The hypothesis of Bayer here alluded to is, I presume, that which I already mentioned, as forming one of the leading positions in his Historia Regni Græcorum Bactriani, That the Indians borrowed some things from the Greeks, which the Greeks have been more generally supposed to have borrowed from the Indians. esse habenda, tanto cupidius efferamus, quo minus cognoscuntur. Itaque Græcos ab iisdem nonnulla accepisse, ultro et lubenter quidem concedo: modo item alii eosdem populos a Græcis quædam cum ut nova et inchoata, tum prope consummata accepisse consentiant."Bayeri Hist. &c. in præfat. From this extract, it appears that the opinion of Bayer, with respect to the history of the sciences in general among the Indians, coincides remarkably with that which, after long deliberation, has been formed with respect to astronomy in particular, by the illustrious La Place. "M. La Place," says his learned friend M. Delambre, "qui avoit quelque intérêt à soutenir la grande ancienneté de l'Astronomie Indienne, et qui avoit d'abord parlé des mouvemens moyens et des époques des Hindous de la manière la plus avantageuse, a fini pourtant par croire et imprimer que leurs tables ne remontent pas au-delà du 13me Siècle." -Letter of M. Delambre to the late Quintin Crawford, dated July 21, 1815, quoted in Mr. Crawford's Researches concerning the Laws, &c. of India. London, 1817. While La Place, however, thus rejects the extravagant conclusions of Bailli, he readily admits that the Indians have cultivated successfully astronomy, and some other branches of Mathematics, from the earliest periods of which we have any authentic accounts. "Cependant l'antique réputation des Indiens ne permet pas de douter qu'ils aient dans tous les temps cultivé l'astronomie. Lorsque les Grecs et les Arabes commencèrent à se livrer aux sciences, ils allèrent en puiser chez eux les premiers élémens. C'est de l'Inde que nous vient l'ingénieuse méthode d'exprimer tous les nombres avec dix caractères, en leur donnant à-la-fois une valeur absolue et une valeur de position; idée fine et importante, qui nous paroit maintenant si simple, que nous en sentons à peine le mérite. Mais cette simplicité même, et l'extrême facilité qui en résulte pour tous les calculs, place notre système d'arithmétique au premier rang des inventions utiles; et l'on appréciera la difficulté d'y parvenir, si l'on considère qu'il a échappé au genie d'Archimède et d'Apollonius, deux des plus grands hommes dont l'antiquité s'honore."-Exposition du Système du Monde, livre v. chap. i. The reference which the Edinburgh Reviewer has made to the name of Bayer, and the deference due to the slightest hint concerning the literature of the East, which is sanctioned by the authority of Mr. Hamilton, will, I trust, be a sufficient apology for the length of this note. The charge which Mr. Hamilton has brought against Bayer, of undervaluing the early advances which the Hindoos are said to have made in the sciences, might, with far greater justice, have been urged against Meiners, who has gone so far as to assert, "Ante Alexandri ætatem nullas inter Indos literas, neque veram philosophiam extitisse."— (Historia de Vero Deo, p. 107.) This opinion is, I think, sufficiently refuted by the universal testimony of antiquity. Before 1 proceed to take any notice of this remark, in so far as it may be supposed to invalidate my own conjectures, I think it proper to observe, in the first place, in justice to Bayer, that I can see no foundation whatever in his work for the criticism above quoted, inasmuch as his argument is confined almost entirely to the names of numbers, the system of numeration, and a few other matters of a scientific nature. So far as I can recollect, the words expressing the different relations of consanguinity are not once alluded to. But, admitting the criticism to be conclusive against Bayer's hypothesis, it can in no way affect mine; as it by no means follows, from the similarity between the Sanscrit names for particular objects, and those in Greek, that the Indians, till the Invasion of Alexander, had no words of the same import in their native tongue. With the choice of different languages, which I have supposed the manufacturers of the Sanscrit to have had before them, it must have depended on the most trifling accidents, often upon mere caprice, to which of them they gave the preference on particular occasions in making their selections. Probably much would depend upon the sound that was most agreeable to the ear, or that suited best with their system of prosody; and much also upon the combination of letters which their organs were fitted to pronounce most easily. In the foregoing conjectures, I have not thought it necessary to attend to the distinction pointed out by some writers, between Brahmans and Bramins, or to allude to the question, whether the worship of Boodh or that of Brahma was prior in order of time.1 It is sufficient for my argument, if it be See Pinkerton's Geography, vol. i. p. 713. Mr. Crawford does not seem to have considered the difference between Brahmans and Bramins as very wide. "If we compare the Bramins of the present day, with the Brahmans of antiquity, we shall, in every feature of their character, perceive the strongest re semblance. The difference that may granted that a learned, artful, and aspiring priesthood existed (at least in embryo)1 at the time of Alexander's conquest. And of this, the following circumstance mentioned by Strabo, on the authority of One-icritus, (who was an eye and ear-witness of the facts in question,) is a sufficient proof:-That Alexander, being desirous to obtain some information concerning the tenets and manners of the Brachmans, resolved to send Onesicritus to converse with them; as he was given to understand, that if they were summoned to attend him, they would decline to obey the invitation, on the pretence that, They who wished for instruction should repair to those from whom they expected to receive it.2 I have said, at least in embryo; for although it does not appear from Strabo's account that, at the period in question, the Brahmans formed a distinct or Levitical tribe, possessing the unlimited influence in India which they afterwards acquired, yet it is plain from the particulars he mentions with respect to the studies to which these Sophists addicted themselves; their eagerness to attract notice by the singularity of their manners; and, above all, by their high pretensions in point of consequence, that they were already aiming systematically, and not without success, to attain an undue ascendant over the minds of their countrymen. The following is the account of the Bramins given by Arrian in his Indian History:-(Not having the original at hand, I quote from Mr. Rooke's translation.)" The Indians are chiefly distinguished into seven ranks or classes among themselves, one of which is their Sophists or wise men; these are much inferior to all the rest in numbers, but vastly superior to them in honour and dignity. They are never required to do any bodily labour, nor do they contribute anything out of their gains towards the support of the public; nor, indeed, have they any manner of occa sion to work at all, their only business being to offer sacrifices for the public welfare and if any person sacrifices privately, some of these Sophists are employed to show him the way and manner thereof, otherwise they imagine the gods would not accept his sacrifice. They are, moreover, the only diviners throughout all India, neither are any suffered to practise the art of divination except themselves. They never meddle with private affairs, either because they think that the art of divination extends not to inferior things, or, perhaps, because they think it beneath their art to stoop to trifles."-Arrian's Indian History, chapters x. and xi., translated by Mr. Rooke, vol. ii. pp. 222, 223. 2 The account given by Strabo of the motives which decided the conduct of Alexander on this occasion, does honour to his prudence and forbearance. [To quote the version corrected by Casaubon:] "Proinde cum essent tales, neque sibi decorum putaret Alexander ad illos accedere, nec vellet invitos cogere ut quicquam facerent præter patria instituta; se missum inquit," &c.—Strabo, lib. xv. Amstel. edit. p. 715, [et edit. Casauboniana, Lut. Paris. 1620, p. 715.] The following particulars relating to the question about the priority of Brahmanism and Boudhism may, to some readers, be objects of curiosity. I quote them from a very interesting paper on the religion and literature of the Burmahs, by Dr. Francis Buchanan. "Mr. Chambers, the most judicious of our Indian Antiquaries, has given good reason for believing that the worship of Bouddha once extended over all India, and was not rooted out by the Brahmans in the Deccan so late as the ninth, or even as the twelfth century of the Christian Era."2 The same author (Dr. Buchanan) has elsewhere remarked, that "however idle and ridiculous the legends and notions of the worshippers of Bouddha may be, they have been in a great measure adopted by the Brahmans, but with all their defects monstrously aggravated; Rajahs and Heroes are converted into gods, and impossibilities are heaped on improbabilities.” 3 APPENDIX I. Before the reader pronounces a decisive opinion on the conjectures which I have now submitted to his consideration, I must request his earnest attention to the long extract which follows. It contains the most ample and candid acknowledgment by Mr. Wilford, of the frauds which had been successfully practised on himself by certain Bramins, of whose assistance he had availed himself in the prosecution of his researches. I shall transcribe the passage in his own words, as I think they cannot fail to shake the faith of every person who peruses them with attention, in the unfathomable antiquity of the Sanscrit, as well as in whatever other information is derived to us through so very suspicious a channel as that of the Hindoo priesthood. The palinode of Major Wilford has been long before the public; but it has attracted much less attention than the fictions which he has so honourably disavowed. "A fortunate, but, at the same time, a most distressful discovery contributed to delay the publication of this paper. 1 Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. * Ibid. p. 166. * Ibid. p. 163. Though I never entertained the least doubt concerning the genuineness of my vouchers, (having cursorily collated them with the originals a little before I had completed my Essay,) yet when I reflected how cautious an author ought to be, and how easily mistakes will take place, I resolved once more to make a general collation of my vouchers with the originals, before my Essay went out of my hands. This I conceived was a duty which I owed not only to the public, but to my own character. "On going on with the collation, I soon perceived, that, whenever the word S'wetam, or S'weta-dwipa,1 the name of the principal of the Sacred Isles, and also of the whole cluster, was introduced, the writing was somewhat different, and that the paper was of a different colour, as if stained. Surprised at this strange appearance, I held the page to the light, and perceived immediately that there was an erasure, and that some size had been applied. Even the former word was not so much effaced, but that I could sometimes make it out plainly. I was thunderstruck, but felt some consolation in knowing, that still my manuscript was in my own possession. I recollected my Essay on Egypt, and instantly referred to the originals. which I had quoted in it; my fears were but too soon realized, the same deception, the same erasures appeared to have pervaded them. I shall not trouble the Society with a description of what I felt, and of my distress at this discovery. My first step was to inform my friends of it, either verbally, or by letters, that I might secure, at least, the credit of the first disclosure. 1 For the sake of those who are not acquainted with the speculations of Major Wilford, it is proper to mention, that his great object is to prove that the Sacred Isles of the Hindoos are the British Isles, and, in particular, that S'weta-dwipa, or the White Island, is England. 66 "The Sacred Isles in the west," he informs us, of which S'weta-dwipa, or the White Island, is the principal and the most famous, are, in fact, the Holy Land of the Hindus. There the fundamental and mysterious transactions of the history of their religion, in its rise and progress, took place. The White Island, this Holy Land in the west, is so intimately connected with their religion and mythology, that they cannot be separated: and, of course, divines in India are necessarily acquainted with it, as distant Muselmans with Arabia." -Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. 8vo edit. p. 246. |