BRAHMINS, Bramins, Brahmans, or Brachmans, called Bga^α∣∕α∕ by the Greek writers, the name employed to designate that body or order of priests who have always been the sole guardians, preeeptors, and ministers of the Hindu religion. It is formed, by a slight modification, from that of Brahma, which is itself a derivative from Brahm, the Supreme Being, indicating the first of the [7:5:176] three divine hypostases of the Hindu mythology, the creator of the world under Brahm, and the author of the sacred books called Vedas.

The Brahmins constitute the first or highest of the four tchadi or castes into which the Hindu nation continues to be divided, as it has been from a very remote antiquity. The origin of this singular division or classification, which prevailed in ancient Egypt as it still does in the peninsula of India, and which was based upon nearly the same principles in both, is hid in the obscurity of ages. Each caste has its peculiar privileges, duties, and laws, all of which are incommunicable and unalienable. The more honourable the caste is, the more numerous are the restrictions to which its members are subjected, and the higher the prerogatives they enjoy. The fourth caste has the fewest observances to follow, but it has also the least portion of respect, and is the most limited in its rights and privileges. Every individual remains invariably in the caste in which he is born; practises its duties as prescribed in the laws relative thereto; and is precluded from ever aspiring to a higher, whatever may be his genius, his virtue, his patriotism, or his courage. The law which determines every man’s position in society is immutable; and dreadful are the penalties which await him who ventures to dispense with even the most absurd rules laid down in it. To this point of honour the Hindu patiently sacrifices not only health, but life itself; degradation and infamy await him who transgresses its dictates; yet, although the code of which this constitutes part has been in force for a long series of ages, the people have never (perhaps for this very reason) thought of moderating its rigour or mitigating its oppression.

The leading castes among the Hindus are, as we have already observed, four. These are, first, the Brahmins; secondly, the Kshatriyas, or soldiers, including the princes and sovereigns, and hence sometimes called the caste of Rajahs or Rajeputras; thirdly, the Vaisyas, consisting of agriculturists and shepherds; and, fourthly, the Sudras or labourers. It is with the first of these, however, namely the Brahmins, that we are at present exclusively concerned. This is the sacred or sacerdotal caste, the members of which have maintained an authority more exalted, comprehensive, and absolute, than the priests of any other people, excepting perhaps those of ancient Egypt before the Persian invasion under Cambyses. According to the received Brahminical tradition, that priesthood originally proceeded from the mouth of Brahma, which is the seat of wisdom, and thus, by the mere fact of their genesis, became invested with an undoubted superiority over the other castes, which sprung from inferior organs or members of the hypostatical creator; as the Kshatriyas from his heart, the Vaisyas from his belly, and the Sudras from his feet. Of the Brahmins there are seven subdivisions, which derive their origin from the seven Rishis or Penitents, the most sacred personages acknowledged by the Hindus. The Rishis are of high antiquity, being mentioned in the Vedas; and they are believed to have occasionally exercised a salutary superintendence over the gods themselves, visiting with their holy displeasure such of the divine impersonationsas had been guilty of any irregularity. Their residence was fixed in the remote and elevated regions of the north; and hence the Brahmins of the north are esteemed as the noblest, from their proximity to the great fountain. The Gymnosophists, or Brahmins of antiquity, lived much more secluded than those of modern times, who mingle to a considerable extent in secular concerns. But the latter have made almost no change in their rules of abstinence, their ablutions, and multiplied ceremonies. Their great prerogative consists in being the sole depositaries and expounders of the Vedas or sacred books, four in number, for each of which there is a separate class or branch of the Brahmins. This prerogative they guard with the most jealous care, affirming, that if a Sudra or other profane person were to attempt to read even the title of these books, his head would instantly cleave asunder; and a Brahmin bold enough to exhibit the sacred volumes to profane eyes would incur the penalty of irretrievable expulsion from his caste. Yet, with much judgment, they make an exception as to the miracle in favour of Europeans; nor has it been found expedient to enforce the law of caste against such Brahmins as may have indulged them with a perusal or even with copies of the Vedas.

The great body of the Brahmins profess to pay equal veneration to the three hypostases of the godhead, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. But some attach themselves exclusively to one of these impersonations; while others, admitting the divine emanation of three, exhibit only a preference in their homage, founded on certain fanciful distinctions. Thus Vishnu and Siva, though nominally co-ordinate with Brahma, have long been objects of partiality with individuals who, in virtue of such preference, arc formed into sects, distinguished by the name of the hypostasis to which their chief homage is paid. The worshippers of Vishnu are denominated Namadhari, from bearing in their foreheads the mark called Nama, consisting of three perpendicular lines, crossed at the lower extremity by a horizontal one, so as to form a sort of trident; and their dress is of a deep orange colour. The devotees of Siva are denominated Lingamhari, from wearing the Lingam stuck in their hair, or attached to the arm in a tube of gold or silver. The former are notorious for intemperance, and on that account disliked by the people; the latter, for the most part, observe great moderation both in eating and drinking. The devotees of Vishnu account as sacred the monkey, the garuda, and the cobra capella; and any of their number who inadvertently kills one of these animals is obliged to expiate his supposed crime by a farcical sacrifice, in which it is pretended that a human victim is immolated and brought to life again. The mummery of this mock expiation is abundantly ridiculous. A little blood is drawn from a superficial wound in the thigh, inflicted with a knife; the victim is then supposed to be slain, and remains motionless until the farce of resuscitation is performed, when he of course comes to life again. This is performed with immense ceremony, in the presence of a great concourse of spectators, who are commonly feasted on the fine levied from the culprit; and a similar punishment is 'sometimes inflicted for other offences. The worshippers of Vishnu and Siva, though separated by a very thin wall of partition, are continually at variance, each sect not only striving to exalt their own divinity, but to revile that of their adversaries. The former consider the wearing of the Lingam as the most heinous of all sins; the latter, on the other hand, maintain that all who bear the Nama will, after death, be tormented in hell with a three-pronged fork, resembling that tridental mark. But these sectarian notions are less prevalent among the Brahmins than the other castes. Brahmins of the Vishnu faith are only to be found in the provinces situated to the south of the Krishna, and they are regarded with contempt by their more tolerant brethren, who, in consequence, refuse to admit them to their tables or to their ceremonies, and anxiously exclude them from any public employments which happen to be at their disposal. The sects of the Nama and the Lingam are further split into subdivisions, which dispute warmly on the subjects of their differences, but are ever ready to unite when the general interests of the order are concerned.

There are four stages in the life of a Brahmin. The first commences at the age of from seven to nine, when [7:5:177]. he is invested with the triple cord, which is suspended ' from the left shoulder, and forms the badge of his order.

The youth thus initiated is denominated Brahmachari. At this stage he is occupied in learning to read and write; in committing to memory portions of the Vedas, and the efficacious forms of prayer called the Mantras; and in acquiring other knowledge. It is his duty to abstain from the use of betel, to put no ornaments in his hair, to bathe daily, and to offer the sacrifice called Homam twice a day; but subjects so young seldom observe the rules strictly. A certain proficiency, indeed, is enjoined in committing to memory the sacred books; but neither in this nor in the acquisitions which are deemed scientific is there much emulation. They are not slack, however, in learning to understand the privileges belonging to their caste, which are great and various. One of these is a right to ask alms, which they do not in the style of mendicants, but in that of confident yet not insolent claimants; another is, an exemption from taxes of all kinds, whether general or local; and a third consists in an immunity from capital, and generally from corporal punishment, however heinous the crimes they may commit, imprisonment being the only penalty to which they are liable. At this stage also they learn the different points of bodily purity which, as good Brahmins, it is necessary for them to observe through life. These are so numerous as to be excessively burdensome, and to impose on them the duty of constant and jealous vigilance. Not only are they defiled by touching a dead body, but even by attending a funeral. Childbirth and constitutional changes render females impure; and certain ablutions and forms of prayer are necessary to remove the stain. An earthen vessel, if it has been used by a profane person, or applied to certain specified purposes, becomes so polluted that it cannot be used again, and must be broken; but metallic vessels may be purified by washing. Leather and all kinds of skins, except those of the tiger and antelope, are held to be excessively impure; and the boots and gloves of Europeans are to them the most disagreeable of all articles of dress. Brahmins, in walking or sitting, must take care they do not touch a bone, a broken pot, a rag, or a leaf from which any one has eaten; in drinking, they must pour the liquid from above, without touching the vessel with their lips; and they are forbidden to touch the greater part of animals, particularly the dog, which is accounted the most polluting. The water which they drink must be carefully drawn, though never by a Sudra; and if two Brahmins draw water together, their pitchers must not come in contact, otherwise one or both must be broken. Animal food of all kinds is strictly prohibited; and among the Lingam branch of the order the prohibition is most rigidly observed, notwithstanding which this class or sect has always been remarkable for great slovenliness in their external habits. The Brahmins are also taught to entertain a horror of spiritual defilement, resulting from perversity of will, or the actual commission of sin; and although the different modes in which it is contracted are but obscurely indicated, the rules for purification by means of ablutions, penances, and ceremonies, are very fully and distinctly laid down.

The second stage of a Brahmin’s life is the state of Grihastha, which takes place when he is married, and has children; both these circumstances being essential to its constitution. Marriage is an important object to a Brahmin, inasmuch as it insures him consideration and respectability in society. Hence, when he becomes a widower, he falls from his station, and is consequently under a moral necessity of re-entering the married state. But the case is quite different with widowed females, who are not permitted to marry a second time. The Sunnvassis, however, probably in imitation of the ancient Rishis, lead lives of celibacy; and the acting priests, called Gurus, also live in a state of single blessedness, although their morality in this particular is sufficiently relaxed. When a Brahmin, therefore, takes his wife home and has children by her, he enters his second state, or that of Grihastha. His daily duties and ceremonies now become more multiplied and imperative; and every act of his life must be performed according to certain rules, some of them sufficiently repugnant to European notions of propriety. These observances, which from their number and incessant recurrence would seem burdensome and oppressive, become so habitual from daily practice that they are not felt as galling or irksome. On the contrary, the Brahmins perform all of them cheerfully, and no innovation is ever proposed. Some Hindu writers, indeed, have turned them into ridicule, and joked at the expense of a ritual which they nevertheless continued in practice to observe. But, from all that we can learn, the authors who have indulged in this license were never Brahmins, but generally Sudras, or men of the lowest caste, who had been contaminated by association with Europeans. Vemana, Agastya, Pata-natupulai, and Tiruvaluven, a Pariah, the principal scoffers, answer to this description; they are all modern, and either Sudras or men of no caste whatever. If any ancient authors wrote in the same strain, their names and their works have equally perished. At the same time, although speculative scepticism be but rarely avowed, practical transgressions are secretly indulged in, especially in large towns, where concealment is easy and temptation strong.

Nor is this all. Many Brahmins habitually engage in Transactions and employments which appear altogether at variance with their professions and pretensions. They are commonly the political functionaries or agents of the native princes, and of the Mahommedan governments, which find it convenient to employ these hereditary ministers of religion, from the influence they possess over the minds of the people. Some of them, particularly in Gujerat, embark in commercial speculations, and become merchants, bankers, or general agents. Others, again, carry messages between distant places, or are sent as vakeels on difficult and important missions; the veneration in which they are universally held securing them from molestation in the discharge of such tasks. A third class act as coolies or porters, in which character they alone are exempt from the demands of the tax-gatherer. Many of them enter the Company’s native army, and often rise to the rank of sub-adhar. In a word, they are as much alive to selfish considerations and interests as any other tribe or caste, and ready, on all occasions, to avail themselves to the uttermost of the privileges and immunities belonging to their order. Their rapacity, in fact, is only exceeded by their cunning; nor is there to be found in any country a set of more artful impostors. The Hindus are all expert in disguising the truth; but thq Brahmins, in this respect, possess an unquestioned superiority. They are supple, insinuating, false; acute in discerning, and skilful in taking advantage of the foibles of others; naturally vindictive and proud, yet, from habit and cunning, patient and submissive; evincing on all occasions the most perfect self-command, and ever ready to profit by the indiscretion, weakness, or simplicity of those with whom they may have to do.- One of their prime resources is flattery, which they lavish with unbounded profusion on any person whom they wish to cozen or hope to conciliate; experience having convinced them, that even those who pretend to repudiate their adulation nevertheless lay a portion, at least, of the grateful unction to their souls. In matters of religious opinion they are upon the whole tolerant; they almost never anathematize Moslemins, Christians, and others of different creeds; nor [7:5:178]do they seem to be at all actuated by the fierce spirit of proselytism and persecution. But this forbearance may perhaps he the consequence, not of any virtue in the Brahmins, but of the low estimation in which they hold the objects of their own worship; for, undoubtedly, they sometimes treat the latter with an indifference bordering on contempt, and in their adorations arc influenced by their secular interests rather than by the spirit of devotion, flattering those divinities whose functions they connect with their worldly affairs, and giving themselves no concern about the others.

The distance at which they keep themselves from Europeans, and the unwillingness they evince to admit the latter to their temples or their ceremonies, may seem inconsistent with what has just been advanced. But their conduct in this respect arises solely from the unclcan-ness which they attach to our habits; and were Europeans to conform a little more to their manners and practical prejudices, there can be no doubt that the consequence would be a closer intimacy and unbounded toleration. This was fully experienced by the Abbé Dubois, who having carefully studied the manners of the Hindus, and uniformly treated their habits with respect and tenderness, was often invited by the Brahmins of his acquaintance to enter their temples and join in their ceremonies. Among the sacerdotal order of India it is a prevalent sentiment that different religions are formed for different nations, and that each serves every necessary purpose to the souls of its believers and professors. But in their attachment to their civil institutions the Brahmins arc less liberal and conciliating, considering every thing different from these or opposed to them as the product of absolute barbarism. The Moors they hate for their arrogance, and despise for their ignorance of some branches of mathematical science known to themselves, such as those connected with the construction and explanation of the almanack. In the European masters of India, they admire their humanity in war, the moderation and impartiality of their government, the general uprightness of their conduct in the intercourse of life, and the benevolent generosity of their dispositions; but these favourable impressions are apt to be forgotten when they think of the grossness and hatefulness of their prevailing habits, such as eating animal food, and admitting the detested Pariahs into their domestic service. Such things are pre-eminently odious to Hindus, and both, we think, might have easily been avoided. No extraordinary effort of self-denial would have been necessary to enable Europeans to abstain from the use of beef, which is an insipid food in India; and, with regard to the Pariahs, although it would undoubtedly be wrong to countenance the Brahmins in their barbarous treatment of the inferior castes, and of those who are considered as of no caste, yet regulations might have been adopted by which men of high caste would have been spared the gross insults they are at present exposed to, and every humane purpose at the same time attained.

The third state of a Brahmin is denominated Vanaprastha, or that of inhabitants of the desert. The order of Brahminical anchorites prevailed at a former period, but it is now scarcely to be found, and appears to be very nearly, if not altogether, extinct. The members of it were usually styled Rishis, or Penitents. They were honoured by kings, and respected by the gods, who, on account of the odour of their sanctity, seem to have considered them as in some degree their superiors. They practised self-denial according to certain rigid rules, and performed peculiar sacrifices and religious observances. Their pious acts and intentions were often thwarted by giants, and even by gods, who seem to have had no relish for the severe discipline of the order; but in the end the Penitents always prevailed, and sometimes took the gods roundly to task for their misdeeds. They were the depositaries of the more sublime doctrines of theology, and practised magical incantations.

The fourth state of a Brahmin is called Sunnyassi, and is reckoned so pre-eminently holy that, in a single generation, it imparts a greater stock of merit than could be accumulated during ten thousand in any other sphere of life. As a natural consequence, when a Sunnyassi dies, he is believed to pass at once into the region of Brahma or Vishnu, exempt from the penalty of being re-born on earth, or animating in succession different bodies, conformably to the metempsychosis of the Hindu mythology. In preparation for this state, a Brahmin performs all the rites of the λ 7 anaprastha, and in addition renounces every worldly connection, takes up the profession of mendicity, and lives solely by alms. He must previously, however, have devoted several years to the married and paternal state, and thus discharged the debt which he owed to his forefathers. When duly qualified and disposed for entering the holy state of Sunnyassi, he is installed as such with many Mantras and other ceremonies. His duties now increase in number and severity. He must every morning rub his whole body over with ashes, restrict himself to one meal a day, give up the use of betel, avoid looking at women, shave his beard and head every month, and wear wooden clogs on his feet; in travelling, he must carry his seven-knotted bamboo staff in the one hand, his gourd in the other, and the antelope skin under his arm, in other words, display the three badges of his order; and he must erect a hermitage on the bank of a river or a lake. Contemplation, and a supposed communion with the Deity, amounting in its highest form to a participation of the divine essence, constitute the ulterior duties of this class of devotees. Need we wonder that, being thus privileged to indulge in all manner of extravagances, and to give full swing to an excited imagination, their practices should be in the highest degree preposterous, and their fantasies equally wild and ridiculous? In fact, the tricks which they perform are endless. The highest act of merit among them is “to subdue all sensation, and retain the breath with such determined perseverance, that the soul, quitting the body, bursts through the crown of the head, and flies to re-unite itself with the Great Being, or Para-Brahma.” Accordingly 7 , one of their fantastical exercises consists in suppressing their breath as long as possible, till they almost swoon away, and bring on most profuse perspiration. Another consists in putting themselves in the most irksome and ridiculous postures, and remaining so for a considerable length of time, indeed till exhaustion or decrepitude ensue. To stand on one leg till it swells and ulcerates; to stand on the head till the brain becomes disordered, and delirium ensues; to keep one arm extended aloft in the air till the muscles become rigid, and the power of withdrawing it is lost for ever; such are among the most approved practices of the Sunny r assis. But still the most extravagant and fatal efforts of these extraordinary devotees seem to have been confined to former times. We may add, that the Sunnyassis are not, like the Vana-prasthas, burned when they die, but interred. This is the case with the Lingamhari, or worshippers of Siva; but a Sunnyassi, even although he had, during life, attached himself to the worship of ∖ r ishnu, is interred when dead, and the ceremony is both pompous and expensive.

From the classes of Vanaprastha and Sunny ’ assi have sprung numerous sects of fanatics, such as the Djogis, who seek to propitiate the Deity by mutilating their bodies, or braving the force of fire and the inclemency of the seasons; the Panduris, who carry about small figures of the [7:5:179]most indecent description, as provocatives to devotion; and the Vairagis, who form a kind of mixed order of monks and nuns, consecrated to the god Krishna and his mistress Rada, whose history they celebrate in songs, accompanied with the tinkling of cymbals. It is also said that some of the Brahmins, under the denominations of Pa-shandia and Sarwagina, maintain libertine and atheistical opinions; and it is probable that the number of those who secretly cherish such sentiments is much greater than that of the class or sect which openly avows them. Superstition, when sustained neither by fanaticism nor enthusiasm, is the natural parent of that infidelity by which it is ultimately undermined.

From what has been stated in the course of this exposition, some idea may be formed of the general character of the sacerdotal caste in India. According to the best authorities on the subject, the number of Brahmins who are respectable for their knowledge and their virtue is exceedingly small; whilst the great majority of these hereditary priests is completely devoted to ambition, intrigue, and voluptuousness, and disgraced by an avarice, a meanness, and a cruelty, which inspire strangers with no sentiments towards them but those of contempt and aversion. The charity which they place so high in the scale of duties and virtues, being equally confined by the law of caste, and the operation of that intense selfishness by which the whole tribe is characterised, has no human beings except Brahmins for its objects. Towards the other castes they cherish no feeling of humanity, and cautiously abstain from any reciprocation of kindness; they exact every thing in virtue of their rank, functions, and pretended sanctity, but take care to give nothing in return. Instead of the retired and contemplative life which appears to have been observed by the order in ancient times, and to which they still profess to devote themselves, they are immersed, as we have already seen, in pursuits the most foreign to and inconsistent with the duties and character of a priesthood; and, accordingly, they have declined alike in dignity, in reputation, and in knowledge. Yet their influence as a body still remains unshaken; neither the violence of conquest, nor the shock of revolution, nor even the power of time itself, appears to have sensibly impaired their dominion over the minds of the other castes. The institutions to which they owe their ascendancy, and by which it will in all probability be maintained for ages yet to come, have struck their roots so deeply, and become so intimately identified with the genius, character, habits, sentiments, feelings, prejudices, and daily usages of the people, as to resist the operation of all those natural, moral, and political causes which bring about changes in other countries, and, amidst all the evils incident to convulsions and innovations, ultimately contribute to the general advancement. In India, society appears to have been arrested at a particular stage of its natural progress, and re-constituted so as never to exceed the limit which it had attained before its onward tendencies were paralyzed, and the characteristic of immutability firmly established. Hence it may be considered as forming what the schoolmen would probably have denominated a political nunc stans; as standing to other communities of men in nearly the same relation that eternity bears to time: and hence, also, the permanency of an influence which the possessors of it take no means to extend or improve, in the conviction that it can never be materially abridged.

1he authenticity as well as the antiquity of the sacred books of the Brahmins has been alternately asserted and denied, with equal zeal and pertinacity. Without entering into this question, however, it may be satisfactory to show of what materials these writings really consist; for if they are utterly worthless and contemptible in themselves, as indeed seems to be the case, it matters but little to inquire whether they be genuine or spurious, of ancient or comparatively modern origin. And, on this subject, we prefer citing authorities to delivering any opinion of our own. “The sacred writings of the Brahmins,” says an able writer in the Quarterly Review, “have been long mentioned with those phrases of solemn wonder, which would still have misled the public, if the translations and extracts of them which have successively appeared had not discovered their puerility and imposture. It is therefore important that the Sanscrit books, which have been held up as so sacred and so ancient, and which some of our learned Orientalists obviously prefer to the Jewish historian, should be given to Europe in the languages familiar to every one; that we may not be blinded by the erroneous admiration of credulous and misjudging enthusiasts, but be enabled to criticise fairly, and judge impartially for ourselves.” (Vol. ii. p. 68.) Mr Mill, speaking of Sanscrit poetry generally, pronounces a judgment still stronger than that delivered by the Reviewer. “These fictions,” says he, “are not only more extravagant and unnatural, less correspondent with the physical and moral laws of the universe, but are less ingenious, more monstrous, and have less of any thing that can engage the affection, awaken sympathy, or excite admiration, reverence, or terror, than the poems of any other, even the rudest people, with whom our knowledge of the globe has yet brought us acquainted. They are excessively prolix and insipid. They are often, through long passages, trifling and childish to a degree which those acquainted with only European poetry can hardly conceive. Of the style in which they are composed, it is far from too much to say, that all the vices which characterise the style of rude nations, and particularly those of Asia, they exhibit in perfection. Inflation, metaphors perpetual, and those the most violent and strained, often the most unnatural and ridiculous, obscurity, tautology, repetition, verbosity, confusion, incoherence, distinguish the Mahabharat and Ramayan.” {History of British India, vol. ii. p. 46.) The following passage, extracted from a most masterly article which appeared in the Edinburgli. Review (vol. xv. p. 175), is, if possible, still more to our present purpose. “It may be said,” the Reviewer observes, “that in a country of which the actual condition is so imperfectly known, investigation should first be directed to the existing state of society, which admits of being accurately ascertained, and may lead to practical conclusions highly beneficial to the community, before we attempt to explore the obscure paths of remote antiquity, by the feeble lights afforded by a few mutilated or suspicious documents. The Indian nations, it may be contended, have no claim to any extraordinary attention, either from the philosopher or the historian: their boasted civilization has rather been asserted than proved; neither their literature nor their arts indicate any considerable progress in the pursuits which refine and adorn mankind; and some of their customs betray a ferocity scarcely to be found amongst the most savage nations. But, even admitting that it would be desirable to trace the remote revolutions which this people have undergone, the little probability of attaining any deductions which may be relied on with confidence ought to induce us to relinquish so hopeless a task. The Puranas appear to be extravagant romances, which, however amusing as poetical compositions, can furnish no additions to authentic history, whatever portion of it they may be supposed incidentally to contain. When we find gods and heroes mingling in doubtful fight; events natural and supernatural succeeding each other indifferently; a fact probably historical, followed by another evidently allegorical; the only rational conclusion is to consider the whole of these poems [7:5:180]as works of imagination, and to appreciate their merits by the rules applicable to similar compositions amongst other nations. But if such be the judgment we must pass on the Puranas, the Hindu compositions of a later date are not better entitled to attention, unless with respect to poetical excellence: and it probably may be affirmed that the Hindus cannot produce a single historical composition; whilst the Mahommedans of the same country have amply, and even ably, illustrated all the events subsequent to their entrance into Hindustan.”

Such are the judgments which have been pronounced by some of the ablest writers of our time, respecting the sacred writings of the Brahmins, and the impossibility of deducing any sound or rational conclusions from these fanciful and extravagant compositions. But, on the other hand, it has been contended, with much plausibility and some degree of justice, that an indiscriminate accumulation of facts is no object with the philosopher, and only a subordinate one with the historian; that in proportion to the peculiarity and reputed antiquity of the religious and civil institutions subsisting amongst any people, it is natural to feel curiosity as to their origin; that the minute peculiarities which discriminate the nations of Europe scarcely produce any sensible modification of character, or exhibit to our observation any beings whose manner of thinking and acting is materially different from our own; that, in order accurately to appreciate the efficacy of religious dogmas and civil institutions in modifying the character of a people, our observation should be particularly directed to those nations which, in these respects, differ most widely from ourselves; that to this source may be traced much of the instruction as well as amusement derived from a perusal of the classic compositions of antiquity; that, from the same cause, the manners of savage tribes have attracted and deserved the attention of the philosopher, although these are in general extremely uniform, and little modified by any other circumstance than the greater or less facility of obtaining food; that, nevertheless, it is not amidst a people in such a stage of society that the influence of moral impressions can be accurately ascertained; that a nation must have advanced some steps in civilization, must have cultivated the arts, and been tinged with science, before it becomes susceptible of that indelible stamp which defies the efforts of time; and that if, upon these grounds, the peculiarities of the Hindu institutions, opinions, and manners, deservedly render them the object of philosophic research, the gradations by which such a state of society was attained must be highly interesting, and can only be discovered through the medium of such literary monuments as are still extant among them. Their sacred books, therefore, must ever possess a value, independent of all that may be said of their contents, or objected to the antiquity claimed for them. They embody evidence of the existence of peculiar modes of thinking, and forms of belief, as well as of the effects produced by peculiar institutions, civil and religious; and, as such, they can never cease to be regarded with interest, both by the philosopher and the historian.

Of ancient Brahminical science the principal remains are their astronomical tables and trigonometrical methods, both of which have given occasion to frequent and learned discussion in this and other countries of Europe. At present, however, we can only refer the reader to the works of Bailly, Playfair, and Delambre, in which he will find the subject treated with equal learning, ingenuity, and scientific precision, though in opposite views, and with very different aims. As to the science of the modern Brahmins, it seems, as we have already remarked, to be confined to the construction and explanation of the almanack; and even this scanty amount of knowledge is the portion of but few of their number. They have indeed fallen from the proud eminence which was occupied by their order when the sages of Greece travelled into India to learn wisdom in that great storehouse of knowledge, and afterwards to carry it back to their own country, inorder to plant there the first seeds of civilization. But there is one species of learning for which they have always evinced a singular aptitude and inclination; we mean metaphysical speculation, which possesses many attractions to men remarkable alike for the indolence of their habits and the extreme subtilty of their genius. In this department of research they had accordingly explored the whole cycle of systems, distinctions, classifications, refinements, and doubts, long before the western world had emerged from primeval barbarism; and in India the human mind had exhausted itself in endeavouring to detect the laws which regulate its own operations, when the philosophers of Greece were only beginning to enter within the precincts of metaphysical inquiry. Nor is it by any means certain that the latter are entitled to the credit they have received on the score of originality; that they did not borrow rather then invent; and that to the Gymnosophists of India belongs the honour of framing those systems which have been, perhaps too hastily, attributed to their disciples. It is even doubtful whether Aristotle himself did not derive both the materials and the arrangement of his system of logic from the same source. In a Mahommedan history, quoted by Sir William Jones, it is expressly mentioned that Callisthenes, having procured a regular treatise on logic, somewhere in the Punjab, transmitted it to Aristotle; and although this doesnot certainly prove that the Greek philosopher adopted as his own the system which had been sent him by his pupil, it at least warrants a conjecture that he might have done so; more especially as the syllogistic method was undoubtedly known in India long before his time, and as the fact must have been discovered by the numerous learned and accomplished men who accompanied Alexander’s expedition. But be this as it may, one thing is pretty certain, that there is scarcely a hypothesis advanced by metaphysicians in ancient or modern times, which may not be found in some of the Brahminical writings. In these we meet with materialism, atomism, pantheism, Pyrrhonism, idealism, and every other fanciful variety of opinion which has yet been imagined or promulgated respecting God, the world, and the human soul. The Brahmins could boast of their Spinozas, their Berkeleys, and their Humes, long before Alexander dreamt of passing the Indus, and erecting a throne on the banks of the sacred stream. That Pythagoras borrowed from them the greater part of his mystical philosophy, his notions respecting the properties of numbers as expressive of physical laws, his doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and the arguments by which he inculcated the unlawfulness of eating animal food, seems to admit of no doubt whatever; for all these thingsareof the very essence of Brahminism, and are to this hour taught and enforced by the sacred order in India.

Egypt and India, as we have already observed, are the only two countries in which the institution of castes has obtained in its most rigid form. This identity is of itself sufficiently remarkable; but there are other points of resemblance which we think even more striking. In ancient Egypt the cow was a principal object of religious adoration, and as such accounted peculiarly sacred; and we need scarcely add that, in India, the same superstition has prevailed to an equal, if not greater extent, ever since the introduction of the Brahminical religion. The Egyptians worshipped Apis or the sacred bull, and the figure of this animal formspart of every hieroglyphical inscription, either as a symbol or a phonetical character. In some of their festivals the Brahmins exhibit the same species of idolatry.
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with rites and observances exactly similar to those anciently practised in the country of the Pharaohs; and, judging by the inscriptions on their monuments, this type of animal worship must have prevailed in India from the earliest times. The astronomical character of the Egyptian mythology is well known to those who have studied its details; it seems to have been merely a reflex image of Tsabaism, or the worship of the host of heaven, the form of idolatry which first obtained among “the world’s gray fathers” in the regions of the East. But the same thing, in the same sense, may be predicated of the Hindu mythology, in its purest form, before it was overlaid with the monstrous and fantastical inventions of a juggling priesthood. What inference, then, ought we to deduce from these and numerous other facts of a similar description which might be mentioned? Did Egypt derive its superstitions from India, or has India borrowed its mythology from Egypt, or have both drawn from a common source? Which is the original and which the copy, or are both merely copies from an original no longer extant? These are questions to which, in the present state of our knowledge, it is difficult, if not impossible, to give a satisfactory answer; although speculation has been busy on the subject, some contending in favour of Egypt, others in favour of India, and others, again, seeking a common source in that intermediate region, which formed as it were the cradle of the human race. We have no intention whatever to enter into these disputations, or to hazard conjectures respecting a subject in regard to which no safe or certain data have as yet been obtained. We may nevertheless be permitted to observe, that the question is chiefly one of pure chronology; that on this subject much still remains to be done before we can arrive at any well-founded conclusion respecting the comparative antiquity of these ancient nations; but that, in as far as we are at present able to see our way, the balance of probability appears to incline pretty decidedly in favour of the country of the Pharaohs.

See Abbé Dubois, Description of the Character and Customs of the People of India, English translation; Malte-Brun’s Universal Geography, vol. iii. English translation; Maurice’s Indian Antiquities; Asiatic Researches; Colonel Kennedy’s Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindu Mythology; Religion of the Brahmins; Ayeen Akberry; Dow’s Hindustan, preliminary dissertation; Institutes of Menu, translated by Sir William Jones; Quarterly Review, vol. i.; Edinburgh Review, vols. x. and XV.; Klaproth’s Asia Polyglotta; Kennedy’s Origin and Affinity of Languages. (a.)