(Vol. viii., pp. 130. 132.)
I trust that the following information may be acceptable to you and the
authors of two interesting papers in "N. & Q." (Vol. viii., pp. 130-2.),
viz. "Anticipatory Use of the Cross," and "Curious Custom of ringing
Bells for the Dead."
When encamped, in 1823 or 1824, near the town (not the cantonment) of
Muttra, on the river Jumna, a place of celebrated sanctity as the scene
of the last incarnation of Vishnoo, the protective deity or myth of the
Hindoos, an Italian gentleman of most polished manners, speaking English
correctly and with fluency, was introduced to me. He travelled under the
name of Count Venua, and was understood to be the eldest son of the then
Prime Minister of Sardinia. The Count explained to me that his favourite
pursuit was architecture, and that he preferred buildings of antiquity.
I replied, that while breakfast was preparing I could meet his wishes,
and led him to a large Hindoo edifice close by (or rather the remains),
which a Mogul emperor had partially destroyed and thereby desecrated,
the place having since been occasionally used by the townspeople as a
cattle-shed, or for rubbish.
The Count, not deterred by heaps of cattle-dung, paced the dimensions,
gazed on the solidity of the {418} stone masonry, approved of the
construction and shape of the arched roof, pointed out the absence of
all ornament excepting a simple moulding or two as architectural lines,
and then broke out into enthusiastic admiration. "The most beautiful
building! the greatest wonder of the world! Shame on the English
government and English gentlemen for secreting such a curiosity! Here is
the cross! the basilica carried out with more correctness of order and
symmetry than in Italy! The early Christians must have built it! I will
take measurements and drawings to lay before the cardinals!"
I was never more surprised, and assured the Count that I was
unacquainted with the cathedral buildings of Europe, and I believed
English gentlemen generally to be as ignorant as myself. I could not but
acknowledge that the local governments had, as it seemed to him, evinced
but little sympathy with Hindooism; and that whatever might be European
policy in respect to religion, the East India Company might have
participated in the desire which prevails in Europe to develop ancient
customs, and the reasons of those customs. It might be presumed that we
should then have contemplated this specimen of architecture with a
knowledge of its original purposes, and the history of its events, had
the Governor-General communicated his wish, and with due courtesy and
disinterestedness invited the learned persons and scholars at the
colleges of Muttra and Benares to assist such inquiries. It is but
little the English now know of the Hindoo organisation, and the little
they do know is derived from books not tested nor acknowledged by such
learned persons.
I assisted Count Venua as far as I was able, for I rejoiced at his
intention to draw the minds of the _literati_ of Italy to the subject.
Sad to say, the Count was some time after killed by falling into a
volcanic crater in the Eastern Isles!
I may here mention that I first saw the old building in 1809, when a
youthful assistant to the secretary of a revenue commission. The party,
during the inclement month of September, resided in one of the spacious
houses at Muttra, which pious Hindoos had in past times erected for the
use of pilgrims and the public. The old temple (or whatever it might
have been) was cleaned out for our accommodation during the heat of the
day, as it then was cooler than the house. The elder civilians were men
of ability, classical scholars, and first-rate Asiatic linguists. They
descanted on the mythological events which renders "Brij," or the
country around Muttra, so holy with the Hindoos, but not one of them
knew nor remarked the "cross and basilica."
In youth, the language assigned to flowers appeared to me captivating
and elegant, as imparting the finer feelings and sympathies of our
nature. In maturer age, and after the study of the history of the
customs of mankind, symbols and emblems seemed to me an universal
language, which delicately delineated the violent passions of our kind,
and transmitted from generation to generation national predilections and
pious emotions towards the God of Creation. That mythology should so
generally be interpreted Theism, and that forms or ceremonials of
worship should be held to limit and define belief in creed, may, in my
apprehension, be partly traceable to the school-book Lamprière's
_Classical Dictionary_. You or your correspondents may attribute it to
other and truer causes.
The rose, the thistle, the shamrock, the leek, the lion, the unicorn,
the harp, &c. are familiar examples of national emblems. The ivy, the
holly, and the mistletoe are joined up with the Christmas worship,
though probably of Druidical origin. The Assyrian sculptures present,
under the "Joronher," or effulgence, a sacred tree, which may assimilate
with the toolsu and the peepul tree, held in almost equal veneration by
the Hindoos. The winged lions and bulls with the heads of men, the
angels and cherubim, recall to mind passages of scriptural and pagan
history. The sciences of astronomy and mathematics have afforded myths
or symbols in the circle, the crescent, the bident, the trident, the
cross, &c.
The translators of the cuneiform inscriptions represent crucifixion as
the common punishment for rebellion and treason. The Jews may have
imitated the Assyrians, as crucifixion may have been adopted long before
that of Christ and the two thieves (Qy. robbers). The Mahomedans, who
have copied the Jews in many practices and customs, executed gang
robbers or daccorts by suspending the criminals from a tree, their heads
and arms being tied to the branches, and then ripping up the abdomen. I
myself saw in Oude an instance of several bodies. It may be inferred,
then, that the position of the culprits under execution was designated
by crucifixion. The Hindoos mildly say that when their system of
government existed in efficiency there was neither crime nor punishment.
To the examples mentioned by your correspondent, I admit that the form
of the cross, as now received, may be derived from that of Christ,
discovered on Mount Calvary in 236 A.D. Constantine, in 306 A.D.,
adopted it as a standard in Labarum. Other nations have attached staves
to eagles, dragons, fish, &c. as standards and therefore, construing
"Crux ansata" literally, the ensign of Constantine might be formed by
attaching a staff to the Divine Glory represented in the Egyptian
paintings and Assyrian sculptures.
I should be glad to learn the precise shape of the cross on the Temple
of Serapis. If it be the emblem of life or the Creative Power, then the
mythology of the Nile agrees with that of the {419} Ganges. If it be
the symbol of life, or rather of a future state after judgment, then the
religious tenets and creed of Muttra should be elucidated, examined, and
refuted by the advocates of conversion and their itinerant agents.
Moore's _Hindoo Pantheon_ (though the author had at Bombay, as a
military officer, little opportunity of ascertaining particulars of the
doctrine) sufficiently treats, under the head of the "Krishna," the
subject so as to explain to the conversionists, that unless this
doctrine be openly refuted, the missionaries may in truth be fighting
their own shadow.
The basilica seems to have originally been the architectural plan of the
Roman Forum, or court of justice. The Christians may have converted some
of these edifices into churches; otherwise the first churches seem to
have been in the form of a long parallelogram, a central nave, and an
aisle on each side, the eastern end being rounded, as the station of the
bishop or presbyter. The basilica, or cathedral, was probably not
introduced until the eighth century, or later.
I have not just now access to the works of Tod and Maurice. The former,
I doubt not, is correct in respect to the Temple of Mundore, but I
believe the latter is not so in regard to Benares. The trident, like
that of Neptune, prevails in the province of Benares; and when it, in
appropriate size, rises in the centre of large tanks, has a very solemn
effect. I, a great many years ago, visited the chief temple of Benares,
and do not recollect that the cross was either noticed to me or by me.
This, I think, was the only occasion of observing the forms of worship.
There is no fixed service, no presiding priest, no congregation. The
people come and go in succession. I then first saw the bell, which, in
size some twenty-five pounds weight, is suspended within the interior.
Each person, at some period of his devotion, touched the tongue of the
bell as invocation or grace. The same purpose is obtained by Hindoos,
and particularly the men of the fighting classes, previously to
commencing a cooked dinner, by winding a large shell, which gives a
louder sound than a horn. The native boys however, on hearing it,
exclaim in doggerel rhyme, which I translate,
"The shell is blown,
And the devil is flown."
Fear seems so much the parent of superstition, that I attribute this
saying to the women, who, as mothers, have usually a superstitious dread
not only of evil spirits, but also of the evil eye of mortals towards
their young ones. When, some twenty years ago, I was told by a Kentish
countryman that the church bell was tolled to drive away evil spirits
from a departing soul, I supposed the man to be profanely jocose; but
since then I have travelled much in this country and on the Continent,
and have seen enough to satisfy me that superstition prevails
comparatively less in Asia than in Europe and the pages of "N. & Q."
abundantly corroborate the opinion.