serve to defend this
institution against a sweeping sentence of condemnation, or the
indiscriminate censure of too partial prejudice, they place the subject
in its true and proper light, and present alike the advantages and
defects of the system.