SATURDAY EVENING. "SWEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright!"— And dear to every Christian breast Less sacred far, but lovely too, The Eve that leads thee to our door; How oft, in autumn evening grey, And abbey dark and hamlet blue! Straightway before his eyes appear The scenes that o'er his journey flitted; While Mem'ry spreads her chequer'd shade, Green nooks that glow with Flora's face. So I, when floats-the labourer's friend!— From thee, as from some castle-tower, Alas! too oft upon the scene, A shadowing fog of sin is spread; Truth's paths have lost their verdurous green; Some little fleeting hour, well-spent, Like sparkling brook from fountain, sent If one swift minute, upward turn'd, While Folly's coloured vapour flies, And Pleasure's paths wind out of sight; I see that lustrous minute rise, Sweet Eve, to paint thee with its light. Thrice happy he! whose foot ascends Thy path o'er-shone by Sunday meek; A word happily used by Cowper : While far beyond, and over thwart the stream, The sloping land recedes into the clouds.-Task, b. i. COLONEL SYKES'S "NOTES ON ANCIENT INDIA." few THE great accumulation of fresh materials, in the course of a very years, from unexpected sources, illustrating the condition of ancient India, affords ground for expecting that something at least may be done towards repairing a capital defect, or rather a breach, in the cycle of human science -the want of a history of early India. That a nation which has reached a high degree in many of the arts of civilization, which has a polished language and an extensive classical literature, treating of every other branch of human knowledge, should be deficient in a history of the events and transactions of past times, which administers to two of the most powerful and general incentives of our nature, curiosity and the love of fame, is a paradox too extravagant to be entertained. There is even evidence in Mahomedan works that native historical records did once exist in India, though none are at present to be found, their place being supplied by fabulous legends, and facts vaguely recorded in works of uncertain date, whence deductions are made adapted to flatter the pretensions of the present generation of the Hindus, but which do not synchronize with the general history of mankind. Whilst some European scholars have laboured to educe from Sanscrit works, upon the assumption of the genuineness of the facts they contain, a thread of history eked out by ingenious conjectures, others have suggested the probability that the real historical records of the Hindus may have been intentionally destroyed to further some scheme of national imposture by the ruling class. Such a project is not unexampled; in China, a powerful monarch, in order to extinguish the sect of Confucius, commanded all their works to be burned. If the project did not completely succeed, it was only because the literary class, the depositaries of the books, did not concur in the emperor's views. In this state of things, during the last ten years, two sources of historical knowledge in India have been revealed, which, whilst they are of the most irrefragable authenticity, were the most likely to escape the ravages of the destroyers of books, if such an hypothesis as that just referred to should prove to be a truth. The inscriptions on rocks, in a character unintelligible to the most learned Brahmans, have been interpreted by means of the skill and sagacity of the late Mr. James Prinsep, and multitudes of ancient coins have, by the same indefatigable individual, been made to yield their valuable testimony. The results of the joint evidence of these two classes of records tended to shew that ancient India, in respect to religion and civil government, two of the most important elements of its character and condition, was in a very different state from that which is asserted in the Brahmanical books, and implied by its existing institutions. In short, it would appear that Buddhism was the prevailing creed of India, and that it has been superseded, at some comparatively recent period, by the artfully constructed Notes on the Religious, Moral, and Political State of India, before the Mahomedan Invasion, chiefly founded on the Travels of the Chinese Buddhist Priest Fa Hian in India, A.D. 399, and on the Commentaries of Messrs. Rémusat, Klaproth, Burnouf, and Landresse. By LIEUTENANT-COLONEL W. H. SYKES, F.R.S. London, 1841. Calder. religio-political system of the Brahmans. A further inference from these documents is, that the Sanscrit language, the high antiquity of which has been a postulate in all inquiries into questions relating to ancient India, did not exist at the date of those records, which are written in the Pali language. There results from this fact a strong presumption against the antiquity of all works composed in Sanscrit. Nearly contemporaneous with these discoveries, two other sources of illustration have been opened, which, whilst perfectly independent of each other and of the preceding, impart such additional confirmation thereto, as to leave no room for doubt. By the learning and industry of the Hon. Mr. Turnour, of the Ceylon civil service, the historical records of that island (whither Brahmanism has not penetrated, and which, therefore, possesses historical records) have been translated from the Pali originals, which harmonize in an extraordinary manner with the Indian inscriptions, as to dates, names, and facts. Meanwhile, the scholars of France, our generous rivals in oriental learning, have found in the literature of China-in the writings of their historians and in the personal narratives of early Chinese travellers in Hindustan-details, the fidelity of which is beyond suspicion, some of them given by eye-witnesses, which would alone dispel all doubt of the fact, that, as late as the fourth or fifth century of our era, Brahmanism had not extended its iron rule over the unhappy people of India. The mere fact of a Chinese Buddhist priest travelling to that country, A.D. 399, with a suite of co-religionists, to attain a correct knowledge of the tenets and practice of Buddhism there, is decisive. If This is a subject, the investigation of which is not simply one of curiosity; its interest is not confined to the antiquary or the speculative philosopher; it addresses itself to the statesman and the philanthropist. Brahmanism can be shewn to be a modern imposture, a system of civil tyranny forcibly imposed by "strangers" upon a nation they have conquered and oppressed, we may materially modify our interference with it, which will partake more than hitherto of the character of political intervention and less of that of religious persecution. Colonel Sykes, in his able and learned investigation of these valuable data (modestly termed "Notes"), which was laid before the Royal Asiatic Society and printed in its Journal, but which he has now published in a separate form, has rendered a very acceptable service to those who desire to be well acquainted with the extent and nature of these important discoveries. He begins by giving a kind of digest, accompanied by valuable reflections of his own, of the narrative of Fă-Heen, the Buddhist traveller we referred to, and of the able commentaries of his French translators on the Füh-kwo-ke, or History of the Kingdom of Buddha.' This work, as well as the works of other Chinese writers, including Ma-twan-lin, seems to prove that Buddhism was the prevalent religion of India until several centuries after the Christian era, nor had it been expelled thence, according to another Chinese traveller, Heuen-tsang, in the seventh century. Moreover, as these travellers never speak of more than one sacred language, and as the sacred language of Buddhism is the Pali or Magadha, there is strong reason to infer that Sanscrit did not then exist. Fă-heen, who was versed in Pali, had no difficulty in making himself understood and in copying books all over India, but he never speaks of another tongue. According to the express statement of this writer, "all the kings of the different kingdoms of India were firmly attached to the law of Buddha," which, he adds, had prevailed there uninterruptedly from the birth of Buddha to his time; that is, from the sixth century before Christ to the fifth century after Christ. What is the more remarkable, the seat of this religion, as Colonel Sykes observes, was in the very localities where the Puranic fables fix the holiest places of Brahmanism-Muttra, Benares, Allahabad, Oude, and the banks of the Jumna and Ganges. "Of the thousands of coins found in India," he adds, " up to the period or time of Fă-hëen, there is not one that has any relation to Brahmanism; and the same may be said of the numerous inscriptions." When Heuen-tsang visited Benares, A.D. 630-40, he found there thirty Buddhist monasteries and some thousands of priests and disciples, although the majority of the inhabitants were "heretics." The conclusions which Colonel Sykes has drawn from the narratives of the Chinese travellers, and from the coins and inscriptions, are the following: 1st. That the Buddhism taught by Sakya prevailed generally in India, as the predominant religion, from the Himalayas to Ceylon, and from Orissa to Gujarat, from the sixth century before Christ,* certainly to the seventh century after Christ, and that its final overthrow in India did not take place until the twelfth or fourteenth centuries. 2nd. That there are grounds for the belief of the existence of Buddhas, and of a qualified Buddhism, anterior to the sixth century before Christ, back to an extremely remote period. 3rd. That the "doctors of reason," or followers of the mystic cross [Swastika], diffused in China and India before the advent of Sakya, and continuing even to Fa-hian's time, were professors of a qualified Buddhism, which is positively stated to have been the universal religion of Thibet before Sakya's advent. 4th. That India was generally split into small monarchies or states, but occasionally consolidated under one head, as the talents and vigour of an individual prince enabled him to subjugate his contemporary princes. 5th. That evidence is wanting of the local or universal dominion of princes of the Brahmanical faith during the prevalence of Buddhism; but that in Fahian's time, there is his positive testimony that there was not a single Hindu reigning prince in India; and as late as the seventh century, Hiuan thsang found few rulers of the Brahmanical faith. 6th. That certain facts and expressions in the Chinese and other authors seem to indicate that the Brahmans were a secular, and not a religious, community; in fact, as is stated by Ma touan lin and Soung yun, “a tribe of strangers ;" and that they had neither religious nor political influence nor power until after the invention of the Puranas, and during the periods of confusion consequent on the decline of Buddhism, the rise of the Rajput states, the spread of Saiva and Vaishnava worship, and the Mohammedan invasion. * From the eleventh century B.C., according to the Chinese, Japanese, and the Buddhists of Central Asia. 7th. That various expressions of the Chinese authors admit of the inference, that the divisions of caste in India were secular, and not religious, as the four castes, as they were called, existed equally amongst the Buddhists as amongst the Hindus; and exist to this day amongst the Buddhists of Ceylon, and the Jains. 8th. That as mention is made only of the universal use of one language by the Chinese authors, and as the whole of the ancient Buddhist scriptures are still found in the Magadhi or Pali language, while there is not any mention whatever of ancient copies in Sanskrit, and as all the most ancient inscriptions relate to Buddhism, and are in the old Pali language, it is to be inferred that the Fan language, which Fa hian studied, and in which the sacred books were written which he carried with him into China, was an ancient form of Pali, and not Sanskrit; in fact, that proof is wanting of the existence of Sanskrit until six or seven centuries after the extant proofs of the existence of the Pali language. 9th. That no evidence whatever is afforded by the Chinese travellers of the worship of the Linga in India as late as the seventh century; although it would appear that the followers of Maha Iswara are enumerated amongst the heretics some centuries before that date. 10th. That Brahmanism, such as it is taught by the Puranas, and such as it has been known to Europeans for the last two or three centuries, had no operative existence, or rather practical influence, until the decline of Buddhism. Colonel Sykes strengthens these conclusions from other sources, and especially from the historical annals of Ceylon, the Mahawanso, a work which was compiled A.D. 302, from previous histories then extant, and which evidently contains a body of authentic facts at least from the date of B.C. 543. "After King Datthagamini, B.C. 164," observes Mr. Turnour, the translator, "there does not appear to be the slightest ground for questioning the correctness of the chronology of Ceylon history, even in minute respects." The sixth and seventh propositions of Colonel Sykes, namely, that the Brahmans were a tribe of strangers (according to the Chinese authorities, so late as the sixth century of our era); that they were a secular, not a religious community, and that a caste system, though of a secular character, existed amongst the Buddhists, he contends, are not at variance with the reports of Greek writers upon India, whose descriptions of the gymnosophists, and of many of the traits of Hindu society in those days, would accord with Buddhism better, perhaps, than with Brahmanism. From an examination of the testimony of the ancient Greek and Roman authors, he deduces the following results : That the supposed Brahmans, for the most part, went naked-underwent the tonsure-worshipped one God-were free from the bondage of caste, and could eat from any man's hand-never engaged in secular affairs-abstained from animal sacrifices and animal food, and never destroyed animal life—were remarkable for their self-denial and penances, living upon fruits, grain, vegetables, and water-abandoned their wives and children, and abstained from women-dwelt in sylvan places or in caves-and it was the custom of their country for those afflicted with disease to burn themselves on the funeral pile Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.36.No.142. |