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 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 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--
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.
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.
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.
_Father_ tewas otets pitr.
_Mother_ motina mat' m[=a]tr.
_Son_ sunai suin s[=u]nu.
_Brother_ brolis brat bhratr.
_Sister_ sessu sestra svasr.
_Daughter-in-law_ -- snokha snush[=a].[42]
_Father-in-law_ -- svekor[43] ['s]vasúra.
_Mother-in-law_ -- svekrov'[44] ['s]vas ru.
_Brother-in-law_ -- dever'[45] devr.
_One_ wienas odin eka.
_Two_ du dva dv[=a].
_Three_ trys tri tri.
_Four_ keturi chetuire chatv[=a]rah.
_Five_ penki piat' pancha.
_Six_ szessi shest' shash.
_Seven_ septyni sedm' saptan.
_Eight_ asstuoni osm' ashtan.
_Nine_ dewyni deviat' navan.
_Ten_ dessimtis desiat' 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.
_I_ ass aham azem.
_Thou_ tu twam t[=u]m.
_Ye_ yus y[=u]yam y[=u]s.
_The_[46] tas ta-_d_ tad.
-- szi sah ho.
LITHUANIC.
Laups-inni = _I praise._
_Present._
1. Laups -innu -innawa -inname.
2. -- -inni -innata -innata.
3. -- -inna -inna -inna.
SANSKRIT.
Jaj-ami = _I conquer._
_Present._
1. Jaj -[=a]mi -[=a]vah -[=a]mah.
2. -- -[)a]si -[)a]thah -[)a]tha.
3. -- -[)a]ti -[)a]tah -anti.
LITHUANIC.
Esmi = _I am._
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
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 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.
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 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, 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.
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. A['S]WINS, cherishers of pious acts, long-armed, accept with
outstretched hands the sacrificial viands!
2. A['S]WINS, abounding in mighty acts, guides (of devotion),
endowed with fortitude, listen with unaverted minds to our praises!
3. A['S]WINS, 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
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 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 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 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 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?
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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;
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. 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 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. 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 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_).
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 _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 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 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.
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. 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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.
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.
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_ 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.
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 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.
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 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
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; 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 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 {hekyros}.
[44] Latin _socrus_, Greek {hekyra}.
[45] Latin _levir_ (_devir_), Greek {daêr}.
[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.