Deccan. In his chapter on the manners of the Brahmens, after remarking that CHAP. VII. his facts under this head apply not less to the other classes, he says, "Amongst the vices peculiar to them we may place their extreme suspicion and duplicity.” From this, he passes to another feature, and says, "The reverence we feel for those from whom we derive our existence is almost wholly wanting among them. They fear their father, while they are young, out of dread of being beaten; but from their tenderest years they use bad language to the mother, and strike her even without any apprehension:" They do not, he says, abandon them when old and infirm. The parental affection shows itself in "the most absolute indulgence." "No care is taken to curb the passions" of the child. What they daily see, and hear, and are taught, tends to produce the vices of the sexual appetite to a degree surpassing the example of all other races of men. Artificial abortion, and infanticide are common. "The Brahman lives but for himself; and in every circumstance of his life conducts himself with the most absolute selfishness. The feelings of commiseration and pity, as far as respects the sufferings of others, never enter into his heart." Among the Hindus there are no domestic affections: "During the long period of my observation of them and their habits, I am not sure that I have ever seen two Hindu marriages that closely united the hearts." "The Brahmans, in general, add to their other numerous vices that of gluttony. When an opportunity occurs of satiating their appetite, they exceed all bounds of temperance. Such occasions are frequent, on account of the perpetual recurrence of their rites and ceremonies.” * The Brahman is distinguished by a brutal self-conceit. "A Brahman will always refuse to own that any European can be as wise as he is. He holds in sovereign contempt all the sciences, arts, and new discoveries which such a teacher could communicate.” † The missionary Mr. Ward, who has profited so greatly by the peculiar advantages which a missionary enjoys, has the following passage, corrobora ted by a variety of details. ‡

6

"The Rev. Mr. Maurice seems astonished that a people, so mild, so benevolent, so benignant as the Hindoos, who (quoting Mr. Orme) shudder at the very sight of blood,' should have adopted so many bloody rites. But are these Hindoos indeed so humane?-these men, and women too, who drag their dying relations to the banks of the river at all seasons, day and night, and expose

* See an additional testimony to this gluttony, in letters from a Mahratta camp, by T. D. Broughton, Esq. p. 47.

† Description, &c. of the People of India, by the Abbé Dubois, pp. 190, 196, 145, 161, 186. Ward, Introd. p. lv.

6

BOOK II. them to the heat and cold in the last agonies of death, without remorse ;-who assist men to commit self-murder, encouraging them to swing with hooks in their backs, to pierce their tongues and sides, to cast themselves on naked knives, to bury themselves alive, throw themselves into rivers, from precipices, and under the cars of their idols ;-who murder their own children, by burying them alive, throwing them to the alligators, or hanging them up alive in trees for the ants and crows before their own doors, or by sacrificing them to the Ganges;who burn alive, amidst savage shouts, the heart-broken widow, by the hands of her own son, and with the corpse of a deceased father;-who every year butcher thousands of animals, at the call of superstition, covering themselves with their blood, consigning their carcases to the dogs, and carrying their heads in triumphthrough the streets?-Are these the benignant Hindoos?'-a people who have never erected a charity school,. an alms'-house, nor an hospital; who suffer their fellow creatures to perish for want before their very doors, refusing to administer to their wants while living, or to inter their bodies, to prevent their being devoured by vultures and jackals, when dead; who, when the power of the sword was in their hands, impaled alive, cut off the noses, the legs, and arms of culprits; and inflicted punishments exceeded only by those of the followers of the mild, amiable, and benevolent Boodhu, in the Burman empire! and who very often, in their acts of pillage, murder the plundered, cutting off their limbs with the most cold-blooded apathy, turning the house of the murdered into a disgusting shambles!-Some of these cruelties, no doubt, arise out of the religion of the Hindoos, and are the poisoned fruits of superstition, rather than the effects of natural disposition: but this is equally true respecting the virtues which have been so lavishly bestowed on this people. At the call of the shastru, the Hindoo gives water to the weary traveller during the month Voishakhu; but he may perish at his door without pity or relief from the first of the following month, no reward being attached to such an act after these thirty days have expired. He will make roads, pools of water, and build lodging-houses for pilgrims and travellers; but he considers himself as making a good bargain with the gods in all these transactions. It is a fact, that there is not a road in the country made by Hindoos except a few which lead to holy places; and had there been no future rewards held out for such acts of merit, even these would not have existed. Before the kulee-yoogu it was lawful to sacrifice cows; but the man who does it now, is guilty of a crime as heinous as that of killing a bramhun: he may kill a buffalo, however, and Doorga will reward him with heaven for it. A Hindoo, by any direct act, should not destroy an insect,, for he is taught that God inhabits,

even a fly but it is no great crime if he should permit even his cow to perish CHAP. VII. with hunger; and he beats it without mercy, though it be an incarnation of Bhuguvutee-it is enough, that he does not really deprive it of life; for the indwelling Brumhu feels no stroke but that of death. The Hindoo will utter falsehoods that would knock down an ox, and will commit perjuries so atrocious and disgusting, as to fill with horror those who visit the courts of justice; but he will not violate his shastru by swearing on the waters of the Ganges.

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Idolatry is often also the exciting cause of the most abominable frauds. Several instances are given in this work: one will be found in vol. i. p. 122, and another respecting an image found under ground by the raja of Nudeeya, in vol. i. p. 203."

Speaking of the Mahrattas, Mr. Broughton says, "I have never been able to discover any quality or propensity they possess, which might be construed into a fitness for the enjoyment of social life. They are deceitful, treacherous, narrowminded, rapacious, and notorious liars.”*

....

Letters from a Mahratta Camp, p. 104. "The Uzbeks make brave soldiers, and are asto nishingly patient of hunger, thirst, and fatigue. The opinion commonly entertained of the ferocity and barbarism of the Uzbeks appears to be unjust, and is probably owing partly to our confounding them with the Calmuks and other rude Tartar tribes between them and Russia, and partly to the channels through which we have received our information regarding them. By all that I can learn, both from Afghan travellers, and from Taujiks of Bulkh and Bokhaura, I have reason to think the Uzbeks as good a people as any in Asia. They are said to be comparatively sincere and honest. They have few quarrels among individuals, and scarcely any murders; and there are few countries in the East, where a stranger would be more at ease. Those who imagine the Uzbeks to be savage Tartars, wandering over wild and desolate regions, will be surprised to hear that the city of Bokhaura is equal in population to Peshawer, and consequently superior to any in England, except London; that it contains numerous colleges, which might accommodate from 60 to 600 students each, and which have professors paid by the king, or by private foundations; that it abounds in caravanserais, where merchants of all nations meet with great en couragement; and that all religions are fully tolerated by a prince and people above all others attached to their own belief." Elphinstone's Caubul, 471, 472.

CHAP. VIII.

The Arts.

BOOK II. WE come now to the arts, necessary or ornamental, practised by the Hindus. As the pleasures to which the arts are subservient form one of the grounds of preference between the rude and civilized state of human nature, the improvement of the arts may be taken as one of the surest indications of the progress of society.

The wants of man are the

the arts.

One thing, first of all, may be observed of the Hindus, that they little courted the pleasures derived from the arts, whatever skill they attained in them. The houses, even of the great, were mean, and almost destitute of furniture ; * their food was simple and common; and their dress had no distinction (which concerns the present purpose) beyond certain degrees of fineness in the

texture.

If we desire to ascertain the arts which man would first practise, in his proguide in tra- gress upwards from the lowest barbarism, we must inquire what are the most cing the order of invention in urgent of his wants. Unless the spontaneous productions of the soil supplied him with food, the means of ensnaring, or killing the animals fit for his use, by clubs or stones, and afterwards by his bow and arrows, would first engage his attention. How to shelter himself from the inclemency of the weather would be his second consideration; and where cavities of the earth or hollow trees supplied not his wants, the rude construction of a hut would be one of his earliest operations. A covering for his person is the next of the accommodations which his feelings prompt him to provide. At first he contents himself with the skin of an animal; but it is surprising at how early a period he becomes acquainted with the means of fabricating cloth. † Weaving, therefore, and archi

* "The buildings are all base of mud, one story high, except in Surat, where there are some of stone. The Emperor's own houses are of stone, handsome and uniform. The great men build not, for want of inheritance; but, as far as I have yet seen, live in tents, or houses worse than our cottages." Sir T. Roe's Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Churchill, i. 803.

† It is curious to observe how Plato traces this progress. He is endeavouring to account for the origin of society. Ιθι δη την δ' εγω) τῷ λόγῳ εξ αρχής ποιώμεν πολιν. ποιήσει δ' αυτήν, ὡς εοικεν, ἡ ἡμετέρα χρεια. Πως δε; Αλλα μεν πρωτη γε και μέγιση των χρείων, ή της τροφής παρασκευή, δεύτερα δη οικήσεως,

tecture, are among the first of the complicated arts which are practised among CHAP. VIII. barbarians; and experience proves that they may be carried, at a very early period of society, to a high state of perfection. It has been remarked, too, that one of the earliest propensities which springs up in the breast of a savage is a love of ornaments, of glittering trinkets, of bits of shining metals, or coloured stones, with which to decorate his person. The art, accordingly, of fetching out the brilliancy of the precious stones and metals, and fashioning them into ornaments for the person; the art, in fine, of jewellery; is one which early appears in the progress of a rude people.

barbarians the

These three, architecture, weaving, and jewellery, are the only arts for which The arts of the Hindus have been celebrated; and even these, with the exception of weaving, only arts much remained at a low state of perfection.

cultivated

among the

Architecture.

In a few places in Hindustan are found the remains of certain ancient build- Hindus. ings, which have greatly attracted the attention of Europeans; and, where they met with a predisposition to wonder and admire, have been regarded as proofs of a high civilization. "The entry," says Dr. Robertson, "to the Pagoda of Chillambrum, is by a stately gate under a pyramid 122 feet in height, built with large stones above forty feet long, and more than five feet square, and all covered with plates of copper, adorned with an immense variety of figures neatly executed. The whole structure extends 1332 feet in one direction, and 936 in another. Some of the ornamental parts are finished with an elegance entitled to the admiration of the most ingenious artists."* The only article of precise information which we obtain from this passage is the great size of the building. As for the vague terms of general eulogy bestowed upon the ornaments, they are almost entirely without significance-the loose and exaggerated expressions, at second hand, of the surprise of the early travellers at meeting with an object which they were not prepared to expect. Another structure still more remarkable than that of Chillambrum, the Pagoda of Seringham, situated in an island of the river Cavery, is thus described by Mr. Orme. "It is composed of seven square inclosures, one within the other, the walls of which are twenty five feet high, and four thick. These inclosures are 350 feet distant from one another, and each has four large gates with a high tower; which are placed, one in the middle of each side of the inclosure, and opposite to the four cardinal points. The outward wall is near four miles in circumference, and its gateway to the τριτη εσθητος και των τοιύτων. Εςι ταυτα. Φερε δη (ην δ' εγω) πως ή πολις αρκέσει επι τοσαυτην παρασκευὴν ἢ αλλοτί, γεωργος μεν, εις, ὁ δὲ οικοδομος• άλλος δε τις υφαντης. Plat. de Repub. lib. ii. p. 599. Robertson's Histor. Disquis. concerning India, p. 225.

P.