^^^^^^^^^^^^^HH Class. Bonk ' -^ Copyright ]^^. t:>f- COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. THE LAND OF THE VEDA BEING PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF INDIA Its People, Castes, Thugs, and Fakirs ITS RELIGIONS, MYTHOLOGY, PRINCIPAL MONUMENTS, PALACES, AND MAUSOLEUMS TOGETHER WITH THE INCIDENTS OF THE GREAT SEPOY REBELLION J-CJBIIjE^IB EIDITIOl^T By WILLIAM BUTLER,, D. D. NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & GRAHAM LIBRARY of CONGRESS TwoCoDies Received MAY 10 1906^ ^ Copyrigm Entry CLASS /JCL XXc. No. COPY B. Copyright by CARLTON & LANAHAN 1871 Copyright by HUNT & EATON 1894 Copyright by EATON & MAINS 1906 PREFACE nr^H E writer of this book has aimed to act toward the reader in -^ the relation of a guide, as though he were going over the ground again, and giving the benefit of his experience, in pointing out the objects of interest with which years and study have famil- iarized his own mind. The thread of the narrative runs through the work, and, so far as the subject permitted, its continuity has been preserved. In a theme like that of India, and after the reading and note- taking of fifteen years, it is a difficult task for an author to trace every entry to its source, or adequately to discriminate between what is original and what is borrowed. Every reasonable effort, however, has been made to give proper acknowledgment wherever it was found desirable to use the ideas or language of others. While the denominational relation of the writer is evident enough, he trusts that there will not be found on these pages a single sen- tence that can give offense to any member of Christ's Church, but, on the contrary, that their perusal may encourage and strengthen the faith of God's elect in that almighty Power which, even in the idolatrous and conservative East, is so manifestly subduing all things unto Himself Here may be discerned the dawn of that day, so long foretold, when all Oriental races shall be blessed in a Redeemicr who was himself Asiatic by birth and blood and the sphere of His personal ministry — whose cross was erected on that continent, and whose first ministers and members were taken from among that people. The hundreds of millions of their de- scendants now await this redemption, and shall yet joyously unite to crown him " Lord of all." The writer has not concealed his conviction that human history, 4 PREFACE. and the movements and changes of thrones, and powers, and kingdoms, can be fully understood only in the light of the doc- trine of the Second Psalm. Jesus Christ, the divine and eternal Son of God, who created and redeemed this world, is its " Master and Lord." The number, the malignity, the counsel of his foes, are lighter in his estimation than the chaff of the summer threshing- floor, and as easily swept from the path of his almighty move- ments. He has not abandoned this world, with its thousand millions of accountable and dying men, to be the victims of the whims and caprice of selfish potentates, deceiving errorists, or wicked spirits in high places, to be forever crushed down beneath their tyranny and misdirection. He has undertaken, and will accomplish, man's redemption in every sense, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. That repose which the world, and particularly its Oriental por- tion, so much needs and has so long sighed for, is to be found only in Him ; and it will come when He has overthrown the foes of the world's welfare, and rectified its many wrongs. Then, be- neath the benign administration of this " Prince of Peace," human- ity at length shall rest, each of them under his own vine and fig- tree, and none shall make them afraid. The government of Christ alone explains the condition and the history of the world. We acknowledge him to be " The blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords," whose scepter sways " all power in heaven and in earth." At his feet, who is " Prince of the kings of the earth," and " Head over all things to the Church," is laid this humble effort to illustrate his high providence, as one more heartfelt tribute to be added to the many which are already ascribing — " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power unto Him who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever ! " W. B. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L THE PEOPLE OF INDIA — CASTE AND ITS IMMtrNITtBB. Great Emergencies of Christianity — Our Narrow Escape — Origin of Caste — The Brahmin — Brahminical Devotions — Prerogatives and Investiture — Discriminations in the Brahmin's Favor by the Law — Four Stages of a Brahmin's Life — Brahminism a Dead Failure — The People of India — The i,adies of the Land — The Nautch Girls — The Gentlemen of India — Conversion and Career of Maharajah Dhuleep Singh — Habits of the Hindoo Aristocracy — Christianity alone Creates a Home — Hindoo Visits of Ceremony — Marriage Expenses — Manners and Customs. Page 1 1 CHAPTER n. STATISTICS, MTTHOLOGT, AND VEDIC LITEBATDRB. Civil and Religious Statistics of India — The Languages of India — India Compared to Europe — Trade, Commerce, and Revenue — Railroads and Telegraphs — English Empire — Value of India to England — The Higher Motives for English Rule — Mapping out Eternity — Measurements of Time — Mythology, Geography, and Astronomy of the Hindoos — The Vedas — Beef-eating Sanctioned by the Vedas — Manners of the Hindoos at the Time of the Macedonian Invasion, (326 B. C.) — Vile Character of Vedic Wor- ship — Deception as to the Contents of the Veda — Hindoo Literature — The Ramayana — The Temptation and Abduction of Seeta — The Mahabarata 66 CHAPTER in. ARCHITECTtJKAL MAGNIFICENCE OF INDIA. Personal Narrative of Appointment and Journey — Our Reception in India — Charac- ter of Mohammedan Rule — The Moslem Dynasty Passing Away — Zeenat Mahal — The Khass and the Mogul Sinking Together — Architectural Taste of the Emperors — Moore's Blunder in Lalla Rookh — Paradise and its Privileges — The Dewanee Khass and its Glorious Furniture — Interview of Nadir Shah and Mohammed Shah — Tact of the Courtier — The First Sight of the Taj Mahal — View from the Gate — Inside of the Taj — The Effect of Music over the Tomb — The Taj Matchless — Origin of the Taj — The Lost Opportunity of Romanism at Agra — A Prayer which God will ever Refuse to Answer — Cost of the Taj — Etmad-ood-Doulah's Tomb — The Daughter of the Desert — The Heroine of Moore's Poem — The Kootub Minar — Its Origin and Style — The Government of Jehovah Christ over Nations and Dynasties — The Unfinished Minar — The Palladium of Hindoo Dominion lOi CHAPTER IV. ORIGINATrNG CAUSES OF THE SEPOT BEBBLLION. Position of the Emperor of Delhi — Terms of the English Bargain with the Mogul Why the Munificent Provision Failed — The Pageant felt to be a Bore — Moslem Hate 6 CONTENTS. of Christ and Christians — The Nana Sahib — His Agent Azeemoolah — A Hypocrite who has no Equal — Mohammedan Monopoly of Place and Power — Sepoy Army and its Disadvantages — Annexation of Oude — Dread of Christian Civilization — The Fakirs of India — Humorous Anecdote of Self-torturing Fakir — The Yogees — Hindoo Rules of Moral Perfection — Number and Expense of Saints in India — Militant Fakirs — Luck- now, its Beauty and Vileness — Those who Needed us Most — Our Mission Field — Joel, our First Native Preacher — Peggy's Sacrifice for her Saviour Page 170 CHAPTER V. «« IN PERILS BY THE HEATHEN, IN PERILS XS THE ^VILDERNEB^." Reception at Bareilly — A Man who Never Heard of America — The Greased Car- tridges — Methods and Motives Employed to Foment Rebellion — Willoughby's Gallant Defense of the Delhi Magazine — Massacre of Meerut and Delhi — Providential Com- pensations — Our Warning to Flee — Declined to Leave — Reconsideration and Flight — Left in the Terai at Midnight — God's Answer to a Brief Prayer— Our First Sight of Nynee Tal — The Massacre at Bareilly — Joel's Narrative of his Escape and Flight- - Death of Maria — Bromfield-street and Bareilly on the Same Day — Massacre at Shah- jehanpore — The Murdered Missionaries — "Tempering the Wind to the Shorn Lamb" — -Our Measures of Defense at Nynee Tal — The Value of Our Heads — "The Mutiny Baby" — How we Lived, and our Commissariat — Mutilation of our Messengers — Hun- gry for News — Mrs. Edwards and the Garment of Praise — Lying and Blasphemous Proclamations of the Rebel Authorities — The Spirit of the Moslem Creed — The Delhi Battle of the 23d of June — Scarcity and Dearness of our Provisions — Our Rampore Friend — Le Bas and the Nawab of Kurnal — The Fakir and the Baby — Our Sudden Flight from Nynee Tal to Almorah — Again " in Perils in the Wilderness " — Light in the Darkness — Almorah Reached at Last — The Fearful State of Things before Delhi -Our Battle at Huldwanee . . .• 22 1 CHAPTER VI. THE CAWNPORE MASSACRE AND THE RELIEF OP LUCKNOW. American Blood among the First Shed at CaviTipore — " These are They which Came Out of Great Tribulation " — Authorities for the Story — Sir Hugh Wheeler's Preparation — The Beginning of the Long Agony — A Sorrow without a Parallel — The Nana Sahib's Infernal Treachery — Reserves the Ladies for Another Doom — The Dark- est Crime in Human History — The Nana Sahib Meets General Havelock — Totally Routed — Havelock's Soldiers at " The Well " — " I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body " — The Shrine erected by a Weeping Country — Blowing Away from Guns and its Motive — Siege ot Lucknow — Sir Henry Lawrence's Preparation for Defense — The Dis- astrous Defeat of Chinhut — The Unequal Conditions of the Conflict — The Muchee Bawun Blown Up — Sir Henry Lawrence's Death — Determined Resolution of the Gar- rison — Value and Price of Stores — Soothing Influence of Prayer — The Omen of Coming Liberty and Peace — Havelock's Opportune Arrival at Calcutta — Military Services and Career — Begins his Grand March with a Handful of Troops — The Battles of Futty- pore and Pandoo Nuddee — Enters Cawnpore July 17th — Too Late after all to Save the Ladies — Crosses the Ganges and Marches for Lucknow — Wins his Seventh Victory — Obliged by Cholera and the Condition of his Troops to Wait for Reinforcements — Sir James Outram's Noble Concession — Reinforced and On his Way again — The Res- idency Reached and tlie Ladies Saved — Shut in Again — Sir Colin Campbell's Approach to Lucknow — Jessie Brown and her " Dinnaye Hear the Slogan ? " — Meeting of Camp- bell, Outram, and Havelock — Evacuation of the Residency — Havelock Dying — Recep- tion of the Ladies at Allahabad 293 CONTENTS. 7 CHAPTER Vn. THE CAUSES AND PArLXJRE OF THE SEPOY REBELLION. England's Misrepresentatives — The East India Company Answered by One of its own Hindoo Subjects — Escape of India from French Rule — Young Bengal's Opinion of Christianity — Native Appreciation of English Government — Hindoo Estimate of Missionaries and Christianity — The Interested Enemies of Br-itish Rule — Suttee with- out Vedic Sanction — The Mode and Extent of Suttee — The Motives of the Immolation — Instances of Suttee — Abolished by Lord Bentinck — The Thugs of India — Our Inter- view with Two Hundred of Them — Divine Sanction for Thuggeeism — What the Con- flict Involved — England's Confession of her Sins — A Missionary Succeeds where a Gov- ernment Fails — Sir John Lawrence's Christian Courage — Our Position again Assailed — Another Divine Interposition in our Behalf — Delhi Falls at Last — Our Journey Across the Himalayas — In Danger from the Wild Beasts — Arrival of our First Mis- sionaries at Calcutta — In Sorrow, Supposing us Killed — We Reach the Plains and Pro- ceed to Delhi — The Nakedness of the Captured City — Alone at Midnight at the Kot- walie — The Sights of Delhi — Mohammedan Treatment of Hindoo Idols — Our Visit to the Fallen Emperor — Other Royal Captives awaiting Trial — Attending Christian Worship in the Dewanee Khass — Why the Sepoy Rebellion Failed — Constitutional Freedom Foreign to Eastern Minds Page 358 CHAPTER Vm. RESULTS OF THE REBELLION TO CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. Meeting with One of the Bareilly Refugees — Colonel Gowan's Munificence — Doctor Wentworth's Invitation to China— Sad Service at the Meerut Post-Office — Joined by the Missionaries and their Wives — Lodged in the Taj Mahal — Proceed to Nynee Tal and Commence our Work — The Sheep-House Congregation — The Battle of Bareilly — The Grave of the Great Rebellion — Descent to Bareilly and Visit to my Ruined Home — Conducting Worship for Havelock's Hferoes on their Last Battle-field — Visit to Khan Bahadur in Prison — His Trial and How he Died — Journey to Futtyghur and Cawnpore — Re-enter Lucknow — Reception by Sir Robert Montgomery — Marvelous Changes Results of the Rebellion viewed from the Residency — Effect on the Mohammedans The Irishman in the Lucknow Court — " One of You shall Chase a Thousand " — Abo- lition of the East India Company — Condition and Prospects of the Gospel — Martyr Campbell's Prayer Answered — Christianity Invincible and Inevitable 430 CHAPTER IX. THE CONDITION OF WOMAN UNDER HINDOO LAW. Woman's Wrongs in India are Legal — Female Infanticide — "Dark Saugor's impious Stain" — Betrothal of Hindoo Girls — Courtship Unknown in India — Legal Age for Marriage — Seclusion follows Betrothal — Education of the Hindoo Maiden — Subordi- nation of Woman Legally Enjoined — The Wife Prohibited from Eating with her Hus- band — Required to Serve him while he Eats — Illustration of Royal Tyranny A Woman's Curse Dreaded — Polygamy Allowed by Law — Its Extent — Polyandry Its Ancient Character illustrated from the Mahabarata — Widowhood in India — Its Condi- tion and Effect — Death and Funeral of the Hindoo Wife and Mother on the Banks of the Ganges 468 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSION Explantory Note— Methods of Work— Throne of the Great Mogul— A Vision of the Future— The Orphanages — First Methodist Press — First Hospital — The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society — The Theological Seminary... 506 CHAPTER XI THE YEAR OF JUBILEE The River of India's Methodism— Benares and Bareilly — First Convert — Revival Spirit — Lepers Rejoicing — Bishop Thoburn's Account of Expansion — The System of the Work— Among the Head Hunters of Borneo— Gujarat Awakening — On to Thibet — India the Gem 524 Glossary of Indian Terms 54g Index. 559 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE View in the Himalayas Frontispiece Hindoos and Their Teachers , ii A Brahmin 21 Brahmins at Prayer 25 A Lady of India in Full Dress 40 The Nautch Girl 44 The Maharajah Duleep Singh 48 The Mohammedans of India 62 The Emperor of Delhi. The last of the Moguls 106 Empress of Delhi iii The Dewan I Khass, or Hall of Audience, Delhi 117 Weighing of the "Emperor 123 The Taj Mahal from the River Jumna 128 The Gate of the Taj 132 The Taj Mahal 136 Tomb of Asuf Khan, Agra 150 The Kootub Minar 157. The Nana Sahib 180, ■ The Fakirs of India 193 A Self-Torturing Fakir 196 A YoGEE, OR Silent Saint 200 Wajid Ali Shah, the Last King of Oudh 209 Joel, the First Native Preacher 215 Peggy 218 Naini Tal 243 The House of Massacre 304 . Memorial Well at Cawnpore 311' The Residency, Lucknow 317 Sir Henry Havelock 334 The Relief of Lucknow 348 Preparing for the Immolation of a Hindoo Widow 375 A Group of Thugs 396 First House of Worship of Methodism in India 435 The Sheep House Congregation 438 The Marquis Wellesley, Who Made Infanticide Penal.. 474 Hindoo Woman and Her Husband 489 ' Hindoo Widow in her usual Dress 499 Lord William Bentinck, Who Terminated Suttee 502 Interior of the Dewan I Khass 507 View of Bareilly 513 Appeal for the First Press 517^ First Hospital for Women in the Orient 521 Circular of the Mission 525 Mutiny Curios 531 Theological Seminary 535 . Graduating Class 539 First College for Women in Asia 543 T U E LAND OF THE VEDA. CHAPTER I. THE PEOPLE OF INDIA CASTE AND ITS IMMUNITIES. IN my youth I read those amazing descriptions of Oriental magnificence recorded by Sir Thomas Roe — England's first Embassador to India— and others, describing the power and glory of '* The Great Mogul " in such glowing terms that they seemed more like the romance of the "Arabian Nights" than the real facts, which they were, of the daily life witnessed in that splendid Court. Europe then heard for the first time of " The Taj," " The Peacock Throne," " The Dewanee Khass," " The Weighing of the Emperor," when on each birthday his person was placed in golden scales, and twelve times his weight of gold and silver, perfumes and other valuables, were distributed to the populace; but the statements seemed so distant from probability that they were regarded by many as extravagances which might well rank with the asserted facts of " Lalla Rookh ; " so that the Embassa- dor, who was three years a resident, and the Poet, who had never been there at all, with their authorities, seemed alike to have drawn upon their imagination for their facts, transcending, as their descriptions did, the ability and the taste of European Courts. How little I then imagined that it would fall to my lot at a future day to be in that very Dewanee Khass, sitting quietly on the side of his Crystal Throne, beholding the last of the Mogul Emperors, a captive, on trial for hi? life, in that magnificent Audi- 12 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. ence Hall of his forefathers, where millions have bowed down before them in such abject homage ! that I should be there to see him, the last of their line, descending from that throne and $900,000 per annum to a felon's doom and the deck of a convict ship, to breathe rut the remnant of his miserable life upon a foreign shore ; and then after his departure to behold, as I did, that costly Khass given over to the spoiler's hand, rifled by the English soldiers of its last ornaments, and ruined forever ! Truly has it been said that ofttimes " fact is stranger than fic- tion;" and the assertion has seldom received more impressive illustrations than are found in the wonderful scenes which I wit- nessed in the Court of Delhi at the close of 1857. In reading that stirring account of the great victory won for Christianity near Poictiers on the 3d of October, A. D. 732 — when the brave Charles Martel, at the head of his Christian warriors, had to meet Abder Rahman and his Arabian cavalry, 375,000 strong, and there to decide whether Europe should henceforth be Christian or Moslem — one almost trembles as he thinks what would have been the result had Charles failed that day ! The hosts of the Arabian Antichrist had already extinguished the seven Churches of Asia, almost swept North Africa of its Christianity, had passed the pillars of Hercules and conquered Spain, crossed the Pyrenees, and were now descending into France and Ger- many with the intention of completing the circuit of the Mediter- ranean, and making Europe as Mohammedan as they had made Asia Minor and Palestine. Christendom was terrified, for the Christian Church seemed pressed to the verge of ruin. On' the issue of that morning, so far as human eye can penetrate the future, it was then and there to be decided whether Paris and London, and, by consequence. New York and Boston, were to be like Bag- dad, Constantinople, and Damascus : whether, instead of the spires of our churches and the sound of our Sabbath bells, our race was to receive, at the sword's point, another faith, whose outward expression would be the Mosque and the Minaret, and the Muez- zin's cry calling " the faithful " to the Koran and its prayers ! CHBISTIANITT'S GREAT EMEBQENGIE8. ij Well did Christendom bestow the surname of the " Hammer" upon the heroic Charles ! From the blows which he dealt out to those foes of Gospel civilization they reeled back, stunned into the keen conviction that for them and their hateful creed there was no home in Europe. They recrossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and, instead of the Gallic and Germanic races, sought an easier prey in the enervated communities of Oriental heathenism. Thus, instead of France and Britain and Germany, the Crescent of the False Prophet subdued, and for nearly a thousand years waved over, Egypt, Persia, Toorkistan, and India, But for the Providence which gave Charles Martel that decisive victory, Arabic had been the classical language, and Islamism the religion of our race and of Europe ; and "America and the Cape, the Compass and the Press, the Steam-engine, the Telescope, and the Copernican System, might all have remained undiscovered until the present day." When reading these thrilling events long years since, how free I was from any anticipation that I should yet have to stand in the center of Asia, amid a similar whirl of confusion and blood, organ- ized by that very creed, as it rose in its might to sweep the East- ern hemisphere of every vestige of the Gospel, and plant its triumphant flag on the ruins of Christianity ; that it should be my lot to be lost to sight for months amid the rolling clouds of the conflict, where Henry Havelock, victorious over Nana Sahib, accomplished for Oriental Christianity what Charles Martel did a thousand years before for the same faith, in the West ; that at length, emerging unscathed, I should have the high honor to be invited by them to render their thanks to God for their victory, on the last battle-field which his heroes won ; and, more wonderful still, that there, amid the utter military downfall of that creed and its chief dynasty, I should be privileged to plant the standard of the Cross in the land of the Sepoy, and live to see Churches founded and native ministers raised up from the very race who sought our life and labored to destroy our faith ! How different would the East and the West have been to-day had either Martel or Havelock failed! But God is great for the 14 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. exigencies of his people, and has often, as in both these instances, shown that he can save by few as well as by many. I am fully of the opinion, and think this work will abundantly show, that Oriental Christianity never passed through such an emergency as that of 1857-8. Even worldly men, ay, the very heathen themselves, declared afterward that it was God alone who saved it from com- plete annihilation. By every law and rule of power, opportunity, and purpose, it must have perished had it been merely human, and true philosophy as well as Christian faith teaches us that it was only saved by the special interposition of Almighty God, its defender and keeper. During the long and weary months of our siege on the summit of Nynee Tal, the handful of villagers there declared that we were the last of the Christian life left in India — that from where we stood, to the sea on either side, our religion and race had been all swept away. We knew well that if this were so our fate was but a question of time that would soon be consummated. Cut off and excluded, there we stood, our anxious hearts trying to ponder the terrible question, Could this be so ? and if so, how fearful must be the resiilt ! For we felt assured, if it were, that the successful effort of the India Sepoy would have found cruel imita- tion in Burmah, China, and Japan, and that it was possible that, at that hour — in those terrible days of July and August, 1857 — Chris- tianity might have been extinguished in the blood of its last martyrs on the Oriental hemisphere, and the clock of the world been put back for centuries. We could only turn to God, and "against hope believe in hope," while we ourselves " stood in jeopardy every hour." How serious that jeopardy was may be realized by turning to the map, and describing a circle around the geographical center of our mission at Shajehanpore, until its diameter would expand to three hundred miles. That area would encircle nearly the whole of Rohilcund, Oude, and The Doab, and would include the cities of Moradabad, Futtyghur, Bareilly, Lucknow, Cawnpore, Rampore, etc. It would represent the very heart of the great Rebellion, Every city, town, and village within these Hmits " fell," so that, with the exception of the handful with us at Nynee Tal, one little group OUB NARROW ESCAPE, 1 5 that was closely hidden in a Hindoo home in Rohilcund, those in the " Residency " of Lucknow, and those in the intrenchments at Cawnpore — not a white face in all that great valley was left alive. Within that fearful circle on the 31st of May, 1857, were five American missionaries. I am the only one of the number that came out of the terrible vortex ; all the rest, with their wives and children, were ruthlessly murdered. We knew them well — Broth- ers Freeman, Campbell, Johnson, and M' Mullen, and their devoted ladies and little ones, honored and beloved missionaries of the American Presbyterian Church. We alone of the number are left alive to tell the story of the circumstances under which they suf- fered, and of our own wonderful escape from a similar death ! How well we can appreciate the victory of Christian civilization over heathen cruelty and purposes, as well as the amazing strides made by the Gospel and by education since that fearful day ! The reader will well remember how the world stood horrified in the fall of that year as mail after mail brought the tidings of cruelty and massacre, in which neither age nor sex was spared, and also with what anxiety they watched the progress of the feeble bands of heroes who, under such leaders as the gallant and saintly Havelock, fought their dreadful way to our rescue, too late to save even one at Cawnpore, but in time to rescue us and those at Lucknow. The intervention of the civil war in this country necessarily for the time turned away attention from the horrors which were fourteen thousand miles distant ; but the public interest in this subject has not ceased, nor will the story of the " Sepoy Rebellion " ever be forgotten while men admire and honor heroic sufferings, Anglo- Saxon pluck, and sublime Christian courage, exhibited against the most fearful odds and in the face of certain death, in the center of a whole continent of raging foes, while the Prince of the powers of the air marshaled the hosts of hell to annihilate the religion of the Son of God. Doubtless " the rulers of the darkness of this world " had more interest and part in that fearful struggle than was taken by the poor, ignorant Sepoy or his crafty priest. It was earth 1 6 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. and hell combined. No other theory can account for its char- acter. Of this the reader will judge for himself from the facts presented. Fourteen years have passed since closed that great " wrestling with flesh and blood, with principalities and powers, and wicked spirits in high places." Eight of those years were spent by the writer amid the scenes of 1857-8, giving him occasion to verify and examine the facts where they transpired, and correct his judg- ment by as good an opportunity as could be desired. I feel the responsibility to see that such facts shall not drop into oblivion. They should not be allowed to die, especially associated as they are with the history of the Methodist Church in India, whose foun- dations were laid in such " troublous times." It will assist the reader's attention, and promote a more ade- quate understanding of our subject, to introduce to him at this point the people of whom we are speaking, and also unfold some- what their character and peculiar civilization. The wood-cuts are mostly from photographs brought from India, and of course are faithful representations of the various classes as they appear there, The first group are Hindoos, as they sit round a Brahmin to listen to the reading of the Vedas. The Hindoos constitute the great majority of the Empire, and are of the same Caucasian race as ourselves. Their ancestors moved southward from their original home more than three thou- sand years ago, and occupied the Valley of Scinde, probably on the west bank of the Indus, while only Afghanistan and Persia lay between them and the cradle of the race. There, in that valley, their most ancient Vedas were written — manifestly so from the local allusions — and from thence at a later period they migrated into the richer Valley of the Ganges, driving before them the aborigines of India, who sought shelter in the jungles and mountains, where their descendants are found to-day. The Hindoos have long ceased to be a warlike people. The rich land which they con- quered, its fertility, the abundance and cheapness of the means of life, and their inclination to indolence, which a warm climate MOHAMMEDAN INVASION. 19 fosters, have all been promotive of the efFeminacy into which they have so generally sunk. Their separation into castes and classes have tended to individ- ualism, and to an utter indiflference to politics or the public good ; so that you seek in vain for what we call patriotism or love of country. The Hindoo, as a general fact, cares not who rules the land if only he is allowed to cultivate his fields and eat his rice in peace. If left to himself, the last thing he would have thought of would have been rebellion ; indeed, the Hindoos, as a people, did not rebel. They looked on in astonishment, and left the whole affair to be carried on and fought out by the Sepoys and the Bud- mashes (the thieves and vagabonds) of the cities. In every respect they are a contrast to the Mohammedans among them. No tendency to amalgamation with them has ever been developed. They regard them as aliens and oppressors, and are even thankful that they are no longer under their control. About eight hundred years ago there came pouring down into India from the countries of the North-west a hardy, large-boned, intoler- ant race of men, made up of various nations, who had heard of the " barbaric pearl and gold " of Hindustan, and who panted to extend over its wide realms their religion and rule. Before this Moham- medan invasion the Hindoo race succumbed, though the strangers were not one seventh of their number. But they were a unit ; and, taking the Hindoo nations in detail, they conquered. Then, filling tlic positions of trust and the offices of Government with their own creatures, and as far as they could making a monopoly of education, they continued to compensate for deficiency of numbers by a poli- tic use of their opportunities, and left the Hindoo to till the soil and pay the yearly tribute which they had laid upon him. The usual alternative of the Mohammedan conquerors — conformity to their creed or grinding taxation, or even death — had to be foregone in this instance, as its attempted enforcement over a people so much more numerous would have been too much for even Hindoo patience, and have ended probably in the extermination of their iconoclastic conquerors. The distinctive characteristics of each are religiously 20 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. kept up. One of them is in the fastening of the outer garment On meeting either party, though the dress is much the same, you at once distinguish the Mohammedan from the Hindoo by the uni- ^versal fact that, the latter has his tunic made to button on the right side, while the Mohammedan hooks his on the left. There is about ilie Mohammedan a fierce, haughty aspect, which he takes no trouble to conceal. He cannot forget that he had ruled In India for seven hundred years, until the hated English came and broke the rod of his strength, and he is all the more disposed to show his bitterness of spirit because the Hindoo race, with the exception of a few Brahmins, hailed the change with sincere gladness, and can now set him at defiance. It was on this fact that Englishmen relied for the perpetuity of their rule ; and on it they might have depended for long centuries to come, had it not been for a combi- nation of peculiar circumstances which existed in 1857, and which will be detailed in their place. Taking individual portraits, for the sake of more distinctness, I here present a Brahmin, as the acknowledged head of Hindoo society, and an associate of the most exclusive and singular of all earthly orders. The man here introduced holds himself to be a member of the most ancient aristocracy upon the earth. His dignity is one entirely independent of landed possessions, wealth, or manorial halls. Indeed, these have nothing whatever to do with it. The man may have literally no home, and not be worth five dollars of worldly property ; he may have to solicit his next meal of food from those who respect his order ; but he is a Brahmin, and is prouder of that simple string over his shoulder and across his naked breast than any English Earl is of his coronet. These men laugh at such a mushroom aristocracy as that of Britain or France, created merely by the breath of a human Sovereign, whose word raises the plebeian to the noble order ; for the Brahmin holds that his nobility is not an accident, but is in the highest sense " by the grace of God." It is in his nature, in his blood, by the original intention and act of his Creator. He was made and designed by A Brahmin. ORIGIN OF CASTE. 23 God to be different from and higher than all other men, and that from the first to last of time. How they hate that republican Christianity which declares that " God hath made of one blood all nations of men," and that Gospel equality which announces that saints " are one in Christ Jesus," and that, having "all one Father," "all we are brethren" in a blessed communion, where no lofty pretensions or imprescriptable rights are allowed to any, but he that would be greatest must be the servant of all. I have seen a person of this class, on approaching a low-caste man, wave his right hand superciliously thirty yards before they could meet, and so send him off to 'iho, other side of the road. The poor despised man meekly bowed and obeyed the haughty inti- mation. No sacerdotal tyranny has ever been so relentlessly and scornfully enforced as that of the Brahminical rule, and none has been such an unmitigated curse to the nation where it was exercised. Caste is an institution peculiarly Brahminical. The Sanscrit word is varna, which denotes color — probably the ancient distinc- tion between the Hindoo invaders and the aborigines. Caste, from the Portuguese casta, a breed, exactly expresses the Brahminical idea. Their account of its origin, abridged from the Institutes of Menu, the oldest system of law extant save the Pentateuch, is as follows : " In order to preserve the universe, Brahma caused the Brahmin to proceed from his mouth, the Kshatriya to proceed from his arm, the Vaisya to proceed from his thigh, and the Sudra to proceed from his foot. And Brahma directed that the duties of the Brahmins should be reading and teaching the Veda ; sacrificing, and assisting others to sacrifice ; giving alms if they be rich, and receiving alms if they be poor. And Brahma directed that the duties of the Kshstriyas should be to defend the people, to give alms, to sacri- fice, to read the Veda, and to keep their passions under control. And he directed that the duties of the Vaisyas should be to keep herds of cattle, to give alms, to read the Shasters, to carry on 24 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. trade, to lend money at interest, and to cultivate land. And he directed that the Sudra should serve all the three mentioned castes, namely, the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, and the Vaisyas, and that he should not depreciate nor make light of them. Since the Brah- min sprang from the mouth, which is the most excellent part of Brahma, and since he is the first-born and possesses the Veda, he is by right the chief of the whole creation. Him Brahma pro- duced from his own mouth, that he might perform holy rites ; that he might present ghee to the gods, and cakes of rice to the Pitris, or progenitors of mankind." — Code of Hindoo Law, I, pp. 88, 94. The Bhagvat Geeta, their most sublime treatise, repeats the same arrangement, and makes their observance a condition of salvation and moral perfection. Each class had thus a separate creation, constituting it, in fact, a distinct species, involving a denial of the doctrine that " God hath made of one blood all men," The Hindoos thus reject our common humanity, and hold it to be heresy to believe that all men are fellow-creatures, scouting the idea that we should " honor all men," or " love our neighbors as ourselves." Brahmin is a derivative from Brahm, the Deity, and signifies a Theologist or Divine. The caste is analogous to the tribe of Levi under the Mosaic economy, but without the family of Aaron. All the benefits of the Hindoo religion belong to this class, and the code secured to them rights, honors, and immunities that no other order could claim, so that their persons were to be considered sacred and inviolate, and they could not be held amenable to the penalties of law even for the worst of crimes. The intention of the legislator was, that from this learned class alone the nation was to take its astronomers, lawyers, prime ministers, judges, philosophers, as well as priests. They were to hold the highest offices, and to be supreme. The Brahmin is invested with that sacred string of three cotton strands, and the ceremony is called regeneration, and gives the Brahmin his claim to the title of the " twice born." For him, and for him alone, has the law-giver laid down in detail the duties of life, even to his devotions. Each morning he may be BRAHMINIGAL PRAYING. 27 seen, as here represented, on the banks of the Ganges or other '■' holy " stream. Any thing more singular and whimsical than the forms pre- scribed for him were never enjoined upon humanity as religious ritual. In illustration of this, from a paper in the "Asiatic ■Researches," by Mr. Colebrook, as quoted by Dr. Duff, we ask the reader's attention to the following extract. Speaking of the duties of morning worship, one of which is the religious ablution, as here represented, " the Sacred Books" strictly enjoin as follows : " He may bathe with water drawn from a well, from a fountain, or from the basin of a cataract ; but he should prefer water which lies above ground — choosing a stream rather than stagnant water, a river in preference to a small brook, a holy stream before a vulgar river, and above all the water of the Ganges. If the Ganges be beyond his reach he should invoke that holy river, saying, * O, Gunga, hear my prayers ! for my sake be included in this small quantity of water with the other sacred streams.' Then, standing in the water, he must hallow his intended performance by the inaudible recitation of certain sacred texts. Next, sipping water and sprinkling some before him, the worshiper throws water eight times on the crown of his head, on the earth, toward the sky ; again toward the sky, on the earth, on the crown of his head ; and lastly on the ground, to destroy the demons who wage war with the gods. During the performance of this acJ of ablu- tion he must be reciting these prayers : ' O waters ! since ye afford delight, grant us present happiness and the rapturous sight of the Supreme Being. Like tender mothers, make us here partakers of your most auspicious essence. We become contented with your essence, with which ye satisfy the universe. Waters, grant it to us.' Immediately after this first ablution he should sip water with- out swallowing it, silently praying. These ceremonies and prayers bemg concluded, he plunges thrice into the water, each time repeat- ing the prescribed expiatory texts. " He then meditates in the deepest silence. During this moment (if intense devotion he is striving to realize that ' Brahma, with four 28 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. faces and a red complexion, resides in nis bosom ; Vishnu, with four arms and a black complexion, in his heart ; and Shiva, with five faces and a white complexion, in his forehead ! ' To this sub- lime meditation succeeds a suppression of the breath, which is thus performed : Closing the left nostril with the two longest fingers of his right hand, he draws his breath through the right nostril ; and then, closing that nostril likewise with his thumb, he holds his breath, while he internally repeats to himself the Gayatri, the mysterious names of the three worlds, the triliteral monosyllable, and the sacred text of Brahma ; last of all, he raises both fingers off the left nostril, and emits the breath he had suppressed through the right. This process being repeated three several times, he must next make three ablutions, with the following prayer : ' As the tired man leaves drops of sweat at the foot of a tree ; as he who bathes is cleansed from all foulness ; as an oblation is sanctified by holy grass, so may this water purify me from sin.' He must next fill the palm of his hand with water, and, presenting it to his nose, inhale the fluid by one nostril, and, retaining it for a while, exhale it through the other, and throw away the water to the north-east quarter. This is considered as an internal ablution which washes away sin. He then concludes by sipping water with the following prayer : * Water ! thou dost penetrate all beings ; thou dost reach the deep recesses of the mountains ; thou art the mouth of the universe ; thou art sacrifice ; thou art the mystic word vasha ; thou art light, taste, and the immortal fluid.' " After a variety of genuflections and prayers, of which these are but a mere sample, he concludes his devotions by worshiping the rising sun. The veneration in which the Brahmin is to be held by all classes, the privileges which he is to enjoy, his occupations and modes of life, are laid down with wonderful minuteness in this Code of Hindoo Law. A mere sample of his assumptions, under the head of Veneration, will suffice: "The Brahmin is entitled to the whole of the universe by the right of primogeniture. He pos- sesses the Veda, and is alone permitted to teach the laws. By his sacrifices and imprecations he could destroy a Rajah in a moment, PBEBOQATIVES OF THE BRAHMINS. 2g together with all his troops, elephants, horses, and chariots In his wrath he could frame new worlds, with new gods and new mortals. A man who barely assaulted a Brahmin, with the inten- tion of hurting him, would be whirled about for a century in the hell termed Tamasa. He who smote a Brahmin with only a blade of grass, would be born an inferior quadruped during twenty-one transmigrations. But he who should shed the blood of a Brahmin, save in battle, would be mangled by animals in his next birth for as many years as there were particles of dust rolled up by the blood shed. If a Sudra (a low-caste man) sat upon the same seat with a Brahmin, he was to be gashed in the part offending." — Institutes of Menu, I, 94, etc. Thus a body of men, supposed to number not more than a few hundred thousand, have held the two hundred millions of their fellow-countrymen for thirty centuries in the terrors of this sacer- dotal legislation, enforcing its claims to the last limit of endurance, though at the fearful price of the utter ignorance, degradation, and slavery of their nation. The reader can well appreciate che indig- nant feelings with which this greedy, proud, and supercilious order of men contemplated the incoming of a Christian Government, which would make all men " equal before the law," and the advent of a Religion whose great glory it is to vindicate the oppressed and " preach the Gospel to the poor." The Kshatriya caste (derived from Kshetra, land) and the Vais- yas (traders) had the privilege of the investiture with the sacred string ; but to the Sudras there was to be no investiture, no sacri- fice, and no Scriptures. They were condemned by this law to perpet- ual servitude. Yet this class, with the Outcasts, were necessarily the great majority of the nation, and those who might have been their instructors and guides, heartlessly took away the key of knowledge, made it a legal crime to " teach them how sin might be expiated," and deliberately degraded them for time and eternity. The Vedas expressly state that the benefits of the Hindoo religion are open only to three of the four castes ! The fourth-caste man could have no share in religion and hold no property. He was a 30 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. bondsman, and that forever. No system of human slavery evei equaled this ; for it was intense, unalterable, and unending, by the act of God himself. The distinctions of society, by the ordinances of the Hindco Lawgiver, were thus indicated : Brahmins, or Priests ; Kshatriyas.. or Soldiers and Rajahs ; Vaisyas, or Merchants and Farmers ; Sudras, the servile class. The arrangements indicate a pastoral condition of society, far removed from the stirring scenes of the life of the nineteenth cen- tury. The ordinances made no preparation for the wider wants of men or intercommunication of other nations, or the development of our race. They had no provision for manufacturing, mining, or commercial life, but expected the world to move on forever in their limited conservative methods. These four castes were subdivided, according to the theory, into sixty-four, and in the grooves thus opened the divisions of labor were expected to run, so that even trade should become hereditary ; and thus, whatever the genius or ability developed in any man, he was expected to be content to remain in the profession of his father. He might have the germ and the buddings of a mmd like Newton's, but, according to "their cast-iron rules of social life, if his father made shoes he too must stick to the last." No man of one caste can eat, smoke, marry with, or touch the cook- ing-vessels of a person of another caste. The prohibition is fear- fully strict, and guarded with terrible sanctions. And it is as des- titute of humanity as it is singular ; so that, were a stranger of their own nation, coming into one of their towns, to be taken suddenly ill, and unable to speak and explain of what caste he was, he would certainly be liable to perish, for the high-caste people would be afraid to touch him, lest they should break their caste, and those of the low-caste would be unwilling, lest their contact (on the suppo- sition of his superior order) might irrecoverably contaminate him. In their hands the. man would perish unaided. This unique masterpiece of Brahminism was intended by its framers to be a wall of brass around their system, to secure its unal- BRAHMINIGAL INVESTITURE. 31 terable permanency. But, its own heartless selfishness and cruel tendencies had so far overdone the work that it was found practi- cally impossible to sustain the integrity of the arrangements. Inno- vations crept in and conflicts ensued, and, despite the desperate efforts of the Brahmins, confusion has marred Menu's strange designs, while the introduction of Western civilization, the teach- ings of Christianity, and the light of true knowledge, have delivered such severe and repeated shocks that the venerable and hideous monstrosity is tottering to its final fall. Four Stages of Life are marked out by Menu for the Brahmin : I. The Brahmachari, or Studentship of the Veda ; 2. The Grihas- tha, or Married State ; 3. The Vanaprastha, or Hermit Life ; 4. The Sannyasi, or Devotee Condition. The Brahmachari stage begins with the investiture of the sacred thread, which act signifies " a second birth." The investiture takes place in his eighth year in case of a Brahmin, the eleventh year for a Kshatriya, and the twelfth for a Vaisya. The investiture introduces the " twice-born " Brahmin boy to a religious life, and is supposed to sanctify him for the study of the Veda. The thread of the Brahmin is made of cotton and formed of three strings ; that of the Kshatriya is made of hemp, and that of the Vaisya is of wool. It is termed the " sacrificial cord," because it entitles the wearer to the privilege of sacrifice and religious services. Certain ceremonies are observed for girls as well as for boys, but neither girls nor women are invested with the sacred thread nor the utterance of the sacred mantras. They have con- sequently no right to sacrifice. Indeed, the nuptial ceremony is considered to be for woman equivalent to the investiture of the thread, and is the commencement of the religious life of the female, {Menu, II, 66, 67.) So that, a lady remaining unmarried, has nothing equivalent to their " second birth " here, and can look forward to no certainty of a happy life hereafter. The poor Sudra is entirely excluded. Thus, the Servile Man and the unmarried woman of any, even the highest, caste are equally left outside the pale of Brahminical salvation — exactly that condition to which 32 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. High-Church Puseyism consigns all " Dissenters " when they hand them over to " the uncovenanted mercies of God." In addition to the exclusion of woman and the lower caste, this terrible Code proceeds to sink still deeper vast multitudes of their fellow-creatures. The " Outcasts " are numbered by the million. Some of these are called " Chandalas," and concerning them this heartless and cruel Lawgiver ordains : " Chandalas must dwell without the town. Their sole wealth must be dogs and asses ; their clothes must consist of the mantles of deceased persons ; their dishes must be broken pots, and their ornaments must consist of rusty iron. No one who regards his duties must hold any inter- course with them, and they must marry only among themselves. By day they may roam about for the purposes of work, and be dis- tinguished by the badges of the Rajah ; and they must carry out the corpse of any one who dies without kindred. They should always be employed to slay those who are sentenced by the laws to be put to death ; and they may take the clothes of the slain, their beds, and their ornaments." — Code,'K, 51-58. Can the Western reader wonder that, tame and subdued though the Asiatics may be, these aristocratic ordinances should have proved too much for human nature, or that the introduction of English rule and fair play, elevating these long-crushed millions to legal equality with these proud Brahmins, was an immense mercy to nearly one sixth of the human family } As a sample of how this sacerdotal law, framed for his special glorification, discriminated in favor of the Brahmin, it may suffice to quote a sentence or two. On the question of his privileges when called to testify in a Court of Justice, he must be assumed to be the "very soul of honor," and his oath, without exposure to pen- alty, was to be held sufficient. The Code decreed that " A Brah- min was to swear by his veracity ; a Kshatriya by his weapons, horse, or elephant ; and a Vaisya by his kine, grain, or gold ; but a Sudra was to imprecate upon his own head the guilt of every possible crime if he did not speak the truth." — VIII, 113. "To a Brahmin the Judge should say, ' Declare ;' to a Kshatriya he DISCRIMINATIONS IN THE BRAHMIN'S FAVOR. 33 should say, ' Declare the truth ;' to the Vaisya he should compare perjury to the crime of stealing kine, grain, or gold ; to the Sudra he should compare perjury to every crime in the following lan- guage : ' Whatever places of torture have been prepared for the milrderer of a Brahmin, for the murderer of a woman, or child, have also been ordained for that witness who gives false evidence. If you deviate from the truth you shall go naked, shorn, and blind, and be tormented with hunger and thirst, and beg food with a pot- sherd at the door of your enemy ; or shall tumble headlong into hell in utter darkness. Even if you give imperfect testimony, and assert a fact which you have not seen, you shall suffer pain like a man who eats fish and swallows the sharp bones." — Menu, VIII, 79-95- ' The scale of punishments in the case of a Brahmin (in the few instances where he was at all amenable to the law it could only touch his property, never, under any consideration, his person) was equally drawn in his favor, and was all the lighter in proportion to the inferiority of caste of the man whom he had injured ; while, on the other hand, it was equally to be increased in severity (for the same crime in both cases) in proportion to the same distinction, Says the law, " A Kshatriya who slandered a Brahmin was to be fined a hundred panas ; for the same crime a Vaisya was to be fined a hundred and fifty or two hundred panas ; but a Sudra was to be whipped." On the other hand, if a Brahmin slandered a Kshatriya " he was to be fined fifty panas ; if he slandered a Vaisya he was to be fined twenty-five panas ; but if he slandered a Sudra he was only to be fined twelve panas. If, however, a Sudra insulted any man of the twice-born castes with gross invectives, he was to have his tongue slit ; if he mentioned the name and caste of the individual with contumely, an iron style, ten fingers long, was to be made red-hot and thrust into his mouth ; and if, through pride, he dared to instruct a Brahmin respecting his duty, the Rajah was to order that hot oil should be poured into his mouth and ear." — Menu, VIII, 266-276. The " pana " was then nearly equal to our cent, so his privilege 34 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. of slandering a Sudra could at any time be exercised with impunity for a dime, while, if it was so done unto him, the law took good care that the plebeian wretch should never repeat the offense, for his tongue was to be slit. How truly could the Almighty, whose name they blasphemously invoke for their outrageous legislation, say of them, " Are not your ways unequal ? " Even in salutations the Code ordained the forms, and gave them a religious significance. " A Brahmin was to be asked whether his devotion had prospered, a Kshatriya whether he had suffered from his wounds, a Vaisya whether his wealth was secure, and a Sudra whether he was in good health." — Menu, II, 127. The food, the privileges, the duties, of this pampered monopolist are all minutely laid down in the Code, but they are too diffuse and too childish to place before the reader, and would not be worth the space occupied. In proof of this I quote one sentence from the fourth chapter, merely remarking that the whimsical injunctions are left without any rhyme or reason. They are as unaccountable as they are singular. " He (the Brahmin) must not gaze on the sun while rising or setting, or eclipsed or reflected in water ; he must not run while it rains ; he must not look on his own image in water ; when he sees the bow of Indra in the sky he must not show it to any man , he must not step over a string to which a calf is tied ; and he must not wash his feet in a pan of mixed metal." In these stages of its development and claims, Brahminism is nothing less than a system of supreme selfishness, 9,nd was worthy of the express teaching with which the Brahmin was directed, in an emergency, to sacrifice every thing to his own precious self, in the following rule : " Against misfortune let him preserve his wealth ; at the expense of his wealth let him preserve his wife ; but let him at all events preserve himself, even at the hazard of his wife and riches." How little can such a religion or such a law know of disin- terested affection, or of that devotion which would risk every thing for the safety and happiness of its beloved object ^ THIRD STAGE OF THE BRAHMIN'S LIFE. 35 His student life ended, the Brahmin commences his married existence with forms and rules which will be referred to when we come to speak of the condition of woman under Hindoo law. In this second stage of his life he is required to have " his hair and beard properly trimmed, his passions subdued, and his mantle white ; he is to carry a staff of Venu, a ewer with water in it, handful of Kusa grass, or a copy of the Vedas, with a pair of bright golden rings in his ears, ready to give instruction in the sacred books, or political counsel, and to administer justice." Then in order would come the third and fourth stages of his life, the rules of which are so unique. Such an amazing contrast to the unbounded privileges of the previous stages, and withal so little like what ordinary humanity would impose upon itself, that we must quote them for the information of the reader. These two stages express the very essence of Brahminism, In the Hermit stage, the theory is a course of life that will mortify the passions and extinguish desire ; this being accomplished, the last order, or Devotee stage, is religious contemplation with the view to final beatitude. Menu says, "When the twice-born man has remained in the order of Grihastha, or householder, until his muscles become flaccid and his hair gray, and he sees a child of his child, let him abandon his household and repair to the forest, and dwell there in the order of Vanaprastha, or Hermit. He should be accompanied by his wife if she choose to attend him, but otherwise he should commit her to the care of his sons. He should take with him the conse- crated fire, and all the domestic implements for making oblations to fire, and there dwell in the forest, with perfect control over all his organs. Day by day he should perform the five sacraments. He should wear a black antelope's hide, or a vesture of bark, and bathe morning and evening ; he should suffer his nails and the hair of his head and beard to grow continually. He should he constantly engaged in reading the Veda ; he should be patient in all extremities ; he should be universally benevolent, and entertain a tender affection for all living creatures ; his mind should be ever 36 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. intent upon the Supreme Being ; he should slide backwaid and forward, or stand a whole day on tiptoe, or continue in motion by rising and sittmg alternately ; but every day, at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset, he should go to the v/aters and bathe. In the hot season he should sit exposed to five fires, namely : four blazing around him, while the sun is burning above him. In the rainy season he should stand uncovered, without even a mantle, while the clouds pour down their heaviest showers. In the cold season he should wear damp vesture. He should increase the austerity of his devotion by degrees, until by enduring harsher and harsher mortifications he has dried up his bodily frame." — Code, VI, 22 ; Vishnu Purajza, III, 9, etc. As regards the life to be pursued by a Sannyasi, Menu lays down the following directions : " When a Brahmin has thus lived in the forest during the third portion of his life as a Vanaprastha, he should for the fourth por- tion of it become a Sannyasi, and abandon all sensual affections, and repose wholly in the Supreme Spirit. The glory of that Brahmin who passes from the order of Grihastha to that of San- nyasi illuminates the higher worlds. He should take an earthen water-pot, dwell at the roots of large trees, wear coarse vesture, abide in total solitude, and exhibit a perfect equanimity toward all creatures. -He should wish neither for death nor for life, but expect his appointed time, as a hired servant expects his wages. He should look down as he advances his foot, lest he should touch any thing impure. He should drink water that has been purified by straining through a cloth, lest he hurt an insect. He should bear a reproachful speech with patience, and speak reproachfully to no man ; and he should never utter a word relating to vain, illusory things. He should delight in meditating upon the Supreme Spirit, and sit fixed in such meditation, without needing any thing earthly, without one sensual desire, and without any companion but his own soul. " He should only ask for food once a day, and that should be in the evening, when the smoke of the kitchen fires has ceased, when LAST STAGE OF A BBABJUIN'S LIFE. 37 the pestle lies motionless, and the burning charcoal is extinguished ; when people have eaten, and when dishes are removed. If he fail to obtain food he should not be sorrowful ; if he succeed in obtain- ing it he should not be glad. He should only care to obtain a suf- ficiency to support life, and he should not be anxious about his utensils." As to the character of his thoughts : " A Sannyasi should reflect on the transmigrations of men, which are caused by their sinful deeds ; on their downfall into a region of darkness, and their torments in the mansions of Yama, (the God of the dead ;) on their separation from those whom they love, and their union with those whom they hate ; on their strength being overpowered by old age, and their bodies racked with disease ; on their agonizing departure from this corporeal frame, and their formation again in . the womb ; on the misery attached to embodied spirits from a violation of their duties, and the imperishable bliss which attaches to embodied spirits who have abundantly performed every duty. " The body is a mansion, with bones for its rafters and beams, with nerves and tendons for cords, with muscles and blood for mortar, with skin for its outward covering, and filled with no sweet perfumes, but loaded with refuse. It is a mansion infested by age and by sorrow, the seat of diseases, harassed by pains, haunted with the quality of darkness, and incapable of standing long. Such a mansion of the vital soul should always be quitted with cheerful- ness by its occupier." — Institutes of Hindoo Law, VI, ^6, 'j'j. When you look around and inquire for these self-denying re- cluses, with their sublime superiority to the things of earth and the wants and wishes of the human heart, you will not find them ; cer- tainly not among the Brahmins. Few of these have ever adopted in reality a life so like that of the Yogee, or Self-torturer. All testimony goes to show that Menu's ordinances for the third and fourth stages of the Brahmin's life have lain in his law-book with not one Brahmin in ten thousand even commencing to make them a reality of human experience. It was too much for humanity, and could only be embraced by some fanatic of a Fakir, who would 38 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. voluntarily assume such a condition for self-righteous and self- glorifying ends. Such men can and will do, for such reasons, what other men have not nerve enough to adventure merely in obedience to the theoretic rules of their order. The Brahmins would fain be regarded as the learned class' of India. Of course there was a time when, in the earlier ages of the world, they were so, as compared to men in other nations. No scholar can doubt this for a moment. But the world and education are no longer what they once were ; both have advanced amazingly, while the Brahmin has not only stood still, but he has retrograded. The ruins of India's colleges, observatories, and scientific instruments, especially in Benares, (once "the eye of Hindustan,") convince the traveler too painfully of this fact. Even there, in that renowned city, there is not a single public building devoted to, or containing, the treasures of India's arts, sciences, or literature ; no paintings, sculptures, or libraries ; no colleges of learning, no museums of her curiosities ; no monuments of her great men ; only beastly idolatry, filthy fakirs, shrines of vileness without number, and festivals of saturnalian license, all sustained and illustrated by a selfish and ignorant Brahminhood. Their learning is in the past, and little remains save their great Epics and the magnificent dead Language in which they were writ- ten. Their chronology is a wild and exaggerated falsehood, their geography and astronomy are subjects of ridicule to every school- boy, their astrology (to which they are specially devoted) a humbug for deluding their countrymen ; they had no true history till foreigners wrote it for them, and could not even read the Pali on their own public monuments till such Englishmen as Princeps and Tytler deciphered it. Native education to-day owes more to Macaulay, Dr. Duff, and Trevelyan, than to all the Brahmins of India for the past five hundred years. Every improvement intro- duced, and every mitigation of the miseries in the lot of woman, and of the lower and suffering classes, has been introduced aganist their will and without their aid as a class. They feel, they know, that their system is more or less efiete ; that they are being left A Lady of India in Full Dress. BBAEMimSM A BEAD FAILURE. 41 behind in the march of improvement on which their country has entered. But there they stand, scowling and twirling their Brah- minical string ; while the Sudras and the very " Chandalas," whom they tried so hard to doom to eternal degradation, are obtaining in Government and Missionary schools a sanctified scholarship, which is soon to consign the claims and pretensions of this venerable, haughty, and heartless aristocracy to the everlasting contempt which they deserve ! One by one, in their ridiculous helplessness, they behold their strong places taken and wrested from their grasp. The very Veda in which they gloried, and behind which they falsely defended the vileness and cruelty of their system, has been magnificently collated and published in eight volumes by the scholarship of Max Miiller. and then rendered, with equal ability, (the last volume having been published within the past five years,) into English by Wilson & Cowell. So that all the world may now know what the Veda is, and what it teaches, and thus hold these unworthy guardians of it to the fearful responsi- bility which they have incurred, in pretending to quote its authority for the abominations which characterize their modern Hindooism, with all its grievous wrongs against woman in particular, and against the interests of their own nation, as well as its violation of the common sense and judgment of mankind, for whose opinions, however, the Brahmins of India never showed the least respect. We now turn from them to introduce the reader to one of the ladies of the land. The opposite picture is from a photograph for which this lady, Zahore Begum, of Seereenugger, consented to sit. As her face had to be seen by the artist, the concession was a very singular one for any lady of her race. It was done to gratify the Queen of England, who, on the assumption of the direct sovereignty of India — on the abolition of the East India Company in 1859 — requested that photographs of the people, and their various races, trades, and professions, might be taken and sent to her. Her Majesty gra- ciously consented to have her valuable collection copied, and by the courtesy of Captain Meadows Taylor, the Oriental author, the 42 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. writer obtained copies of this and several others of much value, which will appear in these pages. My readers have, therefore, before them a faithful picture of a Hindoo lady of the highest rank, as she appears in her Zenana home, under the best circumstances, having made herself as attract- ive as silk, and muslin, and cashmere cloth, and a profusion of jewelry, can render her. In the jewel on the thumb of the left hand there is inserted a small looking-glass, of which the fair lady makes good use. The usual gold ring, strung with pearls, is in her nose, lying against her left cheek ; and her forehead, ears, arms, fingers, ankles, and toes are crowded with jewelry and tinkling ornaments, the sounds of which proclaim her presence and ap- proach always. The wood-cut does no justice to her warm olive color, many of them being even almost fair. Most of them have a figure of great beauty, and a natural elegance of movement which their drapery and rich clothing well become. But the mind is totally neglected. In fact, until lately, when a gleam of light has begun to shine for women in the Land of the Veda, it might be said, without qualifica- tion, that no part of an American definition of education would apply to the culture under which a daughter of India is fitted for future life. It does not, for her, include reading, or writing, or his- tory, or science, or aught else which we include in its meaning. Education, in its proper sense, is denied to the females of India ; denied on principle, and for reasons which are unblushingly avowed, and all of which are reflections upon her womanly nature — one of them being the position that education in the hands of a woman would most likely become an instrument of evil power. She is deliberately doomed by modern Hindooism to a life of ignorance because she is a woman. We have mentioned the present dawn of a better day. It is but the dawn. Dr. Mullen's statistics tell us that already there are now thirty-nine thousand six hundred and forty-seven women and 'girls receiving an education in the Zenana schools in India. The number is by this time larger and still increasing. Yet it is but ;«^ 3 ^^ J Iki'ilh The Nautch Girl of India, THE LADIES OF INDIA. 45 the commencement ; for the above number, dividing the one hun- dred miUions of women in India, gives but one in two thousand five hundred and twenty-two who are receiving instruction, a num- ber equal only to what this country would have to-day were but one American lady in five hundred and four blessed with education. What need is there, then, to urge on the glorious toil of rescuing India's daughters from the intellectual abominations which desolate their soul and mind in this fearful manner ! The sad story of the wrongs of woman in India will be told after we have traced the rise and fall of the great Rebellion ; for the mitigations of her condition, which Christian law had in mercy enforced, were then put forward by her Brahminical oppressors as one of the reasons why they had renounced their allegiance to British rule. But there is one class of women, and it is a very large class, in India, who are under no such restrictions and jealous seclusion as the lady on the former page. These court publicity, and you can see them every-where. This order of females are released from the doom of an illiterate mind. They can read, write, and quote the poets, and jest with the conundrums and "wise saws" of the land. The writer has known of attempts made by this class of girls to enter our schools in order to add the English tongue to their acquisitions, to be used by them for the worst of purposes. These are the " Nauch Girls," a portrait of one of whom, from a photograph, is here given as she appears in public. Their title means dancing-girls. No man in India would allow his wife or daughter to dance, and as to dancing with another man, he would forsake her forever, as a woman lost to virtue and mod- esty, if she were to attempt it. In their observation of white women, there is nothing that so much perplexes them as the fact that fathers and husbands will permit their wives and daughters to indulge in promiscuous dancing. No argument will convince them that the act is such as a virtuous female should practice, or that its tendency is not licentious. The prevalence of the practice in "Christian" nations makes our holy religion — which they suppose 4 46 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. must allow it — to be abhorred by many of them, and often it is cast in the teeth of our missionaries when preaching to them. But what would these heathen say could they enter our operas and theaters, and see the shocking exposure of their persons which our public women there present before mixed assemblies ? Yet they would be ten times more astonished that ladies of virtue and repu- tation should be found there, accompanied by their daughter's, to witness the sight, and that, too, in the presence of the othei sex ! But, then, they are only heathens, and don't appreciate the high accomplishments of Christian civilization ! Still, Heaven grant that the future Church of India may ever retain at least this item of the prejudices of their forefathers ! Dancing forms, then, no part of a daughter's education in India, and it probably never will, that is, unless they become corrupted by " Christian" example. All of that sort of thing that they ever desire, on occasions of festivals and ceremonies, they hire from the temples and bazaars. Four or five of these women, tricked out in all their finery and jewelry, and tinkling ornaments on arms, necks, and feet, will, for four or five dollars, dance and jest, and sing India's licentious songs for hours ; but even they don't dance except with their own sex. They are prostitutes, and yet they are undoubtedly the only intel- ligent and cultivated class of Hindoo women. So that the profane and debased have a monopoly of education, while the virtuous and retiring ladies of the land are condemned to a Hfe of ignorance. Such is woman in India as to her mind. Until within a few years this fearful barrier to woman's educa- tion stood sternly across the path of the missionary. A change, in the great mercy of Heaven, is dawning at last even upon India ; but as recently as ten years ago, when you spoke to a Hindoo father about educating his daughter, the ideas that are here clearly enough mtimated at once presented themselves to his mind, and your proposal seemed to him to be almost profane, as he thought " Would you make my daughter a Nauch girl 1 " The Temple of Knowledge, with its sacred flame, no longer guarded by the Vestal Virgins, seemed resigned absolutely to the control and occupation The Maharajah Duleep Singh. THE NAUCH GIBL8. 49 of those polluted beings, whose profession and blandishments are exerted to " Make vice pleasing and damnation shine," but whose guests are in the depths of hell. We next present to the reader one of the upper class of Hindoo society just as he would appear at a " Durbar," or State ceremonial, or in receiving guests at his palace, or in connection with some public display. The dress of a gentleman in India is regulated as to its quality by his wealth and position, and in its variations of form by his creed and locality ; but the Maharajah costume here shown may be regarded generally as that of his countrymen. Their dress is free and flowing, adapted to the climate, and leaving to the limbs a greater freedom of action, with more circula- tion of air, than the American style of dress can ever know. Al- though to our imagination it appears somewhat effeminate in its aspect, yet it is eminently graceful and becoming to the wearers, as any one who has seen a company of Hindoo gentlemen together will have observed. There is something so conservative and bib- lical in the aspect of it, that you feel at once that the fluctuations of the fashions can have no influence upon it. Here is something that is at once suitable and unchanging — a style of comfort and elegance which the past five hundred years has not varied, and which will probably remain unaltered when five hundred more years have passed away. The dress here represented shows a vest of " Kinkob " — cloth of gold — slightly exposed at the breast ; a loose-fitting coat falling below the knees, made of rich yellow satin from the looms of Delhi, bordered with gold embroidery ; a Cashmere shawl of great value encircles the loins, and the usual "Kummerbund" binds all to the waist of the wearer. The turban is made of several yards of fine India rauslin, twisted round the head, heavily adorned with chains of pearls, and aigrettes of diamonds and precious stones. These, with the pearls encircling his neck, are of large size and extraordinary beauty and value, the heir-looms of many generations. 50 THE LAND OF THE VEDA.' He holds by his side his State sword, the hilt of which is studded with precious stones. To all this "glory" might have been added the matchless Koh-i-noor diamond, for this prince was the heir of " The Mountain Light," his father, the Maharajah Runjeet Singh, having been its last possessor ; but the great diamond was sent as a present to Queen Victoria, and he himself is handsome and happy enough without it. How significant of the resources of India is the fact that every article on the person of this princely man, from the gold and gems on his head to the embroidered slippers on his feet, is the produc- tion of his own country, and all of native manufacture ! How quietly in this respect he outshines the Broadway " exquisite " or Parisian belle, whose finery must be sought for in a score of climes and imported from many lands ! The Maharajah is considered one of the handsomest of his coun- trymen. The excellent wood-cut here representing him does not, however, do justice to his black, lustrous eyes, or his finely formed features and intelligent look. The education of the gentlemen of India is sadly deficient. Conducted in the Zenana, among ladies ignorant of the most elementary knowledge, their mental training and acquisitions are usually of the most superficial sort, and destitute of healthful stim- ulus. But the gentleman here represented is one of the exceptions to this rule ; and as he has had the moral courage to separate him- self from heathenism and receive the Christian faith, the reader may be pleased with some further notice of him. He is the first royal person in India who has become a follower of Jesus Christ. His highness is the son and heir of the Maha- rajah Runjeet Singh, who, from the ferocity and valor with which he conducted his wars and ruled his people, was called " I'he Lion of the Punjab." The old gentleman's policy left his nation in con- fusion, and the English power, in the wars that resulted, found his forces to be the sturdiest foe with whom they had ever measured swords in India. Runjeet died in 1839, ^^^ his son, this Duleep Singh, then only four years old, was placed upon the throne. Hi TEE MAHAMAJAH'8 CONVERSION. 5 1 uncles ruled in his name, but the ten years which followed were times of anarchy and bloodshed, the Regents being assassinated in succession, and the country one vast camp. The army superseded the civil power, and in their folly actually crossed the frontier, and in 1845 invaded British India. They were repulsed, but only to renew the effort four years later, when they were overthrown, and the Punjab — the country of the five rivers, as the word means, the rivers named in Alexander's invasion, and which unite to form the Indus at Attock — was annexed to the British Empire. The young Maharajah was pensioned, and placed for education under the care of the Government. God mercifully guided the Governor- general in the selection of guardian and tutor for the little prince. Dr. (now Sir John) Logan, of the medical service, and a member of the Presbyterian Church, was appointed his guardian, and Mr. Guise, of the civil service, was selected as his tutor. To Mr. Guise's other high qualifications for his duties was added a beau- tiful Christian character. He had need of all his fitness, for the little ex-king had never been used to any restraint, much less to study or to books, and claimed the right to run wild and neglect all mental acquisitions. But the patience and conscientiousness of the faithful tutor overcame every difficulty ; good habits and a taste for reading were at length formed. Their home was at Fut- tyghur, on the Ganges, where the American Presbyterian Church has a Mission, (the missionaries being mentioned by name on a previous page,) in which many young men were receiving a Chris- tian education. The prince expressed a desire to have some one of good birth and talents for a companion, and a young Brahmin, by name Bhajan Lai, who had been educated in the mission-school, and had there, though unconverted, contracted a love for the Chris- tian Scriptures, was chosen for the position. He soon enjoyed the entire confidence of the young Maharajah. Bhajan was in the habit of studying the Bible in his leisure moments, and the prince two or three times having come upon him thus engaged, was led to inquire what book it was that so interested him. He was told, and at his request Bhajan promised to read and explain the Word of God to 52 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. him, but on condition that it should not be known. The priests of his own religion that had accompanied him from the Punjab, and were training him in the tenets of their faith, were soon seen by him in a new light as he continued to read the Scriptures. When he began to compare them, in all their mummery, immorality, and covetousness, with the purity and spirituality of the Christians around him, whose lives and examples he had carefully noted, a feeling of disgust with heathenism, and a preference and love for the religion of the Bible, sprang up in his heart, to which he soon gave expression. Thus the. reading of God's holy Word, taught and explained even by a heathen youth and Brahmin, led the Maharajah to give up idolatry, and to express a desire to break his caste and be baptized. The priests were amazed and confounded, and offered what resistance they could. But the guardianship of the prince effect- ually shielded him from all persecution. Yet, as he was so young, and the step contemplated so important, his guardian, though rejoiced at his purpose, and ready to aid it in every proper way, suggested delay till he could more fully study the religion of Jesus and act with fuller deliberation. He accepted the advice, drew nearer to the missionaries, attended the services, and enjoyed the association of the Christians. He was led to embrace Christ as his Saviour, and on the 8th of March, 1853, was baptized and received into the Christian Church. The Rev. W. J. Jay, the chaplain of the station, administered the holy ordinance in the presence of all the missionaries, the native Christians and Europe- ans at the station, and the servants of the Maharajah. He was clad as here represented, and when he took off his turban, and with much firmness and humility bowed his head to receive the sacred ordinance, every heart in the assembly was moved, and many a prayer went up that he might have grace to fulfill his vows and honor his Christian profession. He has faithfully done so to the present time. Immediately after his baptism he establisbed relief societies at Futtyghur and Lahore, placing them under the control of the American missions SETTLES IN ENGLAND. 53 at both places. Besides assisting in the support of the missions, he estabHshed, and still sustains, a number of village schools for the education of the people, and has been a liberal contributor tc every good object brought to his notice. When the writer was at Futtyghur he had the opportunity of witnessing the results which were being accomplished by the Christian liberality of the Maha- rajah in and around that station. He was then aiding the cause of Christ and the poor to the extent, probably, of fully one tenth of his whole income annually, and I presume his liberahty is no less now. Some time after his baptism, with a desire to improve his mind by foreign travel, he visited England. He took with him a devoted Christian, who had formerly been a Hindoo Pundit, named Nil Knath, by whose instructions he was more fully established in the doctrines of the Gospel, and with whom he enjoyed daily prayer and other religious privileges. On his arrival in London the Government placed a suitable residence in Wimbledon at his disposal, and the Queen and Prince Albert showed him much attention and kindness. The Sepoy RebelHon of 1857 distressed him exceedingly, and probably alienated him from his native land. His entire severance from the religion of his countrymen, and, most of all, probably, reasons of State in view of the English rule in his country, which he would not wish by his presence there to disturb in any way, led him to prefer England as a residence. A magnificent home has been provided for him near London, and there, on the allowance of his rank paid yearly by the British Government, he is spending the present portion of his life, honored and respected by all around him. He has probably ere now come to the conclusion that the loss of the throne of the Punjab may have been for him a good providence. During the rebellion his life might have been sacri- ficed. In the peace and honor that surround him he is not only entirely free from the evil influences of an Oriental court, and the distractions of irresponsible government, but he may reflect, judg- ing the present from the past, that, had he remained and reigned, he might very probably, like his uncles and predecessors, have met a violent death. ?4 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. Gentlemen in other lands having the means and leisure of the higher classes of Hindoo society would be cultivating their minds, enlarging and enriching the literature of their times by theii authorship, by foreign travel, by collections of books and works of art, and institutions for developing the resources of their great country. But there are no authors in India, no libiaries in its homes ; not one in a thousand of its aristocracy ever saw the out- side of his native land. Learned societies, museums, or fruits of genius are not to be found there. Education, when acquired, is restricted mostly to the mere ability of reading and writing and talking in courtly style, while there are multitudes of wealthy men that cannot do that much ; nay, there are even kings without the power to write their own names, who can give validity to State documents only by stamping them with " the signet on their right hand." The sovereign of the Punjab — father of the Maharajah here represented — was one such. He was unable to write or read his own name, and to the day of his death could not tell one figure from another. The little information of general news which they acquired from time to time had been obtained by a singular arrangement. Each great family, or king's court, had its " editor." He was expected to furnish the news daily, or as often as he could. So he collected from any source within his reach, and got his newspaper ready. But he had no press, nor type, nor office, nor newsboy to aid him. He simply enters on his broad sheet, in writing, one after another, all the news or gossip he could collect, until his paragraphs fill his pages, and he sallies forth in the morning to circulate the news, commencing with the members of the household, and thence to the servants, and so on to the neighbors, reading for each circle the news he had previously collected and written out, and receiv- ing his fees from each company as he goes round the neighborhood. Of express trains, telegraphs, associated press, pictorial papers, and all our Christian appliances for collecting and distributing the news of the wide world, he is utterly ignorant. But the poor editor is on a par with the education of his patrons, cjid he can rest HABITS OF TEE INDIA AEI8T0GBACT. SS assured they are not likely to outstrip him in the race for knowl- edge. And so it goes on from generation to generation, until now, when this wonderful innovator, Christianity, has walked right into the midst of this venerable ignorance, and, to the horror of these editorial oracles, has lifted many even of the Pariah youth of their bazaars to a plane of education and knowledge up to which millions look with amazement as they wonder what is going to happen now, when boys " whose fathers they would have disdained to set with the dogs in their flocks " are actually becoming possessed of an education which even their Pundits do not enjoy ! The habits of the India aristocracy are in many respects de- cidedly peculiar. The residence, for instance, is usually very mean, as compared with the wealth of the parties. While they will spend millions upon a temple or tomb, they are content to dwell in a house which a man in America, with one fiftieth of their income, would scorn to inhabit. A Rajah with a rent-roll of say fifty thousand dollars or more per annum will sometimes pass his life in a residence built of sun-dried brick, with a tiled roof, that cost less than two thousand dollars, surrounded on all sides with mud hovels, and in the midst of a bazaar where the din and smoke and effluvia would be intolerable to any decent American. No doubt this want of appreciation of surrounding circumstances in their life is caused by their inability while heathens justly or truly to estimate that idea of home which Christianity has created for man, especially in the " honorable estate " of the married life which she ordains and blesses, and to which she leads the grate- ful, loving husband to bring his means and ingenuity to adorn it, to make it a convenient, cheerful, happy dwelling for the blessed wife whom he loves and the dear children whom God has given them. Such a home, with its joy and honor, the heathen or polyg- amist can never know or appreciate. His residence is but a con- venience, not the sanctuary of the affections, and his estimate of home must be, and is, defective and perverted. They eschew furniture, in our sense of the word — tables, chairs. 56 TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. knives and forks. They eat with the fingers alone, and general!} sleep on a charpoy or mat. When you enter a Hindoo home you are at once struck with the naked look of the room — no chair or sofa to sit upon, no pictures on the walls, no piano or musical instrument, no library of books, no maps, no table with the newspa- per or periodical or album upon it, and you wonder how they can bear to live such a life ; to you it would be a misery and a blank. But you are a Christian, and your holy religion has made you to differ, and taught you the nature and value of a Christian home and its conveniences and joys. Nothing would more surprise them in visiting our Western world than to see how generally, according to the ability of each, we beautify and adorn our residences, and surround them with ftowers and verdure and neatness. They would think this all very artificial, and perhaps unnecessary, and could not enter into the feelings of those whose constant effort seems to be to make their abode on earth, in its purity, companionship, and peace, a type of the home in heaven. Woman alone in heathenism, even where she has possessed peculiar wealth and power and opportunity for the effort, cannot make this earthly paradise ; she requires Christianity to be success- ful. Cases have occurred where European ladies have been induced — in Delhi, Lucknow, etc. — to enter even royal zenanas as wives. But though knowing the difference, and probably fondly hoping they could by their presence and ability constitute a happy social state, they soon realized that the very atmosphere forbid the development of the home they hoped to cultivate, and the fair experimenters had, in utter despair, to abandon their efforts and their hopes, and not only so, but themselves to sink to the sad level of the heathen- ish community into which they had ventured ! " Home is the sacred refuge of our life." True, but India's sons can never learn the sentiment and experi- ence which Dryden's line thus expresses till the daughters of India receive the Christianity which alone can cultivate their minds and CHRISTIANITY ALONE CREATES EC ME. S7 hearts, and take under its divine guardianship their sacred mission in India, as in America, to *' Give to social man true relish of himself." The men of India have never known woman's high power as " a helpmeet " in mind, heart, social life, or usefulness, and until they do they cannot enjoy the blessed home which only honored and elevated women can create. If there be any one thing, short of salvation, in which America and India contrast each other most vividly, it is woman's high posi- tion in her home, and man's consequent happiness resulting there- from — as wife, living for the husband whom she loves ; as mother, making her abode a nursery for the Eden on high ; the friend and patron of all that is lovely, virtuous, and of good report ; her plas- tic influence of mind and heart and character molding those within her sphere into sympathy with her own goodness, while she thus sweetly " Allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way." In presence of this excellence — and, thank Heaven ! Christianity has thousands such — every thing beautiful on earth brightens. The holiest and happiest men in this world bask in this blessed social sunshine, and are led by it to the contemplation and earnest hope of those " better things " which it typifies ; their sanctified domestic joy becoming a sign and promise of the felicity that will be endless when they come to realize at last what they so often sing below — "My heavenly home is bright and fair." The food and manner of eating is quite Oriental, with the pecul- iarity on the part of the stricter Brahminical caste that they never touch flesh of any kind ; but the rich variety of fruits and vegeta- bles, and other products of the field and garden, with milk, butter, etc., enables them to enjoy a full variety. The favorite dish of India is the "curry," and natives and foreigners alike seem to agree that it is the king of all dishes. If it was not the " savory meat" that Isaac loved, the latter was probably very hke it; but 58 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. the dish itself is never equal, in piquancy and aroma, out of India to what you receive there. The eating is done without the aid of knives or forks, the fingers alone being used. This is the mode for all, no matter how high or wealthy. The writer saw the Emperor of Delhi take his food in this way. When they have fin- ished, a servant lays down a brass basin before them and pours water on their hands, and presents a towel to wipe them, remind- ing one of Elisha " pouring water on the hands of Elijah," acting as his attendant in honor of the man of God. The amusements of the India aristocracy are very limited. The enervation of the climate may have something to do with this, but it is probably more due to a want of that developed manliness and self-assertion which belongs only to a higher civilization. They hardly ever think of going out hunting, or fishing, or fowling. Of the chase they know nothing, and I presume there is not one base-ball club in the country ; gymnastic exercises they never take, their music is barbarous, and they do not play. When a feast or marriage requires entertainment they hire professional musicians, dancers, jugglers, or players to perform before their guests, but take no part whatever personally. Operas and theaters and pro- miscuous dancing they hold in abhorrence, as too immoral for them or their families to witness. They are fond of formal calls upon their equals, or social and civil superiors, and like display and exhibitions of their standing and wealth. They are regularly scientific in the art of taking their ease, being bathed and sham- pooed', fanned to sleep and while asleep. They love to be deco- rated with dress and jewelry, enjoy frequent siestas, and divide the remainder of their leisure time in the society of women whom they choose to entertain in their zenanas ; but of public spirit and efforts, disinterested devotion to the welfare of others, intellectual enjoyments, the culture and training of their children's minds or morals, or the exalting influence of communion with a refined and intelligent wife or mother, they know but little or nothing, because they are utter strangers to the inspiration of the holy religion whose fruits these joys and virtues are. THEIB VISITS OF CEREMONY. 5g When they undertake to pay a visit of ceremony it is, to our views, very singular what form and punctiliousness they deem to be indispensable. The whole establishment seems turned out for the purpose, for the larger the "following" so much the more you are expected to be impressed with the standing and dig- nity of the great man who has come to honor you with his call. An outrunner or two reaches your door in advance, and announces the master's approach ; then come an armed squad, and his confi- dential servant, or " vakeel," and behind them the great man him- self on his elephant, or in his palanquin ; another crowd of retain- ers bring up the rear, the whole train numbering from thirty to sixty persons, or even more. Often, as I have looked at them, have I been reminded of the figure in the Revelations, where the blessed dead are represented as accompanied on their way into the kingdom of heaven by the escort of the good deeds of their faithful lives, which rise up to accompany them as so many evidences of their devotion to God — " Their works do follow them." The inter- view is merely a ceremony. The lady of the house is not expected to make her appearance ; but where the visit is to a missionary family the lady generally does show herself, and, joining in the conversation, watches the opportunity to say a word for the truth of the Gospel. The native gentleman is evidently amazed, though he conceals it as well as he can, at her intelligence and her self- possession in the presence of another man than her husband, so unlike the prejudices that fill his mind about the female members of his own household. No doubt, amazing are the descriptions he carries home of what he has seen and heard on such an occasion. But it is in connection with " durbars," governmental levees and marriage festivals, that the whole force of the native passion for parade and ostentation develops itself As a sample : At the dur-r bar some time ago in the Punjab, Diahn Singh, one of the nobles, came mounted on a large Persian horse, which curveted and pranced about as though proud of his rider. The bridle and sad- dle were covered with gold embroidery, and underneath was a saddle-cloth of silver tissue, with a broad fringe of the same mate- 6o THE LAND OF THE VEDA. rial, which nearly covered the animal. The legs and tail of the horse were dyed red — the former up to the knees, and the latter half-way to the haunches — an emblem, well understood by the crowd, of the number of enemies which this military chief was supposed to have killed in battle, and that their blood had covered his horse thus far. The chief himself was dressed with the utmost magnificence, loaded with jewels, which hung, row upon row, round his neck, in his turban, on the hilt of his sword and dagger, and over his dress generally, while a bright cuirass shone resplendent on his breast. Add to this a face and person hand- some and majestic, and you have the man as he delighted to be seen on the occasion. But even this was outdone a few months ago on the occasion of the visit of one of Queen Victoria's sons, the Duke of Edinburgh, to India. A part of the pageant was the procession of elephants. These animals, one hundred and seventy in number, and the finest in size and appearance in India, were each decorated in the richest housings, and ridden by the Nawabs and Rajahs who owned them, each trying hard to outvie the oilier. Perhaps the Maharajah of Putteallah carried off the palm. The housings of his immense elephant were of such extraordinary richness that they were covered with gold and jewels. The Maharajah, who rode on him, wore a robe of black satin embroidered with pearls and emer- alds. The howdaJi — seat on the elephant's back — in which the Rajah of Kuppoorthullah sat, was roofed with a triple dome made of solid silver. This passion of ostentation and show breaks over all bounds <-n the occasion of their marriage ceremonies, and is permitted to know no limit but their means, nor sometimes even that. Sleeman nar- rates of the Rajah of Bullubghur — whom the writer saw in such different circumstances twenty years after these events, on trial for his life in the Dewanee Khass of Delhi, in 1857, as will be described hereafter — that on the occasion of his marriage in 1838 the young chief mustered a cortege of sixty elephants and ten thousand fol- lowers to attend him. He was accompanied by the chiefs of MARRIAGE EXPENSE. 63 Ludora and Putteallah, with forty more elephants, and five thou- sand people. It was considered necessary to the dignity of the occasion that the bridegroom's party should expend at least six hundred thou- sand rupees — ^300,000^ gold — during the festival, A large part of this sum was to be distributed freely in the procession ; so it was loaded on elephants, and persons were appointed to fling it among the crowds as the cavalcade passed on its way. They scattered copper money all along the road from their home till within seven miles of Bullubghur. From this point to the gate of the fort they scattered silver, and from the gate of the fort to the door of the palace they scattered gold and jewels. The son of the Putteallah chief, a lad of about ten years, had the post of honor in the distribution. He sat on his elephant, and beside him was a bag of gold mohurs — each mohur is worth eight dollars gold — mixed up with an immense variety of gold ear-rings, pearls, and precious stones. His turn for scattering began as they neared the palace door. Seeing some European gentlemen, who had come to look at the procession, standing on the balcony, the little chief thought they should have their share, so he heaved up vigorously several handfuls of the pearls, mohurs, and jewels, as he passed them. Not one of them, of course, would condescend to stoop to take up any, but the servants in attendance upon them showed no such dignified forbearance. The costs of the family of the bride are always much greater than that of the bridegroom. They are obliged to entertain, at their own expense, all the bridegroom's guests which go with him for his bride, as well as their own, as long as they remain. From this running description of the superficial, self-glorifying, and aimless lives which these men follow, the reader may easily imagine what must be the condition of their minds, their morals, and their characters. The Mohammedans, a picture of whom we present here, are a moie energetic people than the Hindoos. Their aspect is haughty and intolerant, and in meeting them you are under no liability to 64 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. mistake them for the milder race whom they have so long crushed down and ruled. They are descended from original Asiatics of Persia, Arabia, etc., while the Hindoos are of western stock. " The natives of India attach far more weight to form and cere- mony than do Europeans. It is considered highly disrespectful to use the left hand in salutation or in eating, or, in fact, on any other occasion when it can be avoided. To remove the turban is disre- spectful ; and still more so not to put off the shoes on entering a strange house. Natives, when they make calls, never rise to go till they are dismissed, which among Mohammedans is done by giving betel and sprinkling rose essence, and with Hindoos by hanging wreaths of flowers around the visitor's neck, at least on great occa- sions. Discourteous Englishmen are apt to cut short a long visit by saying Ab jao — 'Now go!' than which nothing can be more offensive. The best way is to say, ' Come and see me again soon,' or, ' Always make a practice of visiting my house,' which will be speedily understood. Or to one much inferior you may say, Rukhsat lena — ' Leave to go,' or, better, Rukhsat lijiye — ' Please to take leave.' A letter closed by moistening the wafer or the gum with the saliva of the mouth should not be given to a native. The feet must not be put upon a chair occupied by them, nor must the feet be raised so as to present the soles to them. One must avoid touching them as much as possible, especially their beards, which is a gross insult. If it can be avoided, it is better not to give a native three of any thing. Inquiries are never made after the female relations of a man. If they are mentioned at all it must be as 'house.' 'Is your house well?' that is, 'Is your wife well.^' There are innumerable observances to avoid the evil eye ; and many expressions seemingly contradictory are adopted for this pur- pose. Thus, instead of our ' Take away,' it is proper to say, ' Set on more ;' and for ' I heard you were sick,' * I heard your enemies were sick.' With Mohammedans of rank it is better not to express admiration of any thing they possess, as they will certainly offer it ; in case of acceptance they would expect something of more value in return. To approach a Hindoo of high caste while at his meal is MANNERS OF THE HINDOOS. 65 to deprive him of his dinner ; to drink out of his cup may deprive him of his caste, or seriously compromise him with his caste-fellows. Leather is an abomination to Hindoos ; as is every thing made from the pig, as a riding-saddle, to the Moslem. When natives of a different rank are present you must be careful not to allow those to sit whose rank does not entitle them, and to give each his proper place." — Murray's Handbook. Such are the people of that land toward whom for ages the atten- tion of outside nations has been directed with so much interest We will now consider briefly their composition and numbers, and some of those singular chronological, historical, and religious views which they have entertained so tenaciously, and so long. 66 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. CHAPTER II. STATISTICS, MYTHOLOGY, AND VEDIC LITERATURE. EVEN among educated men there is a very inadequate idea of what India really is. It is spoken of as though it were one country, with one language and one race of men, just as per- sons would speak of England or France ; whereas India ought to be regarded as a number of nations, speaking twenty-three differ- ent languages, and devoted to various faiths and forms of civilization. During the long period from the time of William the Conqueror till Clive fought the battle of Plassey in 1756, the Hindoos and Mohammedans maintained their diversity, and were as far from any unity or amalgamation when England entered the country, as they were when Mahmoud of Ghizni conquered Delhi. While the nations of Europe tended to unity, and fused their tribes and clans into homogeneous people, who gloried in a common faith and father- land, these millions of hostile men have retained the sharp outlines of race, religion, language, and nationality as distinctly as ever. The diversity of race is shown in the Coles, the Jats, the San- thals, the Tartars, the Shanars, the Mairs, the Karens, the Affghans, the Paharees, the Bheels ; in religion, we have the Mohammedans, the Hindoos, the Buddhists, the Jains, the Parsees, the Pagans, and the Christians. While in nationality, there are the Bengalese, the Rohillas, the Burmans, the Mahrattas, the Seikhs, the Telugoos, the Karens, and many others. India is thus, in fact, a congregation of nations, a crowd of civilizations, customs, languages, and types of humanity, thrown together, with no tendency to homogeneity, until an external civili- zation and a foreign faith shall make unity and common interest possible by educating and Christianizing them. In regard to the real numbers of these wonderful people we are CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF INDIA. 67 now able, from a census taken by the English Government last year, and also from Missionary Reports and other authorities, to furnish reliable civil and religious statistics of the Indian Empire. A few items are approximations, but they come as near to accuracy as is now necessary. India has an area of 1,577,698 square miles. It is nearly 2,000 miles from North to South, and 1,900 miles from East to West. The country is divided into 221 British Districts, and 153 Feudator}' States, with a population of 212,671,621 souls. The average density of this population to the square mile is 135 persons. But in Oude and Rohilcund (the mission field of the Methodist Episcopal Church) the density is 474 and 361 respect- ively, and is therefore probably the most compact population in the world. England has 367, and the United States only 26, persons to the square mile. As to race, this vast multitude of men are divided as follows : The English army 58,000 Europeans and Americans (civil, mercantile, and missionary life) . . SQjS^S Eurasians (the mixed races) 40,789 Asiatics 212,483,247 In religion the native population are distributed, as nearly as we can approximate them, into Parsees (followers of Zoroaster) 1 50,000 Jains (Heterodox Buddhists) 400,000 Syrian and Armenian Christians 140,000 Protestants (attendants on Worship) 350,000 Roman Catholics (attendants on Worship) 760,000* Karens (in British Burmah) 500,000 Seikhs (in the Punjab) 2,000,000 Buddhists (in British Burmah and Ceylon) 3,280,000 Aborigines, and undefined 1 1,000,000 Mohammedans 30,000,000 Hindoos 165,000,000 * The Roman Catholic Bishop of Madras in 1869 estimated the whole number of native Romanists in their communion at 760,623, supervised by the Bishops,, and 734 priests, in addition to 124,000 with 128 priests under the jurisdiction of the almost schismatic and Portuguese Archbishop of Goa. But Dr. George Smith, one of the highest authorities on India statistics, regards these figures as unworthy of trust, and sets down the numbers for both as not over 700,000. — Friend of Itidia, May 10, 1871, P- 554- 68 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. There are a few Jews, Chinese, Portuguese, French, Armenians, Nestorians, and others in the country, but of these we make no account here. The vastness of this wonderful country may be further ilhistrated by the amazing number of languages spoken throughout its wide extent ; and these are living languages, separate and distinct from each other, so that even the characters of their alphabets have no more similarity than the Greek letter has to the Roman. Nor do I include dialects of tongues, or languages of limited and local use, but those which are well known and extensively employed. Of such there are not less than twenty-three spoken in the various provinces of India. They are I. The Urdu, (the Hindustanee proper,) the French of India, the language of the Mohammedans, of trade, etc. ; spoken in Oude and Rohilcund, the Doab, and by traders generally ; 2. The Bengalee, spoken in Bengal and eastward ; 3. The Hindee, used in Oude, Rohilcund, Rajpootana, Bundlecund, and Malwa by the agricultural Hindoos, etc. ; 4. The Pimjabee, in the great Indus valley ; 5. The Pushtoo, in Peshawar and the far West ; 6. The Sindhee, in the Cis-Sutlej States and Sinde ; 7. The Guserattee, in Guzerat, and by the Paisees ; 8. The Cutchee, in Cutch ; 9. The Cashmerian, in Cashmere; 10. The Nepaulese, in Nepaul ; 11, The Bhote, in Bootan ; 12. The Assamese, in Assam ; 13, 14. The Btirmese and Karen, in Burmah and Pegu; 15. The Singhalese, in Ceylon; 16. The Malay aliin, in Travencore and Cochin ; 17. The Tamul, from Madras to Cape Comorin ; 18. The Canarese, in Mysore and Coorg ; 19. The Teloogoo, in Hydrabad, and thence to the East Shore ; 20. The Oorya, in Orissa ; 21. The Cole and Gond, in Berar; 22. The Mahratta, in Bombay, Nagpore, and Gwalior ; and 23. The Khassiya, in the North-east. Add the English, and there are twenty-four living languages extensively spoken in India to-day! Nor is this all : the great classics of the leading tongues, the ancient and venerable Pali, the Sanscrit, the Persian, and the Arabic are studied and used by the scholarship of India, because they hold in their charge the venerable treasures of their volumi- 0BEATNE88 OF INDIA. 69 nous literature, and are as important to their faiths as sacred Greek is to Christianity. Compare India with Europe, leaving out Russia, and she has more States, languages, and people. The principal tongues of Europe are the English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, Russ, Polish, Turkish, Greek, Dutch, Danish, Swede, Norwegian, and Finn — 15. There were (according to the Census of 1861) in Europe 52 States, 15 languages, and 198,014,432 people ; but, in India, there are 374 States, 23 languages, and 212,483,247 people. Giving India more States, more languages, and more pop- ulation than all the great Western nations combined ! To understand what India is, and what was the force and impor- tance of her great Sepoy Rebellion, and what is likely to be her relation to Christianity, and to the magnificent future which awaits her Hemisphere, the reader needs to understand and bear these facts in mind. Of course, such a people are not destitute of national conceit. Indeed, the Hindoos hold up their heads with a sovereign sense of superiority above all other people on the earth. Admit their claims, and their system of chronology, and the assumptions of their history, and all other nations must hang their heads as mod- ern novelties, and bow down in humility in the presence of a civili- zation of divine origin and a venerable aristocracy that counts its life and honors by millions of years ! No Hindoo doubts but that his country is, or has been, the fount of all the blessings which have spread over the world, , and in this rich conceit they hold it as a maxim that That is. " Min-as-shark talata ba kudrat ar-rahman, Anwar-ud-din wa al-ilm, wa al-umran." " From the East, by the power of the Merciful One, Lights of Science, Religion, and Culture have shone." The name India is apparently derived from the river Indus, and may have originated in the fact that that river divided this then unknown land from Persia and the world of ancient classical litera- ture. The country is called in Sanscrit Bharatkund, from a 70 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. dynasty of ancient kings ; Punya Dkurma, " The Holy Land," and also Djam-bhu-dwip, the " Peninsula of the Tree of Life." The trade of India is immense. The Imports are cotton cloth, jewelry, watches, stationery, hardware, metals, salt, silk, books, woolens, American ice, bullion, etc., etc. ; and the Exports are cofifeej tea, raw cotton, (in 1861 to England alone 3,295,000 cwt., producmg there ^47,500,000,) indigo, opium, ($50,000,000 annually,) saltpeter, jute, seeds, sugar, wool, (23,432,689 lbs. in 1865,) rice, raw silk, ivory, lac, oils, etc. The balance of trade is in favor of India, and the difference has to be paid in cash ; so that the specie of England, • Germany, and America is drained off to the East, and wealthy India grows richer all the time on a foreign commerce which has now risen to 1^577,000,000 (gold) per annum. The tonnage is at present 4,268,666 tons, and the revenue $249,646,040, which is only about $118 per head — an easier rate of taxation than is levied upon its people by any other civihzed Government, while the pro- portion of the revenue spent on the Administration itself is equally economical. Deduct the annual charges for roads and bridges, police, jails, and courts of justice, education, canals, reservoirs, and irrigation, army, navy, telegraphs, public works, interest on Gov- ernment securities, and it seems remarkable that the scanty remainder could meet all the charges of the Administration. The Hindoos well know that they were never so well and so cheaply governed as they are now. Their own testimony to this fact will be presented further on. If it were not for the extent to which the cultivated land is almost exclusively made to bear the burden, with its uncertain tenure, (though this is the practice in most Oriental Governments,) and the growth and sale of that vile opium, there would be little now to rebuke in the government of British India. Yet none are more earnest than some of the English themselves for the abolition of this reproach upon their fair fame. There are seven railroads now running in different parts of the country, with an entire extent of 4,039 miles, and the total traffic receipts of which for the week ending April 22, 1871, was ;^I40,220 MS. 4.d., or $701,102, gold. Other lines are in process ENGLISH EMPIRE. 7 1 of construction. The telegraphs, 14,000 miles long, run all through India, while roads as feeders to the railways are being made over the land. But all has been done or furthered by the Government, and the whole has been accomplished during the past fifteen years. The wealth of India has been proverbial since the time of Solo- mon, who imported therefrom his " ivory, apes, and peacocks." It has also seemed to be inexhaustible. From the earliest antiquity, the merchants of Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Egypt sought to enrich themselves by her commerce ; and when Europe awoke from her sleep of ages, and entered upon her career of improvement, her first efforts were directed toward gaining a share of the trade of the East. England, at length, entered the field, and soon out- stripped all her rivals, Dutch, Portuguese, and French. Agreeably to the policy of tlie times, the East India Company was chartered by Queen Elizabeth, and vested with the monopoly of the com- merce of the East. And advancing by a steady progress, this giant Company, under the patronage of the Imperial power, at length held and governed, or protected, all that immense region. A leading American journal very justly remarked on this sub- ject, at the time of the great Sepoy Rebellion, that " the achieve- ments by which these stupendous results have been effected are among the marvelous realities of history, compared with which the tales of romance are tame and spiritless. In future times they will, perhaps, constitute the most deeply-interesting portion of the history of our age. We believe that in the present troubles the cause of Great Britain, notwithstanding the many and grave abuses which have been practiced or tolerated by the East India Com- pany, is nevertheless the cause of humanity and Christian civiliza- tion. It is this fact, no doubt, which has awakened no small share of the fierce invectives against the proceedings of the English in India. For a long time that region has been the field of an exten- sive and successful missionary enterprise, to which the British rulers have extended, at least, a protection from Hindoo and Mos- lem violence, and so afforded an opportunity for the free exercise of Christian philanthropy. This is, doubtless, the head and front 72 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. of their offending in the minds of many of those who are loudest in their outcries against British cruelty and reckless ambition. We are very far from approving all that has been done by British agents in India, but we are equally clearly convinced that it is much more for their good deeds than their faults that they are most intensely disliked." Any man who has resided in India, and known the condition of the people and the actions of that Government in regard to them, and the encouragement extended to efforts for the welfare of the natives, especially of late years, will be prepared to accept these words as a fair, and yet generous, statem.ent of the situation. The position of England in India was a very peculiar one, and, in all candor, should be clearly understood before forming an opinion upon the merits of the case. For instance, in India there is no such thing as patriotism, no capability of self-government. If the English rule were withdrawn to-morrow, the last thing the natives would think of would be to unite and form a general Govern- ment. Each Rajah and Nawab would simply set up for himself, hold all he had, and take all he was able to seize. Then would begin a renewal of those religious and national contentions which form such a sad part of India's history, and the bloody exercise of which Britain terminated when she took control of the country, ever since holding the peace between those hostile elements. The natives, especially the more military races, caring little for love of country, are willing to fight for compensation, and to serve any master ; so they were found very ready to wear the livery of England, to bear her weapons, and receive her pay. These men were called " Sepoys," (the Hindustanee for soldier,) each regiment being officered by English gentlemen. By degrees this force rose up to be an immense power, so that in 1856, there were two hun- dred thousand of them, constituting the regular Sepoy army, besides as many more called " Contingents," maintained by native courts under treaty, having English officers in command. Then there were the armed police ; making altogether a force of about VALUE OF INDIA TO ENGLAND. 75 four hundred thousand trained men, with the best weapons of England in their hands. The total of British troops in all India in 1856 was not much over forty thousand, and they were scattered on the frontier and in a few of the leading cities, seldom more than one regiment in a place, and sometimes only half a regiment. By degrees the Sepoy army, especially that of Bengal, became what might be called " a close service," a high caste Brahminical force, to whose notions constant concessions were made by the Government. They were a fine body of men, invincible to any thing in the East so long as they were led by their English offi- cers, these officers and their ladies and children being afterward the first victims of the Rebellion. The Sepoys were utterly unedu- cated, as superstitious as they were ignorant, and entirely under the control of their Fakirs and Priests. This weak-minded and fanatical body of men had won for England her Oriental empire, and she chiefly relied on them for its defense and preservation. She could well do so, as long as they were faithful to her rule, but not a day longer. By degrees her policy changed, and, instead of maintaining a mixed army of all castes and creeds and nationali- ties, the " Bengal Army," as it was called, grew more and more Brahminical, united, and fanatical. It has been asked. Why did not England let India go when she threw off her allegiance, and free herself from the care and risk of governing a people who thus disdained her rule .-' Two answers may be given to this question. One would be the secular reason of men who valued India for what she was to England in the way of profit and power. Millions of British money were invested in the funds and reproductive works of India ; then, there was the vast, increasing, and lucrative market for English goods, one item alone of which will express its importance. The clothing of the Hindoo is not very voluminous, yet, what a business was it for Lancashire to have the right to supply cotton cloth for one sixth of the human family ! But, besides the merchant and the manufac- turer, the politician, the military and the educated man had a deep 74 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. interest in the retention of this "brightest jewel of the British crown," for here was furnished the most splendid patronage that ever lay in the gift of a statesman. Hundreds of the cultured classes of England had careers of position and emolument as civil servants of the Government, under " covenants " that secured them munificent compensation, and which enabled them, when their legal term of service expired, to retire on pensions equal to about one half their splendid pay ; so that Montgomery Martin estimates that the money remittances to Great Britain from India averaged five million sterling ($25,000,000) per annum for the past sixty years. Landed property in England has been largely enhanced in value by the investments of fortunes, the fruit of civil, military, and commercial success in Hindustan. A nation con- trolling the resources of such a dependency, with such a noble field in which to elicit and educate the genius of its youth and display the ability of its commanders, with the profitable employ- ment of its mercantile shipping in the boundless imports and exports of such a country as India, could not lightly resign, or throw it away without a mighty struggle for its retention. But, the man who would present no further reasons than these for British resolution to keep India in its control, would do injus- tice to the better section of EngHsh society, and to many of her noble representatives in the East. There is another and a better reason than what was measured by the pounds, shillings, and pence of mere worldly men, underlying the determination of England in this matter. The Christians of Britain hold firmly that, the Ruler of heaven and earth, in so wonderfully subjecting that great people to their rule, has done so for a higher than secu- lar purpose ; that he has given them a moral and evangelical mission to fulfill in that land for him ; and that it is their high and solemn duty to maintain that responsibility until, by education and Chris- tianity, they shall attach those millions by the tie of a common creed to the English throne, or fit them for assuming for themselves the responsibilities of self-government. For such men Montgomery Martin (one of their most voluminous Oriental writers) speaks THE HIGHER MOTIVES FOB ENGLISH RULE. 75 when, in his last edition of his " Indian Empire," (4 vols, octavo,) dedicated by permission to the British Queen, he so distinctly declares to his Government and countrymen their high accounta- bility before God and man in this respect, when he asks, "On what principle is the future government of India to be based ? Are we simply to do what is right, or what seems expedient ? If the for- mer, we may confidently ask the Divine blessing on our efforts for the moral and material welfare of the people of India, and we may strive, by a steady course of kind and righteous dealing, to win their alienated affections for ourselves as individuals, and their respect and interest for the religion which inculcates justice, mercy, and humility as equally indispensable to national as to indi- vidual Christianity." Those who know India best, know that I speak the truth when 1 assert, that these words are represented by deeds as honorable in the lives, and devotion to India's welfare, of many of the men who represent Great Britain there. I do not know a community of public men where you can find a greater number of " the excellent of the earth," than among the civil and military officers of England in India ; men who have stood up for Jesus and for humanity, loving the poor, degraded race whom they ruled, and pleading, coiling, and giving munificently for their elevation to a better con- dition. Such names as Bentinck, Lawrence, Herbert Edwards, Havelock, Muir, Tucker, Ramsay, Gowan, Durand, and scores of others, amply justify this statement. The Annual Missionary Reports of the Methodist Episcopal Church (and this is equally true of the other missions as well) bear witness to this fact for many years past. During that time, such was the sympathy for the work which we attempted, in helping them to educate and enhghten the people of our own mission field, that noble-hearted Englishmen in all stations of life, from the Governor-General down to the pri- vate soldier, have aided us as freely as though we were of their own nation or Church, so that their contributions since 1857 will be found to aggregate over 1^150,000 in gold to our mission alone ; while this assistance is all the time increasing, and is 76 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. also equally extended by these good men to the missions of an^ Church or nation which goes there, and whose labors are aiming to elevate the benighted natives, and prepare them by education and a public conscience for self-government. The Hindoo Chronology and division of time are very singu- lar, and even whimsical. They hold to four great Ages of the world, called Yugs. Each of these Yugs is inferior to its imme- raediate predecessor in power, virtue, and happiness. These divisions are denominated the Satya, the Treta, the Dwarper, and the Kali Yugs, whose united length amounts to the pro- digious sum of 4,320,000 years ; yet this sum of the Ages is but a Kalpa, or one " Day of Brahma," at the end of which this sleepy deity wakes up to find the universe destroyed, and which he has then to create anew for another " Day " ere he goes to sleep again. The Satya Yug, they tell us, lasted 1,728,000 years, and was the Age of Truth — the Golden Age — during which the whole race was virtuous, and lived each of them 100,000 years, and men attained the stature of "21 cubits" (37 feet) in height! The Treta F«^ lasted 1,296,000 years ; this was the Silver Age, (using the same figures as the Greek and Roman poets,) during which one third of the race became corrupt, the human stature was lowered, and its life shortened to 10,000 years. The Dwarper Yug extended to only 864,000 years — their Brazen Age — when fully one half of the race degenerated, and their height was again reduced, and their lives shortened to 1,000 years each. The Kali Yug is the one in which we now live, and is regarded by them as the last — the Iron Age — in which mankind has become totally depraved, and their stature further reduced, and their life limited to 100 years. This Yug, according to them, began 4,950 years ago, and is to last exactly 427,050 years longer, which will close this Kalpa, or " Day of Brahma." They assert that one patriarch called Satyavrata, or Vaivaswata, had an existence running the whole period of the Satya Yug, MAPPING OUT ETEENITT. J"] (1,728,000 years !) and that he escaped with his family from a uni- versal deluge, which destroyed the rest of mankind. He is regarded by Indian archaeologists as the same person as the Seventh Menu, and by Colonel Tod, in his " Annals of Rajasthan," as designating the patriarch of mankind, Noah. The "Night of Brahma" is held to be of equal length with his *' Day," and that in the life of Brahma there are 36,000 such nights and days. At the end of each " Day" there is a partial destruction of the universe, and a reconstruction of it at the close of each "Night." During that long night, "sun, moon, and stars are shrouded in gloom ; ceaseless torrents of rain pour down ; the waves of the ocean, agitated with mighty tempests, rise to a pro- digious height — the seven lower worlds, as well as this earth, are all submerged. In the midst of this darkness and ruin, and in the center of this tremendous abyss, Brahma reposes in mysterious slumber upon the serpent Ananta, or eternity. Meanwhile the wicked inhabitants of all worlds utterly perish. At length the long night ends, Brahma awakes, the darkness is instantly dis- pelled, and the universe returns to its pristine order and beauty." This amazing chronology further states, that when these 36,000 "days" and "nights" (each of them 4,320,000 solar years in dura- tion) have run their course, Brahma himself shall then expire, amid the^ utter annihilation of the universe, or its absorption into the essence of Brahm. This they call a Maha Pralaya, or great destruction. After this, Brahm, (the original spirit,) who had reposed during the whole duration of the creation's existence, awakes again, and from him another manifestation of the universe takes place, all things being reproduced as before, and Brahma, the Creator, commences a new existence. Each creation is co- extensive with the life of Brahma, and lasts over three hundred billions of years, (311,040,000,000 years,) and the people of India believe that thus it has been during the past eternity, and thus it will continue to be in the eternity to come, an alternating succes- sion of manifestations and annihilations of the universe at regular intervals of this inconceivable length. Truly does Wheeler caJI 6 78 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. this daring reckoning " a bold attempt of the Brahmins to map out eternity ! " Trevor has remarked that the present age (the Kah Yug) being 432,000 years, the other three Yugs are found simply by multiply- mg that number by 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The number itself is the tithe of the sum total of the four Yugs. The "divine year," being computed like the prophetic, at a year for a day, (counting 360 days to the year,) is equal to 360 ordinary years ; and these, multiplied by the perfect number 12,000, makes 4,320,000 years, the sum of the Ages, and a Kalpa^ or " Day of Brahma." Trevor supposes, that as this chronologic scheme is too absurd for reception, it must have been originally designed as a sort of arith- metical allegory, expressing the character, rather than the duration, of the periods referred to ; while the descending ratios of 100,000, 10,000, 1,000, and 100 may indicate only the gradual shortening of the term of human life since the creation of man, as the correspond- ing proportions of the virtuous and vicious denote the spread of moral evil, till in the present age " they are altogether become filthy." This theory I leave to the learned reader, having intro- duced the topic chiefly to illustrate the mental characteristics of the people of India, and to show into what vagaries the human intellect, albeit cultivated and subtile, can be drawn in the day- dreams of a people on whom the light of Revelation never dawned. " Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Their divisions of time are singular: 18 Mimeshas (twinkling of an eye, the standard of measure) are equal to i Kashta ; 30 Kash- tas to I Kala ; 30 Kalas (48 of our minutes) to i Muhurtta ; 30 Muhurttas to i day and night ; i Month of Men to i day and night of the Pitris, (ancestors ;) i Year of Men to i day and night of the Gods. The Hindoos have four watches of the day, and the same at night ; these are called Pahars, and are three hours long, the first commencing at six o'clock in the morning. The day and night together are also divided into sixty smaller portions, called Ghurees, so that each of the eight Pahars consists of seven and a half Ghurees. They have twelve months in the year, each month MEASURING TIME. 79 having thirty days. Half the month, when the moon shines, is called Oojeeala-pakh, and the other half, which is dark, they call Andhera-pakh, and these distinctions they recognize in writing and dating their letters. They reckon their era from the reign of Bikurraaditt, one of their greatest and best kings, the present year of their era being 1934. The Mohammedans date their era from the Heiira, or flight of Mohammed from Mecca, which took place in A. D. 622 ; this is therefore their 1249th year. I saw a very primitive method of measuring time, or ascertaining the "ghuree," in India. It was a small brass cup, with a hole in the bottom, immersed m a pan of water, and watched by a servant. When the cup sinks from the quantity of water its perforation has admitted the ghuree is completed, and the cup is again placed empty on the top of the water to measure the succeeding ghuree. Gceat attention is, of course, required to preserve any moderate degree of correctness by this imperfect mode of marking the progress of the day and night, and establishments are purposely entertained for it when considered as a necessary appendage of rank. In most other cases, the superior convenience and certainty of our clocks and watches are making considerable strides in superseding the Hindustanee ghuree. A brief glimpse at the wonderful Mythology, Geography, and Astronomy of these people will be expected here, as also some notice of their venerable Vedas and their voluminous literature. Their " Sacred Books " gravely teach as follows : " The worlds above this earth are peopled with gods and god- desses, demi-gods and genii — the sons and grandsons, daughters and granddaughters, of Brahma and other superior deities. All the superior gods have separate heavens for themselves. The inferior deities dwell chiefly in the heaven of Indra, the god of the firma- ment. There they congregate to the number of three hundred and thirty millions. The gods are divided and subdivided into classes or hierarchies, which vary through every conceivable gradation of rank and power. They are of all colors : some black, some white, some red, some blue, and so through all the blending shades of the 8o THE LAND OF THE VEDA. rainbow. They exhibit all sorts of shape, size, and figure : in forms wholly human or half human, wholly brutal or variously compounded, like many-headed and many-bodied centaurs, with four, or ten, or a hundred or a thousand eyes, heads, and arm.s. They ride through the regions of space on all sorts of etherealized animals : elephants, buf- faloes, lions, deer, sheep, goats, peacocks, vultures, geese, serpents, and rats ! They hold forth in their multitudinous arms all manner of offensive and defensive weapons : thunderbolts, scimetars, javelins, spears, clubs, bows, arrows, shields, flags, and shells ! They dis- charge all possible functions. There are gods of the heavens above, and of the earth below, and of the regions under the earth ; gods of wisdom and of folly ; gods of war and of peace ; gods of good and of evil ; gods of pleasure, who delight to shed around their votaries the fragrance of harmony and joy ; gods of cruelty and wrath, whose thirst must be satiated with torrents of blood, and whose ears must be regaled with the shrieks and agonies of expiring victims. All the virtues and the vices of man, all the allotments of life — beauty, jollity, and sport, the hopes and fears of youth, the felicities and infelicities of manhood, the joys and sor- rows of old age — all, all are placed under the presiding influence of superior powers." — Djiff's India. The Geography and Astronomy of the Hindoos are on a par with their Theology. It would be a waste of time and patience to crowd these pages with their wild, ridiculous, and unscientific nonsense upon these topics. Yet it may be a duty to say some- thing in order to convey a general idea of the subject to such per- sons as have not made their system a study. Dr. Dufl" has had the patience to epitomize it ; and from him we quote a passage or two, which the reader will deem to be all sufficient, and which he may be assured is only a sample of the monstrous extravagances of Hindoo " science," falsely so called. Speaking of the constitution of the physical universe, as revealed in the Sacred Books of the Brahmins, he says : " It is partitioned \nio fotirteejt worlds — seven inferior, or below the world which we inhabit, and seven superior, consisting — with the exception of our HINDOO GEOGRAPHY. 8 1 own, which is the first — of immense tracts of space, bestudded with glorious luminaries and habitations of the Gods, rising, not unlike the rings of Saturn, one above the other, as so many concen- tric zones or belts of almost immeasurable extent. " Of the seven inferior worlds which diji beneath our earth in a regular descending series, it is needless to say more than that they are destined to be the abodes of all manner of wicked and loath- some creatures. " Our own earth, the first of the ascending series of worlds, is declared to be ' circular or flat, like the flower of the water-lily, in which the petals project beyond each other,' Its habitable portion consists of seven circular islands or continents, each surrounded by a diflerent ocean. The central or metropolitan island, destined to be the abode of man, is named Jamba Dwip, around which rolls the sea of salt water ; next follows the second circular island, and around it the sea of sugar-cane juice ; then the third, and around it the sea of spirituous liquors ; then the fourth, and around it the sea of clarified butter ; then the fifth, and around it the sea of sour curds ; then the sixth, and around it the sea of milk ; then the sev- enth and last, and around it the sea of sweet water. Beyond this last ocean is an uninhabited country of pure gold, so prodigious in extent that it equals all the islands, with their accompanying oceans, in magnitude. It is begirt with a bounding wall of stupendous mountains, which inclose within their bosom realms of everlasting darkness. ** The central island, the destined habitation of the human race, is severa. hundred thousand miles in diameter, and the sea that surrounds it is of the same breadth. The second island is double the diameter of the first, and so is the sea that surrounds it. And each of the remaining islands and seas, in succession, is double the breadth of its immediate predecessor ; so that the diameter of the whole earth amounts to several hundred thousand millions of miles — occupying a portion of space of manifold larger dimensions than that which actually intervenes between the earth and the sun ! Yea, far beyond this ; for, if we could form a conception of a circ 82 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. lar mass of solid matter whose diameter exceeded that of the orbll of Herschel, the most distant planet in our solar system, such a mass would not equal in magnitude the Earth of the Hindoo Mythologists ! " In the midst of this almost immeasurable plain, from the very center of Jamba Dwip, shoots up the loftiest of mountains, Su-Meru, to the height of several hundred thousand miles, in the form of an inverted pyramid, having its summit, which is two hun- dred times broader than the base, surmounted by three swelling cones — the highest of these cones transpiercing upper vacancy with three golden peaks, on which are situate the favorite resi- dences of the sacred Triad. At its base, like so many giant senti- nels, stand four lofty hills, on each of which grows a mango-tree several thousand miles in height, bearing fruit delicious as nectar, and of the enormous size of many hundred cubits. From these mangoes, as they fall, flows a mighty river of perfumed juice, so communicative of its sweetness that those who partake of it exhale the odor from their persons all around to the distance of many leagues. There also grow rose-apple trees, whose fruit is ' large as elephants,' and whose juice is so plentiful as to form another mighty river, that converts the earth over which it passes into purest gold ! " — Duff's India and India Missions, p. 1 16. Such is a brief notice of the Geographical outline, furnished by their sacred writings, of the world on which we dwell. In turning to the superior worlds we obtain a glimpse of some of the revela- tions Q)iY\\wAoo Astronomy. " The second world in the ascending series, or that which imme- diately over-vaults the earth, is the region of space between us and the sun, which is declared, on d'vine authority, to be distant only a few hundred thousand miles. The third in the upward ascent is the region of space intermediate between the sun and the pole star. Within this region are all the planetary and stellar mansions. The distances of the principal heavenly luminaries are given with the utmost precision. The moon is placed beyond the sun as far as the sun is from the earth. Next succeed at equal distances from HINDOO ASTBONOMT. 83 each other, and in the following order, the stars, Mercury, (beyond the stars,) Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Ursa Major, and the Pole Star. Thefour remaining worlds (beyond the Pole Star) continue to rise, one above the other, at immense and increasing intervals. The entire circumference of the celestial space is then given with the utmost exactitude of numbers. " In all of these superior worlds are framed heavenly mansions, dif- fering in glory, destined to form the habitation of various orders of celestial spirits. In the seventh, or highest, is the chief residence of Brahma, said by one of the "divine sages" to be so glorious that he could not describe it in two himdred years, as it contains, in a superior degree, every thing which is precious, or beautiful, or magnificent in all the other heavens. What then must it be, when we consider the surpassing grandeur of some of these 1 Glance, for example, at the heaven which is prepared in the third world, and intended for Indra — head and king of the different ranks and degrees of subordinate deities. Its palaces are ' all of purest gold, so replenished with vessels of diamonds, and columns and orna- ments of jasper, and sapphire, and emerald, and all manner of precious stones, that it shines with a splendor exceeding the brightness of twelve thousand suns. Its streets are of the clearest crystal, fringed with fine gold. It is surrounded with forests abounding with all kinds of trees and flowering shrubs, whose sweet odors are diffused all around for hundreds of miles. It is bestudded with gardens and pools of water ; warm in winter and cool in summer, richly stored with fish, water-fowl, and lilies, blue, red, and white, spreading out a hundred or a thousand petals. Winds there are, but they are ever refreshing, storms and sultry heats being unknown. Clouds there are, but they are light and fleecy, and fantastic canopies of glory. Thrones there are, which blaze like the coruscations of lightning, enough to dazzle any mortal vision. And warblings there are, of sweetest melody, with all the ijispiring harmonies of music and of song, among bowers that are ever fragrant and ever green.' " — P. 118. The reader will remember that these descriptions are not to be 84 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. taken as figurative and emblematic, as is appropriate to a state of glory of whose nature and details the heart of man cannot con- ceive, but that they are to be understood, as they are taught, in the strictest literality. The Vedas are undoubtedly the oldest writings in the world, with the exception of the Pentateuch. Colebrook supposes that they were compiled in the fourteenth century before Christ. Sir William Jones assigns them to the sixteenth century. They are certainly not less than three thousand years old. Veda is from the Sanscrit root vid, to know, the Veda being considered the foun- tain of all knowledge, human and divine, A Veda, in its strict sense, is simply a Sanhita, or collection of hymns. There are three Vedas, the Rig- Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Sama- Veda. The fourth, the Atharva Veda, is of more modern date and doubt- ful authority. The Hindoos hold that the Vedas are coeval with creation. As to their several contents, the Rig- Veda consists of prayers and hymns to various deities ; the Yajur Veda, of ordi- nances about sacrifices and other religious rites ; the Sama- Veda is made up of various lyrical pieces, and the Atharva Veda chiefly of incantations against enemies. The Rig- Veda is the oldest and most authentic of all, and many scholars consider that from it the others were formed. The Hin- doo writers attach to each Veda a class of compositions, chiefly liturgical and legendary, called Brahmanas, and they have besides a sort of expository literature, metaphysical and mystical, called Upanishads. They have also an immense body of Vedic literature, including philology, commentaries, Sutras or aphorisms, etc., the ■study of which would form occupation for a long and laborious life. The remote antiquity of the Vedas is indicated, among other rea- sons, by the entire absence of most of the modern doctrines of Hindooism, such as the worship of the Triad, the names of the modern deities, the doctrines of transmigration, caste, incarna- tions, suttee, etc., which are now the cardinal points of Hindooism, and the personified Triad of divine attributes, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, in their capacities of Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, THE VEDAS. 85 with the popular forms of the two latter, Krishna and the Linga, and all the manifestations of the bride of Mahadeva certainly were utterly unknown to the primitive texts of the religion of the Hindoos. The Rig- Veda Sanhita (a complete copy of which is before us as we write) was translated from the original Sanscrit by Horace H. Wilson, and published in English in four volumes, the first being issued in 1850, and the last in 1866. The learned Intro- duction which the translator attached to the first volume, and an extensive and discriminating notice in the Calcutta Review for 1859, assist us in our description of these venerable writings. The Rig-Veda is a miscellaneous collection of hymns. Each hymn is called a Sukta. The whole work is divided into eight books, or Ashtakas. Each Ashtaka is subdivided into eight Adhyayas, or chapters, containing an arbitrary number of Suktas The whole number of hymns in the Rig- Veda is about a thousand. Each Sukta has for its reputed author a Rishi, or inspired teacher, by whom, in Brahminical phraseology, it has been originally seen, that is, to whom it was revealed ; the Vedas being, according to mythological fictions, the uncreated dictation of Brahma. Each nymn is addressed to some deity or deities. Who are the gods to whom the prayers and praises are ad- dressed ? Here we find a striking difference between the mythol- ogy of the Rig- Veda and that of the heroic poems and PuranaSy which come so long after them. The divinities worshiped are not unknown to later systems, but they there perform very subordinate parts, while those deities who are the great gods — the Dii Majores — of the subsequent and present period, are either wholly unnamed in the Veda, or are noticed in an inferior and different capacity. The names of Shiva, of Mahadeva, of Durga, of Kali, of Rama, of Krishna, never occur, and there is not the slightest allusion to the form in which, for the last ten centuries at least, Shiva seems to have been almost exclusively worshiped in India, that of the Linga or Phallus ; neither is there any hint of another important feature of later Hindooism, the Trimuvti, or Triune combination of Brah- 86 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. ma, Vishnu, and Shiva, as typified by the mystical syllable Om, although, according to high Brahminical authority, the Triniurti was the first element in the faith of the Hindoos, and the second v;as the Linga. The deities mentioned in the Vedas are numerous, and of dififer- enf sexes. The leading ones are Indra, Agni, and Surya ; ana the female deities are Ushas, Saraswati, Sinivali, etc. " The wives of the gods " are spoken of as a large number, and arc often invoked. The operations and powers of nature are deified, as the Murats, the winds ; the Aswins, the sons of the sun ; and even the cows are invoked in a special Sukta. — Vol. iii, p. 440. In fact, the deities, inferior and superior, of the Vedas may be counted by the dozen, and the work is manifestly polytheistic to the core in its teaching and tendencies. The evidence of this is on every page. For the general reader, the mystery that covered the Vedas is a mystery no longer ; all that they contain stands out for public view in the common light of day. Except as to grammatical construc- tion and translation into modern words, we are far abler to discover and understand what story these ancient documents tell than is any of the Pundits. For, in ascertaining their sense, we have to deal with questions of race, of language, of history, of chronology, and external influences ; questions unknown, and therefore unintelligi- ble, to the Hindoo mind. Forbidden to the Sudras, inaccessible from their rarity and high price to most of the Brahmins, for that very reason they are the objects of a more profound and supersti- tious veneration ; and, if any thing can be supposed, a priori, to startle and excite all Hindustan, it is surely the announcement that the Vedas have become public property, and that Sudra and Mlechcha (barbarian) may read them at his will. It was almost entirely from such writings as these that European scholars had to undertake the compilation of a true chronology and history for India. The task was certainly not an easy one. It was like this : Given the Psalms of David, to discover from these alone the manners, customs, religions, arts, sciences, history, chro- nology, and origin of the Jewish nation ; to classify the hymns too, BEEF-EATING SANCTIONED BY THE VEDA. 87 and assign to each its time and author, with no other help than the heading to each Psalm, added by a later hand. Knowing, as we do, that they range almost from Moses till after the captivity — at least seven hundred years — the later parts of the task alone would demand all the resources of scholarship. It is true that the Vedic hymns are ten times more numerous than the Psalms, but they are at the same time ten times more monotonous, and full of wearisome repetitions, under which even Professor Wilson's patience gives way. In ottr Sacred Books the Code precedes, and the history precedes, accompanies, and follows the Psalms. With the Hindoo the Code comes after the hymns, and has to do with a different stage of society, and the history never comes at all! Nevertheless, the Vedas, with all their difficulties, throw a flood of light upon the origin and early state of the Hindoos. The people among whom the Vedas were composed, as here introduced to us, had evidently passed the nomadic stage. Their wealth consisted of horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and buffaloes. Coined money, and indeed money in any shape, was unknown. We meet but two allusions to gold, except for the purpose of orna- ments. The cow was to the Vedic Hindoo at once food and money. It supplied him with milk, butter, ghee, curds, and cheese. Oxen ploughed his fields, and carried his goods and chat- tels. He preserved the Soma-Juice in a bag of cow-skin, {Rig- Veda, vol. I, p. 72,) and the cow-hide girt his chariot. (Vol. Ill, p. 475.) No idea oi sacredness was connected with the cow ; and it is quite clear, however abhorrent and revolting the truth may appear to their descendants, that in the golden age of their ancestors the Hindoos were a cowkilling ajtd beef -eating people, and that cattle are declared in the Vedai to be the very best of food ! Yet modern Hindooism holds it to be a deadly sin to kill a cow, or eat beef, or to use intoxicating drink, and they dare to assert that this was alwa)'s their creed. We quote texts which leave no room for a doubt on this, to them, important fact : " Agni, descendant of Bharata thou art entirely ours when sac- rificed to with pregnant kine, barren cows, or bulls." 88 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. " Agni, the friend of Indra, has quickly consumed three hundred buffaloes." "When thou hast eaten the flesh of the three hundred buffaloes.*" '•'Bestow upon him who glorifies thee, divme Indra, food, the chiefest of which is cattle." — Vol, II, p. 225 ; III, p. 276. " Sever his joints, Indra, as butchers cut up a cow." — Vol. Ill, p. 458 ; I, p. 165. What an amount of beef-eating is implied in a sacrifice of three hundred buffaloes ! the greater part, as usual, being devoured by the assistants. The cooking is very minutely and graphically described in vol. II, pp. 117, etc. Part was roasted on spits, while the attendants eagerly watched the joints, sniffing up the grateful fumes, and saying, " It is fragrant." The queens and wives of the sacnficers assisted in cooking and preparing the banquet, which, on particular occasions, alluded to in the text, consisted of horse- flesh ! All was washed down with copious libations of a strong spirit, made from the juice of the soma plant. Rishi Kakshivat had in every way most unclerical propensities. He thanks the Aswins most cordially for giving him a cask holding a hundred jars of wine, (vol. I, p. 308 ;) and Rishi Vamadeva, who was taken out of his mother's side, solicits Indra (vol. Ill, p. 185) for a hun- dred jars of soma-juice. Rishi Agastya also, in a queer, half-crazy Sukta, (vol. II, p. 200,) writes of " a leather bottle in the house of a vender of spirits" These were the men that fought Alexandei the Great. After such a feast of the gods, Indra puts forth all his might, and destroys the fiercest of the Asuras, (the evil spirits.) The social position of woman, this Veda demonstrates, was con- siderably higher than it is in modern India. She is spoken of kindly and pleasantly as " the light of the dwelling." The Rishi and his wife converse on equal terms, go together to the sacrifice, and practice austerities together. Lovely maidens appear in a procession. Grown-up unmarried daughters remain without re- proach in their father's house. Now, all this is the reverse of the Hindooism of the present day. On the other hand, we have a case of polygamy of the most shameful kind. Kakshivat, one of the THE W0B8EIP OF TEE VEDA, 89 most illustrious of the Rishis, married ten sisters at once, (vol. II, p. 17 ;) and, if the tone of female society is to be judged of from the wife even of a Rishi, or from a lady who is herself the author of a Sukta, women in those days were no better than they should be. A gallant, deep-drinking, high-feeding race were the wild wai- riors of the Indus, and very unlike their descendants. The picture of Hindoo life and manners, at the time of the Mace- donian invasion, (326 B. C.,) was darkly shaded. The Hindoo even then had degenerated ; and the " Life of an Eastern King " on the banks of the Indus differed little in its shameless details from that of his modern successor at Lucknow, on the banks of the Goomtee. Rufus Curtius Quintus, the historian of Alexander, writes of the Hindoos thus : " The shameful luxuries of their prince surpasses that of all other nations. He reclines in a golden palankeen, with pearl hangings. The dresses which he puts on are embroidered with purple and gold. The pillars of his palace are gilt ; and & running pattern of a vine, carved in gold, and figures of birds, in silver, ornament each column. The durbar is held while he combs and dresses his hair ; then he receives embassadors, and decides cases. . . . The women prepare the banquet and pour out the wine, to which all the Indians are greatly addicted. Whenever he, or his queen, went on a journey, crowds of dancing girls in gilt palankeens attended ; and when he became intoxicated they carried him to his couch." — Liber VIII, 32. And, if we are to believe his biographer, into such a vile, sensual thing as this the great Alex- ander himself was rapidly degenerating at that very time ! The religion of the Vedas, then, was Nature worship ; light, careless, and irreverent, utterly animal in its inmost spirit, with little or no sense of sin, no longings or hopes of immortality, nothing high, serious, or thoughtful. There was no love in their worship. They cared only for wealth, victory, animal gratification, and freedom from disease. The tiger of the forest might have joined in such prayers, and said, " Grant me health, a comfortable den, plenty of deer and cows, and strength to kill any intruder on my beat ! " " The blessings they implore," says Professor Wilson, 90 THE LAND OF TEE VEDA. "are for the most part of a temporal and personal description — wealth, food, life, posterity, cattle, cows, and horses ; protection against enemies, victory over them, and sometimes their destruc- tion. There are a few indications of a hope of immortality and of future happiness, but they are neither frequent, nor, in general, dis- tinctly announced. In one or two passages Yama, and his office of ruler of the dead, are obscurely alluded to. There is little demand for moral benefactions." — Vol. I, p. 25. So merely fanciful, so wearisome and monotonous, so contempt- uously irreverent are the great bulk of these Vedic prayers, (to Indra especially,) that Professor Wilson, with all his patience, can scarce believe them to be earnest. Take, for instance, the following Hymn. It is addressed to the goddess Anna Devata, personified as Pitu, or material food, and is recited by a Brahmin when about to eat. Pitu is also identified with the Soma juice, mentioned below. The Rishi is Agastya, and the reader can judge if any utterances (and this, too, professing to be sacred and inspired) that he has ever seen, more fully illustrates the words of Holy Writ, " Whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things :" " I. I glorify Pitu, the great, the upholder, the strong, by whose invigorating power Trita slew the mutilated Vritra. " 2. Savory Pitu ; sweet Pitu ; we worship thee : become our protector. " 6. The thoughts of the mighty gods are fixed, Pitu, upon thee : by thy kind and intelligent assistance Indra slew Ahi, " 8. And since we enjoy the abundance of the waters and. the plants, therefore. Body, do thou grow fat ! "9. And since we enjoy, Soma, thy mixture with boiled milk or boiled barley, therefore. Body, do thou grow fat ! " 10. Vegetable cake of fried meal, do thou be substantial, whole- some, and invigorating ; and, Body, do thou grow fat ! "II. We extract from thee, Pitu, by our praises, the sacrificial food, as cows yield butter for oblation ; from thee, who art exhila- rating to the gods ; exhilarating also to us." — Rig- Veda, Vol. II, p. 194. Sukta viii. DRUNKEX WORSHIP OF THE VEDA. 9I In a similar strain the Soma-plant is addressed. It was bruised between two stones, mixed with milk or barley juice, and, when fermented, formed a strong, inebriating, ardent spirit — probably not very unlike the whisky of the present day. It appears that the Rishis of the Vedas introduced this custom, or belief, into religion. Indra and all the other gods are every- where represented as unable to perform any great exploit without the inspiration of the Soma, or, in plain English, until they were more or less drunk ! Hear the Veda : " May our Soma libation reach you, exhilarating, invigorating, inebriating, most precious. It is companionable, Indra, enjoyable, the overthrower of hosts, immortal. " Thy inebriety is most intense : nevertheless thy acts are most beneficent." — Vol. II, p. 169. " Savory indeed is this Soma ; sweet it is, sharp, and full of flavor ; no one is able to encounter Indra in battle, after he has been quaffing this — by drinking of it Indra has been elevated to the slaying of Vritra," etc. — Vol. Ill, p. 470. " The stomach of Indra is as capacious a receptacle of Soma as a lake." — Vol. Ill, p. 60. "The belly of Indra, which quaffs the Soma juice abundantly, swells like the ocean, and is ever moist, like the ample fluids of the palate." — Vol. Ill, pp. 17, 231, 232. " Indra, quaff the Soma juice, repeatedly shaking it from your beard." — Vol. II, p. 233. What common revelry is expressed in the following verse : " Saints and sages, sing the holy strain aloud, like scream- ing swans, and, together with the gods, drink the sweet juice of the Soma."— Vol. Ill, p. m. This license runs riot, and " the goddesses, the wives of the gods," (Vol. III. p. 316,) with earthly ladies, one of them (Viswa- vara) herself a Rishi and compiler of a Sukta (Vol. Ill, p. 273) in which she prays for "concord between man and wife," all are joined — gods, goddesses, and " divine Rishis" — in high carousal. But, then, mark what Rishi Avatsara says of this lady, Viswavara, and of his brother Rishis, and the rest of the boisterous crew, all " gloriously drunk " together : 92 TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. "II. Swift is the excessive and girt-distending inebriation ot Viswavara, Yajata, and Mayin : by drinking of these juices they urge one another to drink : they find the copious draught the prompt giver of intoxication !" — Vol. Ill, p. 311. And this was the worship of Ancient India ! Jolly and easy are the terms on which deity and worshiper meet together for their wassail ! Prajapate addresses his god thus : " Indra, the showerer of benefits, drink the Soma offered after the other presentations, for thine exhilaration for battle ; take into thy belly the full wave of the inebriating Soma, for thou art lord of libations from the days of old ! " (Vol. Ill, p. 75.) But the Rishi Viswamitra evi- dently thought that, under the circumstances, there was no use in standing upon even Hindoo ceremony, so he says to his deity : " Sit down, Indra, upon the sacred grass — and when thou hast drunk the Soma, then, Indra, ^^ home!" finishing up the address by reminding him that the hungry steeds in his car at the dooi need consideration, and require their provender ! — Vol. Ill, p. 84. How melancholy and degrading is all this — god, worshiper, and the traffic between them ! But one grade above the beasts that perish ; yet these are the teachings of the most sacred of the so- called " Holy Vedas .'* " This drunken worship realizes and sur- passes Dionysius and the Bacchanals themselves. These besotted mortals had evidently reached that stage of debasement when men can suppose that the Almighty " was alto- gether such a one as themselves," and when they can "call evil good " and " put darkness for hght." Well might the reviewer exclaim, from the abundant and fearful evidence before him that, " No worship ever mocked the skies m,ore miserable and contemptible than the religiojt of the Veda I " But, what are we to think of professedly enlightened Hindoos, like Rajah Rammohun Roy, or this modern Baboo, Keshub Chtm- der Sen, who, if they ever read the Vedas, of which they talk so glibly, must surely have dared to presume upon the ignorance of their auditors, when they had the temerity, in a day like this, and before a London audience, to assert that " the worship of Almighty BEGEPTION A8 TO CONTENTS OF THE VEDA. 93 God in his unity," and " a pure system of theism " are taught in the Vedas f — Men, who after all this have the impertinence to assume a patronizing aspect, toward Christianity, and superciliously inform us that, however good or pure our faith is in itself, its doc- trine and services are not needed in India, because " the Holy Vedas" contain all that is requisite for the regeneration of their country ! Yet this is said and repeated, and Miss Carpenter and her Unitarian friends clap their hands, applaud the assertions, and lionize the man who utters them, and commend the Brakmo Somaj, of which he is the High Priest ! Do not such people deserve to be deceived ? and is it really a violation of Christian charity to fear that such persons must be given over to " strong delusion " when they can believe such " a lie " as this ? After a careful examination, from beginning to end, of this ven- erable and lauded work, (the doors of which have so lately opened for the admission of mankind,) with the remembrance in my mind of the long years when men have listened to the reiterations of its holiness, as the very source of all Hindoo faith — the oracle from which Vedantic Philosophy has drawn its inspiration, the temple at whose mere portal so many millions have bowed in such awe and reverence, with its interior too holy for common sight, containing, as it was asserted, all that was worth knowing, the primitive original truth that could regenerate India, and make even Christianity unnecessary — well, with no feelings save those of deep interest and a measure of respect, we have entered and walked from end to end, to find ourselves shocked at every step with the revelations of this mystery of iniquity and sensuality, where saints and gods, male and female, hold high orgies amid the fumes of intoxicating liquor, with their singing and " screaming," and the challenging by which " they urge one another " on to deeper debasement, until at length decency retires and leaves them " glorying in their shame ! " The sad samples which we have presented are taken at random, and can be matched by hundreds of passages equally contemptible ; while we have purposely avoided quoting Suktas and verses whose 7 94 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. indelicacy is even worse than these ; nor have we found, because it is not there, any thing pure, subHme, or good, with which to offset the vileness here laid before the reader. Coming out again from the gloomy scenes of these " works of darkness " into the light and purity of our blessed Bible, with all its " fruits of the Spirit," never before were we so thankful for our holy religion, nor have we ever felt as deep a compassion for the millions so shame- fully and so long deluded by the false and hollow pretensions of the Vedic teaching. Before dismissing the subject I will, for the sake of such readers as may not have seen an entire Sukta of the Veda, quote one in full, so that he may have a complete view of the " holiest " and most venerable of all India's " Scriptures," selecting one, however, that may be regarded as respectable in its ideas and language. I take the fifth Sukta, on page 38 of volume I of the Rig- Veda. The Rishi (or author) is Medhalithi, the son of Kanwa, and the hymn is addressed to Indra, their God of the Heavens : "Sukta V. " I. Indra, let thy coursers hither bring thee, bestower of desires, to drink the Soma juice ; may the priests, ^-adiant of the sun, make thee manifest. " 2. Let his coursers convey Indra in an easy-moving chariot hither, where these grains of parched barley, steeped in clarified butter, are strewn upon the altar. " 3. We invoke Indra at the morning rite, we invoke him at the succeeding sacrifice, we invoke Indra to drink the Soma juice. " 4. Come, Indra, to our libation, with thy long-maned steeds ; the libation being poured out, we invoke thee. "5. Do thou accept this our praise, and come to this our sacrifice, for which the libation is prepared ; drink like a thirsty stag. "6. These dripping Soma juices are effused upon the sacred grass ; drink them, Indra. to recruit thy vigor. " 7. May this our excellent hymn, touching thy heart, be grateful to thee, and thence drink the effused libation. TEE RAMAYANA. 95 *' S. Indra, the destroyer of enemies, repairs assuredly to every ceremony where the Hbation is poured out, to drink the Soma juice for exhilaration. " 9. Do thou, Satakratu, accomphsh our desire with cattle and horses : profoundly meditating, we praise thee." As the Greeks and Romans had their Homer and Virgil, so the Hindoos have had their Valmiki and Vyasa. The great epics of India are the Ramayana and the Mahabarata. These stand peer- less in their voluminous literature, and have held control of the minds of the people since long before the Incarnation. The Ramayana is probably the most ancient and connected epic poem in the Sanscrit, and exceeded only by the Vedas in antiquity. It contains the mythical history of Rama, one of the incarnations of the god Vishnu, and was written by the great poet Valmiki. For a very brief epitome of this wonderful and venera- ble development of Hindoo literature we are indebted to Speir's " Ancient India." The style and language of the Ramayana are those of an early heroic age, and there are signs of its having been popular in India at least three centuries before Christ. The original subject of the poem is sometimes considered as mythological, and sometimes as heroic ; but the mythological portions stand apart, and have the air of after-thoughts, intended to give a religious and philosophical tone to what was at first a tale rehearsed at festivals in praise of the ancestors of kings. The mythological introduction states that Lanka, or Ceylon, had fallen under the dominion of a prince named Ravana, who was a demon of such power that by dint of penance he had extorted from the god Brahm a promise that no immortal should destroy him. Such a promise was as relentless as the Greek Fates, from which Jove himself could not escape ; and Ravana, now invul- nerable to the gods, gdive up the asceism he had so long practiced, and tyrannized over the whole of Southern India in a fearful manner. At length, even the gods in heaven were distressed at the destruc- tion of holiness and oppression of virtue consequent upon Ravana's 96 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. tyrannies, and they called a council in the mansion of Brahma to consider how the earth could be relieved from such a fiend. To this council came the "god Vishnu, riding on the eagle Vain-a-taya, like the sun on a cloud, and his discus and his mace in hand." The other gods entreat him to give his aid, and he promises, in conse- quence, to be born on earth, and to accomplish the destruction of the terrific Ravana Vishnu therefore became incarnated (his Seventh Avatar) as Rama or Ramchimdray and his life and exploits as the celebrated King of Ayodhya, form the subject of this, the earliest epic poem of India. According to this work, Rama was born as the son of Dasharatha, King of Ayodhya, the modern Oude. In early life Rama married Seeta, the lovely daughter of the King of Mithili. But domestic trouble, caused by the intrigues of his mother-in-law in behalf of her own son, caused Rama and Seeta to retire to the forests, and there they lived the lives of her- mits for years, till the time for his action should come. While in this seclusion, Ravana, the demon King of Lanka, (Ceylon,) who had heard of the beauty of Seeta, resolved to steal her from Rama. Finding it in vain to hope to succeed without the aid of stratagem, he took with him an assistant sorcerer, disguised as a deer ; and as Rama took great pleasure in the chase, it was not difficult for the deer to lure him from his cottage in pursuit. He did not leave his beloved Seeta without requesting Lakshman, his brother, to remain in charge ; but the wily deer knew how to defeat his precaution, and, when transfixed by Rama's arrow, he cried out in the voice of Rama, " O, Lakshman, save me ! " Seeta heard the cry, and entreated Lakshman to fly to his brother's rescue. He was un- willing to go, but yielded to her earnestness, and she was left alone. This being the state of affairs which Ravana desired, he now left his hiding-place, and came forward, disguised as an Ascetic Brahmin, in a red, threadbare garment, with a single tuft of hair upon his head, and three sticks and a pitcher in his hand. In the rich, glowing poetry all creation is represented as shuddering at his approach ; birds, beasts, and flowers were motionless with dread ; the summer wind ceased to breathe, and a shiver passed THE TEMPTATION OF SEETA. 97 over the bright waves of the river. Ravana stood for awhile look- ing at his victim, as she sat weeping and musing over the unknown cry ; but soon he approached, saying, (we quote the metrical trans- lation here,) "O thou that shinest like a tree With summer blossoms overspread. Wearing that woven kusa robe, And lotus garland on thy head, Why art thou dwelling here alone, Here in this dreary forest's shade, Where range at will all beasts of prey, And demons prowl in every glade ? Wilt thou not leave thy cottage home, And roam the world, which stretches wide — See the fair cities which men build, And all their gardens and their pride ? Why longer, fair one, dwell'st thou here, Feeding on roots and sylvan fare, When thou might'st dwell in palaces, And earth's most costly jewels wear? Fearest thou not the forest gloom. Which darkens round on every side ? Who art thou, say ! and whose, and whence. And wherefore dost thou here abide ? " Even a lady alone is not supposed to be necessarily alarmed at meeting " a holy Brahmin," and the fiend's disguise was so com- plete that only a temporary flush of excitement followed his sudden address. So the poet continues : " When first these words of Ravana Broke upon sorrowing Seeta's ear, She started up, and lost herself In wonderment, and doubt, and fear ; But soon her gentle, loving heart Threw off suspicion and surmise. And slept again in confidence, Lull'd by the mendicant's disguise. ' Hail, holy Brahmin ! ' she exclaimed | And, in her guileless purity, She gave a welcome to her guest, With courteous hospitality. Water she brought to wash his feet, And food to satisfy his need. Full little dreaming in her heart What fearful guest she had received." 98 TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. She even- tells him her own story, how Rama had won her for his bride and taken her to his father's home, and how the jealous Kaikeyi had cast them forth to roam the woods ; and after dwell- ing fondly on her husband's praise, she invited her guest to tell his name and lineage, and what had induced him to leave his native land for the wilds of the Dandaka forest, inviting him to await her husband's return, for " to him are holy wanderers dear," Suddenly Ravana declares himself to be the demon monarch of the earth, "at whose name Heaven's armies flee." He has come, he says, to woo Seeta for his queen, and to carry her to his palace in the island of Ceylon ! Astonished and indignant at his character and proposal, the wrath of Rama's wife burst forth in these words : " Me would' St thou woo to be thy queen, Or dazzle with thy empire's shine ? And didst thou dream that Rama's wife Could stoop to such a prayer as thine ? I, who can look on Rama's face, And know that there my husband stands,— My Rama, whose high chivalry Is blazoned through a hundred lands 1 What ! shall the jackal think to tempt The lioness to mate with him ? Or did the King of Lanka's isle, Build upon such an idle dream ? " But vain was poor Seeta's indignant remonstrance. Ravana's only answer was to throw off his disguise, and, "with brows as dark as the storm-cloud," he carried off the shrieking Seeta as an eagle bears its prey, mounting up aloft and flying with his burden through the sky. The unhappy Seeta calls loudly upon Rama, and bids the flowery bowers and trees and rivers all tell her Rama that Ravana has stolen his Seeta from his home. In Rama's time the woods were inhabited by demons and monkeys. On returning and ascertaining his great loss, Rama did not feel strong enough to recover Seeta single-handed. He therefore entered into an alliance with the monkeys. First, the monkey-king Stigriva dispatched emissaries in all directions to ascertain where Seeta was concealed ; and when the monkey-general Hjinoovian (the Mars of India) ascer- THE MAHABABATA. 99 tained that she was in a palace in Ceylon, Rama and all the allied monkey forces marched down to the Coromandel coast, and, mak- ing a bridge by casting rocks into the sea, passed quickly into Lanka. After fighting a few battles the Rakshasas (demons) were defeated, Ravana was put to death by Rama, and Seeta rescued froir her palace prison. Rama will, however, have nothing to say to his recovered wife until she has gone through " the ordeal of fire ; " but as she passed through the blazing pile unhurt, and Brahma and other gods attested her fidelity, her husband once more received her with affection, and, the term of exile over, the whole party returned in happiness to Ayodhya. Such, in brief, is the story of the Ramayana, which is spun out into details and episodes of great length. It is read very extensively to listening crowds in India, who believe every word, no matter how improba- ble, as we would the most authentic records of our own history or our Holy Bible. The Mahabarata is the second famous epic of India. We have only room to say that it describes a contest between the two branches of the Chundra, or Moon dynasty, for the sovereignty of the Ganges territory. The " Great War " (as the word Mahabarata expresses) is generally regarded as having taken place about two hundred years before the siege of Troy. Princes are enumerated as taking part in the struggle from the Deccan, and the Indus, and even beyond the Indus, especially the Yarases, thought to be Greeks. Fifty-six royal leaders were assem- bled on the field of battle, which raged for eighteen days with pro- digious slaughter — another proof of the division of India into many separate States, though occasionally combined, as in this poem, under the leadership of some great general on either side. The contest was waged between the sons of Pandu, the deceased Bajah, and their cousins the Kooroos, who denied their legitimacy — a never-failing subject of dispute in Hindoo successions. It ended in the victory of the Pandus ; but what they gained by arms they lost through gaming. Yudisthira, the Agamemnon of the poem, departs with his brothers and the beautiful Draupadi into lOO THE LAND OF THE VEDA. exile on the Himalayas. Their evil deeds prevailing, they drop dead, one after another, by the way-side. Yudisthira is the last, and when Indra comes to admit him to Swarga (Paradise) he demands to be accompanied by his faithful dog. The poem follows the hero into the other world. Arrived in Indra's paradise, and finding his enemies there before him, with none of his party, he refuses to stay, and, descending to the shades in quest of Draupadi and his brothers, succeeds in rescuing them from torment. The gods applaud his virtue, and he is permitted to convey himself and all his party to Swarga. The hero of this poem is Krishna, the great ally of the Pandus, and generally regarded as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. — Trevor's India, p. 52. ARGHITEGTUBE OF INDIA. lOI CHAPTER III. ARCHITECTURAL MAGNIFICENCE OF INDIA, THE missionary authorities of the Methodist Episcopal Church resolved, in the year 1854, to found a mission in India, and they advertised during that year and the next for a man to go forth and commence the work. The writer, after waiting in the hope that some one else, better suited for the duty and less cum- bered with family cares, would answer to the call, offered himself for the service. This involved one of the keenest trials through which himself and wife had ever passed — no less than a separation from their two elder boys. The necessity for this, in the case of children over the age of seven years exposed to the climate and moral influence in India, as well as the educational need, are all understood. Having no personal friends to whose care they could be in- trusted, they had to be placed at a boarding-school in the hands of strangers. God only knows the feelings with which we resigned them, fearing (what proved too true in the case of one of them) that we might see them no more on earth ; but, so far as we could understand, it was either this, or for our Church to fail of her duty to perishing men in India. We understood that such sacrifices were contemplated by the Head of the Church when he instituted a missionary ministry for the salvation of the world. He was well aware what this would involve to the souls of many parents in the future, and therefore, to sustain them under the peculiar cross, he had put on record one of his most glorious promises. There can be no mistake as to the circumstances con- templated. " Peter said, Lo, we have left all and followed thee And He said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or I02 ^ THE LAND OF THE VEDA. children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive mani- fold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlast- ing." With hearts bleeding at the sacrifice which we were called to make, we clung to the precious and appropriate promise of our divine Master, committed our little ones to his care, and went forth to fulfill his commission to the best of our ability. With my wife and two younger children I sailed from Boston oi'. the 9th of April, 1856. I was instructed to proceed by way of England, and there obtain from the secretaries of the different missionary societies all the information available in regard to those unoccupied portions of India where we might labor without in- terference with existing missions, "to preach the Gospel, not where Christ is named, lest we should build upon another man's foundation," and there labor for the enlargement of the kingdom of God. Having attended to this duty, and obtained all the light that the secretaries and returned missionaries could impart, I resolved to proceed to Calcutta, and from that to move westward into the heart of the country and examine the Valley of the Ganges. We left Southampton on the 20th of August in the steamship Pera. Just as we were departing, the consort ship of the same line, the Ripon, came in with the mails and passengers from India, and on board of her was the Queen of Oude, coming to place before the British Queen her protest against the annexation of Oude, and to plead for the restoration of the sovereignty to her family. Apart from the singularity of the fact that she was probably the first lady of her race who had ever come to a western clime, her presence there occasioned me no particular interest ; yet, as God looked down upon the objects of each, how much she and I, thus meeting casually for a moment, really depended upon each other's movements ! Had she succeeded in her mission, I must neces- sarily have failed in mine, so far as our present mission field is concerned, for I was unconsciously going to the kingdom which she had ruled, and to the very capital whose gates she had left ajar OUR RECEPTION IN INDIA. 103 five weeks before — gates that had been closed by Mohammedan bigotry against Christianity for ages. Her success on this expe- dition would have closed them again indefinitely, and I should have had to go elsewhere ; but He whose holy providence guided my steps took care of the issues. She failed, and I succeeded, yet not without "a great fight of afflictions," as the sequel will show. We landed at Calcutta on the 23d of September, and were most cordially welcomed by the missionary brethren there, and aided by their opinions and advice in regard to the unoccupied territory of the country. We soon realized, in the brotherly kindness of their intercourse, and the gladness with which they regarded the incom- ing of another mission, what real evangelical union, and what free- dom from sectarianism, exist among Christians in a heathen land. Dr. Duff was especially kind to uS; He seemed so thankful that the Lord was sending more help to redeem the India he loved so well, and for which he had labored so long and so faithfully. As we parted from the great and good man, I little imagined that within a year, counting us among the slain, he would write a sort of biography of me, (in his work " The Indian Rebellion,") or that I should live to thank him, at his own table, for the peculiar privilege of knowing what my friends would say of me when I was dead. Yet so it proved. Proceeding at once up the country, we reached the city of Agra, the seat of government for the North-west, and soon realized that we were now amid the splendid evidences of the power and glory of the " Great Moguls." This imperial city, and the adjoining one of Delhi, were full of those reminiscences, and the interest which they at once awakened was something intense and peculiar. We were in blissful ignorance of any cause for anxiety — knew not what a volcano of wrath was quietly preparing beneath our feet, or how surely the titled and decorated " Nawabs," whose courteous salaams we returned, were thirsting for our blood, and resolving to have it, too ; but we will let that subject rest here, until we share with the reader our interest and delight as we survey some of those magnificent, those matchless, monuments of Patau skill I04 TEE LAND OF THE VEDA. and wealth with which we now found ourselves surrounded. This will also give him a better idea than any thing else could do as to what those imperial people risked in their desperate enterprise, when pensions, palaces, titles, ancestral monuments, and mauso- leums, with all their gorgeous traditions, were the mighty stakes ventured in the frantic and final struggle of their dynasty with a superior civilization and the strength which accompanies it. We were, though we knew it not, contemplating many of these glories for the last time in which men could gaze in admiration upon Ihem, for most of them, save the Taj and the Kootub, were des- tined to destruction by the ruin which war was so soon to bring. When we saw them again, one year afterward, "the glory had departed," save in the cases given. The Taj, especially, seemed as though self-protected by its own purity and loveliness ; even ravag- ing war respected it, friend and foe alike agreeing that its beaut)- should remain unsullied forever. The first permanent conquest by a Mohammedan sovereign in India was that made by Mahmoud of Ghuznee in the year lOOi. Sixty-five rulers of that faith, during the following eight centuries, tried to maintain their authority over the great Hindoo nations. It may be doubted whether any part of the world was ever so cursed by a line of bigoted, ferocious wretches as; with two or three excep- tions, were these Mohammedan despots of India during that time. To many of them may be truly applied the terrible lines of Moore : " One of that saintly, murderous brood, To carnage and the Koran given, Who think through unbelievers' blood Lies their directest path to heaven ; One who vsfill pause and kneel unshod In the warm blood his hand hath poured. To mutter o'er some text of God Engraven on his reeking sword ; Nay, who can coolly note the line, The letters of those words divine, To which his blade, with searching art, Had sunk into its victim's heart !" And all this transacted by these " bloody men " under the pro- fessed sanction and authority of a holy and merciful God, whose Mohammed Suraj-oo-deen Shah Gezee, Emperor of Delhi, the Last of the Moguls. CHAEACTER OF MOSLEM RULE. 107 special favor and reward they asserted awaited them in Paradise for blasphemous cruelties like these ! The reference in the lines is to their habit of engraving texts from the Koran upon their swords. What millions, during the past eight centuries, have been destroyed by Mohammedanism and Romanism in the name of religion, till humanity sighs to be relieved of their baneful presence, and the true Christian looks forward solemnly to the awful hour when He " to whom vengeance belongeth " will call " the beast and the false prophet " to their dread account — partners in punishment as they have been in guilt ! The character and cruelties of Popery recorded in Motley's recent histories are equaled in India's records by those Moslem scourges, Hyder Ah, Tippoo, Tamerlane, Nadir Shah, and Aurungzebe. The creed of the Koran is utterly unfit for civil government. It is a system of moral and political bondage, sustained only by military power and despotic rule, naturally corrupting those who adminis- ter it, while it has ever pauperized and demoralized the people who have been subjected to its sway. The Moguls have done in India what the Turks have accomplished in Asia Minor ; and }'et, while destroying and impoverishing, neither race have taken root in either land. In the former the power of the Moguls crumbled to pieces, and in the latter that of the Turks is now " ready to vanish away." The last century closed upon Shah Alum — the grandfather of the monarch whose portrait we here present — engaged in a terrible struggle with the Rohillas of the North and the Mahrattas of the South. The long examples of perfidy and blood were then bearing their fruit, and had made these once subject-races the remorseless and inveterate enemies of the Mogul rule. Their power had been rising as that of the Emperor was in its decadence. Destitute of the means, which were once so abundant, to repress these conflicts, the aged Emperor had to witness these fierce and powerful parties contending with each other for the possession of his person and his capital, and the power to rule in his name. In 1785, Sindia, the Mahratta, became paramount; but a few years after, while engaged in a war with Pertalo Sing, of Jeypoor, I08 TEE LAND OF TEE VEDA. advantage was taken of his absence by Gholan Kadir Kahn, the Rohilla, to obtain possession of Delhi and the Emperor. This he accompHshed by the treachery of the Nazir, or chief eunuch, to whom the management of the imperial establishment was intrusted. The inmates of the palace were treated by the usurper with a degree of malicious barbarity which it is hardly possible to con- ceive any human being could evince toward his fellow-creatures, unless actually possessed by Satan, After cruelties of almost every description had been practiced, to extort from the members and retainers of the imperial family every article of value that still remained in their possession, Gholan Kadir continued to withhold from them even the necessaries of life, so that several ladies perished of hunger, and others, mad- dened by suffering, committed suicide. The royal children were compelled to perform the most humiliating offices ; and when at last the wretched Emperor ventured to remonstrate indignantly against the atrocities he was thus compelled to witness, the fierce Rohilla sprang at him with the fury of a wild beast, flung the venerable monarch to the ground, knelt on his breast, and, with his dagger, pierced his eye-balls through and through ! The return of Sindia terminated these terrible scenes. Gholan Kadir fled, but was followed and captured by the Mahratta chief, who cut off his nose, ears, hands, and feet, and sent him in an iron cage to the Emperor — a fearful, though not uncommon, example of Asiatic retributive barbarity. He perished on the road, and his accomplice, the treacherous Nazir, was condemned, and trodden to death by an elephant — a mode of execution long practiced at Delhi. The condition of the imperial family, though ameliorated, remained barely tolerable during the supremacy of Sindia ; for the stated allowance for the support of the Emperor and his thirty children, though liberal in its nominal amount, was so irregularly paid that the imperial household often wanted the necessaries of life. The real authority of the Moguls had passed away, and it now became a question, Who shall seize the fallen scepter — some one TEE FALLING DYNA8TT. 109 of these contending chiefs, or the English power, which had already established itself in the South and East of the country ? The lat- ter alone had the ability to give peace to the distracted land, and, at the same time, might be relied upon to grant the most generous terms to the falling dynasty. Accordingly, on the loth of Septem- ber, 1803, Shah Alum, the last actual possessor of the once mighty throne of the Moguls, thankfully placed himself and his empire under the protection of the British commander. Lord Lake, and thus delivered himself from the cruelty and tyranny of his enemies. The General, on his entrance to the palace, found the Emperor "seated under a small tattered canopy, his person emaciated by indigence and infirmity, his countenance disfigured by the loss of his eyes, and bearing marks of extreme old age and settled melan- choly." The arrangements made with him, under the directions of the Marquis Wellesley, then English Governor-General, were, no doubt, far beyond in liberality what the poor old man could have expected. Of this more hereafter, in its place. .The gigantic genius of Tamerlane, and the distinguished talents of the great Akbar, with the magnificent taste of Jehan, have thrown a sort of splendor over the crimes and follies of their descendants ; and men kept reverence for the ruins of such great- ness, and for the ideas which we have all associated in our child- hood with the boundless wealth and glory suggested by the title of " The Great Moguls." Under the new rule India began to return to peace, and such prosperity as was possible, with a still brighter day dawning upon her. Shah Alum enjoyed his honors and emoluments till 1806, when he was succeeded on his titular throne by his son. Shah Akbar, who held it until 1836, when its last possessor — the man whose portrait is here given — commenced his occupancy, and retained it till 1857, when a mad and hopeless infatuation led him to violate his treaty, and defy the power of the actual rulers of his empire, and precipitated him from the height to which his ambition had for a few weeks soared, into the depths of ignominious and unpitied exile. no THE LAND OF THE VEDA. A few facts in explanation are necessary here. This monarch, Mohammed Suraj- oo-deen, succeeded his father in 1836. The father, at the instigation of one of his wives, the favorite Begum, had done his best to deprive his son of his inheritance, and to have her own son, Mirza Saleem, acknowledged as his successor by the British Government. To this injustice that Government would not consent ; so his rights were protected, and he mounted the throne of his ancestors. The beautiful steel engraving on the opposite page gives a faith- ful picture of the wife, or, rather, one of the wives, of this old gentleman — the last of " The Great Moguls." Her name is Zeenat Mahal^ — the Ornament of the Palace — which was conferred on her when she was married to the Emperor in 1833. She was then six- teen years of age, and he was sixty — a disparity by no means uncommon in a land where polygamy prevails, and where such prejudice exists against marrying a widow, no matter how young or fair she may be. Her sexagenarian husband had other wives than Zeenat Mahal, but the beautiful and ambitious girl soon gained a complete control over the mind and heart of her aged lord, and this was made all the more influential when she had added the claims of a mother to the attractions of a wife. Then commenced those intrigues, which she carried on up to the year 1856, to secure the succession to the throne for her child, Mirza Jumma Bukht, to the exclusion of Mirza Furruk-oo-deen, the elder son, whose prior claims the English Government recog- nized and sustained, as in duty bound. Her hostility to British influence, therefore, became intense ; and her hopes of gaining her object were identified with the efforts of the Sepoy conspiracy to overthrow the English power in India. Poor lady ! she utterly failed ; and she and the son for whom every thing was risked are to-day wanderers in a foreign land, with the bitter reflection of the utter desolation which has overwhelmed the dynasty of which she thus became the last empress. She is the daughter of the Rajah of Bnatneer, a territory about one hundred and eighty miles noith- west of Delhi. Zeenat Mahal, Empress of Delhi. THE EHA8S AND' THE MOGUL SINK TOGETHER. II3 The pictures of the Emperor and Empress here presented were painted on ivory by the Court portrait-painter twenty years ago, and are beautiful specimens of native art, and very correct Hke- nesses of them both. We will now turn from these royal persons to their home, and some of their splendid surroundings ; and, first of all, let us look at their historical and beautiful Dewan Khass There was something remarkably significant in the fact that the magnificent and famous Audience Hall of the Moguls should sink to ruin with the dynasty which had so long adorned it. For two hundred and fifty years they had shed luster upon each other ; but, when we remember the crimes which had so long cried to Heaven for vengeance from the polished floor of this marble hall, it did seem fitting that the Most High, who ruleth in the kingdoms of men, in the hour when their judgment came should, with the same blow, strike down both the Mogul line and their magnificent memorial. When their cup of iniquity was full, and their hands were red with Christian blood, then came the day of vengeance. It was my lot to be a witness of the wondrous ruin — to behold this imperial head of Oriental Mohammedanism, this " Light of the Faith," as he was designated, sinking into utter ruin and darkness ; " Falling, like Lucifer, Never to hope again." When I reached the Mogul capital of Hindustan, in the autumn of 1856, the Dewan Khass was still the center of state and pagean- try, and its imperial master living in Oriental style on his salary of eighteen lakhs of rupees — ^900,000 gold — per annum. Within one year from that day I was again in the Dewan Khass, where he used to sit in his gorgeous array, to witness his trial, and that of his princes and nobles, before a military commission of British officers, by whom he was condemned to be banished as a felon to a foreign shore for the remnant of his miserable life, there to sub- sist on a convict's allowance ; and within a few weeks after, when I again visited the once magnificent Dewan Khass, I found it despoiled of its glory, its marble halls and columns whitewashed. 114 THE LAND OF THE VEDA and the whole turned into a hospital for sick soldiers ! Has the world ever witnessed a ruin more prompt, more complete, more amazing than this ? For seven hundred years the Mohammedan dynasties — of whom this wretched old man was the last representative — ^had tried to hold the reins of power over India, alien alike in race, language, and religion from the people whom they ruled. Mahmoud of Ghuznee — a contemporary for five years of William the Con- queror — was the founder of this line of monarchs ; and yet such was their character, that when these long centuries of selfish and bigoted misrule were ending, and this old man was in circumstances that might well have evoked compassion and sympathy from those around him, he was allowed to sink out of sight, not only without regret or condolence, but amid the expressed sense of relief of the race over whom he and his ancestors had dominated — a people with whom they had ever refused to amalgamate, whom they had never tried to conciliate, and from whom his race never realized either loyalty or affection. It may be doubted if any royal line on earth has had such a sad record to present to the historian. Of the sixty-five monarchs who thus conquered and ruled India, only twenty-seven of the numbei died a natural death ; all the rest were either exiled, killed in battle, or assassinated, while the average length of each reign was only eleven years. Truly has it been said, " Delhi has been the stage of greatness — men the actors, ambition the prompter, and centuries the audience." It was my opportunity to come in at the close, and behold destruction drawing the curtain over the scene, and writing upon it the realized sentence, and the warning to the nations : "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." This was all the more significant, because the men by whose instrumentality God wrought out his purposes were the very race ABGEITEOTUBAL TASTE OF THE EMPEB0B8. 1 15 whose new monarchy opened with their own in the tenth century ; but a race who received the faith which those Mohammedans repelled and persecuted, and who have consequently risen to supremacy among the nations ; so that, while one portion of them rules the New World, the other inherits the empire of the fallen Moguls, and are there with confidence expecting that the promise of the Almighty shall ere long be made as true as his threatenings now consummated : " Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." How expressively does the history of these eight hun- dred years declare, " Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him!" True religion was the only thing this guilty but magnificent race needed for perpetuity. No dynasty ever had a grander oppor- tunity than they — a rich land, the sixth of the world's population, boundless wealth, almost a millennium of time for the trial, with a civilization all their own, and a splendid cultivated taste, which they had the will and the ability to gratify to the utmost, as its memori- als in Agra, and Delhi, and elsewhere, attest, to the surprise and delight of the traveler and tourist from many lands. The Emperor Shah Jehan — A. D. 1627 — alone, for his portion, laid out in Alipoor the celebrated Gardens of Shalimar, at a cost of ^5,000,000. They were about two miles and a half in cir- cumference, and were almost like Paradise in beauty. He then built the world-renowned Taj Mahal, expending upon it nearly ;^6o,ooo,ooo, the present value of money. He also erected the Dewan Khass, the most gorgeous audience hall in the East. This latter we here illustrate. This imperial hall was a gorgeous accessory of the Palace of Delhi. The front opened on a large quadrangle, and the whole stood in what was once a garden, extremely rich and beautiful. This unique pavilion rested on an elevated terrace, and was formed entirely of white marble. It was one hundred and fifty feet long, and forty in breadth, having a graceful cupola at each angle. The roof was supported on colonnades of marble pillars. The solid and Il6 TEE Land of tee VEDA. polished marble has been worked into its forms with as much deli- cacy as though it had been wax, and its whole surface, pillars, wails, arches, and roof, and even the pavement, was inlaid with the richest, most profuse, and exquisite designs in foliage and ara- besque ; the fruits and flowers being represented in sections of gems, such as amethysts, carnelian, blood-stone, garnet, topaz, lapis lazuli, green serpentine, and various colored crystals. A bor- dering ran around the walls and columns similarly decorated, inlaid with inscriptions in Arabic from the Koran. The whole had the appearance of some rich work from the loom, in which a brilliant pattern is woven on a pure white ground, the tracery of rare and cunning artists. Purdahs (curtains) of all colors and designs hung from the crenated arches on the outside to exclude the glare and heat. (These purdahs are omitted in the engraving for the sake of the interior view.) In the center of the hall stood the Takt Taous, or Peacock Throne, of Shah Jehan, on the erection of which Price's History tells us he expended thirty millions sterling, ($150,000,000.) This wondrous work of art was ascended by steps of silver, at the sum- mit of which rose a massive seat of pure gold, with a canopy of the same metal inlaid with jewels. The chief feature of the design was a peacock with his tail spread, the natural colors being repre- sented by pure gems. A vine also was introduced into the design, the leaves and fruit of which were of precious stones, whose rays were reflected from mirrors set in large pearls. Beneath all this " glory " sat the Great Mogul. No wonder that the fame of this wealth and extravagance should attract the notice and cupidity of a man like Nadir Shah, the Per- sian, who, in 1739, invaded Hindustan, and carried off this Pea- cock Throne among his trophies. His estimate of it may be understood from the fact that he had a tent constructed to contain it, the outside of which was covered with scarlet broadcloth and the inside of violet-colored satin, on which birds and beasts, trees and flowers, were depicted in precious stones. On either side of the Peacock Throne a screen was extended, adorned with the fig- THE BLUNDER IN LALLA BOOKH. II9 ares of two angels, also represented in various colored gems. Even the tent-poles were adorned with jewels, and the pins were of massive gold. The whole formed a load for several elephants. The gorgeous trophy was afterward broken up by Adil Shah, the nephew and successor of the captor. Its place in the Dewan Khass was afterward supplied by another of inferior value, and by I he Crystal Throne, which the writer saw in 1857. Inside of the entrance of the Khass, inscribed in black letters upon a slab of alabaster, is the Persian couplet, in the hyperbol- ical language of the East, quoted by Moore in his Lalla Rookh, " If there be an elysium on earth, It is this, it is this." Moore introduces it in "The Light of the Harem," where the Emperor Jehangeer and his beloved and beautiful Nourmahal, in their visit to the Valley of Cashmere, happen to fall into a sort of lovers' quarrel, and in the evening she vails herself, and takes her place among the beautiful female singers who have come to enter- tain the reclining Emperor — one of whom seems disposed to avail herself of the opportunity to attract the wounded and wandering love of Jehangeer in a wrong direction, when the vailed Nourma- hal, at the pause, strikes her lute and sings sweetly : " There's a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told, When two that are linked in one heavenly tie, With heart never changing, and brow never cold, Love on through all ills, and love on till they die I One hour of a passion so sacred is worth "Whole ages of heartless and wandering bliss ; And O, if there be an elysium on earth, It is this, it is this ! " Jehangeer's heart is touched, and there ensues a happy recon- ciliation. Unfortunately, however, for the poet, there is an anach- ronism here, and a violation of historic truth, as well as an inade- quate translation, for Shah Jehan, who built the Dewan Khass, and inscribed the words on the slab of alabaster over the entrance, was the son of Jehangeer, and it is not likely that his father's wife could quote the words before they were composed. Moore's I2-0 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. picture of Jehangeer and Nourmahal is the very reverse of what truthful history, corroborated by the personal observation of Sir Thomas Roe, tells us of that cruel sot and his talented but unprin- cipled Empress. And she could cherish but little true love for the man that had her noble husband, Sheer Afghan, so basely assassinated in order to gain possession of her person. It is a pity that poetry should be so often perverted and its ele- gancies made to adorn the unworthy and the vile. Nevertheless, we know that "the judgments of God are according to truth," and we see here that no wealth, or power, or magnificence, or human adulation, can shield the guilty when the inevitable hand of the Divine verdict has come. " Elysium " is too European, too Northern, a term to express Shah Jehan's word. But Moore, for a good part of his life a Romanist, may have thought the term over-biblical for his use, and chose the heathen phrase " elysium " in preference to the plain rendering of the word. The inscription runs exactly as follows, expressed in English letters : " Ugur Firdousi ba-roo-i-zameen ust, Ameen ust, ameen ust, ameen ust." And the rendering is : "If there be a paradise on the face of the earth. This is it, this is it, this is it ! " (The original Persian may be found quoted by Dr. Clarke in his Commentary on Nehemiah i, verse 8.) In or near Persia was the region of Paradise, and the fame of the first garden, planted by God, near the banks of the Euphrates, lingered as a tradition in its own vicinity for four thousand years, and led to those imitations of it in the " paradises of Oriental des- pots." Most of the invasions of India were from the regions of the ancient Eden, and the invaders carried with them their ideas of paradise to the land of the Ganges, and tried to reproduce them there. This Dewan Khass was the central object of the most costly one ever planted in India, or perhaps anywhere else. PABADI8E AND ITS PRIVILEGES. 12 1 Standing in the midst of it, how easy it seemed to transport one's self in thought to that similar scene mentioned in the book of Esther i, 4, 7, where, nearly five hundred years before Christ, Ahasuerus, the Persian, " who reigned from India even unto Ethi- opia," displayed his magnificence during the seven days' feast "in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine hnen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble ; the beds [or seats] were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble." Verses 5 and 6. As Dr. Clarke has remarked, the term paradise " is applied to denote splendid apartments, as well dii, fine gardens ; in a word, any place of pleasure and delight" And is not this exactly the idea of the paradise described in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Revelation — the golden city, with its jasper walls and gates of pearl, in the midst of the garden of God, with the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, and the tree of life yield- ing its fruit every month .? In speaking of it Jesus says, " In my Father's house are many mansions." " I go to prepare a place for you." " They shall walk with me in white." " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." How Oriental are all these thoughts ! I have seen the princely Asiatic host, with his guests around him in their white flowine- o robes, moving through his beautiful garden, as he entertained them with his fellowship, with music, and the freest use of the bounties around them ; and the earthly scene has been a vivid image of what the heavenly paradise will be to the redeemed, when they shall find themselves at last in the garden of God, with Jesus as their host, having the right of entrance to his glorious audience hall, and the amazing honor of sitting down with him upon his sapphire throne, in the presence of the host of heaven! See Exod. xxiv, 10; Ezek. i, 26; Rev. iii, 21. The crown worn on the head of the Great Mogul was worthy of the Khass and the throne on which he sat. It was made by the f22 THE LAND OF THE VEDA. great Akbar, in the fashion of that worn by the Persian kings, and was of extraordinary beauty and magnificence. It had twelve points, each surmounted by a diamond of the purest water, while the central point terminated in a single pearl of extraordinary size, the whole, including many valuable rubies, being estimated at a cost equivalent to ;^2,070,ooo sterling, or ^10,350,000. Add one thing more, the Koh-i-noor diamond, on his brow, and you have the Mogul " in all his glory," as he sat on the Peacock Throne in his Dewan Khass, surrounded by Mohammedan princes, by tur- baned and jeweled rajahs, amid splendor which only "the gorgeous East" could furnish, and the fame of which seemed to the poor courts of Europe of that day like a tale of the Arabian Nights. Soon the Portuguese were found making their way around " the Cape of Storms " into the Indian Ocean, and thence to the capital of the Moguls. James I. of England, in 161 5, sent as his embas- sador Sir Thomas Roe, whose chaplain has left us a record of the embassy in A Voyage to the East Indies. Sir Thomas felt keenly the contrast afforded by the unpretending character of the presents and retinue with which his royal master had provided him, to the magnificent ceremonial which he daily witnessed, and in which he was permitted to take part. He remained two years at Jehan- geer's Court. One of the greatest displays occurred on the Em- peror's birthday, when, amid the ceremonies, the royal person was weighed in golden scales twelve times against gold, silver, per- fumes, and other valuables, the whole of which were then divided among the spectators. His description of the splendors of the scene sounds like the veriest romance. On one of the pillars of the Audience Hall is shown the mark of the dagger of the Hindoo Prince of Chittore, who, in the very pres- ence of the Emperor, stabbed to the heart one of the Mohammedan ministers, who made use of some disrespectful language toward him. On being asked how he presumed to do this in tne presence of his sovereign, he answered in almost the very words of Roderic Dhu, "I right my wrongs where they are given, Though it were in the court of Heaven." ^ 'Sillll'llii ', ' P W \ «r^^.>» ~