Part 3 of 3
REMARKS The foregoing is almost a literal translation from the Chartah Bhade of Bramah, as we despaired of reaching the sublime style and diction of the original; -- it will not we hope be displeasing to our reader, if we assist his memory and recollection by a recapitulation of the ground work of these doctrines, presented to him in one connected view; the more especially, as we shall also be thereby the better enabled to form our necessary explanatory remarks.
We have seen that the original divine institutes of Bramah are simple and sublime, comprehending the whole compass of all that is; God, angels, the visible and invisible worlds, man and beasts; and is comprised under the following articles of the Gentoo Creed. To wit —
"That there is one God, eternal, omnific, omnipotent, and omniscient, in all things excepting a prescience of the future actions of free agents. -- That God from an impulse of divine love and goodness, first created three angelic persons to whom he gave precedence, though not in equal degree. -- That he afterwards from the same impulse created an angelic host, whom he placed in subjection to Birmah his first created, and to Bistnoo and Sieb, as coadjutors to Birmah. -- That God created them all free, and intended they should all be partakers of his glory and beatitude, on the easy conditions of their acknowledging him their Creator, and paying obedience to him, and to the three primary created personages, whom he had put over them. -- That, in process of time, a large portion of the angelic host at the instigation of Moisasoor and others of their chief leaders, rebelled and denied the supremacy of their Creator, and refused obedience to his commands. That in consequence the rebels were excluded heaven, and the sight of their Creator, and doomed to languish for ever in
sorrow and
darkness. That, after a time, by the intercession of the three primary, and the rest of the faithful angelic beings, God relented, and placed the delinquents in a more sufferable state of punishment and probation, with powers to gain their lost happy situation. -- That for that purpose a new creation of the visible and invisible worlds instantaneously took place, destined for the delinquents. -- That the new creation consisted of fifteen regions, seven below, and seven above this terraqueous globe, and that this globe and the seven regions below it are stages of punishment and purgation, and the seven above stages of purification, and consequently that this globe is the eighth, last and chief stage of punishment, purgation and trial. -- That mortal bodies were prepared by God, for the rebel angels,
in which they were for a space to be imprisoned, and subject to natural and moral evils, more or less painful in proportion to their original guilt, and
through which they were doomed to transmigrate under eighty-nine different forms, the last into that of man, when the powers of the animating rebel spirits, are supposed to be enlarged equal to the state of their first creation. -- That under this form God rests his chief expectations of their repentance and restoration, and if they fail, and continue reprobate under this form, they are returned to the lowest region, and sentenced to go through the same course of punishment, until they reach the ninth region, or first stage of purification, where although they cease from punishment, and gain remission and forgiveness of their guilt of rebellion; yet, they are not permitted to enter heaven, nor behold their Creator, before they have passed the seven regions of purification. -- That the rebel leaders had power given them by God, to enter the eight regions of punishment and probation, and that the faithful angelic spirits, had permission occasionally to descend to those regions, to guard the delinquents against die future attempts of their leaders. -- And that, consequently, the souls, or spirits which animate every mortal form, are delinquent angels in a state of punishment, for a lapse from innocence, in a
pre-existent state."
We will presume to say, that the
difference between the doctrines hitherto imputed, to these ancient people, when compared with the original tenets of the Chartah Bhade, will now appear so obvious to the learned and curious reader, that a further discussion of this point, is we conceive needless, and would in truth be a tacit reflection upon his understanding. -- Yet we are far from condemning the authors, who have treated on this subject; they took their information from the best lights they had; -- it is only to be regretted, that in place of drinking at the fountain head, they have swallowed the muddy streams which flowed from the Chatah and Aughtorrah Bhades. -- The author on his departure from Bengal in the year 1750, imagined himself well informed in the Gentoo religion, his knowledge had been acquired by conversations with the Bramins of those Bhades who were near, as little acquainted with the Chartah Bhade of Bramah, as he was himself, and he had then thoughts of obtruding his crude notions on the public, had not a different necessary application of his time luckily prevented him.
When we peruse some portions of Milton’s account of the rebellion and expulsion of the angels, we are almost led to imagine, on comparison, that Bramah and he were both instructed by the same spirit; had not the soaring, ungovernable, inventive genius of the latter, instigated him to illustrate his poem with scenes too gross and ludicrous, as well as manifestly repugnant to, and inconsistent with, sentiments we ought to entertain of an omnipotent being (as before remarked) in which we rather fear he was inspired by one of these malignant spirits (alluded to in the Shastah and elsewhere) who have from their original defection, been the declared enemies of God and man. -- For however we are astonished and admire the sublimity of Milton’s genius, we can hardly sometimes avoid concluding his conceits truly diabolical. -- But this by the by. --Our readers are now possessed for the first time of a faithful account of the metempsychosis of the Bramins — commonly called the transmigration of souls, a term hitherto we believe little understood, that this doctrine was originally peculiar to the Gentoos, will not admit of doubt, although in after times it was embraced by the Egyptian Magi, and by some sects amongst the Chinese and Tartars. -- Pythagoras, who favored this doctrine, and was a convert to it, labored to introduce it amongst his countrymen the Greeks, but failed in the attempt. He succeeded better with them, in the theogony, cosmogony and mythology of the Bramins’ Aughtorrah Bhade Shastah, although these constituted no part of the original theology of Bramah.
As we have reserved a part expressly for a dissertation on the doctrine of the metempsychosis, we will avoid further mention of it here; but as the Bramins of the Chatah and Aughtorrah Bhades, inculcate and teach many corollary branches of doctrine which spring from this root, it is necessary that we recite a few of the most established ones.
"When the delinquent Debtah, by the mediation of Birmah, Bistnoo and Moisoor, and the faithful angelic host, were released from the Onderah; all, except Moisasoor, Rhaabon, and the rest of the rebel leaders, were so struck with the goodness and mercy of the ETERNAL ONE, that they persevered in a pious resignation and true penitence, during the first of the four Jogues, and multitudes ascended, and passed through the fifteen Boboons, and regained their forfeited estate. -- This period of time is called in the Shastah the Suttee Jogue, when the term of the spirits' probation in Mhurd, was extended to one hundred thousand years.
"In the second of the four Jogues, Moisasoor and the rebel leaders so effectually exerted their influence over the delinquent Debtah, that they soon began to forget their crime and disregard their punishment in the Onderah; they rejected the councils and examples of the guardian Debtah, and stood a second time in defiance of their Creator; and Moisasoor drew over one third of the remaining unpurified spirits. -- This period is distinguished in the Shastah, by the name of the Tirtah Jogue, in which the ETERNAL ONE retrenched the term of the spirits’ probation in Mhurd, to ten thousand years. In this Jogue however, many persevered in goodness, ascended through the fifteen Boboons, and regained the Mahah Surgo.
"In the third of the four Jogues, Moisasoor's influence increased, and he drew over half of the remaining unpurified spirits, in each of the eight Boboons of punishment and probation. This period is called in the Shastah, the Duapaar, or Dwapaar Jogue, in which the term of probation in Mhurd, was reduced to one thousand years; yet in this Jogue there were many who ascended and regained the Mahah Surgo.
"In the fourth Jogue, Moisasoor acquired as full possession of the hearts of the remaining delinquent Debtah as when they first rose in rebellion with him, with very few exceptions; this period in the Shastah is called the Kolee Jogue, in which the term of probation in Mhurd is limited to one hundred years only. -- Yet even this Jogue affords some instances of the delinquent spirits surmounting the eight lower Boboons, by penitence and good works; notwithstanding the unwearied diligence of Moisasoor, Rhaaboon, and the rest of the rebellious leaders, and delinquent Debtah, who had a second time fallen under his influence."
The four Jogues or ages having been so frequently mentioned in the last paragraphs, we cannot do better than explain their meaning here, as such explanation would prove too long for a note, it may be remembered, they are called the Suttee Jogue, the Tirtah Jogue, the Dupaar Jogue, and the Kolee Jogue; we will speak to each in their order.
The Suttee Jogue, or the first age, literally the age of truth, figuratively the age of goodness; -- in this age Endeer is fabled to be born, according to the Aughtorrah Bhade; and appointed King of the Universe — the word Endeer literally signifies good, and is in that Shastah opposed to Moisasoor or evil, and the various battles said to be fought between this rebel angel and Endeer, and their descendants in every Jogue, allegorically exhibit the conflicts and progress of good and evil in the universe; Endeer's being appointed universal monarch in the Suttee Jogue, alludes to the state of the delinquent Debtah in this age, upon their emerging from the Onderah, when the impression of God's mercy acted so powerfully on their hearts, as to preserve them in penitence and purity, during this age, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of Moisasoor (or evil) and his adherents, to engage them in a second defection. -- From the word Suttee (truth) the word Sansah in Bengals, and Sutch, in the Moors are derived, -- any one acquainted in the least degree with those tongues, knows that the phrase Sansah Kotah, in the one, and Sutch Bhaat, in the other, is commonly used to assert the verity of any thing advanced, and simply signifies,
words of truth. The Tirtah Jogue, or second age. -- By the term prefixed to this age, the order of the Jogues should seem inverted, as the word in its simple construction signifies third. -- The words, teen, tarah, tise, trese, and tetrese, which express the numbers three, thirteen, twenty-three, thirty and thirty-three, are all derivatives from the Sanscrit, Tirtah, or Tirtea, as it is sometimes wrote, and means the third, but oftener the third part, as in the present instance, where the term Tirtah Jogue given to the second age, is allusive to the second defection of one third of the remaining unpurified delinquent spirits, from that penitence and purity which governed them in the Suttee Jogue. -- In this age Rhaam is fabled to be born for the protection of the delinquent Debtah, against the snares and attempts of Moisasoor and his adherents. The word Rhaam in the Sanscrit, literally signifies protector, but in many parts of the Aughtorrah Bhade this personage is mentioned in a more extended sense, as the protector of kingdoms, states and property. -- Rhaam! Rhaam! is used as a pious salutation, between two Gentoos when they meet in the morning, thereby recommending each other's person and property to the protection of this Demi-god.
The Duapaar Jogue, or third age. -- This term prefixed to the third age, alludes to the second defection from penitence and goodness of one half of the remaining unpurified Debtah — dua, or dwa simply signifies, two, or the second, but here by the addition of paar, it means the half; thus duapaar deen, expresses half the day, and duapaar rhaat half the night, that is if the phrase issues from the mouth of a polite Gentoo — but the vulgar would say adah deen and adah rhaat, adah being the common Bengal word for half. -- In the beginning of this Jogue the Aughtorrah Bhade fixes the birth of Kissen Taghoor. -- The word kissen in the Sanscrit signifies a scourge, and this being is in that Bhade frequently distinguished as the scourge of tyrants and tyranny. -- Tagoor literally means revered, respected, and is a common appellation given to Bramins.
The Kolee Jogue, or the fourth and present age. -- Kolee in the Sanscrit signifies corruption, pollution, impurity, consequently Kolee Jogue means the age of pollution. -- In this age (say the Bramins) children shall bear false witness against their parents, and before the expiration of it — the stature of the Mhurd by the wickedness of the rebellious Debtah that animates it, shall be so reduced, that he will not be able to pluck a Bygon (berengelah [The Egg Plant.]) without the help of a hooked stick. -- We have often, whilst at the head of the judicial court of Cutcherry at Calcutta, heard the most atrocious murders and crimes confessed, and an extenuation of them attempted, by pleading,
it was the Kolee Jogue. -- How far the poetical conceits of Ovid, and others, touching the golden, &c. ages, have been framed from Bramah's four Jogues, we leave to the investigation of the curious.
It is an established doctrine of the Aughtorrah Bhade, that the three primary created personages, as well as the rest of the heavenly angelic faithful spirits, have from time to time according to the permission given them by God, descended to the eight Boboons of punishment, and have voluntarily subjected themselves to the feelings of natural and moral evil, for the sake of their brethren, the delinquent Debtah. And to this end, have undergone the eighty-nine transmigrations; [Hence the Gentoos’ dread of killing even by accident any thing that has life, as thereby they may not only dispossess the spirits of their allied Debtah, but also, those of the celestial Debtah, who are working for their redemption.] and that it is those benevolent spirits, who have at different times appeared on this earthly region, under the mortal forms and names of Endeer, Bramah, Jaggernaut, Kissen Tagoor, Rhaam, Luccon, Kalkee (or Kallee), Sursuttee, Gunnis, Kartic, &c. -- that have opposed and fought against Moisasoor, Rhaabon, and their iniquitous adherents — and have proved themselves under the various characters of Kings, Generals, Philosophers, Lawgivers and Prophets, shining examples to the delinquent Debtah, of stupendous courage, fortitude, purity and piety. -- That their visitations were frequent during the Tirtah, and Duapaar Jogues, but rare since the commencement of the Kolee Jogue, because in this age the delinquent Debtah in general are deemed utterly reprobate, and hardened in their wickedness beyond the powers of council or example; so that they are in a manner left, and given up to their own powers, and abandoned to the full influence of Moisasoor. -- But that there are still in every period of time some few instances of the delinquents’ exertion of their
own powers for their salvation, and that when this is manifested to God, he permits the celestial Debtah invisibly to aid, confirm, and support them.
Although the Shastah of Bramah denies the prescience of God respecting the actions of free-agents, yet the Bramins maintain that his knowledge extends to the thoughts of every created being, and that the moment a thought is conceived by the soul or spirit, it is sympathetically conveyed to God. -- It is upon this principle that the adorations, prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, which the Gentoos prefer to the Deity himself are offered in solemn silence; but it is not so with regard to the invocations and worship, instituted by the Aughtorrah Bhade to be paid to the subordinate celestial beings, for these are addressed in loud prayer, joined to the clang of various musical instruments.
We have already slightly touched on the religious veneration paid to the Ghoij in a particular district of Bengali, although it is beyond doubt, that their devotion to this animal was universal throughout Indostan in former times. -- The original source of this regard, was of a two fold nature, as a religious and political institution: first, in a religious sense; as holding in the rotation of the metempsychosis, the rank immediately preceding the human form; this conception is the true cause of that devout, and sometimes enthusiastic veneration paid to this animated form, for the Bramins inculcate that when the Ghoij suffers death by accident or violence, or through the neglect of the owner, it is a token of God's wrath against the wickedness of the spirit of
the proprietor, who from thence is warned that at the dissolution of his human form, he will not be deemed worthy of entering the first Boboon of purification, but be again condemned to return to the lowest region of punishment: hence it is, that not only mourning and lamentation ensue on the violent death of either cow of calf — but the proprietor is frequently enjoined, and oftener voluntarily undertakes, a three years pilgrimage in expiation of his crime, forsaking his family, friends and relations, he subsists during his pilgrimage on charity and alms. -- It is worthy remark, that the penitent thus circumstanced, ever meets with the deepest commiseration, as his state is deemed truly pitiable; two instances have fallen within our own knowledge where the penitents have devoted themselves to the service of God, and a pilgrimage during the term of their life.
Secondly, the Ghoij is venerated by the Gentoos in a political sense, as being the most useful and necessary of the whole animal creation, to a people forbid feeding on flesh, or on any thing that had breathed the breath of life; for it not only yielded to them delectable food, but was otherways essentially serviceable in the cultivation of their lands; on which depended their vegetable subsistence.
The Gentoos hold that the females of all animated forms are, more or less, favored of God, but more eminently in the form of Moiyah in the eighty-ninth transmigration; the word signifies excellent, and is applied to the female of Mhurd; Rhaan is the common name for woman, though it usually means a married Moiyah, and the Gentoo princesses have no higher title than Rhaanee. The female or Moiyah of Mhurd, is supposed to be animated by the most benign and least culpable of the apostate angels, and that from this form, in every period of the four Jogues, an infinitely greater number of the delinquent spirits, have entered the first region of purification, than from the form of Mhurd.
The sudden death of infants, the Bramins say, marks the spirit favored of God, and that it is immediately received into the bosom of Bistnoo, (the preserver) and conveyed to the first region of purification. -- The sudden death of adults, on the contrary, they pronounce a mark of God's wrath against the animating spirit, as its term of probation in Mhurd, is cut short. -- The great age of man, when it is accompanied with the enjoyments of his faculties and understanding, is pronounced by the Bramins to be the greatest blessing God can bestow upon this mortal state, as thereby the term of the spirit's probation is prolonged; adding that the limited space of one hundred years, decreed by God in the present Kolee Jogue, is full short for the works of repentance and goodness, and that when the life and understanding is preserved beyond that limited term, it ought to be deemed a signal mark of God's special grace and favor.
Longevity, in (what we call) the brute creation, is by the Bramins esteemed a mark of the great delinquency of the spirits which animate those tribes, because they are so long debarred and withheld from their great and chief state of probation in Mhurd. -- The Gentoos estimate the greater or lesser delinquency of the apostate spirits, by the class of mortal forms they are doomed to inhabit; thus, all voracious and unclean animals are supposed to be animated by the most malignant spirits; -- if a hog or dog touch a Gentoo, he is defiled, not from the animal form, but from the persuasion, that the Debtah animating that form, is a malignant spirit. -- Every voracious animal, that inhabits the earth, air and waters, and men whose lives and actions are publicly and atrociously wicked, come under that class of spirits. -- On the contrary, those spirits that animate the forms which subsist on vegetables, and do not prey upon each other, are pronounced favored of God.
The
general warfare which is observed in the animal world, whereby the destruction of one species is the necessary support and subsistence of others, the Bramins assert is the lot of punishment decreed by God for the most guilty of the apostate angels, who are thereby made
his instruments of punishment to
each other, every of these tribes being a destined prey to one another. -- The natural enmity which some classes of animals bear to others, whereby they live in a continued state of war and contention, whenever they meet, although they do not subsist on each other, proceeds they say from the same cause; the delinquent Debtah being destined as a punishment, in those forms to exercise that propensity to hatred, envy, and animosity, on one another, which they had so impotently dared to exert against their Creator.
The rotation of animal forms destined for the habitation of the delinquent Debtah are not, say the Bramins, precisely the same, on repetition of the eighty-nine transmigrations; but are arbitrary and rest with the will of God; but it is their belief that the least guilty of the Debtah, transmigrate only through those forms which by their nature are destined to subsist on the vegetable creation; and that the three changes immediately preceding the spirits animating the Ghoij (that is the eighty-fifth, eighty-sixth, and eighty-seventh) are into the most innocent of the species of birds, the goat and the sheep, the animals most favored of God, next to the Ghoij and Mhurd. -- From hence the rigid Bramins execrate with bitterness, the cruelty of those nations, who wickedly and wantonly, select and slaughter the best beloved created forms of God, namely the birds, the goat, the sheep, and the cow, to satisfy their unnatural lust of appetite, in defiance not only to his express command and prohibition, but in opposition to the natural and obvious construction of the mouth and digestive faculties of Mhurd, which marks him, destined with other forms most favored of God, to feed and subsist on the fruits and produce of the earth with the additional blessing of the milk of the Ghoij, and of other animals. -- For this degeneracy, they account no otherwise, than piously lamenting the pitiable state of Mhurd, since the commencement of the Kolee Jogue, adding, that by just consequence the transgression carries its punishment along with it, for by this assemblage of unnatural and forbidden food, variety of diseases are entailed, which cut short the term of probation in Mhurd, by which the delinquent spirit robs himself of more than half of that space of indulgence and trial which his Creator has graciously bestowed upon him, and which he by a fresh instance of his disobedience, ungratefully rejects.
Ovid in his fifteenth book of Metamorphoses introduces Pythagoras dissuading mankind from killing and feeding on his fellow creatures. Our readers will excuse us, if we transcribe such parts of his pathetic arguments, as are strictly in point with the subject of the preceding paragraph.
He first the taste of flesh, from tables drove.
And argued well, if arguments could move.
O mortals! from your fellows’ blood abstain.
Nor taint your bodies, with a food profane;
While corn and pulse by nature are bestow’d,
And planted orchards bend their willing load;
While labor’d gardens wholesome herbs produce.
And teeming vines, afford their gen’rous juice;
Nor tardier fruits of cruder kind are lost.
But tam'd by fire or mellow’d by the frost;
While kine to pails distended udders bring.
And bees their honey, redolent of spring;
While earth, not only can your needs supply.
But lavish of her stores, provides for luxury;
A guiltless feast, administers with ease.
And without blood, is prodigal to please;
Wild beasts their maws, with their slain breth’ren fill,
And yet not all, — for some refuse to kill;
Sheep, goats, and oxen, and the nobler steed.
On browse and corn, and flow’ry meadows feed;
Bears, tigers, wolves, the angry lion’s brood.
Whom heaven endu’d with principles of blood.
He wisely sunder’d, from the rest to yell.
In forest, and in lonely caves to dwell;
Where stronger beasts, oppress the weak by night
And all in prey, and purple feasts delight.
O impious use! to Nature’s laws opposed.
Where bowels are, in others’ bowels closed;
Where fatten’d, by their fellow’s fat they thrive.
Maintain’d by murder, and by death, they live;
’Tis then for nought, that mother Earth provides
The stores of all she shows, and all she hides;
If men with fleshy morsels must be fed.
And chaw with bloody teeth the breathing bread;
What else is this, but to devour our guests.
And barb’rously renew Cyclopean feasts?
We by destroying life, our life sustain.
And gorge th’ ungodly maw, with meats obscene.
Not so the golden age, who fed on fruit.
Nor durst with bloody meals their mouths pollute;
Then birds, in airy space, might safely move.
And tim’rous hares on heaths securely rove.
Nor needed fish the guileful hooks to fear.
For all was peaceful, and that peace sincere.
Whoever was the wretch, and curs’d be he.
That envy’d first, our food’s simplicity;
The essay of bloody feasts, on brutes began.
And after forged the sword to murder man;
Had he the sharpened steel, alone employed
On beasts of prey, which other beasts destroyed.
Or man invaded, with their fangs and paws,
This had been justifyed by Nature’s laws.
And self defence: — but who did feasts begin
Of flesh, he stretch’d necessity, to sin.
To kill man-killers, man has lawful power.
But not the extended licence to devour.
Ill habits gather, by unseen degrees.
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas;
The sow, with her broad snout, for rooting up,
Th' entrusted seed, was judg’d to spoil the crop;
And intercept the sweating farmer’s hope.
The covetous churl, of unforgiving kind,
The offender of the bloody priest resign'd;
Her hunger was on plea, for that she dy’d;
The goat came next in order to be tried.
The goat had crop’d the tendrils of the vine.
In vengeance the laity, and clergy join.
Where one had lost his profit, one his wine.
Here was, at least, some shadow of offence.
The sheep was sacrificed, on no pretence.
But meek, and unresisting innocence.
A patient, useful creature, born to bear.
The warm and woolly fleece, that cloth’d her murderer;
And daily to give down the milk she bred,
A tribute for the grass on which she fed:
Living both food and raiment she supplies.
And is of least advantage, when she dies.
How did the toiling ox, his death deserve,
A downright simple drudge, and born to serve?
O tyrant! with what justice can'st thou hope;
The promise of the year a plenteous crop.
When thou destroy’st thy laboring steer, who till’d
And plough’d with pain, thy else ungrateful field?
From his yet reeking neck, to draw the yoke.
That neck with which the surly clods he broke;
And to the hatchet, yield thy husband man.
Who finished autumn, and the spring began.
Nor this alone! but heaven itself to bribe.
We to the gods, our impious acts ascribe;
First recompence with death, their creatures toil.
Then call the blest above to share the spoil.
The fairest victim, must the pow’rs appease
(So fatal 'tis sometimes too much to please)
A purple fillet his broad brow adorns.
With flow’ry garlands crown’d and gilded horns:
He hears the murd’rous prayer the priest prefers.
But understands not! ’tis his doom he hears:
Beholds the meal, betwixt his temples cast,
(The fruit and product of his labors past,)
And in the water, views perhaps the knife.
Uplifted to deprive him of his life;
Then broken up alive, his entrails sees
Torn out for priests t’inspect the gods’ decrees.
From whence, O mortal man! this gust of blood
Have you deriv’d? and interdicted food?
Be taught by me, this dire delight to shun.
Warn'd by my precepts, by my practice, won;
And when you eat the well-deserving beast.
Think, on the lab’rer of your field, you feast.
Then let not piety be put to flight,
To please the taste of glutton appetite;
But suffer inmate souls secure to dwell,
Lest from their seats your parents you expel;
With rabid hunger feed upon your kind,
Or from a beast dislodge a brother’s mind.
That Pythagoras carried such sentiments from the Bramins, and labored to obtrude them upon his countrymen, is beyond controversy; the pathetic persuasives he urged to them in that age to abstain from the feeding on their brethren of the creation, proved however as ineffectual then, as we conceive it would be in the present, the more's the pity — for it is to be feared we shall to the end of the chapter — Rise, kill and eat.
Regarding the description (which Ovid puts in the mouth of Pythagoras) of the ancient religious sacrifices, we must in justice to the Bramins say he could not borrow it from them; in this particular the original religious tenets of the Gentoos differ from all the ancients, for they were strangers to those bloody sacrifices and offerings; neither of the Gentoo Bhades having the least allusion to that mode of worshipping the deity; and the Bramins say, nothing but Moisasoor himself could have invented so infatuated and cruel an institution, which is manifestly so repugnant to the true spirit of devotion, and abhorrent to the ETERNAL ONE.
That every animal form is endued, with cogitation, memory and reflection, is one of the most established tenets of the Bramins; indeed it must consequentially be so, on the supposed metempsychosis of the apostate spirits, through these mortal forms. -- Every state of the delinquent spirits’ abode in the eight Boboons, they say, is a state of humiliation, punishment and purgation, that of Mhurd not excepted; and that the purpose of the ETERNAL ONE would be defeated by himself, had he not endued them with rationality and a consciousness of their situation. -- In the form of Mhurd alone, is the spirit’s state of probation, because in this form only, he again becomes an absolute and
free agent; and in this alone lies the difference between Mhurd, and the rest of the animal created forms, for in these, the spirit’s intellectual faculties are circumscribed, more or less, by the varied construction of the forms, and limited within certain bounds, which they cannot exceed, -- that consciousness of those confined powers, and envy at the superior state of Mhurd, constitutes ( their chief punishment; that this unceasing envy, and resentment of the usurped tryanny which Mhurd assumed over the animal creation (from the beginning of the Kolee Jogue) are the causes which made them in general shun his society, and live in a state of enmity with him, according to the force of the natural powers, which the ETERNAL ONE has endued them with; that where some of the species appear an exception to this general bent, it proceeds from the weakness of their natural powers; or the superior craft and subtlety of Mhurd, who first deceitfully allured them to slavery and destruction. -- That neither
envy or enmity in the animal created forms, nor usurped tyranny on the part of Mhurd, had existence in the breasts of either, before the beginning of the Kolee Jogue, when a universal degeneracy of almost all the remaining unpurified Debtah prevailed through all their mortal forms — which until that period had lived in amity and harmony, as conscious of being involved under the same sentence and displeasure of their Creator; and lastly — that the usurped tyranny of Mhurd over the rest of the delinquent angels was displeasing to the ETERNAL ONE, and will be a charge exhibited against the spirit by Bistnoo at the dissolution of Mhurd, for that in place of cherishing the unhappy delinquents during their state of humiliation and punishment, they do, by the force of their tyrannic usurpation, labor to make their state more miserable, than the ETERNAL ONE intended it should be, in violation of his express injunction,
that they should love one another.The Bramins hold, that every distinct species of animal creation have a comprehensive mode of communicating their ideas, peculiar to themselves; and that the metempsychosis of the delinquent spirits extends through every organised body, even to the smallest insect and reptile; -- they highly venerate the bee, and some species of the ant, and conceive the spirits animating those forms are favored of God, and that its intellectual faculties, are more enlarged under them, than in most others.
Although we have already shown that the bloody sacrifices of the ancients was no part of the Gentoo tenets, yet there subsists amongst them at this day, a
voluntary sacrifice, of too singular a nature, to pass by us unnoticed; the rather as it has been frequently mentioned by various authors, without we conceive that knowledge and perspicuity which the matter calls for; the sacrifice we allude to, is the
Gentoo wives burning with the bodies of their deceased husbands. We have taken no small pains to investigate this seeming cruel custom, and hope we shall be able to throw same satisfactory lights on this very extraordinary subject, which has hitherto been hid in obscurity; in order to which we will first remove one or two obstructions that lie in our way, and hinder our nearer and more perfect view of it.
The cause commonly assigned for the origin of this sacrifice (peculiar to the wives of this nation) is, that
it was a law constituted to put a period to a wicked practice that the Gentoos' wives had of poisoning their husbands; -- for this assertion we cannot trace the smallest semblance of truth, and indeed the known fact, that the sacrifice must be voluntary, of it's self refutes that common mistake. -- It also has been a received opinion, that
if the wife refuses to burn, she loses her caste (or tribe) and is stamped with disgrace and infamy, an opinion equally void of foundation in fact as the other.-- The real state of this case is thus circumstanced. -- The first wife (for the Gentoo laws allow bigamy, although they frequently do not benefit themselves of the indulgence, if they have issue by the first) has it in her choice to burn, but is not permitted to declare her resolution before twenty-four hours after the decease of her husband; -- if she refuses, the right devolves to the second, -- if either, after the expiration of twenty-four hours, publicly declare, before the Bramins and
witnesses, their resolution to
burn, they cannot then retract. If they both refuse at the expiration of that term, the worst consequence that attends their refusal, is lying under the imputation of being wanting to their own honor, purification, and the prosperity of their family, for from their infancy, they are instructed by the household Bramin to look upon this catastrophe, as most glorious to themselves, and beneficial to their children: the truth is, that the children of the wife who burns, become thereby illustrious, and are sought after in marriage by the most opulent and honourable of their caste, and sometimes received into a caste superior to their own.
That the Bramins take unwearied pains to encourage, promote, and confirm in the minds of the Gentoo wives,
this spirit of burning, is certain (their motives for it, the penetration of our readers may by and by probably discover) and although they seldom lose their labor, yet instances happen, where fear, or love of life, sets at nought all their preaching; for it sometimes falls out that the first wife refuses, and the second burns; at others, they both refuse; and as but one can burn, it so happens, that when the second wife has issue by the deceased, and the first none, there commonly ensues a violent contention between them, which of the two shall make the sacrifice; but this dispute is generally determined by the Bramins, in favor of the first, unless she is prevailed on by persuasion, or other motives to wave her right, in favor of the second. -- Having elucidated these matters, we will proceed to give our readers the best account, we have been able to obtain of the origin of this remarkable custom.
At the demise of the mortal part of the Gentoos' great lawgiver and prophet Bramah, his wives, inconsolable for his loss, resolved not to survive him, and offered themselves voluntary victims on his funeral pile. -- The wives of the chief Rajahs, the first officers of the state, being unwilling to have it thought that they were deficient in fidelity and affection, followed the heroic example set them by the wives of Bramah; -- the Bramins (a tribe then newly constituted by their great legislator) pronounced and declared,
that the delinquent spirits of those heroines, immediately ceased from their transmigrations, and had entered the first Boboon of purification — it followed, that their wives claimed a right of making the same sacrifice of their mortal forms
to God, and
the manes of their deceased husbands; -- the wives of every Gentoo caught the enthusiastic (now pious) flame. -- Thus the heroic acts of a few women brought about a general custom, the Bramins had given it
the stamp of religion, they foisted it into the Chatah and Aughtorrah Bhades, and instituted the forms and ceremonials that were to accompany the sacrifice, strained some obscure passages of Bramah's Chartah Bhade, to countenance their
declared sense of the action, and established it as a religious tenet throughout Indostan, subject to the restrictions before recited, which leaves it a voluntary act of glory, piety and fortitude. -- Whether the Bramins were sincere in their declared sense, and consecration of this act, or had a view to the securing the fidelity of their own wives, or were actuated by any other motives, we will not determine. --
When people have lived together to an advanced age, in mutual acts of confidence, friendship and affection; the sacrifice a Gentoo widow makes of her person (under such an affecting circumstance as the loss of friend and husband) seems less an object of wonder; -- but when we see women in the bloom of youth, and beauty, in the calm possession of their reason and understanding, with astonishing fortitude, set at nought, the tender considerations of parents, children, friends, and the horror and torments of the death they court, we cannot resist viewing such an act, and such a victim, with tears of commiseration, awe and reverence.
We have been present at many of these sacrifices: in some of the victims, we have observed a pitiable dread, tremor, and reluctance, that strongly spoke repentance for their
declared resolution; but it was now too late to retract, or retreat;
Bistnoo was waiting for the spirit. -- If the self doomed victim discovers want of courage and fortitude, she is with gentle force obliged to ascend the pile, where she is held down with long poles, held by men on each side of the pile, until the flames reach her; her screams and cries, in the mean time, being drowned amidst the deafening noise of loud musick, and the acclamations of the multitude. -- Others we have seen go through this fiery trial, with most amazing steady, calm, resolution, and joyous fortitude. -- It will not we hope be unacceptable, if we present our readers with an instance of the latter, which happened some years past at the East India company's factory at Cossimbuzaar, in the time of Sir Francis Russell’s chiefship; the author, and several other gentlemen of the factory were present, some of whom are now living: -- from a narrative, which the author then transmitted to England he is now enabled to give the particulars of this most remarkable proof of female fortitude, and constancy.
At five of the dock on the morning of the 4th of February, 1742-3, died Rhaam Chund Pundit of the Mahahrattor tribe, aged twenty-eight years; his widow (for he had but one wife) aged between seventeen and eighteen, as soon as he expired, disdaining to wait the term allowed her for reflection, immediately declared to the Bramins and witnesses present her resolution to burn; as the family was of no small consideration, all the merchants of Cossimbuzaar, and her relations, left no arguments unessayed to dissuade her from it — Lady Russell, with the tenderest humanity, sent her several messages to the same purpose; -- the infant state of her children (two girls and a boy, the eldest not four years of age) and the terrors and pain of the death she sought, were painted to her in the strongest and most lively colouring — she was deaf to all, -- she gratefully thanked Lady Russell, and sent her word she had now nothing to live for, but recommended her children to her protection. -- When the torments of burning were urged in terrorem to her, she with a resolved and calm countenance, put her finger into the fire, and held it there a considerable time, she then with one hand put fire in the palm of the other, sprinkled incense on it, and fumigated the Bramins. The consideration of her children left destitute of a parent was again urged to her. -- She replied, he that made them, would take care of them. She was at last given to understand, she should not be permitted to burn; [The Gentoos are not permitted to burn, without an order from the Mahommedan government, and this permission is commonly made a prequisite of.] this for a short space seemed to give her deep affliction, but soon recollecting herself, she told them, death was in her power, and that if she was not allowed to burn, according to the principles of her caste, she would starve herself. -- Her friends, finding her thus peremptory and resolved, were obliged at last to assent.
The body of the deceased was carried down to the water side, early the following morning, the widow followed about ten o’clock, accompanied by three very principal Bramins, her children, parents, and relations, and a numerous concourse of people. The order of leave for her burning did not arrive from Hosseyn Khan, Fouzdaar of Morshadabad, until after one, and it was then brought by one of the Soubah's own officers, who had orders to see that she burnt voluntarily. -- The time they waited for the order was employed in praying with the Bramins, and washing in the Ganges; as soon as it arrived, she retired and stayed for the space of half an hour in the midst of her female relations, amongst whom was her mother; she then divested herself of her bracelets, and other ornaments, and tied them in a cloth, which hung like an apron before her, and was conducted by her female relations to one corner of the pile; on the pile was an arched arbor formed of dry sticks, boughs and leaves, open only at one end to admit her entrance; in this the body of the deceased was deposited, his head at the end opposite to the opening. -- At the corner of the pile, to which she had been conducted, the Bramin had made a small fire, round which she and the three Bramins sat for some minutes, one of them gave into her hand a leaf of the bale tree (the wood commonly consecrated to form part of the funeral pile) with sundry things on it, which she threw into the fire; one of the others gave her a second leaf, which she held over the flame, whilst he dropped three times some ghee on it, which melted, and fell into the fire (these two operations, were preparatory symbols of her approaching dissolution by fire) and whilst they were performing this, the third Bramin read to her some portions of the Aughtorrah Bhade, and asked her some questions, to which she answered with a steady, and serene countenance; but the noise was so great, we could not understand what she said, although we were within a yard of her. -- These over, she was led with great solemnity three times round the pile, the Bramins reading before her; when she came the third time to the small fire, she stopped, took her rings off her toes and fingers, and put them to her other ornaments; here she took a solemn majestic leave of her children, parents, and relations; after which, one of the Bramins dip'd a large wick of cotton in some ghee, and gave it ready lighted into her hand, and led her to the open side of the arbor; there, all the Bramins fell at her feet; -- after she had blessed them, they retired weeping; -- by two steps, she ascending the pile and entered the arbor; on her entrance, she made a profound reverence at the feet of the deceased, and advanced and seated herself by his head; she looked, in silent meditation on his face, for the space of a minute, then set fire to the arbor, in three places; observing that she had set fire to leeward, and that the flames blew from her, instantly seeing her error she rose, and set fire to windward, and resumed her station; ensign Daniel with his cane, separated the grass and leaves on the windward side, by which means we had a distinct view of her as she sat. With what dignity, and undaunted a countenance, she set fire to the pile the last time, and assumed her seat, can only be conceived, for words cannot convey a just idea of her. -- The pile being of combustible matters, the supporters of the roof were presently consumed, and it tumbled upon her.
We see our fair country-women shudder at an action, which we fear they will look upon, as a proof of the highest infatuation in their sex. -- Although it is not our intention here to defend the tenets of the Bramins, yet we may be allowed to offer some justification on behalf of the Gentoo women in the action before us. --
Let us view it (as we should every other action) without prejudice, and without keeping always in sight our own tenets and customs, and prepossessions that too generally result therefrom, to the injury of others;-- if we view these women in a just light, we shall think more candidly of them, and confess they act upon heroic, as well as rational and pious principles: in order to this we must consider them as a race of females trained from their infancy, in the full conviction of their celestial rank; and that this world, and the corporeal form that incloses them, is destined by God, the one as their place of punishment, the other as their prison. -- That their ideas are consequently raised to a soothing degree of dignity befiting angelic beings. -- They are nursed and instructed in the firm faith — that this voluntary sacrifice, is the most glorious period of their lives, and that thereby the celestial spirit is released from its transmigrations, and evils of a miserable existence, and flies to join the spirit of their departed husband, in a state of purification; add to this, the subordinate consideration of raising the lustre of their children, and of contributing by this action to their temporal prosperity; -- all these it must be owned are prevalent motives, for cheerfully embracing death, and setting at nought every common attachment which the weakness of humanity urges, for a longer existence in a world of evil. -- Although these principles are in general so diametrically contrary to the prevailing spirit, and genius of our fair country-women, who (from a happy train of education) in captivating amusements and dissipation, find charms sufficient in this world, to engage their wishes for a perpetual residence in it; yet we will depend on their natural goodness of heart, generosity and candor, that they will in future look on these their Gentoo sisters of the creation, in a more favorable, and consistent light, than probably they have hitherto done; and not deem
that action an infatuation, which results from principle. Let them also recollect that their own history affords illustrious examples in both sexes of voluntary sacrifices by fire, because they would not subscribe even to a different mode of professing the same faith. Besides — a contempt of death, is not peculiar to the women of India, it is the characteristic of the nation; every Gentoo meets that moment of dissolution, with a steady, noble, and philosophic resignation, flowing from the established principles of their faith.
Before we close this subject, we will mention one or two more particulars relative to it. It has been already remarked in a marginal note, that the Gentoo women are not allowed to burn, without an order of leave from the Mahommedan government; it is proper also to inform our readers this privilege is never withheld from them. -- There have been instances known, when the victim has, by Europeans, been forceably rescued from the pile; it is currently said and believed (how true we will not aver) that the wife of Mr. Job Charnock was by him snatched from this sacrifice; be this as it may, the outrage is considered by the Gentoos, an atrocious, and wicked violation of their sacred rites and privileges.
Having now brought our fourth general head to a conclusion, and faithfully, to the best of our knowledge (with the materials we are possessed of) exhibited the original tenets of the ancient Bramins, according to the first book of Bramah's Chartah Bhade; and having in our remarks given such elucidations as we thought our subject called for, we submit our imperfect work (for imperfect we must still call it) with all due deference to the public; hoping that some more capable head and hand, will be stimulated by our endeavours, to produce a more full, and satisfactory relation, of the rest of his doctrines. -- A large field is yet left open, for the exercise of industry and talents. Bramah’s first section of his second book on the creation of this globe, will be the subject of our next general head. -- His third book directing the plain and simple modes of worship to be paid to God, and the three primary created beings, and his fourth sublime book, (which the Gentoos commonly call Bramah Ka, Insoff Bhade, or, Bramah's book of justice) wherein is expressly recited and enjoined, the duties and offices, which the delinquent Debtah shall observe and pay to each other; these two last mentioned books, and part of the second, we say, must lie in oblivion, until some one, blessed with opportunity, leisure, application, and genius, brings them to light.
The End of the Fourth Chapter.