ing virtue of the waters of the Ganges they fully confide; and, such is the simplicity of their minds, that, without giving themselves the trouble of feigning celestial beings resident in the river, they worship, with various rite, the stream itself. Like the ancient Egyptians, they entertain a high veneration for some of the irrational animals, particularly the cow and the ox*. This regard may be supposed to proceed partly from gratitude; but its want of discrimination shews, that it chiefly arises from their belief of the doctrine of transmigration, so prevalent in the East. They imagine that the soul survives the body; and, upon quitting its present envelope, to be purified from its pollutions or punished for its crimes, is compelled to animate, in a certain series, such of the inferior creatures as are most congenial in character to its former propensities, until, refined from the dregs of corruption, it is fitted for its appropriate station in paradise. Only in some very rare instances of transcendent goodness is the spirit supposed to be spared *Maurice's Mod. Hindostan, Introd. p. 4. + At Brahma's stern decree, as ages roll, this painful process, and honoured with an immediate admission into the presence of Brahma. Of heaven they enumerate six regions: of hell, seven. Into the highest heavens, the residence of Brahma, none but the first favourites of divinity are at all admitted. They believe that the sufferings of hell will not be eternal; and that all, after a certain course of purification and of punishment, proportioned to the degrees of their moral turpitude, will be conducted to the land of blessedness. Such are some of their speculative opinions in theology. Their practical piety corresponds to their theoretic belief. With the simplest rites, and in the rudest manner, their deities are worshipped by this artless people. Without any religious obeisance, a small portion of food is set before the idol, or some prayers and ablutions are performed. Many, however, are very cruel to themselves, and imagine that their voluntary tortures are acceptable to heaven. One class of devotees, called Faquirs, are the most rigid of ascetics, and submit to mortifications that are almost incredible *. They amount in number, it is said, to an hundred and ten thousand; and, traversing the country in bands, become Ritual. Sacred books. extremely formidable to the unarmed inhabitants, and commit many excesses, some of which are represented as totally incompatible with their apparent self-denial and sanctity*. The mythology of the Hindoos is prescribed in the VEDAS. These Vedas (or Beids) consist of four volumes, which are said to have issued from the four mouths of Brahma, and contain the history of their nation, the records of their religion, the institute of their polity, and the precepts of their morality. They are composed in Shanscrit, a language which is no longer spoken in India, but is mentioned in terms of high encomium by several of our countrymen who have been instructed in it†, and seems, like the Latin in Europe, to enter deeply into many of the dialects of the East. To give the contents of the sacred volumes a firmer hold of the mind and heart, they are thrown into measured prose, and divided into one hundred thousand ashlogues or stanzas. So high do the Bramins carry their veneration for these repositories of religious information, that they account it profane for the vulgar to read them, or even to hear them read; and, like the ancient scribes, the learned commit *Col. Dow's History of Hindostan. Sir William Jones, Mr Halhed, Colonel Dow. much of them to memory with exact and elaborate care. Upon these sacred books, which they believe to have been written millions of years ago, there are many volumes of commentaries, entitled Shasters, which are also held in much esteem by the natives, and studied by the Bramins. Of these shasters there are two of chief consideration, the Bedang and Neadirsen, which, coinciding in the fundamental doctrine of a supreme God, disagree in some other tenets, and divide the Hindoos into two great religious sects. Those who reside on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts and in the Deccan, adhere to the former: they who inhabit Bengal and the provinces to the west and north, have preferred the latter *. Sects Like all false religions established in a wealthy country, established. displaying the pride of the human heart, and preposterously attempting to embellish the solemnity of worship by the garnishings of art and the glare of riches,—the superstition of Hindostan boasts of a magnificent institution. Rude as are their images, and simple as are their offerings, their places of worship are frequently splendid, and the whole system is extravagantly endowed. Who has not heard of *Colonel Dow. Functionaries. Influence upon public manners. the stupendous excavations in the isle of Elephanta and of Salsette? And one temple in the Deccan is said to have once maintained forty thousand priests and females *. The ministers of religion, under the most ancient institution, were called Boodhis or Brachmans: under the modern establishment, they are denominated Bramins. They are extremely numerous, and, like the Levites amongst the Jews, divided into those who officiate at the altar, and those who have no sacred function. The former are also far more venerated than the latter; but these also have their dignity, for, though they engage themselves as secretaries, soldiers, &c. yet, with a most fastidious inconsistency founded upon the imaginary sanctity and legal pre-eminence of their order, they would account it pollution to eat even with their princes. The superstition of this country, like that of ancient Greece and Rome, is calculated in several views to have a very unfavourable influence upon the morals of the people. The sacred books indeed contain a system of ethics, which, to our surprise, embodies those two grand precepts : "Love your enemies, and do to others as you would they should *Orme's Hist. vol. i. p. 178. |