CHAP. III. Hindoos' creator, affirming that, having a desire for children, he made himself visible and created the brahmins from his head, whose race has multiplied to an infinite extent. Accordingly, notwithstanding the grossness of their vices and the cruelty of their oppressions, the people generally believe them to be demi-gods, and are often seen to fall prostrate before them, in the attitude and with the expressions of adoration. They esteem themselves too sacred to be touched by others, or even to suffer the breath of an inferior to pass upon them.7 The second cause of their influence was their exclusive knowledge of science, of which some notice may be taken here. Their chronology is invented to favour their assumption of superiority. They compute four ages, or yogums, from the beginning of the world. The first, which they represent as the golden age, lasted seventeen hundred and twenty-eight thousand years. It was then that the god Brahma was created, by Para Brahma, that is, a most perfect substance, who is believed to be self-existent, and to give being to all creatures. In this age the brahmins also were created, and their caste instituted. Mankind were then of a gigantic stature; their manners pure; their bodies perfect, being never afflicted with disease; and they lived four hundred years. In the second age, which lasted twelve hundred and ninety-six thousand years, were born the Rajahs, or Kchatriyas, a noble caste, but inferior to the brahmins. Vice was then introduced into the world: mankind lived three 7 The particular account of Hindoo Mythology is reserved for a subsequent period, when we come to describe the assault fairly made by protestant missionaries upon the idolatries of India. hundred years; and their stature was lower than that of the primitive race. To this succeeded a third age, which lasted eight millions, sixty-four thousand years. In this age the third caste, Vaisyas, were created. They consist of merchants, husbandmen, and artisans. Vice then increased to a great degree; virtue began to forsake the world; and mankind lived only two hundred years. Next followed the fourth and last age, which is the present, when the Sudras, or servile caste, were produced. Vice has now usurped the place of virtue, which is almost banished from among mortals, whose life is consequently reduced to one-fourth of its original duration. The brahmins assert, that four millions, twentyseven thousand, one hundred and ninety-five years of this age have already elapsed. Such are their chronological chimeras; and although the moral character of the brahmins is not one shade better than that of the lowest outcasts, yet they continue to claim, and to receive, all the honours of their pretended origin. Their notions of the other sciences are equally absurd, and framed for the same purpose, to support their own pretensions. Their geography, for instance. They believe that the Earth is a vast surface in the form of a triangle, with several compartments, varying in, beauty, fertility, and inhabitants, and each encompassed by a sea composed of different materials. One is a sea of milk, another of sugar, a third of butter, a fourth of wine, and so on to seven. They are said to begin at Sommeire, the imagi This was written in A. D. 1709, by Father De la Lane, missionary at Pondicherry, to Father Morgues. Lettres edifiantes, &c. A. D. 1606. СНАР. III. nary mountain which, they say, rises in the midst of the earth. The inhabitants of these seven regions vary in character, like those of the four ages of the world, the brahmins, of course, being the superlative. The whole mass of the earth is said to be supported on the heads of elephants, whose motions cause the earthquakes occasionally felt in India. In their philosophy are to be found traces of the doctrines of Pythagoras; and their doctrine of atoms is not unlike the theory of Democritus. Of the causes of different effects in nature, they know scarcely anything, and invent the most puerile fictions to account for them. They are tolerably acquainted with the practical parts of Arithmetic, and are accustomed to calculate the minutest fractions with great facility; but they know little more of mathematics. Their knowledge of astronomy also is very limited, being derived chiefly, if not wholly, from the tables of their ancient astronomers for calculating eclipses. These they continue to use without at all understanding the phenomena of the starry heavens. Their calculations of eclipses are sufficiently correct for their purpose, but they are never made with the accuracy attained by disciples of the Copernican system. Indeed, they seem to be ignorant of the principles on which their tables are constructed, making all their calculations in a mechanical manner. These tables are transmitted from father to son; and to learn the use of them seems to be the summit of their attainments. With the positions and evolutions of the heavenly bodies they are totally unacquainted. For instance they suppose the moon to be above 9 M. Bernier, tom. iii. p. 168. Millar's History of Christianity, vol. ii. pp. 200, &c. the sun; and that when the sun sets, he hides himself behind a huge mountain throughout the night. Neither have they any idea, as already intimated, of the earth's rotundity. They reckon nine planets, and have also twelve signs of the zodiac, whose names do not differ materially from our own. Their zodiac is divided into twenty-seven constellations, which they represent by certain emblems. Each constellation is divided into four equal parts, and each sign comprehends two constellations and a quarter, and is subdivided into nine equal parts or degrees so that they divide the zodiac into one hundred and eight degrees. Like most unenlightened nations, they attach much importance to astrology, of which they sometimes make a mischievous use. This is an outline of brahminical knowledge; and though brief, it is quite full enough to show that their attainments have been greatly overrated by some European admirers of the Hindoo system. It is contained in the Shasters, or sacred books, written in Sanscrit, which the brahmins endeavour to conceal from the other castes, that they may continue to monopolize the limited knowledge they possess. The natural consequence is, that, like the Romish priesthood, they are regarded by their ignorant and deluded votaries as oracles, whose assertions are to be implicitly believed, and all their commands obeyed. A third cause operates to confirm the people in this obsequious deference to brahminical authority. They imagine them to be a holy people because of the severe austerities which they practise upon themselves: for they abstain A. D. 1606. CHAP. Extent of ence. from animal food, and all delicate viands; live much in solitude, often with no other lodging than a cave or hollow tree; and sometimes sleep in the open air upon the mountains or in a desert, exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather. Many of them remain for a long time buried in the ground up to the chin; observe long fasts; inflict pain upon their bodies in various ways, even to the shedding of their blood; keep a profound silence; in a word, they do whatever may tend to preserve the appearance of being indifferent alike to bodily pain or pleasure, and to impress upon the rest of mankind, that all this is the essence of that wisdom of which they pretend to be the sole depositaries.2 6. By these means have the brahmins maintheir influ- tained from time immemorial, the preeminence they have usurped over all other castes of Hindoos. For this purpose it is one of the most complete schemes ever devised to enslave mankind. The Hindoos are described as divided into two classes, "the impostors and the dupes. The latter include the bulk of the Indian popu. lation; and the former is composed of the whole tribe of brahmins." "No one among the contrivers and leaders of false religions was ever able to devise so well-framed a system of imposture as the brahmins have done, in order to preserve unimpaired their religious control over the other castes, and to keep the latter in that state of stupidity and ignorance in which they are immersed. It is a sin, it is a crime, in every Hindoo not born a brahmin, to endeavour to emerge from that state of ignorance, and to aspire to the lowest degree of knowledge: and 2 This system of imposture will be explained more particularly in the Third Volume. |