The Translator's Preface
THE Importance of the Commerce of India, and the Advantages of a Territorial Establishment in Bengal, have at length awakened the Attention of the British Legislature to every Circumstance that may conciliate the Affections of the Natives, or ensure Stability to the Acquisition. Nothing can so favourably conduce to these two Points as a well-timed Toleration in Masters of Religion, and an Adoption of such original Institutes of the Country, as do not immediately clash with the Laws or Interests of the Conquerors.
To a steady Pursuance of this great Maxim, much of the Success of the Romans may be attributed, who not only allowed to their foreign Subjects the free Exercise of their own Religion, and the Administration of their own civil Jurisdiction, but sometimes by a Policy still more flattering, even naturalized such Parts of the Mythology of the Conquered, as were in any respect compatible with their own System.
With a View to the same political Advantages, and in Observance of so striking an Example, the following Compilation was set on foot; which must be considered as the only Work of the Kind, wherein the genuine Principles of the Gentoo Jurisprudence are made public, with the Sanction of their most respectable Pundits (or Lawyers) and which offers a complete Confutation of the Belief too common in Europe, that the Hindoos have no written Laws whatever, but such as relate to the ceremonious Peculiarities of their Superstition.
The Professors of the Ordinances here collected still speak the original Language in which they were composed, and which is entirely unknown to the Bulk of the People, who have settled upon those Professors several great Endowments and Benefactions in all Parts of Hindostan, and pay them besides a Degree of personal Respect little short of Idolatry, in return for the Advantages supposed to be derived from their Studies.
As the oldest Books, which contained a purer Doctrine, were writ in a very antient Language, they were insensibly neglected, and at last the Use of that Tongue was quite laid aside. This is certain, with regard to their sacred Book called the Vedam, which is not now understood by their Literati; they only reading and learning some Passages of it by Heart; and these they repeat with a mysterious Tone of Voice, the better to impose upon the Vulgar. (Father de la Lane) ...
What is surprising is that the majority of those who are its depositaries do not understand its meaning because it is written in a very ancient language, and the Samouscroutam [Sanskrit], which is as familiar to the scholars as Latin is among us, is not yet sufficient [for understanding] unless aided by a commentary both for the thought and for the words....
I think like you, reverend father, that it would have been appropriate to consult original texts of Indian religion with more care; but we did not have these books at hand until now, and for a long time they were considered impossible to find, especially the principal ones which are the four Vedan. It was only five or six years ago that, due to [the establishment of] an oriental library system for the King, I was asked to do research about Indian books that could form part of it. I then made discoveries that are important for [our] Religion, and among these I count the four Vedan or sacred books. But these books, which even the most able doctors only half understand and which a brahmin would not dare to explain to us for fear of a scandal in his caste, are written in a language for which Samscroutam [Sanskrit], the language of the learned, does not yet provide the key because they are written in a more ancient language. These books, I say, are in more than one way sealed for us. (Jean Calmette).
-- The Birth of Orientalism, by Urs App
In ancient India, the maintenance of the Veda’s exclusivity was largely dependent on two factors: first, that it was prohibited to commit the Vedic texts to writing; second, that Brahmins were the guardians not only of the Vedas, but also of Sanskrit. By excluding all except male Brahmins from learning Sanskrit, the Veda was kept out of the majority’s reach. However, after the Sanskrit of the Vedas had developed, in the last centuries BCE, into the distinct, post-Vedic “Classical Sanskrit”, the content of the Vedas became inaccessible even to many Brahmins. Already in the Mānavadharmaśāstra, a Brahminical text composed probably around the 2nd century CE (Olivelle 2004), there is a reference to Brahmins who recite the Veda but do not understand it, and ethnographies attest to the existence of such persons today. This neglect of the content of the Vedas, together with the sustained emphasis on their correct recitation, signals the prevalent belief that the sacredness of these texts is in their sounds rather than their meaning. Thus, to recite correctly, or to hear such a recital, is intrinsically efficacious.
-- A religion of the book? On sacred texts in Hinduism, by Robert Leach
[T]he Tranquebar missionaries gave a brief account of the Vedas. They report that despite their efforts to see the Vedas, they have been told that they are not written, but that boys (who can only be Brahmins) learn sections of them from a priest by repeating it constantly. The language in which they are recorded, which they call Grantha, is so old that no one can understand it without referring to the sastra...
The missionaries reported that most Brahmins knew little of the Vedas and often did not well understand even the little that they did know...
Azevedo’s brief account of the content of the four “origins” makes clear that he had no real access to the Vedas themselves...
The purāṇas, which are an interpretation and abridgement of the Vedas, which are very large, at least if they are those which were shown to me in Benares. They are also very rare, so much so that my agha could never find them for sale...
The Brahmins’ texts—and the teachings they contained—were kept secret...
When Jesuits first gained access to Vedic texts, in the early seventeenth century, this was through the personal mediation of converted Brahmins who may have known the texts—thus from memory rather than manuscripts...
Fenicio also mentions and names the four Vedas in connection with the mythology of Brahmā, but he does not otherwise show any knowledge of Vedic sources...
Nobili’s access to these texts was mediated by the Telugu Brahmin convert who taught him Sanskrit, Śivadharma or Bonifacio... Śivadharma who made the texts available to him, on the basis of Nobili’s orthography in his Responsio...
As Fernandes did not know Sanskrit, the texts were translated into Tamil by Śivadharma and only thence into Portuguese by Fernandes with his assistant Andrea Buccerio. This kind of mediated access to Sanskrit texts, likely the same method used by Azevedo and Rogerius, would be repeated in the following century by other missionaries...
It is clear, both from the fact that the works were being copied in Tamil and from Ziegenbalg’s later catalogue of his library, that these were not the Vedas. As he began reading Tamil texts, Ziegenbalg’s interest in the Vedas receded, and he even came to doubt their very existence...Ziegenbalg says that he doubts the “lawbooks” exist because none of the many thousands of Tamils to whom he has spoken had seen them. They have only been told by the Brahmins that they exist, but none of the Brahmins Ziegenbalg had spoken to had access to them either...
Some of these works, like others sent by the Jesuits, were not so much copies of actual Indian texts as verbal abstracts of the texts recited by scholars and recorded, on paper not palm-leaves, by converts who adorned them with Christian symbols...
the texts which had been obtained, although in Sanskrit, were mostly written in Telugu-Kannada script, and even someone who could read Vedic Sanskrit, and Devanāgarī script, would find them unintelligible without knowing Telugu-Kannada script...
The works of preparatio evangelica composed, probably in French, by the Carnatic Jesuits were labelled “Vedam”...
The Yajur Veda, the text that was published in the Hallesche Berichte had, according to Albrecht Weber, “not the slightest thing to do with the Yajurveda,” instead representing “an encyclopedic and systematically ordered representation of the modern Brahmanical world and life-view.”...
In 1847 the Jesuit Julien Bach commented wryly: No Indianist is tempted to make use of it, and it is from these books that we can say: Sacred they are, because no one touches them...
Pierre Sonnerat correctly identified the Ezour-Vedam as “definitely not one of the four Vedams” but rather “a book of controversy, written by a missionary”...
Although Polier records that he had sought copies of the Veda without success in Bengal, Awadh, and on the Coromandel coast, as well as in Agra, Delhi, and Lucknow and had found that even at Banaras “nothing could be obtained but various Shasters, w.ch are only Commentaries of the Baids.”
-- The Absent Vedas, by Will Sweetman
The Vedas themselves were so ignored that Father Paulinus of Saint-Barthélemy did not believe in their existence, and considered them mythical books...
[We see from a letter from Father Cœurdoux to Anquetil du Perron, which was addressed to him from the Indes in 1771, that the translation of the Vedas was then regarded as an almost impossible undertaking: The true Vedam, writes this missionary, is, in the opinion of Father Calmette, of a Sanserutan (Sanskrit) so old that it is almost unintelligible, and that what is cited is from Vedantam, that is to say introductions and comments made there.]
-- Histoire de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (1865), by Louis Ferdinand Alfred Maury
A Set of the most experienced of these Lawyers was selected from every Part of Bengal for the Purpose of compiling the present Work, which they picked out Sentence by Sentence from various Originals in the Shanscrit Language, neither adding to nor diminishing any Part of the ancient Text. The Articles thus collected were next translated literally into Persian, under the Inspection of one of their own Body; and from that Translation were rendered into English with an equal Attention to the Closeness and Fidelity of the Version. Less studious of Elegance than of Accuracy, the Translator thought it more excusable to tire the Reader with the Flatness of a literal Interpretation, than to mislead him by a vague and devious Paraphrase; so that the entire Order of the Book, the several Divisions of its Contents, and the whole Turn of the Phrase, is in every Part the immediate Product of the Bramins. The English Dialect in which it is here offered to the Public, and that only, is not the Performance of a Gentoo. From hence therefore may be formed a precise Idea of the Customs and Manners of these People, which, to their great Injury, have long been misrepresented in the Western World. From hence also Materials may be collected towards the legal Accomplishment of a new System of Government in Bengal, wherein the British Laws may, in some Degree, be softened and tempered by a moderate Attention to the peculiar and national Prejudices of the Hindoo; some of whose Institutes, however fanciful and injudicious, may perhaps be preferable to any which could be substituted in their room. They are interwoven with the Religion of the Country, and are therefore revered as of the highest Authority: They are the Conditions by which they hold their Rank in Society, Long Usage has persuaded them of their Equity, and they will always gladly embrace the Permission to obey them; to be obliged to renounce their Obedience would probably be esteemed among them a real Hardship.
The Attention which the Translator was forced to bestow upon so uncommon a Subject, the Number of Enquiries necessary for the Elucidation of almost every Sentence, and the many Opportunities of most decisive Information, which the Course of the Work presented, give him in some Measure a Right to claim the Conviction of the World upon many dubious Points, which have long eluded the nicest Investigation. He is very far from wishing to establish his own Doctrines upon the Ruins of those which he found already erected; and when he opposes popular Opinion, or contradicts any ill-grounded Assertion, it is with the utmost Distrust of his own Abilities, and merely in Submission to the Authority of that Truth which the Candid will ever be glad to support, even in Prejudice to a System of their own Formation.
In a Tract so untrodden as this, many Paths must be attempted before we can hit upon the right. We owe much to every Person, who in so troublesome a Road hath removed a single Obstacle, or opened the smallest Channel for Discovery; and the more difficult the Completion of the Adventure, the greater is the Merit of each Attempt. The present Work however is the only one of this Nature ever undertaken by Authority; the only Influence, in which the Bramins have ever been persuaded to give up a Part of their own Consequence for the general Benefit of the whole Community: And the Pen of the Translator must be considered as entirely the passive Instrument, by which the Laws of this singular Nation are ushered into the World from those Bramins themselves.
In this preliminary Treatise it is proposed, after a few general and introductory Observations, to attempt a short Account of the Shanscrit Language, and an Explanation of such passages in the Body of the Code, as may appear by their Peculiarity or Repugnance to our Sentiments to lie most open to Objection.
Many conjectural Doctrines have been circulated by the Learned and Ingenious of Europe upon the Mythology of the Gentoos; and they have unanimously endeavoured to Construe the extravagant Fables with which it abounds into sublime and mystical Symbols of the most refined Morality. This Mode of Reasoning, however common, is not quite candid or equitable, because it sets out with supposing in those People a Deficiency of Faith with Respect to the Authenticity of their own Scriptures, which, although our better Information may convince us to be altogether false and erroneous, yet are by them literally esteemed as the immediate Revelations of the Almighty; and the same confidential Reliance, which we put in the Divine Text upon the Authority of its Divine Inspirer himself, is by their mistaken Prejudices implicitly transferred to the Beids of the Shaster. Hence we are not justified in grounding the Standard and Criterion of our Examination of the Hindoo Religion upon the known and infallible Truth of our own, because the opposite Party would either deny the first Principles of our Argument, or insist upon an equal Right on their Side to suppose the Veracity of their own Scriptures uncontrovertible.
It may possibly be owing to this Vanity of reconciling every other Mode of Worship to some Kind of Conformity with our own, that allegorical Constructions, and forced Allusions to a mystic Morality, have been constantly foisted in upon the plain and literal Context of every Pagan Mythology. But we should consider, that the Institution of a Religion has been in every Country the first Step towards an Emersion from Savage Barbarism, and the Establishment of Civil Society; that the human Mind at that Period, when Reason is just beginning to dawn, and Science is yet below the Horizon, has by no Means acquired that Facility of Invention, and those profound Habits of thinking, which are necessary to strike out, to arrange, and to complete a connected, confident Chain of abstruse Allegory. The Vulgar and Illiterate have always understood the Mythology of their Country in its most simple and literal Sense; and there was a Time to every Nation, when the highest Rank in it was equally vulgar and illiterate with the lowest. Surely then, we have no Right to suspect in Them a greater Propensity to, or Capability of the Composition of such subtle Mysteries in those Ages of Ignorance, than we find to exist in their legitimate Successors, the modern Vulgar and Illiterate at this Day.
We have seen frequent and unsuccessful Attempts among ourselves to sublimate into allusive and symbolical Meanings the Mosaic Account of the Creation: Such erratic Systems have risen but to be exploded; and their mutual Disagreement with each other, in these fanciful Interpretations, is to us an additional Argument for the literal Veracity of the Inspired Penman. The Faith of a Gentoo (misguided as it is, and groundless as it may be) is equally implicit with that of a Christian, and his Allegiance to his own supposed Revelations of the Divine Will altogether as firm. He therefore esteems the astonishing Miracles attributed to a Brihma, a Raam, or a Kishen, as Facts of the most indubitable Authenticity, and the Relation of them as most Strictly historical.
But not to interfere with such Parts of the Hindoo Mythology as have not been revealed or explained to him, the Translator can positively affirm, that the Doctrine of the Creation, as set forth in the prefatory Discourse to this Code, is there delivered as simple and plain Matter of Fact, and as a fundamental Article in every pious Gentoo's Creed; that it was so meant and understood by the Compilers of this Work unanimously, who bore the first Characters in Bengal, both for their natural and acquired Abilities; and that their Accounts have been corroborated by the Information of many other learned Bramins in the Course of a wide and laborious Enquiry; nor can it be otherwise, unless the Progress of Science, instead of being slow and gradual, were quick and instantaneous; unless Men could Start up at once into Divines and Philosophers from the very Cradle of Civilization, or could defer the Profession of any Religion at all, until progressive Centuries had ripened them into a Fitness for the most abstracted Speculations.
Yet it may fairly be presumed, that when the Manners of a People become polished, and their Ideas enlightened, Attempts will be made to revise and refit their Religious Creed into a Conformity with the Rest of their Improvements; and that those Doctrines, which the ignorant Ancestor received with Reverence and Conviction, as the literal Exposition of undoubted Fact, the philosophic Descendant will strive to gloss over by a posteriori Constructions of his own; and, in the Fury of Symbol and Allegory, obscure and distort that Text which the Simplicity of its Author never suspected as liable to the Possibility of such Mutilation. — These Innovations however have always been screened, with the most scrupulous Attention, from the general View of Mankind; and, if a hardy Sage hath at any Time ventured to remove the Veil, his Opinions have usually been received with Detestation, and his Person hath frequently paid the Forfeit of his Temerity.
The real Intention and Subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries are now well known; but it cannot, with much Plausibility, be pretended, that those Mysteries were coeval with the Mythology to whose Disproval they owed their Establishment: Probably, the Institution was formed at a more advanced Period of Science, when the Minds of the Learned were eager to pierce through the Obscurity of Superstition, and when the Vanity of superior Penetration made them ashamed literally to believe those Tenets, which popular Prejudice would not suffer them utterly to renounce.
Instances in Support of this Argument might perhaps, without a Strain, be drawn even from some Parts of the Holy Scriptures: And here the Account of the Scape-Goat, in the Laws of Moses, offers itself for that Purpose with the greater Propriety, as it is not altogether dissimilar to a particular Institute of the Gentoos. The inspired Author, after describing the preliminary Ceremonies of this Sacrifice, proceeds thus:
"And Aaron shall lay both his Hands upon the Head of the Scape-Goat, and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their Transgressions in all their Sins, putting them upon the Head of the Goat, and shall send him away by the Hand of a fit Man into the Wilderness: And the Goat shall bear upon him all their Iniquities unto a Land not inhabited; and he shall let go the Goat in the Wilderness."
The Jews, at the Period when this Ceremony was ordained, were very little removed from a State of Barbarism: Gross in their Conceptions, illiterate in their Education, and uncultivated in their Manners; they were by no Means fit Subjects for the Comprehension of a Mystery; and doubtless, at that Time, believed that their Crimes were thus really and bona fide laid upon the Head of the Victim: Yet the more Wise, in succeeding Ages, might well start from such a Prejudice, and rightly conceive it to be a typical Representation of the Doctrine of Absolution.
Hence it may be understood, that what has been herein advanced does not mean to set aside the Improvements of Philosophy, or to deny the occasional Employment of Allegory, but merely to Establish one plain Position, that Religion, in general, at its Origin, is believed literally as it is professed, and that it is afterwards rather refined by the Learned than debased by the Ignorant.
The Gentoo Ceremony, which was hinted at as bearing a remote Likeness to the Sacrifice of the Scape-Goat, is the Ashummeed Jugg [Ashvamedha], of which a most absurd and fabulous Explanation may be found in the Body of the Code: Yet, unnatural as the Account there stands, it is seriously credited by the Hindoos of all Denominations, except perhaps a few Individuals, who, by the Variety and Contradictions of their several allegorical Interpretations, have mutually precluded each other from all Pretensions to Infallibility.
The Ashvamedha (Sanskrit: अश्वमेध aśvamedha) is a horse sacrifice ritual followed by the Śrauta tradition of Vedic religion. It was used by ancient Indian kings to prove their imperial sovereignty: a horse accompanied by the king's warriors would be released to wander for a period of one year. In the territory traversed by the horse, any rival could dispute the king's authority by challenging the warriors accompanying it. After one year, if no enemy had managed to kill or capture the horse, the animal would be guided back to the king's capital. It would be then sacrificed, and the king would be declared as an undisputed sovereign.
-- Ashvamedha [Ashummeed Jugg], by Wikipedia
That the Curious may form some Idea of this Gentoo Sacrifice when reduced to a Symbol, as well as from the subsequent plain Account given of it in a Chapter of the Code, an Explanation of it is here inserted from Darul Shekuh's [Dara Shikoh's] famous Persian Translation of some Commentaries upon the Four Beids, or original Scriptures of Hindostan: The Work itself is extremely scarce, and perhaps of dubious Authenticity; and it was by mere Accident that this little Specimen was procured.
In the early progress of researches into Indian literature, it was doubted whether the Vedas were extant; or, if portions of them were still preserved, whether any person, however learned in other respects, might be capable of understanding their obsolete dialect. It was believed too, that, if a Brahmana really possessed the Indian scriptures, his religious prejudices would nevertheless prevent his imparting the holy knowledge to any but a regenerate Hindu. These notions, supported by popular tales, were cherished long after the Vedas had been communicated to Dara Shucoh [Shikoh], and parts of them translated into the Persian language by him, or for his use. [Extracts have also been translated into the Hindi language; but it does not appear upon what occasion this version into the vulgar dialect was made.]
-- Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus, by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, Esq.
Explanation of the Ashummeed Jugg.
The Ashummeed Jugg does not merely consist in the Performance of that Ceremony which is open to the Inspection of the World, namely, in bringing a Horse and sacrificing him; but Ashummeed is to be taken in a mystic Signification, as implying, that the Sacrificer must look upon himself to be typified in that Horse, such as he shall be described, because the religious Duty of the Ashummeed Jugg comprehends all those other religious Duties, to the Performance of which all the Wise and Holy direct all their Actions, and by which all the sincere Prosessors of every different Faith aim at Perfection: The mystic Signification thereof is as follows: The Head of that unblemished Horse is the Symbol of the Morning; his Eyes are the Sun; his Breath the Wind; his wide-opening Mouth is the Bishwaner, or that innate Warmth which invigorates all the World; his Body typifies one entire Year; his Back Paradise; his Belly the Plains; his Hoof this Earth; his Sides the four Quarters of the Heavens; the Bones thereof the intermediate Spaces between the four Quarters; the Rest of his Limbs represent all distinct Matter; the Places where those Limbs meet, or his Joints, imply the Months and Halves of the Months, which are called Peche (or Fortnights;) his Feet signify Night and Day; and Night and Day are of four Kinds: 1st. The Night and Day of Brihma; 2d. The Night and Day of Angels; 3d, The Night and Day of the World of the Spirits of deceased Ancestors; 4th. The Night and Day of Mortals: These four Kinds are typified in his four Feet. The Rest of his Bones are the Constellations of the fixed Stars, which are the twenty-eight Stages of the Moon's Course, called the Lunar Year; his Flesh is the Clouds; his Food the Sand; his Tendons the Rivers; his Spleen and Liver the Mountains; the Hair of his Body the Vegetables, and his long Hair the Trees; the Forepart of his Body typifies the first Half of the Day, and the hinder Part the latter Half; his Yawning is the Flash of the Lightning, and his turning himself is the Thunder of the Cloud; his Urine represents the Rain; and his mental Reflection is his only Speech. The golden Vessels which are prepared before the Horse is let loose are the Light of the Day, and the Place where those Vessels are kept is a Type of the Ocean of the East; the silver Vessels which are prepared after the Horse is let loose are the Light of the Night, and the Place where those Vessels are kept is a Type of the Ocean of the West: These two Sorts of Vessels are always before and after the Horse. — The Arabian Horse, which on Account of his Swiftness is called Hy, is the Performer of the Journies of Angels; the Tajee, which is of the Race of Persian Horses, is the Performer of the Journies of the Kundherps (or good Spirits;) the Wazba, which is of the Race of the deformed Tazee Horses, is the Performer of the Journies of the Jins (or Demons;) and the Ashoo, which is of the Race of Turkish Horses, is the Performer of the Journies of Mankind: This one Horse, which performs these several Services, on Account of his four different Sorts of Riders, obtains the four different Appellations: The Place where this Horse remains is the great Ocean, which signifies the great Spirit of Perm-Atma, or the universal Soul, which proceeds also from that Perm-Atma, and is comprehended in the same Perm-Atma. The Intent of this Sacrifice is, that a Man should consider himself to be in the Place of that Horse, and look upon all these Articles as typified in himself; and, conceiving the Atma (or divine Soul) to be an Ocean, should let all Thought of Self be absorbed in that Atma."
This is the very Acme and Enthusiasm of Allegory, and wonderfully displays the picturesque Powers of Fancy in an Asiatic Genius. But it would not have been inserted at Length in this Place, if the Circumstance of letting loose the Horse had not seemed to bear a great Resemblance to the Ceremonies of the Scape-Goat; and perhaps the known Intention of this latter may plead for the like hidden Meaning in the former.
A somewhat droll and almost dramatic feast is the chase of the demon of ill-luck, evidently a relic of a former demonist cult. It is called "Chongju Sewang," and is held at Lhasa on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth days of the second month, though it sometimes lasts about a week. It starts after divine service. A priest represents a Grand Lama, and one of the multitude is masqueraded as the ghost-king. For a week previously he sits in the market-place with face painted half black and half white, and a coat of skin is put on his arm and he is called "King of the Years'" (? head). He helps himself to what he wants, and goes about shaking a black yak's tail over the heads of the people, who thus transfer to him their ill-luck.
This latter person then goes towards the priest in the neighbourhood of the cloister of La-brang and ridicules him, saying: "What we perceive through the five sources (the five senses) is no illusion. All you teach is untrue," etc., etc. The acting Grand Lama contradicts this; but both dispute for some time with one another; and ultimately agree to settle the contest by dice; the Lama consents to change places with the scape-goat if the dice should so decide. The Lama has a dice with six on all six sides and throws six-up three times, while the ghost-king has a dice which throws only one.
When the dice of the priest throws six six times in succession and that of the scape-goat throws only ones, this latter individual, or "Lojon" as he is called, is terrified and flees away upon a white horse, which, with a white dog, a white bird, salt, etc., he has been provided with by government. He is pursued with screams and blank shots as far as the mountains of Chetang, where he has to remain as an outcast for several months in a narrow haunt, which, however, has been previously provided for him with provisions.
We are told that, while en route to Chetang, he is detained for seven days in the great chamber of horrors at Sam-yas monastery filled with the monstrous images of devils and skins of huge serpents and wild animals, all calculated to excite feelings of terror. During his seven days' stay he exercises despotic authority over Sam-yas, and the same during the first seven days of his stay at Chetang. Both Lama and laity give him much alms, as he is believed to sacrifice himself for the welfare of the country. It is said that in former times the man who performed this duty died at Chetang in the course of the year from terror at the awful images he was associated with; but the present scape-goat survives and returns to re-enact his part the following year. From Chetang, where he stays for seven days, he goes to Lho-ka, where he remains for several months.
-- The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism With Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology, and in its Relation to Indian Buddhism, by Laurence Austine Waddell
But to quit this Digression. — The real Appellations of the Country and of the Inhabitants of Hindostan, by which they are constantly denominated in the ancient Writings of the Natives, seem hitherto to have escaped the Notice of the Western World.
Hindostan is a Persian Word, equally unknown to the old and modern Shanscrit, compounded of Stan, a Region, and the Word Hind, or Hindoo: Probably Colonel Dow's elegant Translation of Ferishteh's History gives us the true Derivation, in that Author's Conjecture, that it is taken from Hind, a supposed Son of Ham, the Son of Noah; and, whatever Antiquity the Indians may assert for themselves (of which some Notice will subsequently be taken) the Persians, we believe, will rest contented to allow, that the first Intercourse between the two Nations commenced in the third Descent from the Deluge. But, if this Definition were rejected, the common Opinion, that India was so named by Foreigners after the River Indus, is by no Means repugnant to Probability: In the Shanscrit however, Hindostan is constantly denominated Bhertekhunt, or Jumboodeep (as it is hereafter called in the present Work, from Jumboo, or Jumbook, a Jackall, an Animal remarkably abundant in this Country, and Deep, any large Portion of Land surrounded by the Sea.) Khunt signifies a Continent, or wide Tract of Land, and Bherrut is the Name of one of the first Indian Rajahs, whose Name was adopted for that of the Kingdom: Hindoo therefore is not the Term by which the Inhabitants originally stiled themselves, but, according to the Idiom of their Language, Jumboodeepee, or Bhertekhuntee; and it is only since the AEra of the Tartar Government that they have assumed the Name of Hindoos, to distinguish themselves from their Conquerors, the Mussulmen.
Buddhist Theory of the Universe.
In sketching the Buddhist world-system, with its "antres vast and deserts idle," existing mostly on the map of the imagination, it is deemed advisable, in order to avoid needless repetition, to give at once the Lamaist version, even though this is slightly more "developed" than the cosmogony of Buddha's day; although it cannot be very different after all, for the Lamaist accounts of it are in close keeping with the Barhut lithic remains, and almost identical with the versions found among the Ceylonese and other Buddhists of the south, and the Chinese and Japanese Buddhists.
This, our human, world is only one of a series (the others being fabulous) which together form a universe or chiliocosm, of which there are many.
Each universe, set in unfathomable space, rests upon a warp and woof of "blue air" or wind, liked crossed thunderbolts (vajra), hard and imperishable as diamonds (vajra?), upon which is set "the body of the waters," upon which is a foundation of gold, on which is set the earth, from the axis of which towers up the great Olympus— Mt. Meru (Su-meru, Tib., Ri-rab) 84,000 miles a high, surmounted by the heavens, and overlying the hills.
In the ocean around this central mountain, the axis of the universe, are set (see figures) the four great continental worlds with their satellites, all with bases of solid gold in the form of a tortoise — as this is a familiar instance to the Hindu mind of a solid floating on the waters. And the continents are separated from Mt. Meru by seven concentric rings of golden mountains, the inmost being 40,000 miles high, and named "The Yoke" (Yugandara), alternating with seven oceans, of fragrant milk, curds, butter, blood or sugar-cane juice, poison or wine, fresh water and salt water. These oceans diminish in width and depth from within outwards from 20,000 to 625 miles, and in the outer ocean lie the so-called continental worlds. And the whole system is girdled externally by a double iron-wall (Cakravata) 312-1/2 miles high and 3,602,625 miles in circumference, — for the oriental mythologist is nothing if not precise. This wall shuts out the light of the sun and moon, whose orbit is the summit of the inmost ring of mountains, along which the sun, composed of "glazed fire" enshrined in a crystal palace, is driven in a chariot with ten (seven) horses; and the moon, of "glazed water," in a silver shrine drawn by seven horses, and between these two hang the jewelled umbrella of royalty and the banner of victory, as shown in the figure. And inhabiting the air, on a level with these, are the eight angelic or fairy mothers. Outside the investing wall of the universe all is void and in perpetual darkness until another universe is reached.
Of the four "continents" all except "Jambudvipa" are fabulous. They are placed exactly one in each of the four directions, and each has a smaller satellite on either side, thus bringing the total up to twelve. And the shapes given to these continents, namely, crescentic, triangular, round, and square, are evidently symbolic of the four elements.
These continents, shown in the annexed figure, are thus described: —
On the East is Videha, or "vast body" (P). This is shaped like the crescent moon, and is white in colour. It is 9,000 miles in diameter, and the inhabitants are described as tranquil and mild, and of excellent conduct, and with faces of same shape as this continent, i.e., crescentic like the moon.
On the South is Jamudvip (F), or our own world, and its centre is the Bodhi-tree at Budh Gaya. It is shaped like the shoulder-blade of a sheep, this idea being evidently suggested by the shape of the Indian peninsula which was the prototype of Jambudvipa, as Mt. Kailas in the Himalayas and N.E. of India was that of Mt. Meru. It is blue in colour; and it is the smallest of all, being only 7,000 miles in diameter. Here abound riches and sin as well as virtue. The inhabitants have faces of similar shape to that of their continent, i.e., somewhat triangular.
On the West is Godhanya,14 or "wealth of oxen" (I), which in shape is like the sun and red in colour. It is 8,000 miles in diameter. Its inhabitants are extremely powerful, and (as the name literally means, cow + ox + action) they are believed to be specially addicted to eating cattle, and their faces are round like the sun.
On the North is Uttara-Kuru, or "northern Kuru"-tribe (M), of square shape and green in colour, and the largest of all the continents, being 10,000 miles in diameter. Its inhabitants are extremely fierce and noisy. They have square faces like horses; and live on trees, which supply all their wants. They become tree-spirits on their death; and these trees afterwards emit "bad sounds" (this is evidently, like many of the other legends, due to a puerile and false interpretation of the etymology of the word).
-- The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism With Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology, and in its Relation to Indian Buddhism, by Laurence Austine Waddell
The Word Gentoo has been, and is still, equally mistaken to signify, in the proper Sense of the Term, the Professors of the Braminical Religion, whereas Gent, or Gentoo, means Animal in general, and in its more confined Sense, Mankind; but is never, in the Shanscrit Dialect, nor even in the modern Jargon of Bengal, appropriated particularly to such as follow the Doctrines of Brihma. The four great Tribes have each their own separate Appellation; but they have no common or collective Term that comprehends the whole Nation under the Idea affixed by Europeans to the Word Gentoo. Possibly the Portuguese on their first Arrival in India, hearing the Word frequently in the Mouths of the Natives as applied to Mankind in general, might adopt it for the domestic Appellation of the Indians themselves; perhaps also their Bigotry might force from the Word Gentoo a fanciful Allusion to Gentile, a Pagan.
The Shanscrit Language is very copious and nervous, but the Style of the best Authors wonderfully concise. It far exceeds the Greek and Arabick in the Regularity of its Etymology, and like them has a prodigious Number of Derivatives from each primary Root. The grammatical Rules also are numerous and difficult, though there are not many Anomalies. As one Instance of the Truth of this Assertion, it may be observed, that there are seven Declensions of Nouns, all used in the singular, the dual, and the plural Number, and all of them differently formed, according as they terminate with a Consonant, with a long or a short Vowel; and again different also as they are of different Genders: Not a Nominative Case can be formed to any one of these Nouns, without the Application of at least four Rules, which differ likewise with each particular Difference of the Nouns as above stated: Add to this, that every Word in the Language may be used through all the seven Declensions, and there needs no farther Proof of the Difficulty of the Idiom.
The Shanscrit Grammars are called Beeakerun, of which there are many composed by different Authors; some too abstruse even for the Comprehension of most Bramins, and others too prolix to be ever used but as References. One of the shortest, named the Sarasootee, contains between two and three hundred Pages, and was compiled by Anoobhootee Seroopenam Acharige, with a Conciseness that can scarcely be parallelled in any other Language.
The Shanscrit Alphabet contains fifty Letters, and it is one Boast of the Bramins that it exceeds all other Alphabets in this Respect: But when we consider that of their thirty-four Consonants near Half carry combined Sounds, and that six of their Vowels are merely the correspondent long Ones to as many which are short, the Advantage seems to be little more than fanciful.
The Shanscrit Character, used in Upper Hindostan, is said to be the same original Letter that was first delivered to the People by Brihma, and is now called Diewnagur, or the Language of Angels; whereas the Character used by the Bramins of Bengal is by no Means so ancient, and though somewhat different is evidently a Corruption of the former, as will better appear upon Comparison, for which Reason the Alphabets of both are here inserted. See Plates No. 1, and No. 2.]
Plate 1: Translator's preface page XXIV.
Shanscrit Alphabet.
Vowels
Consonants
Connected Vowels
Plate II. Translator's preface page XXIV.
Bengal Alphabet
Vowels
Consonants
Connected Vowels
To rank ree and lee among the Vowels may perhaps be censured as unnatural; we can only say, that being Liquids, they partake in some small Measure of the Vowel, and that to an European Ear it seems equally extraordinary to find the Persian and Arabic & ain to be a Consonant. It will also be observed in the preceding Alphabets, that the Vowels have different Forms when combined with Consonants from those they bear when unconnected.
In the Four Beids (the original and sacred Text of the great Hindoo Creator and Legislator Brihma) the Length of the Vowels is determined and pointed out by a musical Note or Sign, called Matrang (implying one whole Tone) which is placed over every Word; and in reading the Beids these Distinctions of Tone and Time must be nicely observed; the Account of this Modulation as given in the Shanscrit Grammar, called Sarafootee, is here translated.
"The Vowels are of three Sorts, short, long, and continued (cr to Use a more musical Term, holding.) "The Chash (a small Bird peculiar to Hindostan) utters one Matrang, the Crow two Matrangs, and the Peacock three Matrangs; the Mouse Half a Matrang. One Matrang is the short Vowel, two Matrangs the long Vowel, and three Matrangs the continued: A Consonant without a Vowel has the Half Matrang. These Vowels are again to be distinguished by a high Note for the one Matrang, a low Note for the two Matrangs, and an Intermediate or Tenor for the three Matrangs, either with Nasals or Gutturals, ee, ei, o, ou, are Dipthongs, and cannot be short; but these four, together with the other five, e, ee, oo, ree, lee, are to be taken as Vowels."
It has been mentioned that these Distinctions are all marked in the Beids, and must be modulated accordingly, so that they produce all the Effect of a laboured Recitative; but by an Attention to the Music of the Chant, the Sense of the Passage recited equally escapes the Reader and the Audience. It is remarkable, that the Jews in their Synagogues chant the Pentateuch in the same Kind of Melody, and it is supposed that this Usage has Descended to them from the remotest Ages.
To give some faint Idea of these arbitrary Notes, a Line is here inserted with the several Matrangs. [See Plate No 3. Line 1.]
Tese moondee Kreele bederoo bederoo bederoo.
The last Syllable of the Word bederoo with three Matrangs is held for near a Minute, gradually sinking, and then swelling out with a fresh Rinforza to mark each Matrang.
The Shanscrit Poetry comprehends a very great Variety of different Metres, of which the most common are these:
The Munnee hurreneh Chhund, or Line of twelve or nineteen Syllables, which is scanned by three Syllables in a Foot, and the most approved Foot is the Anapaest.
The Cabee Chhund, or Line of eleven Syllables.
The Anushtose Chhund, or Line of eight Syllables.
Plate III. Translator's preface page XXVI
Ashlogue.
The Poems are generally composed in Stanzas of four Lines, called Ashlogues, which are regular or irregular.
The most common Ashlogue is that of the Anushtose Chhund, or regular Stanza of eight Syllables in each Line. In this Measure greatest Part of the Mahabaret is composed. The Rhyme in this Kind of Stanza should be alternate; but the Poets do not seem to be very nice in the Observance of a strict Correspondence in the Sounds of the terminating Syllables, provided the Feet of the Verse are accurately kept.
This short Anushtose Ashlogue is generally written by two Verses in one Line, with a Pause between, so that the whole then assumes the Form of a long Distich.
The irregular Stanza is constantly called Aryachhund, of whatever Kind of Irregularity it may happen to consist. It is most commonly compounded of the long Line Cabee Chhund, and the short Anushtose Chhund alternately; in which Form it bears some Resemblance to the most common Lyrick Measure of the English.
It will in this Place be pardonable to quote a few Stanzas of Shanscrit Poetry, as Examples of the short Account here given of its Prosody. The Specimens give us no despicable Idea of the old Hindoo Bards. The Images are in general lively and pleasing, the Diction elegant and concise, and the Metre not inharmonious.
An Ashlogue Anushtose Chhund, or regular , of eight Syllables in each Line [See Plate No. 3.]
Peeta che reenewan shetrooh
Mata shetroo resheeleenee
Bharya roopewetee shetrooh
Pootreh shetroo repundeeteh.
A Father in Debt is an Enemy (to his Son.)
A Mother of scandalous Behaviour is an Enemy (to her Son.)
A Wife of a beautiful Figure is an Enemy (to her Husband.)
A Son of no Learning is an Enemy (to his Parents.)
These Verses are regular dimeter Iambicks.
An Ashlogue Munnee hurreneh Chhund, or of nineteen Syllables. [Ibid.]
Ootkhatum needhee shungkeya khyeetee telum dhonata geereer dhatewo
Neesteerne ssereetam peteer nreepeteyor yetaene sungtomeetah
Muntr' aradhene tetperaene menesa nreta shmeshanae neeshah
Prapta kapee werateeka neche meya treeshnae sekama bhewe.
From the insatiable Desire of Riches, I have digged beneath the Earth; I have fought by Chymistry to Transmute the Metals of the Mountains.
I have traversed the Queen of the Oceans; I have toiled incessant for the Gratification of Monarchs.
I have renounced the World, to give up my whole Heart to the Study of Incantations; I have passed whole Nights on the Places where the Dead are burnt. --
I have not gained one Cowry. — Begone, O Avarice, thy Business is over.
Tibet contains considerable deposits of gold, but modern methods of mining are unknown. Since ancient times they have been scooping out the soil in the Changthang with gazelle horns. An Englishman once told me that it would probably pay to treat by modern methods soil that has already been sieved by the Tibetans. Many provinces must today pay their taxes in gold-dust. But there is no more digging than is absolutely necessary, for fear of disturbing the earth-gods and attracting reprisals, and thus once more progress is retarded.
Many of the great rivers of Asia have their source in Tibet and carry down with them the gold from the mountains. But not till the rivers have reached neighbouring countries is their gold exploited. Washing for gold is only practised in a few parts of Tibet where it is particularly profitable. There are rivers in Eastern Tibet where the stream has scooped out bath-shaped cavities. Gold-dust collects in these places by itself and one has only to go and get it from time to time. As a rule the district governor takes possession of these natural gold-washings for the Government.
I always wondered why no one had thought of exploiting these treasures for personal profit. When you swim under water in any of the streams round Lhasa, you can see the gold-dust glimmering in the sunlight. But as in so many other parts of the country this natural wealth remains unexploited, mainly because the Tibetans consider this comparatively easy work too laborious for them.
-- Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer
Mara denies the good deeds in this and former lives, which qualified Sakya Muni for the Buddhahood, and calls upon him to produce his witness. Whereupon the embryo Buddha touches the ground and instantly the old mother Earth, Dharitri or Dharti Mata, appears riding upon a tortoise (symbolic of the earth), bearing in her hand a "pantsa" garland, and she addresses the saint, saying, "I am your Witness," — hence the name of this attitude of Buddha, the "Earth-touching" or "Witness." The legend goes on to relate that the earth-spirit, wringing her hair, caused a huge river to issue therefrom, which swept away Mara and his hordes. This episode of wringing the hair and the destruction of Mara and his minions is frequently depicted in Burmese temples; and the custom amongst the Burmese of pouring water on the ground at the conclusion of a religious service is, I am informed by a Burmese monk, an appeal to the earth-spirit to remember and bear witness to the particular good deed when men have forgotten it...
The local earth-spirits are named "Master Earth'' or "Earth-Masters,"' and are comparable to the terrestrial Nagas of the Hindus. The most malignant are the "gnan" who infest certain trees and rocks, which are always studiously shunned and respected, and usually daubed with paint in adoration.
-- The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism With Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology, and in its Relation to Indian Buddhism, by Laurence Austine Waddell
An Ashlogue Munnee hurreneh Chhund, or of twelve Syllables. [See Plate No. 3.]
Shesheena che neesha neesheyache sheshee
Shesheena neesheya che weebhatee nebheh
Peyesa kemelum kemelsene peyeh
Peyesa kemelaene weebhatee sereh.
The Night is for the Moon, and the Moon is for the Night:
When the Moon and the Night are together, it is the Glory of the Heavens.
The Lotus, or Water-Lilly, is for the Stream, and the Stream is for the Water-Lilly:
When the Stream and the Water-Lilly meet, it is the Glory of the Canal.
This Species of Composition is called Koondelee Chhund, from Koondelee, a Circle, and answers nearly to the Word Rondeau, which Sort of Verse it exactly imitates.
Almost every Foot in this beautiful Stanza is a pure Anapaest.
Three Ashlogues Aryachhund, or irregular, from a Collection of Poems. [See Plate No. 4.]
1.
Swejeno neyatee wirum
Pereheete booddneer weenashe kalaepee
Chhaedaepee chundene teroo
Soorebheyetee mookhum koot, haresye.
A good Man goes not upon Enmity,
But is well inclined towards another, even while he is ill-treated by him:
So, even while the Sandal-Tree is felling,
It imparts to the Edge of the Axe its aromatic Flavour.
2.
Yedyepee ne bhewetee hanee
Perekeeyam cheretee rasebhee drakhyam
Esemunjese meetee metwa
Tethapee kheloo khadyetae chendreh.
So long as there is no Danger,
The Ass will eat a Stranger's Vine;
So, not conscious of receiving any Hurt,
The Dragon [Alluding to the Gentoos' Ideas of an Eclipse.] still attempts to devour the Moon.
3.
Sejjenusye hreedeyum neweneetum
Yedweduntee weeboodha stedeleekum
Enyedaehe weeleset pereetapat
Sejjeno drewetee no neweneetum.
The good Man's Heart is like Butter,
The Poets say, but herein they are mistaken:
Upon beholding another's Life exposed to Calamities,
The good Man melts; — [That is, the Simile is not just, because it does not express the Powers of Sympathy, which are the characteristic Part of the good Man's Disposition.] but it is not so with Butter.
Plate IV. Translator's preface page XXX and XXXI
Three Ashlogues. This Stanza has been quoted in a former Publication as a Specimen of the Reig Beid.