The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1885-07-10
Northumberland in India.

IF Marion Crawford in Harper's Magazine
As re cards the influence Of the Muslims ii
India, there is much to be said. both good ant
bad. That mussulman faith is superior as al
ethic institution to the Brahmanic belief may
well be doubted. II the principles which govern
the lives of the best Brahmans could be clearly
and succinctly taught, they would be found to
contain excellent elements Of public morality
Unfortunately, however, Brahmanism is dress
ed and adorned with multitude of symbolism
and tawdry idolatry which only confuses the
simple minded and furnishes food for the sar-
casms of the wise. The danger of symbolism
is everywhere the same. The ignorant will al
ways confound the symbol with the attributes
| of that God in whose honors symbols are in
vented.
It is for this reason that Brahmanism, or
Hinduism, by which l mean to signify the prin-
| cpal Brahmanic sects Of worship now preva-
lent in India, has degenerated into the grossest
| idolatry as far as the mass Of Hindus are con-
cerne1. Mohammedanlsm, on the other hand,
has maintained In a great measure its original
faith in an invisible and supreme God. This
is due to the extreme simplicity of the religion
in its beginnings, excluding as it does every
kind of worship by the prime prohibition,
Thou shall not make craven image or any
thing having SOUL" That Is the way the
prophet worded his command, and it has been
interpreted to mean every living thing. Mo-
hammedan rulers have never even stamped
their coins with portraits of themselves, but
only with superscriptons and dates.
But the Hindu mind is naturally very imag
NATIVE, and is not easily satisfied with any
simple form of belief. The tire ..hundred fold
nantn "nn offers some especial attraction to each
Individual and, as among the Egyptians of
old every man II, ay carry his god in his pocket,
without any particu..ar disbelief in his neigh
bor's fayorite diety, who nay be quite as pow
erful, but is not so sympathetic to his own
taste. On the whole, Hindu is iHore hkely 10
turn atheist than to become mona 'nMaoah,
and the conversion of Hindus to Christianity
has been entirely insignificant. The only con-
versions of any historical importance were
those of st Francis Xavier who made Chris
tians of the inhabitants of Goa, IN southern In
dia, by military process OF persuasion now no
longer employed in matters of religion:
The Mohammedans brought with them to H.
dia their faith, their strong, manly character
istics, and their wonderful architecture, which
has entirely pervaded the land. 1t is almost
always possible to distinguish Mohammedans
from Dindus at sight. They generally wear
boards, whereas the Hindu is shaved, save for
his mustache they are more erect, more mus
culsr, and Of holder aspect; they wear their
clothes differently, for all Mohammedans but
ton their white linen garments or their cloth
caftans as VIC do-that is to say, the left side is
brought owe the right-whereas all Hindus
button the right side Of their coats over the left.
But wherever there are mussulmans, there you
will find their graceful minsrets and mosques,
their domsd sspulchers and solitary tombs,
their light balconies and pointed doorways, CON
Hindus.
There are to be found in private dwellings in
AhmedabAd, mussulman city in the west of
India, such specimens OF beautiful design and
exquisite workmauship as are hardly to be met
with anywhere else.