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8.881
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DS
THE HISTORY
OF BRITISH INDIA,
BY
MILL & WILSON.
TOT
IN TEN VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
2875
THE HISTORY OF

BRITISH
BY JAMES MILL, ESQ.
FIFTH EDITION WITH NOTES AND CONTINUATION,
BY HORACE HAYMAN WILSON, M.A., F.R.S.
MEDRER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, OF TIE ASIATIC SOCIETIES OP PARIS, BOSTOX AND CALCUTTA,
1XD OP TIIS ORIENTAL SOCIETY OF GERMANY; OP TIIB IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, AND T116
JMPERIAL ACADEMIES OF VIEXXA AND ST. PETERSBUROI; OP TIE ROYAL ACADEMIES
OP BERLIN AND DUYICI, ETC., ETC.; AND DODEN PROFESSOR or
SANSCRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXPORD.
VOLUME I.
LONDON:
JAMES MADDEN, 8, LEADENHALL STREET;
PIPER, STEPHENSON AND SPENCE,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
J
DI. DCCC.LVIII
mensen
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WERTHEIMER AND CO.,
CLBCL'S PLACE, FINSBURY CIRCUS.
CONTENTS.
BAGE.
Preface
Glossary .......
vii
............. Xxxvii
BOOK I.
Commencement of the British Intercourse with India, and the Circum-
stances of its progress, till the Establishment of the Company on a
durable Basis, by the Act of the Sixth of Queen Anne ............
1
CHAPTER I.
From the Commencement of the Efforts to begin a Trade with India.
till the Change of the Company from a regulated to a Joint-stock
Company...........
...........
2
CHAPTER II.
From the Change of the Company into a Joint-stock Company, in
1612, till the Formation of the Third Joint-stock in 1631-32 ...
21
CHAPTER III.
From the Formation of the Third Joint-stock, in 1632, till the Coa-
lition of the Company with the Merchant Adventurers in 1657.... 45
1-03s -
CHAPTER IV.
From the Coalition between the Company and the Merchant Adyen-
turers, till the Project for a new and a rival East India Company 62
CHAPTER V.
From the Project of forming a new and rival Company, till the Union
of the two Companies by the Award of Godolphin, in the year
1711 ......
....
SO
Prolowa. 172.,
CONTENTS.
BOOK II.--OF THE HINDUS.
CHAPTER I.
Chronology and Ancient History of the Hindus .....
CHAPTER II.
Classification and Distribution of the People ........
.........
123
CHAPTER III.
The Form of Government .....
CHAPTER IV.
The Laws .......
CHAPTER V.
The Taxes.
CHAPTER VI.
eligion.........
.........
228
CHAPTER VII.
Manners ......
........
303
PREFACE OF THE EDITOR.
IN the Preface to the History of British India, Mr. Mill
has claimed for himself the merits of patient and
laborious investigation, and of original and independent
judgment. The claim is substantiated by his work. His
history is remarkable for extensive and diligent research,
and for opinions which are peculiar either to the author,
or to the school of which he was a distinguished disciple.
Whilst, however, the historian of British India has de-
rived the facts which he relates from numerous and
diversified sources of information, and has investigated
those sources with undeniable industry and unquestion-
able talent, it is not to be imagined that his labours have
in every instance been rewarded with success, or that he
has left nothing unexplored. He has himself taken pains
to guard against such an expectation. He acknowledges
that his opportunities of consulting published authorities
were sometimes transient and precarious, that in some
things, the unpublished documents of which he had need
were not accessible to him; and that in the latter portion
of his work, which may be regarded as almost contempo-
rary history, he was in want of much personal information
which he believed to exist, and which might have rendered
his narrative richer, and perhaps more accurate in matters
of detail. To supply in some degree the omissions, and to
correct the inaccuracies which have arisen from these
causes, as far as additional materials supply the means,
is one of the objects of the present publication. Many
of the documents, and much of the personal information
which Mr. Mill desiderated, have been given to the public
since he wrote, and various valuable works, comprehending
periods and transactions of which he treats, have furnished
viii
PREFACE.
facilities for clearly understanding, and definitively appre-
ciating much that was dark and doubtful at the date of his.
inquiries. Of these publications, it is sufficient here to
specify the works of Sir John Malcolm, the biographies of
Clive and Munro, and the Indian portion of the despatches
of Marquis Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington.
Besides the defects occasioned by incomplete materials,
the History of British India presents inaccuracies both of
fact and opinion, which have risen from the author's im-
perfect knowledge of the country, and unacquaintance
with any of the languages spoken in it. He has taken
great pains to prove that these deficiencies are of no con-
sideration, and that his never having been in India, and
his possessing but a slight and elementary acquaintance
with any of the languages of the East, are to be regarded
rather as qualifications than disqualifications for the task
which he had undertaken. His arguments are ingenious:
they will carry conviction but to few. It is true that resi-
dence in a country, command of its dialects, conversancy
with its literature, are but humble elements in the forma-
tion of the historical character; but they are elements,
and cannot be discarded without injury to the consistency
and completeness of the whole. It is also true, that there
are many circumstances in the position of the servants of
the East India Company, which are unpropitious to the
development and cultivation of the talent and knowledge
requisite to constitute a historian of India; but, although
these circumstances may counterbalance, in the individuals
themselves, the benefits derivable from personal observa-
tion, they do not therefore invalidate the reality of those
benefits, or render local knowledge altogether valueless.
It may be without reservation conceded, that no one per-
son of the many who have been engaged in official duty in
India, or who have earned distinction as oriental scholars,
has yet brought to the attempt to write a history of India
the same degree of fitness as Mr. Mill; yet it cannot but
be felt, that had Mr. Mill himself passed but a short time
in the country, or been but moderately versed in any de-
PREFACE.
ix
partment of its literature, his history would have been
exempt from many of those blemishes by which its per-
fectness is now impaired, and its utility diminished..
Personal knowledge of a country, and especially of India,
possesses one great recommendation, of which Mr. Mill
does not seem to have been aware. It secures one im-
portant historical requisite, of the want of which his pages
present many striking examples. It enables the historian
to judge of the real value of that evidence to which he
must have recourse for matters that are beyond the sphere
of his own observation. Mr. Mill justly argues, that it is
only by combining the observations of a number of indi-
viduals, that a.comprehensive knowledge of any one subject
can be acquired, and that in so extensive and complicated
a subject as India, a very small portion.can fall under the
cognizance of any single observer. Yet it should be con-
sidered, that although the subject be diversified in its
details, it is in substance the same. Amidst all the
varieties of the picture, there are many features in com-
mon, and he to whom those features are familiar, will be
able to judge of the fidelity with which they are delineated
by another and will thence be able to ivfer the power and
disposition of the artist, to portray with truth and skill the
lineaments which are less intimately known to himself.
He will be in a situation to estimate with accuracy the
opportunities which the author of an account of any part
of India may have enjoyed, of gathering authentic infor-
mation; he will be in the way of learning something of
the narrator's pursuits, habits, occupation, and preposses-
sions, and will by daily experience be prepared for the
many circumstances by which observation is biassed, and
opinions are instilled. He will know what to credit, what
to mistrust, what to disbelieve. He will be qualified to
select the pure metal from the dross, to separate the false
from the true. An incompetency to perform this most
essential part of the duties of a careful and critical histo-
rian is constantly apparent in the citations which Mr. Mill
was made, either in his text or his notes, from writers on
PREFACE.
India. He commonly attaches the greatest weight to the
authorities which are least entitled to confidence, or
adduces from those of a higher order, the passages which
are least characterized by care and consideration. Nu-.
merous instances of Mr. Mill's mistaken estimate and
partial application of authority are pointed out in the
present publication. To have specified all, would have
swelled the annotations to a disproportionate and incon-
venient bulk. A local knowledge of India on the part of
its historian, would have obviated the necessity of most of
these animadversions.
Acquaintance with the languages and literature of India
would have preserved Mr. Mill from some other mistaken
conclusions. He states it as his conviction, that even
when he wrote, a sufficient stock of information had been
collected in the languages of Europe to enable an inquirer
to ascertain every important point in the history of India.
As far as this assertion may be considered applicable to
the European part of Indian history, it is inconsistent
with the deficiencies which he has himself indicated. It
is still more incorrect when applied to the history of the
Hindus and the Mohammedans of Hindustan. Many very
important accessions have been acquired in both these
- respects since the publication of the history of British
India, but many more remain to be supplied, before it can
be asserted with truth, that every important point in the
history of India has been ascertained. In the Journals of
the several Asiatic Societies, and the publications of
various Hindu scholars, information almost entirely new
and of exceeding interest, has been obtained within the
last few years, relating to the religion, philosophy, and
ancient history of the Hindus, whilst their later fortunes
have been richly illustrated by the history of the Mara-
thas, and the Annals of Rajasthan: until, however, some
of the Puranas, and the chief portion of the Vedas, shall
have been translated, it is not safe to speculate upon the
scope and character of the primitive institutions of the
Hindus, and for more recent periods, it is still essential to
PREFACE.
. Xi
extend investigation into those chronicles of the native
states which are known to have existence. The whole of
the Mohammedan history of India, when Mr. Mill wrote,
was restricted to a single compilation, loosely if not incor-
rectly translated, and to a few fragmentary notices snatched
from obliviou by the industrious curiosity of European
orientalists. We have now a more trustworthy translation
of Ferishta, and in the autobiography of Baber, and in
other publications, much more copious and serviceable
contributions to our knowledge of the transactions of the
Mohammedans in India: but every epoch of their rule
abounds with original authorities, many of which are of
great merit, and the principal of these must be translated
or consulted before we can venture to affirm that we have,
in the languages of Europe, materials sufficient for the de-
termination of every important point in the Mohammedan
history of India.
From these remarks it will be apparent, that with regard
to the facts of his history, the sources of his information
were more scanty and less pure than the historian sus-
pected. Exceptions even more comprehensive may be
taken to his opinions. In many instances, the intensity
of his prejudices has dimmed the clearness of his per-
ception, and blunted the acuteness of his intelligence.
However unconscious of deserving the imputation, he is
liable to the censure which he has pronounced upon one
class of candidates for popular approbation. He is a
zealot for a party; he panegyrizes its leader; he places its
principles in the fairest light; he labours to bring odium
upon the principles and practices of his opponents; he
advocates, in a word, the theoretical views of Mr. Bentham,
and tries all measures and all institutions by a scale con-
structed according to the notions of that writer upon law
and government. As long as the opinions thus prompted,
are put forth as abstract propositions, or affect conclusions
irrelevant to the main subject of the composition, it has
not been thought necessary to controvert them, but when
they are employed as standards by which to try the con-
xii
PREFACE.
dụct of the East India. Company and of their servants,
either in their commercial or political connexion with
India, it has been occasionally attempted to demonstrate
their unsoundness, their inapplicability, or their injustice.
Of the proofs which may be discovered in Mr. Mill's
history of the operation of preconceived opinions, in con-
fining a vigorous and active understanding to a partial and
one-sided view of a great question, no instance is more
remarkable than the unrelenting pertinacity with which
he labours to establish the barbarism of the Hindus. In-
digrant at the exalted, and it may be granted, sometimes
exaggerated descriptions of their advance, in civilization,
of their learning, their sciences, their talents, their virtues,
which emanated from the amiable enthusiasm of Sir
William Jones, Mr. Mill has entered the lists against him
with equal enthusiasm, but a less commendable purpose,
and has sought to reduce them as far below their proper
level, as their encomiasts may have formerly elevated
them above it. With very imperfect knowledge, with
materials exceedingly defective, with an implicit faith in
all testimony hostile to Hindu pretensions, he has elabo-
rated a portrait of the Hindus which has no resemblance
whatever to the original, and which almost outrages hu-
manity. As he represents them, the Hindus are not only
on a par with the least civilized nations of the Old and
New World, but they are plunged almost without excep-
tion in the lowest depths of immorality and crime. Con-
sidered merely in a literary capacity, the description of the
Hindus in the History of British India, is open to censure
for its obvious unfairness and injustice; but in the effects
which it is likely to exercise upon the connexion between
the people of England and the people of India, it is
chargeable with more than literary demerit: its tendency
is evil; it is calculated to destroy all sympathy between
the rulers and the ruled; to preoccupy the minds of those
who issue annually from Great Britain, to monopolize the
posts of honour and power in Hindustan, with an un-
founded aversion towards those over whom they exercise
PREFACE.
xili
that power, and from whom they enforce that honour; and
to substitute for those generous and benevolent feelings,
which the situation of the younger servants of the Com-
pany in India naturally suggests, sentiments of disdain,
suspicion, and dislike, uncongenial to their age and cha-
racter, and wholly incompatible with the full and faithful
discharge of their obligations to Government and to the
people. There is reason to fear that these consequences
are not imaginary, and that a harsh and illiberal spirit has
of late years prevailed in the conduct and councils of the
rising service in India, which owes its origin to impressions
imbibed in early life from the History of Mr. Mill. It is
understood, that had he lived to revise the work, he would
probably have modified some of the most exceptionable
passages in this part of it, and it has been an especial ob-
ject of the present edition, to show that the unfavourable
views which Mr. Mill exhibits of the civilization and cha-
racter of the Hindus, are always extreme, and are not
unfrequently erroneous and unjust.
It may be thought inconsistent with the unfavourable
opinions thus avowed of the History of British India in
such important particulars, to have engaged in preparing
a new edition of it for the public; but, notwithstanding
the imputations which have been urged to its disavantage.
the editor regards the history of Mr. Mill as the most va-
luable work upon the subject which has yet been pub-
lished. It is a composition of great industry, of extensive
information, of much accuracy on many points, of unre-
laxing vigour on all; and even where the reader may not
feel disposed to adopt the views it advocates, he will rarely
fail to reap advantage from the contemplation of them, as
they are advanced to illustrate the relations between India
and Great Britain. The vast importance of that connexion
is never lost sight of; and in describing the steps by which
it was formed, or speculating on the means by which it
may be perpetuated, a lofty tone of moral and political
principle is maintained; which, even when we may think
that the principles are unfairly applied, is entitled to our
xiv
PREFACE.
respect, which, in a great number of instances, commands
unhesitating acquiescence and which is well worthy of
imitation by all to whom the interests of our Indian em.
pire are matters, either of theoretical reasoning, or of prac-
work, it has been intended only to explain the motives of
those endeavours which have been made to remedy them;
and it is hoped, that in the annotations which have been
inserted, such correctives will have been provided, as may
obviate the evil consequences of what the editor appre-
hends to be mistaken or mischievous, without impairing
the utility, or detracting from the credit of that which he
believes to be correct and instructive.
PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.
TN the course of reading and investigation, necessary for
acquiring that measure of knowledge which I was
anxious to possess, respecting my country, its people, its
government, its interests, its policy, and its laws, I was
met, and in some degree surprised, by extraordinary diffi-
culties, when I arrived at that part of my inquiries which
related to India. On other subjects, of any magnitude and
importance, I generally found, that there was some one
book, or small number of books, containing the material
part of the requisite information; and in which direction
was obtained, by reference to other books, if, in any part,
the reader found it necessary to extend his researches. In
regard to India, the case was exceeding different. The
knowledge, requisite for attaining an adequate conception
where. It was scattered in a great variety of repositories,
sometimes in considerable portions, often in very minute
ones; sometimes by itself, often mixed up with subjects of
a very different nature : and, even where information re-
lating to India stood disjoined from other subjects, a small
large mass of what was trifling and insignificant; and of a
body of statements, given indiscriminately as matters of
fact, ascertained by the senses, the far greater part was in
general only matter of opinion, borrowed, in succession, by
one set of Indian gentlemen from another.
In bestowing the time, labour, and thought, necessary
to explore this assemblage of heterogeneous things, and to
1 The dificulty arising from this source of false information was felt by the
very first accurate historian.
Οι γαρ ανθρωποι τας ακοας των προγεγενημένων, και ην επιχωρια σφισιν
n, Ouws o.BugaVLOTWS Tap' autonwv dcxovrai. Thucyd. lib. i. c.*Other ex-
cellent observations to the same purpose are found in thic tiro following
chapters.
xvi
PREFACE.
separate, for my own use, what was true and what was
useful, from what was insignificant and what was false, I
was led to grieve, that none of those who had preceded
me, in collecting for himself a kuowledge of Indian affairs,
had been induced to leave his collection for the benefit
of others; and perform the labour of extracting and order-
ing the dispersed and confused materials of a knowledge
of India, once for all. The second reflection was, that, if
those who preceded me had neglected this important ser-
vice, and in so doing were not altogether free from blame,
neither should I be exempt from the same condemnation,
if I omitted what depended upon me, to facilitate and
abridge to others the labour of acquiring a knowledge of
India ; an advantage I should have valued so higbly, had
it been afforded by any former inquirer.
In this manner, the idea of writing a History of India
was first engendered in my mind. I should have shrunk
from the task, had I foreseen the labour in which it has
involved me.
The books, in which more or less of information re-
specting India might be expected to be found, were suffi-
ciently numerous to compose a library, some were books
of travels, some were books of History. Some contained
philological, some antiquarian, researches. A conside-
rable number consisted of translations from the writings
of the natives in the native tongues; others were books on
the religion of the people of India; books on their laws ;
books on their sciences, manners, and arts.
The transactions in India were not the only transactions
of the British nation, to which the affairs of India had
given birth. Those affairs had been the subject of much
discussion by the press, and of many legislative, executive,
and even judicial proceedings, in England. Those discus-
sions and proceedings would form of course an essential
part of the History of British India ; and the materials of
it remained to be extracted, with much labour, from the
voluminous records of British literature, and British le-
gislation.
PREFACE.
xvii
The British legislature had not satisfied itself with deli-
berating, and deciding ; it had also inquired; and, inquir.--
ing, it had called for evidence. This call, by the fortunate
publicity of parliamentary proceedings, brought forth the
records of the councils in India, and their correspondence,
with one another, with their servants, and with the con-
stituted authorities in England; a portion of materials, in-
estimable in its value ; but so appalling by its magnitude,
that many years appeared to be inadequate to render the:
mind familiar with it.
Such is a short and very imperfect description of the
state of the materials. The operations necessary to draw
from them a useful history, formed the second subject of
consideration. To omit other particulars, which will easily
present themselves, and are common to this with all under-
takings of similar nature, a peculiar demand, it is evident,
was presented for the exercise of discrimination, that is, of
criticism, in a chaotic mass, of such extent, where things
relating to the subject were to be separated from things
foreign to it; where circumstances of importance were to
be separated from circumstances that were insignificant ;
where real facts, and just inferences, were to be separated
from such as were the contrary; and above all things
where facts really testified by the senses, were to be
descriminated from matters, given as testified by the
them, in the minds of the reporters themselves.?
I "Il y avoit plus de choses là-dessus qu'on ne le croyoit coinmunement, mais
clles étoient noyées dans une foule de recueils immenses, en langues Latine,
Espagnole, Angloise, et Hollandoise, où personne ne s'avisoit de les aller cher-
cher; dans une quantité de routiers très-secs, très ennuyeux, relatifs à cent
autres objects, et dont il seroit presque impossible de rendre la lecture intéres-
sante. Les difficultés ne touchent guère ceux qui ne les essayent pas." Ilist.
des Navigations aux Terres Australes, par M. le Président de Brosse.
2 “L'on ne sent trop," says Mr. Gibbon, “combien nons sommes porté à
mêler nos idées avec celles que nous raportons." Mémoire sur la Monarchie
des Médes, Gibbon's Miscel. Works, iii. 61. Ed. 8vo. This infirmity of the
human mind, a fact of great importance, both in speculation and in action,
the reader, who is not already acquainted with it, will find very elegantly
illustrated in one of the chapters of the second volume of the work of
Mir. Dugald Stewart, on the Philosophy of the Eluman Mind. Vol.ij. note B..
to which more particular reference is made in Book ii, chap. ix. of the present
work. Many examples of it will present themselves in the course of this
VOL. I.
хүiii
1
PREFACE.
A history of India, therefore, to be good for any thing,
must, it was evident, be, what, for want of a better appel-
lation, has been called, " A Critical History.". To criticise
means, to judge. A critical history is, then, a judging
history. But, if a judging history, what does it judge ?
It is evident that there are two, and only two, classes of
objects, which constitute the subject of historical judg-
ments. The first is, the matter of statement, the things
or really thought. The second is, the matter of evidence,
the matter by which the reality of the saying, the doing,
or thinking, is ascertained.
In regard to evidence, the business of criticism visibly,
is, to bring to light the value of each article, to discrimi-
nate what is true from what is false, to combine partial
statements, in order to form a complete account, to com-
pare varying, and balance contradictory statements, in
order to form a correct one.
In regard to the matter of statement, the business of
criticism is, to discriminate between real causes and false
causes ; real effects and false effects ; real tendencies and
falsely-supposed ones; between good ends and evil ends ;
history; for as it is a habit pcculiarly congenial to the mental sta
the natives, so a combination of circumstances has given it unusual effi-
cacy in the minds of those of our countrymen by whom India has been
surveyed.
1 The idea of a critical history is not very old. The first man who seems to
bave had a distinct conception of it, says, “ Je traiterai mon sujet en critique,
suivant la règle de St. Paul, Examinez toutes choses, et ne retenez que ce quiä
est bon. L'histoire n'est bien souvent qu'un mélange confus de faux et de
trai, entassé par des écrivains mal instruits, crédules, ou passionnés. C'est au
lecteur attentif et judicieux d'en faire le discernement, à l'aide d'une critique,
qui ne soit ni trop timide, ni témeraire. Sans le secours de cet art, on erre
dans l'histoire, comme un pilote sur la mer, lorsqu'il n'a ni boussole, ni carte
marine.” Beausobre, Hist. de Manich, Disc. Preliin. p.7.
The same writer has also said, what is not foreign to the present purpose,
"Une histoire critique ne pouvant être trop bien justifiée, j'ai eu soin de mettre
en original, au bas des pages, les passages qui servent de preuve aux faits que
j'avance. C'est un ennuyeux travail, mais je l'ai cru necessaire. Si l'on trouve
qu'à moi, et le lecteur peut bien m'en pardonner la dépense." Id. Ibid. Pref.
p. 24.
A great historian of our own has said: “It is the right, it is the duty of a
critical historian to collect, to weigh, to select the opinions of his predecessors;
and the more diligence he has exerted in the search, the more rationally he
may hope to add some improvement to the stock of knowledge, the use of
which has been common to all." Gibbon's Miscel. Works, iy. 580.
PREFACE.
xix
means that are conducive, and means not conducive to
the ends to which they are applied.
In exhibiting the result of these several jucigments, the
satisfaction, or the instruction of the reader, is very imper-
fectly provided for, if the reasons are not adduced. I have
no apology therefore to make, for those inductions, or
those ratiocinations, sometimes of considerable length
which were necessary to exhibit the grounds upon which
my decisions were founded. Those critical disquisitions
may be well, or they may be ill performed; they may lead
they are, indisputably, in place; and my work, whatever
had been its virtues in other respects, would have remained
most imperfect without them.2
There will be but one opinion, I suppose, with regard
to the importance of the service, which I have aspired to
the honour of rendering to my country; for the public
are inclined to exaggerate, rather than extenuate, the mag-
nitude of the interests which are involved in the manage-
ment of their Indian affairs. And it may be affirmed, as a
principle not susceptible of dispute, that good manage-
ment of any portion of the affairs of any community is
almost always proportional to the degree of knowledge
respecting it diffused in that community. Hitherto the
knowledge of India enjoyed by the British community has
been singularly defective. Not only among the unedu-
cated, and those who are regardless of knowledge, but
among those who are solicitous to obtain a competent
? Even those strictures, which sometimes occur, on institutions purely
British, will be all found, I am persuaded, to be not only strictly connected
with measures which relate to India, and which have actually grown out of
those institutions; but indispensably necessary to convey complete and correct
ideas of the Indian policy which the institutions in question contributed mainly
to shape. The whole course of our Indian policy having, for example, been
directed by the laws of parliamentary influence, how could the one be ex-
plained without adducing, as in the last chapter of the fourth volume, and in
some other places, the leading principles of the other ? The result of all the
judicial inquiries, which have been attempted in England, on Indian affairs,
depending in a great degree on the state of the law in England, how could
these events be sufficiently explained, without adducing, as in the chapter on
the trial of Mr. Hastings, those particulars in the state of the law of England
on which the results in question appeared more remarkably to depend ? The
importance of this remark will be felt, and, I hope, remembered, when the
time for judging of the use and pertinence of those elucidations arrives.
XX
PREFACE.
share of information with respect to every other branch of
the national interests, nothing is so rare as to meet with
a man who can with propriety be said to know anything
of India and its affairs. A man who has any considerable
acquaintance with them, without having been forced to
acquire it by the offices he bas. filled, is scarcely to be
found.
The same must continue to be the case till the know-
ledge of India is rendered more accessible. Few men can
afford the time sufficient for perusing even a moderate
portion of the documents from which a knowledge of India,
approaching to completeness, must have hitherto been
derived. Of those, whose time is not wholly engrossed,
either by business or by pleasure, the proportion is very
moderate whom the prospect of a task so heavy, and so
tedious, as that of exploring the numerous repositories of
Indian knowledge, would not deter. And, with respect to
the most important of all the sources of information, the
parliamentary documents, they were not before the public,
and were by the very nature of the case within the reach
of a number comparatively small.
• But though no dispute will arise about the importance
of the work, I have no reason to expect the same unani-
mity about the fitness of the workman.
One objection will doubtless be taken, on which I think
it necessary to offer some observations, notwithstanding
the unfavourable sentiments which are commonly excited
by almost any language in which a man can urge preten-
sions which he may be suspected of urging as his own;
pretensions which, though they must exist in some degree
in the case of every man who writes a book, and ought to
be encouraged, therefore, rather than extinguished, had
better, in general, be understood, than expressed.
This writer, it will be said, has never been in India ;
and, if he has any, has a very slight and elementary ac-
quaintance with any of the languages of the East.
I confess the facts, and will now proceed to mention the
considerations which led me, notwithstanding, to conclude
PREFACE.
xxi
that I might still produce a work of considerable utility,
on the subject of India.
In the first place, it appeared to me, that a sufficient
stock of information was now collected in the languages of
Europe, to enable the inquirer to ascertain every important
point in the history of India. If I was right in that opi-
nion, it is evident, that a residence in India, or a know-
ledge of the languages of India, was, to express myself
moderately, not indispensable.
In the next place, I observed, that no exceptions were
taken to a President of the Board of Control, or to a Go-
vernor-General, the men intrusted with all the powers of
government in India, because they had never been in
India, and knew none of its languages. .
Again, I certainly knew, that some of the most success-
ful attempts in history had been made, without ocular
knowledge of the country, or acquaintance with its lan-
guages. Robertson, for example, vever beheld America;
though he composed its history. He never was in either
· Germany or Spain, yet he wrote the history of Charles the
Fifth. Of Germany he knew uot so much as the language;
and it was necessary for him to learn that of Spain, only
lated into any of the languages with which he was ac-
quainted. Tacitus, though he never was in Germany, and
was certainly not acquainted with the language of our un-
cultivated ancestors, wrote the exquisite account of the
manners of the Germans.
But, as some knowledge may be acquired by seeing
India, which cannot be acquired without it; and as it can
be pronounced of hardly any portion of knowledge that it
is altogether useless, I will not go so far as to deny, that a
man would possess advantages, who, to all the qualifica-
tions for writing a history of India which it is possible to
acquire in Europe, should add those qualifications which
can be acquired only by seeing the country and conversing
with its people. Yet I have no doubt of being able to
make out, to the satisfaction of all reflecting minds, that
xxii
PŘEFACE.
the man who should bring to the composition of a history
of India, the qualifications alone which can be acquired in
Europe, would come, in an almost infinite degree, better
fitted for the task, than the man who should bring to it
the qualifications alone which can be acquired in India ;
and that the business of acquiring the one set of qualifica-
tions is almost wholly incompatible with that of acquiring
the other.
For, let us inquire what it is that a man can learn, by.
going to India, and understanding its languages. He can
treasure up the facts which are presented to his senses ;
he can learn the facts which are recorded in such native
books as have not been translated ; and he can ascertain
facts by conversation with the natives, which have never
yet been committed to writing. This he can do ; and I
am not aware that he can do any thing further.
. But, as no fact is more certain, so none is of more im-
portance, in the science of human nature, than this; that
the powers of observation, in every individual, are exceed-
ingly limited ; and that it is only by combining the obser-
vations of a number of individuals, that a competent
knowledge of any extensive subject can ever be acquired.
Of so extensive and complicated a scene as India, how
small a portion would the whole period of his life enable
any man to observe !
· If, then, we may assume it as an acknowledged fact, that
an account of India, complete in all its parts, at any one
moment, still more through a series of ages, could never
be derived from the personal observation of any one indi-
vidual, but must be collected from the testimony of a great
number of individuals, of any one of whom the powers of
perception could extend but a little way, it follows, as a
necessary consequence, that a man best qualified for deal-
ing with evidence, is the man best qualified for writing the
history of India. It will not, I presume, admit of much
dispute, that the habits which are subservient to the suc-
cessful exploration of evidence are more likely to be
acquired in Europe than in India.
PREFACE.
Xxli
The man who employs himself in treasuring up, by.
means of perception and the languages, the greatest por-
tion of knowledge in regard to India, is he who employs
the greatest portion of his life in the business of observing
and in making himself familiar with the languages. But
the mental habits which are acquired in mere observing,
and in the acquisition of languages, are almost as different
as any mental habits can be, from the powers of combina-.
tion, discrimination, classification, judgment, comparison,
weighing, inferring, inducting, philosoplizing in short:
which are the powers of most importance for extracting
the precious ore from a great mine of rude historical mate-
rials.
. Whatever is worth seeing or hearing in India, can be
expressed in writing. As soon as every thing of import-
ance is expressed in writing, a man who is duly qualified
may obtain more knowledge of India in one year in his
closet in England, than he could obtain during the course
of the longest life, by the use of his eyes and ears in
India.
As soon as the testimony is received of a sufficient
number of witnesses, to leave no room for mistake from
the partial or the erroneous statements which they may
have separately made, it is hardly doubtful, that a man,
other circumstances being equal, is really better qualified
for forming a correct judgment on the whole, if his infor-
mation is totally derived from testimony, than if some
portion of it is derived from the senses. It is well known,
how fatal an effect on our judgments is exerted by those
impulses, called partial impressions ; in other words, how
much our conceptions of a great whole are apt to be dis-
torted, and made to disagree with their object, by an
undue impression, received from some particular part.
Nobody needs to be informed, how much more vivid, in
general, is the conception of an object which has been
presented to our senses, than that of an object which we
have only heard another man describe. Nobody, there-
fore, will deny, that of a great scene, or combination of
xxiv
PREFACE.
scenes, when some small part has been seen, and the
knowledge of the rest has been derived from testimony,
there is great danger, lest the impression received from
the senses should exert an immoderate influence, hang a
bias on the mind, and render the conception of the whole
erroneous.
If a man were to lay down the plan of preparing himself
for writing the history of India, by a course of observation
in the country, he must do one of two things. Either he
must resolve to observe minutely a part; or he must
resolve to take à cursory review of the whole. Life is
insufficient for more. If his decision is to observe mi-
nutely; a very small portion comparatively is all that he
will be able to observe. What aid can he derive from
this, in writing a history, has partly been already un-
folded, and may for the rest be confided to the reflections
of the intelligent reader.
What I expect to be insisted upon with greatest em-
phasis is, that, if an observer were to take an expansive
view of India, noting, in his progress, those circumstances
alone which are of greatest importance, he would come
with peculiar advantage to the composition of a history;
with lights capable of yielding the greatest assistance in
judging even of the evidence of others. To estimate this
pretension correctly, we must not forget a well-known and
important law of human nature. From this we shall see,
that a cursory view, of the nature of that which is here
described, is a process in the highest degree effectual, not
for removing error, and perfecting knowledge, but for
strengthening all the prejudices, and confirming all the
prepossessions or false notions, with which the observer
sets out. This result is proved by a very constant expe-
rience; and may further be seen to spring, with an almost
irresistible necessity, from the constitution of the human
mind. In a cursory survey, it is understood, that the
mind, unable to attend to the whole of an infinite number
of objects, attaches itself to a few; and overlooks the
multitude that remain. But what, then, are the objects
.
PREFACE.
XXV.
to which the mind, in such a situation, is in preference
attracted ? Those which fall in with the current of its
own thoughts; those which accord with its former im-
pressions; those which confirm its previous ideas. These
are the objects to which, in a hasty selection, all ordinary
minds are directed, overlooking the rest. For what is the
principle in the mind by which the choice is decided ?
Doubtless that of association. And is not association
governed by the predominant ideas? To this remains to
be added, the powerful influence of the affections; first,
the well-known pleasure which a man finds, in meeting, at
every step, with proofs that he is in the right, inspiring
an eagerness to look out for that source of satisfaction;
and, secondly, the well-known aversion whiclra man usually
has, to meet with proofs that he is in the wrong, yielding
a temptation, commonly obeyed, to overlook such disagree-
able objects.
He who, without having been a percipient witness in
India, undertakes, in Europe, to digest the materials of In-
dian history, is placed, with regard to the numerous indivi-
duals who may have been in India, and of whom one has
seen and reported one thing, another has seen and reported
another thing, in a situation very analogous to that of
the judge, in regard to the witnesses who give their evi-
dence before him. In the investigation of any of those
complicated scenes of action, on which a judicial decision
is sometimes required, one thing has commonly been ob-
served by one witness, another thing has been observed
by another witness; the same thing has been observed in
one point of view by one, in another point of view by
another witness ; some things are afirmed by one, and
denied by another. In this scene, the judge, putting to-
gether the fragments of information which he has seve-
they agree and where they differ, exploring the tokens of
fidelity in one, of infidelity in another; of correct concep-
tion in one, of incorrect conception in another ; comparing
the whole collection of statements with the general proba-
xxvi
PREFACE.
bilities of the case, and trying it by the established laws
of human nature, endeavours to arrive at a complete and
correct conception of the complicated transaction, on
which he is called to decide. Is it not understood, that in
such a case as this, where the sum of the testimony is
abundant, the judge, who has seen no part of the transac-
tion has yet, by his investigation, obtained a more perfect
conception of it, than is almost ever possessed by any of
the individuals from whom he has derived his informa-
tion ?1
But, if a life, in any great degree devoted to the collee-
tion of facts loy the senses and to the acquiring of tongues,
is thus incompatible with the acquisition of that know-
ledge, and those powers of mind, which are most conducive
to a masterly treatment of evidence; it is still less compa-
tible with certain other endowments, which the discharge
of the highest duties of the historian imperiously demands.
Great and difficult as is the task of extracting perfectly the
light of evidence from a chaos of rude materials, it is yet
not the most difficult of his operations, nor that which re-
quires the highest and rarest qualifications of the mind.
It is the business of the historian not merely to display
1 The Indians themselves lave & striking apologue to illustrate the supe-
riority of the comprehensive student over the partial observer.
“One day in conversation," says Dir. Ward, with the Sungskritu, head
pundit of the College of Fort William, on the subject of God, this man, who
is truly learned in his own Shastruis, gave the author, from one of their books,
the following parable:-In a certain country, there existell a village of blind
men, who had heard of an amazing auiinal called the cleplant, of the shape of
which, however, they could procure no idea. One day an elephant passed
through the place; tlie villagers crowded to the spot where the animal was
standing; and one of them seized his trunk, another his car, another his
tail, another one of his legs. After thus endeavouring to gratify their curio-
sity, they returned into the village, and sitting down together, began to
communicate their ideas on the shape of the elcphant, to the villagers; the
inan who had seized his trunk said, he thought this animal must be like
the body of the plantain tree; he who had touched his car was of opinion,
that he was like the winnowing fun; the man who had laid bolil of his tail,
said he thought he must resemble a snake; and he who had caught his lcg
declared, he must be like a pillar. An old blind man, of some judgment,
was present, who, though greatly perplexed in attempting to reconcile these
jarring notions, at length said-You have all been to examine the animal,
and what you report, therefore, cannot be false : I suppose, then, that the
part resembling the plantain tree must be his trunk; what you thought similar
to a fan must be his ear; the part like a snake must be the tail ; and that like
a pillar must be his leg. In this way, the old man, uniting all their conjec-
tares; made out something of the form of the elephant." A View of the History,
Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos. By the Rev. 1. Ward. Introduction
p. lxxxvii. London Ed, 1817.
PREFACE.
Xxvii
the obvious outside of things; the qualities which strike
and ordinances, which form the subject of his statements.
His duty is, to convey just ideas of all those objects; of
all the transactions, legislative, administrative, judicial,
mercantile, military, which he is called upon to describe.
But in just ideas of great measures what is implied ? A
clear discernment, undoubtedly, of their causes; a clear
discernment of their consequences; a clear discernment of
their natural tendencies; and of the circumstances likely
to operate either in combination with these natural ten-
dencies, or in opposition to them. To qualify a man for
this great duty hardly any kind or degree of knowledge is
not demanded ; hardly any amount of knowledge, which
it is within the competence of one man to acquire, will be
regarded as enough. It is plain, for example, that he
needs the most profound knowledge of the laws of human
nature, which is the end, as well as instrument, of every
thing. It is plain, that he requires the most perfect compre-
hension of the principles of human society; or the course,
into which the laws of human nature impel the human
being, in his gregarious state, or when formed into a com-
plex body along with others of his kind. The historian
requires a clear comprehension of the practical play of the
machinery of government; for, in like manner as the
general laws of motion are counteracted and modified by
friction, the power of which may yet be accurately ascer-
tained and provided for, so it is necessary for the histo-
rian correctly to appreciate the counteraction which the
dividual or specific varieties, and that allowance for it with
which his anticipations and conclusions ought to be
formed. In short, the whole field of human nature, the
whole field of legislation, the whole field of judicature, the
whole field of administration, down to war, commerce, and
diplomacy, ought to be familiar to his mind.
· 1" Allx yeux d'un philosophe, les faits composent la partie la moins intéres-
sante de l'histoire. C'est la connoissance de l'homme; la morale, et la politique
qu'il y trouve, qui la relèvent dans son esprit." Gibbon, Mém. Sur la Monar-
chie des Modes, Misc. Works, iii, 126. Ed. Syo.
Xxviii
PREFACE.
What then? it will be said, and most reasonably said;
do you hold yourself up, as the person in whom all these
high qualifications are adequately combined ? No. And
I am well assured, that by not one of those by whom I
shall be criticised, not even by those by whom I shall be
treated with the greatest severity, will the distance be-
tween the qualifications which I possess, and the qualifi-
·cations which are desirable in the writer of a history, be
estimated at more than it is estimated by myself. But the
whole of my life, which I may, without scruple, pronounce
to have been a laborious one, has been devoted to the acqui- .
sition of those qualifications; and I am not unwilling to
confess, that I deemed it probable I should be found to
possess them in a greater degree, than those, no part of
whose life, or a very small part, had been applied to the
acquisition of them. I was also of opinion, that if nobody
appeared, with higher qualifications, to undertake the work,
it was better it should be done imperfectly, better it should
be done even as I might be capable of doing it, thap not
done at all.
Among the many virtues which have been displayed by
the Company's servants, may justly be enumerated the
candour with which they themselves confess the necessity
under. which they are laid, of remaining to a great degree
ignorant of India. That they go out to their appointments
at a time of life when a considerable stock of general know-
ledge cannot possibly have been acquired, is a fact which
nobody will dispute. And they are the foremost to de-
..clare, that their situation in India is such, as to preclude
them from the acquisition of local knowledge. Notwith-
standing the high degree of talent, therefore, and even of
literary talent, which many of them have displayed, more
than some very limited portion of the history of India
none of them has ventured to undertake.?
i The following words are not inapplicable, originally applied to a mucli
more limited subject. De quibus partibus singuis, quidam separatim scribere
maluerunt, velut onus totius corporis veriti, et sic quoque complures de una-
quaque earum libros ediderunt: quas ego omnes ausus contexere prope infi-
nitum mihi laborem prospicio, et ipsa cogitatione suscepti muneris fatigor.
Sed durandum est quia cæpimus, et si viribus deficiemur, animo tamen perse-
Verandum. Quinct. Inst. Or. lib. 4. Proæm.
PREFACE.
xxix
“When we consider," said Lord Teignmouth, in his cele-
brated Minute on the Revenues of Bengal, “ the nature and
magnitude of our acquisitions, the characters of the people
placed under our dominion, their difference of language,
and dissimilarity of manners; that we entered upon the ad-
ministration of the government ignorant of its former con-
stitution, and with little practical experience in Asiatic fi-
nance, it will not be deemed surprising that we should havo
fallen into errors; or if any should at this time require cor-
rection.--If we further consider the form of the British
Government in India, we shall find it ill calculated for the
speedy introduction of improvement. The members com-
posing it are in a state of constant fluctuation, and the
period of their residence often expires, before experience
can be acquired, or reduced to practice. Official forms
necessarily occupy a large portion of time; and the con-
stant pressure of business leaves little leisure for study
and reflection, without which no knowledge of the princi-
ples and detail of the revenues of this country can be
attained. True information is also procured with diffi-
culty, because it is too often derived from mere practice,
instead of being deduced from fixed principles.” 1
Lord William Bentinck, after being Governor of Fort St.
George, and President of the Council at Madras, expresses
himself in very pointed terms. “The result of my own
observation, during my residence in India, is, that the
Europeans generally know little or nothing of the customs
and manners of the Hindoos. We are all acquainted with
some prominent marks and facts which all who run may
read : but their manner of thinking; their domestic habits
and ceremonies, in which circumstances a knowledge of
the people consists, is, I fear, in great part wanting to us.
We understand very imperfectly their language. They,
perhaps, know more of ours; but their knowledge is by
no means sufficiently extensive to give a description of
I No. 1. Appendix to the Fifth Report of the Select Committee of the
House of Commons, on the Affairs of the East India Company, in 1810.
This passage the Committee hare thought of sufficient importance to be incor-
:porated in their Report.
PREFACE.
subjects not easily represented by the insulated words in
daily use. We do not, we cannot associate with the nai
tives. We cannot see them in their houses, and with their
families. We are necessarily very much confined to our
houses by the heat. All our wants and business, which
would create a greater intercourse with the natives, is
done for us; and we are in fact strangers in the land.” 1
Another servant of the Company, Sir Henry Strachey,
distinguished both by his local experience, and by general
knowledge, 'remarking upon the state of judicature, under
the English government in India, says, “Another impedi-
ment, though of a very different nature from those I have
mentioned, and much more difficult to remove, is to me
too palpable to be overlooked :- I mean, that arising from
Europeans in our situation being necessarily ill qualified,
in many points, to perform the duties required of us, as
judges and magistrates. This proceeds chiefly from our
very imperfect connexion with the natives ; and our
scanty knowledge, after all our study, of their manners,
customs, and languages.” “We cannot study the genius
of the people in its own sphere of action. We know little
of their domestic life, their knowledge, conversation,
amusements, their trades, and casts, or any of those
tial to a complete knowledge of them.” • “The difficulty
we experience in discerning truth and falsehood among
the natives may be ascribed, I think, chiefly, to our want
of connexion and intercoursé with them; to the pecu-
liarity of their manners and habits, their excessive igno-
rance of our characters ; and our almost equal ignorance
of theirs."2
1 Observations of Lord William Bentinck, printed in the Advertisement,
prefixed to the " Description of the Cliaracter, &c., of the People of India,"
by the Abbé J. A. Dubois, Missionary in the Mysore. If any one should ob-
ject to the testimony of this Ruler, as that of a man who had not been bred in
India, it is to be remembered that the testimony is adduced, as expressing his
Own opinion, by the translator of that work, whose knowledge of India is not
liable to dispute; and given to the world as the opinion of the Court of Direc-
tors, to whom the manuscript belonged, and under whose authority and direc-
'tion, it was both translated and published.
? Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 534, 562. " It is a fact," says another enlight-
encd obseryer," which, however singular and wfortunate, is yet founded in
PREFACE.
xxxi
:: One or two things I may venture to affirm that I have
done.
I have performed the business of research, with a labour,
and patience, which it would not be easy to surpass. And
I believe there is no point, of great importance, involved
in the History of India, which the evidence I have adduced
is not sufficient to determine. I am, at the same time,
aware, that in regard to some things there are documents
which were not within my reach; and, concerning the latter
part of the history, in particular, that there are individuals
in England, possessed of information, which, in several
places, would have rendered the narrative richer, and per-
baps more accurate, in matters of detail. If I shall be
found to have performed, with any tolerable success, what
I had the means of performing, the liberality which dis-
truth, that those persons from whom correct information on these subjects
might justly be expected, are generally the least able, from the peculiar cir-
cumstances of their situation, to supply it; I meal the Company's servants.
--During the early period of their residence in the East, every hour must be
employed, in the acquisition of the languages, in the study of the laws of the
country, and the manners of the natives: whilst the latter years of their ser-
vice are still more unremittingly engrossed, in the discharge of the irksome
and arduous duties of their profession. Considerations on the Present Poli-
tical State of India. By Alexander Fraser Tytler, late Assistant-Judge in the
Twenty-four Pergunnahs, Bengal Establishment, Preface, p. xii. See other
passages to the same purpose, Introduction, p. iv. V. xi.; also i, 77, 357, 415,
And Mr. Tytler quotes with peculiar approbation the passages already given
from the Minute of Lord Teignmouth,
-6 I must beg you always to bear in mind, that when an English gentleman
undertakes to give an account of Indian manners and habits of private life, he
labours under many disadvantages. The obstacles which prevent our ever
viewing the natives of India in their domestic circles are great and insuperable;
such as tlie restrictions of caste on their side, rank and situation in ours, &c.
We do not intermarry with them, as the Portuguese did: nor do we ever mix
with them, in the common duties of social life, on terms of equality. What
knotyledge we have of their domestic arrangements has been gained chiefly by
inquiry, &c." Letters written in & Malıratta camp, &c. by T. D. Broughton,
Esq., p. 3.
See to the same purpose, Sir John Malcolm, Sketch of the Political History
of India, &c., p. 449.
After adverting to certain erroneous notions on Indian subjects, Lieutenant
Moor, the well informed author of the "Narrative of the Operations of Castain
Little's Detachent," observes: “ Other opinions, equally correct and enter-
taining, are indulged by the good people of England; which it is vain to
oppose, for the party was told so by a gentlemani who had been in India,
perhaps a voyage or two; but these, however. respectable in their profession,
are surely not the persons to receive information from, on the subject of the
political characters of the East; no more (nor indeed much less) than some
gentlemen who mav have resided a few years in India ; for we can easily
admit the possibility of a person spending many years of his life in the cities of
Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay, without knowing much more of the politics,
f interior states or countries, than if he bad never stirred out
of London, Dublin, or Edinburgh.” p. 196.
xxxii
I'REFACE.
tinguishes the gentlemen of India gives me reason to
hope, that many of those who are possessed of useful in-
formation, but whom it was impossible for me to find out,
will not be unwilling to contribute their aid to the in-
provement of the History of British India.
Having thus placed before me the materials of Indian
history in a state, I believed, of greater fulness and com-
pleteness, than any preceding inquirer, I followed the
course of my own thoughts in the judgments which I
formed; not because I vainly imagined my thoughts more
Faluable than those of all other men, but because the
sincere and determined pursuit of truth imposed this
rigid law. It would not allow me to give for true the
opinion of any man, till I had satisfied myself that it was
true; still less to give the opinion of any man for true,
when I had satisfied myself that it was not true.
Mr. Locke has declared ; that he who follows his own
thoughts in writing, can hope for approvers in the small
number alone, of those who make use of their own thoughts
in reading ; that, by the rest, “a man is not permitted,
without censure, to follow his own thoughts in the search.
of truth, when they lead him ever so little out of the
common road."
If this is the severe condition, under which a man
follows his own thoughts, in writing even on abstract and
general truths, how much harder must be the lot of him
who follows them, in writing of the actions and characters
of powerful men, and bodies of men ? Conscious, however,
that I had been faithful in forming my opinions, I believed
that I lay under an indispensable obligation to be faithful
in expressing them: “to give them without violation of
modesty, but yet with the courage of a man unwilling to
betray the rights of reason;" and with that manly plain-
ness, which the sincerity of the historical character ap-
peared to require.
I could not overlook the probable consequences. “La
perfection d'une Histoire," says a great judge, “est d'être
désagréable à toutes les sectes, et à toutes les nations ;
PREFACE.
xxxiii
IS
car c'est une preuve que l'auteur ne fatte ni les uns, ni les
autres, et qu'il a dit à chacun ses vérités.":1
He who desires to obtain a considerable portion of in-
mediate applause, has two well-known, and well-trodden
paths before him.
The first is, to be a zealot for some particular and
powerful party; to panegyrize its leaders; attack its
opponents; place its principles and practices in the fairest
possible light; and labour to bring odium upon the prin-
ciples and practices of its opponents. This secures the
loud and vehement applause of those who are gratified;
and the vehement applause of a great party carries, by
.contagion, along with it, all, or the greater part of those
who are not very strongly engaged by their interests of
passions on the opposite side.
The next of the easy ways to the acquisition of fame,
consists of two principal parts. The first is, “ to wanton in
common topics, where a train of sentiment generally
received enables a writer to shine without labour, and to
conquer without a contest.”2 The second is to deal for
ever in .compromise; to give up the half of every opinion
and principle; go no further in favour of any side of any
question, than may be reconcileable in some degree with
the good opinion of those who oppose it; and having
written as much on one side, as to extract applause from
one set of persons, to turn immediately and write as much
on the other, as will extract applause from the opposite
sort. This is done, without glaring marks of inconsistency
by avoiding all close encounter with the subject, and keep-
ing to vague and general phrases. And in this manner,
by a proper command of plausible language, it is easy to
obtain reputation with all parties; reputation, not only o
great talents, but of great moderation, great wisdom, and
great virtue.3
Bayle, Eclaircissemens, sur lc Dictionnaire.
2 Rambler, No. ii.
Some considerabfe reputations have been acquired, by praising every
thing in one's own country. And there are many persons who sincerely
insist ripon it, that a writer ought always to contrive to put his country in
the right : and that it is a proof of his not being a friend to it, if he ever puts it
VOL. I.
xxxiv
PREFACE.
If my book were possessed of a much greater share of
the titles to applause, than even the partialities of the
writer allow him to ascribe to it; I have travelled so very
wide of those beaten paths to success, that my only chance
for it depends, I cannot fail to perceive, upon the degree in
which real liberality, that is, strength of mind, is diffused
in the community. I have done enough, doubtless, to se-
cure to myself the malignity of the intemperate, and the
narrow-minded, of all parties. I have encouraged myself,
however, with the belief, that civilization, and the im-
provement of the human mind, had in this country
attained a sufficient elevation to make a book be received
as useful, though it neither exaggerated, nor extenuated
the good, or the evil, of any man,or combination of men: to
afford a multitude, in every party, far enough removed
from the taint of vulgar antipathies, to yield to an author,
who spoke with sincerity, and who though he has not
spoken with a view to gratify any party, or any individual,
most assuredly has never spoken with a view to hurt any,
& compensation for the hostilities of the lower and more
ungenerous portion of every party.
Though I am aware of many defects in the work which
I have ventured to offer to the public; and cannot forget
how probable it is, that more impartial and more discerning
eyes will discover many which are invisible to mine, I shall
yet appeal from the sentence of him, who shalljudge of me
solely by what I have not done. An equitable and truly
useful decision would be grounded upon an accurate esti-
mation of what I have done, and what I have not done,
taken together.
It will also deserve to be considered, how much was in
the power of any individual to compass. In so vast a sub-
ject, it was clearly impossible for one man to accomplish
every thing. Some things it was necessary to leave that
in the wrong. This is a motive which I utterly disclaim. This is the way, not
to be a friend to one's country, but an enemy. It is to bring upon it the dis-
grace of falsebood and misrepresentation, in the first instance; and, next, to
afford it all the inducement, in the writer's power, to perserere in mischievous,
or in disgraceful courses.
PREFACE.
XXXV
others might be taken; some things it was necessary to
handle but slightly, that others might be treated with
greater attention. The geography, for example, alone,
would have occupied a life-time. To nicety in the details
of geography, I was, therefore, unable to aspire. I followed
without much criticism, the authors whom I was con-
sulting, and was only careful to give, with correctness,
that outline and those particulars, which were necessary
for understanding completely the transactions recorded in
my work. To compensate as far as possible, for that which
in this department, I myself was unable to perform, I was
anxious to afford the reader the advantage of Mr. Arrow-
smith's map, by far the finest display which has yet been
made of the geography of India; and in any discrepancy,
if any should appear, between the text and that reduction
of his noble map, which is prefixed to the second volume,
I desire the reader to be guided rather by the geographer
than by the historian.
In the orthography of Indian names, I should not have
aimed at a learned accuracy, even if my knowledge of the
lauguages had qualified me for the task. I have not been
very solicitous even about uniformity in the same name;
for as almost every author differs from another in the
spelling of Eastern names, it appeared to me to be not
altogether useless, that, in a book intended to serve as an
introduction to the knowledge of India, a specimen of this
irregularity should appear.
There is another apparent imperfection, which I should
have more gladly removed. In revising my work for the
press, some few instances have occurred, in which I have
not been able to verify the references to my authorities.
This rose from one of the difficulties of my situation,
Unable to command at once the large and expensive num-
ber of books, which it was necessary for me to consult, I
Tras often dependent upon accident for the period of
my supply; and, if not provided with the best channels of
information, obliged to pursue my inquiries, at the moment,
in such as I possessed. It was often, in these cases, useful,
Xxxvi
for the sake of memory, and of following out the thread of
research, to quote, in the first instance; at second hand.
When I afterwards obtained the better authority, it was a
matter of anxious care to adjust the reference; but I have
met with some instances in which I am afraid the adjust-
ment has not been performed. I mention this, to obviate
cavils at the appearance of inaccuracy, where the reality
does not exist; inaccuracy in form, rather than in sub-
stance; for I have no apprehension that those who shall
trace nae with the requisite perseverance will accuse me of
wanting either the diligence, or the fidelity of an historian;
and I ought not to have undertaken the task, if I had not
possessed the prospect of obtaining, sooner or later, the
means of carrying it to completion.
GLOSSARY.
ADAWLUT. Justice, equity; a court of | BRAEMEN, BRAEMIN, BRAHMAN, BRAMIN-
justice. The terms. Dewanny Adawlut, A divine, a priest; the first Hindu cast.
and Foujdarry: Adarylut, denote the civil BRINJARRIE, BINJARY, BENJARY, BAN.
and criminal courts of justice. See:Dew JARY. A graiu merchant.
anny and Foujdarry...
BUNGALOW. The name used, in Bengal,
AMEER, MEER, EMIR,. El nobleman,
for a species of country-house, erected
AMEER UL OMRA:E. Noble of nobles, lord by Europeans.
of lords.
ANNA, a piece of money, the sixteenth
CALY YUG, CALVOOGUM. The present or
part of a rupee.
fourth age of the world, according to the
AUMLEN. Trustee, commissioner. A tem-
chronology of the Findus.
porary collector or supervisor, appointed
to the charge of a country on the re-
CASTE, CAST. À tribe, or class of people.
moval of a Zemindar, or for any other
CARAVAN-SERAI. The serai of the Caril-
van. See Serai and Chouitry.
particular purpose of local investigation
CAWZI, CAZI, KAZY. A Mohamıncdan
or arrangement.
judge, or justice, who also officiates as a.
AUMIL. Agent, officer, native collector of
public notary, in attesting deeds, by fox-
revenue. Superintendent of a district or
ing his seal. The same as the officer we
division of a country, either on the part
of the government, Zemindar, or renter,
name Cadi, in Turkey.
CAUZY-UL-CAZAUT. Jndge of judges; the
AUMILDAR. Agent, the holder of an office.
chief judge, or jizstice.
An intendant and collector of the re-
CHANDALA. One of the names for the
venue, uniting civil, military, and finan-
cial powers, under the Moliammedan go-
most degraded Hindu.caste.
CHOKY, CHOKLE. A chair, seat; guard,
vernment.
watch. The station of a. guard or watch-
AURUNG. The place where goods are ma-
man. A place where an officer is sta-
nilfactured.
tioned to receive tolls and customs.
CHOULTRY. À covered public building,
BALA-GHAUT. Above the Ghauts, in con for the accommodation of passengers.
tradistinction to Payeen Glaut, below CHOUT. A fourth; a fourth part of sunis
the Gbauts. The terins are generally ap litigated. Mahratta chout; a fourth of
plied to the high. table-land in the centre the revenues, exacted as tribute by the
of India, towards its southern extremity. Mahrattas.
BANYAN. AHindi merchant, or shop CAOBDAR. Staff-bearer. An attendant.oil
keeper. The term Banyan is used. in a man of rank. He waits with a long
Bengal to denote the native who manages staff, plated with silver, announces the
the money-concerns of the European, approach of visitors, and runs before bis
and sometimes. serves him as an inter master, proclaiming aloud his titles..
preter. At Madras, the same description CHUNAM. Lime.
of persons is called Dubash, which signi CIRCAR. Head of affairs, the state or go-
fies one who can speak two languages.
vernment; a grand division of a province;
BATTA. Deficiency, discount, allowaụce. a head man; a name used by. Europeans
Allowance to troops in the field..
in Bengal; to denote the Hindu. writer
BAZAR. Daily market, or market place. and accountant, employed by themselves,
BEGA. A land measure equal, in Bengal, or in the public offices. See Sircar:.
to about the third part of an acre.
COLLURIES, COLERLES. Saltworks; the
BEGUM. A lady, princess, woman of liigh places. w-liere salt is made..
rank.
COOLIES, COOLY. Porter, labourer.
BICE, VAISYA. A man of the third Hindu Coss. A. term used by Europeans, to dem
cast, who by birth is a trader, or Husband note a road-measure of about two miles,
man.
but differing in different parts of India.
xxxviii
GLOSSARY.
FOUJDARRY COURT. A court for admi-
nisteriug the criminal law.
GHAUT. A pass through a mountain: ap-
plied also to a range of hills, and the ford
of a river.
GIEL. Clarified butter, in which state they
preserve that article for culinary pur-
poses.
GHIRDAWAR, GIRDWAR. An overseer of
police, under whom the goyendas, or in-
formers, act.
GOMASHTAH. A commissioner, factor,
agent.
GOOROO, GURU. Spiritual guide.
GOYENDA. An inferior officer of police ; &
spy, informer,
GUNGE. A granary, a depot, chiefly of
groin for sale. Wholesale markets, held
on particular days. Commercial depots.
GURRY. A name given to a wall flanked
with towers.
HARAM. Seraglio, the place where the
ladies reside.
HJRCARRA, HARCARRAH. A guide, a spy,
a messenger.
HOWDA. The seat of great men fixed on
an elephant, not much unlike the body of
a sedan in shape.
CRORE. Ten millions.
CSHATRIYA, KSHATRIYA, CAETTERIE,
KHETERY. A man of the second or mi-
litary caste,
CUTCHERRY. Court of justice; also the
public office where the rents are paid, and
other business respecting the revenue
transacted.
COTWAL, KATWAL. The chief oficer of
police in a large town or city, and super-
intendent of the markets.
DAR. Keeper, holder. This word is often
oined with another, to denote: the holder
of a particular office or employment, as
Chob-dar, staff-holder; Zemin-dar, land-
holder. This compound word, with i, ee,
y, added to it, denotes the office, as Ze-
mindar-ee.
DAROGAH. A superintendent, or overseer;
as of the police, the mint, &c.
DAUD, DAM, A copper coin, the fortieth
part of a rupee.
DECCAN. Literally, the south. A terin
einployed by Mohammedan writers to
denote the country between the rivers
Nerbuddah and Crislina.
DECOITS. Gang-robbers. Decoity, gang-
robbery..
DEWAN, DUax. Place of assembly. Na-
tive minister of the revenue department;
and chief justice, in civil causes, within
his jurisdiction; receiver-general of a
province. The term is also used, to de-
signate the principal revenue servant
under an European collector, and even of
& Zemindar. By this title, the East In-
dia Company are receivers-general of
the revenues of Bengal; under a grant
from the Great Mogul.
DEWANNY, DUANNEC. The office, or ju-
risdiction of a Dewan.
DEWANNY COURT OF ADAWLUT. A court
for trying revenue, and other civil causes.
DOAB, DOOWAB. Any tract of country in-
cluded between two rivers.
DROOG. A fortified hill or rock.
DUBASH. See Banyan,
DURBAR. The court, the hall of audience;
& leyee.
FAQUEER, FAKIR. A poor man, mendi-
cant, a religious beggar.
FIRMAUN, PEIRMAUND. Order, mandate.
. An imperial decree, a royal grant, or
charter.
TOUJDAR, FOJEDAR, PHOUSDAR, FOGEDAR.
Under the Diogul government, a magis-
trate of the police over a large district,
who took cognizance of all criminal mat-
ters within his jurisdiction, and sometimes
was employed as receiver-general of the
revenues.
FOUJDARRY, FOJEDAREE. Office of a
Foujdar.
JAGHIRE, JAGHEER, JAGIR. Literally, the
place of taking.' An assigninent, to an
individual, of the governinent share of
the produce of a portion of land. There
were two species of jaghires; one, per-
sonal, for the use of the grantee; ano-
ther, in trast, for some public service,
most commonly, the maintenance of
troops.
JAMMA, JUMMA. Total amount, collection,
assembly. The total of a territorial as-
signment.
JADMABUNDY, JUMMABUNDY. A written
schedule of the whole of an assessment.
JELL. A shallow lake, or morass.
JINJAL. A large musket, fixed on a swivel,
used in Indian forts, and fired with great
precision.
JUG. See Yug.
JUNGLE, JANGLE. A wood, or thicket;
a country overrun with shrubs, or long
grass.
KHALSA. Pure, unmised. An office of
government, in which the business of
the revenue department is transacted.:
the exchequer. Khalsa lands, are lands,
the revenue of which is paid into the ex-
chequer'.
KHAN, CAWN. A title, similar to that of
Lord.
GLOSSARY.
XXXIX
KHILAUT, KELAUT. A robe of honou NOLLA. Streamlet, water-course.
with which princes confer dignity.
NOZZER. A yow, an offering ; & present
KILLADAR, KELLADAR. Warder of a cas made to a superior
tle; commander of a fort.
KIST. Stated payment, instalment of rent.
KUSHOON, CUSHOON. A body of military,
OMRAH. A lord, a grandee, under the
corresponding nearest to our term bri Mogul government.
gade; varying from one to six or eight
thousand.
PAGODA. A temple; also the name of a
LAC. One hundred thousand.
gold coin, in the south of India, valued at
LASCAR. Properly a camp-follower, but
eight shillings.
PALANKEEN. A litter in which gentlemen
applied to native sailors and artillerymen.
in India recline, and are carried on the
MAAL, MAAL, MEHAL, MEAL. Places,
shoulders of four men.
PARIAN. A term used by Europeans in
districts, departments. Places, or sources
India to denote the outcasts of the Hindi
of revenue, particularly of a territorial
nature ; lands.
tribes.
MAHA. Great.
PATAN.. A name applied to the Afghaun
tribes. :
MOCURRERY. As applied to lands, it
means lands to let on a fixed lease.
PESAWA, PAISAWA. Guide, leader. The
prime minister of the Mahratta govern.
MOTUSSIL. Separated, particularized ; tlie
subordinate divisions of a district, in con-
ment.
PEON. A footman, a foot soldier; an in-
tradistinction to Saddur, or Suddur, which
ferior officer or servant employed in the
implies the chief seat of government.
MOFUSSIL DEWANNY ADAWLUT. Provin-
• business of the revenue, police, or judi-
cature.
cial conrt of civil justice.
PERGUNNAÎT. A small district, consisting
MOLUNGLE. Manufacturer of salt.
of several villages.
MOOTTY, MUITCE. The Molaminedan law-
officer who declares the sentence.
PESHCUSH. A present, particularly to
MONSOON. The rainy season. The po
government, in consideration of an ap-
odical vinds and rains.
Strict.“ Pozibilrbsed nequit. lent
pointinent, or as an acknowledgment for
MOMOLAVY, MOULAVEE. A learned and rel
any tenure. Tribute, fine, quit-rent, ad-
ligious mari, an interpreter of the Mo-
vance on the stipulated revenues.
PETTAH. The suburbs of a fortified town.
hammedan law.
MOONSHEE. Letter-writer, secretary. Eu-
POLLIGAR, POLYGAR. Head of a village
ropeans give this title to the native who
district. Military chieftain in the Pe.
ninsula, similar to hill-Zemindar in the
instructs them in the Persian language.
MOSQUE. A Mohammedan temple.
northern circars.
MUSNUD. The place of sitting: a seat; &
POLLAM. A district held by a Polligar.
throne, or chair of state.
POTAIL. The head man of a village. The
term corresponds with that of Mocuddim
MUTSEDDEY, MUTSEDDEE. Intent upon.
and Muncul in Bengal.
Writer, accountant, secretary.
POTTAH. A lease granted to the cultiva-
tors on the part of government, either
NABOB, NAWAB. Very great deputy vice-
written on paper, or engraved with a
gerent. The governor of a province un-
style on the leaf of the fan palmira
der the Mogul government.
tree.
NAIB. A deputy.
PUNDIT. A learned Brahmen.
NAIB Nazii. Deputy of the Nazim, or
PURANA, POORAN. Literally ancient: the
Governor.
name given to such Hindu books as treat
NAIG, NAIK. A petty military officer.
of creation in general, with the history of
NAIR. Chief. The Nairs are a peculiar
their gods and ancient heroes.
description of Hindus, on the Malabar
PYKE, PAIK. A foot messenger. A person
coast.
employed as a night-watch in a village,
NAZIM. Composer, arranger, adjuster.
and as a runner or messenger on the bu-
The first officer of a province, and minis-
siness of the revenue.
ter of the department of criminal justice.
NIZAM. Order, arrangement; an ar-
ranger.
RAJA. King, prince, chieftain, nobleman;
NIZAM UL MULK. The administrator of a title in ancient times given to chiefs
the empire.
of the second or military Hindu tribe
NIZAMUT. Arrangement, government; only.
the office of the Nazim, or Nizam.
RAJEPOOT. Literally, son of a king. The
NIZAMUT ADAWLUT. The court of crimi name of a warlike race of Hindus.
nal justice.
RANA. A species of raja
Do their gods an general, with wooks as tresit
GLOSSARY.
RANNY, RANEE. Queen, princess, wife of a
rajah.
ROY ROYAN. A Hindu title given to the
principal officer of the Khalsa, or chief
treasurer of the exchequer.
RUPPE. The name of a silver coin ; rated
in the Company's accounts, the cur-
rent rupee at 2s. ; the Bombay rupee
at 2s. 30.
Ryot. Peasant, subject; tenant of house
or land.
TANK. Pond, reservoir.
TANNAHDAR. A petty police office.
TEEP. A note of land ; a promissory note
given by a native banker, or inoney-
lender, to Zemindars and others, to
enable them to furnish government
with security for the payment of their
rents.
TEHSILDAR. Who has charge of the collec-
tions. A native collector of a district,
acting under a European or Zenindar.
TOPASSES. Native black Christians, the
remains of the ancient Portuguese.
TOPE. A grove of trees.
TUNCAW, TUNKHA. An assignment on the
revenue, for personal support, or other
purposes.
TUMBRIL. A carriage for the gui ammu-
nition.
SAYER. What moves; variable imposts'
distinct from land rent or revenue ; CON-
sisting of customs, tolls, licences, duties
on goods, also taxes on houses, shops, ba-
zaars, &c.
SEPOY. A native soldier.
SCRAI. The same as Choultry.
SHASTER. The instrument of government
or instruction; any book of instruction,
particularly containing divine ordinances.
SHROFF, SHROF. A banker, or money-
changer.
SIRCAR. A government; a man of bil-
siness.
SIRDAR. Chief, captain, head man.
Soucar. A merchant, or banker; a money-
lender.
SUBAH. A province such as Bengal. A
grand division of a country, which is again
divided into circars, chucklas, pergun-
nals, and villages.
SUBAHDAR. The holder of the subah, the
governor or viceroy.
SUBAUDARY. The office and jurisdiction of
a subahdar.
SUDDER. The breast; the fore-court of a
house; the chief seat of government, con.
tracistinguished from Mofussil, or interior
of the country; the presidency.
SUDDER DEWANNY ADAWLUT. The chief
civil court of justice under the Company's
government, held at the presidency.
SUDDER NIAZDUT ADAWLUT. The chief
criminal court of justice, under the Com-
pany's government.
SUDRA, SAUDRA, SOODIR. A Hindu of the
fourth, or lowest tribe,
SUNNUD. A prop, or support; & patent
charter, or written authority for holding
either land or office.
VACKEEL, VAQUELL. One endowed withi
.authority to act for another. Ambassa-
sador, agent sent on a special commission,
or residing at a court. Native law pleader,
under the judicial system of the Com-
pany.
VIZIR, VIZIER. Under the Mogul.govern-
ment, the prime minister of the sove.
reign.
VEDAS, VEDS, BEEDS. Science, know-
ledge. The sacred scriptures of the
Hindus.
YOGIES, JOGIES. Hindu devotees.
YUG, JUG, YOOG. An age; a great pe-
riod of the Hindus; also ai leligious cere-
mony.
ZEMINDAR. From two words signifying,
earth, land, and liolder or keeper. Land-
keeper. An officer who, under the Mo-
hammedan government, was charged with
the superintendence of the lands of a
district, financially considered ; the pro-
tection of the cultivators, and the realiza-
tion of the government's share of its
produce, either in money or kind.
ZEMINDARRY. The office or jurisdiction of
a Zemindar.
ZENANA. The place where the ladies re-
side.
ZILLAH. Side, part, district, division. A
local division of a country having refer-
ence to personal jurisdiction.
TALOOKDAR, A holder of a talook, which
is a small portion of land; a petty land-
ugent.
N.B. The explanations of the above terms are taken, for the most part, from the Glossary
attached to the Fifth Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on Indian affairs,
appointed in 1810.
HISTORY
OF
BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I.— FROM 1527 TO 1707.
Commencement of the British Intercourse with India; and
the Circumstances of its Progress, till the Establishment
of the Company on a durable Basis by the Act of the Sixth
of Queen Anne.
TWO centuries have elapsed, since a few British merchants BOOK 1.
I humbly solicited permission of the Indian princes to CHAP, I.
traffic in their dominions.
The British power at present embraces nearly the whole
of that vast region, which extends from Cape Comorin to
the mountains of Tibet, and from the mouths of the
Brahmapootra to the Indus.
In the present undertaking, it is proposed to collect,
from its numerous and scattered sources, the information
necessary to convey correct and adequate ideas of this
empire, and of the transactions through which it has been
acquired; and, for that purpose :-
I. To describe the circumstances in which the inter-
course of the British nation with India commenced, and
the particulars of its early progress, till the era when it
could first be regarded as placed on a firm and durable
basis:
II. To exhibit as accurate a view as possible of the cha-
racter, the history, the manners, religion, arts, literature
and laws of the extraordinary people with whom this
intercourse had thus begun; as well as of the physical
VOL. I.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. circumstances, the climate, the soil, and productions, of
CHAP. I. the country in which they were placed :
III. To deduce to the present times (1805) a history of that
part of the British transactions, which have had an imme-
diate relation to India; recording the train of events;
unfolding the constitution of that Body, half political,
half commercial, through which the business has been os-
tensibly performed; describing the nature, the progress,
and effects of its commercial operations; exhibiting the
legislative proceedings, the discussions and speculations,
to which the connexion of Great Britain with India has
given birth; analyzing the schemes of government which
she has adopted for her Indian dominions; and attempting
to discover the character and tendency of that species of
relation to one another in which the mother country and
her eastern dependencies are placed.
The subject forms an entire, and highly interesting, por-
tion of the British History; and it is hardly possible that
the matter should have been brought together, for the first
time, without being instructive, how unskilfully soever the
task may have been performed. If the success corre-
sponded with the wishes of the author, he would throw
light upon a state of society, curious, and commonly mis-
understood; upon the history of society, which in the com-
pass of his work presents itself in almost all its stages and
all its shapes; upon the principles of legislation, in which
he has so many important experiments to describe; and
upon interests of his country, of which, to a great degree,
his countrymen have remained in ignorance, while preju-
dice usurped the prerogatives of understanding.
CHAPTER I.
From the Commencement of the Efforts to begin a Trade with
India, till the Change of the Company from a Regulated to
a Joint-stock Company.
THE Portuguese had formed important establishments in
1 India, before the British offered themselves as compe-
titors for the riches of the East.
From the time when Vasco de Gama distinguished his
PORTUGUESE INTERCOURSE WITH INDIA.
nation by discovering the passage round the Cape of Good BOOK I.
Hope, a whole century bad elapsed, during which, without CHAP. I.
a rival, the Portuguese had enjoyed, and abused, the advan-
tages of superior knowledge and art, amid a feeble and half-
civilized people. They had explored the Indian Ocean, as
far as Japan; had discovered its islands, rich with some
of the favourite productions of nature; had achieved the
most brilliant conquests; and, by their commerce, poured
into Europe, in unexampled profusion, those commodities
of the East, on which the nations at that time set an ex-
traordinary value.
The circumstances of this splendid fortune had violently
attracted the attention of Europe. The commerce of India,
even when confined to those narrow limits which a carriage
by land had prescribed, was supposed to have elevated
feeble states into great ones; and to have constituted an
enviable part in the fortune even of the most opulent and
powerful: to have contributed largely to support the
Grecian monarchies both in Syria and Egypt; to have
raised the small and obscure republic of Venice to the
rank and influence of the most potent kingdoms. The
discovery therefore of a new channel for this opulent
traffic, and the happy experience of the Portuguese,
inflamed the cupidity of all the maritime nations of Europe,
and set before them the most tempting prospects.
An active spirit of commerce had already begun to dis-
play itself in England. The nation had happily obtained
its full share of the improvement which had dawned in
had been favourable both to the accumulation of capital,
and to those projects of private emolument on which the
spirit of commerce depends. A brisk trade, and of con-
siderable extent, had been carried on during the greater
part of the sixteenth century with the Netherlands, at that
time the most improved and commercial part of Europe.
The merchants of Bristol had opened a traffic with the
Canary Islands; those of Plymouth with the coasts of
Guinea and Brazil: the English now fished on the banks
of Newfoundland; and explored the sea of Spitzbergen,
for the sovereign of the waters: they engrossed by an ex-
clusive privilege the commerce of Russia: they took an
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. active part in the trade of the Mediterranean: the com-
CHAP. I. pany of merchant-adventurers pushed so vigorously the
traffic with Germany and the central parts of Europe, as
1527.
highly to excite the jealousy of the Hans Towns: and the
Protestant inhabitants of the Netherlands and France,
flying from the persecutions of their own oppressive
and bigoted governments, augmented the commercial re-
sources of England by the capital and skill of a large im-
portation of the most ingenious and industrious people in
Europe.
In these circumstances, the lustre of the Portuguese
tion of tb.e English. Already a most adventurous spirit
of navigation was roused in the nation. The English were
the first who had imitated the example of the Spaniards
in visiting the New World. In 1497, Cabot, with a small
squadron, esplored the coast of America, from Labrador to
Virginia, and discovered the islands of Newfoundland and
St. John, An English merchant, named Robert Thorne,
who had been stationed for many years at Seyille in Spain,
and had acquired particular knowledge of the intercourse
which the Portuguese had opened with the East, presented
a project to Henry VIII. about the year 1527, the accom-
plishment of which he imagined would place his country-
men in a situation no less enviable than that of the Portu-
guese. As that nation had obtained a passage to India by
a course to the south-east, and pretended a right, which
they defended by force, to its exclusive occupation, he
supposed that his countrymen might reach the same part
of the globe by sailing to the north-west, and thus obtain
effect this representation produced on the mind of Henry
is not accurately known. But two voyages in the course
of his reign were undertaken for the discovery of a north-
west passage, one about this period, and another ten years
later.5
i Anderson's History of Commerce in the reign of Elizabeth, passim.
See also Hakluyt's Voyages, ii. 3, 96. Ibid. iii. 690. Guicciardini's De-
scription of the Netherlands. Sir William Temple. Camden, 408.
2 Hakluyt, iii. 4. Rymer's Fadera, xii. 595. Anderson's History of
Commerce, published in Macphersou's Annals, ii. ll. Robertson's His.
tory of America, iv. 138.
3° Hakluyt, iii. 129. Harris's Collection of Voyages, i. 874.
4 Hakluyt, u: supra.
5 Ibid. 131.
NORTH-WEST PASSAGE RE-ATTEMPTED.
Nothing can more clearly prove to us the ardour with BOOK I.
which the English coveted a share in the riches supposed CHAP. I."
to be drawn from the East, than the persevering efforts
1567.
which they made to discover a channel from which the
Portuguese should have no pretence to exclude them. Two
attempts in the reign of Henry, to obtain a passage by the
north-west, having failed, their exploring fancy anticipated
a happier issue from a voyage to the north-east. A small
squadron, under the direction of Sir Hugh Willoughby,
was fitted in the reign of Edward VI. ; and, sailing along
the coast of Norway, doubled the North Cape, where it
was encountered by a storm. The ship of Sir Hugh was
driven to an obscure spot in Russian Lapland, where he
and his crew perished miserably by the climate. The other
principal vessel found shelter in the harbour of Archangel,
and was the first foreign ship by which it was entered. So
well did Chancellour, its captain, improve the incident,
that he opened a commercial intercourse with the natives,
visited the monarch in his capital, stipulated important
privileges for bis countrymen, and laid the foundation of
a trade which was immediately prosecuted to no incon-
siderable extent. This voyage but little damped the hopes
of obtaining a north-east passage to the riches of India.
Some vigorous attempts were made by the company in
whose hands the commerce with Russia was placed ;2 the
last of them in 1580, when two ships were sent out to ex-
plore the passage through the Straits of Waygatz. After
struggling with many perils and difficulties from the ice
and the cold, one of the vessels returned unsuccessful; of
the other no intelligence was ever received.
Before this hope was abandoned, the project of obtain-
ing a passage by the north-west was ardently resumed.
No fewer than six voyages were made in the course of a
few years. Two barks of twenty-five tons each, and a pin-
nace of ten, sailed under Martin Frobisher in the year
1567, and entered Hudson's Bay, which they at first ima-
gined was the inlet about to conduct them to the golden
shore. The same navigator was encouraged to make a
second attempt in the same direction in 1576. As he
brought home some minerals, which were supposed to be
1 Hakluyt, i. 226, etc.
· 2 Anderson's History of Commerce, in Macpherson; ii. 166..
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. impregnated with gold, the attention of government was
CITAP. I. excited ; and, after two years, Frobisher was sent out with
fifteen of the Queen's ships, miners for the supposed ore,
1567.
and 120 persons as the rudiments of a colony. Having
spent his provisions, and lost one of his ships, but not
having found the expected passage, nor left his settlers, he
returned with 300 tons of the supposed treasure, which
proved to be only a glittering sand. The nation perse-
vered in its hopes and its enterprises. A few years after-
wards, Captain John Davis sailed as far as 66° 40' north,
and discovered the straits distinguished by his name. In
a second voyage, undertaken in 1586, he explored in vain
the inlet which he had thus discovered, and after a few
years was enabled to proceed in a third expedition, which
had no better success than the preceding two.
After the defeat of so many efforts to discover a new
passage to India, the English resolved to be no longer de-
terred by the pretensions of the Portuguese. A voyage to
China by the Cape of Good Hope was unclertaken in 1582.
Four ships proceeded to the Coast of Brazil, fought with
some Spanish men-of-war, and were obliged to return for
want of provisions. Another expedition, consisting of
three ships, was fitted out in 1596, the commander of
which was furbished with Queen Elizabeth's letters to the
Emperor of China. This voyage proved eminently unfor-
tunate. The ships were driven upon the coast of Spanish
America, where only four men were preserved alive from
the effects of storms, famine, and disease.
Amid these unsuccessful endeavours two voyages were
accomplished, which animated the hopes of the nation, and
pointed out the way to more fortunate enterprises. Francis
Drake, the son of a clergyman in Kent, who at a tender
age had been put an apprentice to the master of a slender
bark trading to the coast of Holland and France, had early
evinced that passionate ardour in his profession which is
the usual forerunner of signal success. He gained the
1 Hakluyt. Anderson, ut supra, ii. 145, 158, 159.
" Hakluyt. Anderson, ut supra, ii. 175, 180, 185.-M. It is scarcely neces-
sary to add to these the attempts which have been made within the last few
years to determine the practicability of the north-west passage, by the voyages
of Captains Ross and Party, W.
3 Anderson, ut supra, ii. 171.
4 Purchas, b. iii. sect. 2. Anderson, ii. 210.
5 Hakluyt, iii. 440. Harris's Collection of Voyages, i. 14. Camden's Annals,
301, &c.
CAPTAIN DRAKE'S VOYAGES.
CHAP. I.
affections of his master, who left him his bark at his death: BOOK I.
at the age of eighteen he was purser of a ship which sailed
to the Bay of Biscay: at twenty he made a voyage to the
1577.
coast of Guinea; in 1565 he ventured his all in a yoyage to
the West Indies, which had no success; and in 1567 he
served under his kipsman Sir John Hawkins, in his un-
prosperous expedition to the Bay of Mexico. In these
different services, his nautical skill, his courage, and saga-
city, had been conspicuously displayed. In 1570 his repu-
tation enabled him to proceed to the West Indies with
two vessels under his command. So vehemently was he
bent on executing some great design, that he renewed his
visit the next year, for the sole purpose of obtaining infor-
mation. He had no sooner returned than he planned an
expedition against the Spaniards, executed it with two.
ships and seventy-three men, sacked the town of Nombre
de Dios, and returned with great treasure. It is said that,
in this voyage, he saw from the top of a high tree, that is,
fancied he saw, across the American isthmus, the Southern
Ocean, and became inflamed with the desire of reaching it
in a ship of England.
For this expedition he prepared on a great scale ; ob-
taining the commission of the Queen, and the command of
five vessels, one of 100 tons, another of eighty, one of fifty,
another of thirty, and a pinnace of fifteen ; the whole
manned with 164 select sailors. The historians of his voy-
age are anxious to display the taste and magnificence, as
well as judgment, of his preparations ; expert musicians,
rich furniture, utensils of the most curious workmanship,
vessels of silver for his table, and many of the same pre-
cious metal for his cook-room.
The expedition sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of
December, 1577. Having passed the Straits of Magellan,
and ravaged the western coast of Spanish America, Drake
feared the encounter of a Spanish fleet, should he attempt
to return in the same direction, and formed the bold design
of crossing the Pacific Ocean, and regaining England by the
Cape of Good Hope.
With one ship, the only part of the fleet which remained,
he steered along the coast of America to the latitude of
38° north, and then entered upon that immense navigation,
in which Magellan, the only circumnavigator who preceded
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. him, had sustained so many disasters. No memorable oc-
CHAP. I. currence attended the voyage. Of the islands which have
been discovered in the Pacific Ocean none were observed
1577.
till he approached the Asiatic coast. Fixing his attention
on the Moluccas, of which the fame had been circulated in
Europe by the rich spices thence imported by the Portu-
guese, he passed, with little observation, the more eastern
part of the numerous islands which stud the Indian
seas, and held his course for Tidore. From intelligence,
received on the passage, he waved his intention of land-
ing on that island, and steered for Ternate, the sovereign
of which he understood to be at enmity with the Por-
tuguese.
His intercourse with that island forms a remarkable
epoch in the history of the British nation in India, as it
was the beginning of those commercial transactions which
have led to the greatest results. The King, having received
assurances that his new visitants came with no other in-
tention than that of trading with his country, gave them
a very favourable reception. This monarch possessed con-
siderable power, since the English navigators were informed
that he ruled over seventy islands, besides Ternate, the
most valuable of all the Moluccas; and in the visits which
they paid to his court they were eye-witnesses of no con-
temptible magnificence. They exchanged presents with
him, and received him on board : they traded with his sub-
jects, laid in a cargo of valuable spices, and acquainted:
themselves with the nature and facilities of a commerce
which was the object of admiration and envy in Europe.
Not satisfied with the information or the commodities
which they received on one island, they visited several,
being always amazed at their prodigious fertility, and in
general delighted with the manners of the inhabitants.
Among other places they landed in the great island of
Java, famous afterwards as the seat of the Dutch govern-
ment in India. They held some friendly intercourse with
the natives, and departed with a tolerable knowledge both
of the character of the people, and the productions of the
country.
They now spread their sails for that navigation between
Europe and India, to which the Portuguese claimed an ex-
clusive right, and by which they monopolized the traffic
CAPTAIN DRAKE'S VOYAGES.
with India. Those discoverers had craftily disseminated BOOK I.
in Europe terrific accounts of dangers and horrors attend- CHAP, I.
1580.
voyage of the English proved remarkably prosperous, they
were surprised and delighted with the safety and ease
which seemed to them to distinguish this envied passage,
and conceived a still more lofty opinion of the advantages
enjoyed by the nation that engrossed it. After leaving
Java, the first land which they touched was the Cape of
Good Hope. They landed once more at Sierra Leone, on
the African coast, and received supplies which sufficed for
the remainder of the voyage.
They arrived at Plymouth on Monday, the 26th of Septem-
ber, 1580, after a voyage of two years, ten months, and a few
days; exhibiting to the wondering eyes of the spectators
the first ship in England, and the second in the world,
which had circumnavigated the globe. The news quickly
spread over the whole kingdom, which resounded with ap-
plause of the man who had performed so daring and sin-
gular an enterprise. Whoever wished to be distinguished
his admiration on Captain Drake. The songs, epigrams,
poems, and other pieces, which were composed in celebra-
tion of his exploits, amounted to several collections. The
Queen, after some delay, necessary to save appearances
with the Spanish court, which loudly complained of the
depredations of Drake, though as reprisals perhaps they
were not undeserved, paid a visit in person to the wonder-
ful ship at Deptford ; accepted of an entertainment on
board, and conferred the honour of knighthood on its cap)-
tain ; observing, at the same time, that his actions did him
more honour than his title.?
We may form some conception of the ardour which at
that time prevailed in England for maritime exploits, by
I Harris is not satisfied with the merit of those productions, which reached
nant that no modern poct has rivalled the glory of Homer, "by displaying in
verse the labours of Sir Francis Drake.
? Her Majesty appears to have been exquisitely gracious. The crowd which
thronged after her was so great, that the bridge, which had been constructed
between the vessel and the shore, broke down with the weiglit, and precipi-
tated 200 persons into the water. As they were all cxtricated from their peril.
ous situation without injury, the Queen remarked that so extraordinary an
escape could be owing only to the Fortune of Sir Francis Drake. Harris,
i. 20
10
INDIA.
IIISTORY OF BRITISH KT
BOOK I. the number of men of rank and fortune, who chose to
CHAP. I. forego the indulgences of wealth, and to embark their
persons and properties in laborious, painful, and dangerous
1586.
expeditions. Among them we find such names as those of
the Earls of Cumberland and Essex, of Sir Richard Green-
ville, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Humphry Gilbert, Sir Robert
Dudley, who prepared squadrons at their own expense, and
sailed to various parts of the world. No undertaking of
this description was attended with more important circum-
stances than that of Thomas Cavendish.
This gentleman, descended from a family of distinction,
and inheriting a large estate in the county of Suffolk, had
been early fired with a passion for maritime adventure.
In a vessel of his own, he had accompanied Sir Richard
Greenville in his unsuccessful voyage to Virginia; and now
sold or mortgaged his estate, to equip a squadron with which
he night rival the glory of Drake. It consisted of three
ships, the largest of 140 tons, one of sixty, and a bark of
about forty, the whole supplied with two years' provisions
and manned with 126 officers and sailors, of whom several
had served in the celebrated expedition of Drake.
They sailed from Plymouth on the 21st of July, 1586.
Their voyage through the Straits of Magellan, and the de-
predations which they proceeded to commit along the
western coast of the American continent, not only in the
spirit of avarice, but even of wanton devastation, form no
part of our present subject, and may without regret be left
to other recorders. They had reached the coast of Cali-
fornia, and nearly 24" of northern latitude; when, having
taken a very rich Spanish ship, and completed their schemes
of plunder, they commenced their voyage across the Pacific
Ocean. They left the coast of America on the 19th of
Noyember, and came in sight of Guam, one of the Ladrone
Islands, on the 3rd of January. From this island they were
visited by sixty or seventy canoes full of the inhabitants,
who brought provisions to exchange for commodities, and
so crowded about the ship, that the English, when they
had finished their traffic, discharged some of their fire-arms
to drive them away.' With the Philippines, to which they
? I am sorry to observe that no great respect for fiuinan life seems to liave
been observed in this proceeding; since, directly implying that the guns had
been charged with shot, and levelled at the men, the historian of the voyage
VOYAGE OF CAVENDISH.
LC
nest proceeded, they opened a more protracted intercourse, BOOK I.
having cast anchor at one of the islands, where they lay for CHAP. I.
nine days, and carried on an active trade with the inhabi-
tants.
1588.
The cluster of islands, to which the Europeans have
given the name of the Philippines, was discovered by
Magellan. Philip II., shortly after his accession to the
Spanish throne, planted there a colony of Spaniards, by an
expedition from New Spain; and a curious commerce had
from that time been carried on across the Great Pacific,
between this settlement and the dominions of Spain in
the new world. To Manilla, the capital of the Philippine
colony, the Chinese who resorted thither in great numbers,
brought all the precious commodities of India ; and two
ships were sent annually from New Spain, which carried to
the Philippines the silver of the American mines, and re-
turned with the fine productions of the East. The impa-
tience, however, of the natives under the Spanish yoke, was
easily perceived. When they discovered that the new
visitors were not Spaniards, but the enemies of that people
they eagerly testified their friendship; and the princes of
the island, where Cavendish ladded, engaged to assist him
with the whole of their forces, if he would return and make
war upon the common adversary.
This adventurous discoverer extensively explored the
intricate navigation of the Indian Archipelago, and ob-
served the circumstances of the new and extraordinary
scene with a quick and intelligent eye. He visited the
Ladrones; shaped a course among the Philippines, which
brought the greater part of those islands within his view;
passed through the Moluccas; sailed along that important
chain of islands, which bounds the Indian Archipelago from
the Strait of Malacca to the extremity of Timor; and
jocosely remarks," that 'tis ten to one if any of the savages were killed, for
they are so very nimble that they drop immediately into the water, and dive
beyond the reach of all danger, upon the Icast warning in the world.” Harris's
Collection of Voyages, i. 27.
1 That is, between Java and the island of Bali. De Barros observes that
the distinction of two Javas is unknown to the Javanese; and the accounts of
Java Major and Java Minor, given by Europeans, are inconsistent with each
other. The Java Minor of Marco Polo seeins to have been the east coast of
Sumatra, but Little Java is now applied exclusively to Bali. Rafics, History
of Java, i.p.3.-W.
A
IIISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK). name, where he traded with the natives for provisions, and
CHAP. I. formed a sort of treaty, stipulating a favourable reception
1588.
He sailed for the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th of
March, careful to treasure up information respecting a
voyage, which was now the channel of so important a
commerce. He made astronomical observations; he stu-
died the weather, the winds, and the tides; he noted the
bearing and position of lands; and omitted nothing which
might facilitate a repetition of the voyage to himself or his
countrymen. He passed the Cape with prosperous navi-
gation about the middle of May, and, having touched at
St. Helena to recruit his stores, he landed at Plymouth on
the 9th of September, 1588. In the letter which, on the
very day of his arrival, he wrote to Lord Hunsdon, then
Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth, he says, "I navigated to
the islands of Philippines, hard upon the coast of China,
of which country I have brought such intelligence as hath
not been heard of in these parts: a country, the stateliness
and riches of which I fear to make report of, lest I should
not be credited. I sailed along the islands of Moluccas,
where, among some of the heathen people, I was well en-
treated, and where our countrymen may have trade as
freely as the Portugals, if they themselves will.”
The tide of maritime adventure which these splendid
voyages were so well calculated to swell, flowed naturally
towards India, by reason of the fancied opulence, and the
prevailing passion for the commodities, of the East. The
impatience of our countrymen had already engaged them
in a circuitous traffic with that part of the globe. They
sailed to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea,
where they found cargoes of Indian goods conveyed over
land : and a mercantile company, denominated the Levant
Company, was instituted, according to the policy of the
age, to secure to the nation the advantages of so important
a commerce. The Company which, after the discovery of
the port of Archangel, had been formed to carry on the
trade with Russia, had opened a communication with
Persia, and thence imported the commodities of India :
Mr. Anthony Jenkinson, an active and enterprising agent
1 Monson's Naval Tracts. Hakluyt. Anderson's History of Commerce,
published in Macpherson's Annals, ii. 169, 198. Ryıner's Fodcra.
VALUE ATTACHED TO THE TRADE WITH INDIA. 13
of the Russia Company, sailed down the Volga, in 1558, to BOOK I.
the Caspian Sea, which he crossed into Persia, and at CHAP. I.
Boghar, a city of some importance, found merchants not
only from various parts of the Persian empire, but from 1593.
Russia, and China, and India. This voyage he performed
seven times; and opened a considerable trade for raw
and wrought silk, carpets, spices, precious stones, and
other Asiatic productions. In 1563, there was business
enough to require the presence of three agents at Casbin,
the seat of the Persian court; and the traffic flourished
D
admiration.excited by the Indian trade. During that ex-
pedition to the coast of Spain, on which Sir Francis Drake
was sent, by Queen Elizabeth, to harass the Spanish ship-
ping, and prevent, as far as possible, the preparations for
the Invincible Armada, he took one of the Portuguese
ships from India, known at that tiine by the name of
Carracks. The value of her cargo inflamed the imagina-
tions of the merchants; and the papers which she carried
afforded information respecting the traffic in which she
was engaged. A still more important capture of the
same sort was made in 1593. An expedition fitted out
for the West Indies by Sir Walter Raleigh, and commanded
by Sir John Burroughs, encountered near the Azores, the
greatest of all the Portuguese Carracks, a vessel of 1,600
tons, carrying 700 men, and thirty-six brass cannon; and,
after an obstinate contest, carried her into Dartmouth.
This was the largest vessel which had ever been seen in
England, laden with spices, calicoes, silks, gold, pearls,
drugs, porcelain, ebony, &c.; and stimulated the impatience
of the English to be engaged in so opulent a commerce.3
Some members of the Turkey or Levant Company
1 This is not, as might be inferred, from the way in which it is mentioned,
a city of Persia, but Bokhara, the capital of the kingdom so named ; inde-
pendent of Persia at the time of Jenkinson's visit. The trade of Bokhara.
according to him, was inconsiderable: merchants froin Russia, Persia, and
Balkh resorted thither ; but they brought few commodities, and took still
fewer. The trade of Persia was then more valuable ; but Bokhara has become,
in modern times, the chief mart of Central Asia. Murray's Asia, i. 321.
Burnes's Journey to Bokhara.-W.
2 This is not a conclusion merely drawn from the circumstances of the case.
which however would sufficiently warrant it; but stated on the testimony of
son's History of Commerce.
3 Anderson's History of Commerce, in Macpherson's Annals, ii. 201. '
14
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. finished about the same time an expedition to India. They
CHAP. I. had carried some cloth, tin, and other goods from Aleppo
to Bagdad, which they next conveyed down the Tigris to
1593.
Ormus in the Persian Gulf, and thence transported to Goa,
the great mart between the Portuguese and Indians on the
coast of Malabar. From this place they commenced an
extensive survey of the adjoining countries ; repaired to
Agra, at that time the capital and residence of the Mogul
Emperor ; visited Lahor; traversed Bengal; travelled to
Pegu and Malacca; and, returning by sea to Ormus, retraced
their steps to Aleppo, whence they sailed for England
bearing with them important and extensive information
respecting the countries they had explored. Intelli-
gence now poured itself into the nation by a variety of
channels. An Englishman of the name of Stevens, had
sailed with the Portuguese from Lisbon to Goa, by the
Cape of Good Hope, and wrote an account of his voyage,
which ras read with avidity, and contributed to swell the
general current of enterprise which now ran so vehemently
toward India.
The first application which was made to Government,
was by a memorial, in the name of " divers merchants,"
addressed to the Lords of Council, in 1589, for the royal
permission to send three ships, and as many pinnaces, on
a voyage to India. They enumerated the different places
at which the Portuguese had already effected settlements,
on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, in Malacca, and
in the Banda and Molucca islands, places from which
it seemed to be tacitly understood that other nations were
bound to abstain. But they added, that the islands and
shores of the Indian Ocean presented many other places,
open to the enterprise of English merchants, an inter-
course with which might yield the greatest advantage.3
I They returned to London in 1591. Anderson, ut supra, ii. 198.--11. The
travellers . were Messrs. fitch, Newberry, Leedes, and Storey: they travelled
to India, by way of Syria and Persia, in 1583. Storey became a monk at Goa,
Leedes entered into the service of the emperor Akbar, and Newberry died on
his way home by the Punjab. Fitch visited various parts of the East, and re-
turned to England in 1591: he published an account of his travels. They took
with them, letters from Elizabeth to the Great Mogul, and the Emperor of
China. Hakluyt, ii. 375.-W.
2 Harris's Voyages, i. 875.
3 This Memorial is prescrved in the State Paper Office, and a short account
of it has been given us by Mr. Bruce. Annals of the East India Company,
i. 109.
RAYMOND'S VOYAGES.
15
What reception this application received, is unknown. But BOOK I.
the unfortunate expedition of Captain Raymond ; remark- CHAP. I.
able as being the first of which India was the immediate
1599.
destination, though its object was not trade, so much as
plunder, by cruising against the Portuguese ; was fitted
out in 1591. Disease had made such ravages among the
crews, before they reached the Cape of Good Hope, that
one of the vessels was sent home with the sick; and the
rest, two in number, had not long doubled the Cape, when
the principal ship was lost in a storm. Captain James
Lancaster, in the remaining vessel, after a disastrous voy-
age, sailed to the West Indies, where he lost the ship, and
with great difficulty found means to return in a French
privateer.1
While the English fluctuated between desire and execu-
tion in this important enterprise, the Dutch, in 1595,
boldly sent four ships to trade with India by the Cape of
Good Hope. This exploit added fuel, at once, to the
jealousy, and to the ambition of the English. In 1599,
an association was formed, and a fund subscribed, which
amounted to 30,1331. 6s. 8d., and consisted of 101 shares ;
the subscriptions of individuals varying from 1007. to
3,0001. It was agreed to petition the Queen for a warrant
to fit out three ships, and export bullion, and also for a
charter of privileges. A committee of fifteen, the origin
and foundation of a Court of Directors, were chosen to
manage. The approbation of the government was readily
signified; but as a treaty was then pending with Spain,
policy appeared to counsel delay. The subscribers, kuown
by the name of the adventurers, were impatient, and pre-
sented a memorial, distinguishing the places with which
the Spaniards and Portuguese had established an inter-
course, from others to which, without any ground of com-
plaint on the part of those nations, the English might with
unspeakable advantage resort. The council replied, that
“it was more beneficiall for the generall state of merchan-
dise to entertayne a peace, then that the same should be
hindered, by the standing wthi ye Spanishe comissions, for
the mayntayning of this trade, to forgoe the opportunety
Anderson's History of Commerce, in Macpherson's Annals, ii. 199. Harris's
Voyages, i. 875.
* Anderson, ut supra, ii. 209. Harris's Voyages, i. 920.
16
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of the concluding of the peace.” The memorial was re-
CHAP. I. ferred to Sir Foulke Greville, who made a favourable
report: and in the course of the same year, the Queen
1600.
sent John Mildenhall” overland, by Constantinople, on an
embassy to the Great Mogul.
It was attended with little success. The Portuguese and
Venetian agents exerted themselves to raise suspicions
against the designs of the English, and effectually ob- :
structed the endeavours of the ambassador.
Towards the end of the year 1600, the efforts of the ad-
venturers were renewed ; and the consent of government
was obtained to proceed in preparations for an Indian
voyage, while the patent of incorporation was still under
consideration. Meanwhile, an application was made from
government, with what views does not appear, for the em-
ployment of Sir Edward Michelbourne in the expedition.
The answer of the committee, though petitioners for a
favour not yet conceded, affords a curious specimen of
their independence, and of the mode of thinking of the
times. They stated it as their resolution “not to employ
any gentleman in any place of charge," and requested “that
they may be allowed to sort theire business with men of
their own qualitye, lest the suspicion of employmt of
gentlemen being taken hold uppon by the generalitie, do
dryve a great number of the adventurers to withdraw
their contributions.”3 The adventure was prosecuted with
ardour. On the 8th of October, the five following ships
were already provided; the Malice Scourge of 200 men,
and 600 tons burthen; the Hector, of 100 men, and 300
tons; the Ascension, of 80 men, and 260 tons ; the Susan,
of 80 men, and 240 tons; and a pinnace of 40 men, and
100 tons. To provision these ships for twenty months,
the cost was computed at 6,6001. 4s. 10d.; and the cargo,
consisting of iron and tin, wrought and unwrought, of
lead, cloths, and some smaller articles, chiefly intended as
I Minutes, etc. (Indian Register Office). Brnce's Annals, i. 112.
2 John Mildenhall, a merchant, was sent with a letter from the Queen to
the Emperor Akbar, whilst the establishment of the Company was under dis-
cussion. He left Aleppo in 1600, but did not reach Agra till 1603. After a
residence of three years, he obtained a firmaun from Jelangir. He returned
to England sonic time about 1007; from thence he went back to Agra, where
lie turned Roman Catholic, and died in June, 1614. Orme, Fragments,
341,- W.
3 Minutes of a General Court of Adventurers, preserved in the Indian
Register Office. Bruce's Annals, i. 128.
FIRST CHARTER GRANTED.
presents, was estimated, exclusive of bullion, at 4,5451. It BOOK I.
was determined that thirty-six factors or super-cargoes CHAP. I.
should be appointed for the voyage, divided into sepa- -
rate classes, rising one above another in trust and emolu-' .1600.
ments. Captain James Lancaster, whose difficult return
from a predatory expedition has already been mentioned,
was chosen to command the fleet; and on the 31st of
December, the charter of privileges was obtained.
This charter, the origin of a power so anomalous and
important as that which was afterwards accumulated in
the hands of the East India Company, contained nothing
which remarkably distinguished it from the other charters
of incorporation, so commonly in that age bestowed upon
trading associations. It constituted the adventurers a
body. politic and corporate, by the name of “the Governor
and Company of Merchants of London, trading to the East
Indies ;” and vested them with the usual privileges and
powers. The plan which they had already adopted for the
management of their affairs, by a committee of twenty-
four, and a chairman, both to be chosen annually, was
confirmed and rendered obligatory. With a reservation
in favour of the rights granted to other associations, and
with prohibition extending to all such places as might be
already occupied by the subjects of states in amity with
her Majesty, and whose objection to rivals should be de-
clared, the privilege of trading to the East Indies, that is,
to all places beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the
Straits of Magellan,.was bestowed upon the Company, with
power to export in each voyage 30,0001. in gold and silver ;
also English goods for the first four voyages exempt from
duties, and to re-export Indian goods in English ships
under the same privilege to the end of the charter. AC-
cording to the principle of the times, the charter was.
exclusive : prohibiting the rest of the community from
trading within the limits assigned to the Company, but
granting to them the power, whenever they pleased, of
bestowing licenses for that purpose. It was granted for a
period of fifteen years ; but under condition that, if not
found to be advantageous to the country, it might be an-
nulled at any time under a notice of two years : if advan-
? Bruice's Annals, i. 129–136, Anderson's History of Commerce, in Mac-
Pherson's Annals, ii. 216. Harris's Collection of Voyages, i. $75.
VOL. I.
18
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tageous, it might, if desired by the Company, be renewed
CHAP. I. for fifteen years.
The ardour of individuals, where any thing is to be risked,
1600.
is more easily excited than upheld. Though the list of
subscribers, while the scheme of Indian adventure was yet
the committees for the payment of the instalments were
very imperfectly obeyed. Even when the charter was ob-
tained, it was either understood to confer no power of com-
pelling payment, or the directors were afraid to make use
of it. Instead of exacting the stipulated sums, and trad-
ing upon the terms of a joint-stock company, the sub-
scribers who had paid were invited to take upon themselves
the expense of the voyage, and, as they sustained the whole
of the risk, to reap the whole of the profit.
The sums which were thus advanced amounted to 68,3731.
which greatly exceeded the capital originally subscribed.
Of this, 39,7711. was expended in the purchase and equip-
ment of ships—the four, excluding the pinnace, which
were taken up by the committee of original adventurers:
28,7421. was expended in bullion; and 6,8601. in goods;
consisting partly of British commodities, cloth, lead, tin,
cutlery, glass, &c.; partly of foreign, as quicksilver, Mus-
covy hides, &c. The choice of Captain Lancaster to com-
mand the fleet was renewed; and it sailed from Torbay
on the 2d of May, 1601, carrying letters of recommendation
from the Queen to the sovereigns of the different ports to
which it might resort.
I Bruce's Annals, i. 146. “But forasmuch," says Sir William Monson
(Naval Tracts, iii., Cliurchill's Collection of Voyages, 175), “as every innova-
tion commonly finds opposition, from some out of partiality, and from others
as encmies to novelty; so this voyage, though at first it carried a great name
and hope of profit, by the word India, and example of Holland, yet was it writ
against." He then exhibits the objections, seven in number, and subjoins an
answer. The objections were shortly as follows; the answers may be con-
ceived :-
1. The trade to India would exhaust the treasure of the nation by tlic ex-
portation of bullion.
2. It would consume its mariners by an unbealthy navigation.
seas.
4. It would hinder the vent of our cloth, now exported in exchange for the
spices of the foreign merchants.
5. It was a trade of which the returus would be very slow.
hatred from the Dutch would be the inhappy effect.
7. It would diminish the Queen's customs by the privilege of exporting
bullion duty free.
These objections, with the answers, may also be seen in Anderson's History
of Commerce, ad an.
OTHER VOYAGÉS UNDER THE CHARTER.
19
A first and experimental attempt was naturally unpro- BOOK I.
ductive of any remarkable result: but the first voyage of CHAP. I.
the East India Company was not discouraging. The first
place in India to which they repaired was Acheen, a prin- 1603-13.
cipal city in the island of Sumatra, at which they were
favourably received. They formed a treaty of commerce
with the chief or sovereign of the place; obtained per-
mission to erect a factory; and, having taken on board a
quantity of pepper, set sail for the Moluccas. In the
Straits of Malacca they captured a Portuguese vessel of
900 tons burthen, carrying calicoes and spices, which
suficed to lade the fleet. They diverted their course,
therefore, to Bantam in the island of Java; where the Cap-
tain, delivering his letters and presents, and meeting with
a favourable reception, left some agents, the first rudi-
ments of the Company's factories; and returned to Eng-
land, where he arrived, in September, 1603, with a handsome
profit to his owners on the capital of the voyage.?
In the course of ten years from 1603 to 1613, eight other
voyages were fitted out, on similar terms. The first, in
1603, under the command of Captain Middleton, consisted
of the ships which had but just returned from the pre-
ceding voyage; and the capital subscribed was 60,4507.; of
which 48,1481. was laid out in the preparation and pro-
vision of the ships; 11,1601. in bullion, and 1,1421. in goods.
The second, in 1606, consisted of three ships commanded
by Captain Keeling, with a capital of 53,5001. ; of which
28,6201. was for the equipment of the fleet, 17,6001. was in
bullion, and 7,2807. in goods. The third, in 1607, consisted
of two ships, 33,0001. capital; 14,6001. of which was for the
ships, 15,0007. in bullion, and 3,4007. in goods. The fourth
voyage, in 1608, had but one ship; 13,7001. subscription;
expense of equipment, 6,0001.; bullion, 6,0001.; goods,
1,7001. The fifth, in 1609, had three ships, larger than in
any former voyage; capital subscribed, 82,0001.; cost of
shipping, 32,0001.; the investment, 28,5001. bullion, and
21,5007. goods. The sixth voyage, in 1610, had four ships;
and subscription, 71,5811.; divided into 42,3001. for ship-
ping, 19,2007. bullion, 10,0811. goods. The seventh, in
1611, of four vessels, had 76,375l. subscription, expended
1 Harris, i. 875. Anderson, ut supra, ii. 217, 218. Bruce's Annals, i. 151, 152.
Z
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. 48,7001. on the fleet, had 17,6751. in bullion, and 10,0001.
CHAP: I. in goods. The eighth, in 1612, had one ship, and subscrip-
tion, 7,2001.; divided into 5,3001. for the vessel, 1,250%.
1603-13. bullion, and 6501. in goods. All these voyages, with one
exception, that in 1607, of which both the vessels were lost,
were prosperous: the clear profits, hardly ever below 100
per cent., being in general more than 200 on the capital of
the voyage.?
The years in which these voyages were performed were
not without other incidents of considerable importance.
In 1604, the Company were alarmed by a license, in viola-
tion of their charter, granted to Sir Edward Michelborne
and others, to trade to " Cathaia, China, Japan, Corea, and
Cambaya, &c.” The injury was compensated in 1609, when
the facility and indiscretion of King James encouraged the
Company to aim at a removal of those restrictions which
the more cautious policy of Elizabeth had imposed. They
obtained a renewal of their charter, confirming all their
preceding privileges, and constituting them a body corpo.
rate, not for fifteen years, or any other limited time, but
for ever; still, however, providing that, on experience of
injury to the nation, their exclusive privileges should; after
three years' notice, cease and expire.
The earliest of the Company's voyages were exclusively
directed to the islands in the Indian Ocean, as Sumatra,
Java, and Amboyna, the returns being raw silk, fine cali-
coes, indigo, cloves, and mace. In 1608, the factors at
Bantam and in the Moluccas l'eported that the cloths and
calicoes imported from the continent of India were in
great request in the islands; and recommended the open-
ing of a trade at Surat and Cambaya, to supply them with
those commodities, which might be exchanged, with extra-
ordinary profit, for the spices and other productions of
the islands. To profit by these advantages, the fleet which
sailed under the orders of Sir Henry Middleton, in 1609,
was directed to steer for the western coast of the Asiatic
continent, where they made several attempts to establish
a commercial intercourse. At Aden and Mocha they were
opposed by the Turks ; who surprised one of the ships,
and made the Captain and seventy men prisoners. On the
i Bruce's Annals, i. 152-163.
FIRST ESTABLISHMENT IN INDIA..
coast of India their endeavours were frustrated by the in- BOOK 1.
fluence of the Portuguese. A fleet which sailed in 1611 CHAP. IS.
had better success. Attacked at Swally, a place at no great
1613.
distance from Surat, by a large Portuguese armament, it
made a successful defence;' and, notwithstanding the in-
trigues and efforts of the Portuguese, obtained a favourable
reception at Surat. The English now succeeded in forming
a commercial arrangement. They obtained permission to
establish factories at Surat, Ahmedabad, Cambaya, and
Goga, which were pointed out, by the agents of the Com-
pany, as the best situations; and agreeing to pay a duty
of 3, per cent., received assurance, that this should be the
ject; that protection should be afforded to their factories;
and that their property, even iu the case of the death of
their agents, should be secured till the arrival of another
fleet. A firmaun or decree of the Emperor, conferring
these privileges, was received on the 11th of January, 1613;
and authorised the first establishment of the English on
the continent of India, at that time the seat of one of the
most extensive and splendid monarchies on the surface of
the globe.
CHAPTER II.
From the Change of the Company into a Joint-Stock Com-
pany, in 1612, till the Formation of the third Joint-Stock
in 1631-2.
TTITHERTO the voyages of the East India traders had
I been conducted on the terms rather of a regulated than
a joint-stock company; each adventure being the property
1 The action, or rather scries of actions, with the Portuguese, was fought
between the 22nd of October, and the 27th of November, 1612.
force consisted of two vessels, the Dragon and Osiander ; the former a large,
thirty-eight guns; and a number of small vessels, without cannon, but inten-
ded to assist in boarding. In the several encounters which took place, the
Portuguese were defeated, with considerable loss of men, and injuuy to the
vessels; and, ultimately, left Captain Best to remain unmolested at Swally,
and renew the intercourse with tlie factory at Surat. The cvent of the fight
raised the reputation of the English in the opinion of the natives, and contri-
buted to accelerate the delivery of the confirmation of a treaty, previously
adjusted between Captain Best and the governor of Ahmedabad. The con-
firmation was presented in form, in December, in 1612; but a more solemn
confirination of it, in the shape of an imperial firmaun, does not seem to have
been received till January, 1613. Orme's Fragments, 332.-W.
2 Bruce's Anuals, i. 164.
22
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of a certain number of individuals, who contributed to it as
CHAP. II. they pleased, and managed it for their own account, sub-
ject only to the general regulations of the Company,
1613.16
Whether this was more adapted or not, to the nature of
commerce, and the interests of the nation, it was less
favourable to the power and consequence of a Governor
and Directors, than trading on a joint-stock, which threw
into their hands the entire management and power of the
whole concern. Accordingly, they exerted themselves to
decry the former method, and, in 1612, were enabled to
come to a resolution, that in future, the trade should be
carried on by a joint-stock only.
It still appears to have been out of their power to estab-
lish a general fund, fixed in amount, and divided into re-
gular shares; the capital was still raised by a sort of
arbitrary subscription, some individuals, whose names
stood as members of the Company, advancing nothing,
others largely. They now, however, subscribed, not each
for a particular adventure, with an association of his own
choosing, but all into the hands of the Governor and Di-
rectors, who were to employ the aggregate as one fund or
capital for the benefit of those by whom it was advanced.
On these terms 429,0001. was raised, which the Director's
thought proper to divide for the purpose of four separate
adventures or voyages, to be undertaken in as many suc-
cessive years. The voyages were regulated, and composed
as follows:
Investiment.
Year. Vessels. Bullion.
Goods.
1613 8
18,8101. 12,4461.
1614
13,952 23,000
1615 6 26,660 26,065
1616
52,087 16,506
The purchase, repair, and equipment of the vessels
amounted to 272,5441., being the remainder of the stock.
The profit of these voyages was far from setting the
management of a court of Directors, as compared with
that of individuals taking charge of their own affairs, in a
favourable light. The average of the profits on the eight
voyages which preceded, leaving out of the account the
small adventure of what is called the Company's fourth
Bruce, i. 165.
EMBASSY OF SIR THOMAS ROE.
1
voyage, wholly unfortunate, was 171 per cent. The average BOOK I.
of the profit on the four voyages in question, was only 871 CHAP. II.
per cent.
As the power of the Portuguese in the East carried the 1613-16.
usual consequences of power along with it, among other
things, an overbearing and insolent spirit, they had already
embroiled themselves with the Mogul government: an
event favourable to the English, who were thus joined
with that government in a common cause. At the same
·time the splendid achievements of the English, against an
enemy whom the governments of India were ill able to
resist, raised high their reputation for prowess in war. A
Portuguese fleet burned the towns of Baroach and Goga:
and a powerful armament arrived at Swally with the Por-
tuguese Viceroy, in January, 1614; which attacked the
English; but was defeated, with a loss of 350 men. To
improve these favourable circumstances, an agent of the
Company repaired to the Mogul court, where he was well
received, and obtained a royal firmaun for a general and
perpetual trade; and in the same year took place the cele-
brated royal embassy of Sir Thomas Roe. The character
of an ambassador, and the respect attached to it by the
discernment of more enlightened nations, were but little
understood at the court of the Mogul. On that occasion
the choice of the English Ambassador was happy: Sir
Thomas was a man of discernment, and temper, and made
the most of the circumstances in which he was placed;
though he soon discovered that it was bad policy by which
he had been sent. He obtained redress of some of the
grievances of which the English merchants complained;
and concluded, though with difficulty, a sort of treaty, in
which liberty was promised them of trading and establish-
ing factories in any part of the Mogul dominions; Surat,
Bengal, and Sindy being particularly named.2
Besides his other services, Sir Thomas bestowed advice
upon the Company. “At my first arrival,” says he, “I
understood a fort was very necessary ; but experience
teaches me we are refused it to our own advantage. If the
Emperor would offer me ten, I would not accept of one.”
i Bruce, i. 166.
2 Bruce, i. 171, etc.
i 770–809.
Sir Thomas Roe's Journal and Letters.
Churchill,
24
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. He then states his reasons: first, he adduces evidence that
CHAP. II. it would be of no service to their trade : “secondly, the
charge," he says, "is greater than the trade can bear ; for
1613-16.
to maintain a garrison will eat out your profit; a war and
traffic are incompatible. By my consent you shall never
engage yourselves but at sea, where you are like to gain as
often as to lose. The Portugueses, notwithstanding their
many rich residences, are beggared by keeping of soldiers ;
and yet their garrisons are but mean. They never made
advantage of the Indies since they defended them : observe
this well. It has also been the error of the Dutch, who
seek plantations here by the sword. They turn a wonderful
stock ; they prole in all places ; they possess some of the
best : yet their dead pays consume all the gain. - Let this
be received as a rule, that if you will profit, seek it at sea,
and in quiet trade; for, without controversies, it is an error
to affect garrisons and land wars in India.
“It is not a number of ports, residences, and factories
that will profit you. They will increase charge, but not
recompense it. The conveniency of one, with respect
to your sails, and to the commodity of investments, and
the well employing of your servants, is all you need." If
Sir Thomas had lived to the present day, he might have
urged the trade with China as proof, by experiment, of the
proposition he advanced.
“The settling your traffic here will not need so much
help at court as you suppose. A little countenance and
the discretion of your factors will, with easy charge, return
you most profit; but you must alter your stock. Let not
your servants deceive you ; cloth, lead, teeth, quicksilver,
are dead commodities, and will never drive this trade;
you must succour it by change.
“An ambassador lives not in fit honour here. A meaner
agent would, among these proud Moors, better effect your
business. My quality, often, for ceremonies, either begets
you enemies, or suffers unworthily. Half my charge shall
corrupt all this court to be your slaves. The best way to
do your business in it is to find some Mogul, that you may
entertain for 1000 rupees a year, as your solicitor at court.
He must be authorised by the king, and then he will serve
you. better than ten ambassadors. Under him you must
allow 500 rupees for another at your port, to follow the
STATE OF THE TRADE ABROAD.
25
court. These two will effect all ; for your other smaller CHAP. II.
residencies are not subject to much inconveniency.”
The permission to the Company's servants to trade 1613-16.
privately on their own account, which afterwards produced
so many inconveniences, was, it seems, even at this early
period, a source of abuse. “Concerning this, it is my
opinion," says Sir Thomas, “that you absolutely prohibit
it, and execute forfeitures, for your business will be the
better done. All your loss is not in the goods brought
home; I see here the inconveniences you think not of: I
know this is harsh to all men, and seems hard. Men pro-
fess they come not for bare wages. But you will take away
this plea, if you give great wages to their content; and
then you know what you part from : but then you must
make good choice of your servants, and use fewer.”
Sir Thomas tells the Company that he was very indus-
arrived at Surat from the Red Sea, with some money and
southern commodities. I bave done my best to disgrace
them ; but could not turn them out without further
danger. Your comfort is, here are goods enough for
both.”? If so, why seek to turn them out?
One of the objects at which the adventurers from Eng-
land most eagerly aspired, was a share in the traffic of the
Spice Islands. The spices, from their novelty, were at
that time a favourite object of consumption to those, the
supply of whose wants is so naturally but thoughtlessly
regarded by the dealer as peculiarly profitable, the rich and
the great: and the commerce, brilliant as compared with
that of other nations, which the enterprise and diligence
of the Dutch now carried on with the East, almost entirely
consisted of those commodities. The English, by their
connexion with Sumatra and Java, had their full share in
the article of pepper ; but were excluded from cinnamon,
cloves, nutmegs, and all the finer spices, Agents were now
i Churchill, i. 106-108. He gives another account of his endeavours to
injure the Dutch, in the following words: -" The 10th, 11th, and 12t11, I spent
in giving the prince advice that a Dutch ship lay before Surat, and would not
declare iipon what design it came, till a fleet arrived; which was expected
with the first fit season. This I improved to fill their heads with jealousies of
the designs of the Dutch, and the dangers that might arise from them; which
was well taken: and, being demanded, I gare my advice to prevent coming
to a rupture with them, and yet exclude them the trade of India."-Ibid. 774.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. sent from Bantam to Amboyna, Banda, and other islands,
CHAP. II. who fired the jealousy and cupidity of the Dutch. De-
feated in their endeavours at all the places where the
1617.
Dutch had already established themselves, the English
projected, as a last resource, a factory at Macassar, of
which the produce was only rice, but which might serve
as a magazine for spices collected from the neighbouring
islands.?
In the year 1617, or the year of the last of the four
voyages in which the general subscription had been em-
ployed, the Company's agents reported ; That Surat was
the place at which the cloths of India could best be ob-
tained, though nothing could there be disposed of in return,
except China goods, spices, and money: That large quan-
tities of Indian wove goods might be sold, and gold, can-
phor, and benjamin obtained, at the two factories of
Acheen and Tekoo, on the island of Sumatra : That Bantam
afforded a still larger demand for the wove goods of India,
and supplied pepper for the European market: T'hat Ja-
catra, Jambee, and Polania, agreed with the two former
places in the articles both of demand and supply, though
both on a smaller scale : That Siam might afford a large
vent for similar commodities, and would yield gold, silver,
and deer-skins for the Japan market : That English cloth,
lead, deer-skins, silks, and other goods, might be disposed
of at Japan for silver, copper, and iron, though hitherto
want of skill had rendered the adventures to that kingdom
unprofitable: That, on the island of Borneo, diamonds,
bezoar stones, and gold, might be obtained at Succadania,
notwithstanding the mischief occasioned by the ignorance
of the first factors ; but from Banjarmassin, where the
same articles were found, it would be expedient, on account
of the treacherous character of the natives, to withdraw
the factory: That the best rice in India could be bought,
and the wore goods of India sold, at Macassar: And that
at Banda the same goods could be sold, and nutmegs and
mace procured, even to a large amount, if the obstruction
of European rivals were removed.?
Surat and Bantam were the seats of the Company's
principal establishments.
In the year 1617-18, a subscription was opened for a new
1 Bruce, i. 174, 178.
2 Ibid., i. 188.
STATE OF THE TRADE ABROAD.
i 27
fund, and was carried to the large amount of 1,600,0001. BOOK I.
This was denominated the Company's Second Joint-stock. CHAP. II.
They were now, we are told, possessed of thirty-six ships,
from 100 to 1,000 tons burthen; and the proprietors of 1618.
stock amounted to 954.1 But as the accounts of the Con-
pany have never been remarkable for clearness, or their
historians for precision, we are not informed whether these
ships belonged to the owners of the first joint-stock, or to
the owners of the second ; or if to both, in what propor-
tion ; whether the 954 proprietors of stock were the sub-
scribers to both funds, or to the last only; whether any
part of the first joint-stock had been paid back to the
owners, as the proceeds came in ; or whether both funds
were now in the hands of the Directors at once, employed
for the respective benefit of the respective lists of sub-
scribers : two trading capitals in the same hands, employed
separately, for the separate account of different associa-
tions. That such was the case, to a certain extent, muay
be concluded from this, that of the last of the voyages,
upon the first of the funds, the returns were not yet made.
We shall see that, afterwards, the Directors had in their
hands, at one and the same time, the funds of several
bodies of subscribers, which they were bound to employ
separately, for the separate benefit of each ; that they, as
well as their agents abroad, experienced great inconvenience
in preserving the accounts and concerns separate and dis-
tinct; and that the interests and pretensions of the several
bodies were prone to interfere.
The new subscription was divided into portions for three
separate voyages.
The passion, naturally, of the Company's agents, at the
different stations abroad, was to grasp at everything, with
I Sir Jeremy Sambrooke's Report on East Indian Trade (MS, in East India
Register Office) quoted by Bruce, i. 193.
2 Tlis remark is somewhat severe, and cannot in all cases be inerited. In
the present instance there seems to be no difficulty in understanding what is
intended. It is clear, from the whole tenor of the statements regarding the
Company's commercial proceedings at this period, that each voyage was a
separate transaction, and the cost of the equipment was charged to the capital
embarked in that particular adventure alone. There was no transfer of stock
from one set of adventurers to another, at least until the adventure was
closed. All that is here mennt, therefore, seems to be, that at this period there
Were thirty-six ships and 954 persons engaged in the trade with India, includ-
ing the ships and individuals then actually concerned in adventures not
brought to a conclusion; it does not imply that the individuals and ships
specified were restricted to the new joint-stock association.-W.
28
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. little regard to the narrowness of the funds upon which
CHAP. II. their operations depended. In one point of view this was
advantageous : while the ground was yet imperfectly ex-
1618.
plored, it yielded a wider field for selection. The factors
at Surat were captivated with the project of a trade to
Persia : it promised a vent for English woollens to a large
amount, and would furnish silk and other goods, which,
both in Europe and in India, might sell to the greatest ad-
vantage. Sir Thomas Roe dissuaded the speculation ; on
the ground, that the Portuguese were already in possession
of the commerce, and that it would cost the Company
more to protect themselves in it, than they could hope to
gain by it. The views of the factors, because the most
flattering, were the most persuasive ; agents were sent to
the court of Persia ; grants of privileges were obtained ;
and a trade was opened, which experience proved to be of
little importance. .
The rivalship between the East India Company and the
other nations of Europe includes, for a considerable time,
the principal incidents of the Company's. history. The
Portuguese, on the pretence of discovery, had long main-
tained an exclusive claim to the passage by the Cape of
Good Hope: they had, partly by conquest, partly by
agreement, made themselves masters of Goa, Bonibay,
and other places, on the Malabar coast; of Aden, at the
entrance of the Red Sea ; of Ormus, in the Persian Gulf ;
of part of the Malay coast, in the Straits of Malacca ; of
the Molucca islands; and of the coasts of Ceylon, the most
valuable of all the eastern islands : they were possessed of
factories in Bengal and in Siam ; and they had erected the
city of Macao on the coast of China.
The Dutch, while subject to the crown of Spain, had
been accustomed to repair to Lisbon for the productions
of the East; which, even at that early period, they were
employed in distributing to the rest of Europe. When
they broke the chains of their ancient masters, one of the
means which Philip employed to distress them was, to
deprive them of the commerce of his dominions. Pre-
vented from obtaining Indian commodities by traffic with
the subjects of Philip, they became ruinous competitors
for the trade with India itself.
At the time when the Dutch commenced their voyages
RIVALSHIP OF EUROPEAN NATIONS.
29
to the East, the crown of Spain was engaged in enterprises BOOK I.
of so much importance in other quarters, and so much CHAP, II.
engrossed with the contemplation of its splendid empire -
in the New World, that the acquisitions, in the East Indies, 1618.
of the Portuguese, now become its subjects, were treated
with comparative neglect. The Dutch, accordingly, who
entered upon the trade to India with considerable resources
and the utmost ardour, were enabled to supplant the Por-
tuguese in the spice trade, and, after a struggle, to expel
them from the Molucca islands. That celebrated people,
now freed from the oppression of a bad government, were
advancing in the career of prosperity with great and rapid
strides. The augmentation of capital was rapid, in Hol-
land, beyond what has often been witnessed in any other
part of the globe. A proportional share of this capital
naturally found its way into the channel of the India trade,
and gave both extent and vigour to the enterprises of the
nation in the East; while the English, whose country,
oppressed by misgovernment, or scourged with civil war,
afforded little capital to extend its trade, or means to
afford it protection, found themselves unequal competitors
with a people so favourably situated as the Dutch.
. During that age, the principles of public wealth were
very imperfectly understood, and hardly any trade was re-
garded as profitable but that which was exclusive. The
different nations which traded to India, all traded by way
of monopoly; and the several exclusive companies treated
every proposal for a participation in their traffic, as a pro-
posal for their ruin. In the same spirit, every nation
which obtained admittance into any newly-explored chan-
nel of commerce endeavoured to exclude from it all parti-
cipators, and considered its own profits as depending on
the absence of all competition.
The Dutch, who were governed by the same prejudices
as their contemporaries, and actuated, at least in that age,
with lather more perhaps than the usual intensity of the
appetite for gain, beheld, with great impatience, the at-
tempts of the English to share with them in the spice
trade. While contending for their independence against
the power of Spain, and looking to England for support,
they were constrained to practise moderation and forbear-
ance; and during this time the English were enabled to
30
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK 1: form a connexion with Sumatra, to establish themselves at
CHAP. 11. Bantam, and obtain a share in the traffic of pepper, which
being a commodity so generally produced in the East, could
1618, not easily become the subject of monopoly. But before
the English made efforts on any considerable scale to in-
terfere with the trade of the further India, where the finer
spices were produced, the power and confidence of the
Dutch had greatly increased.
That people were more effectual opponents than the
Portuguese, between whom and the English the inter-
ference was not so direct. The chief settlements of the
Portuguese on the continent of India were on the Malabar
coast, at a great distance from Surat, which was the prin-
cipal seat of the English : it was in the Persian trade alone
that much incompatibility of interest existed: and feeble,
in India, as the English at that time were, it is remarkable
that they were an overmatch at sea for the Portuguese;
and hardly ever encountered them without a brilliant
victory, or at least decided advantages. The case was dif-
ferent in regard to the Dutch: the pretensions of the
English to the spice trade interfered with the very vitals
of the Dutch commerce in the East; and the fleets which
the prosperous enterprise of the new republic enabled it
to maintain were so far superior to those which the re-
stricted means of the English Company allowed them to
send, that contention became altogether hopeless and
vain.
It was not till the year 1617-18, that the hostility of the
two nations displayed itself in operations of force; the
Dutch, in those places where they had formed establish-
ments, having in general been able, by intrigue and artifice,
to defeat the attempts of their rivals. The English took
possession of two small islands, called Polaroon and Ro-
sengin, which were not formally occupied by the Dutch,
but intimately connected with some of their possessions.
The Dutch raised pretensions to them, and attacked the
English. The English had, however, so well fortified
themselves, that the Dutch found it impracticable at the
first attempt to expel them; but they found the means,
partly by force, and partly by artifice, to get possession of
two English ships, on their voyage to these islands ; car-
ried them to a Dutch settlement, and refused to deliver
CONTESTS WITH THE DUTCH.
31
them up, till every pretension to the Spice Islands was BOOK 1.
renounced.
CHAP. II.
The proceedings of the Dutch, though regarded by the
English as in the highest degree unjust and rapacious, were 1618.
founded on pretensions, not inferior to those on which
rights ; and on pretensions which it is clear, at any rate,
that the Dutch themselves regarded as valid and equitable;
since they presented them to the English monarch, as the
ground of complaint against his subjects, and of a demand
for his interference to prevent the recurrence of similar
injuries. In a memorial to James, in 1618, the Dutch
Company set forth, that, at their own cost and bazard,
they had expelled the Portuguese from the Spice Islands,
and had established a treaty with the natives, on the ex-
press condition of affording the natives protection against
the Portuguese, and enjoying the exclusive advantage of
their trade ; that the agents of the English Company,
however, had interfered with those well-established rights,
and had not only endeavoured to trade with the natives,
· To these complaints the English Company replied, by
an enumeration of injuries, from the resistance, the in-
trigues, and violence of the Dutch, in places where no
factories of theirs had ever existed. But they also enu-
merated among their grievances, the hostilities experienced
at Tydore and Amboyna, places to which the pretensions
of the Dutch applied in all their force. And if the ideas
are admitted, which then prevailed, and on which the
English as confidently grounded themselves as any other
nation ; ideas importing that, in newly-discovered coun-
tries, priority of occupancy constituted sovereignty, and
that the will of the natives was to be counted for nothing;
Moluccas ; for though Polaroon and Rosengin might not,
by actual occupancy, have accrued to the Dutch, they
form part of a narrow and closely-connected cluster of
islands, of which the Dutch had seized the principal, and
with the security of which the presence of the English in
i Bruce, i. 199.
2 Memorial of the Dutch East India Company to King James, and Reply of
the London East India Company thereto, in the year 1616 (East India Papers
in the State Paper Office), quoted, Bruce, i. 202.
32
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. any of the rest could as little be reconciled, as the security
CHAP. II. of Great Britain could be reconciled with the dominion of
Ireland by the French. With respect to Java, and the
1619. settlements at Bantam ard Jacatra, the English had an
equitable plea, of which they appear not to have availed
themselves ; they might have insisted on the consent of
the Dutch, who had not resisted their early settlement on
After a tedious interchange of hostilities, in which in-
trigue and force were combined (the practice of buying up
the pepper, at prices higher than the English could afford,
forming one of the principal subjects of English complaint),
it was agreed between the two governments in Europe, at
that time allies, to institute a mutual inquiry, and form an
arrangement respecting the claims of their subjects in the
East. Commissioners were appointed ; and, after repeated
conferences, a treaty was concluded at London, on the 17th
July, 1619. It was stipulated, that there should be a
mutual amnesty, and a mutual restitution of ships and
property; that the pepper trade at Java should be equally
divided ; that the English should have a free trade at
Pullicate, on the Coromandel coast, on paying half the
expenses of the garrison; and that of the trade of the
Moluccas and Bandas they should enjoy one-third, the
Dutch two, paying the charges of the garrisons in the same
proportion. Beside these conditions, which regarded their
opposite pretensions, the treaty included arrangements for
mutual profit and defence. Each Company was to furnish
ten ships of war, which were not to be sent in the Euro-
pean voyages, but employed in India for mutual protection;
the duties and exactions of the native governments at the
different ports. To superintend the execution of this
treaty a council was appointed, to be composed of four
members of each company, called the Council of Defence.
And the treaty was to be in force during twenty years.?
This solemn engagement is a proof, if there was not
of legislation. The principal stipulations were so vague,
and the execution of them dependent on so many unas-
i Rymer's Fcelera, xyii. 170. Bruce, i. 212.
COMMERCIAL SUCCESS OF THE COMPANY.
r
certained circumstances, that the grounds of dispute and BOOK I.
contention were rather multiplied than reduced. For these CHAP. II.
evils, as far as they were foreseen, the Council of Defence
seems to have been devised as the remedy. But experience 1619.
taught here what experience has uniformly taught, that in
all vague arrangements the advantages are reaped by the
strongest party. The voice of four Englishmen in the
Council of Defence was but a feeble protection against the
superior capital and fleets of the Dutch. The English, to
secure their pretensions, should have maintained a naval
and military force superior to that of their opponents. In
that case, they would have been the oppressols ; the Dutch
would have been expelled from the spice trade; the spice
trade would have rested with the English, who would have
overlooked the continent of India, because their capital
would not have sufficed to embrace it; the continent
would have been left to the enterprise of other nations ;
and that brilliant empire, established by the English, woulch
never, it is possible, have received a commencement.
In consequence of this treaty, by which the English
were bound to send a fleet of ten ships to India, a larger
fund was this year raised than had been provided for any
preceding voyage : 62,4901. in the precious metals, and
28,5081. in goods, were exported with the fleet. The return
was brought back in a single ship, and sold at 108,8877.2
In the interval between the time of concluding the treaty
and the establishment of the Council of Defence at Jacatra,
the Dutch had committed various acts of oppression on
the English; and, when the council began its operations,
the Dutch, after executing some of the least important.
conditions of the treaty, endeavoured to evade the rest.
They consented to restore the ships taken from the Eng-
lish, but not the goods or stores taken by individuals ; on
the pretext, that the Company could not be responsible
for any acts but their own; though, if the letters may be
credited of the English factors at Jacatra, they exploded
the same pretension when it was urged against themselves :
They refused to admit the English to their share of the
pepper trade, till indemnified for certain fortifications, and
for the expenses incurred by them at the siege of Bantam :
They insisted that at Jacatra, and all other places where
i Bruce, i. 213.
VOL.I.
34
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. they had erected fortifications, they possessed the rights
· CHAP. II. of sovereignty; and that the English could claim no per-
mission to reside there except under the Dutch laws :
· 1620..
They set forth the large expense they had incurred in for-
tifications on the Spice Islands; the maintenance of which.
they estimated at 60,0001. per annum ; and of all this they
required the English to advance their due proportion,
before they could be admitted to the stipulated share of
the trade. The English objected, that some of the fortifi-
cations were at places where no produce was obtained, and
that none of them were useful but for defence against the
Spaniards and Portuguese, with whom they were not at
war. On the whole it may be remarked, that if there were
fortifications at places where none were required, the Eng-
lish had a right to decline paying for the blunders of the
Dutch ; but as they claimed a share of the trade upon the
foundation of the Dutch conquests, and would not have
been admitted to it, without a war, had not those con-
quests taken place, it was a less valid plea, to say that
they were not at war with the Spaniards and Portuguese.
In framing the treaty, no distinction was made between
past and future expenses. The English intended to bind
themselves only for a share of the future: the Dutch
availed themselves of the ambiguity to demand a share of
the past ; and in all these pretensions they acted with so
high a hand, that the English commissioners of the Council
of Defence reported the impracticability of continuing the
English trade, unless measures were taken in Europe to
check the overbearing and oppressive proceedings of the
Dutch.
In the circle of which Surat was the centre, as the Eng-
lish were more than a match for their antagonists, they
had a better prospect of success. In 1620, two of the Com-
pany's ships, which sailed from Surat to Persia, found the
port of Jasques blockaded by a Portuguese fleet, consisting
of five large and sixteen smaller vessels. Unable to cope
with so disproportionate a force, they sailed back to Surat;
where they were joined by two other ships. Returning
with this reinforcement, they attacked the Portuguese, and,
after an indecisive action, entered the port. The Portu-
guese retired to Ormus, but, after refitting, came back for
1 Bruce, i. 223.
EXTORTION BY THE COURT.
35
revenge. An obstinate conflict ensued, in which the Eng- BOOK I.
lish were victorious over a vast superiority of force. Such CHAP. II.
an event was calculated to produce a great impression on
the minds of the Persians.
1622.
CU
forces the Portuguese on the island of Ormus, which that
nation in the days of its prosperity had seized and forti-
fied. The English furnished the naval, the Persians the
military force : and the city and castle were taken on the
22nd of April, 1622. For this service the English received
part of the plunder of Ormus, and a grant of half the cus-
toms at the port of Gombroon ; which became their prin-
cipal station in the Persian Gulf. The agents of the Com-
pany at Bantam, who were already vested with the superb
title of President and Council, and with a sort of control
over the other factories, condemned this enterprise ; as
depriving them of the ships and effects, so much required
to balance the power, and restrain the injustice of the
Dutch.'
The domestic proceedings of the Company at this period
were humble. In 1621-22, they were able to fit out only
four ships, supplied with 12,9001. in gold and silver, and
62531. in goods: the following year, they sent five ships,
61,6001. in money, and 6,4301. in goods ; in 1623-24, they
equipped seven vessels, and furnished them with 68,7201.
in money, and 17,3401. in goods. This last was a pros-
perous year to the domestic exchequer. Five ships arrived
from India with cargoes, not of pepper only, but of all
the finer spices, of which, notwithstanding the increas-
ing complaints against the Dutch, the Company's agents
had not been prevented from procuring an assortment.
The sale of this part alone of the cargoes amounted to
485,5931. ; that of the Persian raw silk to 97,0007. ; while
80,0001. in pursuance of the treaty of 1619, was received as
Other feelings were the result of demands, by the King,
and by the Duke of Buckingham, Lord High Admiral, of
shares, to the one as droits of the crown, to the other as
droits of the admiralty, of the prize-money, gained by the
various captures of the Company, particularly that of Ormus,
The Company, who deemed it prudent to make little oppo-
I Bruce, i, 237, 238.
2 Accounts in the Indian Register Ofice, Bruce, i. 225, 23424,
36
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. sition to the claims of the King, objected, as having acted
CHAP. II. not under letters of marque from the Admiral, but under
their own charter, to those of the Duke of Buckingham.
1623.
The question was referred to the Judge of the Admiralty
court; witnesses were examined, to ascertain the amount
of the prize-money, which was estimated at 100,0001. and
240,000 reals of eight. The Company urged the expense
of their equipments, the losses they had sustained, the
detriment to their mercantile concerns, by withdrawing
their ships from commerce to war. All possible modes of
solicitation to the King and the Admiral were employed ;
but the desire for their money was stronger than their
interest. Buckingham, who knew they must lose their
voyage, if the season for sailing was passed, made their
ships be detained ; and the Company, to escape this cala-
mity, were glad of an accommodation. The Duke agreed
to accept of 10,0001., which he received. A like sum was
demanded for the King, but there is no direct evidence
that it ever was paid.
The animosities between the English and Dutch were
now approaching to a crisis in the islands. The English
complained of oppression, and were so weak as to find
themselves at the mercy of their rivals. They represented
that, in the execution of the joint articles of the treaty,
they were charged with every item of expense, though
their voice was entirely disregarded in the disposal of the
money, in the employment of the naval and military force,
and even in the management of the trade; that, instead of
being admitted to their stipulated share of the spice com-
merce, they were almost entirely extruded from it; and
that, under the pretext of a conspiracy, the Dutch had
executed great numbers of the natives at Banda, and re-
duced Polaroon to a desert.2 At last arrived that event,
which made a deep and lasting impression on the minds, of
Englishmen. In February, 1623, Captain Towerson and
nine Englishmen, nine Japanese, and one Portuguese sailor,
were seized at Amboyna, under the accusation of a conspi-
racy to surprise the garrison, and to expel the Dutch; and,
being tried, were pronounced guilty, and executed. The
1 East India Papers in the State Paper Office, Bruce, i. 241.
9 The Dutch, in their vindication, stated that the English intrigued with the
Portuguese, and underhand assisted the natives in receiving the Portuguese
into the islands. See Anderson's History of Commerce, in Macpherson's
Annals, ii. 305,
MASSACRE OF AMBOYNA.
3.7
:
accusation was treated by the English as a mere pretext, BOOK I.
to cover a plan for their extermination. But the facts of CHAP. II.
an event, which roused extreme indignation in England,
have never been exactly ascertained. The nation, whose
1623.
passions were kindled, was more disposed to paint to itself
a scene of atrocity, and to believe whatever could inflame
its resentment, than to enter upon a rigid investigation of
the case. If it be improbable, however, on the one hand,
that the English, whose numbers were small, and by whom
ultimately so little advantage could be gained, were really
guilty of any such design as the Dutch imputed to them ;
it is on the other hand equally improbable that the Dutch,
without believing them to be guilty, would have proceeded
against them by the evidence of a judicial trial. Had sim-
ple extermination been their object, a more quiet and safe
any time to make the English disappear, and to lay the
blame upon the natives. The probability is, that, from
certain circumstances, which roused their suspicion and
jealousy, the Dutch really believed in the conspiracy, and
were hurried on, by their resentments and interests, to
bring the helpless objects of their fury to a trial; that the
judges before whom the trial was conducted, were in too
heated a state of mind to see the innocence, or believe in
any thing but the guilt, of the accused ; and that in this
manner the sufferers perished. Enough, assuredly, of
what is hateful may be found in this transaction, without
supposing the spirit of demons in beings of the same
nature with ourselves, men reared in a similar state of
society, under a similar system of education, and a similar
religion. To bring men rashly to a trial whom a violent
opposition of interests has led us to detest, rashly to be-
lieve them criminal, to decide against them with minds
too much blinded by passion to discern the truth, and to
put them to death without remorse, are acts of which our
own nation, or any other, was then, and would still be, too
ready to be guilty. Happy would it be, how trite soever
the reflection, if nations, from the scenes which excite
their indignation against others, would learn temper and
forbearance in cases where they become the actors them-
One of the circumstances, the thought of which most
38
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. strongly incited the passions of the English, was the ap=
CHAP. II. plication of the torture. This, however, under the Civil
Law, was an established and regular part of a judicial in-
. 1-623.
Quiry. In all the kingdoms of continental Europe, and in
Holland itself, the torture was a common method of ex-
torting evidence from supposed criminals, and would have
been applied by the Dutch judges to their own countrymen.
As both the Japanese, who were accused of being acces-
saries to the imputed crime, and the Englishmen them-
selves, made confession of guilt under the torture, this,
however absurd and inhuman the law, constituted legal
evidence in the code of the Dutch, as well as in the codes
of all the other continental nations of Europe. By this,
added to other articles of evidence which would have been
insufficient without it, proof was held to be completed ;
and death, in all capital cases, authorized and required.
This was an ancient and established law; and as there are
scarcely any courses of oppression to which Englishmen
cannot submit, and which they will not justify and ap-
plaud, provided only it has ancient and established law for
its support, they ought, of all nations, to have been the
most ready to find an excuse and apology for the Dutch.?
1 The English had not been so long strangers to the torture themselves,
that it needed to excite in their breasts any emotions of astonislıment. "The
rack itself," says Hume in his History of Elizabeth, v, 457, “though not ac-
mitted in the ordinary execution of justice, was frequently used upon any
suspicion, by authority of a warrant from a secretary or the Privy Council.
Even the Council in the Marches of Wales were empowered, by their very
commission, to make use of torture whenever they thought proper. There
cannot be a stronger proof how lightly the rack was employed, than the fol-
lowing story, told by Lord Bacon. We shall give it in his own words: The
Queen was mightily incensed against Haywardc on account of a book he dedi-
cated to Lord Essex, thinking it a seditious prelude to put into the people's
head boldness and faction : [to our apprehension, says Hume, Haywarde's book
seems rather to have u contrary tendency; but Queen Elizabeth was very difficult to -
please on that head. She said, she had an opinion that there was treason in it,
and asked me if I could not find any places in it that might be drawn within
the case of treason? ...... Another time when the Queen could not be per-
suaded that it was his writing whose name was to it, but that it had some more
mischievous author, she said, with great indignation, that she would have him
racked to produce his author.'. ...... Thus,' continues Hume, “had it not
been for Bacon's humanity, or rather his wit, this author, a man of letters,
would have been put to the rack for a most innocent performance "-The truth
is, that the Company themselves, at this very time, were in the regular habit
of perpetrating tortures upon their own countrynien, and even their own ser..
vants- of torturing to death by whips or famine. Captain Hamilton (Nery
Account of the East Indies, i. 362) informis us, that before they were entrusted
with the powers of martial law, liaving no power to punish capitally any but
pirates, they made it a rule to whip to death, or starve to death, those of whom
they wished to get rid. He produces (ib. 376) an instance of a deserter at
Fort St. George, “whipt," as he expresses it, "out of this world into the next."
The power, too, of executing as for piracy, tlie same author complains, was
MASSACRE OF AMBOYNA.
39
Fiom the first moment of acting upon the treaty, the BOOK I.
Dutch had laid it down, as a principle, that at all the CHAP. II.
places where they had erected fortifications, the English -
should be subject to the Dutch laws; and though the Eng- 1623.
lish had remonstrated, they had yet complied.
It was in vain, that the English President and Council
at Java, on hearing of the massacre, as they called it,
remonstrated in terms of the utmost indignation, and eren
intimated their design of withdrawing from the island.
In their representations to the Court of Directors at home,
they declared, what might have been seen from the begin-
ning, that it was impossible to trade on a combination of
interests with the Dutch; and that, negotiation being
fruitless, nothing but a force in the islands, equal to that
of their rivals, could ensure to their countrymen a share
of the trade.
· When the news of the execution at Amboyna arrived in
England, the people, whose minds had been already.inflamed
against the Dutch, by continual reports of injustice to their
countrymen, were kindled into the most violent combus-
tion. The Court of Directors exerted themselves to feed
made use of to murder many private traders. "That power (he says, ib. 362),
of executing pirates is so strangely stretched, that if any private trader is in-
jured by the tricks of a Governor, and can find no redress--if the injured per-
son is so bold as to talk of lex tulionis, he is infallibly declared a pirate." He
gives an account of an attempt of an agent of the Company, and a creature of
the Governor of Fort St. George, to swear away his life by perjury at Siam.
(Ib. ii. 183.)--These parallels are presented, not for the sake of clearing the
one party at the expense of the other; but, by showing things as they were, to
give the world at last possession of tlie real state of the case.-M.
It is not impossible that there was amongst the English on Amboyna some
wild scheme for the seizure of the island. The Japanese were soldiers of the
garrison, and their position rendered thcir co-operation of an importance more.
than equivalent to the smallness of their numbers. At the same time, the
conspirators were punished with a severity wholly unjustifiable. It is no
those days, were guilty of similar atrocities; the fact is not proved, and the
quoted against any of the Euglish factories or governments, and particular acts
of severity towards deserters and pirates are not to be confounded with the
deliberate cruelties of a public body. Even with regard to individual instances,
however, the evidence is defective; Hamilton wrote from recollection, accord-
ing to his own admission, and his accusations are, for the most part, gerieral
· and vague. It is elsewhere noticed by our author', also, that he was an inter-,
loper, and that his testimony, when unfavourable to the Company, must be
received with caution. His assertions cannot be admitted, as conclusive or
unsuspicious. The conduct of the Council of Amboyna admits of 10 doubt,
and no plea of precedent or necessity can be justly heard in its palliation. The
Dutch writers themselves acknowledge, that it would have been much better
to hare sent the accused to Europe for trial, even by the English couts.
Vies des Gouverneurs Hollandois, in the Histoire Générale des Voyages xyii,
33,-W.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the popular fury. They had a hideous picture prepared, in
CHAP. II. which their countrymen were represented expiring upon
the rack, with the most shocking expressions of horror and
1623.
.agony in their countenance and attitudes, and the most
frightful instruments of torture applied to their bodies.
The press teemed with publicatious, which enlarged upon
the horrid scene at Amboyna; and to such a degree of rage
were the populace excited, that the Dutch merchants in
London became alarmed, and applied to the Privy Council
for protection. They complained of the inflammatory pub-
lications, more particularly of the picture: which, being
exposed to the people, had contributed to work them up to
the most desperate resolutions. The Directors, when called
before the Privy Council to answer these complaints, denied
that they had any concern with the publications, but ac-
knowledged that the picture was produced by their order,
and was intended to be preserved in their house as a per-
petual memorial of the cruelty and treachery of the Dutch.
The Directors were aware that the popular tide had reached
the table of the council room, and that they had nothing
to apprehend from confessing how far they had been in-
strumental in raising the waters.?
Application was made to the King, to obtain sigoal re-
paration from the Dutch government for so great a national
insult and calamity. The whole nation was too violently
agitated to leave any suspicion that the application could
be neglected. A commission of inquiry was formed of the
King's principal servants, who reported in terms confirming
the general belief and indignation, and recommended an
order, which was immediately issued, for intercepting and
detaining the Dutch East India fleets, till satisfaction was
obtained. With great gravity the Dutch government re-
turned for answer; that they would send orders to their
Governor General in the Indies, to permit the English to
retire from the Dutch settlements without paying any
duties; that all disputes might be referred to the council
of Defence; that the English might build forts for the
protection of their trade, provided they were at the dis-
tance of thirty miles from any fort of the Dutch; that
the "administration, however, of politic government, and
particular jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, at all such
1 East India Papers in the State Paper Office. Bruce, i. 256.
THE COMPANY'S DEBT.
41
places as owe acknowledgment to the Dutch," should re- BOOK I.
1625.
the exclusive right to the Moluccas, Bandas, and Amboyna.
:- This was an undisguised assumption of all the rights for
which their subjects were contending in India. It is re-
markable enough that the English East India Company,
who were highly dissatisfied with the other parts of this
answer, declared their acceptance of the first article, which
permitted their servants to retire from the Dutch settle-
ments. And here, for the present, the matter rested.
· In 1624, the Company applied by petition, to the King,
for authority to punish his servants abroad, by martial as
well as municipal law. It appears not that any difficulty
was experienced in obtaining their request; or that any
parliamentary proceeding for transferring unlimited power
over the lives and fortunes of the citizens, was deemed even
a necessary ceremony. This ought to be regarded as an era
in the history of the Company. .
In the year 1624-5, the Company's voyage to India con-
sisted of five ships, but of the amount of the capital with
which they were supplied, no account, it should seem, re-
mains. In 1625-26, it consisted of six ships; and in 1626-
27, of seven; further information wanting as before. In
the last of these years, we gain the knowledge, collaterally,
of one of those most important facts, in the Company's
history, which it has been their sedulous care to preserve
concealed, except when some interest, as now, was to be
ambassador at the court of Persia, made application to the
King and Council to order the East India Company to pay
him 20001., as a compensation for his exertions and services
in procuring them a trade with Persia. The Company, be-
sidé denying the pretended services, urged their inability
to pay; stating that they had been obliged to contract so
large a debt as 200,0001.; and that their stock had fallen to
20 per cent. discount, shares of 1001. selling for no more
than 801.4.
The Company's Persian trade was not prosperous, under
the caprice and extortions of the Persian magistrates. At
Java their agents, tired out with the mortifications and
i Bruce, i. 258. ? Ibid. i. 252. 3 Ibid. 252, 205, 271.
4 East India Papers in the State Paper Office. Brice, i. 272.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA..
BOOK I. disasters to which they were exposed from the Dutch, re-
CHAP. II. tired to the island of Lagundy, in the Straits of Sunda ;
having abandoned both Bantam and Jacatra, at which the
1627.
Dutch, under the name of Batavia, had now established
their principal seat of government. The island of Lagundy
was found to be so unhealthy, that in less than a year, the
imprudent English were anxious to return. Their distress.
was so great, that out of 250 individuals 120 were sick; and
they had not a crew sufficient to navigate a ship to any of
the English factories. In these circumstances the Dutch lent
them assistance, and brought them back to Batavia.? On
the coast of Coromandel some feeble efforts were continued.
The Company had established factories at Masulipatam and
Pullicat; but the rivalship of the Dutch pursued and obliged
them to relinquish Pullicat. In 1624-5, they projected an.
establishment in the kingdom of Tanjore, but were opposed
by a new rival, the Danes. At Armegaum, however, situated
a little to the south of Nellore, they purchased in the suc-
ceeding year, a piece of ground from the chief of the district;
erected and fortified a factory; and, suffering oppression
fi'om the native government at Masulipatam, they with-
drew the factory in 1628, and transferred it to Armegaum.?
Shortly after the first application to James on account of
the injury.at Amboyna, that monarch died. In 1627-8; the
application was renewed to Charles, and three large Dutch
Indiamen from Surat, which put into Portsmouth, were
detained. The Company, watching the decline of the royal
authority, and the growing power of the House of Commons,
were not satisfied with addressing the King, but in the year
following presented, for the first time a memorial to the
Commons. They represented that by their failure in the
spice trade, and the difficulties they experienced in opening
a trade for wove goods on the coast of Coromandel, they
were nearly driven from all their factories; and assigned as
causes, partly the opposition of the native powers, but
chiefly the hostility of the Dutch. The narrowness of their
own funds, and their unskilful management by the negligent
Directors of a joint-stock, far more powerful causes, they
overlooked or suppressed. They set forth, however, the
merits of the Company, as towards the nation, in terms re-
peated to the present day: they employed many seamen:
i Bruce, i. 262, 264, 268.
2 Ibid. 264, 269, 290.
DISPUTES WITH THE DUTCH.
43
they exported much goods; as if the capital they employed BOOK I.
would have remained idle; as if it would not have main- CHAP. II.
tained seamen, and exported goods, had the East India Com-
pany, or East India traffic, never existed.
1628.
The detention of the ships, and the zeal with which the
injury seemed now to be taken up in England, produced
explanation and remonstrance on the part of the Dutch.
They had appointed judges to take cognizance of the pro-
ceedings at Amboyna, even before the parties had returned
from Europe. Delay had arisen from the situation of the
judges, on whom other services devolved, and from the time
l'equired to translate documents written in a foreign tongue.
The detention of the ships, the property of private indi-
viduals altogether unconcerned with the transaction, might
bring unmerited ruin on them, but could not accelerate the
proceedings of the judges. On the other hand, by creating
national indignation, it would only tend to unfit them for
a sober and impartial inquiry. And, were the dispute allowed,
unfortunately, to issue in. war, however the English in
Europe might detain the fleets of the Dutch, the English
Company must suffer in India far greater evils than those
of which they were now seeking the redress. At last on a
proposal that the States should send to England commis-
sioners of inquiry, and a promise that justice should be
speedily rendered, the ships were released. It was after-
wards recommended by the ministry, that the East India
Company should send over witnesses to Holland to afford
pany objected, and satisfaction was still deferred.2
In 1627-28, the Company provided only two ships and a
pinnace for the outward voyage. They deemed it neces-
sary to assign reasons for this diminution, dreading the
inferences which might be drawn. They had many ships
in India which, from the obstructions of the Dutch, and
the number of ships was small, the stock would be large,
60,0001. or 70,0001. in money and goods; and they hoped to
bring home all their ships richly laden the following year.
In 1628-29, five ships went out; two for the trade with
India, and three for that with Persia; and though no account
1 Bruce, i. 276, 277, 282. Anderson, in Macpherson's Annals, ii. 35).
2 Bruce, i. 285, 287.
44
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. is preserved of the stock with which they were supplied, a
CHAP. II. petition to the King remains for leave to export 60,000l. in
gold and silver in the ships destined to Persia. In the
1629.
succeeding year four ships were sent to Persia, and none to
India. Of the stock which they carried with them no ac-
count is preserved.
· As the sums in gold and silver which the Company had
for several years found it necessary to export, exceeded the
limits to which they were confined by the terms of their
charter, they had proceeded annually upon a petition to the
King, and a special permission. It was now, however,
deemed advisable to apply for a general license, so large as
would comprehend the greatest amount which on any occa-
sion it would be necessary to send. The sum for which they
solicited this permission was 80,0001. in silver, and 40,0001.
in gold; and they recommended as the best mode of authen-
ticating the privilege, that it should be incorporated in a
fresh renewal of their charter; which was accordingly ob-
tained.
· Notwithstanding the terms on which the English stood
with the Dutch, they were allowed to re-establish their fac-
tory at Bantam after the failure of the attempt at Lagundy:
a war in which the Dutch were involved with some of the
native princes of the island, lessened, perhaps, their dispo-
sition, or their power, to oppose their European rivals. As
Bantam was now a station of inferior importance to Surat,
the government of Bantam was reduced to an agency de-
pendent upon the Presidency of Surat, which became the
chief seat of the Company's government in India. Among
the complaints against the Dutch, one of the heaviest was
that they sold European goods cheaper, and bought India
goods dearer, at Surat, than the English; who were thus
expelled from the market. This was to complain of com-
petition, the soul of trade. If the Dutch sold so cheap and
bought so dear as to be losers, all that was necessary was a
little patience on the part of the English. The fact was,
that the Dutch, trading on a larger capital, and with more
economy, were perfectly able to outbid the English both
in purchase and sale.
· The English at Surat had to sustain, at this time not only
the commercial rivalship of the Dutch, but also a powerful
i Bruce, i. 278, 293.
2 Ibid. 298.
NEW JOINT-STOCK.
45
effort of the Portuguese to regain their influence in that BOOK I.
part of the East. The Viceroy at Goa, had in April, 1630, CHAP:III.
received a reinforcement from Europe, of nine ships and
2000 soldiers, and projected the recovery of Ormus. Some 1632.
negotiation to obtain the exclusive trade of Surat was tried
in vain with the Mogul Governor; and in September, an
English fleet of five ships endeavouring to enter the port
of Swally, a sharp, though not a decisive action, was fought.
The English had the advantage; and after sustaining se-
veral subsequent skirmishes, and one great effort to destroy
their fleet by fire, succeeded in landing their cargoes.?
CHAPTER III.
From the Formation of the third Joint-Stock, in 1632, till
the Coalition of the Company with the Merchant Adven-
turers, in 1657.
TN 1631-32, a subscription was opened for a third joint-
I stock. This amounted to 420,7001. Still we are left
in darkness with regard to some important circumstances.
We know not in what degree the capital which had been
placed in the hands of the Directors by former subscrip-
tions had been repaid; not even if any part of it had been
repaid, though the Directors were now without funds to
carry on the trade.
With the new subscription, seven ships were fitted out
in the same season; but of the money or goods embarked,
no account remains. In 1633-34, the fleet consisted of
five ships; and in 1634-35, of no more than three, the
money or goods in both cases unknown.3
During this period, however, some progress was made
in extending the connexions of the Company with the
eastern coast of Hindustan. It was thought advisable to
replace the factory at Masulipatam not long after it had
been removed; and certain privileges, which afforded pro-
tection from former grievances, were obtained from the
King of Golconda, the sovereign of the place. Permission
was given by the Mogul Emperor to trade to Piplee in

i Bruce, i. 296, 304, 300, 302."
i Papars in the Indian Register Office. Sir Jeremy Sambrooke's Report on
the East India Tradc. Bruce, i. 306.
3 Bruce, i. 306, 320, 323.
46
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Orissa ; and a factor was sent to Masulipatam. For the
CHAP.. III. more conamodious government of these stations, Bantam
was again raised to the rank of a Presidency, and the
1635.
eastern coast was placed under its jurisdiction. Despair-
ing of success in the contest with the Dutch for the trade
of the islands, the Company had, for some time, despatched
their principal fleets to Surat; and the trade with this
part of India and with Persia now chiefly occupied their
attention. From servants at a vast distance, and the ser-
vants of a great and negligent master, the best service
could not easily be procured. For this discovery the Di-
rectors were indebted, not to any sagacity of their own,
but to a misunderstanding among the agents themselves;
who, betraying one another, acknowledged that they had
neglected the affairs of their employers to attend to their
oin; and, while they pursued with avidity a private trade
for their private benefit, had abandoned that of the Com-
pany to every kind of disorder.1
As pepper was a product of the Malabar coast, a share
was sought in the trade of that commodity, through a
channel, which the Dutch would not be able to obstruct.
A treaty was concluded, between the English and Portu-
guese, in 1634-35, and confirmed with additional articles
the following year, in which it was ordained that the Eng-
lish should have free access to the ports of the Portuguese,
and that the Portuguese should receive from the English
factories the treatment of friends.?
The Company, like other unskilful, ancl for that reason
unprosperous, traders, had always competitors of one de-
scription or another, to whom they ascribed their own
want of success. For several years they had spoken with
loud condemnation of the clandestine trade carried on by
their own servants; whose profits, they said, exceeded their
own. Their alarms, with regard to their exclusive privi-
lege, had for some time been sounded; and would have
been sounded much louder, but for the ascendency gained
by the sentiments of liberty, the contentions between
Charles and his parliament being already high ;3 and the
hope that their monopoly would escape the general wreck,
i Bruce, i. 306, 320, 324, 327.
2 Ibid. 325, 334.
3 Some inaccuracy of expression occurs in the text. There was not any
Parliament from 1628 to 1640, but there was much public discontent at the
time in question, especially on the subject of Ship-money.-W.
· COURTEN'S ASSOCIATION.
47
with which institutions at variance with the spirit of BOOK I.
liberty were threatened, only if its pretensions were pru- CHAP. III.
dently kept in the shade. The controversy, whether mo- -
nopolies, and among others that of the Company, were 1635.
injurious to the wealth and prosperity of the nation, had
already employed the press: but, though the Company had
entered boldly enough into the lists of argument, they
deemed it their wisest course, at the present conjuncture,
not to excite the public attention by any invidious oppo-
sition to the infringements which private adventure was
trade.
Av. event at last occurred, which appeared to involve
unusual danger. A number of persons, with Sir William
Courten at their head, whom the new arrangements with
hack the art, or the good fortune, to engage in their schemes
Endymion Porter, Esq., a gentleman of the bedchamber to
the King, who prevailed upon the sovereign himself to
accept of a share in the adventure, and to grant his license
for a new association to trade with India. The preamble
to the license declared that it was founded upon the mis-
conduct of the East India Company, who had accomplished
nothing for the good of the nation, in proportion to the
great privileges they had obtained, or even to the funds of
which they had disposed. This was probably the general
opinion of the nation; nothing less seeming necessary to
embolden the King to such a violation of the charter.
Allowing the contrariety to the interests of the nation,
the consequences were not so ruinous, but that the stipu-
lated notice of three years might have been given, and a
legal end been put to the monopoly. The Company peti-
'tioned the King, but without success. They sent, however,
instructions to their agents and factors in India, to oppose
the interlopers, at least indirectly. An incident occurred,
of which they endeavoured to avail themselves to the ut-
most. One of their ships from Surat reported that a
vessel of Courten's had seized and plundered two junks
belonging to Surat and Diu, and put the crews to the
torture. The latter part at least of the story was, in all
probability, forged; but the Directors believed, or affected
to believe, the whole. In consequence of the outrage, the
48
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. English President and Council at Surat had been impri-
CHIAP. III. soned, and the property of the factory confiscated to
answer for the loss. A memorial was presented to the
1637-
King, setting forth, in the strongest terms, the injuries
which the Company sustained by the license to Courten's
Association, and the ruin which threatened them unless it
were withdrawn. The Privy Council, to whom the memo-
rial was referred, treated the facts alleged, as little better
than fabrication, and suspended the investigation till
Courten's ships should return.
The arrival of Courten's ships at Surat seems to have
thrown the factory into the greatest confusion. It is
stated as the cause of a complete suspension of trade on
the part of the Company, for the season, at that principal
seat of their commercial operations. The inability early
and constantly displayed by the Company, to sustain even
the slightest competition, is a symptom of inherent infir-
mities.
In 1637-38, several of Courten's ships returned, and
brought home large investments, which sold with an
ample profit to the adventurers. The fears and jealousies
of the Company were exceedingly raised. They presented
to the crown a petition for protection; placing their chief
reliance, it should seem, on the lamentable picture of their
own distresses. Their remonstrance was, however, disre-
garded ; a new license was extended to Courten's Associa-
tion, continuing their privileges for five years; and, to
form a line between them and the Company, it was or-
dained, that neither should they trade at those places
where the Company had factories, nor the Company trade
at any places at which Courten's Association might have
erected establishments.3
The Directors, as if they abandoned all other efforts for
sustaining their affairs, betook themselves to complaint
and petition. They renewed their addresses to the throne.
They dwelt upon the calamities which had been brought
upon them by competition; first, that of the Dutch, next,
that of Courten's Association. They endeavoured to stimu-
late the jealousy of the King, by reminding him that the
redress which he had demanded from the States General
Bruce, i. 329, 387. 2 Ibid. 342. . 15:2. 345, 3-19.
4 Ibid. 349, 350, 353.
COURTEN'S LICENSE WITHDRAWN. .
49
had not been received: and they desired to be at least BOOK I.
1638.
rivals they were required to pursue. The affairs of the
King were now at a low ebb; and this may account in part
for the tone which the Company assumed with him. A
committee of the Privy Council was formed, to inquire
into their complaints; and had instructions to inquire,
among other particulars, into the means of obtaining repa-
ration from the Dutch, and of accomplishing a union be-
tween the Company and Courten's Association. One thing
is remarkable, because it shows the unfavourable opinion,
held by that Privy Council, of the mode of trading to India
by a joint-stock Company. The Committee were expressly
instructed “to form regulations for this trade, which
might satisfy the noblemen and gentlemen who were
adventurers in it; and to vary the principle on which the
India trade had been conducted, or that of a general joint-
stock, in such a manner as to enable each adventurer to
employ his stock to his own advantage, to have the trade
under similar regulations with those observed by the
Turkey and other English Companies.”
The committee of the Privy Council seem to have given
they were invested. No report from them ever appeared.
The Company continued indefatigably pressing the King,
by petitions and remonstrances. At last they affirmed the
necessity of abandoning the trade altogether, if the pro-
tection for which they prayed was not afforded. And now
their importunity prevailed. On the condition that they
should raise a new joint-stock, to carry on the trade on a
sufficient scale, it was agreed that Courten's license should
be withdrawn.”
On this occasion, we are made acquainted incidentally
with an important fact; that the Proprietors of the third
joint-stock had made frequent but unavailing calls upon
the Directors to close that concern, and bring home what
belonged to it in India.3 For the first time, we learn that
payment was demanded of the capital of those separate
funds, called the joint-stocks of the Company. Upon this
occasion a difficult question might have presented itself.
i Bruce, i. 353, 354.
VOL. I.
? Ibid. 355, 361, 362.
3 Ibid 363.
50
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA:
BOOK I. It might have been disputed to whom the immoveable
CHAP. III. property of the Company, in houses and in lands, both in
India and in England, acquired by parts indiscriminately,
1642.
of all the joint-stocks, belonged. Amid the confusion
which pervaded all parts of the Company's affairs, this
question had not begun to be agitated : but to encourage
subscription to the new joint-stock, it was laid down as a
condition, “That t., prevent inconvenience and confusion,
the old Company or adventurers in the third joint-stock
should have sufficient time allowed for bringing home their
property, and should send no more stock to India, after
the month of May.” It would thus appear, that the Pro-
prietors of the third joint-stock, and by the same rule the
Proprietors of all preceding stocks, were, without any
scruple, to be deprived of their share in what is technically
called the dead stock of the Company, though it had been
wholly purchased with their money. There was another
condition, to which inferences of some importance may be
attached ; the subscribers to the new stock were them-
selves, in a general court, to elect the Directors to whom
the management of the fund should be committed, and to
renew that election annually.? As this was a new Court
of Directors, entirely belonging to the fourth joint-stock
it seems to follow that the Directors in whose hands the
third joint-stock had been placed, must still have remained
in office, for the winding up of that concern. And, in
that case, there existed, to all intents and purposes, two
East India Companies, two separate bodies of Proprietors,
and two separate Courts of Directors, under one charter.
So low, however, was the credit of East India adventure,
under joint-stock management, now reduced, that the pro-
ject of a new subscription almost totally failed. Only the
small sum of 22,5001. was raised. Upon this a memorial
was presented to the King, but in the name of whom ;
whether of the new subscribers, or the old; whether of
the Court of Directors belonging to the old joint-stock, or
of a Court of Directors chosen for the new, does not ap-
pear. It set forth a number of unhappy circumstances,
to which was ascribed the distrust which now attended
I Preamble to a subscription for a new joint-stock, for trade to the East
Indies, 28th Janviary, 1640 (East India Papers in the State Paper Office),
Bruce, i. 364.
2 Ibid.
IV
THE KING TAKES THE COMPANY'S PEPPER. 51
joint-stock adventures to India ;' and it intimated, but in BOOK I.
very general terms, the necessity of encouragement, to CHAP. III.
save that branch of commerce from total destruction.
In the meantime a heavy calamity fell upon the Pro-
1.642.
prietors of the third joint-stock. The King having resolved
to draw the sword for terminating the disputes between
him and his people; and finding himself destitute of
money ; fixed his eyes, as the most convenient mass of
property within his reach, on the magazines of the East
India Company. A price being named, which was pro-
bably a high one, he bought upon credit the whole of their
pepper, and sold it again at a lower price for ready money.
Bonds, four in number, one of which was promised to be
paid every six months, were given by the farmers of the
customs and Lord Cottington for the amount; of which
only a small portion seems ever to have been paid. On a
pressing application, about the beginning of the year 1642,
it was stated, that 13,0001. had been allowed them out of
the duties they owed ; the remainder the farmers declared
it to be out of their power to advance. A prayer was
presented that the customs, now due by them, amounting
to 12,0001., might be applied in liquidation of the debt;
but for this they were afterwards pressed by the parliament.
The King exerted himself to protect the parties who stood
responsible for him; and what the Company were obliged
to pay to the parliament, or what they succeeded in get-
ting from the King or his sureties, nowhere appears.3
· About the period of this abortive attempt to form a new
joint-stock, a settlement was first effected at Madras; the
only station as yet chosen, which was destined to make a
figure in the future history of the Company. The desire
of a place of strength on the coast of Coromandel, as a
security both to the property of the Company and the
persons of their agents, had suggested, some years ago, the
1 The principal of these was the ascendancy of the Dutch in India; an
ascendancy, of the reality and consequences of which no doubt can be reason-
ably cntertained, when the state of England, both at home and abroad, is
remembered. The disputes, also, which divided the king and parliament, and
the general agitation of men's minds, must be considered unpropitious to the
investment of capital in any commercial speculation. It is not just, therefore,
to insinuate that the failure of the subscription was wholly ascribable to the
mismanagement of the Directors of prior joint-stock enterprises.-W. .
2 See Bruce, i. 371. The quantity was, 607,522 bags, bought at 2s. 1d. per
pound; total, 63,2831. Ils. 1d.: sold at ls. 8d. per pound; total, 50,6261. 178. 1d.
3 Bruce, i. 379, 380.--M. In all probability, nothing was recovered.-W.
52
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. fortification of Armegaum. On experience, Armegaum was
CHAP. II. not found a convenient station for providing the piece
goods, for which chiefly the trade to the coast of Coro-
1678.
mandel was pursued. In 1640-41, the permission of the
local native chief to erect a fort at Madraspatam was,
therefore, eagerly embraced. The works were begun, and
the place named Fort St. George ; but the measure was
not approved by the Directors.3
Meanwhile the trade was languishing, for want of funds.
The agents abroad endeavoured to supply, by loans, the
failure of receipts from home.
An effort was made in 1642-43 to aid the weakness of
the fourth joint-stock by a new subscription. The sum
produced was 105,0001.; but whether including or not
including the previous subscription does not appear. This
was deemed no more than what was requisite for a single
voyage : of which the Company thought the real circum-
stances might be concealed under a new name. They
called it, the First General Voyage. Of the amount, how-
ever, of the ships, or the distribution of the funds, there
is no information on record. For several years, from this
date, no account whatever is preserved of the annual
equipments of the Company. It would appear, from in-
structions to the agents abroad, that, each year, funds hac
been supplied; but from what source is altogether un-
know. The instructions sufficiently indicate that they
were small; and for this the unsettled state of the country,
and the distrust of Indian adventure, will sufficiently.
account.
In 1644, the Dutch followed the example of the English
in forming a convention with the Portuguese at Goa.
Though it is not pretended that in this any partiality was
shown to the Dutch, or any privilege granted to them
which was withheld from the English, the Company found
1 Piece Goods is the term which, latterly at least, has been chiefly employed
by the Company and their agents, to denote the muslins and woven goods of
India and China in general.
2 The date of the grant from Sri Ranga Raya, Raja of Chandragheri, by:
whom the ground was given, is the 1st of March, 1639. The chief of the fac-
tory of Armegauim, who removed thence to Madras, was Mr. Day, who was
invited by the Naik, or local governor, to change the seat of the settlement.
In compliment to the latter, the new station was named after his father,
Chenappa-patan ; by which, or its abbreviation, Chenna-patan, the town is
known to the natives. Hamilton's Gazeteer.-W.
3. Bruce, i. 377, 393.
4 Ibid. 385.
5 Ibid. 389, 390.
UNION WITH COURTEN'S ASSOCIATION. *. 53
themselves, as usual, unable to sustain competition, and BOOK I.
complained of this convention as an additional source of CĦAP. III.
misfortune.
preme, and the King a prisoner in the Isle of Wight, a
new. subscription was undertaken, and a pretty obvious
policy was pursued. Endeavours were used to get as many
as possible of the members of parliament to subscribe. If
the members of the ruling body had a personal interest
in the gains of the Company, its privileges would not fail
to be both protected and enlarged. An advertisement,
which fixed the time beyond which ordinary subscribers
would not be received, added, that, in deference to members
of parliament, a further period would be allowed to them,
to consider the subject, and make their subscriptions.?
It appears not that any success attended this effort;
and in 1649-50, the project. of completing the fourth joint-
stock was renewed, partly as a foundation for an applica-
tion to the Council of State, partly in hopes that the
favours expected from the Council would induce the
public to subscribe.3
In the memorial, presented on this occasion to the ruling
poters, Courten's Association was the principal subject of
complaint. The consent of the King, in 1639, to withdraw
the license granted to those rivals, had not been carried
into effect; nor had the condition on which it had been
accorded, that of raising a respectable joint-stock, been
fulfilled. The destruction, however, to which the Associa-
tion of Courten saw themselves at that time condemned,
deprived them of the spirit of enterprise: with the spirit
of enterprise, the spirit of vigilance naturally disappeared :
their proceedings from the time of this condemnation hac
been feeble and unprosperous : but their existence was a
grievance in the eyes of the Company; and an application
which they had recently made for permission to form a set-
tlement on the island of Assada, near Madagascar, kindled
anew the Company's jealousies and fears. What the Council
proposed to both parties was, an agreement. But the Assada
merchants, so Courten's Association were now denominated,
regarded joint-stock management with so much aversion,
that, low as the condition was to which they had fallen,
Bruce, 1. 407, 412, 423. 2 Ibid. 123. 3 Ibid. 434.
54
:: HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA. .
BOOK 1. they preferred a separate trace on their own funds to in-
CHAP.. III. corporation with the Company. To prove, however, their
desire of accommodation, they proposed certain terms, on
1650. which they would submit to forego the separate manage-
ment of their own affairs.
: Objections were offered on the part of the Company ;
but, after some discussion, a union was effected, nearly on
the terms which the Assada merchants proposed. Appli-
cation was then made for an act to confirm and regulate
the trade. The parliament passed a resolution, directing
it to be carried on by a joint-stock ; but suspending for
the present all further decision on the Company's affairs.3
A stock was formed, which, from the union recently accom-
plished, was denominated the united joint-stock ; but in
what manner raised, or how great the sum, is not disclosed.
All we know for certain is, that two ships were fitted out
in this season, and that they carried bullion with them to
the amount of 60,0001.
The extreme inconvenience and embarrassment which
arose from the management, by the same agents, in the
same trade, of a number of separate capitals, belonging
to separate associations, began now to make themselves
seriously and formidably felt. From each of the presi-
dencies complaints arrived of the difficulties, or rather
the impossibilities, which they were required to surmount;
and it was urgently recommended to obtain, if it were
practicable, an act of parliament to combine the whole of
these separate stocks. Under this confusion, we have
hardly any information respecting the internal transactions
of the Company at home. . We know not so much as how
the Courts of Directors were formed; whether there was
a body of Directors for each separate fund, or only one
body for the whole ; and if only one Court of Directors,
whether they were chosen by the voices of the contributors
to all the separate stocks, or the contributors to one only ;
whether, when a Court of Proprietors was held, the owners
of all the separate funds met in one body, or the owners
of each separate fund met by themselves, for the regulation
of their own particular concern.
I Bruce, i, 435, 436.
2 Ibid. 437, 433.
3 Ibid. 139,440.
5 Ibid. 441.
6 If we hear of committees of the several stocks; the bodies of Directors
were denominated committees. And if there were committees of the several
Ibid. 440.
.
.
LICENSE TO TRADE IN GENERAL.
55
. In 1651-52, the English obtained in Bengal the first of BOOK I.
those peculiar privileges, which were the forerunners of CHAP. III.
their subsequent power. Among the persons belonging to
the factories, whom there was occasion to send to the Im-
1652,
perial Court, it happened that some were surgeons ; one
of whom is particularly named, a gentleman of the name
of Boughton.2 Obtaining great influence, by the cures
which they effected, they employed their interest in pro-
moting the views of the Company. Favourable circuni-
stances were so well improved, that, on the payment of
3000 rupees, a goverument license for an unlimited trade,
without payment of customs, in the richest province of
India, was happily obtained.
On the Coromandel coast, the wárs, which then raged
among the natives, rendered commerce difficult and un-
certain ; and the Directors were urged by the agent at
Madras to add to the fortifications. This they refused, on
the ground of expense. As it was inconvenient, however,
stocks, low were they constituted ? Were they committees of Proprietors, or
committees of Directors? And were there any managers or Directors be-
sides?
1 An attempt was made to establish a factory at Patna, in 1620. In 1624, a
firmaun was obtained from Shahjehan Keber, permitting the English to trade
with Bengal, but restricting them to the port of Piplee in Midnapore, but the
regular connexion of the Company with Bengal did not commence till 1642;
when a factory was established by Mr. Day, at Balasore. Bruce, i. 394.
Stewart's History of Bengal. Hamilton's Hindustan.-W. ..
2 This is not quite correcily described. The surgeons of the Company's
ships had been occasionally employed by Mohammedans of rank at Surat and
other places, and had acquired credit. Whilst Shah Jehan was in the Dekhan,
one of his daughters was dreadfully burnt: and, at the recommendation of the
vazir, Asad Khan, an express was sent to Surat for an Englisli surgeon. The
factory despatched Mr. Gabriel Boughton, who was fortunate enough to cure
the princess, and thereby acquired that favour with the emperor which he used
to procure the privilege of free trade for the English. He was afterwards in
the service of Prince Shuja, whilst in the government of Bengal, and was thus
enabled to secure attention to the firinaun of the emperor. Bruce, i, 406.
Stewart, History of Bengal, 251. There is a material difference of dates in tlie
two authorities; Bruce places Mr. Boughtou's mission in 1645, Stewart in
1636: the latter', however, evidently confouinds the privileges procured by
Boughton with the permission previously granted to tlie English to visit the
port of Piplce. According to Bruce, the firmuin for free trade with Bengal
was not granted till 1651-52; but even this is not correctly denominated a
firmaun. In 1670 the Company's agent writes, “there doth not appear that
there ever was any firmain or royal commard; but only a nishan or letter
from Prince Shujah, and parwanas or warrants from the governors of the
province;" and he expresses liis fear that the trade will be ruined for want of
such authority, and the plea for cxaction afforded by the charge that the Enz-
lish ſiad traded custom-free for niany years, without any right to be exempted.
It was therefore determined to make an effort to obtain an imperial firmaun;
and it was at last procured from Aurangzeb in 1680, after a disbursement of
bribes to liis officers of 50,000 rupees. By this the trade of the English was
made custom-free in all places except Surat.-W.
3 Bruce, i. 460, 463.
In 1676 the -92; but even this main for free trade to visit the
56
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA. :
BOOK I. to keep the business of this coast dependent on the distant
CHAP. IIL settlement of Bantam, Fort St. George was erected into a
presidency in 1653-54.1
1654.
When the disputes began, which ended in hostilities
between Cromwell and the Dutch, the Company deemed
it a fit opportunity to bring forward those claims of theirs
which, amid the distractions of the government, had lain
dormant for several years. The war which succeeded,
favourable to the British arms in Europe, was extremely
dangerous, and not a little injurious, to the feeble Company
in India. On the appearance of a Dutch fleet of eight
large ships off Swally, in 1653-54, the English trade at
Surat was suspended. In the Gulf of Persia, three of the
Company's ships were taken, and one destroyed. The
whole of the coasting trade of the English, consisting of
the interchange of goods from one of their stations to
another, became, under the naval superiority of the Dutch,
so hazardous, as to be nearly suspended ; and at Bantana,
traffic seems to have been rendered wholly impracticable. ,
As Cromwell soon reduced the Dutch to the necessity
of desiring peace, and of submitting to it on terms nearly
such as he thought proper to dictate, a clause was inserted
in the treaty concluded at Westminster in 1654, in which
they engaged to conform to whatever justice might pre-
scribe regarding the massacre at Amboyna. It was agreed
to name commissioners, four on each side, who should
meet at London, and make an adjustment of the claims of
the two nations. One remarkable, and not an ill-contrived
condition was, that if the appointed commissioners should,
within a specified time, be unable to agree, the differences
in question should be submitted to the judgment and ar-
bitration of the Protestant Swiss Cantons.3
The Commissioners met on the 30th of August, 1654.
The English Company, who have never found themselves
at a loss to make out heavy claims for compensation, whe-
ther it was their own government, or a foreign, with which
they had to deal, stated their damages, ascertained by a
series of accounts, from the year 1611 to the year 1652, at
the vast amount of 2,695,9991. 158. The Dutch, however,
seem to have been a match for them. They too had their
claims for compensation, on account of joint expenses
i Bruce, i. 454, 462, 484. 2 Ibid. 458, 482, 484, 485. 3 Ibid. 48.
DISCUSSIONS ON JOINT-STOCK.
not paid, or injuries and losses sustained, amounting to BOOK I.
2,919,8611. 38. 6d. It is impossible to pronounce with ac- CHAP. III.
curacy on the justice, comparative or absolute, of these
several demands. There is no doubt that both were ex- ' .1654.
cessively exaggerated. But if we consider, that, under the
domineering ascendancy which the Protector had acquired,
it was natural for the English to overbear, and expedient
for the Dutch to submit; while we observe, that the award
pronounced by the Commissioners, allotted to the English
no more than 85,0001., to be paid by two instalments, we
shall not find any reason, distinct from national partiality,
to persuade us, that the balance of extravagance - was
greatly on the side of the Dutch. All the satisfaction
obtained for the massacre of Amboyna, even by the award
of the same Commissioners, was 3,615..., to be paid to the
heirs or executors of those who had suffered. Polaroon
was given up to the English, but not worth receiving.
Various occurrences strongly mark the sense which
appears to have been generally entertained, of the unpro-
fitable nature of joint-stock. That particular body of
proprietors, including the Assada merchants, to whom the
united joint-stock belonged, presented to the Council of
State, in 1654, two separate petitions ; in which they
prayed, that the East India Company should no longer
proceed exclusively on the principle of a joint-stock trade,
but that the owners of the separate funds should have
authority to employ their own capital, servants, and ship-
ping, in the way which they themselves should deem most
to their own advantage. The power and consequence of
the Directors were threatened ; and they hastened to pre-
sent those pleas, which are used as their best weapons of
necessity of a joint-stock ; since the trade had been car-
ried on by a joint-stock during forty years. Such compe-
titions as those with the Portuguese and the Dutch could
only be supported by the strength of a joint-stock. The
equipments for the India trade required a capital so large
1 Bruce, i. 491.
2 The reasons on which they supported their request, as stated in their
petition, exhibit so just a view of the infirmities of joint-stock management, as
compared with that of individuals, pursuing their own interests, that they are
highly worthy of inspection as a specimen of the talents and knowledge of the
men by whom joint stock was now opposed. See Bruce, i. 518.
58
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. as a joint-stock alone could afford. The failure of Courten's
CHAP. III. experiment proved that voyages on any other principle
could not succeed. The factories requisite for the Indian
1654.
trade could be established only by a joint-stock, the East
India Company having factories in the dominions of no
less than fourteen different sovereigns. The native princes
required engagements to make good the losses which they
or their subjects might sustain at the hands of Englishmen ;
and to this a joint-stock company alone was competent. -
On these grounds, they not only prayed that the trade by
joint-stock should be exclusively continued; but that, as
it had been impracticable for some time to obtain sufficient
subscriptions, additional encouragement should be given by
new privileges; and, in particular, that assistance should be
granted sufficient to enable them to recover and retain the
In their reply, the body of petitioners, who were now dis-
tinguished by the name of Merchant Adventurers, chiefly
dwelt upon the signal want of success which had attended
the trade to India, during forty years of joint-stock manage-
ment. They asserted, that private direction and separate
voyages would have been far more profitable; as the pros-
perity of those open Companies, the Turkey, Muscovy, and
Eastland Companies, sufficiently proved. They claimed a
right by agreement, to a share in the factories and privi-
leges of the Company in India; and stated that they were
fitting out fourteen ships for the trade. They might have
still further represented, that every one of the arguments
advanced by the Directors, without even a single exception,
the trade had, during forty years, or four hundred years,
been carried on by a joint-stock, proved not that, by a
different mode, it would not have yielded much greater
advantage; if the trade had been in the highest degree
unprosperous, it rather proved that the management had
been proportionally defective. The Directors asserted, that
in meeting competition, private adventure would altogether
fail; though with their joint-stock they had so ill sustained
competition, that Courten's Association had threatened to
drive them out of every market in which they had appeared,
and they themselves had repeatedly and solemnly declared
Bruce, i. 492, 493.
2 Ibid, 494.
to government, that unless the license to Courten were BOOK I.
withdrawn, the ruin of the East India Company was sure. CHAP. III.
With regard to mercantile competition, at any rate, the skill -
and vigilance of individuals, transacting for their own in- 1655.
terest, was sure to be a more powerful instrument than the
imbecility and negligence of joint-stock management; and
as to warlike competition, a few ships of war, with a few
companies of marines, employed by the government, would
have yielded far more security than all the efforts which a
feeble joint-stock could make. The failure of Courten's As-
sociation was sufficiently accounted for by the operation of
particular causes, altogether distinct from the general cir-
cumstances of the trade; the situation, in fact, in which the
jealousy and influence of the Company had placed them.
Factories were by no means so necessary as the Company
ignorantly supposed, and interestedly strove to make other's
believe; as they shortly after found to their cost, when
they were glad to reduce the greater number of those which
they had established. Where factories were really useful,
it would be for the interest of all the traders to support
them. And all would join in an object of common utility
in India, as they joined in every other quarter of the globe.
As to the native princes, there was no such difficulty as
the Company pretended : nor would individual merchants
have been less successful than the directors of a joint-
stock, in finding the means of prosecuting the trade.
These contending pretensions were referred to a com-
mittee of the Council of State; and they, without coming
to a decision, remitted the subject to the Protector and
Council, as too difficult and important for the judgment of
any inferior tribunal. .
Nothing could exceed the confusion which, from the
clashing interests of the owners of the separate stocks,
now raged in the Company's affairs. There were no less
than three parties who set up claims to the Island of
Polaroon, and to the compensation money which had been
obtained from the Dutch; the respective proprietors of the
third, fourth, and united joint-stocks. The proprietors of
the third joint-stock claimed the whole, as the fourth joint-
stock and united stock were not in existence at the time
when the debt obtained from the Dutch was incurred ;
i Bruce, i. 503.
60
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. and they prayed that the money might be lodged in safe
CHAP. III. and responsible bands, till goverment should determine
the question. The owners of the two other stocks de-
1655.
manded that the money should be divided into three
equal shares, for the three several stocks, and that they
should all have equal rights to the Island of Polaroon.
Five arbitrators, to whom the dispute was referred, were
chosen by the Council of State. In the meantime, Crom-
well proposed to borrow the $5,0001. which had been paid
by the Dutch, and which could not be employed till ad-
judged to whom it belonged.
The Directors, however, had expected the fingering of
the money, and they advanced reasons why it should be
immediately placed in their hands. The pecuniary dis-
tresses of the Company were great. The different stocks
were 50,000!. in debt; and many of the Proprietors were
in difficult circumstances. From gratitude to the Pro-
tector, however, they would make exertions to spare him
50,0001., to be repaid in eighteen months by instalments,
provided the remaining 35,0001. were immediately assigned
them, to pay their most pressing debts, and make a divi-
dend to the Proprietors. It thus appears, that these
Directors wanted to forestall the decision of the question,
and to distribute the money at their own pleasure, before
it was known to whom it belonged. At the same time, it
is matter of curious uncertainty who these Directors were,
whom they represented, by what set or sets of Proprietors
they were chosen, or to whom they were responsible.
While this dispute was yet undecided, the Merchant
Adventurers, or Proprietors of the united stock, obtained
a commission from the Protector to fit out four ships for
the Indian trade, under the management of a committee.?
We are made acquainted upon this occasion with a very
interesting fact. The news of this event being carried to
Holland, it was interpreted, and understood, by the Dutch,
as being an abolition of the exclusive charter, and the
adoption of the new measure of a free and open trade.
The interests of the Dutch Company made them see, in
this supposed revolution, consequences very different from
those which the interests of the English Directors made
them behold or pretend that they beheld in it. Instead
i Bruce, i.:03, 504.
2 Ilid.5.8,
61
of rejoicing at the loss of a joint-stock in England, as they BOOK I.
ought to have done, if by joint-stock alonet the trade of CHAP. III.
their rivals could be successfully carried on; they were
filled with dismay at the prospect of freedom, as likely to 1657.
produce a trade with which competition on their part
Meanwhile the Company, as well as the Merchant Ad-
venturers, were employed in the equipment of a fleet. The
petition of the Company to the Protector for leave to
export bullion, specified the sum of 15,0001., and the feet
consisted of three ships. They continued to press the
government for a decision in favour of their exclusive
privileges; and in a petition which they presented in
October, 1656, affirmed, that the great number of ships
sent by individuals under licenses, had raised the price of
India goods from 40 to 50 per cent., and reduced that of
English commodities in the same proportion. The Council
l'esolved at last to come to a decision. After some inquiry,
they gave it as their advice to the Protector to continue
the exclusive trade and the joint-stock ; and a committee
of the Council was, in consequence, appointed to consider
the terms of a charter.?
While the want of funds almost annihilated the opera-
tions of the Company's agents in every part of India ; and
while they complained that the competition of the ships
of the Merchant Adventurers rendered it, as usual, in-
practicable for them to trade with a profit in the markets
of India, the Dutch pursued their advantages against the
Portuguese. They had acquired possession of the island
of Ceylon, and in the year 1656-57, blockaded the port of
Goa, after which they meditated an attack upon the small
island of Diu, which commanded the entrance into the
harbour of Swally. From the success of these enterprises
they expected a complete command of the navigation
on that side of India, and the power of imposing on the
English trade duties under which it would be unable to
stand.3
1 Thurloe's State Papers, iii. 80. Anderson says, “ The inerchants of
Amsterdam, having heard that the Lord Protector would dissolve the East
India Company at London, and declare the navigation and commerce to the
Indies to be free and open, were greatly alarmed; considering such a measure
as ruinous to their own East India Company.” Anderson's History of Com..
merce, in Macpherson's Annals, ii. 459. See Bruce, i. 518.
2 Bruce, i. 514-516.
3 Ibid, 522--529.
62
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
1658.
BOOK I.
CHAP. IV.
CHAPTER IV.
From the Coalition between the Company and the Merchant
· Adventurer's, till the Project for a new and a rival East
India Company.
A FTER the decision of the Council of State in favour of
A the joint-stock scheme of trading to India, the Com-
pany and the Merchant Adventurers effected a coalition.
On the strength of this union a new subscription, in
1657-58, was opened, and filled up to the amount of
780,0007. Whether the expected charter had been actually
received is not ascertained.?
The first operation of the new body of subscribers was
the very necessary one of forming an adjustment with the
owners of the preceding funds. A negociation was opened
for obtaining the transfer of the factories, establishments,
and privileges in India. After the lofty terms in which
the Directors had always spoken of these privileges and
possessions, when placing them in the list of reasons for
opposing an open trade, we are apt to be surprised at the
smallness of the sum which, after all, and “though situated
in the dominions of fourteen different sovereigns," they
were found to be worth. They were made over in full
right for 20,0001., to be paid in two instalments. The
ships, merchandise in store, and other trading commodities
of the preceding adventurers, were taken by the new sub-
scribers at a price; and it was agreed that the sharers in
the former trade, who on that account had property in the
Indies, should not traffic on a separate fund, but, after
a specified term, should carry the amount of such property
to the account of the new stock. There was, in this man-
ner, only one stock now in the hands of the Directors, and
i Bruce, i. 529.
2 Bruce, upon whose authority this transaction is described, states the mat-
ter rather differently; he says: “That the charter was granted in this season
will appear, from the reference made to it in the petition of the East-India
Company, though no copy of it can be discovered among the records of the
state or of the Company."_loc. cit. In a letter from Fort St. George to the
factory of Surat, anted 12th July, 1658, it is stated that the Blackmoore, which
had arrived from England on the 12th of June, had "posted away with all
laste, after His Highness the Lord Protector had signed the Company's Char-
ter."-W.
3 Bruce, i. 529, 530.
A NEW JOINT-STOCK.
they had one distinct interest to pursue; a prodigious im- BOOK I.
provement on the preceding confusion and embarrass- CHAP. IV.
. 1659.
contending interests pursued at once.
Some new regulations were adopted for the conduct of
affairs. The whole of the factories and presidencies were
Surat. The presidencies, however, at Fort St. George and
at Bantam were continued; the factories and agencies on the
Coromandel coast and in Bengal being made dependent on
the former, and those in the southern islands on the latter.
As heavy complaints had been made of trade carried
on, for their own account, by the agents and servants of
the Company, who not only acted as the rivals, but neg-
lected and betrayed the interests, of their masters, it was
prohibited, and, in compensation, additional salaries al-
lowed.?
After these preliminary proceedings, the first fleet was
despatched. It consisted of five ships; one for Madras
carrying 15,5001. in bullion; one for Bengal; and three for
Surat, Persia, and Bantam. The following year, that is
to Fort St. George, and two to Bantam. The latter were
directed to touch at Fort St. George to obtain coast clothes
for the islands, and to return to Bengal and Fort St. George
to take in Bengal and Coromandel goods for Europe. In-
structions were given to make great efforts for recovering
a share of the spice trade. Bantam, however, was at this
time blockaded by the Dutch, and no accounts were this
year received of the traffic in the southern islands.5
The operations of the new joint-stock were not more
prosperous than those of the old. Transactions at the
several factories were feeble and unsuccessful For two
years, 1659-60, and 1660-61, there is no account of the
Company's equipments; and their advances to India were
no doubt small. “The embarrassed state of the Company's
i Bruce, i. 532.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid, 533.
1 Bruce, 539, 540. The state of interest, both in India and England, appears
incidentally in the accounts received by the Company from the agents at Surat,
in the year 1658-59. These agents, after stating the narrowness of the funds
placed at their disposal, recommend to the Directors rather to borrow money
in England, which could easily be done at 4 per cent., than leave them to take
up money in India at 8 or 9 per cent. Ibid, 542
6 Bruce, 544.
6 Ibid, 549-551.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOR I. funds at this particular period,” says Mr. Bruce, “may
CHAP. IV. be inferred from the resolutions they had taken to relin-
quish many of their out-stations, and to limit their trade
1661.
in the Peninsula of India to the presidencies of Surat and
Fort St. George, and their subordinate factories."
Meanwhile Cromwell had died, and Charles II. ascended
the throne. Amid the arrangements which took place
between England and the continental powers, the Com-
pany were careful to press on the attention of government
a list of grievances, which they represented themselves as
still enduring at the hands of the Dutch; and an order
was obtained, empowering them to take possession of the
island of Polaroon. They afterwards complained that it
was delivered to them in such a state of prepared desola-
tion, as to be of no value. The truth is, it was of little
value at best.
On every change in the government of the country, it
had been an important object with the Company to obtain
policy was not neglected, on the accession of Charles II.;
and a petition was presented to him for a renewal of the
East India charter. As there appears not to have been, at
that time, any body of opponents to make interest or im-
portunity for a contrary measure, it was far easier to grant
without inquiry, than to inquire and refuse; and Charles
and his ministers had a predilection for easy rules of go-
vernment. A charter, bearing date the 3rd of April, 1661,
was accordingly granted, confirming the ancient privileges
of the Company, and vesting in them authority to make
peace and war with any prince or people, not being Chris-
tians; and to seize unlicensed persons within their limits,
and send them to England. The two last were important
privileges; and, with the right of administering justice
consigned almost all the powers of government to the
discretion of the Directors and their servants.
It appears not that, on this occasion, the 'expedient of
a new subscription for obtaining a capital was attempted.
dead stock in India would have been required. The joint-
stock was not as yet a definite and invariable sum, placed
beyond the power of resumption, at the disposal of the
i Bruce, i.555. 2 Ibid, 553, 554. 3 Ibid, 557.
A NEW CHARTER GRANTED.
65
Company, the shares only transferable by purchase and BOOK I.
sale in the market. The capital was variable and Auctuat- CHAP. IV.
ing; formed by the sums which, on the occasion of each
voyage, the individuals, who were free of the Company, 1662-67.
chose to pay into the hands of the Directors, receiving cre-
dit for the amount in the Company's books, and propor-
tional dividends on the profits of the voyage. Of this
stock 5001, entitled a proprietor to a vote in the general
courts; and the shares were transferable, even to such as
were not free of the Company, upon paying 51. for admis-
sion.
Of the amount either of the shipping or stock of the
first voyage upon the renewed charter we have no account;-
but the instructions sent to India prescribed a reduction
of the circle of trade. In the following year, 1662-63, two
ships sailed for Surat, with a cargo in goods and bullion,
amounting to 65,0001., of which it would appear that
28,3001. was consigned to Fort St. George. Next season
there is no account of equipments. In 1664-65, two ships
were sent out with the very limited value of 16,0001. The
following season, the same number only of ships was
equipped; and the value in money and goods consigned to
Surat was 20,6001., whether any thing in addition was af-
forded to Fort St. George does not appear; there was
no consignment to Bantam. In 1666-67, the equipment
seems to have consisted but of one vessel, consigned to
Surat with a value of 16,0001.2
With these inadequate means, the operations of the
Company in India were by necessity languid and humble.
At Surat the out-factories and agencies were suppressed.
Instructions were given to sell the English goods at low
rates, for the purpose of ruining the interlopers. The
Dutch, however, revenged the private traders; and, by the
competition of their powerful capital, rendered the Com-
pany's business difficult and unprofitable. On the Coro-
mandel coast the wars among the native chiefs, and the
overbearing influence of the Dutch, cramped and threatened
to extinguish the trade of the English. And at Bantam,
where the Dutch power was most sensibly felt, the feeble
1 Anderson's History of Commerce, in Macpherson's Annals, ii. 495, 605.
2 Bruce, ii. 108, 119, 152, 186.
3 Ibid. 110, 138, 157, 153, 174.
VOL. II.
gy
66
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. resources of their rivals hardly sufficed to keep their
CHAP. IV. business alive. .
- During these years of weakness and obscurity, several
1662-67. events occurred, which, by their consequences, proved to
be of considerable importance. The island of Bombay was
ceded to the King of England as part of the dowry of the
Infanta Catharine; and a fleet of five men of war com-
manded by the Earl of Marlborough, with 500 troops
commanded by Sir Abraham Shipman, were sent to re-
ceive the possession. The armament arrived at Bombay
on the 18th of September, 1662; but the governor evaded
the cession. The English understood the treaty to include
Salsette and the other dependencies of Bombay. As it
was not precise in its terms, the Portuguese denied that
it referred to anything more than the island of Bombay.
Even Bombay they refused to give up, till further instruc-
tions, on the pretext that the letters or patent of the King
did not accord with the usages of Portugal. The com-
mander of the armament applied in this emergency to the
Company's President, to make arrangements for receiving
the troops and ships at Surat, as the men were dying by
long confinement on board. But that magistrate repre-
sented the danger of incurring the suspicion of the Mogul
government, which would produce the seizure of the Com-
pany's investment, and the expulsion of their servants
from the country. In these circumstances the Earl of
Marlborough took his resolution of returning with the
King's ships to England ; but Sir Abraham Shipman, it
was agreed, should land the troops on the island of Ange-
divah, twelve leagues distant from Goa. On the arrival of
the Earl of Marlborough in England, in 1663, the King
remonstrated with the government of Portugal, but ob-
tained unsatisfactory explanations; and all intention of
parting with the dependencies of Bombay was denied.
The situation, in the meantime, of the troops at Angedivah
proved extremely unhealthy; their numbers were greatly
reduced by disease; and the commander made offer to the
President and Council at Surat, to cede the King's rights
to the Company. This offer, on consultation, the President
and Council declined; as well because, without the autho-
rity of the King, the grant was not valid, as because,
i Bruce, ii. 130, 159.
POLAROON RESTORED TO THE DUTCH.
67
in their feeble condition, they were unable to take pos- BOOK I.
session of the place. After Sir Abraham Shipman and the CHAP. IV.
greater part of the troops had died by famine and disease,
Mr. Cooke, on whom the command devolved, accepted of 166
663-68.
Bombay on the terms which the Portuguese were pleased
to prescribe: renounced all claim to the contiguous islands;
and allowed the Portuguese exemption from the payment
of customs. This convention the King refused to ratify,
as contrary to the terms of his treaty with Portugal; but
sent out Sir Gervase Lucas to assume the government of
the place. As a few years' experience showed that the
government of Bombay cost more than it produced, it was
once more offered to the Company : and now accepted.
The grant bears date in 1668. Bombay was “to be held
of the King in free and common soccage, as of the manor
of East Greenwich, on the payment of the annual rent of
101. in gold, on the 30th of September, in each year;" and
with the place itself was conveyed authority to exercise
all political powers, necessary for its defence and govern-
ment.
Subterfuges of a similar kind were invented by the
Dutch to evade the cession of the island of Polaroon.
The Governor pretended that he could not deliver up the
island without instructions from the Governor of Banda;
and the Governor of Banda pretended that he could not
give such instructions without receiving authority from
the Governor-General of Batavia. After much delay and
negotiation, the cession was made in 1665; but not, if we
believe the English accounts, till the Dutch had so far
exterminated the inhabitants and the spice-trees, that the
acquisition was of little importance. On the recommence-
ment, however, of hostilities between England and Holland,
the Dutch made haste to expel the English, and to re-
occupy the island. And by the treaty of Breda, both
Polaroon and Damm, on which the English had attempted
an establishment, were finally ceded to the Dutch.
In the beginning of 1664, Sivajee, the founder of the
Mahratta power, in the course of his predatory warfare
against the territories of the Mogul Sovereign, attacked
the city of Surat. The inhabitants fled, and the Governor
1 Bruce, ii. 104, 106, 126, 134, 141, 155, 168, 199. Macpherson's Annals,
ii. 503.
2 Ibid. 132, 161, 184,
68
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
CHAP. IV. however, taking shelter in the factory, stood upon their
defence, and having called in the ships' crews to their aid,
made so brave a resistance that Sivajee retired after pillag-
ing the town. The gallantry and success of this enterprise
so pleased the Mogul government, as to obtain its thanks
to the President, and new privileges of trade to the Com-
pany. The place was again approached by the same
destructive enemy in 1670, when the principal part of the
Company's goods was transported to Swally, and lodged
on board the ships. The English again defended them-
selves successfully, though some lives were lost, as well as
some property in their detached warehouses.?
1 Scant justice is done to the Company's servants in this brief notice of a
conduct highly remarkable for cool and resolute courage. Sivajee's approach
to within fifteen miles of Surat was announced on the morning of the 5th of
January, upon which the Governor retired into the castle, and the inhabitants
fied from every part of the city except that adjacent to the factory. In the
evening the Mahrattas entered, and part blockaded the castle, whilst the rest
plundered and set fire to the houses. During that night and the following
day repeated demands and menaces were sent to the factory, but they were
all met with terms of defiance. “We replied to Sivajee," says the despatch
to the Court dated the 26th January, 1664, “we were here on purpose to
maintain the house to the death of the last man, and therefore not to delay
his coming upon us." It does not appear that any organized attack was made
upon the factory, but the Mahrattas assembled in considerable aambers before
it, and broke into an adjoining house. To prevent their establishing them-
selves in a situation from which they might offer serious annoyance, & sally
was made from the factory which had the effect of dislodging the assailants.
and putting them to flight, with some loss and three men wounded on the part
of the few that any onsiderable
was occupied several surties were made, and pushed even to the gates of the
castle, and the neighbourhood for near a quarter of a mile round was cleared
of the enemy. No further attempts were made to molest the factory or its
vicinity during the three days that Sivajee continued in possession of the town,
and the inhabitants of the quarter in which the factory was situated “ were
very thankful in their acknowledgments, blessing and praising the English
nation," to whose valoir they ascribed their exemption from the calamities
which had desolated the rest of the city. The governor presented Sir G.
Oxenden with a dress of honour, and recommended the interests of the Com-
pany to Aurungzeb.
The emperor in the first instance remitted the customs at Surat for one year
in favour of all merchants, and subsequently granted a perpetual remission of
a portion of the duties to the English in particular. The despatch from Surat
states the proportion to be one half, but the translation of the Husb. ul-liookum,
in the Records, says a half per cent.; and in the firmaun granted on the 26tli
June, 1667, the amount is stated at one per cent. out of three, the ordinary
impost. A more important provision of the firmaun is exemption from all
transit charges on any pretext whatever.-W.
factories were free on this, and on the former irruption, from either molesta-
tion or demand.-Fragments, 14, 25. A very extraordinary statement, as he
liad access to the public records, which tell a very different story. On this
occasion, as on the former, the English factory was defended with spirit, “the
enemy," says the letter from Surat, “ found such hot service from our house,
that they left us." Subsequently a parley was held with “ the Captain of the
Brigade," who agroed to refrain from further molestation, and “the house was
quiet for two days." On the third day they again appeared before the factory,
COMPANY'S SERVANTS DISOBEDIENT.
69
At this period occurred one of the first iustances of BOOK I.
refractory and disobedient conduct on the part of the CHAP. IV.
Company's servants. This is a calamity to which they —
have been much less frequently exposed, than, from the 1663-68.
distance and employment of those servants, it would have
been reasonable to expect. The efforts of the Directors to
suppress the trade, which their agents carried on for their
own account, had not been very successful. Sir Edward
Winter, the chief servant at Fort St. George, was suspected
of this delinquency, and in consequence recalled. When
Mr. Foxcroft, however, who was sent to supersede him,
arrived at Fort St. George, in June, 1665, Sir Edward, in-
stead of resigning, placed his intended successor in con-
finement, under a pretext which it was easy to make, that
he had uttered disloyal expressions against the King's
government. Notwithstanding remonstrances and com-
mands, he maintained himself in the government of the
place till two ships arrived, in August, 1668, with peremp-
tory.orders from the Company, strengthened by a com-
mand from the King, to resign; when his courage failed
him, and he complied. He retired to Masulipatam, a
station of the Dutch, till the resentment excited against
him in England should cool; and his name appears no
more in the annals of the Company."
In Bengal the English factory at Hoogly2 had been in-
volved in an unhappy dispute with the Mogul government,
6 threatening that they would take or burn it to the ground
stood in so resolute a posture that the Captain, not willing to hazard his men,
with much ado kept tliem back, and sent a man into the house to advise Mr.
Master what was fit to be done." In consequence of this communication a
complimentary present was sent to Sivajee by two of the Company's servants;
he received them kindly," telling them that the English and he were very
good friends, and putting his hand into their hands told them that he could do
the English no wrong, and that this giving his hand was better than any
Coul' to oblige him thereto." Sivajee was in fact desirous to conciliate the
English, in order to indice them to return to Rajapore, where they had for-
merly had a factory, which they had abandoned in consequence of his exac-
tions. The loss of their trade had injured the town of Rajapore, and dimi-
nished the Mahratta's levenue from it. Sivajee immediately afterwards left
Surat. The French had saved their factory, by paying a contribution. The
Dutch factory was without the town, and was not attacked, and these circum-
stances, with the interview between Sivajee and the English, inspired the
Mogul Government with considerable distrust of the Europeans at Surat.-W.
i Bruce, ii. 179, 245.
2 The English were first permitted to establish a factory at Hoogly, 1640, in
the early part of Shah Shuja's government of Bengal. Hamilton. Stewart,
252. Bruce says, the agents and factors at Fort St. George, sent Captain
Brockhaven, to attempt to establishi a factory at Hoogly, about 1650 ; i.
454.--IV.
70
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. on account of a junk which they imprudently seized on
CHAP. IV. the river Ganges. For several years this incident had been
used as a pretext for molesting them. In 1662-63, the
1663-68.
chief at Madras sent an agent to endeavour to reconcile
them with Meer Jumlah, the Nabob of Bengal; and to
establish- agencies at Balasore and Cossimbuzar. The
Company's funds, however, were too confined to push to
any extent the trade of the rich province of Bengal.
The scale was very small on which, at this time, the
Company's appointments were formed. In 1662, Sir
George Oxenden was elected to be “President and chief
Director of all their affairs at Surat, and all other their facto-
ries in the north parts of India, from Zeilon to the Red Sea,"
at a salary of 3001. and with a gratuity of 2001. per annum as
compensation for private trade. Private trade in the hands
of their servants, and still more in those of others, the Com-
pany were now most earnestly labouring to suppress. Direc-
tions were given to seize all unlicensed traders and send
them to England; and no exertion of the great powers intru-
sted to the company was to be spared, to annihilate the race
of merchants who trenched upon the monopoly, and to
whom, under the disrespectful name of interlopers, they
ascribed a great part of their imbecility and depression.3
Their determination to crush all those of their country-
men who dared to add themselves to the list of their com-
petitors, failed not to give rise to instances of great hard-
ship and calamity. One was rendered famous by the
altercation which in 1666 it produced between the two
houses of parliament. Thomas Skinner, a merchant, fitted
out a vessel in 1657. The agents of the Company seized
his ship and merchandise in India, his house, and the is-
land of Barella, which he had bought of the King of Jam-
bee. They even denied him a passage home; and he was
obliged to travel over land to Europe. The sufferer failed
1 It could not have been used for many years, as it occurred only in
1660-61 ; and Shinja, who invariably encouraged the English, governed Bengal
in 1659. He then took up arms to assert his claim to the throne. After he
was defeated by Mir Jumla, that general detained some English boats laden
with saltpetre, at Rajmahal, and it was in reprisal that the English seized one
of his boats at Hoogly: the ditference was speedily adjusted. Stewart, 286.-W.
2 Bruce, i.560; ii. 110, 131.
3 Ibid. ii. 107-109.
"Jambi is a district on the east coast of Sumatra, with a navigable river;
the island of Barella is not noticed by Marsden, History of Sumatra. It is
the Pulo Braw) of the Records, a barren and unoccupied island, about eight
leagues in compass. The Company's agents write, that no good was to be
done with the island, unless people were sent to plant it.-W.
was defeated by Rajmahal, and once was speedily ibid. ii. 107–10.
TERMINATION OF PARLIAMENTARY LABOURS.
not to seek redress, by presenting his complaint to the BOOK I.
government, and after some importunity it was referred CHAP. IV.
first to a committee of the Council, and next to the House
of Peers. When the Company were ordered to answer,
1663-68.
they refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Peers,
on the ground that they were only a court of appeal, and
not competent to decide in the first resort. The objection
was overruled. The Company appealed to the House of
Commons; the Lords were highly inflamed; and, proceed-
ing to a decision, awarded to the petitioner, 5,0001. The
Commons were now enraged in their turn; and being un-
able to gratify their resentments upon the House of Peers,
which was the cause of them, they were pleased to do so
upon the unfortunate gentleman who had already paid so
dearly for the crime (whatever its amount) of infringing
the Company's monopolý. He was sent a prisoner to the
Tower. The Lords, whom these proceedings filled with
indignation, voted the petition of the Company to the
Lower House to be false and scandalous. Upon this the
Commons resolved that whoever should execute the sen-
tence of the other house in favour of Skinner, was a be-
trayer of the rights and liberties of the Commons of Eng-
land, and an infringer of the privileges of their house. To
such a height did these contentions proceed, that the King
adjourned the parliament seven times; and when the con-
troversy after an intermission revived, he sent for both
houses to Whitehall, and by his personal persuasion in-
duced them to erase from their journals all their votes,
resolutions, and other acts relating to the subject. A
contest, of which both parties were tired, being thus ended,
the sacrifice and ruin of an individual appeared, as usual,
of little importance: Skinner had no redress.
Another class of competitors excited the fears and
1 Macpherson's Annals, ü, 493.-M. If Skinner's claims were just, and
were yet disregarded, tlie blame rests not with those who disputed his claims,
but those wlio gave judgment in his favour, with the House of Lords; and
whatever hardship he personally sustained, was the act, not of the East India
Company, but of the House of Cominons. The Coinpany, in any case, are free
from culpability. As to their conduct in seizing his ship and property, it may
be doubted if the case is accurately stated by Macpherson, the only authority
here followed. Thomas Skinner was preceded at Jambi by his brother,
Frederick Skinner, as agent of the merchant adventurers. On the union of
the two Companies, he was directed to transfer his agency to persons sent out
by them. After some little delay, he assented, and quitted Jambi, making
over his assets to the united stock, together with his debts, which amounted
to 24,000 dollars. The property then, whatever it might have been, was not
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. jealousies of the Company. Colbert, the French minister
CHAP. IV. of finance, among his projects for rendering his country.
commercial and opulent, conceived, in 1664, the design of
1663-68.
an East India Company. The report which reached the
Court of Directors in London represented the French as
fitting out eight armed vessels for India, commanded by
Hubert Hugo, whom in their instructions to the settlements
abroad, the Directors described as a Dutch pirate. The
hostilities of the Company were timid. They directed their
agents in India to afford these rivals no aid or protection,
but to behave towards them with circumspection and deli-
cacy. The subservience of the English government to that
of France was already so apparent, as to make them afraid
of disputes in which they were likely to have their own
ruler's against them.'
The war which took place with Holland in 1664, and
which was followed, in 1665, by a temporary quarrel with
France, set loose the powers of both nations against the
Company in India. The French Company, however, was
too much in its infancy to be formidable; and the Dutch,
whose mercantile competition pressed as heavily during
peace as during war, added to the difficulties of the Eng-
lish, chiefly by rendering their navigation more hazardous
and expensive.
A fact, an enlightened attention to which would pro-
bably have been productive of important consequences,
was at this time forced upon the notice of the Company.
One grand source of the expenses which devoured the pro-
fits of their trade was their factories, with all that mass of
dead stock which they required, houses, lands, fortifica-
tions, and equipments. The Dutch, who prosecuted their
interests with vigilance and economy, carried on their
trade in a great many places without factories. Upon re-
Skinner's, but that of the united Company ; but it seems to have been in the
possession of Thomas Skinner, and to have been recovered from him by the aid
of the Sultan of Jambi, whether legally or not, may be questioned: but Skinuer
was certainly not dispossessed of his property for the crime of infringing the
Company's monopoly," That he was harshly treated by the Commons, is un-
deniable; but he was not the only person for whose captivity sympathy should
have been excited. The Lords were as little lenient as the Commons; and in
reprisal for Skinner's incarceration, ordered Sir Samuel Barnadiston, and
three other members of the Court of Directors, into confinement. Parlia-
mentary History, v.iv. 422. –W.
i Raynal, Hist. Philos. et Polit. des Etabliss., etc., dans les Deux Indes,
ii. 183. Ed. 8vo. Génève, 1781. Bruce, ü. 137, 150, 167. Macpherson's Annals,
ii. 516.
TOO MANY FACTORIES.
ceiving instructions to make preparations and inquiry for BOOK I.
opening a trade with Japan, Mr. Quarles Brown, the Com- CHAP. IV.
pany's agent at Bantam, who had been at Japan, reported
to the Court, that it would be necessary, if a trade with 1663-68.
Japan was to be undertaken, to follow the plan of the
Dutch; who procured the commodities in demand at
Japan, in the countries of Siam, Cambodia, and Tonquin,
not by erecting expensive factories, but by forming con-
tracts with the native merchants. These merchants, at
fixed seasons, brought to the ports the commodities for
which they had contracted, and though it was often neces-
sary to advance to them the capital with which the pur-
chases were effected, they had regularly fulfilled their
engagements. Even the Company itself, and that in
places where their factories cost them the most, had made
experiments, and with great advantage, on the expediency
of employing the native merchants in providing their in-
vestments. At Surat, in 1665-66, “ the investments of the
season were obtained by the employment of a native mer-
chant, who had provided an assortment of pepper at his
own risk, and though the Dutch had obstructed direct
purchases of pepper, the agents continued the expedient
of employing the native merchants, and embarked a mo-
of Asia, at any rate on the scale, or anything approaching
to the scale, of the East India Company, were the na-
tural off-spring of a joint-stock; the Managers or Di-
rectors of which had a much greater interest in the
patronage they created, which was wholly their own; than
in the profits of the company, of which they had only an
insignificant share. Had the trade to India been conducted
from the beginning, on those principles of individual ad-
venture and free competition, to which the nation owes its
commercial grandeur, it is altogether improbable that
many factories would have been established. The agency
of the native merchants would have performed much;
and where it was not sufficient, the Indian trade would
of adventurers would have established themselves in India,
1 Letters from the Agent and Council of Bantam (in the East India Register
Office), Bruce, ii. 163.
2 Bruce, ii. 178, from a letter from the President and Council of Surat.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. by whom investments would have been provided for the
CHAP. IV. European ships, and to whom the cargoes of the European
goods would have been consigned. Another class of ad-
1663-68.
venturers, who remained at home, would have performed
the business of export and import from England, as it is
performed to any other region of the globe.
The time, however, was now approaching when the
weakness which had so long characterised the operations
of the English in India was gradually to disappear. Not-
withstanding the imperfections of the government, at no
period, perhaps, either prior or posterior, did the people of
this country advance so rapidly in wealth and prosperity, as
during the time, including the years of civil war, from the
accession of James I. to the expulsion of James II. We
are not informed of the particular measures which were
1 It is very unlikely that any such results would have taken place, or that
a trade with India would have been formed, or if formed, would have been
perpetuated by any other means than those actually adopted. Tlie Portuguese
and Dutch had territorial possessions and fortified factories; and without simi-
lar support, it would have been impossible for the English to have participated
in the profits of the commerce of the East. Even with these resonrces, the
Dutch succeeded in expelling the English from the Archipelago; and it is very
little probable, that they would have suffered a single English adventurer to
carry on a trade with any part of India from whence they could so easily ex-
clude him. Principles of individual adventure and free competition, would
liare availed but little against the power and jealousy of our rivals; and it was
necessary to ineet them on equal terms, or to abandon the attempt. But it
was not only against European violence, that it was necessary to be armed ;
the political state of India rendered the same precautions indispensable. What
would have become of “individual adventure" at Surat, Wlien it was pillaged
by the Malırattas? And what would have been the fate of the English com-
merce with Madras and Bengal, on the repeated occasions on which it was
menaced with extinction, by the rapacity and vindictiveness of the native
princes? Had, therefore, the anti-monopoly doctrines been more popular in
those days than they were, it is very certain that the attempt to carry then
into effect, would have deprived England of all share in the trade with India,
and cut off for ever one main source of her commercial prosperity. It is
equally certain, that without the existence of such factories as were "the
natural offspring of a joint-stock;" without the amplc resources of a numc-
rous and wealthy association; and without the continuous and rigorous efforts
of a corporate body, animated by the enjoyment of valuable privileges, and
the hope of perpetuating their possession by services rendered to the state,
we sliould never have acquired political power in India, or rcared a mighty
empire upon the foundations of trade.-W.
2 Sir William Petty, who wrote his celebrated work, entitled “Political
Arithmetic," in 1676, says: “1. The streets of London showed that city to be
Newcastle, Yarmouth, Norwich, Exeter, Portsmouth, and Cowes; and in Ire-
land, at Dublin, Kingsale, Coleraine, and Londonderry. 2. With respect to
shipping, the navy was triple or quadruple what it was at that time; the
shipping of Newcastle was 80,000 tons, and could not then have exceeded a
and furniture, had much increased since that period. 4. The postage of letters
liad increased from one to twenty. 5. The king's revenue liad tripled itself.”
See too, Macpherson's Anpals, ii, 580.
STATE OF TRADE.
75
pursued by the Directors for obtaining an extension of BOOK I.
funds; but the increase of capital in the nation was pro- CHAP. IV.
bably the principal cause which enabled them, in the year-
succeeding the acquisition of Bombay, to provide a grander 1668-74.
fleet and cargo than they had ever get sent forth. In the
course of the year 1667-68, six ships sailed to Surat, with
goods and bullion to the value of 130,0001.; five ships to
Fort St. George, with a value of 75,0001.; and five to Ban-
tam, with a stock of 40,0001. In the next season we are
informed that the consignments to Surat consisted of
1,200 tons of shipping, with a stock of the value of 75,0007.;
to Fort St. George, of five ships, and a stock of 103,0001.;
and to Bantam, of three ships and 35,0001. In the year
1669-70, 1,500 tons of shipping were sent to Surat, six
ships to Fort St. George, and four to Bantam, and the
whole amount of the stock was 281,0001. The vessels sent
out in 1670-71 amounted to sixteen, and their cargoes and
bullion to 303,5001. In the following year four ships were
sent to Surat, and nearly 2,000 tons of shipping to Fort
St. George ; the cargo and bullion to the former, being
85,0001., to the latter, 160,0001.: shipping to the amount
C
of the bullion and goods no account seems to be preserved.
In 1672-73, stock and bullion to the amount of 157,7001.
were sent to Surat and Fort St. George. On account of
consignment to that settlement was postponed. In the
following year, it appears that cargoes and bullion were
consigned, of the value of 100,0001. to Surat; 87,0001. to
Fort St. George; and 41,0001. to Bantam.1
Other events of these years were of considerable im-
portance. In 1667-68, appears the first order of the Com-
pany for the importation of tea. Attempts were now
recommended for resuming trade with Sumatra. In
1671-72, considerable embarrassment was produced at
Surat by the arrival of a French fleet of twelve ships, and
a stock computed at 130,0001. The inconsiderate pur-
chases and sales of the French reduced the price of
i Bruce, ii. 201, 206, 209–224, 227, 230—256, 258, 259–278, 281, 282, 283—
293, 296, 297-312, 313-327, 328, 331.
2 Ibid, 210. The words of this order are curious, " to send hone by these
ships 100 lb. Waight of the best tey that you can gett."
3 Ibid, 211.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. European goods, and raised that of Indian ; but these
CHAP. IV. adventurers exhibited so little of the spirit and knowledge
of commerce, as convinced the Company's agents that
1674.
they would not prove formidable rivals.?
As England and France were now united in alliance
against the Dutch, the Company might have exulted in
the prospect of humbling their oppressors, but the danger
of a new set of competitors seems effectually to have re-
pressed these triumphant emotions. In 1673, the island
of St. Helena, which had several times changed its masters,
being recaptured from the Dutch, was granted anew and
confirmed to the Company by a royal charter.2
The funds which, in such unusual quantity, the Di-
rectors had been able to supply for the support of the
trade in India, did not suffice to remove, it would appear
that they hardly served to lighten, the pecuniary difficul-
ties under which it laboured. To an order to provide a
large investment, the President and Council at Surat, in
1673-74, replied, that the funds at their disposal were only
88,2281. and their debts 100,0001. besides interest on the
same at 9 per cent.; and in November, 1674, they repre-
sented that the debt arose to no less a sum than 135,0001.;
and that all returns must in a great measure be suspended
till, by the application of the funds received from Europe,
the Company's credit should be revived.3
Of the sort of views held out at this period to excite
the favour of the nation towards the East India Company,
a specimen has come down to us of considerable value.
Sir Josiah Child, an eminent member of the body of Di-
rectors, in his celebrated Discourses on Trade, written in
1665, and published in 1667, represents the trade to India
as the most beneficial branch of English commerce; and
in proof of this opinion he asserts, that it employs from
twenty-five to thirty sail of the most warlike mercantile
ships of the kingdom, manned with mariners from 60 to
100 each ; that it supplies the kingdom with saltpetre,
which would otherwise cost the nation an immense sum
to the Dutch ; with pepper, indigo, calicoes, and drugs, to
the value of 150,0001. or 180,0001. yearly, for which it would
otherwise pay to the same people an exorbitant price;
with materials for export to Turkey, France, Spain, Italy,
i Bruce, ii. 302. 2 Ibid. 232, 334. 3 Ibid. 337, 342, 366.
EXAGGERATION..
: 77
and Guinea, to the amount of 200,0001. or 300,0001. yearly, BOOK I.
countries with which, if the nation were deprived of these CHAP. IV.
commodities, a profitable trade could not be carried on. -
These statements were probably made with an intention · 1674.
to.deceive. The imports, exclusive of saltpetre, are asserted
to exceed 400,0001. a year; though the stock which was
annually sent to effect the purchases, and to defray the
whole expense of factories and fortifications abroad, hardly
amounted in any number of years preceding 1665, to
100,0001., often to much less; while the Company were
habitually contracting debts, and labouring under the
severest pecuniary difficulties. Thus early, in the history
of this Company, is it found necessary to place reliance
on their accounts and statements, only when something
very different from the authority of their advocates is
found to constitute the basis of our belief.
It will be highly instructive to confront one exaggerated
statement with another. About the same time with the
discourses of Sir Josiah Child, appeared the celebrated
work of De Witt on the state of Holland. Proceeding on
the statement of Sir Walter Raleigh, who in the investi-
gation of the Dutch fishery, made for the information of
James I. in 1603, affirmed, that “the Hollanders fished on
the coasts of Great Britain with no fewer than 3,000 ships,
and 50,000 men; that they employed and sent to sea, to
transport and sell the fish so taken, and to make returns
thereof, 9,000 ships more, and 150,000 men; and that.
twenty busses do, one way or other, maintain 8,000
people ;" he adds, that from the time of Sir Walter Ra-
leigh to the time at which he wrote, the traffic of Holland
in all its branches could not have increased less than one
third. Allowing this account to be exaggerated in the same
proportion as that of the East India Director, which the
nature of the circumstances, so much better known, renders
rather improbable; it is yet evident, to what a remarkable
degree the fisheries of the British coasts, to which the
Dutch confined themselves, constituted a more important
1 The pecuniary difficulties were chiefly encountered in India, and might
have explained the apparent disagreement between the value of the imports
and the stock sent out to effect their purchase, the fact being that the stock
sent out was inadequate to the purchase, and the investments were paid for by
money taken up in India, the great profit made on their sale more thau cover-
ing the interest of the debt.-W.
78
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. commerce than the bighly vaunted, but comparatively
CHAP. IV. insignificant business of the East India Company. The
English fishery, at the single station of Newfoundland,
1675-82.. exceeded in value the trade to the East Indies. In the
year 1676, no fewer than 102 ships, carrying twenty guns
each, and eighteen boats, with five men to each boat,
9,180 men in all, were employed in that traffic ; and the
total value of the fish and oil was computed at 386,40012
The equipments, in 1674-75, were, five ships to Surat
with 1-89,000l. in goods and bullion ; five to Fort St. George
with 202,000l.; and 2,500 tons of shipping to Bantam
with 65,0001.: In 1675-76, to Surat, fire ships and 96,5001.;
to Fort St. George, five ships and 235,0001.; to Bantam,
2,450 tons of shipping and 58,0001.: In 1676-77, three
ships to Surat, and three to Fort St. George, with 97,0001.
to the one, and 176,6001. to the other; and eight ships to
Bantam, with no account of the stock. The whole adven-
ture to India, in 1677-78, seems to have been seven ships
and 352,0001.; of which a part, to the value of 10,0001. or
12,0001., was to be forwarded from Fort St. George to
Bantam : In 1678-79, eight ships and 393,9501.: In 1679-80,
ten ships and 461,700l.: In 1680-81, eleven ships and
596,0001.: And, in 1681-82, seventeen ships, and 740,0001.3
The events affecting the East India Company were still
common and unimportant. In 1674-75, a mutiny, occa.
sioned by retrenchment, but not of any serious magnitude,
was suppressed at Bombay. In trying and executing the
ringleaders, the Company exercised the formidable powers
of martial law. The trade of Bengal had grown to such
importance, that, instead of a branch of the agency at Fort
St. George, an agency was now constituted in Bengal itself.
Directions were forwarded to make attempts for opening a
trade with Chiva; and tea, to the value of 100 dollars,
was in 1676-77, ordered on the Company's account. Be-
1 An anonymous author, whom Anderson in his History of Commerce quotes
as an authority, savs, in 1679, that the Dutch herring and cod fishery employed
8,000 vessels, and 200,000 sailor's and fishers, whereby they annually gained
five millions sterling ; besides their Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland
fisheries, and the multitude of trades and people employed by them at home.
Dlacpherson's Annals, ii. 596. See in the same work, ii, 547, and 552, a sum-
mary of the statements of Child and De Witt. For ampler satisfaction the
works themselves must be consulted.
2 Anderson's History of Commerce. Macpherson's Annals, ii. 579.
3 Bruce, ii. 356, 370, 361-375, 379-392, 393, 395–406, 409, 410---435, 438,
439_-446, 451, 453–459, 465, 468.
STATE OF TRADE.
side the ordinary causes of depression which affected the BOOK I.
Company at Bantam, a particular misfortune occurred in CHAP. IV.
1667. The principal persons belonging to the factory
1682.
having gone up the river in their prows, a number of
Javanese assassins, who had concealed themseves in the
water, suddenly sprung upon them, and put them to
death.
In 1677-78, “the Court,” says Mr. Bruce, “recommended
temporising expedients to their servants, with the Mogul,
with Sivajee, and with the petty Rajahs; but at the same
time they gave to President Augier and his council dis-
cretionary powers, to employ armed vessels, to enforce the
observation of treaties and grants :- in this way, the Court
shifted from themselves the responsibility of commencing
hostilities, that they might be able, in any questions which
might arise between the King and the Company, to refer
such hostilities to the errors of their servants.". This
cool provision of a subterfuge, at the expense of their ser-
vants, is a policy ascribed to the Company, in this instance,
by one of the most unabashed of their eulogists. We shall
see, as we advance, in what degree the precedent has been
followed.
The difficulties which now occurred in directing the
business of the East India Company began to be serious.
The Directors, from ignorance of the circumstances in
which their servants were placed, often transmitted to
prudent to execute. The functionaries abroad often took
upon themselves, and had good reasons for their caution,
to disregard the orders which they receivel. A door being
thus opened for discretionary conduct, the instructions of
the Director's were naturally as often disobeyed for the
1 Bruce, ii. 367, 466, 396, 404.
2 Ibid, 406.-M.
There is a clause in these instructions omitted, which it is but justice to the
Directors to re.insert. They enjoined their servants“ to endeavour by their
conduct to impress the natives with an opinion of the probity of the English in
all commercial dealings." With regard to the object of the Court in giving
discretionary powers to the President and Council of Surat, to enforce the
observation of treaties and grants, it is not very candid to limit it to leaving an
opening by which they might escape responsibility. Their own distance from
the scene of action rendered some such discretionary authority in their servants
indispensable, as is admitted a few lines further on.-W.
SO
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA,
BOOK I. Company at home. The disregard of their authority, and
CHAP. V. the violation of their commands, had been a frequent
subject of uneasiness and indignation to the Directors.
1683.
Nor was this all. From discordant pretensions to rank
and advancement in the service, animosities arose among
the agents abroad. Efforts were made by Directors for
the cure of these troublesome, and even dangerous, dis-
tion; but nomination to the important office of a Member
of Council at the Agencies, as well as Presidencies, was
reserved to the Court of Directors.
CHAPTER V.
From the Project of forming a new and rival Company,
till the Union of the two Companies by the Award of
Godolphin, in the year 1711.
MHE Company were now again threatened by that com-
I petition with their fellow-citizens, which they have
always regarded as their greatest misfortune. From the
renewal of their charter, shortly after the accession of
Charles II., their monopoly had not been disturbed, except
by a few feeble interlopers, whom they had not found it.
difficult to crush. In the year 1682-83, the design was
disclosed of opening a subscription for a new joint-stock,
and establishing a rival East India Company. The scheme
was so much in unison with the sentiments of the nation,
and assumed an aspect of so much importance, that it was
taken into consideration by the King and Council. It had
so much effect upon the views of the Company, though
for the present the Council withheld their sanction, that,
in Mr. Bruce's opinion, it introduced into their policy of
1682-83 a refinement, calculated and intended to impose
upon the King and the public. It induced them to speak of
the amount of their equipments, not, as usual, in terms
of exact detail, but in those of vague and hyperbolical
estimate. What we know of their adventure of that year
is only the information they forwarded to their Indian
2 Ibid. 275—M. Bruce's words are "a new practice, probably a refinement
in policy," ii, 477.-W.
TRADE AND DEBTS.
stations, that the stock to be sent out would exceed one BOOK I.
million sterling. In the course of the next season they CHAP. V.
equipped four ships to Surat. Of that year we only further
know that 100,0001. in bullion was intended for Bengal. 1683-85.
In 1684-85, information was forwarded to Surat, in general
terms, that the tonnage and stock would be considerable.
Five ships sailed for Fort St. George and Bengal, with
140,0001. in bullion. Of other circumstances nothing is
adduced : and for several succeeding years no statement
of the tonnage and stock of the annual voyages appears.?
Under the skill which the Court of Directors have all
along displayed in suppressing such information as they
wished not to appear, it is often impossible to collect more
than gleanings of intelligence respecting the Company's
debts. At the present period, however, they appear to
have been heavy and distressing. In 1676, it was asserted
by their opponents in England that their debts amounted
to 600,0001. ;and we have already seen that, in 1674, the
debt of Surat alone amounted to 135,00073 In 1682-83,
200,0001., and in 1683-84, it is stated that the debt upon
the dead stock at Bombay alone amounted to 300,0007. It
seems highly probable that at this time their debts ex-
ceeded their capital.
In a war between the King of Bantam and his son, in
which the English sided with the one, and the Dutch with
the other, the son prevailed ; and expelled the English
from the place. The agents and servants of the factory
took shelter at Batavia, and the Dutch Governor made
offer of his assistance to bring the property of the Com-
pany from Bantam. As the English, however, accused the
Dutch of being the real authors of the calamity, they de-
clined the proposal, as precluding those claims of redress
which the Company might prosecute in Europe. Various
efforts were made to regain possession of Bantam, but the
Dutch from this time remained sole masters of Java..
Upon the loss of Bantam, the Presidency for the govern-
1 Bruce, ii. 476, 481–496, 506-528, 531.
2 Anderson's History of Commerce. Macpherson's Annals, ii. 579.
3 Supra, p. 95.
Bruce, ji. 482, 499.
5 There is no proof that the English took any part in the dispute, nor is
it likely. They were not suficiently strong to provoke the enmity of the
Dutch.-W.
VOL. II.
82
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ment of the Eastern Coast, which had hitherto, with a
CHAP. V. fond desire for the traffic of the islands, been stationed at
that place, was removed to Fort St. George.
1683-85.
The nation becoming gradually more impatient under
the monopoly, the numbers multiplied of those who ven-
tured to break through the restraint which it imposed on
the commercial ardour of the times. The Company, not
satisfied with the power which they had already obtained
of common and martial law, and of seizing, with their
trymen as their interests or caprice might direct, still
called for a wider range of authority : and, under the
favour of government which they now enjoyed, obtained
the powers of Admiralty jurisdiction, for the purpose of
seizing and condemning, safe from the review of the courts
The servants of the Company were now invested with un-
limited power over the British people in India.
Insurrection again appeared at Bombay, and assumed a
very formidable aspect. The causes were such as have
commonly, in the Company's affairs, been attended with
similar effects. Efforts had been made to retrench ex-
penses ; unpleasant to the Company's servants. The ear-
liest experiment of the Company in territorial sovereignty
agreed with the enlarged experience of succeeding times :
the expense of the government exceeded the revenue which
the population and territory could be made to yield. The
Directors, new to the business of government, were dis-
appointed ; and having first laboured to correct the deficit
by screwing up the revenue, they next attempted the same
arduous task by lessening the expense. By the two opera-
tions together, all classes of their subjects were alienated :
first, the people, by the weight of taxation ; next, the
instruments of government, by the diminution of their
i Bruce, ü. 502.
2 It would appear, from the way in which these interlopers are spoken nf,
that they were unconnected merchants seeking only to carry on trade wi:!.
seems, however, that they attempted more than this, representing themselves
as a new Company chartered by the King, whose purpose it was to deprive thie
old of their privileges. They endeavoured also to establish themselves per... -
nently at various places in the Dekhan, and offered to the King of Golconds
15,000 Pagodas for permission to erect a Fort at Armagaon. It was not withi-
out cause, therefore, that the Company regarded them with fear, and endea-
youred to suppress their commerce.-W.
3 Bruce, ii. 496.
INSURRECTION AT BOMBAY.
83
profits. Accordingly Captain Keigwin, commander of the BOOK I.
garrison at Bombay, was joined by the troops and the great CHAP. V.
body of the people, in renouncing the authority of the -
Company, and declaring by proclamation, dated December 1683-85.
27, 1683, that the island belonged to the King. Keigwin
was by general consent appointed Governor; and imme-
diately addressed letters to the King and the Duke of
York, stating such reasons as were most likely to avert
from his conduct the condemnation to which it was
exposed.
The President and Council at Surat, conscious of their
inability to reduce the island by force, had recourse to
negotiation. A general pardon, and redress of grievances,
were promised. First three commissioners were sent;
afterwards the President repaired to Bombay in person.
But neither entreaties nor threats were of any avail.2
As soon as intelligence arrived in England, the King's
command was procured, directing Captain Keigwin to
deliver up the island ; and instructions were forwarded
to proceed against the insurgents by force. When Sir
Thomas Grantham, the commander of the Company's
fleet, presented himself at Bombay, invested with the
King's commission, Keigwin offered, if assured of a free
pardon to himself and adherents, to surrender the place.
On these terms, the island was restored to obedience.3
For the more effectual coercion of any turbulent propen-
sities, the expedient was adopted of removing the seat of
government from Surat to Bombay. Nor could the humble
pretensions of a President and Council an longer satisfy
the rising ambition of the Company. The Dutch had
established a regency at Batavia and Columbo. It was
not consistent with the grandeur of the English Company
to remain contented with inferior distinction. In 1687,
Bombay was elevated to the dignity of a Regency, with
unlimited power over the rest of the Company's settle-
i Bruce, ii. 512. Governor Child is accused by Hamilton of wanton and in-
tolerable oppressions; and that author states some facts which indicate exces-
sive tyranny. New account of the East Indies, i. 187-199.
2 Bruce, ii. 515.
3 The first was surrendered on the 20th November, 1684, upon stipulations
which secured entire immunity to the mutineers, with leave to return to Europe
or remain at their pleasure. In the interval, a civilian, Dr. St. John, had been
sent out with a Commission from the King, and one from the Company, to
preside in all judicial proceedings at Bombay.-W.
HISTORY OF BRITISII INDIA.
BOOK I. ments. Madras was formed into a corporation, governed
CHAP. V. by a mayor and aldermen.
- The English had met with less favour, and more oppres-
1685-87.
sion, from the native powers in Bengal, than in any other
part of India.3 In 1685-86, the resolution was adopted of
seeking redress and protection by force of arms. The
greatest military equipment the Company had ever pro-
vided was sent to India. Ten armed vessels, from twelve
to seventy guns, under the command of Captain Nicholson,
and six companies of infantry, without captains, whose
places were to be supplied by the Members of Council in
Bengal, were despatched, with instructions to seize and for-
tify Chittagong as a place of future security, and to retaliate
in such a manner upon the Nabob and Mogul as to obtain
reparation for the injuries and losses which had been al-
ready sustained. In addition to this force, the Directors,
in the following year, made application to the King for an
entire company of regular infantry with their officers; and
power was granted to the Governor in India to select from
the privates such men as should appear qualified to be com-
missioned officers in the Company's service. By some of
those innumerable casualties, inseparable from distant ex-
peditions, the whole of the force arrived not at one tinie
in the Ganges; and an insignificant quarrel between some
of the English soldiers and the natives, was imprudently
allowed to bring on hostilities, before the English were in a
] The seat of Government had been transferred from Surat to Bombay in the
preceding year. Bruce, ii. 553. The policy of placing the British Indian
authorities under one head, is too obvious to be ascribed merely to the rising
ambition of the Company.-W.
2 Bruce, ii. 526, 540, 584, 591. It was debated in the Privy Council, whether
the charter of incorporation should be under the King's or the Company's seal.
The King asked the Chairman his opinion, who replied, “that no person in
India should be employed by immediate commission from his Majesty, because,
if they were, they would be prejudicial to our service by their arrogancy, and
prejudicial to themselves, because the wind of extraordinary honour in their
heads would probably make tliem so haughty and overbearing, that we should
be forced to remove them.” Letter from the Court to the President of Fort
St. George (ibid, 591). Hamilton, ut supra (189–192). Orme's Historical
Fragments, 185, 188, 192, 198,
3 Mr. Orme is not willing to ascribe part of the hardships they experienced
to the interlopers, who, seeking protection against the oppressions of the Com-
pany, were more sedulous and skilful in their endeavours to please the native
governors. Historical Fragments, 185.-M. This was, no doubt, true to some
extent, but the difficulties were, in a still greater degree, attributable to the
administration of Shaistah Khan, as Subahdar of Bengal, whose insatiable de-
sire of accumulating wealth, led him to a system of extortion, which descended
tlırough all his subordinates, and of which the English trade was the especial
object.-18.
DISTURBANCES IN BENGAL.
condition to maintain them with success. They were BOOK I.
obliged to retire from Hoogly,' after they had cannonaded CHAP. V.
it with the fleet, and took shelter at Chutanuttee, after- -
wards Calcutta, till an agreement with the Nabob, or addi- 1685-87.
tional forces, should enable them to resume their stations.
The disappointment of their ambitious schemes was bit-
terly felt by the Court of Directors. They blamed their
servants in Bengal in the severest terms, not only for
sources of the Company, which ought to have been effec-
tually employed in obtaining profitable and honourable
terms from the Nabob and Mogul, to their own schemes of
private avarice and emolument. A hollow truce was agreed
to by the Nabob, which he only employed for preparing the
means of an effectual attack. The English under the direc-
tion of Charnock, the Company's agent, made a gallant
defence. They not only repulsed the Nabob's forces in
repeated assaults, but stormed the fort of Tanna, seized
the island of Injellee, in which they fortified themselves,
and burnt the town of Balasore, with forty sail of the
Mogul fleet; the factories, however, at Patna and Cossim-
buzar were taken and plundered. In September, 1687, an
accommodation was effected, and the English were allowed
to return to Hoogly with their ancient privileges. But
1 These circunstances are so summarily narrated as to be inexactly told.
Three English soldiers had quarrelled with the Peons of the Nawab, and had
been wounded ; a company of soldiers was called out in their defence, and
finally the whole of the troops. The native forces collected to oppose them
were routed, the town was cannonaded by the ships, and the Foujdar was
compelled to solicit a cessation of arms, which was granted on condition of his
furnishing means of conveying the Company's goods on board their vessels.
Before the action took place orders had come from Shaistab Khan to compro-
mise the differences with the English, but their claims has now become so
considerable, amounting to above 66 lacs of rupees, or nearly 700,0001., that it
was not likely they expected the Nawab's acquiescence. They remained at
Hoogly till the 20th of December, and then, “ considering that Hoogly was an
open town, retired to Chutanuttee, or Calcutta, from its being a safer situation
during any negotiation with the Nabob or Mogul.” Negotiations were ac-
cordingly opened and terms agreed upon, when, in February, the Nawab
threw off the mask, and a large body of horse appeared before Hoogly. Bruce,
ii. 581.-W.
compression of the original account in Bruce; the chief object of the armament
was the occupation of Chittagong; the Court considered that the truce granted
to the Foujdar of Hoogly, and the negotiation entered into with the Nawab,
had given to the latter time to strengthen his troops at Chittagong, and place
it out of danger, their servants proposing, by their claims for compensation, to
make good personal losses, rather than vindicate the rights of the Company.
Bruce, ii. 594.-W.
36.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. this was a termination of the contest ill-relished by the
CHAP. V. Court of Directors. Repeating their accusations of Char-
nock and their other functionaries, they sent Sir John
1687.
Child, the governor of Bombay, to Madras and Bengal, for
the purpose of reforming abuses, and of re-establishing, if
possible, the factories at Cossimbuzar and other places,
from which they had been driven by the war. A large
ship, the Defence, accompanied by a frigate, arrived from
England under the command of a captain of the name of
Heath, with instructions for war. The Company's servants
had made considerable progress by negotiation in regaining
their ancient ground; when Heath1 precipitately com-
menced hostilities, plundered the town of Balasore, and
proceeded to Chittagong, which he found himself unable
to subdue. Having taken the Company's servants and
effects on board, agreeably to his orders, he sailed to Madras; .
and Bengal was abandoned.2
exasperated Aurengzebe, the most powerful of all the
Mogul sovereigns, and exposed the Company's establish-
ments to ruin in every part of India. The factory at
Surat was seized; the island of Bombay was attacked by
the fleet of the Siddees; the greater part of it was taken,
zebe issued orders to expel the English from his domi-
nions. The factory at Masulipatam was seized; as was
also that at Vizagapatam, where the Company's agent and
several of their servants were slain. The English stooped
to the most abject submissions. With much difficulty
they obtained an order for the restoration of the factory
1 The Defence arrived in India in October, 1688, and took the Company's
servants and property on board at Calcutta in the following month. The
attack on Balasore was made on the 29th of November, and in opposition to
the advice of the agent and Council on board the fieet: after its failure, the
ships proceeded to Chittagong, where it was determined to add:ess the Nawab
before commencing hostilities. Without waiting for a reply, or commencing
military operations, Captain Heath sailed from Chittagong, and after a fruit-
less attempt to effect a settlement in Aracan, conveyed the Company's pro-
perty and servants to Madras, where they arrived in March, 1689. Bruce, ii.
648.-W.
2 These events occurred under the government of the celebrated imperial
deputy, Shaiştah Khan; “to the character of whom (says Mr. Stewart, History
of Bengal, 300,) it is exceedingly difficult to do justice. By the Mohammedan
historians he is described as the pattern of excellence; but by the English he
is vilified as the oppressor of the human race. Facts are strongly on the side
of the Mohamınedans."—W
DISASTERS OF THE ENGLISH.
87
at Surat, and the removal of the enemy from Bombay. BOOK I.
Negociation was continued, with earnest endeavours, to CHAP. V.
effect a reconciliation. The trade of the strangers was felt
in the Mogul treasuries; and rendered the Emperor, as 1689-98.
well as his deputies, not averse to au accomodation. But
the interruption and delay sustained by the Company
made them pay dearly for their premature ambition, and
for the unseasonable insolence, or the imprudence of their
servants.
. During these contests, the French found an interval in
which they improved their footing in India. They had
formed an establishment at Pondicherry, where they were
at this time employed in erecting fortifications.?
The equipments for 1689-90 were on a reduced scale;
consisting of three ships only, two for Bombay, and one
for Fort St. George. They were equally small the succeed-
ing year. We are not informed to what the number of
ships or value of cargo amounted in 1691-2. In the fol-
lowing year, however, the number of ships was eleven; and
was increased in 1693-4, to thirteen. In the following
year there was a diminution, but to what extent does not
appear. In each of the years 1695-6 and 1696-7, the num-
ber of ships was eight. And in 1697-8 it was only four.3
It was now laid down as a determinate object of policy,
that independence was to be established in India; and
dominion acquired. In the instructions forwarded in
1689, the Directors expounded themselves in the following
words: “The increase of our revenue is the subject of
our care, as much as our trade :-'tis that must maintain
our force, when twenty accidents may interrupt our trade;
'tis that must make us a nation in India ;-without that
we are but as a great number of interlopers, united by his
Majesty's royal charter, fit only to trade where nobody of
1 Bruce, ii. 558, 569, 578, 594, 608, 620, 630, 639, 641, 646, 650. The lively
and intelligent Captain Hamilton represents the conduct of Sir John Child at
Surat as exceptionable in the highest degree. But the Captain was an inter-
Dual S
im
Super was
loper, and though his book is strongly stamped with the marks of veracity, his
testimony is to be received with same caution on the one side as that of the
Company on the other. New account of India, i. 199–228.-M.
Bruce and Stewart give translations of the original orders from the Com-
pany's Records. The factory at Surat was fined 150,000 rupees, and Mr. Child
was ordered to be turned out and expelled. Bruce, ii. 639. Hist. Bengal App.
vi. and vii. Sir John (Mr.) Child, an able and enterprizing servant of the
Company, and the chief of all their establishments in India, had previously
died, -W.
2 Bruce, ii. 655.
3 Ibid, iii, 75, 87, 122, 139, 181. 203, 231.
88
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. power thinks it their interest to prevent us;-and upon
CHAP. V. this account it is that the wise Dutch, in all their general
- advices which we have seen, write ten paragraphs concern-
1689-98.
ing their government, their civil and military policy,
warfare, and the increase of their revenue, for one para-
graph they write concerning trade.”'i It thus appears at
how early a period, when trade and sovereignty were
blended, the trade, as was abundantly natural, became an
object of contempt, and by necessary consequence, a sub-
ject of neglect. A trade, the subject of neglect, is of course
a trade without profit.2
This policy was so far gratified, about the same period,
that Tegnapatam, a town and harbour on the Coromandel
coast, a little to the south of Pondicherry, was obtained
by purchase, and secured by grant from the country
powers. It was strengthened by a wall and bulwarks, and
named Fort St. David.3
A fact of much intrinsic importance occurs at this part
of the history. Among the Christians of the East, the
Armenians, during the power of the successors of Con-
stantine, had formed a particular sect. When the coun-
tries which they inhabited were overrun by the Mahomedan
arms, they were transplanted by force, in great numbers,
into Persia, and dispersed in the surrounding countries.
Under oppression, the Armenians adhered to their faith;
and addicting themselves to commerce, became, like the
Jews in Europe, the merchants and brokers in the different
countries to which they resorted. A proportion of them
made their way into India, and by their usual industry and
acuteness, acquired that share in the business of the coun-
try which was the customary reward of the qualities they
displayed. The pecuniary pressure under which the Com-
pany at this time laboured, and under which, without
ruinous consequences, the increase of patronage could not
i Bruce, iii. 78.
2 The anxiety of the Directors to maintain a trade without profit," would
be somewhat inexplicable, if it was true, but the injuries to which that trade
had been exposed from European competition and native exactions, had suffi-
ciently proved that it could not be carried on without the means of maintaining
an independent position in India.-W.
3 Bruce, iii. 120.
4 See, in Gibbon, viii. 357 to 360, a train of allusions, as usual, to the history
of the Armenians; and in his notes a list of its authors. The principal facts
regarding them, as a religious people, are collected with his usual industry and
fidelity by Mosheim, Ecclesiast. Hist. iii. 493, 494, 495, and 412, 413.
THE MONOPOLY CHALLENGED.
89
be pursued, constrained the Directors to look out for BOOK I..
economical modes of conducting their trade. They ac- CHAP. V.
cordingly gave instructions, that, instead of multiplying -
European agents in India, natives, and especially Arme-
pes, and especially Arme. 1689-98.
nians, should be employed : “because,” to use the words of
Mr. Bruce, copying or abridging the letters of the Court,
small quantities into the interior provinces, and could
collect fine muslins, and other new and valuable articles,
suited to the European demands, better than any agents of
the Company could effect, under any phirmaund or grant
which might be eventually purchased.”
The prosperity which the nation had enjoyed, since the
death of Charles I., having rendered capital more abundant,
the eagerness of the mercantile population to enter into
the channel of Indian enterprise and gain had proportion-
ably increased ; and the principles of liberty being now
better understood, and actuating more strongly the breasts
of Englishmen, not only had private adventure, in more
numerous instances, surmounted the barriers of the com-
pany's monopoly, but the public in general at last disputed
the power of a royal charter, unsupported by Parliamentary
sanction, to limit the rights of one part of the people in
favour of another, and to debar all but the East India
Company from the commerce of India. Applications were
made to Parliament for a new system of management in
this branch of national affairs; and certain instances of
severity, which were made to carry the appearance of
atrocity, in the exercise of the powers of martial law
assumed by the Company, in St. Helena and other places,
served to augment the unfavourable opinion which was
now rising against them.”
The views of the House of Commons were hostile to the
Company. A committee, appointed to investigate the
subject, delivered it as their opinion on the 16th January,
1690, that a new Company should be established, and
established by Act of Parliament; but that the present
Company should carry on the trade exclusively, till the
new Company were established. The House itself, in
i Bruce, iii. 88.
2 Ibid. 81; Macpherson's Annals, ii. 618; and Adam Smitli, Wealth of
Nations, iii. 132, who with his usual sagacity brings to view the causes of the
principal events in the history of the Company.
3 Bruce, iii. 82.
90
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. 1691, addressed the King to dissolve the Company, and
CHAP. V. incorporate a new one; when the King referred the ques-
tion to a committee of the Privy Council.
1689-98.
In the mean time the Company proceeded, in a spirit of
virulence, to extinguish the hated competition of the
general traders. “The Court,” says Mr. Bruce, transcribing
the instructions of 1691, "continued to act towards their
opponents, interlopers, in the same manner as they had
done in the latter years of the two preceding reigns; and
granted commissions to all their captains, proceeding this
season to India, to seize the interlopers of every descrip-
tion, and to bring them to trial before the Admiralty
Court at Bombay ;- explaining, that, as they attributed
all the differences between the Company and the Indian
powers to the interlopers, if they continued their depreda-
tions on the subjects of the Mogul or King of Persia, they
were to be tried for their lives as pirates, and sentence of
should be known."2
The cruelty which marks these proceedings is obvious;
and would hardly be credible if it were less strongly at-
tested. The Company seized their opponents, and carried
them before their own Admiralty Courts, that is, before
themselves, to judge and pass sentence in their own cause,
and inflict almost any measure of injury which it suited
minds, inflamed with all the passions of disappointed
avarice and ambition, to perpetrate. They accused their
competitors of piracy, or of any other crime they chose;
tried them as they pleased, and sentenced them even to
death: accounting it an act of mercy that they did not
consign them to the executioner before the royal pleasure
was known ;-as if that pleasure could be as quickly
known in India, as it could in England ;-as if the unfor-
tunate victim might not remain for months and years in
tence of imprisonment, for any length of time, to a Euro-
pean constitution, is a sentence of almost certain death;
executions, beside the ruin of his affairs, in a land of
strangers and enemies, even if his wretched life were pro-
tracted till his doom, pronounced at the opposite side of
i Macpherson's Annals, i. 648.
2 Bruce, iii. 102.
SEVERITY TOWARDS INTERLOPERS.
91
the globe, could be known. Mr. Bruce, with his usual BOOK I.
alacrity of advocation, says, “This proceeding of the Court CHAP. V.
rested upon the opinion of the twelve Judges, which was,
that the Company had a right to the trade to the East
1689-98.
Indies, according to their charter."i Because the Judges
said they had a right to the trade to the East Indies, they
assumed a right to be judges and executioners of their
fellow-subjects, in their own cause. This was a bold con-
clusion. It was impossible that, under any colour of
justice, the powers of judicature intrusted to the Com-
pany, by kingly without parliamentary authority, even if
allowed, could be extended beyond their own servants,
who voluntary submitted to their jurisdiction. Over the
rest of their fellow-subjects, it was surely suficient power,
if they were permitted to send them to England, to
answer for their conduct, if challenged, before a tribunal
which had not an overbearing interest in destroying
them.
The King of 1693, like the King of any other period,
preferred power in his own hands to power in the hands
of the parliament, and would have been pleased to retain
without participation the right of making or annulling
exclusive privileges of trade. Notwithstanding the reso-
parliament should determine whatever regulations might
be deemed expedient for the Indian trade, a new charter
1 Bruce, iii. 103. Sir Josiah Child, as Chairman of the Court of Directors,
wrote to the Governor of Bombay, to spare no severity to crush their country-
men who invaded the ground of the Company's pretensions in India. The
Governor replied, by professing his readiness to omit nothing which lay
within the sphere of his power, to satisfy the wishes of the Company; but the
wise be desirable. Sir Josiah wrote back with anger: “That he expected his
orders were to be his rules, and not the laws of England, which were a heap
of nonsense, compiled by a few ignorant country gentlemen, who hardly knew
how to make laws for the good of their own private families, much less for the
regulating of companies, and foreign commerce" (Hamilton's New Account
of India, i.232). "I am the more particular," adds Captain Hainilton," on
this account, because I saw and copied both those letters in anno 1696, while
Mr. Vaux [the Governor to whom the lotters were addressed] and I were
prisoners at Surat, on account of Captain Evory's robbing the Mogul's great
ship, called the Gunsway." Bruce, iii, 233.-M.
Mr. Mill here forgets the caution he had recommended, a few pages before,
in regard to Captain Hamilton's testimony. No doubt the servants of the
Company in India, were little inclined to exercise forbearance towards the
interlopers; but the picture here delineated is exaggerated. Captain Hamilton,
an interloper, trafficked in India for ten years, and could not have encountered
very serious opposition: his imprisonment was the act of the Mogul govern-
ment.-W.
92
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. was granted by letters patent from the crown, as the
CHAP. V. proper mode of terminating the present controversies.
The principal conditions were, that the capital of the
1693.
Company, which was 756,0001., should be augmented by
744,0001., so as to raise it to 1,500,0001. ; that their exclu-
sive privileges should be confirmed for twenty-one years ;
that they should export 100,0001. of British produce an-
nually; that the title to a yote in the Court of Proprietors
should be 1000l.; and that no more than ten votes should
be allowed to any individual.
The pretensions, however, of the House of Commons,
brought this important question to a different issue.
Towards the close of the very same season, that assembly
came to a vote, “that it was the right of all Englishmen
to trade to the East Indies, or any part of the world, unless
prohibited by act of parliament:"2 and William knew his
situation too well to dispute their authority.
The Company laboured under the most pressing embar-
rassments. Though their pecuniary difficulties, through
the whole course of their history, have been allowed as
little as possible to meet the public eye, what we happen
to be told of the situation at this time of the Presidency
at Surat affords a lively idea of the financial distresses in
which they were involved. Instead of eight lacks of rupees,
which it was expected would be sent from Bombay to
Surat, to purchase goods for the homeward voyage, only
three lacks and a half were received. The debt at Surat
already amounted to twenty lacks; yet it was absolutely
necessary to borrow money to purchase a cargo for even
three ships. A loan of one lack and 80,000 rupees was
necessary to complete this small investment. To raise
this sum, it was necessary to allow to individuals the pri-
vileges of the contract which subsisted with the Armenian
merchants. And after all these exertions the money
could only be obtained by taking it up on loans from the
Company's servants.
i Bruce, iii. 133--135. Macpherson's Annals, ii. 649.
2 Ibid. 142.
3 We know not the terms of that contract, nor how a participation in its
privileges could be granted to individuals without a breach of faith toward the
Armenian merchants.-M.
Why should a breach of contract be imputed to the Company's servants,
when it is not known what the terms of the contract were; what reason, in-
deed, is there to suppose that there was any contract at all?_W.
4 Bruce, iii. 167.
PECUNIARY DIFFICULTIES OF THE COMPANY.
93
: The Company meanwhile did not neglect the usual BOOK I.
corrupt methods of obtaining favours at home. It appeared CHAP. V.
that they had distributed large sums of money to men in –
power, before obtaining their charter. The House of 1693-98. .
Commons were, at the present period, disposed to inquire
into such transactions. They ordered the books of the
Company to be examined ; where it appeared that it had
been the practice, and even habit of the Company, to give
bribes to great men ; that, previous to the revolution, their
annual expense, under that head, had scarcely ever ex-
ceeded 1,2001. ; that since the revolution it had gradually
increased ; and that in the year 1693, it had amounted to
nearly 90,0001. The Duke of Leeds, who was charged with
having received a bribe of 50001., was impeached by the
Commons. But the principal witness against him was
sent out of the way, and it was not till nine days after it
was demanded by the Lords that a proclamation was issued
to stop his flight. Great men were concerned in smother-
ing the inquiry ; parliament was prorogued; and the scene
was here permitted to close.
As the science and art of government were still so im-
perfect as to be very unequal to the suppression of crimes ;
and robberies and murders were prevalent even in the
best regulated countries in Europe ; so depredation was
committed on the ocean under still less restraint, and
pirates abounded wherever the amount of property at sea
afforded an adequate temptation. The fame of Indian
riches attracted to the Eastern seas adventurers of all.
nations ; some of whom were professed pirates ; others,
men preferring honest trade, though, when they found
themselves debarred from this source of profit, by the
pretensions and power of monopoly, they had no such
aversion to piracy as to reject the only other source in
which they were allowed to partake. The moderation
which, during some few years, the Company had found it
prudent to observe in their operations for restraining the
résort of private traders to India, had permitted an in-
crease of the predatory adventurers. As vessels belonging
to Mogul subjects fell occasionally into the hands of plun-
derers of the English nation, the Mogul government, too
1 Macpherson's Annals, ii. 652, 662; 10,0001. is said to have been traced to
the king.
94
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ignorant and headlong to be guided by any but the rudest
CHAP. V. appearances, held the Company responsible for the mis-
1698.
such extremities as to confiscate their goods, and confine
their servants. The Company, who would have been jus-
tified in requiring aid at the hands of government for the
remedy of so real a grievance, made use of the occasion
as a favourable one for accumulating odium upon the in-
dependent traders. They endeavoured to confound them
with the pirates. They imputed the piracies, in general,
to the interlopers, as they called them. In their com-
plaints to government they represented the interlopers,
and the depredations of which they said they were the
authors, as the cause of all the calamities to which, under
the Mogul government, the Company had been exposed.
The charge, in truth, of piracy, became a general calumny,
with which all the different parties in India endeavoured
to blacken their competitors; and the Company itself,
when the new association of merchants trading to India
began to rival them, were as strongly accused of acting
the pirates in India, as the individual traders had been
by themselves.
and in India, when the influence of the rival association
threatened them with destruction. In the year 1698, both
parties were urging their pretensions with the greatest
possible zeal, when the necessities of the government ,
pointed out to both the project of bribing it by the ac-
commodation of money. The Company offered to lend to
government 700,0001. at 4 per cent. interest, provided their
charter should be confirmed, and the monopoly of India
secured to them by act of parliament. Their rivals,
knowing on how effectual an expedient they had fallen,
resolved to augment the temptation. They offered to
advance 2,000,0001. at 8 per cent., provided they should be
I Would they have obtained any such remedy? It is very improbable, in
the temper of the times. The grievance, it is admitted, was real: the Com-
pany had been armed by the nation with powers to protect themselves, and it
could scarcely be expected that they should refer the delay and uncertainty.
2 Bruce, iii. 146, 186. “Sir Nicholas Waite [Consıl of the Association]
addressed a letter," says Mr. Bruce, " to the Mogul, accusing the London Com-
pany of being sharers and abettors of the piracies, from which his subjects, and
th3 trade of his dominions, had suffered ; or, in the Consul's coarse language,
of being thieves and confederates with the pirates.”—Ibid. 337.
A RIVAL ASSOCIATION PROPOSED.
95
invested with the monopoly, free from obligation of trading BOOK I.
on a joint-stock, except as they themselves should after- CHAP. V.
wards desire.
A bill was introduced into parliament for carrying the 1698.
project of the new association into execution. And the
arguments of the two parties were brought forward in full
strength and detail.2
On the part of the existing Company, it was represented:
That they possessed charters; that the infringement of
charters was contrary to good faith, contrary to justice,
and in fact no less imprudent than it was immoral, by
destroying that security of engagements on which the
industry of individuals and the prosperity of nations essen-
tially depend. That the East India Company, moreover,
had property, of which to deprive them would be to yio-
late the very foundation on which the structure of society
rests; that they were the Lords-Proprietors, by royal grant,
of Bombay and St. Helena; that they had in India, at
their own expense, and by their own exertions, acquired
immoveable property, in lands, in houses, in taxes and
duties, the annual produce of which might be estimated
at 44,0001. That, at great expense, they had erected for-
tifications in various parts of India, by which they had
preserved to their country the Indian trade; and had
built factories and purchased privileges of great impor-
tance to the nation; enterprises to which they could have
been induced by nothing but the hope and prospect of
national support. That the resources and abilities of the
Company were proved, by the estimate of their quick and
dead stock; and that a capital of two millions would be
raised immediately by subscription. That the project, on
the contrary, of the new association made no provision
for a determinate stock; and the trade, which experience
proved to require an advance of 600,0001. annually, might
thus be lost to the nation, for want of sufficient capital to
carry it on. That justice to individuals, as well as to the
public, required the continuance of the charter, as the
property and even subsistence of many families, widows,
and orphans, was involved in the fate of the Company:
In short, that humanity, law, and policy, would all be
1 Anderson's History. Macpherson's Annals, i. 694. Bruce, iü. 252, 253.
2 Bruce, ii. 253. Macpherson, ii. 694.
96
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. equally violated by infringing the chartered rights of this
1698.
The new association replied ; That it was no infringe-
ment of good faith or justice, to annul, by a legislative
act, a charter which was hostile to the interest of the
nation; because that would be to say, if a government has
once committed an error, that it is not lawful to correct
itself; it would be to say that, if a nation has once been
rendered miserable, by erroneous institutions of govern-
ment, it must never try to rescue itself from its misery.
That the practical rule of the British government, as many
the pretended inviolability of charters, as often as they
were proved to be unprofitable or injurious. That not
only had charters been destroyed by act of parliament,
but even the judges at law (so little in reality was the
respect which had been paid to charters) had often set
them aside, by their sole authority, on the vague and
general ground that the King had been deceived in his
grant. That, if any chartered body was entitled to com-
plain of being dissolved, in obedience to the dictates of
utility, it was certainly not the East India Company, whose
charter had been originally granted, and subsequently
renewed, on the invariable condition of being terminated
after three years' notice, if not productive of national
had acquired in India, and to pretend that it gave them a
right to perpetuity of charter, was nothing less than to
insult the supreme authority of the state; by telling it,
that, be the limitations what they might, under which the
legislature should grant a charter, it was at all times in
the power of the chartered body to annul those limitations,
and mock the legislative wisdom of the nation, simply by
acquiring property. That, if the Company had erected
forts and factories, the question still remained, whether
they carried on the trade more profitably by their charter
than the nation could carry it on if the charter were de-
stroyed. That the nation and its constituted authorities
were the sole judge in this controversy; of which the
question whether the nation or the Company were most
i Bruce, iii. 253. Anderson's History of Commerce; Macpherson , ii. 694, 695.
A RIVAL ASSOCIATION PROPOSED.'
97
likely to fail in point of capital, no doubt formed a part. BOOK I.
That if inconvenience, and in some instances distress, CIIAP. V.
should be felt by individuals, this deserved consideration,
and, in the balance of goods and evils, ought to be counted 1098.
to its full amount; but to bring forward the inconvenience
of individuals, as constituting in itself a conclusive argu-
ment against a political arrangement, is as much as to say
that no abuse should be ever remedied; because no abuse is
without its profit to somebody, and no considerable number
of persons can be deprived of customary profits without
inconvenience to most, hardship to many, and distress to
some.
The new associators, though thus strong against the
particular pleas of their opponents, were debarred the use
of those important arguments which bore upon the prin-
ciple of exclusion; and which, even in that age, were urged
with great force against the Company. They who were
themselves endeavouring to obtain a monopoly could not
proclaim the evils which it was the nature of monopoly to
produce. The pretended rights of the Company to a per-
petuity of their exclusive privileges, for to that extent did
their arguments reach, were disregarded by everybody,
and an act was passed, empowering the King to convert
the new association into a corporate body, and to bestow
upon them the monopoly of the Indian trade. The char-
ters, the property, the privileges, the forts and factories of
the Company in India, and their claims of merit with the
nation, if not treated with contempt, were at least held
inadequate to debar the legislative wisdom of the commu-
nity fron establishing for the Indian trade whatever rules
and regulations the interest of the public appeared to
require.?
The following were the principal provisions of the act:
That the sum of two millions should be raised by sub-
scription for the service of government: that this subscrip-
tion should be open to natives or foreigners, bodies politic
or corporate; that the money so advanced should bear an
interest of 8 per cent. per annum: that it should be lawful
for his Majesty, by his letters patent, to make the sub-
1 Bruce, iii. 253, 254. Anderson's History of Commerce ; Macpherson,
ü. 695.
2 Bruce, iii. 295. Macpherson, ii. 696.
VOL. II.
:
98
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. scribers a body politic and corporate, by the name of the
CHAP. V. “General Society''; that the subscribers severally might
trace to the East Indies, each to the amount of his sub-
scription: that if any or all of the subscribers should be
willing and desirous, they might be incorporated into a
joint-stock Company: that the subscribers to this fund
should have the sole and exclusive right of trading to the
September, 1711, and the repayment of the capital of
2,000,0001., this act should cease and determine: that the
old or London Company, to whom three years' notice were
due, should have leave to trade to India till 1701: that
their estates should be chargeable with their debts: and
that if any furtheir dividends vere made before the pay-
ments of their debts, the members who received them
estates to the amount of the sums thus unduly received.
This measure, of prohibiting dividends while debt is
unpaid, or of rendering the Proprietors rosponsible with
their fortunes to the amount of the dividends received, be-
fitted the legislative justice of a nation.
A clause, on the same principle, was enacted with re-
gard to the New Company, that they should not allow
their debts at any time to exceed the amount of their
capital stock; or, if they did, that every proprietor should
be responsible for the debts with his private fortune, to
the whole amount of whatever he should have received in
the way of dividend or share after the debts exceeded the
capital.?
This good policy was little regarded in the sequel.
In conformity with this act a charter passed the great
seal, bearing date the 3rd of September, constituting the
subscribers to the stock of 2,000,0001. a body corporate
under the name of the “General Society." This charter
empowered the subscribers to trade, on the terms of a
regulated Company, each subscriber for his own account.
The greater part, however, of the subscribers desired to
trade upon a joint-stock: and another charter, dated the
5th of the same month, formed this portion of the sub-
scribers, exclusive of the small remainder, into a joint-
I Statute 9 & 10 Will. III.C. 14.
Tut:-
1
SUIT
OLD, OR LONDON COMPANY.
:99.
stock Company, by the name of “the English Company BOOK 3.
trading to the East Indies.”ı
CHAP. V.
· "In all this very material affair," says Anderson, is there:
certainly was a strange jumble of inconsistencies, contra- 1698. .
dictions and difficulties, not easily to be accounted for in
the conduct of men of judgment."? The London Company,
who had a right by their charter to the exclusive trade to.
India till three years after notice, had reason to complain of:
this injustice, that the English Company were empowered
to trade to ladia immediately, while they had the poor
compensation of trading for three years along with them.
There was palpable absurdity in abolishing one exclusive
company, only to erect another; when the former had
acted no otherwise than the latter would act. Even the
departure from joint-stock management, if trade on the
· principle of individual inspection and personal interest
had been looked to as the source of improvement, might
have been accomplished, without the erection of two ex-
clusive companies, by only abolishing the joint-stock regu.
lation of the old one. But the chief mark of the ignorance
of parliament, at that time, in the art and science of
government, was their abstracting from a tracing body,
under the name of loan to government, the whole of their
trading capital: and expecting them to traffic largely and
profitably when destitute of funds. The vast advance
to government, which they feebly repaired by credit,
beggared the English Company, and ensured their ruin
from the beginning.
The old, or London Company, lost not their hopes. They
were allowed to trade for three years on their own charter;
and availing themselves of the clause in the act, which per-
mitted corporations to hold stock of the New Company,
they resolved to subscribe into this fund as largely as pos-
sible; and under the privilege of private adventure, allowed
by the charter of the English Company, to trade, aeparately,
and in their own name, after the three years of their char-
ter should be expired. The sum which they were enabled
to appropriate to this purpose was 315,0001.3
1 Macpherson's Annals, ü.699. Bruce, iii. 257, 258. Preamble to the Stat.
6 Anne, c. 17.
2 Anderson's History of Commerce; Macpherson, ii. 700.
3 Bruce, iii. 256, 257. Macpherson ,ii. 700. Smith's Wealth of Nations, iii. 133.
100
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. In the instructions to their servants abroad they repre-
CHAP. V. sented the late measures of parliament as rather the result
of the power of a particular party than the fruit of legis-
1698-99. lative wisdom: “The Interlopers," so they called the New
Company, “had prevailed by their offer of having the trade
free, and not on a joint-stock;" but they were resolved by
large equipments (if their servants would only second their
endeavours) to frustrate the speculations of those oppo-
nents: "Two East India Companies in England,” these are
their own words, “could no more subsist without destroying
one the other, than two kings, at the same time regnant in
the same kingdom: that now a civil battle was to be fought
between the Old and the New Company; and that two or
three years must end this war, as the Old or the New must
give way; that, being veterans, if their servants abroad
would do their duty, they did not doubt of the victory;
that if the world laughed at the pains the two Companies
took to ruin each other, they could not help it, as they
were ou good ground and had a charter.''
When the time arrived for paying the instalments of the
subscriptions to the stock of the New Company, many of
the subscribers not finding it easy to fulfil their engage-
ments, were under the necessity of selling their shares.
Shares fell to a discount, and the despondency, hence
arising, operated to produce still greater depression.”
The first voyage which the New Company fitted out,
consisted of three ships with a stock of 178,0001.3 To this
state of imbecility did the absorption of their capital re-
duce their operations. The sum to which they were thus
limited for commencing their trade but little exceeded the
interest which they were annually to receive from govern-
ment.
With such means the New Company proved a very un-
equal competitor with the Old. The equipments of the
Old Company, for the same season, 1698-99, amounted to
thirteen sail of shipping, 5,000 tons burthen, and stock es-
timated at 525,0001. Under the difficulties with which
they had to contend at home, they resolved by the most
services, to cultivate the favour of the Mogul. Their en-
deavours were not unsuccessful. They obtained a grant of
2 Ibid. 259, 260. 3 Ibid. 285.
CALCUTTA CONSTITUTED A PRESIDENCY.
101
the towns of Chuttanuttee; Govindpore, and Calcutta, and BUOK I.
began but cautiously, so as not to alarm the native govern- CHAP. V.
ment, to construct a fort. It was denominated Fort Wil-
liam; and the station was constituted a Presidency.'
: To secure advantages to which they looked from their
subscription of 315,0001. into the stock of the English Com-
1700.
parliament, by which they were continued a corporation,
entitled, after the period of their own charter, to trade, on
their own account, under the charter of the New Company,
to the amount of the stock they had subscribed.3
The rivalship of the two Companies produced, in India,
all those acts of mutual opposition and hostility which
naturally flowed from the circumstances in which they
were placed. They laboured to supplant one another in
the good opinion of the native inhabitants and the native
governments. They defamed one another. They obstruct-
ed the operations of one another. And at last their ani-
mosities and contentions broke out into undissembled
violence and oppression. Sir William Norris, whom the
New Company, with the King's permission, had sent as
their ambassador to the Mogul court, arrived at Surat in
the month of December, 1700. After several acts, insulting
and injurious to the London Company, whom he accused
of obstructing him in all his measures and designs, he
seized three of the Council, and delivered them to the
Mogul Governor, who detained them till they found secu-
rity for their appearance. The President and the Council
were afterwards, by an order of the Mogul government, put
in confinement; and Sir Nicholas Waite, the English Com-
pany's Consul at Surat, declared, in his correspondence
with the Directors of that Company, that he had solicited
this act of severity, because the London Company's ser-
1 The chief agent of the Company, Job Charlock, had taken possession of
Chutanutty, in the contests with the Nawab, in 1687; and, upon the restora-
tion of tranquillity, returned to it in 1690. The Foujdar of Hoogly sought to
induce the English to return there ; but they obtained leave to build a factory
at Calcutta, which they preferred, as more secure and accessible to shipping.
Subsequently, permission was procured from Azeem-us-sban, the grandson
villages named in the text, from the Zemindars, who were then in charge of
the collections, amounting to 1195 rupees, o annas, annually. The ground
gyas, no doubt, very thinly occupied, and in great part overrun with jungle ;
giving to the Company, therefore, lands sufficient for the erection of their
factory and fort. Stewart, App.xi. p. 544.-W.
3 Ibid. 293, 326, 350.
102
:: HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
1700.
the English com
BOOK I. Vants had used treasonable expressions towards the King's
CHÁP, V. and had made use of their interest with the Governor of
Surat to oppose the privileges which the Ambassador of
the English Company was soliciting at the court of the
Mogul.1
As the injury which these destructive contentions pro-
duced to the nation soon affected the public mind, and
was deplored in proportion to the imaginary benefits of
the trade; an union of the two Companies was generally ·
desired, and strongly recommended. . Upon the first dle-
pression, in the market, of the stock of the New Company,
an inclination on the part of that Company had been ma-
nifested towards'a coalition. But what disposed the one
party to such a measure, suggested the hope of greater
advantage, and more complete revenge, to the other, by
holding back from it. The King himself when he received,
in March, 1700, the Directors of the London Company, on
the subject of the act which continued them a corporate
body, recommended to their serious consideration an union
of the two Companies, as the measure which would most :
promote, what they both held out as a great national ob-
ject, the Indian trade. So far the Company paid respect
to the royal authority, us to call a General Court of Pro-
prietors for taking the subject into consideration; but
after this step they appeared disposed to let the subject
rest. Towards the close, however, of the year, the King,
by a special message, required to know what proceedings
they had adopted in consequence of his advice. Upon
this the Directors summoned a General Court, and the fol-
lowing evasive resolution was voted. “That this Company,
as they have always been, so are they still ready to embrace
every opportunity by which they may manifest their duty
to his Majesty, and zeal for the public good, and that they
are desirous to contribute their utmost endeavours for the
preservation of the East India trade to this kingdom, and
are willing to agree with the New Company upon reason-
able terms." The English Company were more explicit;
they readily specified the conditions on which they were
willing to form a coalition; upon which the London ('om-
: pany proposed that seven individuals on each side should
...2 Bruce, üi. 260—370, 374–379, 419.
UNION OF COMPANIES PROPOSED AND EFFECTED. 103
be appointed, to whom the negotiation should be intrusted BOOK I.
and by whom the terms should be discussed.?
CHAP. V.
As the expiration approached of the three years which -
were granted to the London Company to continue trade on 1702.
their whole stock, they became more inclined to an accom-
modation. In their first proposal they aimed at the ex-
tinction of the rival Company. As a committee of the
House of Commons had been formed,"to receive proposals
for paying off the national debts, and advancing the credit
of the nation, they made a proposition to pay off the
1,000,0001. which government had borrowed at usurious
interest from the English Company, and to hold the debt
at five per cent. The proposal, though entertained by the
committee, was not relished by the House; and this project
was defeated. The distress, however, in which the Coni-
pany was now involved, their stock having within the last
ten years fluctuated from 300 to 37 per cent.,3 rendered
some speedy remedy indispensable. The committee of
seven, which had been proposed in the Answer to the
King, was now resorted to in earnest, and was empowered
by a General Court, on the 17th of April, 1701, to make
and receive proposals for the union of the two com-
panies.
It was the beginning of January, in the succeeding year,
before the following general terms were adjusted and ap-
proved : That the Court of twenty-four Managers or Di-
rectors should be composed of twelve individuals chosen
by each Company ; that of the annual exports, the amount
of which should be fixed by the Court of Managers, a half
should be furnished by each Company; that the Court of
Managers should have the entire direction of all matters
relating to trade and settlements subsequently to this
union; but that the factors of each company should
manage separately the stocks which each had sent out
previously to the date of that transaction; that seven
years should be allowed to wind up the separate concerns
of each company; and that, after that period, one great
joint-stock should be formed by the final union of the
funds of both. This agreement was confirmed by the
1 Bruce, iii. 290, 293, 355.
2 Ibid. 124.
3 Anderson's History of Commerce; Macpherson, ii. 705.
104
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. General Courts of both Companies on the 27th April,
CIIAP. V. 1702.
An indenture tripartite, including the Queen and the
1702. two East India Companies, was the instrument adopted
for giving legal efficacy to the transaction. For equalizing
the shares of the two Companies, the following scheme
was devised. The London Company, it was agreed, should
purchase at par as much of the capital of the English
Company, lent to government, as added to the 315,0001.
which they had already subscribed, should render equal
the portion of each. The dead stock of the London Com-
pany was estimated at 330,0001.; that of the English Com-
pany at 70,0001.; whereupon the latter paid 130,0001. for
equalizing the shares of this part of the common estate.
On the 22nd July, 1702, the indenture passed under the
great seal; and the two parties took the common name of
The United Company of Merihants trading to th East
Indies.?
On the foundation on which the affairs of the two Com-
panies were in this manner placed, they continued with
considerable jarrings and contention, especially between
the functionaries in India, till the season 1707-8, when an
event occurred which necessitated the accommodation of
differences, and accelerated the completion of the union.
A loan of 1,200,0001., without interest, was exacted of the
two Companies for the use of government. The recol-
lection of what had happened, when the body of private
adventurers were formed into the English East India
Company, made them dread the offers of a new body of
adventurers, should any difficulty be found on their part.
It was necessary, therefore, that the two Companies should
i Bruce, iü. 124–126. Of the subtletics which at this time entered into the
policy of the Company, the following is a specimen. Sir Basi] Firebrace, or
Firebrass, a notorious jobber who had been an interloper, and afterwards
joined with the London Company, was now an intrigner for both Companies.
At a general Court of the London Company, on the 23rd April, 1701, this man
stated that he had a scheme to propose, which he doubted not would accom-
plish the union desired; but required to know what recompence should be
allowed him, if he effected this important end. By an act of the Court, the
committee of seven were authorized to negotiate, with Sir Basil, the recom-
nence which lle ought to receive: and after repeated conferences with the
gentleman, they proposed to the Court of Committees, that if he effected the
union, 150,000l. of the stock of the Company should be transferred to him on
his paying 801. per cent. In other words, he was to receive 20 per cent. on
150,0001. or a reward of 30,0001. for the success of his intrigues. Ibid. See
also Macpherson, ii. 663.
2 Bruce, ili, 486-491.
AWARD OF THE EARL OF GODOLPHIN.
105
lay. aside all separate views, and cordially join their en- BOOK I.
deavours to avert the common danger.
CHAP. V.
It was at last agreed, that all differences subsisting -
between them should be submitted to the arbitration of
of 1708.
the Earl of Godolphin, then Lord High Treasurer of Eng-
land ; and that the union should be rendered complete and
final upon the award which he should pronounce. On this
foundation, the act, 6th Anne, ch. 17, was passed ; enact-
ing that a sum of 1,200,0001. without interest should be
advanced by the United Company to government, which,
being added to the former advance of 2,000,0001. at 8 per
cent. interest, constituted a loan of 3,200,0001. yielding in-
terest at the rate of 5 per cent. upon the whole ; that to raise
this sum of 1,200,0007, the Company should be empowered
to borrow to the extent of 1,500,0001. on their common
seal, or to call in moneys to that extent from the Proprie-
tors ; that this sum of 1,200,0001. should be added to their
capital stock ; that instead of terminating on three years'
notice after the 29th of September, 1711, their privileges
should be continued till three years' notice after the 25th
of March, 1726, and till repayment of their capital: that
the stock of the separate adventures of the General Society,
amounting to 7,2001., which had never been incorporated
into the joint-stock of the English Company, might be
paid off, on three years' notice after the 29th of Septem-
ber, 1711, and merged in the joint-stock of the United
Company; and that the award of the Earl of Godolphin,
settling the terms of the Union, should be binding and
conclusive on both parties.
The award of Godolphin was dated and published on the
29th of September, 1708. It referred solely to the winding
up of the concerns of the two Companies; and the blending
of their separate properties into one stock, on terms equi-
table to both. As the assets or effects of the London Com-
pany in India fell short of the debts of that concern, they
were required to pay by instalments to the United Com-
pany the sum of 96,6151. 4s. Id.: and as the effects of the
English Company in India exceeded their debts, they were
directed to receive from the United Company the sum of
66,0051. 4s. 2d.; a debt due by Sir Edward Littleton in
Bengal, of 80,437 rupees and 8 anas, remaining to be dis-
1 Bruce, iii. 635–639; Stat 6. A. C. 17.
106
BOOK I. charged by the English Company on their own account.
1708.
i both Companies abroad became the property and debts of
the United Company. With regard to the debts of both
Companies in Britain, it was in general ordained that they
should all be dischargecl before the 1st of March 1709; and
as those of the London Company amounted to the sum of
399,7951. Is. 1d. they were empowered to call upon their
Proprietors, by three several instalments, for the means of
liquidation.
As the intercourse of the English nation with the people
of India was now destined to become, by a rapid progress,
both very intimate, and very extensive, a full account of
the character and circumstances of that people is required
for the understanding of the subsequent proceedings and
events.
The population of those great countries consisted chiefly
of two Races: one, who may here be called the Hindu; an-
other the Mahomedan Race. The first were the aboriginal
inhabitants of the country. The latter were subsequent
invaders; and insignificant, in point of number, compared
with the first.
laying before the reader all that appears to be useful in
what is known concerning both these classes of the Indian
people. To those who delight in tracing the phenomena
of human nature; and to those who desire to know com-
pletely the foundation upon which the actions of the
British people in India have been laid, this will not appear
the least interesting department of the work.
· ! Bruce, iii. 667 to 079. Macplierson, iii. 1, 2.
2 This, as far as probabilities authorize an inference, is an crror; the
aborigines of India are apparently represented by the various barbarous tribes
still inhabiting the mountains and forests, and following rude religious prac-
tices, that are no parts of the primitive Hindu system.-1V.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE HINDUS.
107
BOOK II.
OF THE HINDUS.
. CHAPTER I.
Chronology and Ancient History of the Hindus..
DUDE nations seem to derive a peculiar gratification BOOK II.
10 from pretensions to a remote antiquity. As a boast- CHAP. I.
ful and turgid vanity distinguishes remarkably the oriental
nations, they have in most instances carried their claims
extravagantly high. We are informed, in a fragment of
Chaldaic history, that there were written accounts, pre-
served at Babylon, with the greatest care, comprehending
a term of fifteen myriads of years. The pretended dura-
tion of the Chinese monarchy, is still more extraordinary.
A single king of Egypt was believed to have reigned three
myriads of years.3
: 1 Mr. Gibbon remarks (Hist. Decl. and Fall of the Roman Empire, i. p. 350),
that the wildl Irislinian, as well as the wild Tartar, can point out the individual
son of Japhet from whose loins bis ancestors were lineally descended. Ac-
cording to Dr. Keating (History of Ireland, 13), the giant Partholanus, who
was the son of Seara, the son of Esra, the son of Srui, the son of Framant, the
son of Fathacian, the son of Magog, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, landed
on the coast of Munster, the 14th day of May, in the year of the world 1978.
The legends of England are not less instructive. A fourth or sixth son of
Japhet, named Samothes, having first colonizeci Gaul, passed over into this
island, which was thence named Simothea, about 200 years after the food;
but the Samothians being soine ages afterwards subdued by Albion, a giant
son of Neptune, he called the island after his own name, and ruled it forty-
four years. See the story, with some judicious reflectious; in Milton's History
of England (Prosc Works of Milton, iv. 3. Ed.1806). "The Athenians boasted
that they were as ancient as the sun. The Arcadians pretended that they
were older than the moon. The Lacedemonians called themselves the sons of
the earth, &c., such, in general, was the madness of the ancients on this sub-
ject! They loved to lose themselves in an abyss of ages which seemed to
approach eternity." Goguet, Origin of LawS, Y. i. b. 1, ch. 1, art. 5. See the
authorities there quoted.
2 Eusebii Chronicon, p. 5. Syncelli Chronograph. p. 28. Bryant's Ancient
? Mythology, iv. 127, 8vo. edit.
3 Syncelli Chronicon, p. 51. Herodotus informs us (lib. ii. C. 2), that the
Egyptians considered themselves as the most ancient of mankind, till an ex-
periment made by Psaminetichus convinced them that the Phrygians alone
preceded them. But the inhabitants of the further Peninsula of India make
the boldest incursions into the regions of past times. The Burmans, we are
108
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. The present age of the world, according to the system
CHAP. I. of the Hindus, is distinguished into four grand periods,
denominated Fugs. The first is the Satya yug, compre-
hending 1,728,000 years; the second the Treta yug, com-
prebending 1,296,000 years; the third the Dwapar yug,
including 864,000 years; and the fourth the Cali yug,
which will extend to 432,000 years. Of these periods,
the first three are expired ; and, in the year 1817 of the
Christian era, 4,911 years of the last. From the com-
mencement, therefore, of the Satya yug, to the year 1817,
is comprehended a space of 3,892,911 years, the antiquity
to which this people lay claim.'
The contempt with which judicious historians now treat
the historical fables of early society, must be indulged with
caution when we explore the ancient condition of Hindu-
stan; because the legendary tales of the Hindus have
hitherto, among European inquirers, been regarded with
particular respect; and because, without a knowledge of
them, much of what has been written in Europe concern-
informed by Dr. Buchanan (As, Res. vi. 181), believe that the lives of the first
inhabitants of their country lasted one assenchii, a period of time of which they
thus cominunicate an idea: “If for three years it should rain incessantly over
the whole surface of this earth, which is 1,203,400 juzana in diameter, tlie num.
ber of drops of rain falling in such a space and time, although far exceeding
human conception, would only equal the number of years contained in one
assenchii.”
? Sir William Jones's Discourse on the Chronology of the Hinduis (As. Res.
ii. 111, 8vo. Ed.) also that on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India (Ibid. i.
221.)-See, too, Mr. Bentley's Remarks on the principal Eras and Dates of the
ancient Hindus (Ibid. v.315); and the Discourse of Captain F. Wilford on the
Chronology of tlie Hindus, in the same volume, p. 24.-Consult, also, Mr.
Marsden's Discourse on the Chronology of the Hindus (Phil. Trans. Ixxx. 568.)
These authors, having all drawn from the same sources, display an appearance
of uniformity and certainty in this part of the Hindu system. It is amusing to
contemplate the wavering results of their predecessors. Mr. Halhed, in the
preface to liis Translation of the Code of Gentoo Laws, thus states the number
of years, and thus spells the names of the epochis; 1. The Suttee Jogue,
3,200,000 years; 2. The Tirtah Jogue, 2,400,000 years; 3. The Dwapaar Jogue,
1,600,000 years; 4. The College Jogne, 400,000. Colonel Dow marks the Sut-
tce Jogie at 14,000,000; the Tirtal Jogle at 1,080,000; the Dwapaar Jogie
72,000; and the Collec Jogue, 36,000 years. (History of Hindostan, i. 2). M.
Bernier, whose knowledge of India was so extensive and accuratc, gives, on
the information of the Brahmens of Benares, the Satya yug at 2,500,000 years,
the Treta at 1,200,000, the Dwapaar at 864,000, and assigns no period to the
Culi yug. (Voyages, ii. 160.)- Messrs. Rogers and le Gentil, who received
their accounts from the Brahmens of the Coast of Coromandel, coincide with
Sir William Jones, except that tliey specify no duration for the Cali yug.
(Porte Ouverte, p. 179; Mém. d'Académ. des Sciences pour 1772, tom. ii. part
i, p. 17)-The account of Anquetil Duperron agrees in cvery particular with
that of Sir W. Jones; Recherches Historiques et Géographiques sur l'Inde,
Lettre sur les Antiquités de l'Inde. The four ages of tho Mexicans bear a re-
inarkable resemblance to those of the Hindus, and of so many other nations.
"All the nations of Anahuac (says Clavigero, History of Mexico, B. vi. sect.
24), distinguished four ages of time by as many suns. The first, named Atona-
ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE HINDUS.
109
ing the people of India, cannot be understood. It is BOOK II.
necessary, therefore, to relate, that at the commencement CHAP. I.
of the Satya yug, or 3,892,911 years ago, lived Satyavrata,
otherwise denominated Vaivaswata, and also the seventh
Menu. He had escaped with his family from an universal
s
walue in the several ages, apnlianta
tiuh, that is, the sun (or the age) of water, commenced with the crcation of tlie
world, and continued until the time at which all mankind perished in a general
deluge along with the first sun. The second, Tlaitonatiuh, the age of earth,
lasted from the deluge until the ruin of the giants, &c. The third, Ehécato-
natiuli, the age of air, lasted from the destruction of tlie giants till the great
whirlwinds, &c. The fourth, Tletonatiuh, commenced at the last-mcntioned
catastrophe, and is to last till the earth be destroyed by fire." - M.
There is no other concurrence of the Hindu and Mexicail systems than the
number of four, which was common to all antiquity. The llindu system is
wholly mythological, and admits of a ready explanation; it originates in the
descending arithmetical progression of 4, 3, 2, 1, according to the notions of
diminishing virtue in the several ages, applied to a cycle of 12,000 divine years,
each of which is equal to 360 years of mortals; and 12,000 multiplied by 360 is
cqual to 4,320,000, the whole period of the four yugs, Vishnu Purana, p. 24.-
This chronology also, it must be remembered, is not the expression of national
vanity-it is the Hindu theory of the age of the world. The Hindus make no
pretensions to a higher antiquity than that of other races of mankind. The
tour ages, and countless successions of them, are the phases of universal crea-
tion, not only of national existence.-W.
1 The reader will by and bye be prepared to determine for himself how far
the tales of the Brahmens deserve exemption from the sentence which four
great historians have, in the following passages, pronounced on the fanciful
traditions of early nations. « The curiosity,” says Mr. Hunie, “entertained
by all civilized nations, of inquiring into the exploits and adventures of their
ancestors, commonly excites a regret that the history of remote ages should
always be so much involved in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction,
* * The fables which are commonly employed to supply the place of true
history ought entirely to be disregarded; or, if any exception be admitted to
this general rule, it can only be in favour of the ancient Grecian fictions,
which are so celebrated and so agreeable, that they will ever be the objects of
the attention of mankind." (Hume's History of England, i. ch. 1.) — Na
tions," says Robertson, "as well as men, arrive at maturity by degrees, and
the events which happened during their infancy or early youth cannot be
recollected, and deserve not to be remembered. * * * Every thing beyond
that short period, to which well-attested annals reach, is obscure, an in-
mense space is left for invention to occupy ; eaclı nation, with a vanity inse-
parable from human nature, hath filled that void with events calculated to
display its own antiquity and lustre. And history, which ought to record
truth, and teach wisdom, often sets out with retailing fictions and absurdities."
(Rowertson's History of Scotland, i. b. 1.)-Mr. Gibbon, speaking of a people
(the Arabians) who in traditions and antiquity bear some resemblance to the
Hindus, says, “I am ignorant, and I am careless, of the blind mythology of
the Barbarians." (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ix,
244, 8vo. edit.) Of a people still more remarkably resembling the Hindus he
says, “We may observe, that after an ancient period of fubles, and a long in-
terval of darkness, the modern histories of Persia begin to assume an air of
truth with the dynasty of the Sassanides," (Ibid. i. 341.)-Quæ ante condi-
tam condendamye urbem, poeticis magis decora fabulis quam incorruptis
rerum gestarum monumentis traduntur ea nec affirmare nec refellere in animo.
est." Livii Prefat.-M. ,
This disdain of the early records of nations may sometimes be suspected to
veil a distaste for dry, laborious, and antiquarian research. That it is much
easier to depreciate than inquire we need not go beyond these pages for
proof.-W.
110
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
10)
BOOK II. deluge, which had destroyed the rest of the human species. 1:
CHAP. I. Of his descendants, were two royal branches : the one de-
nominated the children of the sun; the other, the children
of the moon. The first reigned at Ayodhya or Oude ;
the second at Pratishthana or Vitora. These families, or
dynasties, subsisted till the thousandth year of the present
or Cali yug, at which time they both became extinct; and
a list of the names of the successive princes is presented
in the Sanscrit books.?
Satyavrata, the primitive sire, prolonged his existence
and his reign through the whole period of the Satya yug
or 1,728,000 years.3 From this patriarchal monarch are
enumerated, in the solar line of his descendants, fifty-five
princes, who inherited the sovereignty till the time of
Rama. Now it is agreed among all the Brahmens that
Rama filled the throne of Ayodhya at the end of the Treta
yug. The reigns, therefore, of these fifty-five princes, ex-
tending from the beginning to the end of that epoch, filled
1,296,000 years, which, at a medium, is more than 23,000
years to each reign. During the next, or Dwapar yug, of
864,000 years, twenty-nine princes are enumerated, who
naust, at an average, have reigned each 29,793 years. From
the beginning of the present, or Cali yug, to the time
when the race of solar princes became extinct, are reckoned
1000 years, and thirty princes. There is a wonderful
change, therefore, in the last age, in which only thirty-
three years, at a medium, are assigned to a reign.
1 The coincidence in the tradition respecting Satyavrata, and the history of
Noah, are very remarkable, and will be further noticed hereafter.
2 Sir William Jones, As. Res. ii, 119, 120, 127.
3 Sir Vm. Jones, Ibid. 126. He was the son of Suya (or Sol), the son of
Casyana (or Uranus), the son of Marichi (or Light), the son of Brahma," which
is clearly," says Sir Wm. Jones," an allegorical pedigree." The Hindu pedi-
grees and fables, however, being very variable, he is, in the opening of the
fourth book of the Gita, callcd, not the son of the Sun, but the Sun himself.
Sir Wm. Jones, Ibid. 117. In a celestial pedigree the Hindus agree with
other rude nations. There is a curious passage in Plato respecting the genea-
logy of the Persian kings. They were descended, he says, from Achæmenes,
sprung from Perseus the son of Zeus (Jupiter). Plat. Alcib.i.-M.
• There is no variability in the account of Vaivaswata's genealogy, nor is he
confounded with the Sun in the Gita. Mr. Mill has evidently supposed Vaivas-
wat, the Sun, to be the same name as Vaivaswata its patronymic derivative, in
the passage to which he refers. With regard to the duration of the life of
Vaivaswata, it must be remembered that the Manus are not men, althougli
finite beings; they exist throughout a kalpa, a much longer period than that
of a Satya yug.-W. '
1 Compare the list of princes in the several yugs, exhibited in the Discourse
of Sir Wan. Jones, As. Res. iii. 128 to 136, with the assigned duration of the
yugs. The lineage of the lunar branch, who reigned in Pratishthana, or
Vitora, during cxactly the same period, is in all respects similar, excepting
ANCIENT HISTORY OF INDIA.
111
Beside the two lines of solar and lunar kings, a different BOOK II.
race, who reigned in Magadha, or Bahar, commence with CHAP. I.
the fourth age. Of these, twenty in regular descent from
their ancestor Jarasandha extended to the conclusion of
the first thousand years of the present yug, and were co-
temporary with the last thirty princes of the solar and
lunar race. At the memorable epoch of the extinction of
those branches, the house of Jarasandha also failed; for
the reigning prince was slain by his prime minister,
who placed his son Pracyota on the throne. Fifteen of
the descendants of this usurper enjoyed the sovereignty,
and reigned from the date of his accession 498 years, to
the time of Nanda, the last prince of the house of Prac-
yota. He, after a reign of 100 years, was murdered by a
Brahmen, who raised to the throne a man of the Maurya
race, named Chandragupta. This prince is reckoned, by
our Oriental antiquarians, the same with Sandracottas or
Sandracuptos, the cotemporary of Alexander the Great.
Only nine princes of his line succeeded him, and held the
sceptre 'for 137 years. On the death of the last, his com-
mander in chief ascended the throne, and, together with
nine descendants, to whom he transmitted the sovereignty,
reigned 112 years. After that period the reigning prince
was killed, and succeeded by his minister Vasudeva. Of
his family only four princes are enumerated ; but they are
· said to have reigned 345 years. The throne was next
usurped by a race of Sudras, the first of whom slew his
master, and seized the government. Twenty-one of this
race, of whom Chandrabija was the last, reigned during a
space of 456 years. The conclusion of the reign of this
that the number of princes, in the first two ages, is in this line fewer by fifteen
than in the line of solar princes. From this it has been supposed, that a
chasm must exist in the genealogy of those princes; but surely without suffi-
cient reason; since, if we can admit that eighty-five princes in the solar line
could outlive the whole third and fourth ages, amounting to 2,160,000 years,
we inay, without much scruple, allow that seventy princes in the lunar could
extend through the same period.-M.
· 1 The reigns of those princes, therefore, must have been fifty years at au
average.-M.
Some authorities make the number twenty-one, some thirty-nine, the latter
making the average less than twenty-six years.-W.
• 2 This is a blunder made by the compiler of the Bhagavata: other autho-
rities 'concu in stating the period to be only forty-five years.-Vishnu Purana
471.-W.
3 As, Res. ii. 137–142.-M.
The dynasty comprises, according to the Vishnu Purana, thirty kings;
and twenty-nine are named in the Matsya Purana, and several of the names
are identifiable in old inscriptions, or in Chinese writings.Vishnu Purana,
473.-W.
112
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. prince corresponds therefore with the year 2648 of the Cali
CHAP. I. yug, and with the year 446 before the birth of Christ.?
And with him, according to Sir William Jones, closes the
authentic system of Hindu chronology.
It is a most suspicious circumstance in the pretended
records of a nation, when we find positive statements for
a regular and immense series of years in the remote abyss
of time, but are entirely deserted by them when we descend
to the ages more nearly approaching our own. Where an-
nals are real, they become circumstantial in proportion as
they are recent; where fable stands in the place of fact,
the times over which the memory has any influence are
rejected, and the imagination riots in those in which it is
unrestrained. While we receive accounts, the most pre-
cise and confident, regarding the times of remote antiquity
not a name of a prince in after ages is presented in Hindu
records. A great prince named Vicramaditya, is said to
I According to the Brahmens, 4911 years of the Cali yug, were elapsed in
the beginning of April, A.D. 1817, from which dedicting 2648, the year uf
the Culi yug in which the reign of Chandrabija terminated, you have 2663, the
number of years which have intervened since that period, and which carry it
back to 446 years before Christ.
2 As. Res. ii. 142, 3. — We have been likewise presented with a genealogical
table of the great Hindu dynasties by Captain Wilford (As. Res, v. 241), which
he says is faithfully extracted from the Vishnu Purana, tlie Bhagavat, and
other Puranas, and which, on the authority of numerous MSS. which he hack
collated, and of some learned Pundits of Benares, whom he had consulted, he
exliibits, as the only genuine chronological record of Indian history which had
yet come to his knowledge. But this differs in nuncrous particulars from
that of the learned Pundit Radhacunt, exhibited by Sir William Jones, and
Which Sir William says" that Radhacant lud diligently collected from several
Puranas." Thus it appears that there is not even a steady and invariable
tradition or fiction on this subject: At the same time that the table of Captain
Wilford removes none of the great difficulties which appear in that of Sir W.
Jones. The most remarkable difference is exhibited in the line of the solar
princes, lose genealogy Captain Wilford has taken from the Ramayan, as
being, he thinks, consistent with the ancestry of Arjuna and Crishna, while
that given by Sir William Jones and Radhacant, he says, is not. The reader
may also compare the Rajuturungu, a history of the Hindus compiled by Mrit-
yoonjuyu, the head Sanscrit Pundit in the College of Fort William ; translated
and published in the first volume of “An Account of the Writings, Religion,
and Manners of the Hindus," by Mr. Ward, printed at Serampore, in four
volumes 4to. 1811.-M.
Sir William Jones's list was evidently extracted from the Bhagavat only.
Wilford's lists are more varied and authentic. The work of Mrityoonjuya is
not of any authority. The subject is most clearly set forth in the text of the
Vislinu Purana, and the variations are specified in the notes. There is no
doubt that the genealogies of the Puranas have been compiled from older
authorities, and that their differences are chiefly attributable to the degree of
care with which the common authorities have been consulted and represented.
The latter series are sufficiently consistent, and are corroborated in many cascs
by collateral evidence, and the earlier dynasties, wlien the chronology is cor-
rected, are in all probability much more authentic than has been sometimes
supposed.-W.
ABSURDITY OF THE HINDU STATEMENTS. . 113
have extended widely his conquests and dominion, and to BOOK II.
have reigned at Magadha 396 years after Chandrabija. CHAP. I.
From that time even fiction is silent. We hear no more-
of the Hindus and their transactions, till the era of Maho-
medan conquest; when the Persians alone become our
instructors.
After the contempt with which the extravagant claims
to antiquity of the Chaldeans and Egyptians had always
been treated in Europe, the love of the marvellous is
curiously illustrated by the respect which has been paid
to the chronology of the Hindus. We received indeed
the accounts of the Hindu chronology, not from the in-
credulous historians of Greece and Rome, but from men
who had seen the people; whose imagination had been
powerfully affected by the spectacle of a new system of
manners, arts, institutions, and ideas; who naturally ex-
pected to augment the opinion of their own consequénce,
by the greatness of the wonders which they had been fa-
voured to behold; and whose astonishment, admiration,
and enthusiasm, for a time, successfully propagated them-
selves. The Hindu statements, if they have not perhaps
in any instance gained a literal belief, have almost univer-
sally been regarded as very different from the fictions of
an unimproved and credulous people, and entitled to a very
serious and profound investigation. Yet they are not only
carried to the wildest pitch of extravagance, but are ut-
I Sir Wm. Jones, As. Res, ii. 142.
2 Since the text was published, much listorical information has been ob-
tained from various sources, rendering this statement inaccurate. Buddhist
annals and ancient inscriptions have confirmed the identity of Chandragupta
and Sandrocottus, and, with the correction of the chronology thus obtained, it
is proved that the Puranik accounts bring down the traditional history of the
Hindus in Gangetic Hindustan, to the eighth and ninth centuries. In the
south of India original accounts of different dynasties are preserved from an
early to a very recent period, and the chronicles of Rajputana, assuming the
appearance of authenticity in the first ages of Christianity, offer a connected
Hurrative to times long subsequent to the establishment of the Mohammedans
in India. These various records are illustrated and confirmed by coins and
inscriptions discovered and deciphered only within the last few years, see As.
Researches, vol. xv. et seq. Trans. Royal As. Soc. Tod's Rajasthan. Mackenzic
Collections. Turnour's Mahawanso. Calcutta. Quarterly Oriental Magazine and
Review, Madras Journal of Literature, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,
and especially the Journal of the As, Society of Bengal.-W.
3 Mr. Halhec secms, in his pref. to Code of Gent. Laws, to be very nearly
reconciled to the Hindu Chronology : at any rate he thinks the believers in
the Jewish accounts of patriarchal longevity have no reason to complain, p.
Xxxvii. He has since, however, made a confession at second hand, of an alter-
ation in his belief as to the antiquity of the Hindus. See Maurice's History of
Ilindostan, i. SS.
VOL. I.
114
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. terly inconsistent both with themselves and with other
Of this a single specimen will suffice. The character
which the Brahmens assign to the several yugs is a re-
markable part of their system. The Satya yug is distin-
guished by the epithet of golden; the Treta yug by that
of silver; the Dwapar yug by that of copper; and the Cali
virtue, the life, and the stature of man, exhibited a re-
markable diversity. In the Satya yug, the whole race were
virtuous and pure; the life of man was 100,000 years, and
his stature 21 cubits. In the Treta yug, one third of man-
kind were corrupt; and human life was reduced to 10,000
years. One half of the human race were depraved in the
Dwapar yug, and 1000 years bounded the period of life.
In the Cali yug, all men are corrupt, and human life is
restricted to 100 years. But though in the Satya yug
men lived only 100,000 years, Satyavrata, according to the
chronological, fiction, reigned 1,728,000 years ; in the Treta
yug, human life extended only to 10,000 years, yet fifty-five
princes reigned, each at a medium, more than 23,000 years;
in the Dwapar yug, though the life of man was reduced to
1000 years, the duration of the reigns was even extended,
for 29,793 years.
I The character is not correct. The extravagance has never been dcnica,
except by a few of the first and least competent inquirers. There is no in-
consistency, nor are the statements, representing as they do, the belief and
traditions of all the most interesting nations of antiquity, unworthy of investi-
gation.-W.
2 See Sir Wm. Jones, Discourse on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India,
As. Res. i, 236. Tie similarity between the Hindil description of the four
yugs, and that of the four ages of the world by the Greeks, cannot cscape
attention. We shall have occasion to notice many other very striking marks
of affinity between their several systems.-M.
It is to be observed, however, that the terms golden, and the rest, are not
Hindu epithets of the four ages.-W.
3 I have followed Mr. Halhed in the number of years (see Preface to Code
of Gentoo Laws), through a derivative authority, because his statement is the
highest, and by consequence the least unfavourable to the consistency of the
Hindu chronology. In the Institutes of Menu (ch. . 83), human life for the
Satya yug is stated at 400 years, for the Treta yug at 300, the Dwapar 200,
and the Cali yug at 100 years.-M.
The duration of the life of a Manu is not bounded by the limits of an age, as
previously remarked; the reigns of particular kings, in a grcat degree mytho-
logical personages, are also exempt from ordiuary rules. The inconsistency
arises from our attenipts to adjust the system to a scale by which it was never
designed to be measured.-W.
4 There is a very remarkable coincidence between the number of years
specified in this Hindu division of time, and a period marked in a very curious
fragınent of the Chuldean History. The Cali yug, it appears from the text
HINDU FICTIONS MARKS OF A RUDE AGE. 115
The wildness and inconsistency of the Hindu statements BOOK II.
evidently place them beyond the sober limits of truth and CAAP. I.
history; yet it has been imagined, if their literal accepta-
tion must of necessity be lenounced, that they at least
contain a poetical or figurative delineation of real events,
which ought to be studied for the truths which it may dis-
close. The labour and ingenuity which have been bestowed
upon this inquiry, unfortunately have not been attended
with an adequate reward. No suppositions, however gra-
tuitous, have sufficed to establish a consistent theory.
Every explanation has failed. The Hindu legends still
present a maze of unnatural fictions, in which a series of
real events can by no artifice be traced.
The internal evidence which these legends display, af-
forded, indeed, from the beginning, the strongest reason to
anticipate this result. The offspring of a wild and ungo-
verned imagination, they mark the state of a rude and
credulous people, whom the marvellous delights; who can-
not estimate the use of a record of past events; and whose
imagination the real occurrences of life are too familiar to
amounts to 432,000 years, and the aggregate of the four yugs, which the
Hindus call a Maha yug, or great yug, amounts to a period expressed by the
same figures, increased by the addition of a cypher, or 4,320,000. Nov Berosus
informs us, that the first king of Chaldea was Alorus, who reigned ten sari,
that a sarus is 3,600 years; that the first ten kings, whose reigns seem to have
been accounted a great era, reigned 120 sari, which compose exactly 432,000
years, the Hindu period. See Eusebii Chronic. p. 5, where this fragment of
Berosus is preserved; Syncelli Chronograph. p. 28.: See also Bryant's Ana-
lysis of Ancient Mythology, iii. 95 to 126, for a most learned and ingenious
commentary on this interesting fragment.
1 A learned author pronounces them inferior even to the legends of the
Greeks, as evidence of primeval events. “ Oriental learning is now employed
in unravelling the mythology of India, and recommending it as containing the
seed of primeval history; but hitherto'we have seen nothing that should in-
duce us to relinquish the authorities we have been used to respect, or make us
prefer the fables of the Hindus or Guebres, to the fables of the Greeks." Vin-
cent, Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, part i. 9. It may be added, that if the
Greeks, the most accomplished people of antiquity, have left us so imperfect
an account of the primitive state of their own country, little is to be expected
from nations confessedly and remarkably inferior to them.-M.
These opinions are, to say the least of them, premature. Judginent is
uttered confidently upon research whilst in its veriest infancy:-we are not
even yet in a position to pronounce definitively on the subject, for the principal
authorities are still uncxamined. The Vishnu Purana will contribute somne
authentic materials, but onç or two other Puranas, the Ramayana, the Diaha-
bharata, and the Vedas, ought to be translated, and must be carefully studied,
before it will be safe to decide upon the value of the elucidation which Hindu
literature may afford to the History of India or of the East. In the mean
time the study has not been barren; the political divisions of ancient India are
beginning to take a definite and distinct outline, and new connexions between
nations hitherto little suspected, have been fully admitted, upon the indisput-
able testimony of affinity of speech.-W.
116
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. engage.1 . To the monstrous. period of years which the
CHAP..I. legends of the Hindus involve, they ascribe events the
most extravagant and unnatural; events not even con-
nected in chronological series; a number of independent
and incredible fictions. This people, indeed, are perfectly
destitute of historical records.2 Their ancient literature
affords not a single production to which the historical
character belongs. The works in which the miraculous
transactions of former times are described are poems.
Most of them are books of a religious character, in which
the exploits of the gods, and their commands to mortals,
are repeated or revealed. In all, the actions of men and
those of deities are mixed together, in a set of legends,
more absurd and extravagant, more transcending the
bounds of nature and of reason, less grateful to the ima-
i That propensity which so universally distinguishes rude nations, and forms
so remarkable a characteristic of uncivilized society-of filling the ages that
are past with fabulous events and personages, and of swelling every thing
beyond the limits of nature, may be easily accounted for. Every passion and
sentiment of a rude people is apt to display itself in wild and extravagant
effects. National vanity follows the example of the other passions, and in-
dulges itself, restrained by knowledge. in such fictions as the genius of each
people inspires. Datur licec venici antiquitati, ut miscendo humance clivinis, pri-
mordia urbiuna augustiora fuciat. (Liv. Pref.) Of an accurate record of
antecedent events, yielding lessons for the future by the experience of the past,
uncultivated minds are not sufficiently capable of reflection to know the value.
The real occurrences of life, familiar and insipid, appear too mean and insig.
nificant to deserve to be remembered. They excite no surprise, and gratify
no vanity. Every thing, however, which is extraordinary and marvellous,
inspires the deepest curiosity and interest. While men are yet too ignorant to
have ascertained with any accuracy the boundaries of nature, every thing of
this sort meets with a ready belief; it conveys. uncommon pleasure; the
faculty of inventing is thus encouraged; and fables are plentifully multiplied.
It may be regarded as in some degree remarkable, that, distinguished as all
rude nations are for this propensity, the people of the East lave far surpassed
the other races of men in the extravagance of their legends. The Babylonians,
the Arabians, the Syrians, the Egyptians, have long been subject to the cou-
tempt of Europeans, for their proneness to invert and believe miraculous
stories. Lucian deers it a sarcasm, the bitterness of which would be wiver-
sally felt, when he says of an author'; infamous for the incredible stories which
he had inserted in his history, that he had attained this perfection in lying,
though he had never associated with a Syrian. (Quom. Cons. Hist.) The
scanty fragments which have reached us of the histories of those other nations,
have left us but little acquainted with the particular fables of which they
compose their early history. But our more intimate acquaintance with the
people of southern Asia has alforced us an ample assortment of their legendary
stories.
2" There is no known history of Hindoostan (that rests on the foundation of
Hindu materials or records) extant, before the period of the Mahommedan
conquests." Rennel's Memoir, Introduction, xl. The Hindus have no ancient
civil history, nor had the Egyptians any work purely historical. Wilford on
Egypt and the Nile, As. Res. iii. 296.-M.
This has already been shown to be not strictly true, and genealogies and
chronicles are found in various parts of India, recorded with some persever-
ance, if not much skill.-W.
HINDUS DESTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RECORDS: 117
gination and taste of a cultivated and rational people, than BOOK II.
those which the fabulous history of any other nation pre- CHAP. I.
sents to us. The Brahmens are the most audacious, and
perhaps the most unskilful fabricators, with whom the
annals of fable have yet made us acquainted.
The people of Hindustan and the ancient nations of
Europe came in contact at a single point. The expedition
of Alexander the Great began, and in some sort ended,
their connexion. Even of this event, so recent and re-
markable, the Hindus have no record : they have not a
tradition that can with any certainty be traced to it.
Some particulars in their mythological stories have by
certain European inquirers been supposed to refer to trans-
actions of Alexander, but almost any part as well as an-
other of these unnatural legends may, with equal propriety,
receive the same distiuction. The information which we
. 1 If the authority of a Sanscrit scholar be wanted to confirm this harsh deci-
sion, we may adduce that of Captain Wilford, Tvio, in his Discourse on Egypt
and the Nile, As. Res. iii. 29, thus expresses himself: “ The mythology of the
Hindus is often inconsistent and contradictory, and the same tale is related
many different ways. Their physiology, astronomy, and history, are involved
in allegories and enigmas, which cannot but secm extravagant and ridiculous;
nor could any thing render them supportable, but a belief that most of them
bare å recondite meaning; though many of thein bad, perhaps, no firmer
basis than the heated imagination of dcluded fanatics, or of hypocrites inte.
rested in the worship of some particular deity. Should a key to their eighteen
Puranas exist, it is more than probable that the wards of it would be too
intricate, or too stiff with the rust of time, for any useful purpose."
- The Hindu system of geography, chronology, and history, are all equally
monstrous and absurd." Wilford on the Chronol. of the Hindus, As. Res.
7. 241.
Another Oriental scholar of some eminence, Mr. Scott Waring, says, in his
Tour to Sheeraz, p. iv. “ that the Hindu mythology and history appear to be
buried in impenetrable darkness.”—M.
Mr. Waring is no authority, and Wilford, in a great degree, was bewildered
in a labyrinth of his own creating.-W.
2 Dr. Robertson (Disquis. concerning Anc. India, note viii. p. 301) says,
“That some traditional knowledge of Alexander's invasion of India is still
preserved in the northern provinces of the peninsula, is manifest from several
circumstances." But these circumstances, when he states them, are merely
such as this: that a race of Rajahs claim to be descended from Porus, or
rather from a prince of a name distantly resembling Porus, which European
inquirers conjecture may be the same. The other circumstance is, that a tribe
or two, on the borders of ancient Bactria, are said to represent themselves as
the descendants of some Greeks left there by Alexander. The modern Hindus,
who make it a point to be ignorant of nothing, pretend, when told of the expe-
dition of Alexander, to be well acquainted with it, and say, “That he fought a
great battle with the Emperor of Hindoostan, near Delhi; and, though ric-
torious, retired to Persia, across the northern mountains: so that the re-
markable circumstance of his sailing down the Indus, in which he employed
many months, is sunk altogether.” Major Rennel, Memoir, p. xl.-M.
The modern Hindus are much less inclined to make it a point to be ignorant
of nothing, than modern Europeans. If any modern Hindu ever pretended to
have heard of Alexander, he probably did so with reason, having gained some
vague notions frona dohainmedan writers. He certainly did not acquire it
118
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. have received of the Greek invasion from the Greeks
CHAP. I. themselves, is extremely scanty and defective. The best
of their writings on the subject have been lost, but we
have no reason to suppose that their knowledge of the
Hindus was valuable. That of the modern Europeans
continued very imperfect, after they had enjoyed a much
longer and closer intercourse with them than the Greeks.
In fact, it was not till they had studied the Indian lan-
guages, that they acquired the means of full and accurate
information. But the Greeks, who despised every forieign
language, made no exception in favour of the sacred dialect
of the Hindus, and we may rest satisfied that the writings
of Megasthenes and others contained few particulars by
which our knowledge of the Brahmenical history could be
From the scattered hints contained in the writings
of the Greeks, the conclusion has been drawu, that the
Hindus, at the time of Alexander's invasion, were in a
state of manners, society, and knowledge, exactly the same
with that in which they were discovered by the nations of
modern Europe; nor is there any reason for differing widely
from this opinion. It is certain that the few features of
which we have any description from the Greeks, bear no
inaccurate resemblance to those which are found to
distinguish this people at the present day. From this
resemblance, from the state of improvement in which the
Indians remain, and from the stationary condition in
which their institutions first, and then their mannels and
character, have a tendency to fix them, it is no unreason-
able supposition, that they have presented a very uniform
appearance during the long interval from the visit of the
Greeks to that of the English. Their annals, however,
from his own, and there is no occasion to marvel at the omission. Important
as we may consider Alexander's invasion, it was a matter of very trifling
interest to the Hindus. It was confined to the extreme western frontier ; it
lasted for a short time; it left no permanent impression. In all probability,
it was not heard of, at the time of its occurrence, beyond the Sutlej ; and if it
had been, it would have been regarded as the temporary predatory incursion
and in the Chronicle of Kashmir ; but are not deemed worthy of a detailed
description.-W.
1 It affords a confirmation of this, that the Greeks have left us no accounts,
in any degree satisfactory, of the manners and institutions of the ancient
Persians, with whom they had so extended an intercourse; or of the manners
philosophers resorted for wisdom.
ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE HINDUS.
119
from that era till the period of the Mahomedan conquests, BOOK II.
are a blank.
CHAP. I.
With regard to the ancient history of India, we are still
not without resources. The meritorious researches of the
modern Europeans, who have explored the institutions,
the laws, the manners, the arts, occupations and maxims
of this ancient people, have enabled philosophy to draw.
the picture of society, which they have presented, through
a long revolution of years. We cannot describe the lives
of their kings, or the circumstances and results of a train
of battles. But we can show how they lived together as
were arranged in society; what arts they practised, what
tenets they believed, what manners they displayed; under
what species of government they existed; and what cha-
racter, as human beings, they possessed. This is by far
the most useful and important part of history; and if it be
true, as an acute and eloquent historian has remarked
“that the sudden, violent, and unprepared revolutions in-
cident to barbarians, are so much guided by caprice, and
terminate so often in cruelty, that they disgust us-by the
uniformity of their appearance, and it is rather fortunate
for letters that they are buried in silence and oblivion,"1
we have perhaps but little to regret in the total absence of
Whatever theory we adopt with regard to the origin of
mankind, and the first peopling of the world, it is natural
to suppose, that countries were at first inhabited by a very
small number of people. When a very small number of
men inhabit a boundless country, and have intercourse
only among themselves, they are by necessary consequence
barbarians. If one family, or a small number of families,
2 - Tout homme de bon entendement, sans voir une histoire, peut presque
imaginer de quelle humeur fut un peuple, lorsqu'il lit ces anciens statuts et
ordonnances; et d'inn même jugement peut tirer en conjecture quelles furent
ses loix voyant sa manière de vivre." Etienne Pasquier, Recherches de la
France, liv.iv., chap. I. The sage President de Goguet, on a subject remark-
ably similar, thus expresses himself: “ The dates and duration of the reigns of
the ancient kings of Egypt, are subject to a thousand difficulties, which I shall
not attempt to resolve. In effect, it is of little importance to know the num-
ber of their dynasties, and the names of their sovereigns. It is far more
essential to understand the laws, arts, sciences, and customs of a nation, which
all antiqnity has regarded as a model of wisdom and virtue. These are the
objects I propose to examine, with all the care and cxactness I am capable of.”
Origi of Laws, Part I., Book I., chap.i. art. 4.
· 120
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. are under the necessity of providing for themselves all the
CHAP. I. commodities which they consume, they can have but few
accommodations, and these imperfect and rude. In those
circumstances the exigencies of life are too incessant, and
too pressing, to allow time or inclination for the prosecu-
tion of knowledge. The very ideas of law and government,
which suppose a large society, have no existence : men
are unavoidably ignorant and unrefined; and if much
pressed with difficulties, they become savage and brutal.;
1 There is a remarkable passage in Plato, at the beginning of the third book,
De Legibus, in which he describes the effects which would be produced on a
small number of men left alone in the world, or some uncultivated part of it.
He is describing the situation of a small number of persons left alive by a
food, which had destroyed the rest of mankind.-'OL TOTE Trepiøvyovies TV
φθοραν σχεδον ορειοι τινες αν ειεν νομεις, εν κορυφαις που σμικρα ζωπυρα του
των ανθρωπων γένους διασεσωμενα.--IΚαι δη τους τοιουτους γε αναγικη που των
αλλων απειρους ειναι τεχνων, και των εν τοις αστεσι προς αλληλους μηχανων.
--0υκουν οργανα τε παντα απoλλυσθαι, και ει τι τεχνης ην εχομενον σπουδαιας
ευρημενον, η πολιτικής, η και σοφιας τινος έτερας, παντα ερρειν ταυτα εν τω
TOTE Xpovə onoouev (Plat. 1.804). The Hindus appear to have had similar
opinions, though without the reasons.
"We read in the Mahad-himalaya-c'handa, that after a deluge, from wliiclı
very few of the human race were preserved, men became ignorant and brutal,
without arts or sciences, and even without a regular language.” Wilford, on
Egypt and the Nile, As. Res. iii. 324.
There is nothing more remarkable in the traditions of nations, than their
agreement respecting the origin of the present inhabitants of the globe. The
account of the deluge in the religious books of the Jews, may very well be
taken as the archetype of the whole. On this subject, I willingly content
myself with a reference to a book of singular merit, “ The Analysis of Ancient
Mythology," by Jacob Bryant ; in which, after making ample allowance for
some forced etyznologies, and much superstition, the reader will find an extent
of learning, a depth of research, and an ingenuity of inſerence, wrivalled
among the inquirers into the early History of the human race. Sir William
Jones, who regretted that Mr. Bryant's knowledge of Oriental literature bac
not enabled him to bring evidence more largely from its stores, and that he bac
not pursued a plan more strictly analytical, has prosecuted the same inquiry
in a series of Discoveries, addressed to the Asiatic Society, on the Hindus, the
Arabs, the Tartars, the Persians, the Chinese, &c., and on the Origin and
Families of Nations; and by a different plan, and the aid of his Orientul lite.
rature, has arrived at the same conclusions.
All inquirers have been struck with the coincidence between tlie story of
Noah, and that of the Hindu primeval sile Satyavrata. We inay suspect that
there has been a little Brahunenical forcing to make it so exact as in the fol-
lowing passage:-Mr. Wilford says, “It is related in the Padma-Puran, that
Satyavrata, whose miraculous preservation from a general deluge is tolcl at
length in the Matsya, had three sons, the eldest of wliom was named Jyapeti,
or Lord of the Earth. The others were C'harina and Sharma, which last are,
in the vulgar dialects, usually pronounced Cham and Sham, as we frequently
liear Kishn for Crishna. The royal patriarch (for such is his character in the
Puráns), was particularly fond of Jyapeti, to whom he gave all the regions to
the north of Himalaya, in the snowy mountains, which extend from sea to sea,
and of which Caucasus is a part. To Sharma le allotted the countries to the
south of those mountains: But he cursed C'harma; because when the old
Monarch was accidentally inebriatecl with a strong liquor made of fermented
rice, C'harma laughed: and it was in consequence of his father's inprecation
that lie became a slave to the slaves of his brothers.” As. Res. iii, 312, 313.
The following statement by the same inquirer is confirmed by a variety of
authorities:-" The first descendants of Swayambhava (another name for Sat-
ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE HINDUS.
121
If we suppose that India began to be inhabited at a BOOK: II.
very early stage in the peopling of the world, its first in- CHAP, I.
habitants must have been few, ignorant, and rude. Un-
civilized and ignorant men, transported, in small numbers,
into an uninhabited country of boundless extent, must
wander for many ages before any great improvement can
take place. Till they multiplied so far as to be assembled in
numbers large enough to permit the benefits of social in-
tercourse, and of some division of labour, their circum-
stances seem not susceptible of amelioration. We find,
accordingly, that all those ancient nations, whose history
can be most depended upon, trace themselves up to a
Greece, Italy, and the eastern regions of Europe, were con-
fessedly ignorant and barbarous. The influence of disper-
sion was no doubt most baneful, where the natural dis-
advantages were the greatest. In a country overgrown
with forest, which denies pasture to cattle, and precludes
husbandry, by surpassing the power of single families to
clear the land for their support, the wretched inhabitants
are reduced to all the hardships of the hunter's life and
become savages. The difficulties with which those fami-
lies had to struggle who first came into Europe, seem to
have thrown them into a situation but few degrees re-
moved from the lowest stage of society. The advantages
of India in soil and climate are so great, that those by
whom it was originally peopled might sustain no further
depression than what seems inherent to a state of disper-
yavrata) are represented in the Puranas as living in the mountains to the nortli
of India, toward the sources of the Ganges, and downwards as far as Serina-
gara and Hari-dwar. But the rulers of mankind lived on the summit of Meru,
tovards the north: where they appear to have establisheck the seat of justice,
as the Puranas make frequent mention of the oppressed repairing thither for
redress." Wilford on Chron, of Hind., As. Res. V. 260. "The Mexicans,"
somewhat corrupted by fable, of the creation of the world, of the universal
deluge, of the confusion of tongues, and of the dispersion of the people, and
had actually all these events represented in their pictures (their substitute for
writing). They said that when mankind were overwhelmed with the deluge,
none were preserved but a man and woman, named Coxcox and Xochiguebzal,
who saved themselves in a little bark, and landing upon a mountain, called
Colhuacan, had there a great many children, who were all born dumb; but that
a dove at last, from a lofty tree, imparted to them languages; all, however,
differing so muclf, that they could not understand one another."-1.
It is scarcely fair to cite Wilford, for what he has himself taken pains to par-
ticularise as unworthy of credit; the whole story of the patriarch and his sons
being the pure invention of his Pandit, as he has explained. As. Researches,
V. viii. p. 254.-W.
122
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. sion. They wandered probably for ages in the immense
CHAP. I. plains and valleys of that productive region, living on
fruits, and the produce of their flocks and herds, and not
associated beyond the limits of a particular family. Until
the country became considerably peopled, it is not even
likely that they would be formed into small tribes. As
soon as a young man became, in his turn, the head of a
family, and the master of cattle, he would find a more
plentiful subsistence beyond the range of his father's
flocks. It could only happen, after all the most valuable
ground was occupied, that disputes would arise, and that
the policy of defence would render it an object for the dif-
ferent branches of a family to remain united together, and
to acknowledge a common head.
When this arrangement takes place, we have arrived at
a new stage in the progress of civil society. The condition
of mankind, when divided into tribes, exhibits considerable
variety, from that patriarchal association which is exem-
plified in the history of Abraham, to such combinations
as are found among the Tartars, or that distribution into
clans, which, at no distant period, distinguished the people
of Europe. The rapidity with which nations advance
through these several states of society chiefly depends on
the circumstances which promote population. Where a
small number of people range over extensive districts, a
very numerous association is neither natural nor conve-
nient. Some visible boundary, as a mountain or å river,
marks out the limits of a common interest ; and jealousy
or enmity is the sentiment with which every tribe is re-
garded by every other. When any people has multiplied
so far as to compose a body, too large and unwieldy to be
managed by the simple expedients which connected the
tribe, the first rude form of a monarchy or political system
is devised. Though we have no materials from the Hindus,
which yield us the smallest assistance in discovering the
time which elapsed in their progress to this point of ma-
turity, we may so far accede to their claims of antiquity,
as to allow that they passed through this first stage in the
way to civilisation very quickly; and, perhaps, they ac-
quired the first rude form of a national polity at fully as
1 There is a short, but not irrational, sketch of the progress of socicty in
some of the Puranas. See Vishnu Purana, 44.-W.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE.
123
early a period as any portion of the race. It was probably BOOK II.
at no great distance from the time of this important CHAP. II.
change that those institutions were devised, which have
been distinguished by a durability so extraordinary; and
which present a spectacle so instructive to those who
would understand the human mind, and the laws which,
amid all the different forms of civil society, invariably
preside over its progress.
CHAPTER II.
Classification and Distribution of the People.
THE transition from the state of tribes to the more
I regulated and artificial system of a monarchy and laws
is not sudden ; it is the result of a gradual preparation
and improvement. That loose independence, which suits
a small number of men, bound together by an obvious
utility, scattered over an extensive district, and subject to
few interferences of inclination or interest, is found pro-
ductive of many inconveniences, as they advance in num-
bers, as their intercourse becomes more close and compli-
cated, and as their interests and passions more frequently
clash. When quarrels arise, no authority exists to which
the parties are under the necessity of referring their dis-
putes. The punishment of delinquents is provided for by
no preconcerted regulation. When subsistence, by the
multiplication of consumers, can no longer be obtained
without considerable labour, the desire to encroach upon
one another adds extremely to the occasions of discord :
and the evils and miseries which prevail, excite at last a
desire for a better regulation of their common affairs.
But slow is the progress made by the human under-
1 The cautious inquirer will not probably be inclined to carry this era very
far back. “The newness of the world," says the judicions Goguet (vol. iji.
dissert. 3) "is proved by the imperfection of many of the arts in the ancient
world, and of all the sciences which depend upon length of time and expe-
rience." By the newness of the world, he means the newness of human
society. In examining the remains of organized bodies which have been ex-
tricated from the bowels of the earth, vegetables are found at the greatest
depth; immediately above them small shell-fish, and some of the most imper-
fect specimens of the animal creation ; nearer the surface quadrupeds, and the
more perfectly organized animals; lastly man, of whom no remains have ever
been found at any considerable depth. The inference is, that compared witli
the other organized beings on this globe, mau is a recent creation. See Par-
kinson's Organic Remains.
124
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
· BOOK II. standing, in its rude and iguorant state. No little time is
CHAP. II. Spept; first, in maturing the conviction that a great re- !
formation is necessary; and next, in conceiving the plan
which the exigency requires: Many partial remedies are
thought of and applied; many failures experienced ; evils :
meanwhile increase, and press more severely; at last men
become weary and disgusted with the condition of things,
and prepared for any plausible change which may be sug-
gested to them. In every society there are superior
spirits, capable of seizing the best ideas of their times,
and, if they are not opposed by circumstances, of accele-
rating the progress of the community to which they
belong. The records of ancient nations give us reason to
believe that some individual of this description, exalted
to authority by his wisdom and virtue, has generally ac-
complished the important task of first establishing among
a rude people a system of government and laws.
It may be regarded as a characteristic of this primary
institution of government, that it is founded upon divine
authority. The superstition of a rude people is peculiarly
suited to such a pretension. While ignorant and solitary,
men are perpetually haunted with the apprehension of
invisible powers; and, as in this state only they can be
imposed upon by the assumption of a divine character
and commission, so it is evidently the most effectual means
which a great man, full of the spirit of improvement, cap.
employ, to induce a people, jealous and impatient of all
restraint, to forego their boundless liberty, and submit to
the curb of authority.1
No where among mankind have the laws and ordinances
been more exclusively referred to the Divinity, than by
1 There is scarcely an exception to this rule. Minos often retired into a
cave, where he boasted of having familiar conversations with Jupiter: Mneues,
the great legislator of Egypt, proclaimed Hermes as the author of his laws:
it was by the direction of Apollo that Lycurgus uudertook the reformation of
Sparta ; Zulencus, the legislator of the Locrians, gave out that he was inspired
by Minerva: Zathruspes, among the Arimaspians, pretended that his laws
were revealed to him by one of their divinities: Zamolxis boasted to the Getes
of his intimate communications with the goddess Vesta: the pretensions of
Numa among the Romans are well known. (Sce Goguet, Origin of Laws,
part II. book I. ch. i. art. 9.) The Druids, among the ancient Britons and
Gauls, were at once the legislators, and the confidants of the Divinity. Odin,
who was himself a Divinity, and his descendants, who partook of his nature,
were the legislators of the Scandinavians. "The legislators of the Scythians,"
says Mallet (Introd. to Hist. of Denmark, ii. 43), “represented God himself ás
the author of the laws which they gave to their fellow-citizens."
CLASSIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE.
125
those who instituted the theocracy of Hindustan. The BOOK II.
plan of society and government, the rights of persons and CHAP. II.
things, even the customs, arrangements, and manners, of .
private and domestic life ; everything, in short, is esta-
blished by divine prescription. The first legislator of the
Hindus, whose name it is impossible to trace, appears to
have represented himself as the republisher of the will of
God. He informed his countrymen that, at the beginning
of the world, the Creator revealed his duties to man, in
four sacred books, entitled Vedas; that during the first
age, of immense duration, mankind obeyed them, and were
happy; that during the second and third they only par-
tially obeyed, and their happiness was proportionally
diminished ; that since the commencement of the fourth
age disobedience and misery had totally prevailed, till the
Vedas were forgotten and lost ;1 that now, however, he
was commissioned to reveal them anew to his countrymen,
and to claim their obedience,
The leading institutions of the Hindus bear evidence
that they were devised at a very remote period, when
society yet retained its rudest and simplest form. So
long as men roam in the pastoral state, no division of
classes or of labour is known. Every individual is a shep-
herd, and every family provides for itself the commodities
with which it is supplied. As soon as the cultivation of
land, which yields a more secure and plentiful subsistence,
occupies a great share of the common attention, the in-
convenience of this universal mixture of employments is
speedily felt. The labours of the field are neglected,
while the cultivator is engaged at the loom, or repelling
the incursions of an enemy. His clothing and lodging are
inadequately provided for, while the attention of himself
and his family are engrossed by the plough. Men quit
1 The whole of this is imaginary; there is no such legislation, there are no
such assertionis in Hindu tradition.-W.
- 2 As we see them in Manu comprehending an artificial system of monarchy
and law, they must have been, according to Mr. Mills's own showing (p. 177),
the result of a gradual preparation and improvement: he is at variance witli
himself in the attempt here commenced, and pertinaciously pursued, to prove
that the institutions of the Hindus belong to the rudest and simplest form of
society. W,
3 This is a necessary supposition, as the generation to whom the Vedas were
first presented must have known that they had no previous acquaintance with
them, and could not believe that they had remained familiar to mortals from
the period of their first revelation.
126
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. not easily, however, the practices to which they have been
CHAP. II. accustomed; and a great change in their manners and
affairs does not readily suggest itself as a remedy for the
evils which they endure. When the Hindus were lingering
in this uneasy situation, it would appear that there arose
among them one of those superior men, who are capable
of accelerating the improvement of society. Perceiving
the advantage which would accrue to his countrymen
from a division of employments, he conceived the design
of overcoming at once the obstacles by which this regu-
lation was retarded ; and, clothing himself with a Divine
character, established as a positive law, under the sanction
of Heaven, the classification of the people, and the distri-
bution of occupations. Nor was it enough to introduce
this vast improvement; it was right to secure that the
original members of the different classes should be sup-
plied with successors, and that the community should not
revert to its former confusion. The human race are not
destined to make many steps in improvement at once.
Ignorant that professions, when once separated, were in
no danger of being confounded, he established a law, which
the circumstances of the time very naturally suggested,
but which erected a barrier against further progress; that
the children of those who were assigned to each of the
classes, into which he distributed the people, should in-
variably follow the occupation of their father through all
generations.
The classification instituted by the author of the Hindu
laws is the first and simplest form of the division of labour
and employments. The priest is a character found among
the rudest tribes; by whom he is always regarded as of
the highest importance. As soon as men begin to have
property, and to cultivate the ground, the necessity of
defenders is powerfully felt; a class, therefore, of soldiers,
as well as a class of husbandmen, becomes an obvious
arrangement. There are other services, auxiliary to these,
and necessary to the well-being of man, for which it still
remains necessary to provide. In a state of great simpli-
city, however, these other services are few, and easily
performed. We find accordingly that the Hindu legislator
assigned but one class of the community to this depart-
ment. The Hindus were thus divided into four orders or
CLASSIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE.
127
castes. The first were the Brahmens or priests; the BOOK II.
second, the Cshatriyas or soldiers ; the third, the hus- CHAP. II.
bandmen or Vaisyas; and the fourth, the Sudras, the ser-
vants and labourers.. On this division of the people, and
the privileges or disadvantages annexed to the several
castes, the whole frame of Hindu society so much depends,
that it is an object of primary importance, and merits a
full elucidation.
1 There is an instructive passage in Plato (De Repub. lib. ii.), in which he
ascribes the origin of political association and laws to the division of labour';
Τιγνεται πολις, ως εγώμαι, επειδαν τυγχανει ημων έκαστος ουκ αυταρκης, αλλα
Tollwy evdeys. From this cause, he says, men are obliged to associate, one
man átfording one accommodation, another another, and all exchanging the
accommodations which each can provide, for the different accommodations
provided by the rest. It is curious that, in limiting the simplest form of
a political association, he makes it to consist of four or five classes of men.
Αλλα μεν πρωτη γε και μεγιστη των χρειων, ή της τροφής παρασκευη, δευτερα
δε οικησεως, τριτη εσθητος και των τοιουτων. * * * Ειη δ' ανη γε αναγκαιοτα-
on Tods CK Tetapwv n TEVTE av&pwv.-That sagacious contemplator of the pro-
gress of society, Millar, describing the ancient state of the Anglo-Saxons, re-
marks that the people of England were then divided into four great classes ;
the artificers and tradesmen, husbandmen, those who exercised the honour-
able profession of arms, and the clergy. He adds," From the natural course
of things it should seem that, in every country where religion has had so
much influence as to introduce a great body of ecclesiastics, the people, upon
the first advance made in agriculture and in manufactures, are usually distri-
buted into the same number of-classes or orders. This distribution is accord-
ingly to be found not only in all European nations, forined upon the ruins of
the Roman empire; but in other ages, and in very distant parts of the globe.
The ancient inhabitants of Egypt are said to have been divided into the clergy,
the military people, the husbandmen, and the artificers. The establishment of
the four great castes, in the country of Indostan, is precisely of the same nu-
ture." Millar's Historical View of the English Government, book i. ch. xi.
In Egypt the people were divided by law in the same hereditary manner as in
Hindostan. It is highly worthy of observation that, notwitlistanding all the
revolutions and changes to which Egypt has been subject, some reinains of the
division into castes are yet visible. "La distinction par familles se retrouve
encore dans les villes; l'exercice des arts et métiers est héréditaire, le oils imite
les procédés de son père, et ne les perfectionne pas." Le Général Reynier, De
l'Egypte, p. 59. It is worthy of observation that the Colchians and Iberians
were also divided into four castes, whose rank and office were hereditary and
unchangeable. Ferodot. lib.ii. cap. civ. cv. Strabo, lib. ii. 765. See also
Bryant's Ancient Mythology, v. 102, 107. In some situations this step in civi-
lisation, natural and simple as it may appear, is not easily made. How long
have the wandering Arabs remained without it? Whatan improvement would
the bare institution of the Hindu classes be upon their condition ? and what
merit would the legislator have, who should iutroduce it? The same observa-
tion is applicable to the Tartars.
There is a passage in Herodotus which leads us to conclude, that the distinc-
tion of castes existed among the Medes at the commencement ot the monarchy.
He says, lib. i. cap. ci., EOTC Mnowy too ada yavea, Bovoal, Ilapntaknvou, Etpov-
Yates, ApLÇavtol, Bovolo1, Mayor. He says nothing to fix the meaning of the
word yevca. But we know that the Mayou were the priests, and hence there
is matter of proof to make us suppose, that the other names, in like manner,
express separate castes, or liereditary classes and professions.
The Persian Monarch Jemsheed is said to have divided the Persians into
four classes. Malcolm's Hist. of Persia, i. 205.
In like manner among the Perlivians, “Les citoyens," to use the languagc
of Carli (Lettres sur l'Amérique, let. xiii.), “furent distribués en classes ou
tribus. * * Il n'étoit pas permis, ni par mariage, ni par changement d'habita-
128
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. I. The priesthood is generally found to usurp the
CHAP. II. greatest authority, in the lowest state of society. Know-
ledge, and refined conceptions of the Divine nature, are
altogether incompatible with the supposition, that the
Deity makes favourites of a particular class of mankind,
or is more pleased with those who perform a ceremonial
service to himself, than with those who discharge with
fidelity the various and difficult duties of life. It is only
in rude and ignorant times that men are so overwhelmed
with the power of superstition as to pay unbounded
veneration and obedience to those who artfully clothe
themselves with the terrors of religion. The Brahmens
among the Hindus have acquired and maintained an
authority, more exalted, more commanding, and extensive,
than the priests have been able to engross among any
other portion of mankind. As great a distance as there
is between the Brahmen and the Divinity, so great a dis-
tance is there between the Brahmen and the rest of his
species. According to the sacred books of the Hindus,
the Brahmen proceeded from the mouth of the Creator,
which is the seat of wisdom; the Cshatriya proceeded
from his arm; the Vaisya from his thigh, and the Sudra
from his foot; therefore is the Brahmen infinitely superior
in worth and dignity to all other human beings. The
Brahmen is declared to be the Lord of all the classes.3
He alone, to a great degree, engrosses the regard and
favour of the Deity; and it is through him, and at his
tion, de confondre une classe arcc l'autre." In Lett. xiv. it is added, "L'édu-
cation consistoit à apprendre aux enfans roturiers le métier que chaque père
de fainille exerçoit," &c. Clavigero, too, respecting the Mexicans, tells izs
(Hist. of Mexico, book yii. sect. y.), “The sons in general learned the tracles of
their fathers, and embraced their professions," &c.
In Plato's Timæus (7). 1044, Ed. Fici!). Francof. 1602), is a clirious passage,
which asserts that the same division of professions, which still existed among
the Egyptians, existed, at a period long antecedent, among the Athenians :
Πρωτον μεν το των ιερεων γενος, απο των αλλων χωρις αφωρισμενον μετα δε
τουτο, το των δημιουργων, ότι καθ' αυτο εκαστον αλλω δε ουκ επιμιγνυμενον
δημιουργει το τε των νομεων και των θηρευτων" το τε των γεωργων και δη το
μαχιμον γενος, απο παντων των γενων κεχωρισμενον, οίς ουδεν αλλο πλην τα
περι τον πολεμον υπο του νομου προσεταχθη μελσιν.
i It was in the dark ages that tie Romish priesthood usurped so many pri-
vileges. Our ancestors were barbarous when the Druds exercised over them
an unlimited authority. The soothsayers and priests among the Greeks and
Romans lost their influence as knowledge increased. Among the rude inlia-
bitants of Mexico and Peru, the authority of the priest cqualled or supersedeck
that of the king, and was united in tlic silme person.
2 Laws of Menni, ch.i..
3 Ibid. x.
.: THE: BRAHMENS.
129
intercession, that blessings are bestowed upon the rest of BOOK II.
mankind. · The sacred books are exclusively his; the CHAP. II.
highest of the other classes are barely tolerated to read
the word of God; he alone is worthy to expound it. The
first among the duties of the civil magistrate, supreme or
subordinate, is to honour the Brahmens. The slightest
disrespect to one of this sacred order is the most atrocious
of crimes. “For contumelious language to a Brahmen,"
says the law of Menu, “a Sudra must have an iron style,
ten fingers long, thrust red hot into his mouth; and for
offering to give instruction to priests, hot oil must be
poured into his mouth and ears." The following precept
refers even to the most exalted classes: “For striking a
Brahmen even with a blade of grass, or overpowering him
in argument, the offender must soothe him by falling
prostrate."3 Mysterious and awful powers are ascribed to
this wonderful being. “A priest, who well knows the law,
needs not complain to the king of any grievous injury;
since, even by his own power, he may chastise those who
injure him: his own power is mightier than the royal
power; by his own might therefore may a Brahmen
coerce his foes. He may use without hesitation the
powerful charms revealed to Atharyan and Angiras; for
speech is the weapon of a Brahmen: with that he may
destroy his oppressors."! “Let not the king, although in
the greatest distress, provoke Brahmens to anger ; for
they, once enraged, could immediately destroy him with
his troops, elephants, horses, and cars. Who without
perishing could provoke those holy men, by whom the
all-devouring flame was created, the sea with waters not
drinkable, and the moon with its wane and increase ?
What prince could gain wealth by oppressing those, who,
if angry, could frame other worlds and regents of worlds,
could give being to other gods and mortals? What man,
desirous of life, would injure those, by the aid of whom
worlds and gods perpetually subsist; those who are rich
in the knowledge of the Veda? A Brahmen, whether
learned or ignorant, is a powerful Divinity; even as fire
1 Laws of Menu, ch. vii.
2 Ibid viii. 271, 2. “From his higin birthi alone, a Brahmen is an object of
Peneration even to deities ; his declarations to mankind are decisive, evidence;
and the Veda itself confers on him that character.” Ibid xi. 85.
3 Ibid. x. 206.
- Ibid xi. 31, 32, 33.
VOL. I.
130
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II, is a powerful Divinity, whether consecrated or popular.
CHAP. II. Thus, though Brahmens employ themselves in all sorts of
mean occupations, they must invariably be honoured; for
they are something transcendently divine.”ı Not only is
this extraordinary respect and pre-eminence awarded to
the Brahmens; they are allowed the most striking advan-
tages over all other members of the social body, in almost
everything which regards the social state. In the scale of
punishments for crimes, the penalty of the Brahmen, in
almost all cases, is infinitely milder than that of the in-
ferior castes. Although punishment is remarkably cruel
and sanguinary for the other classes of the Hindus,
neither the life nor even the property of a Brahmen can
be brought into danger by the most atrocious offences.
“Neither shall the king," says one of the ordinances of
Menu,2 « slay a Brahmen, though convicted of all possible
crimes. Let him banish the offender from his realm, but
with all his property secure, and his body unhurt." In
regulating the interest of money, the rate which may be
taken from the Brahmens is less than what may be
exacted from the other classes.3 This privileged order
enjoys the advantage of being entirely exempt from taxes:
“A king, even though dying with want, must not receive
any tax from a Brahmen learned in the Vedas."! Their
influence over the government is only bounded by their
desires, since they have impressed the belief that all laws
which a Hindu is bound to respect are contained in the
sacred books; that it is lawful for them alone to interpret
those books; that it is incumbent on the king to employ
them as his chief counsellors and ministers, and to be
governed by their advice. “Whatever order," says the
code of Hindu laws,5 “the Brahmens shall issue conform-
ably to the Shaster, the magistrate shall take his measures
accordingly."6 These prerogatives and privileges, impor-
tant and extraordinary as they may seem, afford, however,
1 Laws of Menu, ch. ix. 313-319.
2 Ibid. vii. 380.
3 Ibid. viii.
Ibid vii. 133.
5 Halled, Preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws.
6 The Druids among the ancient Britons, as there was a striking similarity
in many of the doctrines which they taught, also possessed many similar pri-
vileges and distinctions to those of the Brahinens. Their persons were in-
violable; they were exempt from taxes and military service; they exercised
the legislative, the judicial, and, with the exception of commanding armies in
the field, almost the whole of the executive powers of government. Cæsar,
De Bell. Gal. lib. vi. 13, 14, Henry's Hist. of Great Britain, i. 302, 317.
THE BRAHMENS.
131
but an imperfect idea of the influence of the Brahmens in BOOK II.
the intercourse of Hindu Society. As the greater part of CHAP. II.
life among the Hindus is engrossed by the performance
of an infinite and burdensome ritual, which extends to
almost every hour of the day, and every function of nature
and society, the Brahmens, who are the sole judges and
directors in these complicated and endless duties, are
rendered the uncontrollable masters of human life. Thus
elevated in power and privileges, the ceremonial of society
is no less remarkably in their favour. They are so much
superior to the king, that the meanest Brahmen would
account himself polluted by eating with him, and death
itself would appear to him less dreadful than the degra-
dation of permitting his daughter to unite herself in
marriage with his sovereign. With these advantages, it
would be extraordinary had the Brahmens neglected them-
selves in so important a circumstance as the command of
property. It is an essential part of the religion of the
Hindus, to confer gifts upon the Brahmens. This is a
precept more frequently repeated than any other in the
sacred books. Gifts to the Brahmens form always an
important and essential part of expiation and sacrifice.!
1 See the laws of Menu, passim. " The organs of sense and action, reputa-
tion, a heavenly mansion, liſe, a great stams, children, cattle, are all destroyeil
by a sacrifice offered with trifling presents: let 110 man, therefore, sacrifice
without liberal gifts.” Ibid. xi. 40. Let every man, according to his ability,
give wealth to the Brahmens detached from the world and le:rned in Scrip-
ture ; such a giver shall attain heaven after this life.” Ibid. xi. 6. "Havings
reckoned up the persons whom the Brahmen is obliged to support, having
ascertained his Divine knowledge and moral conduct, let the king allow him a
suitable maintenance from liis own household; and, having appointed him il
maintenance, let the king protect him on all sides, for he gains from the
Braimen whom he protects a sixth part of his virtue." Ibid. xi. 22, 23.
* Of that king in whose dominions a learned Bralımen is afflicted with 11011-
ger, the whole kingdom will in a short time be afflicted with famine." Ibid.
vii. 114.
The Brahmens are occasionally exliorted to observe some decorum and mea-
sure in their pursuit of gifts. Laws of Menu, iv. 186. “Should the king be
near his end through some incurable disease, he must bestow on the priests all
his riches accumulated from legal fines; and, having duly committed his kins-
com to his son, let him seek death in battle; or, if there be no tvar, by abstain-
ing from food."
"The infuence of priestcraft over superstition is no where so visible as in
India. All the commerces of life have a strict analogy with the ceremonies of
religion ; and the Brachman has inculcated such a variety of strange pcrsua-
sions, that the Gentoo finds himself every hour under the necessity of consult-
ing his spiritual guide. The building of a pagoda, and maintaining withili
it a set of priests, is believed the best action which human virtue is capable of.
Every offence is capable of being expiated by largesses to the Brachmans, pre-
scribed by themselves according to their own measures of avarice and sensud-
lity," Orme, On the Government and People of Indostan, 432.
" Since the Bralımen sprung from the most excellent part, since he was the
132
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. When treasure is found, which, from the general practice
CHAP. II. of concealment, and the state of society, must have been a
frequent event, the Brahmen may retain whatever his good
fortune places in his hands; another man must surrender
it to the king, who is bound to deliver one-half to the
Brahmens. Another source of revenue at first view
appears but ill assorted with the dignity and high rank
of the Brahmens; by their influence it was converted into
a fund, not only respectable but venerable, not merely
useful but opulent. The noviciates to the sacerdotal
office are commanded to find their subsistence by begging,
and even to carry part of their earnings to their spiritual
master. Begging is no inconsiderable source of priestly
power.2
The duties of the Brahmens may be summed up in a
few words. They are, to read the Vedas; to teach them
first born, and since he possesses the Veda, he is by right the chief of this
Tyhole creation.
Him, the Being who exists of himself, produced in the beginning from his
own mouth, that having performed holy rites, le might present clarified butter
to the Gods, and cakes of rice to the progenitors of mankind, for the presei-
vation of this world:
"What created being then can surpass him, with whose mouth the Gods of
the firmament continually feast on clarified butter, and the manes of ances-
tors, on hallowed cakes ?
"Of created things, the most excellent are those which are animated ; of
the animated, those which subsist by intelligence; of the intelligent, mankind:
and of men, the sacerdotal class ;
"Of priests, those eminent in learning : of the learned, those who know
their duty; of those who know it, such as perform it virtuously; and of the
virtuous, those who seek beatitude from a perfect acquaintance with scriptural
doctrine.
« The very birth of Brahmens is a constant incarnation of Dherma, God of
Justice; for the Brahmen is born to propiote justice, and to procure ultimate
bappiness.
* When a Brahmeu springs to light, he is born above the world, the
chief of all creatures, assigned to guard the treasury of duties, religious and
civil.
" Whatever exists in the universe is all in effect, though not in form, the
wealth of the Brabmen: since the Bralimen is entitled to it all by his primo-
geniture and eminence of birth." Laws of Menu, i. 93–100.
i Laws of Menu, ch. viii. The lay is laid down somewhat differently in
Halled's Code : when a man finds any thing belonging to another, the magis-
trate is to be informed, and if the finder is a Bralimen, he keeps the whole;
from others a part goes to the magistrate; and from a Sooder all but tyo
twelfths. Halbed's Gentoo Laws, ch. 21, sect. 2.
2 Laws of Menu, ch. ii. The mendicity of the priests seems to have been &
general instrument of priestly imposture. It was so among the Romans; and
po unproductive one. See Apuleius, Metam. i. viii. p. 262. Cicero, in his Book
of Laws, proposes to restrain the begging trade of the priests.—Stipemn sustuli-
mus, nisi eam quain ad paucos dies propriam Idæ Martis excepimus : Implet
enim superstitione animos, exhaurit domos. Cic. de Legib. 1. ii. 9, 16. The
Popish mendicants are a notorious instance. See Middleton's Letter from
Rome, in Works of Dr. Conyers Middleton, iii. 116.
CASTES; THE CSHATRIYAS..
133
to the young Brahmens; and to perform sacrifices and BOOK II.
other religious acts.
CHAP. II.
II. Among the castes of the Hindus, the next in dignity -
and rank to the priestly tribe, is that of the Cshatriyas,
or the military class.' In the rude and early state of
society, as man has provided few securities against the
evils with which he is assailed, and his wisdom has
enabled him to draw few general rules respecting the
order of their recurrence, he lives in a perpetual expecta-
tion of unhappy events, as well from nature, as from his
fellow-men; and fear is the passion which chiefly usurps
the government of his mind. The priest soothes his
imagination, in regard to the first and most awful source
of his apprehensions, by undertaking to procure for him
the favour of the mysterious powers of nature. The sol-
dier, from whom he expects protection against the ravages
1 See the Latys of Menu, passim. “To Brahmens were assigued the duties
of reading the Veda, of tcaching it, of sacrificing, of assisting others to sacri-
fice, of giving alms, and of receiving gifts." Meuu, i.88.-M.
Notwithstanding the view given in the text of the position of the Brahman
in Hindu society, is founded upon authentic texts, yet, upon the whole, it is
calculated to produce wrong impressions. The Brahmans are not priests in
the ordinary acceptation of the term, nor have they, as Brahmans only, such
influence in society as is here ascribed to theni. The Brahmans, in the early
stages of Hindu society, were an order of men who followed a course of reli-
gious study and practice during the first half of their lives, and spent the
other in a condition of self-denial and mendicity. They conducted for them-
selves, and others of the two next castes, sacrifices, and occasionally great
public ceremonials; but they never, like the priests of other pagan nations, or
those of the Jews, conducted public worship, worship for individuals indis-
criminately, worship in temples, or offerings to idols. A Brahman who makes
offerings to idols is held as degraded, and unfit to be invited to religious feasts.
Denu, ii. 152, 180.- Again, though acceptance of gifts is one mode of subsist-
ence, Brahmans are prohibited from taking gifts indiscriminately, habitually,
or excessively, and from receiving any reward for teaching, or any fixed wages
or reward for sacrifices. Ibid. iji. 156 ; iv. 33, 186, 214, etc.- If possessed of
wealth, a Braliman is enjoined to give liberally, and whatever property he
may possess, he is commanded to abandon it in the prime of manliood, for a
life of religious solitude and meditation. Ibid. vi. 2, et seq.-The whole tenor
of the rules for the conduct of a Brahman is to exclude hinn from everything
like worldly enjoyinent, from riches, and from temporal power. Neither did
the Brahmans, like the priests of the Egyptians, keep to themselves al mono-
poly of spiritual knowledge. The Brahman alone, it is true, is to teach the
Vedas; but the two next orders, the Kshatriya and Vaisya, are equally to
study them, and were, therefore, equally well acquiainted with the law and
the religion. Even the Sudra was, under some circumstances, permitted to
read and teach; for it is said, “a believer in scripture may receive pure kuow-
ledge even from a Sudra.” Menu, ii. 238. In modern times the Brahmans,
collectively, have lost all claim to the character of a priesthood. They forni
a nation, following all kinds of secular arocations, and where they are met
with in a religious capacity, it is not as Brahmans merely, but as being the
ministers of temples, or the family Gurus, or priests of the lower classes of
the people, offices by no means restricted, though not unfrequently extended,
to the Brahmanical caste, and agreeably to the primitive system virtually de-
structive of Brahmanhood.-W.
134
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
TY
BOOK II. of hostile men, is the second object of his veneration and
CHAP. II. gratitude ; and in the history of society, it will be generally
found, that the rank and influence of the military order
are high, in proportion as the civilization of the people
is low. To all but the Brahmens, the caste of Cshatriyas
are an object of unbounded respect. They are as much
elevated above the classes below them, as the Brahinens
stand exalted above the rest of human kind. Nor is
superiority of rank among the Hindus an unavailing cere-
mony. The most important advantages are attached to it.
The distance between the different orders of men is im-
mense and degrading. If a man of a superior class accuses
a man of an inferior class, and his accusation proves to be
unjust, he escapes not with impunity; but if a man of in-
ferior class accuses a man of a superior class, and fails in
proving his accusation, a double punishment is allotted
him.? For all assaults, the penality rises in proportion as
the party offending is low, the party complaining high, in
the order of the castes. It is, indeed, a general and re-
markable part of the jurisprudence of this singular people,
that all crimes are more severely punished in the subordi-
· nate classes; the penality ascending, by gradation, froma
the gentle correction of the venerable Brahmen to the
harsh and sanguinary chastisement of the degraded Sudra.
Even in such an affair as the interest of money on loan,
where the Brahmen pays two per cent., three per cent. is
exacted from the Cshatriya, four per cent. from the Vaisya,
and five per cent. from the Sudra. The sovereign dignity,
which usually follows the power of the sword, was ori-
ginally appropriated to the military class, though in this
particular it would appear that irregularity was pretty
1 To this observation I know not that any exception can be adduced, which
is not resolvable into the influence of a government purely or chiefly military.
This, however, is the cffect of art, or of forced circumstances, not of nature or
of reason. It is Mandeville, I think, who remarks, that fear is the origin of
the admiration which has been generally bestowed upon the profession of
arms ; and in confirmation of this observes, that it is the most timid sex by
whom the military character is the most admired. Mr. Hume has remarked,
that it is the most timid sex, also, who are the most devoted to superstition and
the priests.
2 Halhed's Code, ch. xv. sect. 2. “If a man of an inferior caste," says the
Gentoo Code,“ proudly affecting an equality with a person of superior caste,
should speak at the same time with him, the magistrate in that case shall
punish him to the extent of his abilities."-Ibid.
3 See the Laws of Menu, and Halhed's Gentoo Code, passim. The case of
theft is an exception to this, the higher classes being punished the most
serverely.
.. VAISYAS AND SUDRAS.
135
early introduced. To bear arms is the peculiar duty of BOOK II.
the Cshatriya caste, and their maintenance is derived from CHAP. II.
the provision made by the sovereign for his soldiers,
III. The Vaisyas are the third caste of the Hindus. Their
duties are to tend cattle, to carry on merchandise, and to
cultivate the ground. They are superior only to the Sudras,
who owe to them, however, the same awful respect and sub-
mission, which it is incumbent on them to pay to the mili-
tary class.
IV. As much as the Brahmen is an object of intense
veneration, so much is the Sudra an object of contempt,
and even of abhorrence, to the other classes of his coun-
trymen. The business of the Sudras is servile labour, and
their degradation inhuman. Not only is the most abject
and grovelling submission imposed upon them as a religious
duty, but they are driven frorn their just and equal share
in all the advantages of the social institution. The crimes
which they commit against others are more severely pu-
nished than those of any other delinquents, while the
crimes which others commit against them are more gently
punished than those against any other sufferers. Even
their persons and labour are not free, “A man of the ser-
vile caste, whether bought or unbought, a Brahmen may
compel to perform servile duty; because such a man was
created by the Self-existent for the purpose of serving
Brahmens.”4 The law scarcely permits them to own pro-
I There are several notices in Hindu tradition, of a collision between the
Brahmans and Kshatriyas. And it is singular enongh, that the cause of dis-
pute never appears to have been secular rank or power. The Brahmans are
never described as seeking kingly dignity; but the Kshatriyas contend for
admission into the Bralınanical order.-W.
2 The law does not justify the term abhorrence.' In what follows, Mr.
Mill has collected the extreme texts, and has passed over all the favourable or
qualifying passages. The condition of a Sudra, in the Hindu system, was infi-
nitely preferable to that of the lielot, the slave, or the serf of the Greek, the
Roman, and the feudal systems. He was independent, his services were
Optional: they were not agricultural, but domestic and personal, and claimed
adequate co:11 pensation. He had the power of accumulating wealth, or injunc-
tions against his so doing would have been superfluous. He liad the oppor-
tunity of rising to rank, for the Puranas rccord dynasties of Sudra kings; and
even Manu notices their existence, iv.61.--He might, as we have seen above,
study and teach religious knowledge, and he might perform religious acts.
" As a Sudra, without injuring another man, perforins the lawful acts of the
twice-born ; even thus, without being censured, he gains exaltation in this
world, and the next." Meni, X. 128. See also verses 121 to 131; and Vishnu
Purana, 292, and note.- No doubt the Sudra was considered, in some degree,
the property of the Brahman; but he had riglits and privileges, and freedom,
much beyond any other of the servile classes of antiquity.-.
. 3. See the Laws of Menu, and l'ulhed's Gentoo Code, passim.
· 4 lbid.ch. viii. 113.
136.
· HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. perty; for it is declared that "no collection of wealth must
CHAP. II. be made by a Sudra, even though he has power, since a ser-
vile man, who has amassed riches, gives pain even to
Brahmens."'i "A Brahmien may seize, without hesitation,
the goods of his Sudra slave; for as that slave can have no
property, his master may take his goods.”? Any failure in
the respect exacted of the Sudra towards the superior
classes is avenged by the most dreadful punishments.
Adultery with a woman of a higher caste is expiated by
burning to death on a bed of iron. The degradation of
life, but even to sacred instruction, and his chance of
favour with the superior powers. A Brahmen must never
read the Veda in the presence of Sudras.3 “Let not a
Brahmen,” says the law of Menu, “give advice to a Sudra ;
nor what remains from his table; nor clarified butter, of
which part has been offered; nor let him give spiritual
tion for his sin: surely he who declares the law to a servile
man, and he who instructs him in the mode of expiating
sin, sinks with that very man into the hell named Asam-
vrita.'''
I Laws of Menu, ch. s. 129.
2 Ibid. viii. 417. If he be distressed for susistence, says the gloss of Culluca.
3 Ibid.
Laws of Menu, ch, viii. 80, 81. “If," says the Gentoo Code, "a man of
the Sooder reads the beias of the Shaster, or the Pooran, to 2 Brahman, a
Chehter, or a Bin, then the magistrate shall heat some bitter oil, and pour it
into the aforesaid Sooder's month; and if a Sooder listens to the beids of the
Shaster, then the oil, heated as before, shall be poured into his ears, and
arzees and wax shall be melted together, and the orifice of his ears shall be
stopped up therewith. If a Sooder gets by heart the beids of the Shaster, the
magistrate shall put him to death. If a Sooder always performs worship and
the jugg, the magistrate shall put him to death. If a Sooder gives much and
frequent molestation to a Brahmen, the magistrate shall put him to death."
(Halled's Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xxi., sect. 7.) It is among the most bar-
barous tribes, that we in general find the principle of subordination abused to
the greatest excess. Perhaps no instance is equal to that which exhibits itself
among the Hindus. "Among the Natchez," says Robertson (Hist. America,
ence of rank took place, with which the northern tribes were altogether ul-
acquainted. Some families were reputed noble, and enjoyed hereditary
clignity. The body of the people was considered as vile, and formed only for
subjection. This distinction was marked by appellations, which intimated the
high elevation of the one state, and the ignominious depression of the other:
the former were called Respectable; the latter, the Stinkcards."-" To be a ser-
vant," says Millar (Distinction of Ranks, ch. y. sect. 1), “in these primitive
times, was almost universally the same thing as to be a slave. The master
assiuned an unlimited jurisdiction over his servants, and the privilege of selling
them at pleasure. He gave them no wages beside their maintenance; and he
allowed them to have no property, but claimed to his own use whatever, by
their labour, or by any other means, they happened to acquire.-- Thus the
jurisdiction over his meas to be a slave. The motive
thein at pleasurer
· IMPURE CASTES.
137
Although the adherence of each class to the particular BOOK II.
employment assigned to it was secured by the most rigid CHẠP. II.
laws, and the severest penalties, there were extraordinary
cases in which a limited departure was permitted. When
a Brahmen cannot obtain subsistence by the proper busi-
ness of his order, he may apply himself to that of the
Cshatriya or the Vaisya, but must never become so far de-
graded as, to engage in that of the Sudra. The Cshatriya
and Vaisya, in like necessitous circumstances, may have re-
course respectively to the business of the class or classes
below them, even that of the Sudra, but are strictly inter-
dicted from profaning the employment of any class above
them. The Sudra having, originally, no inferior class, was
probably abandoned to his necessities, though afterwards,
in the employments of the mixed classes, a resource was
opened also for him. In this arrangement, as usually hap-
pens in the laws of the Hindus, the advantages are all on
the side of the superior orders. The Brahmen has open
to bim, if need be, the occupations of all the respectable
classes; he can overload them with additional numbers in
the season of distress, a season at which it is natural for
them to be overloaded without him, while his own occupa-
tion is exempt from the encroachment or competition of
any other description of men. The Cshatriya, while he has
the occupations open to him of two of the castes, is liable
to the interference of one of them only. The Vaisya, on
the other hand, can have l'ecourse to none but the lowest
of employments, that of the Sudra, while he is liable to
be straitened in his own occupation by the interference
and competition of both the orders above him. The
unfortunate Sudra, who has no resource, may be driven
from his employment and his means of subsistence, me-
diately or immediately, by all the other classes of the
community.
practice of domestic slavery appears to have been early established among the
nations of antiquity; among the Egyptians, the Phænicians, the Jews, the
Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans.-The same practice
obtains at present among all those tribes of barbarians, in different parts of the
Torid, with which we have any correspondence."
I Laws of Menu, ch. X. passim. Mr. Colebrooke on the Indian Classes.
Asiatic Researches, y. 63.
2 The Sudra has a resource not permitted to the others - emigration ; a
sufficient proof of his personal liberty. "Let the three first classes invariably
dwell in these before-mentioned countries; but a Sudra, distressed for sub-
sistence, may sojourn where he pleases." Mani, ü. 24.-W.
138
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. This distribution of the whole people into four classes
CHAP. II. only, and the appropriation of them to four species of
employment; an arrangement which, in the very simple
state of society in which it must have been introduced,
ductive of innumerable inconveniences, as the wants of
society multiplied. The bare necessaries of life, with a
prepares to meet the desires of man. As those desires
speedily extend beyond such narrow limits, a struggle:
must have early ensued between the first principles of
human nature and those of the political establishmenti
The different castes were strictly commanded to marry
with those only of their own class and profession ; and
the mixture of the classes from the union of the sexes
was guarded against by the severest laws. This was an
occurrence, however, which laws could not prevent. Irre-
gularities took place ; children were born, who belonged
to no caste, and for whom there was no occupation. No
event could befall society more calamitous than this.
Unholy and infamous, on account of that violation of the
sacred law to which they owed their unwelcome birth,
those wretched outcasts had no resource for subsistence,
excepting either the bounty of the established classes, to
whom they were objects of execration and abhorrence; or
the plunder of those same classes, a course to which they
would betake themselves with all the ingenuity of neces-
sitous, and all the atrocity of much injured, men. When
a class of this description became numerous, they must
have filled society with the greatest disorders. In the
preface of that compilation of the Hindu Laws, which was
translated by Mr. Halhed, it is stated that, after a succes-
sion of good kings, who secured obedience to the laws, and
under whom the people enjoyed felicity, came a monarch
evil and corrupt, under whom the lars. were violated, the
1 This is not correct. The original system seems to have been very lax in
this respect, and each caste might take wives from the caste or castes below
them, as well as their own. “A Sudra woman only, must be the wife of a
Sudra; she and a Vaisya of a Vaisya; they too and a Kshatriya of a Kshatriya;
those too and a Brahmani of a Brahman.” Manu, ii. 13. And although it
was a sin for a Brahman to marry a Sudra woman, yet that such things cicl
happen, appears from the following stanzas, 14-17, as well as passages in the
tenth book.-W.
2 Vide Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws, preface,
IMPURE CASTES.
139
mixture of the classes was perpetrated, and a new and BOOK II.
impious race were produced. The Brahmens put this CHAP. II.
wicked king to death, and, by an effort of miraculous
power, created a successor endowed with the most ex-
cellent qualities. But the kingdom did not prosper, by
reason of the Burren Sunker, so were this impure brood
denominated; and it required the wisdom of this virtuous
king to devise a remedy. He resolved upon a classification
of the mixed race, and to assign them occupations. This,
accordingly, was the commencement of arts and manufac-
tures. The Burren Sunker became all manner of artisans
and handicrafts ; one tribe of them weavers of cloth,
another artificers in iron, and so on in other cases, till the
subdivisions of the class were exhausted, or the exigencies
of the community supplied. Thus were remedied two
evils at once : The increasing wants of an improving
society were provided for ; and a class of men, the pest
of the community, were converted to its service. This is
another important era in the history of Hindu society ;
and having reached this stage, it does not appear that it
has made, or that it is capable of making, much further
progress. Thirty-six branches of the impure class are
specified in the sacred books, of whom and of their em-
ployments it would be tedious and useless to present the
description. The highest is that sprung from the con-
junction of a Brahmen with a woman of the Cshatriya
class, whose duty is the teaching of military exercises.
The lowest of all is the offspring of a Sudra with a woman
of the sacred class. This tribe are denominated Chandalas,
and are regarded with great abhorrence. Their profession
is to carry out corpses, to execute criminals, and perform
other offices, reckoned to the last degree unclean and de-
grading. If, by the laws of Hindustan, the Sudras are
placed in a low and vile situation, the impure and mixed
classes are placed in one still more odious and degrading.
Nothing can equal the contempt and insolence to which
it is the lot of the lowest among them to see themselves
exposed. They are condemned to live in a sequestered
i Colebrooke on the Indian Classes, Asiatic Researches, v. 53. On this sub-
ject, however, that intelligent author tells us, that Sanscrit authorities in some
instances disagrec. Classes mentioned by one, are omitted by another; and
texts differ on the professions assigned to some tribes. It is a subject, he addis,
in which there is some intricacy.
140
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK IJ. spot by themselves, that they may not pollute the very
CAAP. II. town in which they reside. If they meet a man of the
higher castes, they must turn out of the way, lest he
should be contaminated by their presence.'
1 - Avoid," says the Tantra, “ the touch of the Chandala, and other abject
classes. Whoever associates with them undoubtedly falls from his class ; who-
ever bathes or drinks in wells or pools which they have caused to be made,
must be purified by the five productions of kine." Colebrooke on the Indian
Classes, Asiat. Research. v. 53. From this outline of the classification and
distribution of the people, as extracted from the books of the Hindus, some of
the most intelligent of our British observers appeal to the present practice of
the people, which they affirm is much more conformable to the laws of hunan
welfare, than the institutions described in the ancient books. Of this, the
author is aware; so inconsistent with the laws of human welfare are the insti-
tutions described in the Hindu ancient books, that they never could have been
obscrved with any accuracy ; it is, at the same time, very evident, that the in-
stitutions described in the ancient books are the model upon which the present
frame of Hindu society has been formed; and when we consider the powerful
causes wbich have operated so long to cuaw, or rather to force, the Hindus
froin their inconvenient institutions and customs, the only source of wonder is,
that the state of society which they now exhibit should hold so great a resemi-
blance to that which is depicted in their books. The President de Goguet is of
opinion, that a clivision of the people into tribes and hereditary professions
similar to that of the Hindus existed in the ancient Assyrian empire, and that
it prevailed from the highest antiquity over almost all Asia (part I. book. I. ch.
i. art. 3; Herodot. lib. i. cap. 200 ; Strab. lib. xvi. p. 1082; Diod. lib. ii.
p. 142). Cecrops distributed into four tribes all the inhabitants of Attica.
(Pollux, lib. viii. cap. 9, sect. 100; Diodorus Siculus, lib. ii. D. 33.) Theseus
afterwards made them three by uniting, as it should seem, the sacerdotal class
with that of the nobles, or magistrates. They consisted thien of nobles and
priests, labourers or husbandmen, and artificers; and there is no doubt that,
like the Egyptians and Indians, they were hereditary. (Plutarch. Vit. Thes.)
Aristotle expressly informs us (Polit. lib. vii. cap. 10), that in Crete the people
were divided by the laws of Minos into classes after the manner of the Egyp-
tians. We have inost remarkable proof of a division, the same as that of the
Hindus, anciently established among the Persians. In the Zendaresta, trans-
lated by Anquetil Duperron, is the following passage: “ Ormusd said : There
are three ineasures []iterally weights, that is, tests, rules] of conduct, four
states, and fire places of dignity.-The states are : that of the priests; that of
the soldier ; that of the husbanclinan, the source of riches; and that of the
artisan or labourer." Zendavesta, i. 141. There are sufficient vestiges to prove
an ancient establishment of the same sort among the Buddhists of Ceylon, and
by consequence to infer it among the other Buddhists over so large a portion
of Asia. See a Discourse of Mr. Joinville on the Religion and Manners of the
People of Ceylon, Asiat. Research. vii. 430, et seq.-M.
There is no distinction of caste ainongst the Buddhists, although in some
places an attempt may have been made to introduce some such distinction,
after the Hindu model. The mutiplication of castes in India, is not the enact-
ment of any code, though it may te reinotely the effect; it is the work of the
people, amongst the most degraded of whom, prevails, not the shame, but the
“pride" of caste. The lowest native is no outcaste, he has an acknowledged
place in society; he is the member of a class; and he is invariably more re-
tentive of the clistinction than those above him. In depicturing the horrors of
the system, Ewropean writers lose sight of the compensations. The veriest
Chandala, who is one of a community, is less miserable, less unhappy, than
many of the paupers of the civilized communities of Europe, with whom no
man owns companionship or kindred ; they are the true outcastes--not the
Parial or Chandala.-W.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
141
BOOK II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAP. III.
The Form of Government.
AFTER the division of the people into ranks and occu-
A pations, the great circumstance by which their con-
dition, character, and operations are determined, is the
political establishment; the system of actions by which
the social order is preserved. Among the Hindus, ac-
cording to the Asiatic model, the government was mo-
narchical, and, with the usual exception of religion and
its ministers, absolute. No idea of any system of rule,
different from the will of a single person, appears to have
entered the minds of them, or their legislators. “If the
world had no king," says the Hindu law, i "it would quake
on all sides through fear; the ruler of this universe, there-
fore, created a king, for the maintenance of this system.”
Of the high and uncontrollable authority of the monarch
a judgment may be formed, from the lofty terms in which
the sacred books describe his dignity and attributes. “A
king," says the law of Menu,2 " is formed of particles from
the chief guardian deities, and consequently surpasses all
mortals in glory. Like the sun, he burns eyes and hearts;
nor can any human creature on earth even gaze on him.
He, is fire and air; He, the god of criminal justice; He,
the genius of wealth ; He, the regent of waters ; He, the
lord of the firmament. A king, even though a child, must
not be treated lightly, from an idea that he is a mere
mortal: No; he is a powerful divinity, who appears in
human shape. In his anger, death. He who shows hatred
of the king, through delusion of mind, will certainly
perish; for speedily will the king apply his heart to
that man's destruction.” The pride of imperial greatness
could not devise, hardly could it even desire, more extra-
ordinary distinctions, or the sanction of a more unlimited
authority.
1 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 3.
2 Ibid. vii.
3 Had Mr. Mill sufficiently considered several passages which he presently
quotes, or to which he refers, he would have been satisfied that these descrip-
tions of kingly power are mere generalities; and that in practice, Hindu des-
potism did not exist. The Raja was not above the law. "Law," says Sankara,
" is the king of kings, far more powerful than they." Preface to the Digest.
He was not a lawgiver: the laws to which he was amenable, as well as the
meanest of his subjects, emanated from a higher : “God having created the
142
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. The plan, according to which the power of the sovereign
CHLAP. III. was exercised in the government of the country, resembled
that which has almost universally prevailed in the mo-
narchies of Asia, and was a contrivance extremely simple
and rude. In the more skilful governments of Europe,
officers are appointed for the discharge of particular duties
in the different provinces of the empire ; some for the
decision of causes, some for the control of violence, some.
for collecting the contingents of the subjects, for the ex-
pense of the state ; while the powers of all centre imme-
diately in the head of the government, and all together
act as connected and subordinate wheels in one compli-
cated and artful machine. Among the less instructed and
less civilised inhabitants of Asia, no other plan has ever
occurred to the monarch, for the administration of his
dominions, than simply to divide his own authority and
power into pieces or fragments, as numerous as the pro-
vinces into which it was deemed convenient to distribute
the empire. To each of the provinces a viceregent was
despatched, who carried with him the undivided authority
and jurisdiction of his master. Whatever powers the
sovereign exercised over the whole kingdom, the vice-
regent exercised in the province allotted to him; and the
same plan which the sovereign adopted for the government
of the whole, was exactly followed by the viceregent in the
government of a part. If the province committed to his
sway was too extensive for his personal inspection and
control, he subdivided it into parts, and assigned a go-
four classes, lest the royal and military class should become insupportable
througlı their power and ferocity, produced the transcendent body of law."
Ibid. He was not even permitted to administer it without legal advisers :
“let not a prince, who secks the good of his own soul, hastily and alone pro-
nounce the law.” Manu, viii. 287. The authority of the Brahmans was not a
nominal restraint. In early times, they undertook to depose kings for
tyranny and impiety: see the legends of Vena, Parasuraina and Devápi, Vishnu
Purana, 99, 401, 458 ; and the Mudra Rikshasa, Hindu Theatre, vol. ii. There
were also other checks upon regal power in an hereditary nobility: "mnen of
high lineage, whose ancestors were servants of kings." For, at a very early
period, offices of state seem to have become hereditary; and the hereditary
minister was often more powerful than his master. The great Kshatriyas,
represented by the Samants of Prithu Rai, and the present Thakurs of Jaypur
and Jodhpur, seldom allowed despotic power to their prince. See Muda
Rakshasa; Tod's Raja'sthan; Duff's Mahrattas.-W.
1 Kæmpfer, in his History of Japan, booki. chap. v., says, “the whole em-
pire is governed in general by the Emperor, with an absolute and monarchical
power, and so is every province in particular by the prince, who, under the
Emperor, enjoys the government thereof.".For the similarity of the institution
in the Ottoman government, see Voiney's Travels in Syria and Egypt, ii. 376.
FORM OF GOVERNMENTIOA
143
.
vernor to each, whom he iutrusted with the same absolute BOOK II.
powers in his district, as he himself possessed in the ad- CHAP. III.
deputy often divided his authority, in the same manner,
among the governors, whom he appointed, of the town-
ships or villages under his control. Every one of those
rulers, whether the sphere of his command was narrow or
extensive, was absolute within it, and possessed the whole
power of the sovereign, to levy taxes, to raise and command
troops, and to decide upon the lives and property of the
subjects. The gradations of command among the Hindus
were thus regulated : the lowest of all was the lord of one
town and its district; the next was the lord of ten towns ;
the third was the lord of twenty towus ; the fourth was
the lord of 100 towns; and the highest vicegerent was
lord of 1000 towns. Every lord was amenable to the one
immediately above him, and exercised unlimited authority
over those below. The following law appears to provide
for their personal expenses : "Such food, drink, wood, and
other articles, as by law should be given each day to the
king, by the inhabitants of the township, let the lord of
one town receive ; let the lord of ten towns enjoy the
produce of two plough-lands; the lord of twenty, that of
five plough-lands; the lord of 100, that of a village or
small town ; the lord of 1000, that of a large town.”3 The
1 This is not correct; cven Manu separates the military from the civil au-
thority. “Let himn place a division of troops, commanded by an approved
officer, over two, three, five, or a hundred districts, according to their extent,"
vii. 214.-W.
2 Laws of Menu, ch. vii, 115--117. There is a very remarkable similarity
between this mode of subdividing authority among the Hindus, and that
adopted by the Incas of Peru. "The Incas" (says Garcilasso de la Vega,
part i. book ii. ch. v.) “hacl one method and rule in their governinent, as the
best means to prevent all mischiefs and disorders; which was this. That of
all the people in every place, whether more or less, a register sliould be kept,
and a division made of ten and ten, over which one of the ten, whom they
called the Decurion, was inade superior over the other nine; then every five
divisions of this nature had a lord over them, to whom was committed the
charge and care of fifty; then over two divisions of fifty, another lord, who
supervised 100; so five divisions of 100 had a magistrate who commanded 500;
the Clivisions of 100 had a leader over 1000," etc. The highest officer under
Mor. Hist. of the Indies, book vi. ch. xiii.; Carli, Lettres sur l'Amérique,
let. xiii. The analogy of the Anglo-Saxon institution of tithings, or ten fami-
lies ; of hundreds, or ten tithings; and counties, will suggest itself to every
imagination.
2 Laws of Menu, ch. vii, 118, 119. The first of these provisions, that for the
lord of one town, is not accurately ascertained; the two or five plough-lands
are sufficiently distinct; but the produce of a village or large town must have
been extremely uncertain and ambiguous.
144
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. expense of the government of each vicegerent was defrayed
CHAP. III. out of the taxes which he levied, and the surplus was
transmittel to the superior lord, to whom he was inime-
diately responsible. From him it was again conveyed to
the governor above him, till it reached, at last, the royal
treasury.
If this plan of government was unskilful and rude, so
was the contrivance employed for checking the abuses to
which it was liable. “The affairs of these townships,
says the law, “either jointly or separately transacted, let
another minister of the king inspect, who should be well
affected, and by no means remiss. In every larger towni
or city, let him appoint one superintendent of all affairs,
elevated in rank, formidable in power, distinguished as a
planet among stars. Let that governor, from time to time,
survey all the rest in person ; and, by the means of his
emissaries, let him perfectly know their conduct in their
several districts."2 Of the practical state of the govern-
ment abundant proof is afforded, in the passage which
immediately follows. “Since the servants of the king,” it
is said, “whom he has appointed guardians of districts,
are generally knaves, who seize what belongs to other men,
from such kpaves let him defend his people ; of such evil-
minded servants, as wring wealth from subjects attending
them on business, let the King confiscate all the posses-
sions, and banish them from his realmı." 3
At the head of this government stands the king, on
whom the great lords of the empire immediately depend.
He is directed by the law to choose a Council, consisting
“of seven or eight ministers, men whose ancestors were
servants of kings, who are versed in the holy books, who
are personally brave; who are skilled in the use of wea-
pons, and whose lineage is noble.” 4 With them he is
commanded perpetually to consult on the affairs of his
1 Competent authorities opine differently ; after quoting the passages of
Manil, referred to in the notes of our author, Col. Briggs concludes, “these
extracts afford is sufficient proof of a well-organised system of local superin-
tendence and administration." On the Land-tax of India, 24.-W.
2 Laws of Menu, cli. vii. 120-122. A similar officer formed a similar part
of the Peruvian establishment. He was denominated Cucuy Kioc, which is to
say, "Eye of all.” Carli, Lettres sur l'Amérique, let. xiii.
3 Menu, ut supra, 123, 124.
1 Ibid. 54.-M.
The council of Manu does not comprise all the officers of state; and lists
given in the Pancha Tantra from the Mahabharata, specify thirty-three persons
or classes of persons attached in a public or private capacity to royalty. Tr.
R. As. Society, i. 174.-W.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
145
government; but a singular mode of deliberation is pre- BOOK II.
scribed to him ; not to assemble his Council, and, laying CHAP. III.
before them, as in the cabinets of European princes, the
subject on which the suggestions of their visdom are
required, to receive the benefit arising from the natural
communication of their knowledge and views; a plan,
apparently more artful and cupping, more nearly allied to
the suspicious temper and narrow views of a rude period,
is recommended; to consult them apart, and hear the
opinion of each separately ; after which, having consulted
them in common, when each man is sirayed by the opinion
he hail formerly given in private, and has a motive of
interest and vanity to resist the light which might be
thrown upon the subject by others, the king himself is to
decide.' A Brahmen ought always to be his prime minister.
"To one learned Brahmen, distinguished among the rest,
let the king impart his momentous counsel."2
To provide for the defence of the country was one great
branch of the duties of the sovereign, and to preside over
the military force was his great prerogative and distinction.
As, in the original division of the people, a fourth part of
them were appropriated to the profession of arms, and
destined from that alone to obtain their subsistence, the
great difficulty of government must have consisted, not in
obtaining troops, but in finding for them maintenance and
employment. When so great a proportion of the popu-
lation were set apart for the business of war, with nothing
to do, from year to year, and from generation to generation,
but to improve its principles, and acquire the utmost dex-
terity in his exercises, it appears extraordinary that the
nation was not of a formidable and varlike character.
Yet has India given way to every invader ; "and the rude-
ness," says Mr. Orme, 3 “ of the military art in Indostan
can scarce be imagined but by those who have seen it."
The precepts in the ancient and sacred books of the
1 Laws of Menni, ch, vii. 56. Another prccept to the king, respecting the
inode of consulting with his ministers, is very expressive of the simplicity of
the times ; “ Ascending up the back of a mountain, or going privately to a
terrace, a bower, a forest, or a lonely place, without listeners, let him consult
with them unobserved." Ibid. 147.
2 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 58.
3 Orine on the Government and reople of Indostan, p.417. The same ac-
curate and intelligent observer immediately adds: “The infantry consists in a
multitude of people assembled together without regard to rank and file," etc,
VOL. I.
L
146
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Hindus, which lay the foundation of their military system,
CHIAP. III. are few in number, simple, and rude. For the security of
the royal residence, the king is directed to take up his
abode 1 " in a capital, having, by way of fortress, a desert
rather more than twenty miles round it, or a fortress of
earth, a fortress of water or of trees, a fortress of armed
men, or a fortress of mountains.” Their great unskilful-
ness in the science of attack and defence, led them to
place great dependence on fortification, as appears by a
variety of their precepts. “One bowman,” says Menu,
“ placed on a wall, is a match in war for 100 enemies, and
100 for 10,000; therefore is a fort recommended." Yet
their knowledge of fortification was elementary, and mostly
consisted in surrounding the place with a mud wall and a
ditch, or availing themselves of the natural advantages
which insulated rocks, which water, or impervious thickets,
could afford. The duty and advantage of maintaining at
all times a powerful army are enforced in the most cogent
terms. “By a king,” says Menu, “whose forces are always
ready for action, the whole world may be kept in awe; let
him then, by a force always ready, make all creatures living
his own.”3 In recommending a perpetual standing army,
the preceptive part of the military doctrine of the Hindus
seems in a great measure to have been summed up ; for
the marshalling, the discipline, the conduct of an army, in
any of its branches, no instruction is conveyed. General
exhortations to firmness and valour are all the additional
advice of which the utility appears to have been recog-
nised. The Hindu prince is, by divine authority, informed,
that those rulers of the earth, who,“ desirous of defeating
each other, exert their utmost strength in battle, without
ever averting their facés, ascend after death directly to
heaven.”. “Never to recede from combat,” says Menu,
“ to protect the people, and to honour the priests, is the
highest duty of kings, and ensures their felicity." 5 Of a
great part of the duty which devolved upon the king, as
head of the armed force, he appears to have been relieved
by a deputy. In times of peace, the military people seem
to have been distributed over the country, under the
I Laws of Dienu, ch. vii. 70.
2 Ibid.vii. 74.
3 Ibid. 103.
4 Ibid. 89. 6 Ibid. ss.
6 " The forces of the realm must be immediately regulated by t):e COIN-
unander-in-chief." Ilic. 65.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
147
conimand of the governors of provinces and of districts, BOOK II.
for local defence, for the preservation of local tranquillity, CHAP. III.
and for the convenience of subsistence. When a general
- war demanded the whole force of the nation, the king
commanded the governors of provinces to assemble the
soldiers under their command, and repair to his standard.
From this circumstance it has been rashly concluded, that
feudal conditions of military service, in fact a feudal go-
vernment, nearly resembling that which existed in Europe,
had place in Hindustan.”
After the care of protecting the nation from foreign ag-
gression or from internal tumult, the next duty of the
king was the distribution of justice. In the first stage of
society, the leader in war is also the judge in peace; and
the regal and judicial functions are united in the same
person. Various circumstances tend to produce this ar-
rangement. In the first place, there are hardly any laws:
and be alone is entitled to judge, who is entitled to legis-
late, since he must make a law for every occasion. In the
next place, a rude people, unused to obedience, would
hardly respect inferior authority. In the third place, thie
business of judicature is so badly performed as to inter-
rupt but little the business or the pleasures of the king;
and a decision is rather an exercise of arbitrary will and
power, than the result of an accurate investigation. In
the fourth place, the people are much accustomed to
terminate their own disputes, by their own cunning, or
force, that the number of applications for judicature is
comparatively small.3 As society advances, a set of cir-
cumstances, opposite to these, are gradually introduced:
1 Laws of Menil, ch. vii, 113, 120.
2 The laws of Menu, it is true, touch but slightly upon military arrange-
nients, but there is no reason to believe that the Hinclus cultiv
of war less carefully than the arts of peace, Duch curious illustration of this
subject may be gleaned from the Mahabharata. That they have been unfor-
tunate in their military history, is attributable, more to want of union and to
mutual dissension, than any deficiency of skill or valow'.- VY.
3 It is very coubtful, if this view of the progress of legislation was ever ap-
plicable to the Hindus. Certainly we have no grounds whatever for such a
description. The code of Menu recognises no right or necessity in the king
to make laws the laws are administrable by judicial authorities other than
the king; decisions are never the result of arbitrary will, but are enjoined to
be founded on diligent investigation; and although applications for judicature
might not have been numerous, yet other reasons might be assigned than the
adjustinent of disputes by force or cunning. We may conjecture what we
please of a stage of society of which we know nothing, but it is conjecture
only, aiicl little calculated to extend real knowiedse.-IV.
148
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.'
BOOK 11. laws are made which the judge has nothing to do but apply:
CHAP. III. the people learn the advantage of submitting to inferior
authority: a more accurate administration of justice is
demanded, and cannot be performed without a great ap-
plication both of attention and of time: the people learn
that it is for the good of the community, that they should
not terminate, and that they should not be allowed to
terminate, either by force or fraud, their own disputes :
the administration of justice is then too laborious to be
either agreeable to the king, or consistent with the other
services which he is expected to render : and the exercise
of judicature becomes a separate employment, the exclu-
sive function of a particular order of men.
The administration of justice by the king in person, and
in the provinces of course by his deputies, as in the subor:
dinate districts by theirs, stands in the sacred books as a
leading principle of the jurisprudence of the Hindus; and
the revolution of ages has introduced a change in favour
rather of the prince who abandons the duty, than of the
people, for whom hardly any other instrument of judica-
ture is provided.
In the infancy of improvement, the business of the
judge is much more to award punishment, than to settle
disputes. The Hindu law, accordingly, represents the
king, as “ created for the guardianship of all, a divinity in
human form, to inflict punishment according to the
Shaster.” In conformity with these rude ideas, the most
extravagant praises are bestowed upon this engine of
royalty. “For the use of the king, Brahma formed, in the
beginning of time, the genius of punishment with a body
1 This is not correct. Ata period not long subsequent to the Code of Man,
if not contemporary, various regulations were in force for the administration
of the laws, and various courts and officers were established for the adjudica-
tion of causes, so that the king presided at pleasure only in the court of the
capital, or in a court of appeal.-See Colebrooke on Hindu Courts of Justice.
-Tr. R. As. Soc. ii. 166. So, also, Mr. Ellis observes: “Mr. Mill makes a
considerable mistake if he supposes that in Hindu states it is, or was, the
practice to administer justice only in the presence of the king. It is true, that
in the Hindu Governments there was always an Aula Regia, or court at the
seat of government, in which the king was supposed, according to the letter of
the law, to preside in person, though he might appoint a deputy, and always
hac assessors; but it is doubtful how the practice was kept up, and it is certain
that there were three other principal courts known to the Hindu laws, and
fifteen sorts of inferior courts, all having their several jurisdictions well de-
fined, and many of them bearing a striking resemblance to the courts of the
English common law." Trans. Madras Literary Society II.-W.
2 Halhea's Gentoo Code, rreface.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
119
of pure light, his own son, the protector of all created BOOK II.
things. Punishment governs all mankind; punishment cuiap. 111.
alone preserves them; punishment wakes while their
guards are asleep; the wise consider punishment as the
perfection of justice. If the king were not, without indo-
lence, to punish the guilty, the stronger would roast the
weaker, like fish, on a spit. The whole race of man is
kept in order by punishment; for a guiltless man is hard
to be found.” 1
For the more perfect discharge of this important duty
the king is directed to associate with himself Brahmens,
and counsellors capable of giving him advice. Any Brah-
men, or even a person of the two middle classes, may in-
terpret the law to him; but a Sudra in no case whatever.3
On those occasions on which it was impossible for the king
to give judgment in person, he was empowered to appoint
a Brahmen, who, with three assessors, might try causes in
his stead.
So much with regard to the constitution of the tribu-
nals. The solemnities of jurisdiction were thus ordered to
proceed : “Let the king, or his judge, having seated him-
self on the bench, his body properly clothed, and his mind
attentively fixed, begin with doing reverence to the deities
who govern the world, and then let him enter on the trial
of causes."5 The form of process was simple, and good; as
it always is among a rude people. The parties were heard,
generally in person; though lawyers by profession, unless
in the case of certain high crimes, might appear in lieu of
the principals. The application of the plaintiff might be
either oral or written; but the answer was required to be
in the same form; oral, if the application was oral; and
1 Laws of Menii, chi. vii. 14-22.
2 Ibid. ch. viii, 1.
3 Ibid. ch. viii. 20. To learned and righteous Brahmens the magistrate shall
give money, and every token of respect and consideration in the judgment
seat, to have them near him ; but he shall not retain fewer than ten of such
Brahmens. Gentoo Code, ch. iii. sect. l. The inore sacred books of law the
men by denomination holy were alone permitted to read. Thus the law of
Menu (ch, ii. 16). “He whose life is regulated by holy texts, from his con-
ception to his funeral pile, has a decided right to study this code, but no other
person whatsoever.” The more profane commentaries, however, were less
confined, and the man versed in these might suffice for the coinmon business
of administering justice.
- 4 Laws of Menu, ch, viii. 9,10. The Gentoo Code, translated by Mr. Halhed,
directs, that when a king in person cannot examine a cause, he substitutes a
learned Brahmen ; if a Brahmen cannot be found, a Cshatriya, etc., but in no
case a Sudra. Gentoo Code, ch.iiſ, sect, l.
5 Laws of Menu, ch. viii 9,10.
150
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. in writing, if it was otherwise. The judge examines the
CHAP. III. witnesses ; inspects, if any, the writings; and without any
intricate or expensive forms proceeds directly to a deci-
sion. Punishment immediately follows conviction.”
One of the highest of our authorities affords a picture of
the practical state of judicature in India, ivhich, there is
every reason to believe, may with immaterial variations, be
applied to Hindu society, from the period at which it first,
attained its existing form. “No man is refused access to
the Durbar, or seat of judgment; which is exposed to a
large area, capable of containing the multitude. The
plaintiff discovers himself by crying aloud, Justice! Justice!
until attention is given to his importunate.clamours. He .
.
judge; to whom, after having prostrated himself, and
made his offering of a piece of money, he tells his story in
the plainest manner, with great humility of yoice and
gesture, and without any of those oratorical einbellish-
ments which compose an art in freer nations. The wealth,
the consequence, the interest, or the address of the party,
become now the only considerations. He visits his judge
in private, and gives the jar of oil: his adversary bestows
the hog which breaks it. The friends who can influence
intercede; and, excepting where the case is so manifestly
proved as to brand the failure of redress with glaring
infamy (a restraint which human nature is born to re-
verence), the value of the bribe ascertains the justice of
the cause. This is so avowed a practice, that if a stranger
should inquire how much it would cost him to recover a just
debt from a creditor who evaded payment, he would every-
where receive the same answer; the government will keep
one-fourth and give you the rest. Still the forms of jus-
·tice subsist; witnesses are heard, but brow-beaten and
geries and rejected, until the way is cleared for the decision,
which becomes totally or partially favourable, in propor-
tion to the methods which have been used to render it
i Gentoo Code, ch. iii, sect. 5.
3 This publicity of judicial proceedings is common to rude nations. In the
country and clays of Job, the judge sat at the gate of tlic city, ch. ix. rer. 7.
Moses alludes to the same practice, Gen. xiii. ll; and Homer tells us it was
the practice in the heroic ages of Greece, Il. lib. xvii. Fer. 497.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT..
151
such ; but still with some attention to the consequences BOOK II.
of a judgment, which would be of too flagrant iniquity CHAP. III.
not to produce universal detestation and resentment.-
Providence has, at particular seasons, blessed the miseries
of these people with the presence of a righteous judge.
The vast leverence and reputation which such have ac-
quired are but too melancholy a proof of the infrequency
of such a character. The history of their judgments and
decisions is transmitted down to posterity, and is quoted
with a visible complacency on every occasion. Stories of
this nature supply the place of proverbs in the conversa-
tions of all the people of Indostan, and are applied by
them with great propriety.” 1
Such are the principal branches of the duty of the
sovereign, and in these various institutions may be con-
templated an image of the Hindu government. It is
worthy of a short analysis. The powers of government
consist of three great branches, the legislative, the judicial,
and the administrative; and we have to inquire in what
circumstances their exercise is controlled. As the Hindu
believes, that a complete and perfect system of instruction,
which admits of no addition or change, was conveyed to
him from the beginning by the Divine Being, for the
regulation of his public as well as his private affairs, he
acknowledges no laws but those which are contained in
the sacred books. From this it is evident, that the only
scope which reinains for legislation is confined within the
limits of the interpretations which may be given to the
tive of interpreting the divine oracles; for though it is
allowed to the two classes next in degree to give advice to
the king in the administration of justice, they must in no
case presume to depart from the sense of the law which it
has pleased the Brahmens to impose. The power of legis-
lation, therefore, exclusively belongs to the priesthood.
of our most instructive travellers, Mr. Foster, in the Dedication prefixed to his
Journey from Bengal to England, P. vii., calls Hindustan," A land whose every
principle of government is actuated by a rapacious avarice, whose people
never approach the gate of authority without an offering."- This is a subject
to which he often adverts; he says again (1.7), “In Asia, the principles of
justice, lionour', or patriotism, as they confer no substantial benefit, nor tend
to elevate the character, are seldom seen to actuate the mind of the subject :'
152
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. The exclusive right of interpreting the laws necessarily
CHAP. 111. confers upon them, in the same unlimited manner, the
judicial powers of government. The king, though osten-
sibly supreme judge, is commanded always to employ
Brahmens as counsellors and assistants in the administra-
tion of justice; and whatever construction they put upon
the law, to that his sentence must conform. Whenerer
the king in person, discharges not the office of judge, it is
a Brahmen, if possible, who must occupy his place. The
king, therefore, is so far from possessing the judicial power,
that he is rather the executive officer by whom the deci-
sions of the Brahmens are carried into effect.
They who possess the power of making and interpreting
the laws by which another person is bound to act, are, by
necessary consequence, the masters of his actions. Pos-
sessing the legislative and judicative powers, the Brah-
mens were, also, masters of the executive power, to any
extent whatsoever, to which they wished to enjoy it.
With influence over it they were not contented. They
secured to themselves a direct and no contemptible share
of its immediate functions. On all occasions, the king
was bound to employ Brahmens as his counsellors and
ministers; and, of course, to be governed by their judg-
ment. “Let the king, having risen early," says the law,
“respectfully attend to Brahmens learned in the three
Vedas, and by their decision let him abide."? It thus
appears that, according to the original laws of the Hindus,
the king was little more than an instrument in the hands
of the Brahmens. He performed the laborious part of
government, and sustained the responsibility, while they
chiefly possessed the power.3
The uncontrollable sway of superstition, in rude and
1 This state of things then is very different from that which, a few pages
back (p. 147, etc.), was described as applying, apparently, to the Hindu systein;
in which the king was represented as the sole source and administrator of the
law.-W. .
2 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 37.
3 Even under a system, where the power of the altar was from the beginning
rendered subservient to the power of the sword, the right of interpreting a code
of sacred laws is found to conter an important authority. Hear the opinion of
a recent and penetrating observer:-"L'expression yague des préceptes du
Koran, seule loi écrite dans les pays Mussulmans, laisse aux docteurs une
grande latitude pour les interprétations, et bien des moyens d'augmenter leur
autorité. Quoique cette religion ait jeu de cogmes, le fanatisme qu'elle inspire
est un instrument que les prêtres savent employer avec succès.” De l'Egypte,
par lc Gen. Reynici, p. 62.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
153
ignorant times confers upon its ministers such extraordi- BOOK IT.
nary privileges, that the king and the priest are generally cuar. 111.
the same person; and it appears somewhat remarkable -
that the Brahmens, who usurped among their countrymen
so much distinction and authority, did not invest them-
selves with the splendour of royalty. It very often hap-
pens that some accidental circumstances, of which little
account was taken at the time, and which after. a lapse
of ages it is impossible to trace, gave occasion to certain
peculiarities which we remark in the affairs and characters
of nations. It is by no means unnatural to suppose, that
to a people, over whom the love of repose exerts the
greatest sway, and in whose character aversion to danger
forms a principal ingredient, the toils and perils of the
sword appeared to surpass the advantages with which it
was attended; and that the Brahmens transferred to the
hands of others, that which was thus a source of too much
labour, as well as danger, to be retained in their own.
So many, however, and important were the powers
which this class reserved to themselves, that the kingly
dignity would appear to have been reduced to that of a
dependent and secondary office. But with this inference
the fact does not correspond. The monuments of the
monarchs enjoyed no small share both of authority, and
of that kind of splendour, which corresponded with their
own state of society. They had two engines entrusted to
them, the power of which their history serves remarkably
to display: they were masters of the army; and they
were masters of the public revenue. These two circum-
nor is it, in all probability, the correct one. We are too ignorant of the cir-
cumstances under which the system originated, to speculate upon the motives
or purposes of those with whom it commenced. Apparently, however, it was
contrived by a religious confederation, as the scheme best adapted to introduce
order amongst semi-civilized tribes, and with no view to their own advantage
or aggrandizement, or enjoyment of indolent ease. The authority of influence,
of advice, the Brahmans necessarily retained, and they were the only compc-
tent expounders of the laws which they promulgated. They had no other
themselves, and which was equally necessary to ensure attention to their in-
structions. They laboured to deserve the opinion of sanctity by imposing bur-
densome cuties on themselves, of a domestic and religious character, and it
was probably in the true spirit of contemplative devotion, as well as from mo-
tives of prudence and policy, that they divested themselves of temporal rank.
Every thing in the Hindu Institutes indicates their originating not from poli-
tical but religious principles.-I.
154
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. stances, it appears, were sufficient to counterbalance the
CHAP. IV. legislative, and the judicative, and even a great part of the
executive power, reinforced by all the authority of an
overbearing superstition, lodged in the hands of the
Brahmens. These threw around the sovereign an external
lustre, with which the eyes of uncultivated men are easily
dazzled. In dangerous and disorderly times, when erery
thing which the nation values depends upon the sword,
the military commander exercises unlimited authority by
universal consent; and so frequently is this the situation
of a rude and uncivilized people, surrounded on all sides
by l'apacious and turbulent neighbours, that it becomes,
in a great measure, the habitual order of things. The
Hindu king, by commanding both the force, and the
revenue of the state, had in his bands the distribution of
gifts and favour's; the potent instrument, in short, of
patronage; and the jealousy and rivalship of the different
sets of competitors, would, of their own accord, give him a
great influence over the Brahmens themselves. The dis-
tribution of gifts and favours is an engine of so much
power, that the man who enjoys it to a certain extent is
absolute, with whatever checks he may appear to be
surrounded.
CHAPTER IV.
The Laws.
NEXT to the form of government," in determining the
N political condition of the people, is the body of law,
or the mode in which the rights of individuals are ex-
pressed and secured. For elucidating this important
point, in the history of the Hindus, materials are abun-
dant. The detail, however, or even the analysis, of the
Hindu code, would far exceed the bounds, to which, in a
1 See what is observed by three great authors, Fume, Blackstone, ancl
Paley, on the influence of the crown in England. See also what is observed by
Lord Bolingbroke, on the same subject, in his Dissertation on Parties.-M.
What is here said, however, of the absolute power of Hindu princes is wholly
inconsistent with much that has been previously advanced of the unboundech
authority of the Bralımais; neither is quite true. Hindu princes and Brab-
mans are held in check by many considerations, and, in the original system,
their several powers were evidently designed to control and balance each
other.-TY.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
155
work like the present, this topic must be confined. An BOOK II.
accurate conception of the character and spirit of the CHAP. IV.
Hindu laws, and of their place in the scale of excellence
or defect, is all I can attempt to convey.
Amid the imperfections adhering to the state of law
among a rude and ignorant people, one is, that they pre-
serve not their maxims of justice, and their rules of
judicial procedure, distinct from other subjects. In the
law books of the Hindus, the details of jurisprudence and
judicature occupy comparatively a very moderate space.?
The doctrines and ceremonies of religion; the rules and
practice of education; the institutions, duties, and cus-
toms of domestic life; the maxims of private morality,
and even of domestic economy; the rules of government,
of war, and of negotiation; all form essential parts of the
Hindu codes of law, and are treated in the same style, and
laid down with the same authority, as the rules for the
distribution of justice. The tendency of this rude con-
junction of dissimilar subjects is, amid other incon-
veniences, to confound the important distinction between
those obligations which it is the duty of the magistrate to
enforce, and those which ought to be left to the suggestions
of self-interest, and the sanctions of morality; it is to
extend coercion, and the authority of the magistrate,
over the greater part of human life, and to leave men no
liberty even in their private and ordinary transactions ;
i It is not quite correct to say, that the Hindus do not preserve the ordinances
of daily life, distinct from rules of judicial procedure. The original precepts
as presently noticed, are classed under various titles, but these again are ar-
ranged under three great divisions ; Alchára, ceremonial and moral laws;
Vyavahára, jurisprudence; and Práyáschittas religious law, expiation or pun-
ishment for crime.-W.
? Examine that important specimen of an original. Hinda book of law, the
institutes of Menil. See, too, the confession of Mr. Colebrooke in the preface
to his translation of the Digest of Hindu Lavy on Contracts and Successions; a
work compiled a few years ago, under authority of the English government,
by some of the most learned and respectable of the Bralımens.-M.
There is no such confession. An extract from a letter of Sir William Jones
is cited by Mr. Colebrooke, in which probably the expression alluded to occurs.
" The law of contracts," it is there stated, “Dears an inconsiderable proportion
to the rest of the work." Nothing is said of "jurisprudence and judicature";
and Sir William Jones is speaking not of Hindu law books in general, but of a
recent compilation, the Code, translated by Mr. Halhed. Mr. Colebrooke
gives a very different view of the arrangement of Hindu law. "The body of
Hindu law comprises a system of cuties, religious and civil. Separating the
topic of religious duties and omitting ethical subjects, Hindu lawyers have
considered civil duties under the distinct heads of private contests and forensic
practice; the first comprehends law, private and criminal, the last .includes
the forms of judicial procedure, rules o pleading, law of evidence, written and
oral, adverse titles, oaths and ordeal” Pref, to the Digest, P. xi.- IV.
156
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. while it lessens greatly the force of the legal sanction in
CHAP. 11. those cases in which its greatest efficiency is required.
Another topic, which it will be convenient to detach
and premise, is, the division and arrangement which the
Hindus have given' to the matter of law. In marking a
stage of civilization, this is a very characteristic circum-
stance. As the human mind, in a rude state, has not the
power to make a good distribution of a complicated sub-
ject, so it is little aware of its importance; little aware
that this is the ground-work of all accurate thought. In
the Institutes of Menu, the most celebrated perhaps of
all the original compends of Hindu law, the titles, as they
are there denominated, or divisions of law, are eighteen, laid
down in the following order:---1. Debt, on loans for con-
sumption; 2. Deposits and loans for use; 3. Sale without
ownership; 4. Concerns among partners; 5. Subtraction
of what has been given; 6. Non-payment of wages or hire;
7. Non-performance of agreements; 8. Rescission of sale
and purchase; 9. Disputes between master and servant;
10. Contests on boundaries; ll and 12. Assault and
slander ; 13. Larceny; 14. Robbery and other violence;
15. Adultery; 16. Altercation between man and wife, and
their several duties; 17. The law of inheritance; 18. Gaming
with dice and with living creatures. It is not easy to
* dore importance is attached to this subject than it merits. Confessedly
the laws of Manu were intended for an early stage of society, when it is more
important to devise than to 'classify. Classification is the business of higli
refinement, and then, according to our author's own showing, is never very
successfully performed; as observed by a competent writer on this subject,
commenting on Mr. Mill's survey of Hindu law, “the most refined and en-
lightened countries partake with Hindostan in this symptom of barbarism.,
In England, till the appearance of Wood's Institutes, or Blackstone's Commen-
taries, the law lay over a mass of authorities, from which its principles were to
be extracted by the practitioner as well as they could be. Yet who would
have objected to England in the middle of the 19th century, that she had not
arrived at an advanced stage of civilization, because her jurisprudence was
dispersed and unmethodized. Asiatic Journal, June, 1828, p. 772. By this test,
the attempt to classify would place the Hindus higher in civilisation than the Eng-
lisli. That the later writers on Hindu law have not improved upon the method
of Manu, is to be explained by the sanctity of the primitive code: it would have
been irreverent to have disarranged the scheme there laid down, had it occurred
to them as possible or advantageous to alter the classification.-W.
? Laws of Menu, ch. viii. The division and arrangement of the same sub-
jects, in the compilation translated by Mr. Halhed, are very similar, as will
appear by the following titles of the chapters :-1. Of lending and borrowing;
2. Division of inheritable property; 3. Of justice ; 4. Trust or deposit; 5.
Selling a stranger's property ; 6. Of shares; 7. Alienation by gift; 8. Of ser-
vitude; 9. Of wages; 10. Of rent or lire; 11. Purchase or sale; 12. Boun-
daries or limits; 13. Shares in the cultivation of land ; 14. Of cities, towns,
and of the fines for damaging a crop ; 15. Scandalous and bitter expressions;
16. Of assaults ; 17. Theft; 18. Violence; 19. Adultery ; 20. Of what concerns
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
157
conceive a more rude and defective attempt at the classi- BOOK II.
fication of laws, than what is here presented. The most CHIAP. IV.
essential and obvious distinctions are neglected and con-
founded. Though no arrangement would appear more
natural, and more likely to strike even an uncultivated
find them mixed and blended together in the code of the
Hindus. The first nine of the heads or titles, as above
l'efer to civil law; the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, four-
teenth, and fifteenth, to criminal law; the sixteenth and
seventeenth return to civil, and the eighteenth to crimi-
nal; while the tenth relates partly to the one, and partly
to the other.
Another ground of division, well calculated, as being ex-
ceedingly obvious, to strike an uncultivated mind, is the
distinction of persons and things. This was the ground-
work of the arrangement bestowed upon the Roman laws.
in the English; rude as it is, at once the effect, and the
cause, of confusion. It will be seen, however, that even
this imperfect attempt at a rational division was far above
the Hindus.
In the order in which the titles follow one another, no
principle of arrangement can be traced. The first eight of
the heads may be regarded as allotted to the subject of con-
tracts; but a more rude and imperfect division of contracts
cannot easily be conceived. Not to dwell upon the circum-
stance of beginning with loans, one of the most remote
and refined contracts, instead of the more obvious and
women ; 21. Of sundry articles. In the elaborate Digest on the subject of
Contracts and Inheritances, which has been translated by Nir. Colebrooke, the
titles of the books, as far as they extend, coincide exactly with the titles in the
Institutes of Menu; thus, Book 1. On loans, and their payment; Book 2. On
deposits ; Book 3. On the non-performance of agreements; Book 4. On the
duties of man and wife. The part of the work which relates to inheritance is
included in one book, and is the same with the 17th title enumerated in the
Institutes of Menu.
1 The Romans, by the ambiguity of their word jura, which signified either
nights or laws, were enabled to use, without manifest impropricty, such expres-
sions as jull of persons, and jura of things : for though it was absurd to talk
to talk of the laws of things. In their expressions jurii personarum and jurce
rerum, there was, therefore, only confusion of ideas, and ambiguity. The
English lawyers, from two of their characteristic properties, blind imitation,
and the incapacity of clearing confused ideas, have adopted the same division ;
though in their set of phrases, rights of persons, and rights of things, there is
not only confusion and ambiguity, but gross absurdity,
158
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II, simple, we may observe that the subject of purchase and
CHAP. IV. sale is divided into two parts; but, instead of being treated
in conjunction with one another, one occupies the third
place in the list of titles, the other the eighth; and a num-
ber of heterogeneous subjects intervene. “Concerns among
partners” is a title which occupies the middle place between
that of “Sale without ownership," and "Subtraction of what
has been given;" with neither of which it has any relation.
“Nonpayment of wages or hire” stands immediately before
"Nonperformance of agreements,” though the latter is a
general title in which the former is included. The latter,
indeed, is remarkable; for it is so general that it includes
the whole subject of contracts, though it is here placed as
one, and the last, save one, among nine different titles or
divisions of that subject. Several of the titles are nothing
but particular articles belonging to some of the other di-
visions; and are with great impropriety made to stand as
separate and primary heads. The contracts, for example,
between master and servant, are part of the great subject
Location, or letting and taking to hire, including services
as well as things; yet are these contracts here treated of
under two distinct titles: the one, “Nonpayment of wages
or hire," the other, “Disputes between master and ser-
vant, and even these are separated from one another by.
tivo intervening subjects. "Concerns among partners," is
an article little, surely, entitled to stand as a separate head
among the primary divisions of law, since the rights of in-
dividuals in a joint property fall under the same distinc-
tions and rules which determine their rights in other
property. Where one branch of one great topic, as trans-
1 A very odd attempt at a further generalisation upon the first nine titles,
appears in Mr. Colebrooke's Digest. His first book," On Loans,” corresponds.
exactly with the first title in the Institutes of Menu. His second book, " On
Deposits," is divided into four chapters, which are exactly the 2nd, 3rd, 4th,
and 5th titles in the lists of Menu. His third book, which is entitled, “ On
the Nonperformance of Agreements," is divided into four chapters, and these
are the same with the four succeeding titles in the classification of Menil.-l.
Loans ; 2. Deposits; 3. Nonperformance of Agreements. These, according to
the logic of the Digest, are the grand classes of contracts, and the titles which
belong to them. The last of the titles, it is evident, cannot belong to any par-
ticular class : Nonperformance is incident to all classes of contracts. Either,
therefore, this is an improper title altogether, or it ought to stand as the title
of the whole subject of contracts: and then Nonperformance of Agreements
would include louns, deposits, and everything else. Under deposits, the Digest
includes the following sub-titles: 1. Deposits and other bailments; 2. Sale
without ownership; 3. Concerns among partners; 4. Subtraction of gifts : of
which the last two have no more to do with deposits than they have with loans,
cr any the most remote branch of the subject; and the second is either a part
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
159
fer of ownerhip is taken up, and concluded, it would appear BOOK II.
a very necessary arrangement to pass on to another: when CIAP. IV.
transfer by contract, for example, is finished, to begin with
transfer by descent. Such obvious rules appear to have had
no influence in the framing of the Hindu systems of law:
when the subject of contracts is ended, the principal
branches of criminal law are introduced; and, after these
and some other topics are finished, then follows the great
subject of inheritance.1
In order to convey, in as narrow a compass as possible,
an idea of the maxims and spirit of Hindu jurisprudence,
it will be convenient not to follow the mangled division of
the Hindus themselves. Omitting the laws, which regu-
late the political order, which determine who are to govern,
who are to obey, and define the terms of command and
obedience; laws are conveniently distributed under the
three usual heads; I. Civil laws, though Civil is a very
objectionable term ; II. Penal laws; and III. The laws of
judicature, or those which fix the mode in which the judi-
cial services are rendered. Under each of these headis,
such particulars have been carefully selected from the
multitude of Hindu laws, as appeared the best calculated
to convey an idea of the leading qualities of the Hindu
code, and of the stage of civilization at which it may
appear to have been formed.
I. Under the first of these heads, Property is the great
subject of law. To this we may confine our illustrations.
It is needless to remark, that the sources of acquisition,
by occupancy, by labour, by contract, by donation, by de-
scent; which are recognised in almost all states of society,
are recognised in Hindustan. It is in the accuracy with
which the intended effects of these incidents are defined,
of the first, and ought to have been included under it, as relating to the sale of
things deposited, or that also has no connection with the title. Let us next
contemplate the sub-titles, included under Non performance of Agreements.
They are, 1. Nonpayment of wages or hirc ; 2. Nonperformance of Agreements,
chiefly in association ; 3. Rescision of purchase and sale; 4. Disputes between
master and herdsman : as if these included all the agreements of which there
could be non performance. The first and last of them, moreover, are the same
thing, or the last is a portion of the first. It is needless to carry the criticism
further.
It is curious, though somewhat bumbling, to observe how far great men
may let authority mislead them. The articles," says Dr. Robertson, "of
which the Hindu code is composed, are arranged in natural and luminous
order." Disquisition concerning India, Appendix, p. 217.
160
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. and in the efficiency of the means taken to secure the
CHAP. IV. benefits they convey, that the excellence of one systena
above another is more particularly observed.
Though property in the first stage of its existence, was
probably measured by occupancy, and the one ceased with
the other, the privilege was early conferred of alienating
for a valuable consideration, or of transferring by purchase
and sale. As this is a very simple compact, it appears to
admit of little variety in the various stages of human in-
provement. In an age, however, in which the means of
detecting fraudulent acquisitions, and of proving the good
faith of contracts and bargains, are imperfectly known,
purchases and sales, made in public, are alone considered
valid. The laws of our Saxon ancestors prohibited the sale
of everything above the value of twenty-pence, except in
open market; and it is with a pleasing kind of surprise we
find, that similar circumstances have suggested a similar
expedient to the people of Hindustan. "He,” says the law
of Menu, “who has received a chattel by purchase in open
market, before a number of men, justly acquires the abso-
lute property, by having paid the price of it."3 The right,
however, conveyed by a bonâ fide purchase, is not, among
the Hindus, carried to that extent, which is found requi-
site in a commercial and highly civilized society. If the
goods were not the property of the person by wbom they
were soid, the right of the purchaser becomes absolute only
if he can produce the vendor. “If,” says the law of Menu,4
"the vendor be not producible, and the vendee prove the
public sale, the latter must be dismissed by the king
without punishment; and the former owner, who lost the
chattel, may take it back, on paying the vendee half its
value.” This is quite sufficient to throw so much uncer-
tainty into the great class of transactions by purchase and
i Lord Kames, Historical Law Tracts, p. 123, 154. Grotius de Jure Belli ac
Pacis, lib. II. cap. ii. 2. Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England,
book II, c. i. The annotator on some of the late editions of Blackstone cliffers
from the doctrine in the text. But that writer seems to have mistaken an im-
portant circumstance, carefully attended to by the great lawyers quoted above,
that when the commodities of the earth began to be appropriated they were not
without owners, but the common property of the race at large.
2 L. L. Ethel. 10, 12. L. L. Edg. Hickes. Dissert. p. 30.
3 Chi, viii. 201. When Abraham bought a field of Ephron to bury Sarah, the
bargain was transacted in the presence of all the people. Genesis, ch. xxiii.
See, too, Homer's Iliad, lib. xviii. ver. 499, &c.
4 Ch. viii. 202.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
161
sale, as would prove, in a civilized state of society, a ruinous BOOK II.
obstruction of business. A manufacturer purchases a CHAP. IV.
quantity of the raw material, and works it up; he would
lose, in a mischievous proportion, if the owner of that
material could demand the identical substance, on ten-
dering the half of its price. In many cases, the identical
substance is exported; in many it is consumed; and can-
not possibly be restored. Among children, and among
rude people, little accustomed to take their decisions upon
full and mature consideration, nothing is more common
than to repent of their bargains, and wish to revoke them.
Among the Hindus this has been found an affair of suffi-
cient importance to constitute an entire head in the clas-
sification of their laws. A variety of cases are enumerated,
in which, if dissatisfied with his bargain, a man may insist
upon having it annulled: and in general any sale and pur-
chase of things, not perishable, may be rescinded within
ten days, at the will of either of the parties:another law,
altogether incompatible with an age in which the divisions
and refinements of industry have multiplied the number
of exchanges. The regulation, which fixes the price of
things, instead of leaving it to the natural and beneficent
laws of competition, conveys not a high idea of the know-
ledge of the Hindus. “Let the king,” says the ordinance
of Menu, “establish rules for the sale and purchase of all
marketable things. Once in every five nights, or at the
close of every half month, let him make a regulation for
market prices."3 It is a circumstance full of meaning, that,
under this head of bargain and sale, is arranged the obli-
gation of the marriage contract.
A curious enumeration of the cases in which the property of one man is so
incorporated with that of another as to be inseparable, is given in the Roman
law, under the head of Accessio: Inclusio, adferruminatio, intextura, inædifi-
catio, scriptura, pictura, specificatio, commixtio, et confusio.
· The English law (a few special cases excepted) gives an absolute right of
property to the bona fide purchaser, by whatever means the commodity
may have come into the hands of the vendor. If the English law, however,
takes care of the purchaser, it must be owned that it is deplorably defective in:
the care which it takes of the party by whom the commodity is lost.
2 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 222, 223. See also Halled's Code of Gentoo Laws,
ch. xi. and Mr. Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law, book III. ch. iii.
3 Ibid, 401, 402. It is worthy of remark, that this was a regulation, too,
among the ancient Britons. Leges Wallicae, lib. iii. 247. Henry's Hist. Brit.
iv. 202.
1 Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 224, 227.-M.
· This seems to be a misapprehension of the purport of the law. It is not a
question of contract, but of recission of sale, analogous to which is the inva-
lidity of a marriage with a girl not a virgin, and who' may therefore be sent
VOL. I.
M
162
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. There are many occasions, on which it is useful to the.
CHAP. IV. owner of property, to place it in the keeping of another.
· person, without transfer of the ownership. It may be
placed, for safe-custody merely; for the sake of an.
operation, as with the dyer, for the benefit of his art ;
with the carrier, either by sea or land, for the sake of
transportation ; or it may be placed, as in the case of a
valuable animal, for the sake of maintenance. These,
and a variety of other transactions of a similar sort, are
included in English law under the title of bailments. In
a well-regulated society, where the house of one man is.
nearly as secure from violence as that of another, mere.
deposits, unless in the case of warehousing, the object
of which is convenience or economy, rather than security,
form a class of transactions of little comparative magni-
tude. In a rude society, in which there is little or no
security, and in which the means of concealing valuables
is one of the great studies of life, deposits become an ob-
ject of the greatest importance. In the Hindu code, other
cases of bailment occupy a narrow space : the article of
deposits swells, alone, to a great size, and formas an object-
of considerable intricacy and detail. The modes of proof
back to her parents. As to the inference intimated that a marriage contract
was & case of buying and selling, this is an error which a better recollection of
Manu would have prevented. "Even a man of the servile class ought not to
receive a gratuity when he gives his daughter in marriage." "Nor have we
heard of the tacit sale of a daughter for a price, under the name of a nuptial
gratuity," Manu ix. 98, 100. Rammohun Roy says, it is equally prohibited
by the Vedas. Translation from the Vedas, p. 181.-W.
1 On the law of bailments, the writer in the Asiatic Journal above referred
to, himself a distinguished lawyer, expresses opinions in every way opposed to
those of the text. “It is universally admitted that the English law of bail-
ments is founded upon the soundest and most enlightened principles as they
have been laid down and elucidated in the decisions of Westininster Hall, from
Lord Holt down to Lord Mansfield. What if it shall appear certain beyond all
controversy, that those principles which are comparatively of recent growth in
our own law, existed for ages in the despised system of Hindu jurisprudence !"
Then quoting instances in proof, he concludes, "all the requisite shades of care
and diligence, and the corresponding shades of negligence and default, are
carefully observed in the Hindu law of bailent, and neither in the jurispru-
dence nor in the legal treatises of the most civilised states of Europe are they
to be found more logically expressed, or more accurately defined. In the:
:spirit of Pyrrhus's observation on the Roman legion, one cannot refrain from
exclaiming, I see nothing barbarous in the jurisprudence of the Hindus."-
p. 14.-W.
2 See Laws of Menu, ch. viii.; Halhed's Gentoo Code, iv.; Colebrooke's
Digesti, book II. ch. i.; Heineccii Pandect. pars III. lib. xvi. tit. 3, on the sub-
ject of deposits, and the importance of this class of transactions in the early.'
days of Rome, with the causes of that importance.
The reader may see one of the few attempts which have been made to let in
the light of common sense upon the law of England, in the Essay ou Bail-
ments, by Sir William Jones.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
163
· constitute the chief peculiarities in the provisions, and BOOK II.
will be considered, when we speak of the third branch of CHAP. IV.
jurisprudence. One rule, however, expressive of great
simplicity, not to say rudeness, belongs exclusively to this
article : "On failure of witnesses, to prove a deposit, let
the judge actually deposit gold or precious things with the
defendant, by the artful contrivance of spies. Should he
restore that deposit, be is to be held innocent: if he deny
it, he is to be apprehended and compelled to pay the value
of both.”
- Hiring; that is, transferring to another, for a valuable
consideration, and to a definite extent, the use of any thing
valuable ; is a right which holds a sort of middle place
between sale and bailment: and may extend to personal
Services as well as to commodities. As this contract falls
very naturally under the laws of purchase and sale, it
occupies a narrow space in the volumes of Hindu law, and
as far as commodities are concerned, offers nothing parti-
cular for observation. In the hire of personal services,
three principal classes are distinguished ; first, the students
of the Veda, who discharge every menial office to their
masters, and receive instruction in return; secondly,
handicrafts, who receive either stipulated wages, or, if no
agreement has been made, one tenth of the profits on their
labour; thirdly, agricultural servants, who are always paid
in kind ; for tending cows, one tenth of the milk ; for the .
culture of corn, one tenth of the crop.5
1 Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 183.
? The language of English law in the case of this contract is defective, and
a source of confusion. In the case of other contracts, it has one name for the
act of one of the parties, another name for that of the other. Thus, in the
case of exchange, one of the parties is said to sell, the other to buy ; in that of
a loan, one of the parties is said to lend, the other to borrow. In the present
case, it often uses but one name for the acts of both parties ; he who gives, and
he who receives, the use, being both said to hire. The Civilians are savec
from this inconvenience by the use of the Latin language ; in which the act
of the one party is termed locatio, that of the other conductio. To let and to
hire, if uniformly employed, would answer the same purpose in English.
• 3 Institut. Justin., lib.iii. tit. 25. Locatio et conductio proxima est emptioni
et venditioni, iisdemque juris regulis consistit.
4 The simplicity of some of the enactments provokes a smile : “If a person
hath hired anything for a stipulated time he shall pay the rent accordingly."
Gentoo Code, X. Again, “If a person, having agreed for the rent of the water
of a pool, or of the water of a well, or of the water of a river, or of a house,
does not pay it, the magistrate shall cause such rent and hire to be paid."
Ibid.
• 6 If a hired servant perform not his work according to agreement, he shall
be fined, and forfeit his wages. What he has been prevented by sickness from
performing, he is allowed to execute after he is well; but it he leaves un-
finished, either by himself cr a substitute, any part of the stipulated service,
164
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. The peculiar species of transfer which is known by the
CĀAP. IV. name of loan is an object of great importance in the juris-
prudence of all nations. Among the Hindus it stands as
the first article in the classification of legal subjects, and
the four books into which the compilers of that work
have divided the laws of contract. From the peculiarities
in the ideas and in the circumstances of the Hindus, it
plexity. In an improved state of society, where the inef-
ficiency of laws, the diffusion of wealth, and the accom-
modation of business, have created a mutual confidence,
loans are generally contracted on the security of law,
without the actual custody or deposit of the property on
which they may be secured. It is only in that extremely
confined and degraded species of lending, abandoned to
pawnbrokers, that pledges form a regular and component
part. In the more early and imperfect states of the social
union, circumstances are very different. Law is both
feeble and inaccurate, poverty reigns, violence prevails;
and the man who is able to discharge his debts to-day may
be stript of all possessions to-morrow. In these circum-
stances, the security of law upon the person or property
of the debtor is seldom sufficient; and the deposit of some
equivalent property, as a pledge, is the obvious, and, in
point of fact, the common resource. The doctrine of
pledges forms one of the most considerable branches of
this part of the Hindu code. The laws relative to them
are laid down with great minuteness and solemnity; a
variety of cases are distinguished; and the receipt of
pledges appears to have formed a component part of a
comparatively numerous and important class of transac-
tions. The responsibility of a second person, who be-
however small, he is deprived of the hire for the whole. One branch of this
subject, the obligations between masters, and the servants who tend their
cattle, is of so much importance, denoting a state of society approaching the
pastoral, as to constitute a whole title of Hindu law. The principal object is
to define those injuries accruing to the cattle, and those trespasses committed
by them, for which the keeper is responsible Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 214 to
218, and 229 to 244. Halhed's Gentoo Code, viii. ix. Colebrooke's Digest,
Book III. ch.ii. and iv.
I Lending on pledges can scarcely be regarded as proof of a state of bar-
barism, or the multitude of pawnbrokers in London would witness our being
very low in the scale of civilisation.-W.
Digest, part I. book I. ch. iii.
THE LAWS OF THE HIINDUS. . 165
comes surety for the borrower, is another foundation on BOOK II.
which Hindu loans are contracted, and the different spe- CHAP, IV.
cies of it are not inaccurately distinguished. Interest, or
a consideration for property lent, appears to have been
known at a very early stage of civilization. As it is only
interest on debts of money which is familiar to the mem-
bers of a highly-civilized society, European visitors appear
to have been forcibly struck with the Hindu law, which
imposes an interest to be paid in kind on loans in goods,
as grain, fruit, wool or hair, beasts of burden and the like.3
Mr. Halhed says, “ The different rate of interest to be paid
for different articles is perhaps an institute peculiar to
Hindustan; but it reflects a strong light upon the simpli-
city of ancient manners, before money was universally
current as the medium of barter for all commodities, and
is at the same time a weighty proof of the great antiquity
of these laws, which seem calculated for the crude con-
ceptions of an almost illiterate people upon their first
civilization.”+ When Mr. Halhed, however, informs us
that this law “reflects a strong light upon the simplicity
of ancient manners," it is necessary to add that whatever
light it reflects upon ancient, it reflects the same upon
present manners, as this is not a law, anciently in force, but
long ago repealed; it is a law now in operation, and as
suitable as ever to the purely Hindu state of society.
Mr. Halhed too is mistaken when he supposes that this is
an institution peculiar to the Hindus. It was familiarly
known to the Jews in the time of Moses, and was probably
a common practice in the nations around Judea, as well as
in Egypt, from which the Jews had recently departed.5
To vary the rates of interest upon the different castes
is a peculiarity more naturally arising from the unfair and
odious distinctions among men, created by the Hindus.
The rule established in the institutes of Menu is, to take,
when there is a pledge, one and a quarter per cent. per
i Laws of Menu, ch. viii. Colebrooke's Digest, part Í. book I.ch.iv. Halhed's
Gentoo Code, ch. i. sect. 3.
2 It was perfectly familiar to the Jews at the time of their departure from
Egypt; Deuteron. ch. xxii. 20.
3. Laws of Menu, viii. 151.
4 Halhed, Preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws, p.53.
5 “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to tlıy brother, usury of money, usury
of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury. Unto a stranger thou
mayest lend upon usury." Deuteron.xxiii. 19, 20.
166
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. month ; when there is no pledge, two per cent. per month
. CHAP. IV. that is, from a Brahmen : but from a man of the military
caste, three per cent.;' four per cent. from one of the
mercantile caste ; and from a man of the servile .caste no.
less than five per cent, per month. This exorbitant rate
of interest affords a satisfactory criterion to judge of the
opinions, which are not unfrequently advanced, of the
great riches which, at some imaginary period, formerly
distinguished. Hindustan. The excessive accumulation,
however, of interest was forbidden. Upon a loan in mo-
ney, interest, beyond the amount of the principal, was not
a debt;3 upon loans in goods, for some reason which it is.
not easy to divine, it was permitted to take five times.
the amount of the principal. Compound interest too was.
prohibited. These were rules which would give effectual
motives to the Hindu creditor to exact the regular pay-
ment of his interest, with rigid severity. 4. In the laws.
relating to loans, however, the most remarkable particular
is the mode of enforcing payment. The creditor is com-
manded, first, to speak to the friends and relations of the
debtor; next, to go in person and importune him, staying
some time in his house, but without eating or drinking-
If these methods fail, he may then carry the debtor home
with him, and having seated him, as the law expresses it.
before men of character and reputation, may there detain
him. Should he still hold out, the creditor is next di-
rected, to endeavour by feigned pretences to get possession
of some of his goods; or, if any pledge was deposited with
him, to carry it before the magistrate, who will cause it to
be sold to make payment. If neither of these expedients.
can be used, he shall seize and confine the debtor's wife,
children, cattle, buffaloes, horses, &c.; also his pots, clothes,
mats, and furniture, and, seating himself at his door, there.
1 It would have been candid to have observed, that under ordinary circum-
stances, the Brahman and Kshatriya are prohibited froin receiving any interest
on moncy lent, although they are enjoined to pay it on money borrowed if
demanded. Manu, x. 117.-W.
9 The tribes of Burren Sunker, that is, all the mixed classes, pay at the rate
of one in sixteen (or rather more than six per cent.) per month. Halhea's.
Gentoo Code, ch.i. sect. 1.
3 It is curious that this, too, was a law of Egypt, at least in regard to loans.
upon security. Diod. Sic. lib. i. cap. 79. Goguet's Origin of Laws, part III.
book I. ch. iv.
For the details respecting the law of interest, consult Laws of Menu, ch.
viii. 140 to 154. Halhed's Gentoo Code, ch. i. sect. l. Colebrooke's Digest,
part I. book I. ch. ii.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
167
receive his money. Should even this proceeding fail, le BOOK II.
is .commanded to seize and bind the debtor's person, and CAP. IV.
procure by forcible means a discharge of the debt. What..
iis meant by forcible means is sufficiently explained in the
following extraordinary definition. “When, having tried
the debtor, the creditor carries him to his own house, and
by beating or other means compels him to pay, this is
called violent compulsion. By beating," adds the law,
cor by coercion, a creditor may enforce payment from his
debtor.” 2 When the debtor is of a caste not superior to
the creditor, the latter may seize and compel him to
labour for the discharge of the debt. If a man owes debts
.to several creditors, he is commanded to discharge first
one debt and then another, in the order in which they
were contracted; a regulation by which one or two of his
creditors may receive in full their demands, while the
rest, whether few or numerous, are entirely defrauded.
The equitable arrangement of an equal dividend, which
we find established among nations of very limited pro-
gress in the knowledge of law, obvious and useful as it is,
had not suggested itself to the rude legislators of Hin-
dustan. When a creditor procures payment of a debt by
application to the magistrate, he pays him for his interpo-
sition a twentieth part of the sum recovered. By a very
extraordinary regulation a punishment seems to be in-
flicted on the defendant in all actions for debt wherein he
is cast. “A debt being admitted by the defendant, he
must pay five in the hundred as a fine to the king; but if
it be denied and proved, twice as much.”4 The sacred
character of the Brahmen, whose life it is the most dread-
ful of crimes either directly or indirectly to shorten, sug-
gested to him a process for the l'ecovery of debts, the
most singular and extravagant that ever was found among
men. He proceeds to the door of the person whom he
means to coerce, or wherever else he can most conve-
] This mode of personal seizure had place at an early age among the Egyp-
tians ; but they made sufficient advancement to abolish it. A law of king
Bocchoris permitted the creditor to seize only the goods of his debtor for pay-
ment. Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 90.
2 Colebrooke's Digest, part I. book I. ch. vi. sect. 240, 241.
3 For the laws respecting recovery of debt, see Laws of Menu, ch. viii.
Halled's Gentoo Code, ch. i. sect. 5. Colebrooke's Digest, part I. book ).
ch. lợi.
4 Laws of Menu, viü. 139.
168
. HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
. BOOK 11. niently intercept him, with poison or a poignard in his
CHAP. IV. hand. If the person should attempt to pass, or make his
escape, the Brahmen is prepared instantly to destroy
himself. The prisoner is therefore bound in the strongest
chains ; for the blood of the self murdered Brahmen would
be charged upon his head, and no punishment could ex-
piate his crime. The Brahmen setting himself down (the
action is called sitting in dherna), fasts; and the victim
of his arrest, for whom it would be impious to eat, while
a member of the sacred class is fasting at his door, must
follow his example. It is now, however, not a mere contest
between the resolution or strength of the parties ; for if
the obstinacy of the prisoner should exhaust the Brah-
men and occasion his death, he is answerable for that
most atrocious of crimes—the murder of a priest; he be-
comes execrable to his countrymen ; the horrors of remorse
never fail to pursue him ; he is shut out from the benefits
of society, and life itself is a calamity. As the Brahmen
who avails himself of this expedient is bound for his
honour to persevere, he seldom fails to succeed, because
the danger of pushing the experiment too far is, to his
antagonist, tremendous. Nor is it in his own concerns
alone that the Brahmen may turn to account the sacredness
of his person. : he may hire himself to enforce in the same
manner the claims of any other man; and not claims of
debt merely; he may employ this barbarous expedient in
any suit. What is still more extraordinary, even after
legal process, even when the magistrate has pronounced a
decision against him, and in favour of the person upon
whom his claim is made, he may still sit in dherpa,
and by this dreadful mode of appeal make good his de-
mand.
See an account of the practice of sitting in dhcrna, by Sir John Shore
(Lord Teignmouth), Asiat. Researches, iv. 330 to 332. He tells us that, since
the institution of the court of justice of Benares in 1783, the practice has been
less frequent, but that even the interference of that court and of the resident
had occasionally been unable to check it. He tells us, too, that some of the
pundits, when consulted, declared the validity of the deed or concession ex-
torted by aherna ; but restricted that validity to such claims as are just; others
denied its validity, except where the party confirmed the engagement after the
coercion is withdrawn. But it is evident that these restrictions are inconsistent
with the facts which Lord Teignmouth records, and are mere attempts of the
pundits, according to their usual practice, to interpret their laws into as great
a coincidence as possible with the ideas of the great persons by whom the
questions are put to them. A regulation was made by the Bengal government
in 1795 for preventing this practice. See papers, ordered to be printed by the
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
· 169
We have now reviewed the great peculiarities of the BOOK II.
Hindu law, in regard to those transfers of property which CHAP. IV,
partake of the nature of exchange, and in which some sort
of an equivalent is given and received; it remains for us
to consider those, in which the property passes from one
owner to another, without any return.
The most extensive class of this species of transactions
are those occasioned by the death of the owner. Men had
considerably strengthened the chain by which they were
connected with property, before they ceased to consider
death as the cause of a perfect separation, and as leaving
their possessions free to the earliest occupier. A right of
succession in the children suggests itself, however, at a
very early period in the progress of civilization. It is
recommended by so many motives, it so happily accords
with some of the strongest impulses of human nature,
and is so easily engrafted upon the previous order of
things, that it could not fail to be an early institution.
The children, being naturally the nearest to their parent
at the moment of his death, were generally able to avail
themselves of the right of occupancy, and to exclude other
successors by prior possession. It was the usual arrange-
ment in early stages of society, that the different members
of a family should live together; and possess the property
in common. The father was rather the head of a number
of partners, than the sole proprietor. When he died, it
was not so much a transfer of property, as a continued
possession; and the copartnership was only deprived of
one of its members. The laws of inheritance among the
Hindus are almost entirely founded upon this patriarchal
arrangement. When the father dies, if the sons shall
House of Commons, 3rd June, 1813, p. 431. See, also Broughton's Dahratta
Camp, p. 42.-M.
There is no authority in any code or treatise of law, for these practices : the
pundits might, with great propriety, differ in their views of the validity of the
concession thus extorted.-W.
I“ Among barbarians, in all parts of the world, persons who belong to the
sainc family are understood to enjoy a community of goods. In those early
ages, when men are, in a great measure, strangers to commerce or the aliena-
tion of commodities, the right of property is hardly distinguished from the right
of using or possessing; and those persons who have acquired the joint posses-
sion of any subject are apt to be regarded as the joint proprietors of it.” Millar
on the English Government, i. 190.
1 2 The whole, too, of that Title of law, “ Concerns among partners," refers
not so much to a joint-stock property, contributed by certain individuals for
carrying on any particular business, as to the property of a number of persons,
most commonly brothers or other near relations, who agree to live together,
170
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA,
. BOOK II. choose to live together, the eldest, says the law, shall take
CIIAP. IV. the station of the head of the family, and the property is.
held jointly in his name. “For brothers a common abode
is ordained so long as both their parents live. On failure:
of both their parents, partition among brothers is or-
dained."? Even during the life-time of a father, a separa-
tion of the family might take place, when a division of the
property, according to the strict notion of a joint interest,
was made, in the proportion of two shares to the father,
and one share equally to each of the sons. When the
division, however, of the common estate is delayed till the
death of the father, the elder brother, as the new head of
the family, is distinguished in the partition. He first
receives one-twentieth of the inheritance, after which it
. is divided equally among all the brothers. With a few
immaterial exceptions, the principle of equal division
guided succession among the Hindus. “Let the sons.
after the death of the parents, equally share the assets.
If all sons be equal in good qualities, they must share
alike; but he who is distinguished by science and good
conduct shall take a greater share than the rest.”'s The
·last of these clauses affords an example of that vagueness
and ambiguity, the source of endless dispute, which dis-
tinguishes the laws of all ignorant people, and which
forms a most remarkable feature in those of Hindustan.
What is the criterion. to ascertain that superiority in
science and virtue, which determines the share of brothers
and to liare all their effects in common. The multitude of the laws proves.
the frequency of the transactions. The old law of inheritance among the
Romans was altogether founded upon the same ideas. Fundamentum succes-
sionis veteris erat conservatio familiaruun. Familia enim universitas quædam
videbatur, cujus princeps cst paterfamilias.- Quum ergo proximi in familia
essent liberi vel sui heredes, tanquam vivo patre, quodanmodo domini et
AVTOKANpovouoi, legibus xii. tabularum cantum fuerat; SI INTESTATO MORITUR
CUI SUUS NERES NEC ESCIT AGNATUS PROXIMUS FAMILIAN HABETO. Heinec. in
Inst. lib. iii. tit. i. sect. 690.
Laws of Men 12, ch. ix. 105.
2 Colebrooke's Digest, part II. Book V. ch. iii. sect. 114.
3 Halhed's Gentoo Code, ch. ii. sect. ll. Colebrooke's Digest, part II. book
V. ch. ii. Mr. Halhed has remarked that the demand of the prodigal son in
the Gospel for his portion, affords proof of a similar state of things among the
Jews. The attentive reader will perceive many other strokes of resemblancc.
:: All the more cultivated nations of Asia appear to have reached a stage of so-
ciety nearly the same.
1 Colebrooke's Digest, book V. ch. i. sect, ii. subsect. 34. Flalhed's Gentoo
· Code, ch. ii. sect. 12.
· 5 Colebrooke's Digest, part II. book V. ch. 3, subsect. 115, 116, ch. i. sect. ü.
· subsect. 34.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
171
in the division of the paternal estate? Or who is to bé BOOK II..
the judge? Equally unskilful, and pregnant with evil, is CHAP. IV.
the vague and indeterminate law which declares " that all
those brothers who are addicted to any vice shall lose
their title to the inheritance.” As the interpretation of
the phrase "addicted to any vice," may receive any lati-
tude, according to the inclinations and views of the
expounder, a gate is here thrown open to unlimited in-
justice.”? Inconsistency, and even direct contradiction,
is a characteristic of the Hindu laws, which it does not
appear to have been thought even requisite to avoid ; as
it is expressly enacted, that when two laws command
opposite things, both are to be held valid. This attribute
is fully exemplified in the laws of inheritance. It is de-
clared that, “on the failure of natural heirs, the lawful
heirs are such Brahmens as have read the three Vedas,
as are pure in body and mind, as have subdued their
passions; and they must constantly offer the cake ; thus
the rites of obsequies cannot fail."! Yet it is added, in
the very next clause or sentence, “The property of a
Brahmen shall never be taken as an escheat by the king;
this is a fixed law; but the wealth of the other classes, on
failure of all heirs the king may take."5 Not unfrequently
in rude nations, as if one misfortune ought to be aggra-
1 In a simple state of society it might not have been difficult to appreciate
and verify such grounds of exclusion. As relations becaine more complex,
the impossibility of enforcing these exceptions was evident, and they ceased
to be regarded. The comparative merit of co-heirs forms no rule for unequal
partition, and is therefore no source of endless dispute,' or unlimited injus-
tice.'-W.
: 2 Laws of Menul, ch. ix. 214.-M.
It should be borne in mind, however, that this applies only to 'sacred texts,'
proceeding from the impossibility of supposing either to be wrong. It does
not apply to condicting laws in general; on the contrary, any law incongruous
with the code of Man is declared invalid.-W..
9 When there are two sacred texts, apparently inconsistent, both are held to
be law, for both are pronounced by the wisc to be valid and reconcileable.
Thus in the Veda are these texts; Let the sacrifice be when the sun has
arisen, and before it has risen, and when neither sun nor stars can be seen ;
The sacrifice, therefore, may be performed at any or all of those times. Ibid.
ii. 14, 15.
4 Laws of Menu, c
5 Ibid. 189.- L.
There is no incompatibility or contradiction. The second clause is merely a
qualification of the first, which applies to the property of a Brahman alone.
“ Misra and the rest hold that thie first text of Mart relates to the property of
Brabmanas, but the wealth of Kshatriyas and the rest shall be taken by the
king alone.” Digest, iii. 537. There are other texts to the same effect. It is not
the part of candid criticism to contrast detached passages without reference to
those by which their purport is to be explained.-W.
172
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. vated by another, those who labour under certain mala-
CHAP. IV. dies, or bodily defects, are excluded from inheritance.
This principle is fully adopted by the Hindus, and carried
to an unusual and monstrous extent. All those persons
who are lame, all those persons who are blind, all those
who are deaf, all those who are dumb, impotent, or
affected with an incurable disease, as leprosy, marasmus,
gonorrhea, dysentery, are denied a share in the partition
of their father's effects, and are only entitled to a main-
tenance from the family. When a man has sons by wives
of different castes, they inherit in the proportion of the
mother's rank, and the son by a concubine is entitled
only to one-half of the share of him who is born of a
wife. The laws which define proximity of kin, and fix the
order of collateral succession, are numerous, minute, and
in nothing remarkable. It is particularly to be noted
that daughters are debarred from a share in the inheritance
of their fathers. The woman, indeed, among the Hindus,
is so restricted in the means of acquiring property, that
1 It should be born' deaf. The exclusion may be regarded as harsh, but
it is not arbitrary or without cause, being founded on the notion that such
persons are incompetent to conduct the affairs of the household, to procreate
issue, and to perform religious rites, which are essential to the preservation of
the family. The persons so excluded are to be maintained by the heir, 'with-
out stint, according to the best of his power.' Manu.-W.
2 Colebrooke's Digest, part II. book V. ch. v. sect. 320, 321, 325, 321, 331.
In Halhed's Gentoo Code they are thus enumerated; one born an eunuch,
blind, deaf, dumb, without hand, or foot, or nose, or tongue, or privy member,
Institutes of Menu ; eunuchs and outcasts, persons born blind or deaf, madien,
idiots, the dumb, and such as have lost the use of a limb, are excluded from a
share of the heritage. But it is just, that the heir who knows his duty slrould
give all of them food and raiment. Laws of Menu, viii. 201, 202.
3 Laws of Menu, viii. 149, etc. Halhed's Gentoo Code, ch. ii. sect. 2. Cole-
brooke's Digest, part II. book V. ch. vii.
4 The appearance of accuracy given by minuteness of detail has sometimes
been quoted as a proof of refined knowledge; but it is a proof of the very
reverse. Henry tells us (Hist. of Britain, i.320) that the laws of the Druids
provided with great care for the equitable division of the effects of the family
according to the circumstances of every case. The ancient laws of Wales
descend to very long and particular details on this subject, and make provision
· lib.ii: de mulieribus, cap.i. p.70. The refinement and niceties of the Maho-
medan law of succession are perhaps still more remarkable. See Mahomedan
law of succession, Works of Sir William Jones, iii. 407, and the Al Sirajiyyah,
with Sir William's Commentaries, Ibid. 505. In fact, the want of skill to
ascend to a general expression, or rule, which would accurately include the
different ramifications of the subject, is that which gives occasion to this mi-
nuteness of detail.
6 Those who are unmarried at the death of the father are directed to receive
portions out of their brothers' allotments. Laws of Menni, ix. 118.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
173
she is almost excluded from its rights. The exceptions BOOK II.
consist in certain presents; what was given in the bridal CHAP. IV.
procession; what was given in token of love ; what was
received from a brother, a mother, or a father; and this
property is inherited by her daughters in equal portions
with her sons. If she die without issue, her property falls
to her husband or to her parents, and is subject to nearly
the same rules of collateral succession as are established
in regard to the property of males.
The idea of a joint-interest in the property of the family,
while it early established the right of succession in the
children, served to exclude the right of devising by will.
As the property belonged to the parent in common only
with his offspring, it could not be regarded as just, that
he should have the power of giving it away from them
after his death. It is only in stages of society consider-
ably advanced, that the rights of property are so far
enlarged as to include the power of nominating, at the
discretion of the owner, the person who is to enjoy it
after his death. It was first introduced among the
Athenians by a law of Solon, and among the Romans,
probably, by the twelve tables.3 The Hindus have,
through all ages, remained in a state of society too near
the simplicity and rudeness of the most ancient times, to
have stretched their ideas of property so far. The power
1 "Three persons, a wife, a son, and a slave, are declared by law to have in
general no wealth exclusively their own : the wealth which they may earn is
regularly acquired for the man to whom they belong." Laws of Menu, ch, yiü.
416.--M.
This is by no means the case. In the absence of direct male heirs, widows
succeed to a life interest in real, and absolute interest in personal property.
Next, daughters inherit absolutely. Where there are sons, mothers and
daughters are entitled to shares, and wives hold peculiar property from a
variety of sources, besides those specified by the text, over which a husband
has no power during their lives, and which descends to their own heirs, with a
preference, in some cases, to females. It is far from correct, therefore, to say
that women, amongst the Hindus, are excluded from the rights of property.
- W.
2 Laws of Menu, ch. ix 192-197. Colebrooke's Digest, part II., book V.
ch, tx. .
3 Kames's Historical Law Tracts, i. 162.
4 The right of devising property by will, is clearly no proof of advance in
civilisation by the instances given, The Athenians, in the days of Solon; the
Romans, in those of the twelve tables; and the Arabs, at the birth of Moham-
med, were certainly less refined than the Hindus, at the time that the Code of
Manu was compiled. The case is imperfectly weighed. It would have been
very inconsistent to have given a man power to do that on his death, which he
might not do whilst living. In ancestral property, the occupant had joint
right only with his sons, analogously in some respects to our entailed estates,
, with all our high civilisation, we have not acknowledged to be disposa-
ble of by bequest; and, therefore, he could not have the right to bequeath at
174
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. of disposing of a man's possessions by testament, is alto-
CHAP. 1V. gether unknown to their laws.
The same notion of a joint-title, in all the members of
a family, to the property of the whole, had originally an
effect, even upon the power of donation. Individuals
were not at liberty to alienate by gift any part of the
common stock. This, however, is a right which is recom-
mended by motives more powerful and frequent than that
of disposal after death, and was therefore much sooner
introduced. The first instances were probably sanctioned
by religious pretexts. By the laws of the Visigoths it
was permitted to make donations to the church; and by
those of the Burgundians a free man was allowed, after
dividing his means with his sons, to make an ecclesiastical
donation out of his own portion. Among the Hindus the
conferring of gifts upon the Brahmens, which is taught as
one of the most important of religious duties, must have
early familiarized the mind to gratuitous alienations; yet,
notwithstanding this important circumstance, a man's
power of transferring his property by gift appears subject
still to extraordinary restrictions. Except in certain minor
cases, the consent of his heirs is required. It is only over
that part of his property which is more than sufficient to
feed and clothe all his dependants, that he has an un-
limited power of disposal.3
his pleasure. It is also to be recollected, that the laws of the Hindus are to be
looked at, not with the eye of a jurist only, but with reference to their religious
origin. One of the great objects of the descent of property, is to provide for
the perpetual performance of obsequial rites to the whole body of deceased
ancestors. These cannot be properly discharged by aliens to the family, and,
therefore, they cannot have a valid claim to succeed. A man cannot will that.
a stranger shall perform his family rites, in preference to his kinsmen ; and
cannot, therefore, make away with property essential to their celebration. The
state of the law is not a question of greater or less social refinement; it arises
out of, and is inseparable from, the religious origin of the code ; and would
remain the same, whatever degree of social civilisation might be attained, so
long as the religion was unchanged.-W.
.! Impressed, when I began to study the history and character of the Hindus,
with the loud encomiums I had been accustomed to hear on their attainments,
and particularly their laws — which were represented as indicating a high
state of civilisation this fact, which is broadly stated by Mr. Halhed (Preface
to the Gentoo Code, p. lüi.), very forcibly struck me. Rude as the Arabs were
at the time of Mohammed, their ideas of property included the right of devising
by will. See Koran, ch. v.
12 Historical Law Tracts, i. 159. How like is the regulation of the Burgui-
dians to the rule among the Hindus for division of property to the sons during
the father's life-time!
. 3 Halled's Gentoo Code, ch, vii.-M.
· The law is not quite correctly stated ; a man may give away even inherited
personal property; he must not alienato ancestral landed property beld in
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
175.
II. The second class of laws, those which relate to BOOK IT.
offences and their punishment, form a subject less com- CHAP. IV.
plicated, and of less subtle and difficult disquisition, than
those which relate to the distribution of rights; it is,
however, a portion of law, which, from the violent inter-
ference of human passions, is not less slow in gaining
improvement.
An offence is an act by which a right is violated. The
object of punishment is, to prevent such acts. It is em-
ployed, under the empire of reason, only as a last resource.
If offences could be prevented without punishment,
punishment ought never to exist. It follows, as a neces-
sary consequence, that as little of it as possible ought to
exist.
: It is equally manifest, that it would be vain to establish
rights, if the necessary means were not to be used for
securing them. It is therefore good to make use of punish-
ment, as far as necessary for the securing of rights; with:
this precaution only, that the suffering or evil, produced
by the punishment, is less, upon the whole, than that
which would arise from the violation of the right.
By these maxims, as criterions, we shall endeavour to.
ascertain the attributes of the criminal code of the
Hindus.
: The misery and disorder which overspread human lifė,
wherever self-defence rests wholly upon the individual,
are the cause to which government owes its origin. To.
escape from those evils, men transfer to the magistrate.
powers sufficient for the defence of all; and agree to
expect from him alone that protection, which they ob-
tained so imperfectly from their own exertions. In the
rude and violent times when this revolution takes place,
it is not from a just and cool discernment of the limits
of defence, prevention, and reparation, that penalties are
common; but it has not been noticed in the text, that although sons succeed
in common, and may continue to hold by a joint-tenure, yet they may separate,
and then each man may dispose as he likes of his own portion. This power of
living as a divided family, is a suficient reply to the barbarity of the laws
which compelled undivided occupancy, and limited a man's power over his
OWII. The ancient system probably preferred undivided possession, but it did
not command it. Thus Manu says, is either let them (the brothers) thus live
together, or, if they desire separate religious rites, let them live apart, since
religious duties are multiplied in separate houses, their separation is therefore
legal." The commentator adds, and even laudable," ix. 111.-W.
176
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. exacted. It is from the impulse of a keen resentment,
CHAP. IV. that the sufferer pursues, and from a strong sympathy
with that resentment, that the magistrate commonly
judges and condemns. It is not so much security that is
coveted, as revenge. A great injury committed can only
be expiated by a great injury received. Two principles
therefore universally characterize the penal code of a
barbarous people: severity; and retaliation. The early
laws of the Greeks and the Romans were cruel; the laws
of the twelve tables, says Mr. Gibbon, like the statutes of
Draco, were written in characters of blood. By the laws
of Moses, blasphemy, idolatry, profaning the sabbath,
homicide, adultery, incest, rapes, crimes against nature,
witchcraft, smiting or cursing father or mother, were
punished with death, and with burning and stoning, the
most cruel kinds of death. Of the sanguinary character
imprinted on the laws of the Egyptians, the following
instance may be adduced. They thrust little pieces of
reeds, about a finger's length, into all parts of the bodies
of parricides; and then, surrounding them with thorns, set
them on fire. The barbarous punishments which prevail
among the Chinese are too familiary known to require
illustration. Perhaps of all the rude nations of whom we
have any account, our own Saxon and German ancestors
were the most distinguished for the mildness of their
punishments; a singularity, however, to be accounted for,
by the use of a very barbarous expedient, a compensation
in money for almost every species of crime. Yet in
various instances, particularly. that of theft, their laws
were not only severe, but inhuman.*
Notwithstanding the mildness which has generally been
attributed to the Hindu character, hardly any nation is
distinguished for more sanguinary laws. “The cruel mu-
1 Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. xliv.
2 See the Books of Moses, passim.
3 Diod. Sic. lib. i. 1). 88.
4 Wilkins, Leg. Sax. p. 2 to 20. Mr. Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons,
says, book XI. ch. vii. "The most popular of the legal punishments were the
pecuniary mulcts. But as the imperfection and inutility of these could not be
always disguised- as they were sometimes impunity to the rich, who could
afford them, and to the poor who had nothing to pay them with, other punish-
ments were enacted. Among these we find imprisonment, outlawry, banish-
ments, slavery, and transportation. In other cases, we have whipping, brand.
ing, the pillory, amputation of limb, mutilation of the nose, and ears, and lips,
the eyes plucked out, hair torn off, stoning, and hanging. Nations not civilized
have barbarous punishments."
PT.
.
177
tilations," says Sir William Jones, 1“ practised by the native BOOK II.
powers, are shocking to humanity."
CHAP. IV.
Retaliation is another peculiarity which remarkably dis-..
tinguishes the laws of that barbarous period, when the
punishment of crimes is chiefly measured by the resent-
ment of the sufferer. Whatever the injury which the
innocent man has sustained, a similar injury, by way of
punishment, is imposed upon the guilty. Whatever the
member or part of his body, with which the offender com-
I
.
1 Charge to the Grand Jury of Calcutta,. Dec. 4, .1788, Sir Wm. Jones's
Works, iii. 26. Of this feature of their laws, a few examples will impress a
· lively conception. "The most pernicious of all deceivers," says the law of
Dienu,"is a goldsmith who commits frauds; the king shall order him to be
cut piecemeal with razor's.". Laws of Menu, ch. ix. 292. "Should a wife,
proud of her family and the great qualities of her kinsmen, actually violate the
duty which she owes to her lord, lco the king condemn her to be devoured by
dogs in a place mucli frequented; and let him place the adulterer on an iron
bed well leated, under which the executioners shall throw logs continually,
till the sinful wretch be there burned to death.” Ibid. vii. 371, 372. “If a
woman miuders her spiritual guide, or lier husband, or her son, the inagis-
trate, having cut off her ears, her nose, her hands, and her lips, shall expose
her to be killed by cows." Halhea's Gentoo Code, ch, xxi. sect. 10. "Oi
robbers, who break a wall or partition, and commit theft in the night, let thie
prince order the hands to be lopped off, and themselves to be fixed on a sharp
stake. Two fingers of a cutpuuse, the thumb and the index, let him cause to
be amputated on his first conviction ; on the second, one hand and one foot;
on the third, he shall suffer death." Laws of Menu, ix. 276, 277. “A thief,
who, by plundering in his own country, spoils the province, the magistrate
shall crucify, and confiscate his goods; if he robs in another kingdom he shall
not confiscate his possessions, but shall crucify him. If a man steals any man
of a superior caste, the magistrate shall bind the grass becna round his body,
and burn him with fire; if hc steals a woman of a superior caste, the magis-
trate shall cause liim to be stretclied out upon a hot plate of iron, and, having
bound the grass becna round his body, shall buuin him in the fire. If a man
steals an elephant or a horse, excellent in all respects, the magistrate shall cut
off his hand, and înot, and buttock, and deprive him of life. If a man steals
an elephant or alorse of small account, or a camel or a cow, the magistrate
shall cut off from himn one hand and one foot. If a man steals a goat or it
sheep, the magistrate shall cut off one of his hands. If a iman steals any small
animal, exclusive of the cat and the weasel, the magistrate shall cut off half.
his foot." Halhed's Gentoo Code, ch, xvii. sect. 3. “If a man sets fire to tlit
tillage or plantation of another, or sets fire to a house or to a granary, or to
any uninhabited spot where there is much fruit or flowers, the magistrate,
having bound that person's body in the grass beena, shall burn him with fire."
Ibid. xviii. “Tor boring the nostrils of cows belonging to priests, the offender
shall instantly lose half of one foot.” Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 325. The same
system of mutilation prevailecl in Persia. Xenophon, describing the Persian
punishments, says, Ilondakis on LDELV tapa TAS TELBOuevas odovs, kal Todwy,
p. 92. The common mode of haiging is thus described by an eyewitness : “A
hook is fixed to one end of the rope, and this book the executioner forces with
all his strength into the flesh below the criminal's chin; he is then hoisted up,
and the other end of the rope is made fast to the gallows." Bartolomeo's
Travels, book II. ch. v. “If a magistrate las committed a crime, and any
person, upon discovery of that crime, shall beat and ill-use the magistrate, the
magistrate shall thrust an iron spit through him and roast him at the fire."
Halhea's Gentoo Code, ch. xvi. sect. l.
2 “The inhuman and unequal principle of retaliation," says Mr. Gibbon,
Hist. of Decl. and Fall of the Rom. Emp. ch. xliv.
VOL. I.
N
178
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. mitted the crime, upon that part is the chastisement
CHAP. IV. inflicted. The Hebrew law of an eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth, is a familiar example of what occurred
among other nations. The forfeit of limb for limb, and
member for member, was, among the Romans, exacted by
the law of the twelve tables, unless where the offender
could expiate his crime by a fine of 300 pounds of copper.
The earliest legislators of Greece were so rude as to leave
the punishment of crimes, undefined, to the discretion of
the judge; but Zaleucus, legislator of the Locrians, who
first prescribed rules on this subject, enforced so literally
the maxim of an eye for an eye, that it was deemed an im-
portant reform on his laws, when it was decreed that he
who struck out the eye of a person with one eye should
lose both his own. The Egyptians extended the principle
of punishing the criminals in that part of the body which
was chiefly instrumental in the guilt, to an extraordinary
number of instances. He who discovered the secrets of
the state had his tongue cut out; he who violated a free
woman was made an eunuch; of those who counterfeited
coin and seals either public or private, of those who made
use of false weights and measures, and of public notaries
who forged or mutilated deeds, the two hands were cut off;
and calumniators were subjected to the same punishment
which would have been due to those whom they falsely
accused. To how extraordinary a degree the spirit of
retaliatiou moulds the pepal legislation of the Hindus, a
few specimens will evince. The law concerning assault
and battery, in the Institutes of Menu, thus commences:
«With whatever member a low-born man shall assault or
hurt a superior, even that member of his must be slit or
cut, more or less in proportion to the injury: this is an
ordinance of Menu.”3 “If a man strikes a Bramin with his
hand, the magistrate shall cut off that man's hand; if he
strikes him with his foot, the magistrate shall cut off the
foot; in the same manner, with whatever limb he strikes
a Bramin, that limb shall be cut off; but if a Sooder strikes
i Strabo, lib. vi. p. 398. Potter's Autiq. book I. ch. xxvi. Blackstone's
Commentaries, book IV. ch. i.
2 Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 88, 89.
· Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 279. In a style characteristically Hindu, the fol-
lowing, among other cases, are specified : when a man spits on another, when
he urines on hin, and when he breaks wind on him. The penalties I choose
not to describe. See the saine chapter, 280-284.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
179
either of the three casts, Bramin, Chehteree, or Bice, with BOOK II.
his hand or foot, the magistrate shall cut off such hand or CHAP. IV.
foot." "If a man has put out both the eyes of any person,
The punishment of murder is founded entirely upon the
same principle. “If a man,” says the Gentoo code, “de-
person of life."3 “A once-born man, who insults the twice
born with gross invectives, ought to have his tongue slit.
If he mention their names and classes with contumely, as
if he say, 'Oh thou refuse of Brahmans,'an iron style, ten
fingers long, shall be thrust red-hot into his mouth.
Should he through pride give instruction to priests con-
cerning their duty, let the king order some hot oil to be
dropped into his mouth and into his ear."4 "If a blom,
attended with much pain, be given either to human crea-
tures or cattle, the king shall inflict on the striker a
punishment as heavy as the presumed suffering."; “With
whatever limb a thief cominits the offence, by any means
in this world, as if he break a wall with his hand or his
foot, even that limb shall the king amputate, for the pre-
vention of a similar crime."6"A mechanic or servile man
having an adulterous connexion with a woman of a twicc-
born class, if she was unguarded, shall lose the part of-
fending, and his whole substance.""The breaker of a
dam to secure a pool, let the king punish by a long im-
mersion under water.". The portion of suffering, sufficient
to constitute a motive for abstaining from the crime, is all
the punishment which reason authorizes; but we see na-
tions far advanced in civilization so tardy in l'ecognising
this principle, that the excess of suffering, produced by
the law of retaliation, would not, it is probable, suggest to
nations, at a very early stage of civilization, the utility of
l'epealing it. Yet no maxim more naturally recommends
itself to the human mind, even before it is strong, than
that all who commit the same crime shoulil meet with
equal punishment; and it requires a very slight degree of
reflection to see, that when the hand or the foot is cut off
1 Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xvi. sect. I.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 270-273.
6 Ibid. ch. viii. 268.
6 Ibid, ch, viii. 334. 7 Ibid. 374. 8 Ibid. ix, 279.
180
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. from one man, the punishment may be a very moderate
CHAP. IV. one; when the same limb is cut off from another man, to
whose subsistence it is essential, the penalty may far exceed
a sentence of death.
In another class of punishments, where the principle of
equality may be still more easily applied, the grossness of
the violation excites considerable suprise. As among our
Saxon ancestors, so among the Hindus, fines bear a very
large proportion to other punishments. When reparation
to the party injured should be made by the author of the
wrong, the pecuniary ability of the party on whom the
obligation falls can no more be regarded, than where he
owes a debt. But in so far as it is the object of the law to
create a motive against the occurrence of a like offence;
or even to take vengeance, to inflict pain purely because
pain has been occasioned; in so far it is one of the plainest
dictates of reason, that where the offence is equal, the suf-
fering or hardship imposed should be equal. Though a
pecuniary mulct imposes all degrees of hardship, according
to the pecuniary abilities of. the man who pays, the Hindu
law inakes no distinction between the rich and the poor.
It makes, indeed, a serious distinction between the man of
one class, and another: and they of the lowest are, with a
very few exceptions, always the most severely fined. But
if the class is the same, the same forfeit is exacted for the
same offence; though one man should be too opulent to
feel from it any sensible inconvenience; another should
suffer all the pains and horrors of want.
From the classification of the people, and the privileges
of the castes, we are prepared to expect, among the Hindus,
inequalities created by distinctions of rank. They relate
either to the crimes committed against persons of the
different ranks, or the crimes committed by them. Ine-
qualities of the first sort, it is found difficult to avoid even
in high stages of civilization. At present, in the best go-
verned countries of Europe, an injury done to a nobleman
is treated as a crime of a deeper dye, than a similar injury
1 There is one passage of Menu. ch. viii. 126, an incidental exhortation
to the judge not to be regardless of the ability of the sufferer in the inflic-
tion of corporal or other punishment; and it is impossible but some regard
must have been paid to it in practice : but defined sums are in almost all
cascs afhxed to specific crimes, without the smallest reference to the ability of
the payer.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
181
to a person of the lowest rank. If the laws should make BOOK II.
no distinction in principle, the power of the nobleman to CHAP. IV.
bring the offender to trial, and to command the partiality
of the judge, would long make a very essential difference
in practice. When the Hindu law, therefore, makes a gra-
dation in the criminality of the same action, according as
it is committed against the Brahman, the Cshatriya, the
Vaisya, and the Sudra, it is only the excess in the differ-
ence of punishment, which is calculated to excite our
surprise. With regard to offences committed by indi-
viduals of the different ranks, it is rare, even among the
rudest people, to find the principle of unequal punish-
ments, expressly avowed; and comparative impunity
granted by law to the crimes of the great. Perjury,
fraud, defamation, forgery, incest, murder, are not among
us reckoned crimes more venial in the lord than in his
servant. Among the Hindus, whatever be the crime com-
mitted, if it is by a Brahman, the punishment is in general
comparatively slight; if by a man of the military class, it is
more severe; if by a man of the mercantile and agricul-
tural class, it is still increased; if by a Sudra it is violent
and cruel. For defamation of a Brahmen, a man of the
same class must be fined 12 panas; a man of the military
class, 100: a merchant, 150 or 200; but a mechanic or ser-
vile man is whipped. The general, principle on which the
penalties for this crime seem to be regulated is, that what-
ever fine is exacted from a man of the same class by whom
you have been accused, one only half as large should be
imposed upon the man of a superior class, but one double
in magnitude, should the cast of the slanderer be inferior
to your own. For all the more serious accusations against
any of the superior orders the punishment of the Sudra is
far more dreadful. That the scale of punishment for
crimes of assault is graduated by the same rule, the
1 The orthodox judge, Blackstone, as Mr. Gibbon very significantly denomi-
nates him (see Fist Decl. and Fall, &c. cl. xliv. n. 145) is quite an advocate
for the superior criminality of an injury to a man of a superior rank. “If &
justice awards a retiurn of the blow, it is more than a just compensation. The
execution of a needy, decrepit assassin, is a poor satisfaction for the murder
of a nobleman, in the bloom of his youth, and full enjoyment of his friends,
his honours, and his fortune." Commentaries on the Laws of England, book
IV. ch. i.
3 Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xi. sect. 2. Vide supra, p. 256..
.
.
-
182
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. following instance, out of many, will evince. “If a man of
CHAP. IV. superior cast and of superior abilities to another should
strike him with a weapon, the magistrate shall fine him.
500 puns of cowries. If a man of an equal cast and of
equal abilities with another should strike him with a
weapon, the magistrate shall fine him 1000 puns of cow-
ries. If a man of an inferior cast and inferior abilities to
another should strike him with a weapon, the magistrate
shall fine him 300 puns of cowries."'1 For perjury, it is
only in favour of the Brahmen, that any distinction seems
to be admitted. “Let a just prince," says the ordinance
of menu, “banish men of the three lower classes, if they
give false evidence, having first levied the fine; but a
Brahmen let him only banish.” 2 The punishment of
adultery, which on the Brahmens is light, descends with
intolerable weight on the lowest classes. In regard to the
inferior cases of theft, for which a fine only is the punish-
ment, we meet with with a curious exception, the degree
of punishment ascending with the class. « The fine of a
Sudra for theft, shall be eight fold ; that of a Vaisya, six-
teen fold; that of a Cshatriya, two and thirty fold ; that of
a Brahmen, four and sixty fold, or a hundred fold com-
plete, or even twice four and sixty fold.” 3 No corporal
punishment, much less death, can be inflicted on the
Brahmen for any crime. “Menu, son of the Self-existent,
has named ten places of punishment, which are appro-
priated to the three lower classes ; the part of generation,
the belly, the tongue, the two hands; and fifthly, the two
feet, the eye, the nose, both ears, the property; and in the
capital case, the whole body; but a Brahmen must depart
from the realm unhurt in any one of them.” of
: Punishment should be proportioned, not to the great-
ness of the crime, that is, the quantity of suffering it
produces, but solely to the difficulty of creating an ade-
quate motive to abstain from it: if a fine of one shilling
| Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xvi. sect. 1. 2 Laws of Benu, ch. vii, 123.
3 Ibid. viii. 337, 338.
4 Ibid. ch. viii. 124, 125.-M.
The banislıment of a Brahman, however, is a very severe punishment, as
it involves loss of caste, and consequent degradation ; but in practice, and
even under Hindu rule, the immunity of a Brahmani, guilty of crime, does not
seem to have been attended to. In the oldest of the extant dramas, the Mriche-
hakati, a Brahman, convicted on presumptive proof, of murder, is condemned
to death. W.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
183
.
created a sufficient motive to abstain from the crime of BOOK II.
murder, the fine of a shilling would be all the punishment CHAP. IV.
which ought to exist. It must be owned, however, that
the principle of punishing crimes, according to their
magnitude, very naturally suggests itself; and bears a
strong appearance of according with the principles of
l'eason. Even to this early and imperfect principle, the
Hindus have never ascended. While perjury, one of the
most mischievous of crimes, and one against which an
adequate motive is very difficult to create, is punished
only with fine, and in most aggraved cases with banish-
ment; the crime of obtaining goods on false pretences is
punished with mutilation, and even with death. “If a
person steals a man of an inferior cast, the magistrate shall
fine him 1000 puns of cowries. If he steals an elephant
or a horse excellent in all respects, the magistrate shall
cut off his hand, and foot, and buttock, and deprive him of
life.” The following places of the body are enumerated :
the ear, the nose, the hand, the foot, the lip, the eye, the
tongue, and some others; upon any one of which a stroke,
such as to separate or cut them off from the body, is pu-
nished equally;? yet, surely there is no comparison between
the injury of depriving a man of his ear, for example, and
of his tongue, or his hand. An amour with a woman of
the Brahmenical caste is more dreadfully punished than
parricide. Various cases of theft and robbery are accounted
worthy of more shocking penalties than murder. Even
Sir William Jones is constrained to say that the punish-
ments of the Hindus " are partial and fanciful, for some
crimes dreadfully cruel, for others reprehensibly slight."3
The principal acts erected into punishable offences by
the Hindu law are, false witness, defamation, assault,
theft, outrage, adultery. The species and degrees of per-
jury are thus distinguished: “If a witness speak falsely
through covetousness, he shall be fined 1000 panas; if
through distraction of mind, 250; if through terror, 1000;
if through friendship, the same ; if through lust, 2500;
if through wrath, 1500; if through ignorance, 200 com-
1 Halhed's Gentoo Code, ch. xvii. sect. 3.
2 Ib. ch. xvi. sect. l.
3 Preface to the Translation of the Institutes of Menu, Sir Wim. Jones's
Works, iji. 62.
181.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
ROOK II. plete ; if through inattention, 100 only."1 The laws against
CHAP. IV. reproachful expressions are numerous, and the penalties
remarkably severe ; a pretty satisfactory proof that the
Hindus have always been abusive; as we find they con-
tinue to the present day. By the term Assault, are indi-
cated the smaller instances of personal offence and injury;
on which the laws of the Hindus descend to the most
minute distinctions and details. In this they present a
remarkable agreement with the laws of our Gothic an-
cestois. Lord Kaimes, observing upon the ancient Euro-
pean mode of satisfying for injuries by money, remarks
that “the laws of the Burgundians, of the Salians, of the
Almanni, of the Bavarians, of the Ripuarii, of the Saxons,
of the Angli and Thuringi, of the Frisians, of the Lango-
bards, and of the Anglo-Saxons, are full of these compo-
sitions, extending from the most trifling injury to the
most atrocious crimes. In perusing the tables of these
compositions which enter into a minute detail of the most
trivial offences, a question naturally occurs, Why all this
Such a thing is not heard of in later times. But the
following answer will give satisfaction:--That resentment,
allowed scope among barbarians, was apt to take flame by
the slightest spark; therefore, to provide for its gratifi-
cation, it became necessary to enact compositions for
every trifling wrong, such as at present would be the sub-
ject of mirth rather than of serious punishment: for
example, where the clothes of a woman, bathing in a river,
are taken away to expose her nakedness, and where dirty
water is thrown upon a woman in the way of contumely:"3
The following orders of crime, in the Hindu code, present
a similar, and a very remarkable picture: 1. Throwing
upon the body of another, dust, or sand, or clay, or cow-
dung, or anything else of the same kind, or striking with
the hand or foot; 2. Throwing upon the body tears, or
phlegm, or the paring of one's nails, or the gum of the
eyes, or the wax of the ears, or the refuse of victuals,
or spittle; 3. Throwing upon another from the navel
1 Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 120, 121. Where the language of the text specifies
the fine by naming it technically in the order of amercements, I have statec
..? See the Chapter on Manners.
3 Historical Law Tracts, i. 49, 50.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
185
downwards to his foot, spue, or urine, or ordure, or gemen; BOOK II.
4. Throwing upon another, from the navel upwards to CHAP. IV".
beneath the neck, any of the substances mentioned in the time
last article; 5. Throwing upon another any of the same
substances from the neck upwards; 6. Assaulting with a
stone, or with a piece of iron or wood; 7. Hauling by the
foot, or by the hair, or by the hand, or by the clothes;
8. Seizing and binding another in a cloth, and setting
one's foot upon him; 9. Raising up an offensive weapon
to assault; 10. Striking with a weapon. In all these cases.
a further distinction is made, as the offence is committed
by a superior, an inferior, or an equal, and committed
against a man or a woman. The gradations too of wounds
a little blood is shed; 3. When much blood is shed;
well as blood is shed; 6. When a member or organ is struck
off or separated. Under the title “Theft" the Hindus
include the various species of frauds. In all nations which
have made but the first step in civilization; when the
means of protecting property are very imperfectly known,
and covetousness is a furious passion; the depredations of
thieves are always punished with extreme severity. In
the Gothic nations of Europe, when the murder even of
the King inferred but a pecuniary composition, theft was
punished by mutilation and death. In the same manner
among the Hindus, while murder is punished by the mere
loss of life, some of the most atrocious instances of the
punishments awarded to theft.3 The minor cases of theft
are punished by fines, and by various degrees of mutila-
tion; but the higher species by impaling, by burning
alive, and by crucifixion. By Outrage; which is sometimes
denominated violence, sometimes robbery; are designated,
all attacks, accompanied with violence, upon either pro-
perty or person, including even murder. While the infe-
rior species are punished by fine and by mutilation, the.
higher are punished by death; and some of the more
heinous kinds of spoliation are avenged with all the san-
i See the Article Assault in the Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xvi. sect. 1. Laws
of Menii, ch. viii. 279 to 301.
2 See Kaimes's Historical Law Tracts, i. 63, and the authorities there quoted. :
3 Supra, p. 263.
186
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. guinary fury which, among the Hindus, has dictated the
CIIAP. IV. higher penalties of theft. Adultery is a very complicated
- subject. In the Hindu language it includes every unlawful.
species of sexual indulgence, from the least, to the most
injurious, or offensive. If the laws are any proof of the
manners of a.people, this article affords indication of one
of the most depraved states of the sexual appetite. Al-
most all the abuses, and all the crimes which it is possible
to conceive, are there depicted with curious exactness;
and penalties are devised and assigned for every minute
diversity and refinement, as for acts the most frequent
and familiar. There are even titles of sections in the
code which cannot be transcribed with decency, and which
depict crimes wknown to European laws. In accordance
| Laws of Venu, ch. viii. 344 to 348. Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xviii.-M.
There is nothing sanguinary or furious in the verses of manu cited; they
inercly command the King not to endure or dismiss unpunished, the perpe-
trators of atrocious violence.-W.
*, 2 Mr. Halled makes so curious an apology for this article in his preface to
the Code of Gentoo Laws, p. lxiii., that I am tempted to transcribe it : “ The
nineteenth and twentieth chapters," says he, " present us a lively picture of
Asiatic manners, and in them a strong proof of their originality. To men of
liberal and candid sentiments, neither the grossness of the portrait, nor the
harshness of the colouring, will seem improper or indecent, while they are con-
vinced of the truth of the resemblance ; and if this compilation does not
exhibit mankind as they might have been, or as they ought to have been, this
answer is plain; 'Because it paints them as they were. Vices, as well as
fashions, have their spring and their fall, not with individuals only, but in
Whole nations, when one reigning foible for a while swallows up the rest, anc
then retires, in its turn, to make room for the epidemic influence of a newer
passion. Wherefore, if any opinions not reconcileable to our modes of think-
ing, or any crimes not practised, and so not prohibited anong us, should occur
in these chapters, they must be imputed to the different effects produced on
the human mirid by a difference of climates, customs, and manners, which will
constantly give, a particular turn and bias to the national vices. Hence it
would be a weak and frivolous argument for censuring the fifth section of this
nineteenth chapter, to object that it was levelled at an offence absurd in itself,
not likely to be frequent, or supposing it frequent, still to be deemed of trivial ·
consequence; and to make this objection merely in consideration that the
offence may not be usual among us, and has certainly never been forbidden by
our legislature, such cavils would betray a great ignorance of the general
system of human nature, as well as of the common principles of legislation;
for penal laws (except for the most ordinary crines) are not enacted until
particular instances of offence have pointed out their absolute necessity; for
which reason parricide was not specified among the original institutes of the
celebrated law-giver of Sparta. Hence we may with safety conclude, that the
sevcral prohibitions and penalties of this fifth section were subsequent to, and
in consequence of, the commission of every species of enormity therein descri-
bed."--Mr. Halled here maintains witlı very cogent reasons, though rather an
unskilful style, that the Hindu morals are certainly as gross as the Hindu
laws; that the latter grossness is, in fact, the result of the former.-M. The
Code translated by Mr. Halhed, must not be confounded with that of Manul ;
the provisions of the former, which are the subjects of his apology, are not for-
mally set forth in Manu. The offences denounced, whether the subject of
legislation or not, were not unfamiliar to Greece and Rome, in their most
polished periods, if their satirists and historians may be credited. The Gothic.
nations in their rudest state were apparently remarkably free from such gross-
ness, and thcir purer propensities were confirmed by the diffusion amongst
them of the light of Christianity.-1Y.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
187
with the general spirit of Eastern nations, among whom BOOK II.
an extraordinary value is set on the chastity of the women, CHAP, IV.
its more aggravated violations are punished by the most
shocking death which human cruelty has probably devised,
that of burning on a heated plate of iron. The ramifi-
cations of criminality are also pursued to the most minute
and trivial acts, and such as, even in the most jealous
nations of Europe, would be held perfectly innocent:
“He who talks with the wife of another man at a place of
pilgrimage, in a forest or a grove, or at the confluence of
rivers, incurs the guilt of an adulterous inclination : to
send her flowers or perfumes, to sport and jest with her,
to touch her apparel and ornaments, to sit with her on the
same couch, are all held adulterous acts on his part.” Of
all crimes, indeed, adultery appears, in the eyes of Hindu
lawgivers, to be the greatest: and worthy of the most
severe and terrible chastisement. The offences committed
with the women of the higher classes by men of the
lower are the acts which are looked upon as of greatest
atrocity, and which rise in criminality, as the classes re-
cede from one another, till they arrive at last at the
adultery of a man of the servile with a woman of the
priestly caste; a point beyond which, it is supposed, that
human guilt and depravity cannot proceed.
III. Conformity to the laws of the two preceding orders;
denominated, for want of better terms, the Civil and the
Penal; is the End. The laws of Judicature are to be
regarded in the light of Means to that End. The subject,
in its full extent, includes an account of, 1, the instru-
ments made use of for producing the fulfilment of the
laws of the two former kinds, and 2,the modes of using them.
The instruments made use of among the Hindus, have
been already described, in giving an account of the func-
tions of the king; who, with his Brahmen assessors, is the
principal instrument. The mode of using the instruments
of judicature, or the steps according to which judicature
is performed, were there also briefly described. Of the
matters which remain, the laws or rules respecting evi-
dence form the only part which it is still useful to
describe.
1 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 356, 357.
2 lbid. 352-386. Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xix.
188
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Prior to the general use of writing, the chief species of
CHAP. IV. evidence, applicable to judicial cases, is the speech of wit-
nesses. It is this species which makes the principal
figure in the laws of Hindustan to the present age. It is
even more than doubtful whether written evidence is at:
all referred to by the author of the ordinances of Menu,
though from himself we learn that writing had been
applied to laws. “On the denial,” says the law,“ of a debt
which the defendant has in court been required to pay,
the plaintiff must call a witness who was present at the
place of the loan, or produce other evidence;"2 the gloss
of Culluca adds, "a note and the like:"3 but for the use of
evidence by writing not a single rule is afterwards adduced,
though numerous rules are prescribed for the use of that
which is delivered orally; not even a word of allusion to.
this novel species of evidence appears; and where the
various circumstances are enumerated on which the atten-
tion of the judge ought to be fixed, while the evidence of
evidence of writings is entirely omitted. In the compi-
lations, however, of recent times, as in that made by order
of Mr. Hastings, and translated by Halhed, the use of
written evidence appears; but even there it is treated
with a negligence and slightness due to a matter of sub-
ordinate importance.5
2 Ibid. 52.
3 Ibid.
. 4 “Let luim fully consider the nature of truth, the state of the case, and his
own person ; and next, the witnesses, the place, the mode and the time."
the commentator has been added from the more enlarged knowledge of later
times.
i The mistake which pervades the whole of our author's view of Hindu law,
las here influenced him to draw an inference wholly inaccurate. However.
comprehensive the Code of Manu, it is an error to suppose that it is the only
ancient body of laws, and that it comprises all possible details. Those of judi-
cial proceedings are rather indicated than explained, and the omission of any
one specification does not warrant the conclusion that there was nothing to be
specified. This is especially the case in the present instance, and whatever
Manu may have left unsaid, great importance is attached by early writers to
documentary proof. Evidence is said to consist of documents, possession, and
witnesses. Again : Human evidence is threefold ; documents, possession,
and witnesses. Such is the opinion of eminent sages. Documents are of two
sorts-official and private. Possession implies manifest occupancy. Wit-
nesses will be treated of hereafter.-Macraghten. Considerations on Hindu
Law, 438. The censure of Hindu law on account of the absence of written tes-
timony here advanced, is the more extraordinary, as in a few pages further
ou it is admitted that there are laws respecting written evidence, although
there is still something to cavil at, and they are said to be few, and applied to
a limited number of cases; assertions equally incorrect with that of the present
text.-W.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
189
VT
• Among the rules for evidence at the lips of witnesses, BOOK II."
some are reasonable and good; others are not only the CHAP. IV.
reverse, but indicate a state of ignorance and barbarism.
The evidence of three witnesses is required for the decision
of any question: “When a man has been brought into
court by a suitor for property, the cause shall be decided
.by the Brahmen who represents the king, having heard
three witnesses at least.”'i Yet it is declared in another
place that “one man, untainted with covetousness, may
(in some cases, says the gloss of Culluca) be the sole
witness."2 This apparent contradiction may perhaps bo
explained by a passage in the Code of Gentoo Laws, where
the decision of a cause by the testimony of a single witness
is made to depend upon the consent of the litigants.3
Even from this rule the following cases are excepted:
“Supposing,” says the law, “a person to lend another
money secretly, or secretly to intrust his money to the
care of another, in such affairs one single person is a suf-
ficient witness." 4 The different degrees of trustworthiness
in different witnesses leads to mischievous rules. “Mar-
ried housekeepers, men with male issue, inhabitants of the
same district, either of the military, the commercial, or
the servile class, are competent, when called by the party,
to give their evidence.” 5 The most fanciful distinction
surely that ever was made by an uncultivated mind, is
that between the father of male and the father of female
offspring, as a source of evidence. The persons held in-
competent to bear witness are a very numerous class.
“Those must not be admitted who have a pecuniary in-
terest ; nor familiar friends; nor menial servants ; nor
enemies ; nor men formerly perjured ; nor persons griev-
ously diseased ; nor those who have committed heinous
offences. The king cannot be made a witness, nor cooks
and the like mean artificers; nor public dancers and
singers ; nor a priest of deep learning in Scripture ; nor a
student of the Vedas ; nor an anchoret secluded from all
worldly connexions ; nor one wholly dependent; nor one
1 Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 60. The same law is stated still more generally
and absolutely, in the Gentoo Code, ch. iii. sect. 8.
2 Ibid. ch. viii. 77.
• 3 Ealhea's Gentoo Code, ch. iii. sect. 8. “ If the plaintiff or defendant, at
their own option, appoint a single person only, not fraudulently inclinec, &c.,
he may be a witness."
4 Ibia.
5 Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 62.
190
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II, of bad fame; nor one who follows a cruel occupation; por
CHAP. IV. one who acts openly against the law; nor a decrepid old
man ; nor a child ; nor a wretch of the lowest mixed
class ; nor one who has lost the organs of sense ; nor one
extremely grieved ; nor one intoxicated ; nor a madman ;
nor one tormented with hunger or thirst; nor one op-
pressed by fatigue; nor one excited by lust; nor one in-
flamed by wrath ; nor one who has been convicted of
theft."1 Among the persons excluded from the rank of
witnesses are the female sex entirely ; unless in the case
of evidence for others of the same sex. Servants, too,
mechanics, and those of the lowest class, are allowed to
give evidence for individuals of the same description.?
Brahmens and the king are exempted from the obligation
of giving evidence, by way of privilege, though the Brah-
mens are admitted when they please." 3
This enumeration of persons, whose testimony was alto-
gether unfit to be believed, affords a proof of the great
difficulty of obtaining true testimony in the age in which
it was made ; and holds up a dreadful picture of the state
of morality to which it could be supposed to be adapted.
It indicates, also, by the strange diversity of the cases
which it includes, a singular want of discrimination, in
the minds by which it was framed. And further; rules
for the exclusion of testimony, from any person, not de-
prived of the ordinary exercise of the human faculties,
could, however the vicious effects of custom may preserve
them, be introduced, only in an age of great ignorance and
barbarity, when the human mind judges in the gross, is
incapable of nice discrirninations, cannot assign the dif-
ferent value which ought to be attached to the testimony
of different men, and estimates the weight of a body of
evidence by the number, not the trustworthiness, of the
people who deliver it.
i Laws of Denu, ch. viii, 64-67. 2 Ibid..68. 3 Ibid. 69-71.
4 The imperfeceions of the Hindu law have been in this, as in all other cases,
pertinaciously selected : notwithstanding these blemishes, however, its general
character lias received commendation from high authority. “ With some
trifling exceptions, the Hindu doctrine of evidence is, for the most part, dis-
tinguished nearly as much as our own, by the excellent sense that determines
the competency, and designates the choice of witnesses, with the manner of
examining, and the credit to be given to them, as well as by the solemn ear-
nestness, with which the obligation of truth is urged and inculcated; insomuch
that less cannot be said of this part of their law, than that it will be read by
every English lawyer with a mixture of admiration and delight, as it may be
studied by him to advantage."-Elements of Hindu Law, by Sir Thomas
Strange, late Chief Justice of Madras, p. 309.-18.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
191
The introduction of rules for the exclusion of evidence BOOK II.
marks the age of false refinement, which is that of semi- CHAP. IV.
barbarism, intermediate between the age of true wisdom
and that of primeval ignorance. When the first judges,
or arbiters, the heads of families, had to clear up any dis-
pute, they called before them every individual of the little
community or family, who appeared to know anything of
the matter, and questioned them all ; allowing to the
statements, extracted from each, the influence, much or
little, or none at all, to which they seemed entitled ; and
this is the course which true wisdom would recommend.
cessive accuracy, but, failing in comprehensiveness, applies
its rules to part only of a subject when they should include
the whole, the makers of laws, perceiving that certain
classes of witnesses were apt to give false testimony, and
considering that false testimony misleads, resolved imme-
diately that the testimony of such witnesses ought never
to be received. Now, if the testimony of the best sort of
witness had been a thing which the judges always had at
rational procedure. But as this was very far from being
the case ; as it very often happens that the testimony of
the best sort of witnesses cannot be had, or that they
contradict one another ; that not only some light, but full
and satisfactory light, may often be obtained from the
worst sort of witnesses ; to determine that certain classes
of persons, and among them the persons whose knowledge
of the facts is naturally the most complete, shall not be
used as witnesses, is merely to determine that judicature
shall be performed, so far, without evidence; that the
judge shall decide without knowledge; and the question
of right and wrong, instead of being determined upon all
the evidence that can be had, shall be determined upon
a part of it only, sometimes a most insignificant part,
sometimes hardly any at all."
I "If,” says Mr. Hume, “the manner of punishing crimes among the Anglo-
Saxons appe:ir singular, the proofs were not less şo: and were also the natural
result of the situation of those people. Whatever we may imagine concerning
there is much more falsehood, and even perjury, among them, than among
civilized nations. Virtue, which is nothing but a more enlarged and more
cultivated reason, never flourishes to any degree, nor is founded on steady
principles of honour, except where a good education becomes general; and
.:192
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. One of the strongest characteristics of a rude age, or of
CHAP. IV. a corrupt government, is, to make laws which cannot, or
- ought not, to be executed ; and then to give dispensations
for them. "In all cases of violence, of theft and adul-
tery, of defamation and assault," says the Hindu law, “the
judge must not examine too strictly the competence of
witnesses."'i
A.presumption, of the very weakest kind, is admitted as.
a full proof, in the following passages : “If a man brings &
suit against another, saying, I have lent you several articles,
and the person answers, I never received one of the articles.
you mention ; in that case, if the plaintiff proves any one:
of all the articles claimed, to be in the defendant's posses-
sion, the magistrate shall cause the whole so claimed to.
be restored.”? In cases of infinitely greater importance
the same deceitful rule is applied. “If a man hath ac-
cused another of the murder of a man, or of a robbery,
or of adultery, and should say, You have in several places
been guilty of these crimes, and the defendant denies the
accusation: in such a case, if the accuser can prove upon
the other the commission of any one of these crimes, it
shall be a proof of the whole complaint.”
Of all the perverse proceedings of a superstitious mind,
which the history of rude nations presents to us, few will
be found more at variance with reason, than the establish-
ment of the following law: “The witness, who has given
evidence, and to whom, within seven days after, a misfor-
tune happens from disease, fire, or the death of a kinsman,
shall be condemned to pay the debt and a fine."3
Though there is no ground on which the infirmities of
the human mind are more glaring, and more tenacious of
f
There men are taught the pernicious consequences of vice, treachery, and im-
morality. Even superstition, though more prevalent among ignorant nations,
is but a poor supply for the defects in knowledge and education : Our European
ancestors, who employed every moment the expedient of swearing on extraor-
dinary crosses and reliques, were less lionourable in all engagements than their
posterity, who, from experience, lave omitted those ineffectual securities.
This general proneness to perjury was much increased by the usual vant of
discernment in judges, who could not discuss an intricate evidence, and were
obliged to number, not weigh, the testimony of witnesses." History of England,
Appendix I.
This subject will, one day, when the papers of Mr. Bentham are produced,
be presented to the world, in all the light Fhich full knowledge, a minute and-
lysis, and philosophy, can bestow upon it.
1 Menu, ch. viii. 72.
? Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. ii. sect. 6, p. 107.
3 Laws of Menu, ch. viii.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS:
193
existence than that of law, it is probable that the annals BOOK II.
of legislative absurdity can present nothing which will CHAP, IV.
match a law for the direct encouragement of perjury.
6 Whenever,” says the ordinance of Menu, “the death of a
man, who had been a grievous offender, either of the servile,
the commercial, the military, or the sacerdotal class, would
be occasioned by true evidence, from the known rigour of
the king, even though the fault arose from inadvertence or
error, falsehood may be spoken: it is even preferable to
truth.” What a state of justice it is, in which the king
may condemn a man to death, for inadvertence or error,
and no better remedy is found than the perjury of wit-
nesses! “Whenever a true evidence would deprive a man
of his life, in that case, if a false testimony would be the
preservation of his life, it is allowable to give such false
testimony. If a marriage for any person may be obtained
1 Laws of Menu, ch. viii. sect. 101.-M. This solitary passage is always
seized upon by the caluiniators of the Hindus as a proof of their systematic
disregard of veracity-overlooking and setting aside the more numerous and
earnest passages in which strict adherence to truth is enjoined, and which
prove that fully as much respect was paid to it by the Hindus as by any other
people whatever. Manli, viii. 80—101, is a series of verses enforcing the obli-
gations of truth and the heinousness of false evidence, which may well be put
in the scale against the single stanza to the contrary, under particular circuin-
stances. That no other body of laws admits of any relaxation in this respect,
is not exactly true. “Even the pious perjury," says Sir T. Strange," which
" the Hindu law has been supposed to sanction, is rcsolvable after all into no
"greater liberty than what our juries (not, indeed, with perfect approbation)
“ have long been allowed to take where the life of a prisoner on trial before
" them is sometimes at stake." The provisions of the permission are also to be
considered ; a man's life is about to be sacrificed-not for intentional crime, but
for an act arising out of inadvertence or error and not from the justice, but
from the rigour of the judge. In such a case a witness is permitted to give
false evidence, and the motive is good; and although the act is incompatible
with the sterner doctrines of our law, it is well known that something very
analogous to it is not unfrequent-where in the opinion of witnesses, juries,
and possibly even of judges, the punishment is induly severe. Our author, not
satisficd with the fair opportunity which the encouragement of perjury afforcls
him, infers from the text that it judge might legally condemn a inan for inaci-
vertence or error, and therefore exclaims, What a state of justice! The words do
not warrantsuch an interpretation; the sentence is evidently intended to be repre-
sented as unjustand rigorous; and cruel and unjust judges have existed in other
countries than in India. With regard to the occasions nest specified from the
Gentoo Code, it is in the first place to be observed, that the Code is no authority
for the ancient manners and laws of the Hindus-it is a inodern work, and of a
degenerate period. In the next place the cases are not without parallel, except
as regards the specification of a Brahman. Our own criminals are almost com-
pelled to plead 'not guilty,' even when tliey would disburden their consciences
by telling the truth and a Hindi may, therefore, be allowed to save his own
life by telling a falsehood. These also, it may be observed, are not cases of
perjury, or false testimony, a man's life being inperilled and his goods in
danger of being spoiled, are events not likely to befall him in the character of a
witness, nor are transactions with women part of legal procedure. They are
not equivalent to perjury, therefore, and however reprehcnsible, are instances
of a disregard of truth by no incans peculiar to the Hindus.-W.
VOL. I.

194
BOOK II. by false witness, such falsehood may be told. If a man by
CHAP. IV. the impulse of lust tells lies to a woman, or his own life
would otherwise be lost, or all the goods of his house
spoiled, or if it is for the benefit of a Brahmen, in such
affairs falsehood is allowable."1
The laws respecting written evidence are few, and ap-
plied to a very limited number of cases. One distinction
is recognised. "A writing," says the law,"is of two sorts ;
first, that which a man writes with his own hand ; second,
that which he procures to be written by another: of these
tiro sorts, that which is written by a man's own hand,
even without witnesses, is approved; and that written by
another, if void of witnesses, is not approved.”2 The
remaining rules apply, almost entirely, to the modes of
supplying, by means of the oral, what is at any time defec-
tive in the quantity or quality of the matter drawn from
the scriptural source.3
Notwithstanding the diversities of appearance which,
in different ages and countries, human nature puts on,
the attentive observer may trace in it an astonishing
uniformity with respect to the leading particulars which
characterize the different stages of society; and often a
surprising coincidence in particular thoughts and obsery-
ances. The trials by ordeal, in the dark ages of modern
Europe; when the decision of the most important ques-
tions was abandoned to chance or to fraud; when carrying
in the hand a piece of red-hot iron, or plunging the arm
in boiling water, was deemed a test of innocence, and a
painful or fraudulent experiment, supplanting a righteous
award, might consign to punishment the most innocent,
or save from it the most criminal of men; have been
deemed a shocking singularity in the institutions of our
barbarous ancestors. This species of evidence holds a
high rank in the institutes of the Hindus. There are
nine different modes of the trial by ordeal: 1, by the
in which an idol has been washed; 6, by rice; 7, by boiling
1 Halhed's Gentoo Code, ch. iii. sect. 9.
2 Ibid. 6.
3 We know that grants of land by their princes were made in writing; and
sunnuds, pottahs, and other writings, of legal import, are numerous in modern
times. That so little of them is indicated in the more ancient books of law,
implies a ruder period of society; though, doubtless, we cannot be sure of their
being as destitute of legal writings as the few, which we possess, of their an-
cient monuments would give reason to suppose.-W.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS:
195
oil; 8, by red-hot iron; 9; by images. The first of these, BOOK II.
by the balance, is thus performed. The party accused is CHAP. IV.
placed in the scale, and carefully weighed; after which, he
is taken down, the pundits write the substance of the 1662-67.
accusation on a piece of paper, and bind it on his forehead.
At the end of six minutes he is weighed again, when, if
lighter than before, he is pronounced innocent; if heavier,
guilty. In the second ordeal, an excavation in the ground,
nine hands long, two spans broad, and one span deep, is
filled with a fire of pippal wood, into which the party
must walk barefooted; proving his guilt, if he is burned;
his innocence, if he escapes unhurt. The third species is
rather more complicated: the person accused is made to
stand in water up to his navel, with a Brahmen by his
side; a soldier then shoots three arrows from a bow of
cane, and a man is despatched to bring back that which
was shot the farthest; as soon as he has taken it up,
another man is directed to run from the brink of the
water, and at the same instant the party under trial must
plunge into it, grasping the foot or the staff of the Brah-
men who stands by him: if he remains under the water
till the two men with the arrows return. he is innocent;
if he comes up, he is guilty. The fourth kind, by poison,
is performed two ways: either the party swallows a cer-
tain quantity of a poisonous root, and is deemed innocent
if no injury ensues; or a particular species of hooded
snake is thrown into a deep earthen pot, and along with it
a ring, a seal, or a coin. If the man, putting down his
naked hand, cannot take this out unbitten by the serpent,
he is accounted guilty. The accused, in the fifth species,
is made to drink three draughts of the water in which the
images of the sun and other deities have been washed ;
and if within fourteen days he has any indisposition, his
crime is considered as proved. When several persons are
suspected of theft, they chew, each, a quantity of dried
rice, and throw it upon some leaves or bark of a tree;
they from whose mouth it comes dry, or stained with
blood, are deemed guilty : this is the sixth species of
ordeal. In the seventh, a man thrusts his hand into hot
oil; and in the eighth he carries an iron ball, or the head
of a lance, red-hot in his hand ; receiving his sentence of
innocence or guilt according as he does or does not come
196
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
.
BOOK II. off with safety. The ninth species is literally a casting of
CHAP. IV. lots; two images of the gods, one of silver, and one of
iron, are thrown into a large earthern jar; or two pictures
of a deity, one on white, and the other on black cloth, are
rolled up in cow-dung, and thrown into a jar : if the man,
on putting in his hand, draws out the silver image, or the
white picture, he is deemed innocent; if the contrary,
guilty. ; The religious ceremonies with which these trials
are performed it would be tedious and unprofitable to
relate.
The qualities desirable in a BODY OF LAW may all be
gress ; II. Exactness.
Completeness has a reference to the matter : Exactness
to the form.
I. A body of laws may be said to be complete, when it
includes everything which it ought to include ; that is,
when all those rights, the existence of which is calculated
to improve the state of society, are created ; and all those
acts, the hurtfulness of which to the society is so great as
to outweigh the cost, in all its senses, necessary for pre-
venting them, are constituted offences.
II. A body of laws may be said to be E.cact ; 1, when it
constitutes nothing a right, and nothing an offence, except
those things precisely which are necessary to render it
Complete ; 2, when it contains no extraneous matter what-
soever; 3, when the aggregate of the powers and privileges
which ought to be constituted rights, the aggregate of the
acts which ought to be constituted offences, are divided
and subdivided into those very parcels or classes, which
beyond all others best adapt themselves to the means of
securing the one, and preventing the other; 4, when it
i for a full account both of the law and the practice respecting the trial by
ordeal, sce a discourse “On the trial by Ordeal among the Hindus, by Ali
Ibrahim Khan, chief magistrate at Benares," in the Asiat. Researches, i. 389.
See too the Institutes of Menu, ch. viii. 114, 115, 190; Mr. Halhed's Code of
Gentoo Laws, ch. iii. sect. 6, ch.ii. sect. 15, ch. xvii. sect. 4, ch. Iviii., and the
Translator's preface, p. 55,56. Dr. Buchanan inforins us of a shocking species
of ordeal in use, in some places, in regard to those, “wlio, having had sexual
intercourse with a person of another caste, allege that it was by mistake. If
the criminal be a woman, melted lead is poured into her private parts ; if it be
a man, a red-hot iron is thrust up. Should they be innocent, it is supposed
that they will not be injured.” Journcy through the Mysore, Canara, and
Malabar, under the orders of Marquis Wellesley, i. 307. According to
kæmpfer, the Japanese to use a species of ordeal for the discovery of guilt.
History of Japan, ch. y. 236.
THE LAWS OF THE HINDUS.
197
defines those classes, that is, rights and offences, with the BOOK II.
greatest possible clearness and certainty; 5, when it re- CHAP. IV.
presses crimes with the smallest expense of punishment;
and, 6, when it prescribes the best possible form of a
judicatory, and lays down the best possible rules for the
judicial functions.
To show in what degree the Hindu law approaches, or
recedes from, the standard of Completeness, would require
a more extensive survey of the field of law, than consists
with the plan of the present work.
That it departs widely from Exactness, in every one of
the particulars wherein exactness consists, enough has
already been seen to make abundantly apparent. 1. It
creates a great many rights which ought to have no
1 Of the following recapitulation of the defects of Hindu law, it may be ob-
served that it subjects that law to a standard wholly arbitrary, the creation of
the writer's own notions of perfection; tried by which all known systems of
law are, as he frequently intimates, equally imperfect. It is also founded
upon a very incomplete view of that law; the only authorities referred to,
being Manu and the Gentoo Code. The latter, as already remarked, is a mere
modern compilation-not a very careful or copious orie-put together in haste
derived from sources of a very mixed character, and tainted in spirit by the
corruption of modern manners, the consequence of a long period of Mahom-
medan domination. The translation of it by Halhed, is made through the
mediun of a Persian version, which Sir W. Jones characterizes as a "loose,
injudicious epitome." The Code of Manu is of a different description. It is
high authority ; but it is not all-sufficient. “For practical purposes," says
Mr. Ellis, “its use is very little, the original being a text-book of the oldest
- date, without any commentary to adapt it to the circumstances of later
"times. À mere text-book is considered by Indian jurists as of very little
“ use or authority for the actual administration of justice. It may almost be
" said that the only conclusive authorities are held to be the Siddhantas, or
" conclusions of the authors of the digests and commentaries.”—Transactions
of the Literary Society of Madras, p. 7.
There can be no doubt that the work ascribed to Manu is a very early at-
tempt at codification, and it is the height of injustice to expect that, under
such circumstances, it should be perfect. Had it been really perfect, our
author's prejudiced ingenuity wonld, no doubt, still have detected flaws; but
its imperfections may be granted, without impairing the claim of the major
part of its enactments to respect and admiration. We have seen the opinion
of one learned judge on one branch of their laws. We may also oppose to Mr.
Dill, the authority of another ; Sir Francis Macnaughten, Chief Justice in Ben-
gal, who was by no means disposed to give uinqualified approbation to this
code. “I have given," he says, “some of the leading texts which relate to
" the law of contracts, and, in my mind, the system, generally speaking, ap-
" pears to be rational and inoral. No less moral, and possibly more rational,
" because it is in a great degree abstracted from the Hindoo religion, and de-
" pendent upon ethics alone-upon principles which are universally admitted
6—which are immutable in themselves, and which cannot but be eternal in
*s their duration. The merit of having being founders of their own jurispru-
"dence, cannot be denied to this people, and those who are at all conversant
6 with the decisions of our own courts, will acknowledge the analogy which
66 exists between some of the doctrines and some of the texts which I have cited
« from the Hindoo law. When this is not to be found, a comparison may in
66 several instances be made, without disadvantage to the Hindus.”—Considera-
tions on Hindoo Law, P. 404.
198
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. existence; and acts, which ought not to be erected into
CHAP. IV. offences, it does so erect in great numbers. 2. It abounds
in extraneous matter. 3. The division and arrangement
of the matters of law are highly imperfect. 4. The defi-
nitions are so far from excluding darkness and doubt, that
they leave almost everything indefinite and uncertain.
5. Punishments are not repressed, but abound; while
there is the most enormous excess in the quantity of
punishment. 6. The form of the judicatory is bad, as are
a certain proportion of the rules for the mode of perform-
ing the judicial services.
In respect to definitions, the Hindu law is in a state
which requires a few words of elucidation. Prior to the
art of writing, laws can have little accuracy of definition;
because, when words are not written, they are seldom
exactly remembered; and a definition whose words are
constantly varying is not, for the purposes of law, a defi-
nition at all. Notwithstanding the necessity of writing
to produce fixed and accurate definitions in law, the na-
tions of modern Europe have allowed a great proportion
of their laws to continue in the unwritten; that is, the
traditionary state; the state in which they lay before the
art of writing was known. Of these nations, none have
kept in that barbarous condition so great a proportion of
their law as the English. From the opinion of the Hindus
that the Divine Being dictated all their laws, they acknow-
ledge nothing as law but what is found in some one or
other of their sacred books. In one sense, therefore, all
their laws are written. But as the passages which can be
collected from these books leave many parts of the field
of law untouched, in these parts the defect must be sup-
plied either by custom, or the momentary will of the
judge. Again, as the passages which are collected from
these books, even where they touch upon parts of the
one of several meanings, and very frequently are contra-
dicted and opposed by one another. When the words in
which laws are couched are to a certain degree imperfect,
it makes but little difference whether they are written or
not. Adhering to the same words is without advantage,
when these words secure no sameness in the things which
THE LAWS OF THE YT
199
HINDUS.
they are made to signify. Further, in modern Europe, BOOK II.
laws the words of which have no certainty, is to somo
degree, though still a very imperfect one, circumscribed
and limited, by the writing down of decisions. When, on
all, with public approbation, decided in one way; and
when these decisions are recorded and made known, the
judge who comes after them has strong motives, both of
fear and of hope, not to depart from their example. The
degree of certainty, arising from the regard for uniformity
which may thus be produced, is, from its very nature,
infinitely inferior to that which is the necessary result of
good definitions rendered unalterable by writing. But
such as it is, the Hindus are entirely deprived of it.
Among them the strength of the human mind has never
been sufficient to recommend effectually the preservation,
by writing, of the memory of judicial decisions. It has
never been sufficient to create such a public regard for
uniformity, as to constitute a material motive to a judge.
And as kings, and their great deputies, exercised the
principal functions of judicature, they were too powerful
to be restrained by a regard to what others had done
before them. What judicature would pronounce was,
.therefore, almost always uncertain; almost always arbi-
trary.
Lindulaws. It
1 This passage has been subjected to the especial animadversions of Mr.
Ellis, who makes soine severe remarks upon the positiveness with which these
comprehensive but ill-founded assertions are made. " The main source of
" Mr. Mill's error," he continues,“ seems to be sufficiently disclosed by him-
“self, in the first sentence of his chapter on the Hindu laws.
s one of having judged of the whole from a small part. The materials on
“which he founds his opinions, seem to have been inerely Sir William Jones's
“Institutes of Menu, Mr. Halled's Code of Gentoo Laws, and Mr. Colebrooke's
"translation of Jagannatha Panchanana's Digest. That they were utterly
“insufficient for his purpose, the section to whish this note is appended sufi-
"ciently shows. When he supposes that there are no definitions on Hindu.
6 law, be has never seen, even in a translation, any one book of the second
"great class of Hindu law-books, namely:--the Vyakhyanas or commentaries,
" and only the translations of two very imperfect works out of the great mul-
" titude of digests; and he relies mainly upon the Institutes of Menui, tyhich
“ being a mere text-book, is never used as an authority in Hindu courts, but
“ when accompanied by an explanatory conmentary, or incorporated into a
“ digest. It is true that the Hindus have not preserved 'Reports,' after the
"English fashion, of the decisions of their courts of justice. But when the
"definitions of the English common law are sought for, no less regard is
" paid to tliose which are found in Lyttleton's Tenures, or perhaps in Lord
"Coke's Commentary, than to those which appear in the reports of cases ;'
"and the commentaries of the Hindus are considered more decidedly by them
.to be integral parts of the body of their law, than any commentary is in
200
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. In a JUDICATORY, the qualities desirable are: 1. intelli-
CHAP. IV. gence; 2. good design; and that is the best judicatory in
which the best securities are taken for them. In the judi-
catories of the Hindus, composed of the king and his
Brahmens, or the Brahmens alone, there is no security for
either the one or the other; and accordingly neither the
one nor the other almost ever appears.
The qualities desirable in the forms of judicial procedure,
are: 1. efficiency; 2. freedom from delay; 3. freedom from
trouble and expense. In these several respects the system
of the Hindus displayed a degree of excellence not only far
beyond itself in the other branches of law, but far beyond
what is exemplified in more enlightened countries. 1. The
efficiency of the Hindu system of judicial procedure is
chiefly impaired by those rules of evidence the badness of
which has already been pointed out: 2. For preventing
delay, it enjoys every requisite, in its method of imme-
diate, direct, and simple investigation: 3. In the same
method is included all that is requisite for obtaining the
judicial services with the smallest portion of trouble and
expeuse.?
1 One of the most recent witnesses of the phenomena of Hindu society, who
possessed extraordinary means of accurate knowledge, speaks in general upon
the administration of justice among the Hindus in the following terms:-
" Without any of the judicial forms invented by the spirit of chicanery in
Europe; with no advocates, solicitors, or other blood-suckers, now become
necessary adjuncts of a court of justice in Europe; the Hindus determine the
greater part of their suits of lay by the arbitration of friends, or of the heads
of the caste, or, in cases of the very highest iinportance, by reference to the
chiefs of the whole castes of the district assembled to discuss the matter in
controversy.-In ordinary questions they generally apply to the chief of the
place, who takes upon himself the office of justice of the peace, and accom-
modates the matter between the parties. When he thinks it more fit, he sends
them before their kindred, or arbitrators, whom he appoints. He generally
follows the last course when the complainants are Brahmans, because persons
out of their caste are not supposed capable of properly deciding differences
between them. When these methods have been ineffectual to reconcile the
parties, or when they refuse to submit to the decision of the arbitrators, they
must appeal to the magistrates of the district, who decide the controversy
without any appeal.
"Tlie authority of the Hindil princes, as well as that of the vile emissaries
whom they keep in the several provinces of their country for the purpose of
harassing and oppressing them in their name, being altogether despotic, and
knowing no other rule but their own arbitrary will, there is nothing in India
that resembles a court of justice. Neither is there a shadow of public right,
nor any code of laws by which those who administer justice may be guided.
The civil power and the judicial are generally united, and exercised in each
district by the collector or receiver of the imposts. This sort of public magis-
trates are generally known under the name of Havildar or Thasildar. They
are generally Brahmans. This tribunal, chiefly intended for the collection of
the taxes, takes cognizance of all affairs civil and criminal within its bounds,
and determines upon all causes." Description of the Character, Manners, and
Customs of the People of India, by the Abbé J. A. Dubois, Missionary in the
Mysore, p. 494..
TAXES.
201
CHAPTER V.
BOOK II.
CHAP. V.
The Taxes.
THE form of the government is one, the nature of the
1 laws for the administration of justice is the other, of
the two circumstances by which the condition of the.
people in all countries is chiefly determined. Of these
two primary causes no result to a greater degree ensures
the happiness or misery of the people, than the mode of
providing for the pecuniary wants of the government, and
the extent to which the agents of government, of what-
ever kind, are enabled to divide among themselves and
their creatures, the annual produce of the land and labour
of the community.
The matters of detail, which by their number and un-
certainty have so exceedingly perplexed the servants of
the Company, in the financial operations of the Indian
government, cannot here be described. The general out-
line, and the more important effects, of that system of
taxation which is described in the ancient books, are all
that fall within the design of an account of the ancient
state of the people. l. “Of grain," says the ordinance of
Menu, “an eighth part, a sixth, or a twelfth may be taken
by the king;" to be determined, adds the gloss of the
commentator Culluca, “by the difference of the soil, and
the labour necessary to cultivate it."i 2. “He may also
take a sixth part of the clear annual increase of trees,
flesh-meat, honey, clarified butter, perfumes, medical sub-
stances, liquids, flowers, roots and fruit, of gathered leaves,
pot-herbs, grass, utensils made with leather or cane, earthen
pots, and all things made of stone."? 3. “Of cattle, of gems,
of gold and silver, added each year to the capital stock, a
fiftieth part may be taken by the king." 4. "Having as-
certained the rules of purchase and sale,” says the law,
“the length of the way, the expenses of food and of con-
diments, the charges of securing the goods carried, and
the neat profits of trade, let the king oblige traders to pay
taxes on their saleable commodities; after full considera-
tion, let a king so levy those taxes continually in his
1 Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 130.
2 Ibid. 131, 132.
3 Ibid. 130.
202
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. dominions, that both he and the merchant may receive a
CHAP. V. just compensation for their several acts.'1 5. "Let the
king order a mere trifle to be paid, in the name of the
annual tax; by the meaner inhabitants of his realm who
subsist by petty traffic: 6. By low handicraftsmen, artificers,
and servile men, who support themselves by labour, the king
may cause work to be done for a day in each month."2 It
is added; 7. “A military king, who takes even a fourth part
of the crops of his realm at a time of urgent necessity, as
of war or invasion, and protects his people to the utmost
of his power, commits no sin. 8. The tax on the mer-
cantile class, which in times of prosperity must be only a
twelfth part of their crops, and a fiftieth of their personal
profits, may be an eighth of their crops in a time of dis-
tress, or a sixth, which is the medium, or even a fourth in
great public adversity; but a twentieth of their gains on
money and other moveables is the highest tax: serving
men, artisans, and mechanics, must assist by their labour,
but at no time pay taxes."3
In these several articles is found an enumeration of all
the objects of taxation; and a general expression of the
modes and degrees of impost. We perceive taxes on the
produce of land, taxes on the produce of labour, a tax on
accumulation, a tax on sales, and poll taxes. In article 1,
is exhibited a tax on the produce of land; In article 2, a
tax both on the produce of land, and on the produce of
labour; In article 3, is a tax on accumulation, at least in
certain commodities; In article 4, is a tax on purchases
and sales; In article 5, is one sort of poll tax; In article 6,
is another.4
There are tivo primary qualities desirable in a system of
taxation; and in them every thing is included.
The First is, to take from the people the smallest quan-
tity possible of their annual produce.
The Second is, to take from them that which is taken
with the smallest possible hurt or uneasiness.5
? Laws of Menu, ch. vii. 127, 128. 2 Ibid. 137, 138.
3 Ibid. ch. x. 119, 120.
4 So complete and comprehensive a system of taxation might have been re-
ceived in evidence, it may be supposed, of some considerable advance in one
department in civilized society.-IV.
5 The standard here devised for taxation, like that previously invented
for law, is one by which no system in practice would be foud free from fault,
and by which it is not equitable therefore to try that of the Hindus.-W.
:: TAXES.
203
.
I. Of taking from the people more than enough of the BOOK II.
matter of wealth, the causes are two; 1st, When the go- CHAP. V.
vernment consumes beyond the smallest amount sufficient
to obtain the services which it yields: 2nd, When the col-
lection of the taxes themselves costs more than the lowest
sum at which, without sacrificing greater advantages, it is
.capable of being performed.
II. Of the hurt and uneasiness beyond the loss of what
is taken away, which a system of taxation is liable to pro-
duce, the causes seem to be; 1. Uncertainty; 2. Inequality;
3. Impediment to production; 4. Injury to the good quali-
ties, bodily or mental, of the people.
Of the first head and its subdivisions, no illustration is
necessary; and a few words will suffice for the second.
1. Uncertainty may arise from two sources; 1. Uncer-
tainty in the meaning of the words by which the tax is
defined; 2. Uncertainty in the circumstances upon which
the amount of the tax is made to depend; as if it were
made to depend upon the weather, or the state of a man's
health. Uncertainty in the meaning of the words opens a
door to oppression and fraud, on the part of the collector.
He will exact the largest sum consistent with the words, if
he is not bribed; the lowest, if he is. Uncertainty, from
whatever source, is a cause of uneasiness. The mind is
continually haunted with the idea of the worst, and with
all the fears which attend it; fears often very great and
tormenting. As often as a source of chicanery is opened
about the amount which the contributor should pay, a
source of extortion is opened, and a source of oppression,
necessary to effect the extortion.
2. Of the unequal partition of taxes, the necessary con-
sequence is, a greater quantity of suffering than the same
amount of taxes would produce, if more equally imposed;
because the pain of the man who pays too much is out of
all proportion greater than the pleasure of the man who
pays too little. To make the burden of taxes equal, it
should be made to press with equal severity upon every
individual. This is not effected by a mere numerical pro-
portion. The man who is taxed to the amount of one-
tenth, and still more the man who is taxed to the amount
of one-fifth or one-half, of an income of 1001. per annum,
is taxed far more severely, than the man who is taxed to
204
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. an equal proportion of an income of 10001. and to a prodi-
CHAP. V. gious degree more severely than the man who is taxed to
an equal proportion of 10,0001. per annum.
3. On the mischievousness of all taxes which impede
production it is needless to enlarge. It is only necessary
to make them known, or rather acknowledged. 1. Of this
sort are all taxes which take away any part of that pro-
perty which has been already employed as capital; because
there is always more or less of difficulty in replacing it from
the fund destined for immediate consumption. 2. Of this
sort also are all taxes which create any encouragement
whatsoever, or any discouragement whatsoever, to any
particular employment of capital in respect to other em-
ployments; for, as capital is always carried by a strong
impulse to that employment which is the most productive,
every thing which turns it out of the course which it
would take of its own accord, turns so much of it out of a
more, into a less productive channel.
4. That all taxes ought to be shunned which tend to
lessen the amount of useful qualities in the people, will
not be contradicted. Taxes upon medicines have a ten-
dency to diminish health and strength. Taxes upon inno-
cent amusements, as the sports of the field, have a tendency
to drive the people to others that are hurtful. Taxes upon
articles of consumption not hurtful, which have a tendency
to supplant other that are, as tea and sugar to supplant
intoxicating liquors, prompt to the consumption of the
hurtful. Taxes upon law proceedings are a premium upon
the practice of every species of iniquity. Lotteries are a
direct encouragement to a habit of mind, with which no
useful tendency can easily co-exist. And all taxes, of
which the quantity due is not clear and certain, train the
people, by continual practice, to a state of hardened per-
fection in mendacity, fraud, and perjury.
1. In the above list of the sacred ordinances concerning
taxes, the first relates entirely to the tax on the produce
of the soil. It offends against the rule of certainty to a
high degree. The amount varies as one to one-half; and
the variation is made to depend upon circumstances the
uncertainty of which opens a boundless field to all the
wretched arts of chicanery and fraud on the part of the
people, and all the evils of oppression on the part of the
TAXES.
205
collectors. As the determination of the circumstances on BOOK II.
which the amount of the assessment depends belongs of CHAP. V.
course, in such a state of society as that of the Hindus, to
the agents of the treasury, a free career is afforded to all
the baneful operations of favour and disfavour, of bribery
and corruption. Whenever an option is granted between
a less exaction and a greater, the violent propensity of all
imperfect governments to excess in expense is sure in
time to establish the greater. It would appear accordingly
that a sixth part of the produce became the uniform tax
in Hindustan; and that the indulgence in favour of the
barren soils was extinguished. This is the state in which
it was found by the Mohammedan conquerors. And in
Sacontala,2 the king is described, at a much earlier period,
as “that man whose revenue arises from a sixth part of
his people's income." The source of variation and uncer-
tainty from these causes was prodigiously enlarged by the
power reserved to the king, of taking even a fourth of the
crops, in times of distress. As he was himself the judge
of these times of necessity, we may believe that they were
of pretty frequent occurrence.3
2. In the second of these fiscal ordinances, a variety of
products are enumerated, which, in a rude age, are either
the spontaneous produce of the soil, as flowers, roots,
grass; or obtained from the spontaneous produce, by some
very simple process; as perfumes and medical substances,
by expression; flesh-meat and honey, by killing the ani-
mals which produce them; and these as costing little in
point of labour, are all taxed at the highest rate imposed
upon grain. By one of these capricious arrangements
which abound in the institutions of a rude people, utensils
made of leather, cane, earth, and stone, in the production
of which labour is the principal agent, are placed under
the same exaction as the spontaneous productions of the
1 Ayeen Akbery, p. 347.
2 An ancient Sanscrit poem of the dramatic form, translated by Sir William
Jones: Sec the beginning of the fifth act.
- 3 This is a wholly gratuitous assumption, and unwarranted by the text
referred to, which indicates sufficiently the kind of distress intended min-
vasion or war. Circumstances not of the king's contrivance, and obvious
to his people. Nor WELS there much uncertainty in tlie amount of the as-
sessment in times of pence. The division of the country into townships and
village communities, which appears to have existed from the time of Manu,
rendered the business of valuation easy, and protected individuals from ex-
tortion.-W.
206
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA. .
BOOK II. soil. The consequence must have been to render these
CHAP. V. commodities proportionably dear.
In the execution of this ordinance, there must have
been excessive uncertainty, and excessive expense. What
is meant by “annual increase ?” The “annual increase of
trees” is an absurd expression: trees grow not by the
year. What shall be said of such expressions, as “the.
annual increase" of " clarified butter," “ of flesh-meat,"
< of flowers”? These are not commodities, which continue
accumulating, till.the amount of the annual produce is
seen entire at the end of the year:1 but commodities daily
brought into existence and daily consumed. To collect
the tax upon such commodities, a daily visit in every
family would hardly suffice. In the execution of this
ordinance, the temptation to the incessant practice of all
the arts of fraud, on the part of the people, and the
powers of oppression bestowed upon the collectors, were
well calculated to fill society with immorality and suffering.
3. In the third of the above ordinances are enumerated
the principal classes of moveables known to the Hindus.
It seems to be the addition made in any year to the
previous stock, and not the previous stock itself, of which
one-fiftieth is taken in the way of tax. In a society, full
of knowledge and industry, this would have been a tax
upon capital, and therefore mischievous: in Hindustan,
where gold, silver, and gems, were most commonly boarded,
and not devoted to production, it would not have been
easy to find a less objectionable tax. Unless in a state of
society rapidly progressive, or a state in which there is
excessive fluctuation of fortunes, that is, excessive misery,
it would be a very unproductive tax.
4. In the words of the fourth ordinance is described a
tax on all purchases and sales. The circumstances on
1 This verbal criticism is wasted. The phrase "increase of trees,” is Sir
William Jones's-not dianu's. The original says a sixth part of trees (that
is, of their produce), of clarified butter, &c. When taxes were paid in kind,
some fixed proportion of the articles of daily consumption was necessarily
specified ; it is clearly impossible that the rate should have been very
rigorously levied, and all that is intended is to limit the demands of the pur-
veyors.-W.
? The main object of the fourth law is nothing more than to establish a
duty or charge of customs, and is no more objectionable than similar imposts
in all countries; a further object is to enjoin due consideration of charges
and expenses, and to make the customs as light as is consistent with the fair
claims of the government. Nothing is said of transit duties, and the fail
inference from the expression ascertaining the length of the way,' is, that
there were no transit charges, tlie customs being levied only at the end of the
journcy.-W.
TAXES.
207
which the amount is made to depend are so uncertain, as BOOK II.
to constitute a great seminary of fraud on the one hand, CIIAP. V.
and a great office of oppression on the other. The tax is-
also hurtful to production, by impeding circulation; that
is, the passage of property from a situation in which it is
less, to one in which it is more useful. The mode in
which, at least in modern times, it was chiefly raised, that
of transit duties, multiplied to excess, obstructed all that
encouragement to industry which is afforded by the inter-
change of commodities, not only between different coun-
tries, but one province and another of the same country.
As often as property which has been, and is to be, employed
as capital, is bought and sold, it is a tas upon capital.
5. A poll tax, when paid in money, or any other common.
measure of value, is chiefly objectionable on account of its
inequality; as the same sum is a very different burden to
different persons.
6. A poll tax paid in labour is somewhat less objection-
able in point of equality, though the same portion of his
time may be a much greater burden upon one man than
it is upon another. It is chiefly objectionable on account
of the loss of time, and of property, which it occasions to
those who have it to pay. In a well-ordered society,
accordingly, where every man's time and labour are dis-
posed of to the best advantage, it has no place.
Some of these ordinances are modified, or the words
rendered a little more precise, in the Gentoo Code trans-
lated by Mr. Halhed. The following are examples. If a
man purchase goods in his own country, and sell them
again there, one-tenth of his profit goes to the magistrate.
If the purchase took place in a foreign kingdom, and the
sale in his own, one-twentieth only is the share of the
magistrate. If a man, having purchased flowers, or roots,
as ginger, radishes and the like, or honey, or grass, or
firewood, from another kingdom, sells them in his own,
the magistrate is entitled to one-sixth of his profits.”
What was the reason of severe exaction in such cases does
not appear. Rude times give not reasons. In the days of
i The political economists of Hindustan, and those of the mercantile theory
in modern Europe, proceeded on different views.
2 Halled's Gentoo Code, ch. xxi. sect. 4. On sales of very small amount,
or on those of young heifers (the cow was a sacred animal), 110 tax was
lepied.
208
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Menu these taxes appear to have been much more mode-
CHAP. V. rate; a fiftieth of mercantile profits being the ordinary,
·and a twentieth the extraordinary tax..
In this system of taxation, other sources are of small
importance; the revenue of the sovereign arises almost
wholly from the artificial produce of the land. To under-
stand in what manner the people of Hindustan were
affected by taxation, the circumstances of this impost are
all that require to be very minutely explored.
The tenure of land in Hindustan has been the source of
violent controversies among the servants of the Company;
and between them and other Europeans. They first
sprung up amid the disputes between Mr. Hastings and
Mr. Francis, respecting the best mode of taxing Bengal.
And they have been carried on with great warmth, and
sometimes with great acrimony, ever since. Of these
controversies the account will be due, at the periods when
they occur. At present it will suffice to bring to light
the circumstances which appear to ascertain the ancient
state of the country, in respect to the distribution of pro-
perty in the land.
In a state of society resembling our own, in which
property is secure, and involves very extensive rights or
privileges, the affections which it excites are so strong,
and give such a force to the associations by which the
idea of it is compacted and formed, that in minds of little
range, whose habits are blind and obstinate, the particulars
combined together under the idea of property appear to
be connected by nature, and not, without extreme injus-
tice, to be made to exist apart.
At different times, however, very different rights and
advantages are included under the idea of property. At
I See the first volume of the continuation.
2 It would be difficult to find any country in which the affections excited by
property, are stronger than they are in India. If this be a proof of civilization,
then are the Hindus an eminently civilized race.-W.
3 The notions of the Hindus, in regard to property, have been strangely
overlooked in what follows, or Mr. Mill would not have fou
tween the laws of the civilized Hindus and the practices of the barbarous
nations of Africa. Had le referred to Mr. Colebrooke's translation of the
Hindu law of inheritance, he would have found a much more subtle disqui-
sition on the origin and nature of property, than that into which he has
entered, and much more simply stated, showing that property originates not in
Written law, but in popular recognition; a conclusion precisely the same as
that which lie more elaborately describes as “ combinations of benefits deter-'
mined and chosen by the society." With regard also to the sources of property,
TAXES.
209
very early periods of society it included very few: origin- BOOK II.
ally, nothing more perhaps than use during occupancy, CHAP. V.
the commodity being liable to be taken by another, the
moment it was relinquished by the hand which held it:
but one privilege is added to another as society advances:
and it is not till a considerable progress has been made in
civilization, that the right of property involves all the
powers which are ultimately bestowed upon it..
It is hardly necessary to add, that the different combi-
nations of benefits which are included under the idea of
property, at different periods of society, are all equally
arbitrary ; that they are not the offspring of nature, but
the creatures of will; determined, and chosen by the
society, as that arrangement with regard to useful objects,
which is, or is pretended to be, the best for all.
It is worthy of remark, that property in moveables was
established; and that it conveyed most of the power's
which are at any time assigned to it; while, as yet, pro-
perty in land had no existence. So long as men continue
to derive their subsistence from bunting ; so long, indeed,
as they continue to derive it from their flocks and herds,
the land is enjoyed in common. Even when they begin
to derive it partly from the ground, though the man who
has cultivated a field is regarded as possessing in it a pro-
perty till he has reaped his crop, he has no better title to
it than another for the succeeding year.?
D
it would be difficult to find a inore comprehensive list than that comprised in
the text of Gautama; " property is by inheritance, purchase, partition, seizure
or finding, and in addition by acceptance for a Brahman, conquest for å
Kshatriya, gain for a Vaisya, and a Sudra, inclusive in the latter instance of
· wages." Colebrooke's Dayabhuga, 244. Manu has a similar description of
the sources of property, showing sufficiently & complex system of society, in
which such means were recognised : “ there are seven virtuous means of
acquiring property, inheritance, acquirement, purchase, conquest, lending at
interest, husbandry or commerce, and acceptance of gifts from the good."
X. 115. The Sanscrit term for property is of itself decisive of the comprehen-
sive notions attached to it. Swatwa is the abstract of Swa, suum, or own-ship,
meaning what is absolutely and unqualifiedly one's own.-W. '
1 There are no traces in the traditions of the Hindus of their ever having
been a pastoral people, or a nation of hunters. The law that “ the land is his
by whom it is first cleared," indicates on the contrary an immigrant people,
entering on the possession of an uncultivated country, and at once setting to
work to clear and till it. It is a law expressively applicable to the original
back woodsmen of America.-W.
2“ Suevorum gens est longe maxima et bellicosissima Germanorum om-
nium. li centum pagos habere dicuntur. * * * Privati et separati agri
apud eos nihil est ; neque longius urno reinanere uno in loco, incolendi causa.
licet: neque mutum frumento, sed maximam partem lacte atque pecore vivunt,
VOL. I.
210
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. In prosecuting the advantages which are found to spring
CHAP. V. from the newly-invented method of deriving the means of
subsistence from the ground, experience in time discovers,
that much obstruction is created by restricting the right.
of ownership to a single year; and that food would be
provided in greater abundance, if, by a greater permanence,
men were encouraged to a more careful cultivation. To
niake, however, that belong to one man, which formerly
belonged to all, is a change, to which men do not easily
reconcile their minds.? In a thing of so much importance:
as the land, the change is a great revolution. To over-
come the popular resistance, that expedient which appear's
to have been the most generally successful, is, to vest the
sovereign, as the representative of the society, with that.
property in the land which belongs to the society; and
the sovereign parcels it out to individuals, with all those
powers of ownership, which are regarded as most favour-
able to the extraction from the land of those benefits
which it is calculated to yield. When a sovereign takes
possession of a country by conquest, he naturally appro-
priates to himself all the benefits which the ideas of his
soldiers permit.
In many of the rude parts of Africa, the property of
the land is understood to reside in the sovereign; it is in
the shape of a donation from him, that individuals are
allowed to cultivate; and when the son, as is generally
the case, succeeds to the father, it is only by a prolonga-.
tion of the royal bounty, which, in some places at least, is
multumque sunt in venationibus." Cæsar. De Bell. Gal. lib. iv. cap. 1
Among some tribes of negroes on the coast of Africa, cach individual must
obtain the consent of the chief before he has liberty to cultivate a field, and is
only protected in its possession till he has reaped the crop for which he has
toiled. Histoire Générale des Voyages, tom. y. ch. vii. sect. 5. :" Neque quis-
quam agri modum certum, aut fines proprios habet; sed magistratus ac prin-
cipes, in annos singulos, gentibus cognationibusque hominum qui una coierunt
quantum et quo loco visum est agri attribuunt ; atque anno post, alio transire
cogunt.'' Cæsar. De Bello Gallico, lib. vi. cap. 20.
..... Rigidi Getæ,
Immetata quibus jugera liberas
Fruges et Cererem ferunt,
Nec cultura placet longior annua;
Defunctumque laboribus
Equali recreat sorte vicarius.-Hor. lib. iii. Od. 24.
1 Yet this is evidently the familiar principle of the Hindu law, the land is his
who clears it, not for a year, or for any given time, but for ever; there is no
Limitation.-W.
TAXES.
211
not obtained without a formal solicitation. It is known, BUOK II.
that in Egypt the king was the sole proprietor of the CHAP. V.
land; and one-fifth of the produce appears to have been
yielded to him as a revenue or rent. Throughout the
Ottoman dominions, the Sultan claims to himself the sole
property in land.3 The same has undoubtedly been the
situation of Persia, both in ancient and modern times. 4.
"It is established,” says the late intelligent Governor of
Java, "from every source of inquiry, that the sovereign in
Java is the lord of the soil."5 . And when the fact is estab-
lished in regard to Java, it is established with regard to
all that part of the eastern islands, which in point of
manners and civilization resembled Java. It is not dis-
C
i Histoire Générale des Voyages, tom. iy.ch. xiii.p. 203. Modern Universal
History, vol. xvii. p. 322. 'I am induced to transcribe the following passage
from Mr. Park; “ Concerning property in the soil; it appeared to me that the
lands arid native woods were considered as belonging to the king, or (where
the government was not monarchical) to the state. When any individual of
free condition had the means of cultivating more land than he actually pos-
sessed, he applied to the chief man of the district, who allowed him an exten-
sion of territory, on condition of forfeiture, if the lands were not brought into
cultivation by a given period. The condition being fulfilled, the soil became
vested in the possessor; and, for aught that appeared to me, descended to his
heirs." Travels in Africa, p. 260, 261.
" All the land is said to belong to the king; but if a man chooses to clear a
spot and erect a town, he may : the land is free for any of the people. If a
stranger, indeed, that is, an European, should wish to settle among thein, he
must make a present of goods to the king." Correspondence of John Kizel), on
the state of the people on the river Sherbro, Appendix to the Sixth Report of the
African Institution, p. 133.
? Herodot.lib. ii. cap. cix, says, that Sesostris, as he was told by the
priests, divided all the land of Egypt among the people, and thence raised his
revenues, imposing an annual tribute on each portion; kai atro TOUTOU Tas
Tipo Jodovs Tomoaodai, ElTafavta arrobopnv ÉTTITEclv kat' EVLAUTOV. See too,
Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 1135. Diod. Sic. lib. i. sect. 2. cap. xxiv.
3 Volney's Travels in Syria and Egypt, vol. i. p. 402, et passin. De
l'Egypte, par le Général Reynier, p. 66, 51.
For information on this point, see Herodot. lib. iii. ; lib. iv. cap. xlii. ; Sir
William Ouseley's Translation of Ebu Haukal, an Arabian geographer, who
lived in the tenth century, p. 137 ; Institutes of Timur; Ayeen Akbery;
Chardin's Travels.
. 5 Gov. Raffles' Minute on Java, p. 6; also, 1). 79, 108. The distribution of
the land among the Peruvians was as follows: One-third part of it was dedi-
cated to, and cultivated for, the gods; that is, the priests. Another third part
the Inca reserved for himself, for the maintenance of his court and of his
armies. The remaining third he distributed to the people, assigning an esta-
blished portion to each family. “But no particular man," (says Acosta, Vat.
and Mor. Hist. of the Indies. book VI. ch. sv.),“ possessed any thing proper
to himself of this third portion, neither did the Indians ever possess any, if it
were not by special grace from the Inca," Garcilasso de la Vega tells 118 (part
I. book V. ch. i.), that it was only when there was more land than sufficed for
the people, that the Inca and the Sun received their full thirds; when that
was not the case, these portions were diminished to augment to the proper
proportion that of the people. See too Carli, Lettres sur l'Amérique, let. XV.
For great services land was given in full property ; Acosta, book VI. ch.
xviii. ; and this is another remarkable coincidence with what existed in
Hindustan
0
212
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. puted that in China the whole property of the soil is.
CHAP. V. vested in the Emperor. By the laws of the Welsh, in
the ninth century, all the land of the kingdom was de-
clared to belong to the king;- and we may safely, says
Mr. Turner, believe, that the same law prevailed while
the Britons occupied the whole island.3
To those who contemplate the prevalence of this institu-
tion, among nations contiguous to the Hindus, and resembling
them in the state of civilisation, it cannot appear surprising,
that among them, too, the sovereign was the lord of the
soil. The fact is, indeed, very forcibly implied, in many
of the ancient laws and institutions. “Of old boards,"
says one of the ordinances of Menu, "and precious mine-
rals in the earth, the king is entitled to half by reason of
his general protection, and because he is the superior lord
· 1 Abbé Grosier, Desc, de la Chine ; but Mr. Barrow's testimony is the most
direct and satisfactory. “The emperor," says he," is considered as the sole
proprietary of the soil, but the tenant is never turned out of possession as long
as lie continues to pay his rent, which is calculated at about one-tenth of wliat
his farm is capable of yielding; and though the holder of lands can only be
considered as a tenant at will, yet it is his own fault if he should be dispos-
sessed." Barrow's China, P. 397.
2 Leges Wallicæ, Hoel. cap. 337.
3 Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. chap. iii.-M.
The greater part of the text and of the notes here is wholly irrelevant. The .
illustrations drawn from Mohammedan practice, supposing them to be correct,
have nothing to do with the laws and rights of the Hindus. They are not, how-
ever, even accurate; and Mr. Mill's guides have misled him. According to
the Mohammedan law a conquered country is, at the moment of its subjuga.
tion, at the disposal of the conqueror ; le may then either partition it amongst
his followers, or allow the inhabitants to retain it on payment of a fixed por-
tion of the produce. In either case he relinquishes the right of the soil acquired
by conquest, and no other is admitted. Such was the state of things in Hin-
dustan. Galloway on the Constitution of India, p. 31.
With regard to the right of the Hindu Raja, it is by no means analogous to
those of the rulers of Egypt, or of. Turkey, or of Africa, sopposing them to be
accurately stated in the text; and the texts which have been conceived to
warrant such an inference are wrongly interpreted or understood. He is not
lord of the " soil," he is lord of the earth, of the whole carthi or kingdom, not of
any parcel or allotment of it ; he may punish a cultivator for neglect, in order
to protect his acknowledged share of the crop ; and when he gives away lands
and villages, he gives away lis share of the revenue. No donee would ever
think of following up such a donation by actual occupancy, he would be re-
sisted if he did. The truth is, that the rights of the king are a theory, an ab-
straction; poetically and politically speaking, he is the lord, the master, the
protector of the earth (Prithvi pati, Bhumiswara, Bhúmipa), just as he is the
lord, the master, the protector of men (Narapati, Nareswara, Nripa). Such is
the purport of the common title of a king ; but he is no more the actual pro-
prietor of the soil than he is of his subjects; they need not his permission to
buy it or to sell it, or to give it away, and would be very much surprised and
aggrieved if the king or his officers were to buy or sell or give away the
ground which they cultivated. In a subsequent page, the author is forced to
admit, that all which is valuable in the soil, after the deduction of what is due
to the sovereign, belongs of incontestable right to the Indian busbandman.
p. 224,-1.
TAXES.
213
of the soil."1 The king, as proprietor, and as fully entitled BOOK II.
to an equitable return for the land which he has let, is CHAP. V.
empowered to punish the cultivator for bad cultivation.
- If land be injured, by the fault of the farmer himself, as
if he fails to sow it in due time, he shall be fined ten times
as much as the king's share of the crop, that might other-
was the fault of his servants without his knowledge."2
Among other ancient memorials of Hindu institutions and
manners, are certain inscriptions engraved on durable
materials. Some of them are records of grants of land,
commonly to favourite Brahmens; and they afford strong
indication of the proprietary rights of the sovereign. The
sovereign gives away villages and lands, not empty, but
already occupied by cultivators, and paying rent. It
appears from an ordinance of Yagyawalcya, one of the
lands within their dominions, in the same manner, and by
the same title, as they alienated any portion of their reve-
nues. On this point, it is of material importance to
1 Laws of Menii, ch. Tiii. 39. I have here substituted the ord supreme for
the word paramount, used by Sir William Jones, which has no meaning but as
it relates to the feudal institutions of Europe, and is calculated to couvey an
erroneous idea.
% Laws of Venu, ch. viii. 243.
. 3 See a royal grant of land, engraved on a copper plate, bearing date
twenty-three years before Christ; and discovered among the ruins at Mon-
guir, translated by Mr. Wilkins, Asiat. Researches, i, 123. "Be it known,"
says the inscription (p. 126), " that I have given the above-mentioned town of
Meseeka, whose limits include the fields where the cattle graze, above and
below the surface, with all the lands belonging to it, together with all the
· Mango and Modhoo trees; all its waters, and all their banks and verdure; all
its rents, all its tolls and fines for crines, and rewards for catching thieves.
· In it tliere shall be no molestation, 110 passage for troops," &c. It is here
reinarkable that the sovereign, as well as the proprietary, rights are given
away; so indissolubly were these united in the minds and institutions of the
Hindus. In the same manner in another grant of land found at Tanna, and
bearing date An. Christi, 1018, the land is given away " with its herbage,
wood, and water, and with power of punishing for the ten crimes." Asint.
Researches, i. 364.
• 4 Let a king, having given land, or assigned revenue, cause his gift to be writ-
ten for the information of good princes, who will succeed him, either on pre-
pared cloth, or on a plate of copper, sealed above with his signet; having
described his ancestors and himself, the dimensions or quantity of the gift, with
.its metes and bounds, if it be land, and set his own hand to it, and specified
the time, let him render his donation firm." See the original, and the trans.
lation of Sir Wm. Jones, Asiat. Res. iii. 50.
The Digest of Hindu Law, translated by Colebrooke (i. 460), declares, " By
.conquest, the earth became the property of the holy Parasu Rama, by gift, the
property of the sage Casyapa; and, committed by him to Cshatriyas, for the
sake of protection, became their protective property successively held by
appears, from the same passage, that by agreement with the sovereign, and
214
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. remark, that, up to the time when the interests of the
CHAP. V. Company's servants led them to raise a controversy about
the rights of the Zemindars, every European visitor, without
one exception that I have found, agrees in the opinion, that
the sovereign was the owner of the soil.1
not otherwise, i tenure of more than one year may be required; but without
such agreement, the cultivator might be turned away at the end of every year,
if a larger rent was offered by any other. It was highly necessary to quote
this passage, though it is affirmed by Col. Wilks, to be a law manufactured by
the complaisant Bralımens who made the Digest, on puupose to suit the opi-
nions of the ruling power, at that time in love with the Zemindarry system.
Col, Wilks affirms, that there is nothing whatsoever which the Brahmens can-
not make to be law, on a similar occasion. And it is at least certain, that part
of what they give as law has been proved to be at variance with all that appears
either of their present or ancient institutions.
“That there were no hereditary estates in India; for that all the land be
longed to the king, which he disposed of at pleasure.” Persian authority,
quoted by Stewart, Hist. of Bengal, r. 132.
It is proper to adduce the more remarkable instances. The ancient
Greeks who visited India expressly inform us, that the kings were the sole
proprietors of the soil, and that a fourth part of the produce was actually paid.
Thein in kind as the rent or tribute. Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1030. Diod. Sic. lib.
ii. p. 53.
“ Diodorus, Strabo, the voyagers and travellers of later times, withont
any exception that has fallen within the scope of my limited reading, the
authors of the Lettres Edifiantes, and the European travellers who visited the
court of Aurungzebe in the latter part of the seventeenth century, Bernier,
· Thevenot, Chardin, Tavernier, and, I believe, Manouchi, are unanimous in
denying the existence of private landed property in India." Wilks, Hist.
Sketches, p. 114.
“In revenue, the Emperor doubtless exceeds either Turk or Persian, or any
eastern prince; the sums I dare not name, but the reason. All the land is
liis, no man has a foot." Sir T. Roe to the Archbisliop of Canterbury, Churchill,
i. 803...
· "Toutes les terres du royaume," says Bernier, “estant en propre au roi,"
&c. Suite de Mém. sur l'Imp. du Grand Mogul, t. ii. p. 10. See, also, D.
150, 174, 178: at p. 180, he inakes the following remark; " Ces trois états,
Turkie, Persie, et l'Hindoustan, comme ils ont tous osté ce Mien et ce l'ien, an
l'égard des fonds de terre et de la propriété des possessions, qui est le fonde-
ment de tout ce qu'il y a de beau et de bon dans le monde, ne peuvent qu'ils
ne se resemblent de bien près." Montesquieu scems to have been fully aware
of this important fact.-" Les lois des Indes, qui donnent les terres lux princes,
et Otent aux particuliers l'esprit de propriété, augmentent les mauvais effets dus
climat, c'est à dire, la paresse naturelle." Esp. des Loix, liv. xiv. ch. 6. .
"All the lands in India are considered as the property of the king, except
some liereditary districts possessed by Hindoo princes." Dow's Hindostan,
preface, 1. xiii.
"All the lands in the kingdom," says Mr. Orme (Fragments, p. 403) “be-
long to the king; therefore all the lands in the provinces are subject to the
Nabob... With him, or his representatives, farmers agree for the cultivation of
such an extent, on reserving to themselves such a proportion of the produce.
This proportion is settled according to the difficulty or ease of raising the grain,
and seldom exceeds a third.” One-third to the cultivator, and two-thirds to
the proprietor, would be accounted a rack-rent in England. Mr. Orme says
again, (Ibid. p. 414), “The king, by being proprietor of the lands, sells to his
subjects their subsistence, instead of receiving supplies from them." Mr.
Holwell says (Interesting Historical Events, i. 220), " The rents of the lands
are the property of the emperor." And again, “ The tenures of the ryots are
irrevocable, as long as they pay the rent; and by the laws of Hindostan, they
must be twelve months in arrear before they can be ejected." Ibid.
TAXES.
215
PO
.: Wherever the Hindus have remained under the influence BOOK II.
of their ancient customs and laws, the facts correspond CHAP. V.
with the inference which would be drawn from these laws.
Under the direction of the Governor-General of Bengal, a
journey was undertaken, in the year 1766, by Mr. Motte, to
the diamond-mines in the province of Orissa. In a narra-
tive of his journey, he gives an account of the distribution
of the land at Sumbhulpoor, which till that time had
remained under the native government. Each village being
rated to the government at a certain quantity of rice, which
was paid in kind, the land is thus divided among the inha-
bitants. To every man, as soon as he arrives at the proper
age, is granted such a quantity of arable land as is estimated
to produce 242] measures of rice, of which he must pay 60%
measures, or about one-fourth to the rajah or king. Mr.
Motte adds ; “The reserved rent of three or four villages,
being one-fourth the produce of the land, is applied to the
use of the rajah's household. The reserved rent of the rest
is given to his relations or principal servants, who, by these
means have all the inhabitants dependent on them."ı Dr.
Buchanan gives a particular account of the manner in
which the crop, in those parts of India which are most
purely Hindu, is divided between the inhabitants and the
government. In Bengal it is not allowed to be cut down
1 A Narrative of a Journey to the Diamond Mines of Sumbhulpoor, in the
province of Orissa, by Thomas Motte, Esq., Asiat. Annual Register, i., Miscel-
laneous Tracts, p.75. Mr. Motte further informs us, that every inan at Sumh-
hulpoor is enrolled as a soldier, and is allowed half a measure of rice in the
day for his subsistence, while his wife cultivates the farm. He seems to say
that this subsistence is given to himn by the wife from the produce of the farm.
M.
Sumbhulpore is a very unfortunate exemplification of the “ancient" system
of the Hindus. The town was founded only two centuries before, by an ad-
venturer from Upper India. Mr. Motte terms the government strictly feudal;
and this explains the reason of every man's being a soldier, and the principle
of the division of the lands, each man holding in fief a grant of land from his
liege lord, on condition of militilry service. It may be doubted if Mr. Motte
has given us a complete view of the system, or it would have seen found that
the military landlords were a distinct class from the people of the country.
The latter being not Hindus at all, but Goands and Bheels; and the former
alone being Hindus of the inilitary tribe, or Rajputs, adventurers from which
tribe are known to have settled in various uncultivated parts of Chattesgher,
precisely on the plan of the German invaders of Britain and Gaul; the leader
reserving to himself a portion of the conquered land, and distributing the rest
amongst his retainers. Such a system is a very different thing from that de-
lineated by Manu. Under any circumstances, however, it would have been
most unreasonable to have liad recourse to Sumbhulpore, for an illustration of
the ancient laws of the Hindus, as it is the capital of a district, the greater
part of which is inaccessible mountain, and impervious thicket, and in which
most of the inhabitants live in a state littlo inore civilized than that of the
sayages of Australia.-W.
ing Hindus of theus at all, but Goandamane people of the noi
216
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. till the rent or tax is first paid ; but in those countries to
CHAP. V. which his journey principally relates, it is the custom, after
the grain has been thrashed out in the field, to collect it
into heaps and then to divide it. A heap generally consists
of about 110 Winchester bushels, of which he presents the
following distribution as a specimen of the partition which
is usually made. For the gods, that is, for the priests at
their temples, are deducted five seers, containing about one-
third of a Winchester gallon each; for charity, or for the
mendicant Brahmens, an equal quantity; for the astrologer
and the Brahmen of the village, one seer each: for the
barber, the potmaker, the washerman, and the Vasaradava,
who is both carpenter and blacksmith, two seers each; for
the measurer, four seers; for the Aduca, a kind of beadlé,
seven seers; for the village chief, eight seers, out of which
he has to furnish the village sacrifices; and for the accomp-
tant ten seers. All these perquisites are the same, what-
ever be the size of the heap beyond a measure of about
twenty-five Winchester bushels. When these allowances
are withdrawn, the heap is measured; and for every candaca
which it contains, a measure equal to 5,1-20th Winchester
bushels, there is again deducted half a seer to the village
watchmen, two and a half seers to the accomptant, as much
to the chief of the village ; and the bottom of the heap,
about an inch thick, mixed with the cow-dung which in
order to purify it had been spread on the ground, is given
to the Nirgunty, or conductor of water. These several
deductions, on a heap of twenty candacas, or 110 Winchester
bushels, amount to about 52 per cent. on the gross produce.
Of the remainder, 10 per cent. is paid to the collector's of
the revenue, as their wages or hire; and the heap is last of
all divided into halves between the king and the cultivator.!
From these facts only one conclusion can be drawn, that
the property of the soil resided in the sovereign; for if it
did not reside in him, it will be impossible to show to whom
it belonged. The cultivators were left a bare compensa-
tion, often not so much as a bare compensation, for the
1 Buchanan's Journey tlirough thie Mysore, etc., i. 2, 3, 130, 194, 265. “This
simple mode of rating lands for half their yearly produce is derived from the
remotest antiquity in different parts of Hindustan, and still invariably prevails
in such countries as were left unsubdued by the Mahomedans, like Tanjore,
where the ancient Indian forms of administration are, for the most part, pre-
served entire." British India Analyzed, i. 195.
TAXES.
217
labour and cost of cultivation; they got the benefit of BOOK II.
their labour: all the benefit of the land went to the king.? CHAP. V.
i Upon the state of facts, in those places where the present
practices of the Hindus have not been forced into a discon-
formity with their ancient institutions, the fullest light has
been thrown, by those servants of the Company who made
the inquiries requisite for the introduction of a regular
system of finance into the extensive regions in the south of
India added to the British dominions during the adminis-
trations of the Marquisses Cornwallis and Wellesley. Place,
Munro, Thackeray, odgson, were happily men of talents;
sufficiently enlightened to see things which were before
them with their naked eyes; and not through the mist of
English anticipations. From the reports of these merito-
rious gentlemen, presented to their superiors, the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons, which inquired into East
India affairs in 1810, have drawn the following as a general
picture: “A village, geographically considered, is a tract of
country, comprising some hundreds, or thousands, of acres
of arable and waste land. Politically viewed, it resembles
a corporation or township. Its proper establishment of
officers and servants consists of the following descriptions:
The Potail, or head inhabitant, who has the general super-
intendence of the affairs of the village, settles the disputes
of the inhabitants, attends to the police, and performs the
duty of collecting the revenues within his village: The
Curnu772, who keeps the accounts of cultivation, and registers
every thing connected with it: The Tallier and Totie;
the duty of the former appearing to consist in a wider and
more enlarged sphere of action, in gaining information of
crimes and offences, and in escorting and protecting persons
travelling from one village to another; the province of the
latter appearing to be more immediately confined to the
1 The missionary Dubois, with his singular opportunities of correct infor-
mation, says peremptorily : “ Crcditors can have no liold on the real estate of
their debtors, because the Hindus have no property in the soil. Tlie lands
which they cultivate are the domain of the prince, who is the sole proprietor.
He can resume them at his pleasure, and give them to another to cultivate.
Even the liuts in which they live, built of mud and covered with thatchi, are
not their own. All belongs to the prince; and if a man, for any reason wliat-
ever, quits his habitation in the village, he can by no means dispose of it to
another, although it were constructed by his own hands. The only property
they possess is their few cows and buffaloes, and upon these no creditor is al.
lowed to lay his hands; because, if deprived of his cattle, he would be unable
to cultivate the land, whence un injury would accrue to the prince." Descrip-
tion, etc., of the People of India, by the Abbé Dubois, p. 496.
218
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. village, consisting, among other duties, in guarding the
CHAP. V. crops, and assisting in measuring them: The Boundary-
man, who preserves the limits of the village, or gives
evidence respecting them in cases of dispute : The Super-
intendent of water-courses and tanks, who distributes the
water for the purposes of agriculture: The Brahmen, who
performs the village worship: The Schoolmaster, who is
seen teaching the children in the villages to read and write
in the sand: The Calendar Brahmen, or astrologer, who
proclaims the lucky, or unpropitious periods for sowing
and thrashing: The Smith and Carpenter, who manufacture
the implements of agriculture, and build the dwelling of
the ryot: The Potniarz or potter: The Washerman: The
Barber: The Cow-Iceeper, who looks after the cattle: The
Doctor: The Dancing Girl, who attends at rejoicings: The
Musician, and the Poet.
“Under this simple form of municipal government, the
inhabitants of the country have lived, from time immemo-
rial. The boundaries of the villages have been seldom
altered: and though the villages themselves have been
sometimes injured, and even desolated by war, famine, and
disease, the same name, the same limits, the same interests
and even the same families, have continued for ages. The
inhabitants give themselves no trouble about the breaking
up and division of kingdoms; while the village remains
entire, they care not to what power it is transferred, or to
what sovereign it devolves; its internal economy remains
unchanged; the Potail is still the head inhabitant, and still
acts as the petty judge and magistrate, and collector or
renter of the village."'
These villages appear to have been not only a sort of
i Fiftlı Report, Commit. 1810, p. 85. See, in “Considerations on the State
of India," by A. Fraser Tytler, i. 113, a description of a village in Bengal,
which shows that the Indian continent was pervaded by this institution.
: An association of a similar kind existed among the Mexicans. Robertson's
America, iii. 283.
Some curious strokes of resemblance appear in the following particulars of
the Celtic manners, in the highlands and islands of Scotland. “The pecu-
liarities which strike the native of a commercial.country, proceeded in a great
measure from the want of money. To the servants and dependants, that were
not domestics, were appropriated certain portions of land for their support.
Macdonald has a piece of ground yet, called the bard's, or senachie's field.
When a beef was killed for the house, particular parts were claimed as fees by
the several officers, or workinen. The head belonged to the smith, and the
udder of a cow to the piper; the weaver had likewise his particular part; and
so many pieces followed these prescriptive claims, that the laird's was at laste
but little." Johnson's Hebrides.
TAXES.
219
small republic, but to have enjoyed to a great degree the BOOK II.
community of goods. Mr. Place, the collector in the jaghire CHAP. V.
district at Madras, informs us, that “Every village considers
itself a distinct society; and its general concerns the sole
object of the inhabitants at large: a practice," he adds,
which surely redounds as much to the public good as
theirs ; each having, in some way or other, the assistance of
the rest; the labours of all yield the rent; they enjoy the
profit, proportionate to their original interest, and the loss
falls light. It consists exactly with the principles upon
which the advantages are derived from the division of
labour; one man goes to market, while the rest attend to
the cultivation and the harvest ; each has his particular
occupation assigned to him, and insensibly labours for all.
Another practice very frequently prevails, of each proprietor
changing his lands every year. It is found in some of the
richest villages; and intended, I imagine, to obviate that
inequality to which a fixed distribution would be liable.'"}
· The state of taxation is described by the same committee,
in the followiug terms: "By the custom of the Hindu govern-
ment, the cultivators were entitled to one half of the paddy
produce (that is, grain in the husk) depending on the period-
ical rains. Of the crops from the dry grain lands, watered
by artificial means, the share of the cultivator was about two
thirds. Before the harvest commenced, the quantity of the
crop was ascertained, in the presence of the inhabitants and
village servants, by the survey of persons unconnected with
the village, who, from habit, were particularly skilful and ex-
pert in judging of the amount of the produce, and who, in the
adjustment of this business, were materially aided by a refe-
rence to the produce of former years, as recorded by the ac-
comptants of the villages. The quantity which belonged to
the government being thus ascertained, it was received in
kind, or in money." Of garden produce, of which the culture
was more difficult, a smaller portion was taken; because, if
field culture was taxed as much as it could bear, it seems
to have been supposed that garden culture, at an equal
rate of taxation, could not have been carried on.
"Such,” continue the committee, “were the rights of the
ryots, according to the ancient usage of the country. In
consequence, however, of the changes introduced by the
1 Fifth Report, ut supra, p.723.
220
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Mohamedan conquest, and the many abuses which later
CHAP. V. times had established, the share really enjoyed by the ryots
was often reduced to a sixth, and but seldom exceeded a
fifth. The assessments had no bounds but those which
limited the supposed ability of the husbandman. The
effects of this unjust system were considerably augmented
by the custom which had become common with the Zemin-
dars, of sub-renting their lands to farmers, whom they
armed with unrestricted powers of collection, and who were
thus enabled to disregard, whenever it suited their pur-
pose, the engagements they entered into with the ryots;
besides practising every species of oppression, which an
unfeeling motive of self-interest could suggest. If they
agreed with the cultivators at the commencement of the
year, for a rent in money, and the season proved an abun-
dant one, they then insisted on receiving their dues in kind.
When they did take their rents in specie, they hardly ever
failed to collect a part of them before the harvest-time had
arrived and the crops were cut; which reduced the ryots to
the necessity of borrowing from money-lenders, at a heavy
interest of 3, 4, and 5 per cent. per month, the sums requisite
to make good the anticipated payments that were demanded
of them. If, from calamity or other cause, the ryots were
the least remiss in the discharge of their rents, the officers
of the renters were instantly quartered upon them; and
these officers they were obliged to maintain, until they
might be recalled on the demand being satisfied. It was
also a frequent practice with the renters to remove the
inhabitants from fertile lands, in order to bestow them on
their friends and favourites; and to oblige the ryots to
assist them, where they happened to be farmers, in the
tilling of their lands; and to furnish them gratuitously
with labourers, bullocks, carts, and straw.”'
The two terms, Ryot and Zemindar, introduced into this
passage, are of frequent recurrence in the history of India
and require to be explained. By ryots are always denoted
the husbandmen; the immediate cultivators of the ground
The Persian term Zemindar, introduced by the Mahomedan
conquerors, was in Bengal, and certain other parts of India
the name of a certain. sort of middleman, between the cul-
tivator who raised the crop, and the king; who received the
i Fifth Report, ut supra, p.81, 82.
TAXES.
221
greater part of the net produce. Into the controversy BOOK. II.
respecting the nature of the interest which the Zemindar CHAP. V.
possessed in the land with respect to which he performed
his function of middleman, I shall not at present enter.
Another occasion will present itself for the examination of
that subject. It is here sufficient to say, that in districts
sometimes of greater, sometimes of less extent, a person,
under the title of Zemindar, received the share of the
produce, which was exacted from the ryot; either by himself,
or the persons to whom he farmed the receipts; and paid
it over to the sovereign, reserving a prescribed portion to
himself. The Zemindar was thus, whatever else he might
be, the collector of the revenue for the district to which he
belonged. As the receipt of revenue, in a rude state of
government, is a business most dear to the governors, the
Zemindar, in order the better to secure this favourite end,
was vested with a great share of the powers of government.
He was allowed the use of a military force; the police of
the district was placed in his hands; and he was vested
with the civil branch of judicature. When his district was
large, he was a sort of petty prince. In various parts of
India, however, the collection of the revenue had never
become fixed. and hereditary in the hands of an individual,
and the business was transacted between the immediate
cultivators, and a man who possessed none but the charac-
teristics of an immediate officer of government.
The committee say, that a rate of taxation much more
severe than that which existed under the Hindu govern-
ments was introduced by the Mohamedan rulers, and amid
the abuses of modern times. For this opinion they have
no authority whatsoever. It is, therefore, a mere prejudice.
The rate which they mention goes far beyond the scale of
the ancient ordinances: And what reason is there to believe
that the ancient Hindu governments did not, as the Mo-
hamedan, levy assessments to the utmost limits of the
supposed ability of the ryots? In those parts of India
which Europeans have found still remaining under Hindu
governments, the state of the people is worse, if there is
any difference, than where they have been subject to the
Mohamedan sway."
1 For this opinion, the writer " has no authority whatever.” The contrary
opinion, formed by individuals of high talent, and ample opportunities of
222
IIISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. The rate established in the ancient ordinances has been
CHAP. V. regarded as evidence of mild taxation, that is, of good go-
vernment. It only proves that agriculture was in its
earliest, and most unproductive state; and though it paid
little, could not afford to pay any more.! : We may assume
it as a principle, in which there is no room for mistake,
that a government constituted and circumstanced as that
of the Hindus, had only one limit to its exactions, the non-
existence of any thing further to take.? Another thing is
certain, that under any state of cultivation, but the very
worst, if the whole except a sixth of the produce of a soil,
so rich as that of Hindustan, had been left with the culti-
vator, he must have had the means of acquiring wealth,
and of attaining rank and consequence; but these it is well
ascertained that the ryots in India never enjoyed.3
Notwithstanding these proofs that the ownership in the
land was reserved to the king, this conclusion has been dis-
puted, in favour, Ist, of the Zemindars, and 2ndly, of the
Ryots. The question with regard to the Zemindars may
be reserved till that period of the history, when it was agi-
tated for the sake of practical proceedings on the part of
observation, is authority. In the south of India, Hindu goverments have all
along been extant, as well as Mohammedan; and in the contrast between the
two, the officers, whose statements are so completely disregarded, speak not
from report, but from personal knowledge. To say of their deliberate affir-
mation, therefore, it is mere prejudice, without being able to produce any
proof to that effect, is an irrational rejection of unexceptionable testimony, of
which Mr. Mill would not have been guilty, had not. his own prejudices been
too strong for his judgment.-W..
By the same rule, the Turkish government wonld be ranked as excellent.
It takes little ; but the reason is, there is nothing more which it can take.
The ancient assessment on the cultivator in Persia was one-tenth; but in the
days of the Indian Emperor Akbar, he was, by one means or other, made to
pay more than a half. Ayeen Akbery, Ed. in 4to. p. 348.
2 Why this principle should be taken for granted, does not appear ; the con-
trary inference is the more probable one. The manners of the Rajas: were
simple: they kept up no expensive state. They were subject to fixed laws,
controlled by Brahmanical influence, military independence, and popular
opinion. There is no reason to believe that they ever levica to the uttermost.
- W.
3 The population in India, through so many ages, must have been kept
down by excess of exaction. Even in the richest parts of India, one-half of
the soil has never been under cultivation.-M.
This is a bold assertion. What proof is ticre that in the richest parts of
India, one-half of the soil has never been cultivated ? It is not true of the
present day, that half the richest parts of Bengal are not in cutivation ; and
there is reason to believe, that in former times, much of the country was ex-
ceedingly populous. Greck writers talk of a thousand cities in the Punjab
alone; and remains of towns and vestiges of habitations are found in many
parts of India, 10w covered with jungle. There is no reason to believe that
the population in India was always depressed, or that it was kept down by
cxcess of exaction.-W.
TAXES.
223
the government. The question with regard to the Ryots BOOK II.
belongs peculiarly to this part of the work. .
CHAP. V.
The circumstances, which appear to have misled the in-
telligent Europeans who have misinterpreted this part of
the Hindu institutions, are two; first, the tenure of the
lyot or husbandman; and secondly, the humane and
honourable anxiety, lest the interests and the happiness
of the most numerous class of the population should be
sacrificed, if the sovereign were acknowledged as owner of
the soil.
But, if this acknowledgment were ever so complete, it
is inconsistent neither with the tenure which is claimed
in favour of the ryots, nor with the means of their pros-
perity and happiness. And if it were, the acknowledgment
of its previous existence would be no bar to a preferable
arrangement; since the sovereign can have a right to
nothing which is injurious to his people. ..
In a situation in which the revenue of the sovereign
was increased in proportion to the number of cultivators,
and in which a great proportion of the land continued void -
of cultivators, there would be a competition, not of culti-
vators for the land, but of the land for cultivators. If a
ryot cultivated a piece of ground, and punctually paid his
assessment, the sovereign would be far from any wish to
remove him, because it would be difficult to supply his
place. If the ryot sold the ground to another ryot, or left
it to a successor, that is, put another in his place who
would fulfil the wishes of the sovereign, he, whose source
of fear was the want of a cultivator, had still cause for
satisfaction; and seldom, if ever, interfered.
By custom, the possession of the ryot became, in this
manner, a permanent possession; whence he was not re-
moved except when he failed to pay his assessment or
rent; a possession which he could sell during his life; or
leave by inheritance when he died. As far as rights can
be established by prescription, these rights were esta-
blished in India in favour of the lyots. And no violation
of property is more flagrant than that by which the
tenure of the ryot is annulled.
But, according even to European ideas, a right to culti-
vate the land under these, and still greater advantages, is
not understood to transfer the ownership of the land.
224
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. The great estates in Ireland, for example, let under leases
CHAP. V. perpetually renewable, are vendible and inheritable by the
leaseholders, without affecting the ownership of their lords;
subject, moreover, to a very important restriction, from
which the sovereigns in India were free;' the lords of such
estates cannot raise their rents at pleasure; the sovereigns
in India enjoyed this privilege, and abused it to excess.
The sovereigns in India had not only the ownership, but
all the benefit of the land; the ryots had merely the pri-
vilege of employing their labour always upon the same
soil, and of transferring that privilege to some other per-
son; the sovereign claimed a right to as much of the pro-
duce as he pleased, and seldom left to the ryots more
than a very scanty reward for their labour.
That ownership in the land justified this extent of exac-
tion, or implies a valid title to any power at variance with
the interests of the ryots, is an erroneous inference. With-
out violating its obligations to the people, a government
cannot spend any sum, beyond what is strictly necessary
for the performance of the services, which it is destined to
render: and it is justified in taking even this sum exclu-
sively from the cultivators of the land, only if that is the
mode in which all the qualities desirable in a, financial
system are the most completely realized.
Those who contend for the privileges of the ryots would
no doubt observe, that in this mode of interpretation, we
reduce the ownership of the sovereign to an empty name;
and that to the admission of it, thus understood, they see
nothing to object. The controversy is then at a close.
The ownership of the sovereign in the soil, wherever it
exists, is, by the principles which constitute the very foun-
dation of government, reduced to the limits above described.
And it is no less certain, that all which is valuable in the
soil, after the deduction of what is due to the sovereign
belongs of incontestable right to the Indian husbandman.2
1 It is remarkable, that the king's tenants in ancient demesne were, in
England, perpetual, on the same condition as the ryots in India. A gleba
amoveri non poterint, quamdiu solvere possunt debitas pensiones. . Bracton, -
lib. i. cap. ii.
? The following quotations will show how completely these deductions ac-
cord with the facts which the late perfect investigation has elicited. Mr.
Thackeray, in his general report, remarks, “ All this peninsula, except, per-
haps, only Canara, Malabar, and a few other provinces, has exhibited, from
time immemorial, but one system of land-revenue. The land has been
considered the property of the Circar [government], and of the ryots." The
TAXES. .
225
The Hindu mode of raising the revenue of the state, BOOK II.
wholly, or almost wholly, by taking as much as necessary CHAP. V.
interest in the soil has been divided between these two ; but the ryots have pos.
sessed little more interest than that of being hereditary tenants. If any per-
sons have a claim to participate with government in tlie property of the soil,
it is the ryots." (Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 992.) These ideas, and even the
very words, have been adopted in the Report of the Board of Revenue. Ibid.
P. 898. “Lands," says Mr. Place, "cannot be alienated without a written
instrument; becailse both the sovereign and the subject have a mutual pro-
perty in them. Lach, however, may alienate his own, and the other is not
affected. The sovereign may part with his interest in thein : but the usufruc.
tuary right remains with the subject. And all that the latter can sell, mort-
· gage, or give away, is the enjoyment of the profit, after paying what is due to
the sovereign." (Ibid. p.719.) Mr. Harris, in his report on Tanjore, intorns
us, “A meerassadar (ryot) disposes of his station in any manner lic pleases.
He disposes of it, too, and quits, without being bound to give, to any one, notice
of his transfer and departure. Like hivi, liis successor superintends its culti-
vation, and pays its revenue. Government know nothing of his rclinquislı-
inent; and if they knew of it, they would not care about it here, as in Europe.
The proprietorship of the land belongs to government or the landlord ; and he
who is intrusted with the duty of making it productive, lives upon it and culti-
vates it, so long as he pays its revenue, and no longer. But this occupation or
it, while the superior is satisfied, has been converted by the ineerassadar into
a right. They have made the right a property; and they retain, sell, lend,
give, or mortgage, according to their inclination, the whole or any part of it.";
(Ibid. 829.) Even Mr. Hodgson, who is an advocate for raising the revennie
through the instrumentality of Zeinindars, affirms the rights of the cultivators:
to be incontestablc. “I make," says he, “the following inductions: Ist. that.
the cultivatoi's have a right, everywhere, to pay a fixed tax for the land they
occupy; 2ndly. that they have the right, universally, to occupy this land, sa:
long as they pay the standard rent; 3rdly, that they have the riglit to sell or
transfer, by deed, gift, or otherwiso, the land they occupy, subject always to
the condition of paying the standard rent; 4thly. that they exercise the right,
stated in the third position, wherever the standard rent has not been increase,
so as to absorb all the profit on cultivation, or arable land is sufficiently scarce
to be of value in the acquisition.” (Ibid. 979.)
If the writer means, by saying that the cultivator had a right to pay no more
than a fixed rent, that it would have been right or good to pay only in that
manner, I maintain the same doctrine ; but if he means that the cultivator
erer enjoyed this riglit, the proposition is far from true. In every other respect
I assent to the propositions of Mr. Hodgson. I also agree with him when he
says; “ Provided the property in private estates, that is, the standard rent,
and no more, be paid by thiese owners of private estates, I hold it to be a mat-
ter of very secondary importance to them, wlw.ther the rent is demanded or
them by the ancient rajalis or polygars, the officers of Byjnuggur or Bednore
government, the rajah coorg, the tehsildars of the Company, or the (to be
created) zemindars of the Company." (Ibid. 980.) The collector of Tanjore.
also thinks it not worth inquiring what ownership the sovereign has, provided
the usufruct of the ryot is well defined and secured. (Ib. 831.) See Hodgson
again to the same effect. (Ib. p. 926.) We are informed by Mr. Park, that
in Africa, when a permission to cultivate a spot of ground has been granted by
the sovereign, it is not resumed, while the revenue or rent is paid. (Travels,
p. 261.) In Chinct, Mr. Barrov assures us, that the cultivator, though in
reality a tenant at will, is never dispossessed, but when he fails to discharge
the stated engagements. “So accustomed," he adds, "are the Chinese to
consider the estate as their own, while they continue to pay the rent, that is
Portuguese in Macao bad nearly lost his life for endeavouring to raise the rent.
upon his Chinese tenants. (Travels in China, p. 397.) Dr. Buchanan says,
"Theryots or farmers have no property in the ground; but it is not usual to .
turn any man away, so long as he pays the customary rent. Even in the
reign of. Tippoo, such an act would have been looked upon as an astonishing :
grievance." (Journey through DIysore, &c., i, 124.) " The genius and ten-
VOL. I.
226
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
CHAP. V. which first presents itself to the rudest minds, has no in-
considerable recommendation from science itself. Previous
to allotment, the productive powers of the soil are the joint
property of the community; and hence are a fund pecu-
liarly adapted to the joint or common purposes and de-
mands. If the whole of what is strictly rent were taken
away, the application of labour and capital to the land:
would resemble the application of labour and capital to
would determine their reward.
· But as the expense required for the services of govern-
ment exceeds not a very small portion of the rent of the
land, unless where the quantity was very minute, the
greatest possible benefit is derived from the productive
powers of the soil, when it is the property of individuals.
The benefits of the soil have, accordingly, over the greater
part of the globe, been employed, first, to supply in whole,
or for the greater part, the necessities of government, next
to enrich the individual occupant. The most remarkable
exception to this rule is in modern Europe. After the
conquests of the Gothic nations, the land was thrown in
great portions into the hands of the leading men: and
they had power to make the taxes fall where they chose;
they took care accordingly that they should fall any where
rather than upon the land; that is, upon any body rather
than themselves. Further, as their influence over the
sovereign made him glad to share with them what he de-
rived from the taxes, they not only threw the burden off
their own shoulders, but taxed, as they have continued to
do, and sometimes in a progressive ratio, to the present
hour, the rest of the community for their benefit.
dency of all Hindu institutions is, to render offices, as well as property, heredi-
tary." (Wilks's Hist. Sketches, p. 231.) “The king is the general heir of all
his subjects ; but when there are children to inherit, they are seldom deprived
of their father's estate.” (Dow's Hindostan, pref, p. xiii.) H xwpa trs
πολεως" αλλ' ουδεν ήττον των κεκτημενων έκαστος κυριος εστι τον εαυτου.
(Dio Chrysostom. Orat. 31. in Rhodiac.) Anquetil Duperron was the first of
the Europeans who maintained that the ownership of the land was vested in
the ryots. He has written a discourse upon the subject, in his work entitled,
Recherches Historiques et Géographiques sur l'Inde. He proves what is now
acknowledged, that a man might disposc of his farm, and was seldom turned
out of it, while he continued to pay his taxes or rent. There is a learned and
able chapter, in support of the same opinion in "Historical Sketches of the
South of India, by Col. Wilks."
... TAXES..
227
The objections to the Hindu system of providing for BOOK II.
the expenses of government, arise rather from the mode, CHAP. V.
than the essence.
By aiming at the receipt of a prescribed portion of the
crop of each year; and with a very imperfect distinction
of the lands of different powers, the Hindus incurred
most of the evils which a bad method of raising a tax is
liable to produce. They rendered the amount of the tax
always uncertain, and its pressure very unequal; they
rendered necessary a perfect host of tax-gatherers; and
opened a boundless inlet to partiality and oppression
on the one hand; to fraud and mendacity on the other.
A tax consisting of any portion of the gross produce of
the soil, raises the price of that produce; because the tax
raised from the poorest of the cultivated land must be re-
turned, along with the expense of cultivation, in the
exchangeable value of its produce. In this manner a tax
is levied upon the consumers of corn, which surpasses the
sum paid to the government, and enriches the owners of
the best land at the expense of the community.?
An expensive mode of raising the taxes is a natural
effect of a rude state of society. We are informed by
Sully, that the receipt into the French exchequer, in the
year 1598, was only thirteen millions of French money;
while the sum, dragged out of the pockets of the people,
was 150 millions. “The thing appeared incredible," says
the statesman: “but by the due degree of labour, I made
the truth of it certain." The proportion was doubtless
greater in Hindustan.3.
Receiving the taxes in kind was a practice which ensured
a prodigious expense, and a waste by which nobody gained.
Scarcely any other mode seems to have been known to the
Hindus in the time of their ancient institutions; and to a
great degree it continued down to the latest period of their
history. How rude and inconvenient soever this practice
i See & Dissertation on the Principles of Taxation, the most profound, by
far, which has yet been given to the world, by David Ricardo, Esq., in his
work “ On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation."
2 Mém. du Sully, liv. XX.
3 It was doubtless much less, the amount was adjusted between the
members of the village communities and the superintendent of the district;
and the host of collectors never existed, except in the author's imagina-
cion.--W.
4 Among the Mexicans, says Dr. Robertson, “ Taxes were laid upon land,
upon the acquisitions of industry, and upon commodities of every kind ex-
228
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. must be regarded; we find several nations who make a con-
CHAP. V. siderable figure in the history of the world, who have not
in this respect advanced beyond the Hindus. It may not
surprise any one, that taxes were raised in kind in the
ancient empire of Mexico. The greater part, though not
the whole, were raised in the same manner, in Persia, even
in the time of Darius Hystaspes ;; and the mixture at
least, whatever the proportion, continues to the present
day. The whole revenue of China, with the exception of
some trifling articles, is paid in kind.4
CHAPTER VI.
Religion.
TT is difficult to determine whether the constitution of
I the government and the provisions of law, or Religion,
posed to sale in the public markets. These duties were considerable, but not .
arbitrary or unequal. They were imposed according to established rules,
and each knew what share of the common burden he had to bear." History
of America, iii, 225, 229. The political descriptions of this admired historian
are, commonly, by far too general, and thence vague. We cannot suppose
that the Mexicans were more skilled in the policy of taxation than the
Hindus.
I“ As the use of money was unknown," says Robertson, (Ibid. p. 296,) " all
the taxes were paid in kind, and thus not only the natural productions of all
the different provinces in the empire, but every species of manufacture, and
every work ofingenuity and art, were collected in the public storehouses.” It
is worthy of remark, that the same mode of taxing handicrafts and labourers
was adopted in Mexico as in Hindustan; “People of inferior condition (Ibid.),
neither possessing land nor engaged in cominerce, were bound to the per-
formances of yarious services. By their stated labour the crown lands were
cultivated, public works were carried on, and the various houses which be-
longed to the emperor vere built and kept in repair.
2 It is remarkable that, in Persia, the use even of coined money was un-
known till the time of Darius Hystaspes. The portion of tribute that was paid
in gold and silver, was received by weight. Herodot. lib. iv. cap. clxvi.
Major Rennel, not aware that this was only a portion, and a small portion, of
the Persian taxes, is exceedingly puzzled to account for the diminutive amount
of the Persian reveniles, and at last concludes that “the value of money was
incredibly greater at that time than at present." Rennel's Geography of He-
rodotus, p. 316.
3 Ebn Haukal, translated by Sir William Ouseley, p. 136. Chardin's
Travels in Persia.
that a vast number of the vessels on the canals and rivers are employed in
conveying the taxes to the capital. Ibid. p. 508. In those countries on the
Euxine Sea, which early attained so high a state of civilization, as to have a
large export trade in grain, even the custom-house duties, or the taxes on
export and import, were levied in kind. We are informed by Demosthenes,
Orat. ady. Leptinem, that Leucon, king of Bosphorus, from which Athens de:
rived her principal supplies, levied a duty of one thirtieth in kind upon all the
corn shipped in his ports..
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
229
lives of individuals, and the operations of society. Beside BOOK II.
the causes which usually give superstition a powerful sway CHAP. VI.
· in ignorant and credulous ages, the order of priests obtained
a greater authority in India than in any other region of
the globe; and this again they employed with astonishing
:success in multiplying and corroborating the ideas on
which their power and consequence depended. Every
thing in Hindustan was transacted by the Deity. The
laws were promulgated, the people were classified, the
government was established, by the Divine Being. The
astonishing exploits of the Divinity were endless in that
sacred land. For every stage of life from the cradle to
the grave; for every hour of the day: for every func-
tion of nature; for every social transaction, God pre-
scribed a number of religious observances. And medita-
tion upon his incomprehensible attributes, as it was by
far the most difficult of all human operations, so was it
that glorious occupation which alone prepared the intense
yotary for the participation of the Divine nature.
Of so extensive and complicated a subject as the reli-
gion of the Hindus, a very general view can alone be taken
here. All that is interesting to the politician and the
philosopher, may, however, it is presumed, be confined
within a moderate space. The task is rendered difficult
by the unparalleled vagueness which marks the language
of the Brahmens respecting the nature of the gods, the
vast multiplicity of their fictions, and the endless discre-
pancy of their ideas. Hence it is, that no coherent system
of belief seems capable of being extracted from their wild
eulogies and legends; and if he who attempts to study
their religion is disposed, like themselves, to build his
faith on his imagination, he meets with little obstruction,
from the stubborn precision of Hindu expressions and
tenets.
Nothing is more curious than to trace the ideas con-
cerning Divine power which the patural faculties of our
race suggest to them at the various stages of their career.
In the very rude and imperfect state in which society ori-.
ginated, the human mind can hardly so far enlarge its
views as to draw conclusions respecting the universe.
Those operations and events of nature, which more imme-
diately concern mankind, and on which their happiness.
230
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. and misery depend, no doubt engage their eager curiosity.
CHAP. VI. The causes of light and darkness, of drought and rain, of
the thunder, of the hurricane, of the earthquake, suggest
many an anxious inquiry; but to put all the objects of
nature, and all the changes which they undergo, into one
group of ideas, and to ask whence did the whole proceed,
seems to be an operation too complicated, and too far re-
moved from the ordinary track of his ideas, to be one of
the first that takes place in the mind of a barbarian.
With regard to that other class of questions, which more
easily occur to him, his nature very readily suggests an
answer, Prior to experience and instruction, there is a
propensity in the imagination to endow with life whatever
we behold in motion; or, in general, whatever appears to
be the cause of any event. A child beats the inanimate
object by which it has been hurt, and caresses that by
which it has been gratified. The sun, which is the cause
of day, the savage regards as a beneficent deity. A spirit
resides in the storm; the woods and the waters are peopled
with divinities; there is a god of plenty, and a god of want;
a god of war, and a god of peace; a god of health, and a
outline of the first religion which is suggested to the hu-
man mind, the laws of human nature, and the ideas which
are found to prevail among rude tribes, appear sufficiently
to evince. ·
· But men are not long in making another step in their
religious progress. Having made for themselves a theory
with respect to the cause of the events which affect them,
their curiosity; and from asking the cause, first of one
great object, and then of another, they come at last to put
the general question, What is the cause and origin of the
whole? There are very few, therefore, even among the
most barbarous nations, who have not made an attempt to
account for the origin of the universe, and in whose reli-
But, in answering the question respecting the origin of the
universe, it is impossible that men should not be guided
by their previous ideas. It follows, that among the divi-
nities whom they already adored, He, whom they regarded
as the most powerful, should be selected as the Maker of
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS,
231
the world. Were they placed in circumstances of to- BOOK II.
lerable tranquillity, this potent God would probably be CHAP. VI.
the sun: were they a people almost constantly plunged
in the horrors of war, the god of arms would naturally be
their chief divinity. Hence we see that in many nations
of Asia, who at an early period seem to have been placed
in favourable circumstances, the sun was supreme among
the gods, and the great principle of the universe; among
the turbulent and warlike tribes who inhabited the north
of Europe, Odin, the god of war, was the supreme deity,
and author of all things.
The Hindus had made considerable progress beyond
the first and lowest stage of human society. It seems
common, however, to retain for a long time the ideas
which are then implanted ; and rather than eradicate the
old, to make of them a heterogeneous compound with the
new. The Greeks and the Romans did not reject their
.: Jupiter, and Mars, their gods of the mountains, trees, and
rivers, when they rose to more comprehensive views of the
universe; they only endeavoured to accommodate to these
primary conceptions their new apprehensions and conclu-
sions. In like manner, the Hindus have still their Indra,
or the god of firmament, Varuna, or the god of the waters,
Rembha, the goddess of love, in the whole, a long and
splendid catalogue of thirty-thrée crore.2
We have translations from the Hindu books of several
passages containing accounts of the creation. They differ
from one another very widely in the minor forms and cir-
1 This is an admission, rather incompatible with the views usually advocated
by the author.-W.
2 A crore is 100 lacs, and a lac is 100,000; so that thirty-three crore of
deities is just 330 millions.-M.
This expression is not to be understood in its literal sense. It is intended
only to denote an infinite number; including all the inferior spirits of heaven
and earth. The objects of adoration, that are individualized, are few. Dr.
Tennant is not good authority on this subject. Rembha, is not goddess of
love, but an inferior being-a nymph of Indra's court.-W.
3 Threc of these from the Vedas tliemsclves by Mr. Colebrooke (As. Res.
viii. 404, 421, 452); another account, translated from the Puranas by Mr. Hal-
hed, is published in Maurice's History (i. 407); Mr. Wilford has given us an-
other, derived from the saine source (As. Res. ii. 358). An account of the
creation is prefixed to the Gentoo code translated by Halhed; we have another
in the French translation, entitled Bagavadam, of the Bhagavat. The author
of the Ayeen Akbery informs us that no fewer than eighteen opinions respect-
ing the creation were entertained in Hindustan, and presents us three as a
specimen, of which the last, taken from the Surya Sidhanta, he says, is the
most common. Ayeen Akbery, iii. 6. The most important of all is that which
I have referred to in the text, from the institutes of Menu, ch. i. 5, &c.
232
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. cumstances; but strongly resemble in the general cha-
CHAP. VI. racter, and in the.principal ideas. That contained in the
sacred volume which bears the name of Menu may be
taken as a standard, being more full and circumstantial
than any of those which are given us from the Vedas;
derived from a work of equal authority with the Vedas
themselves, and exhibiting, as drawn up at a later period,
the improvement, if any, which the ideas of the people had
acquired. It is all vagueness and clarkness, incoherence,
inconsistency, and confusion. It is one of the most extra-
vagant of all specimens of discourse without ideas. The
ſearless propensity of a rude mind to guess where it does
not know, never exhibited itself in more fantastic and
senseless formas.?
Beside accounts of what creation was, we have accounts
of the mode in which the Hindu divinity performed the
creation. If a man possessing refined and exalted notions
of the Divine Nature were to describe the great work of
creation, he would have the clearest conviction of his own
incompetence; and, as Moses, he would attempt no more
than by a few strokes to convey an idea of the magnitude
of the task, and of the power and wisdom of him who per-
formed it. If far removed from this degree of knowledge
and reflection, he will enter without hesitation upon a
minute and detailed description both of the plan, and of
its execution. If, however, the society in which he lives
has attained any considerable improvement, the process
which he conceives will indicate some portion of human
wisdom; will, at least, be such as an instructed member of
that society, had he infinite power imparted to him, would
devise for himself. On the other hand, if a description of
the creation presents no idea but what is fantastic, wild,
and irrational; if it includes not even a portion of that
design and contrivance which appear in the ordinary works
of man ; if it carries the common analogies of production,
in animal and vegetable life, to the production of the uni-
verse, we cannot be mistaken in ascribing it to a people,
whose ideas of the Divine Being were grovelling. 3
1 It is not the best standard that could have been selected, being a rather
injudicious mixture of the popular and philosophical accounts.-W.
2 See note A. at the end of the volume.
3 The system is not to be judged of by the only specimens within our
author's reach, altliough, even from them, it is unjust to infer that the Hindus
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS11
233
.
“ The self-existing power," says Menu, “having willed to BOOK II.
produce various beings, first with a thought created the CHAP. VI.
waters.” This is not a despicable conception, but what
succeeds? “He placed in these waters a productive-seed.”'
This is one of those analogies to the growth of a plant or
an animal which are generally the foundation of the cosmo-
gony of a rude people. What next? The seed becomes an
egg; which is a very extraordinary product;' a wonderful
course, too, for the self-existing power to follow in the
formation of the universe. The other steps are not less
amazi 8. In this egg the divine being deposited himself,
and there he lay, in a state of inactivity, a whole year of the
Creator, that is, according to the Hindus, 1,555,200,000,000
solar years of mortals. At the end of this astonishing
period he caused by his thought the egg to divide itself,
and was himself born in the form of Brahma, the great
forefather of all spirits ;thus, "from THAT-WHICH-IS, the
first cause, was .produced the divine male, famed in all
worlds, under the appellation of Brahma.”! This is cele-
brated in Hindu books as the great transformation of the
Divine Being, from neuter to masculine, for the purpose of
creating worlds; and under this masculine form of Brahma
it was that he effected the rest of creation. The Hindus
believe that he was engaged in it for no less than 17,064,000
years,5 Of the two divisions of the egg from which he had
just been freed, he framed the heaven above, the earth
had no high and noble ideas of that creative power wliich they describe as
being alone before all things, and as calling of its own will, existence out of
chaos.-W.
1 Not at all:-the Hindus were better plıysiologists than the historian.-Y.
2 The length of a year of the Creator may be thus compared. A calpa, or
grand period, containing the reigus of fourteen Menus, constitutes, Sir Wil-
liam Jones informs us (Asiat. Research. i. 237), one day of Brahm. This
period comprises (see an accurate calculation, according to the boolcs of the
Hindus, in Mr. Bentley's Remarks on Ancient Eras and Dates, Asiat. Res.
V. 316) 4,320,000,000 years; and such is the length of one city of the Creator.
A divine year again contains 360 days; and the multiplication of these num.
bers produces the amount which appears in the text. Dr. Wilford (see Asiat.
Research. iii. 382) makes this computation in a manner, and with a result, -
somewhat different. " One year of mortals," he says, "is a day and a night
of the gods, and 360 of our years is one of theirs: 12,000 of their years, or
4,320,000 of ours, constitute one of thcir ages, and 2,000 such arges are Brah-
ma's day and night, which must be multiplied by 360 to make one of his
years."
3 In other words, he was hatched.
4 Vide the quotution from the Institutes of Menu, in Nose A. at tic end of
the volume.
5 Asiat. Rescarch.ü. 237 and 232.
234
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. beneath, and in the midst the subtle ether, the eight regions,
CHAP. VI. and the permanent receptacle of waters. The creation of
considered when we come to appreciate the notions of the
Hindus in relation to thought. The creation however of
man, or at least of the Hindus, is worthy of our particular
regard, “That the human race might be multiplied, he
caused the Brahmen to proceed from his mouth, the Csha-
triya from his arm, the Vaisya from his thigh, and the
Sudrà from his foot." The analogy of ordinary descent is
again the foundation of this fantastic imagination; and the
Hindu could picture to himself the production of a human
birth. This analogy leads to a still more extravagant con-
ceit for the creation of other races of men, and living
creatures. As if “The Mighty Power” could not produce
them by his male virtue alone, “He divided his own sub-
stance, and became half male, half female. By this female
the male half produced Viraj, a demigod and saint; Viraj,
by the virtue of austere devotion, produced Menu, another
demigod and saint.” Menu again, “desirous," he says, "of
giving birth to a race of men," produced ten lords of
created beings; and these lords produced, at his command,
seven other Menus, and deities, and the mansions of
deities, and great sages, and also benevolent genii, and
fierce giants, blood-thirsty savages, heavenly quiristers,
nymphs and demons, huge serpents and snakes of smaller
size, birds of mighty wing, and separate companions of
Pitris, or progenitors of mankind; lightnings and thunder-
bolts, clouds and coloured bows of Indra, falling meteors,
earth-rending vapours, comets, and luminaries of various
degrees; horse-faced sylvans, apes, fish, and a variety of
birds, tame cattle, deer, men, and ravenous beasts with two
rows of teeth; small and large reptiles, moths, lice, fieas,
and common flies, with every biting gnat, and immoveable
substances of distinct sorts. Thus was this whole assem-
blage of moveable and stationary bodies framed by those
high-minded beings.''
But in the Hindu books we find applied to the Divinity
a great variety of expressions, so elevated, that they cannot
be surpassed even by those of the men who entertain the
1 See Note B. at the end of the volume.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
235
most sublime ideas of the Divine Nature. In the passage BOOK II.
immediately quoted from Menu, he is described as the sole CHAT. VI.
self-existing power, the soul of all beings, he whom the
mind alone can perceive, who exists from eternity,and whom
no being can comprehend. In a passage from the Brah-
manda Purana, translated by Mr. Wilford, he is denominated
“The great God, the great Omnipotent, Omniscient one, the
greatest in the World, the great Lord who goes through all
worlds, incapable of decay.” In a prayer, translated by
Mr. Colebrooke, from one of the Vedas, he is called, “the pure
Brahme, whom none can apprehend as an object of percep-
tion, above, around, or in the midst; the God who pervades
all regions, the first-born; he, prior to whom nothing was
born; who became all beings, himself the Lord of creatures;
he, who made the fluid sky and solid earth, who fixed the
solar orb and celestial abode, whom heaven and earth men-
tally contemplate; the mysterious Being, in whom the
universe perpetually exists, resting on that sole support;
in whom this world is absorbed, from whom it issues.':2
Without multiplying instances, it may shortly be stated
that human language does not supply more lofty epithets
of praise than are occasionally addressed to their deities by
the Hindus.
To form a true estimate of the religion of this people, it
is necessary by reflection to ascertain, what those expres-
sions in the mouth of a Brahmen really mean. We shall
incur the risk of completely deceiving ourselves, if, with the
experience how naturally vague and general expressions,
especially in such abstract and mental subjects, convey the
most different ideas, to people in different stages of society,
we take the lofty expressions of devotion in Hindu books,
as full and satisfactory evidence of lofty conceptions of the
Divine Nature. It is well ascertained that nations, who
have the lowest and meanest ideas of the Divine Being,
may yet apply to him the most sounding epithets by which
perfection can be expressed.3
1 Asiat. Research. viii. 352. .
2 Ibid. 432.
3 In this theory of Mr. Mill's, there is a palpable fallacy, for it involves the
impossible supposition, that words are devised not only to express ideas that
do not exist, but to express the very contrary of the ideas that the mind con-
ceives. Expressions, according to this view of the subject, are lofty, not be-
cause the conceptions are loſty, but because they are base, as if we should say,
" tall,' when we meant. short,' or 'little,' when we intended large.' This is
utterly contradicted by every theory of language yet contrived : we must take
236
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. In tracing the progress of natural religion, through the
CHAP. VI. different stages of intellectual acquirement, a very impor-
- tant fact is discovered ; that language, on this subject, bas
a much greater tendency to improve, than ideas. It is well
known how vile and degrading were the notions of the
Divine Nature presented in the fictions of the Greek poets;
insomuch that Plato deemed them unfit to be read ;yet
the Brahmens themselves do not surpass the Greek' poets
in elevated expressions concerning the Deity. Orpheus,
early and rude as is the period to which his poetry relates,
thus describes the celestial King; “Jupiter, the sovereign ;
Jupiter, the original parent of all things; and Wisdom, the
first procreator; and all-delighting Love: For in the
mighty frame of Jupiter are all contained: One power, one
godhead: He is the great Regent of all.”2 Cæsar informs
.
the sign as indicative of the thing signified, or speech would be of no more use
in the interchange of thought, than the inarticulate ejaculations of the bird or
brute. It is very clear, however, where Mr. Mill errs; he has lost sight of the
progress of opinion, and confounded different states of social feeling. It is
jossible, that the loſtiest epithets of Divine power, and benignity, and glory,
may have lost some of their force by frequent use, and they may be clirected
to objects to which they cannot in truth appertain. When the terms were
first employed, however, they expressed, no doubt, the ideas they were in-
vented to express ; and the Hindu priests, poets, and philosophers, by whom
they were originally applied, attempted by them to convey the notions they
conceived of the Divinity. Even now, in the mouth of a believing Hindu, they
have not lost their purport: the object to which he addresses them, though
base and mean in our eyes, is not so in his, and he imagines it to be invested
with the attributes le assigns to it. But this is of little importance to the
argunent. It may be very true that the epithets are misapplied, that they
are used as terms of course, that they exercise little influence on moral prac-
tice; the same things occur in other places than in India ; but, whatever may
be their practical value, they afford unequivocal proof, that at one time or
other, and amongst some at least of the Brahmanical order, elevated notions of
the power, and wisdom, and beneficence, of one only God, were entertained
and expressed.-W.
• 1 He states that the only practical inference the youth could draw from the
accounts delivered by the poets concerning the gods was ; to commit all manner
of crimes, and out of the fruits of their villany to offer costly sacrifices, and
appease the divine powers; adiknieOv Kal Outeov ATTO TWY að KYILATwy. De
Repub. lib, 595, 6.
2 Orphic Fragm. vi. 366. Numerous passages might be produced :
ZEVS COTIV ALOnp, Zsus de yn, Zevs d'oupavos
ZEUS TOL TAL AVTA. Euphorion.
'Eus EOS EV TAVTECOL. Orphic. Trag. iv. 363.
Jane pater, Jane tuens, Dive biceps, biformis,
0! cate rerum sator ; 0! principium Deorum.
Verses from an ancient Choriambic poem, which are
quoted by Terentianus Maurus de Metris.
Zeus ó mpo opewv Kpovidwy. 'OUTOS COTL TWV ólwy Onlilovpyos. Procl. in
Platon. Tim. p. 95. It is almost needless to quote Homer's
Ζηνα τε μητιοεντα, Θεων πατερ' ηδε και ανδρων.
· "The Araucanians the native Indians of Chili] acknowledge à Supreme
Being, the Author of all things, whom they call PILLAN, a word derived from
pulli or pilli, the soul, and signifies the supreme essence ; they also call him
Guenu-pillan, the Spirit of heaven; Butu-gen; the Great Being; Thalcove,
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
237
IST
us that the Druids among the ancient Gauls delivered BOOK II.
many doctrines concerning the nature of the universe, and CHAP. VL.
the powers of the immortal gods;' and it is remarkable
that the Greeks and the Romans were forcibly struck with
the similarity between the ideas of the Druids, and those
of the Brahmens of India, the Magi of Persia, the Chaldeans
of Assyria, and the priests of Egypt.2 The creed of the
ancient Germans, as we are informed by Tacitus, was, “that
God is the Ruler of all: other things are to him subject
and obedient.”3 In the ancient Scandinavian mythology
the Supreme God was described as, “The author of every
thing that existeth; the eternal, the ancient, the living and
awful Being, the searcher into concealed things; the Being
that never changeth."! On the statue of the Egyptian
goddess Isis, was this inscription : "I am every thing past,
every thing present, and every thing to come."5 The Deity
was described by Zoroaster as "The First, the Incorruptible,
the Eternal, without generation, without dissolution, without
a parallel, the charioteer of all which is good, inaccessible to
bribes, the best of the good, the wisest of the wise.''6 The
Getes asserted their deity Zamolxis to be the true God, that
besides him there was none other, and that to him they went
after death, being endowed with spirits immortal.; Even
the rude tribes of America, wandering naked in the woods,
sappear," says Robertson, “to acknowledge a Divine power
to be the maker of the world, and the disposer of all events.
They denominate him the Great Spirit.”8 Thus it appears
how commonly the loftiest expressions are used concerning
the gods, by people whose conceptions of them are, confes-
sedly, mean.
the Thunderer ; Vilvemvoe, the Creator of all; Vilpepilvoe, the Omnipotent;
Mollgelu, the Eternal; Arnolu, the Infinite, &c.” Molina, Civil Hist. of Chili,
book II. ch. V.
A passage of Empedocles, containing the language of a pure theology, may
be seen in Harris's Philos. Arrangements, ch. viii. 1. 162.
I Cæsar, de Bel. Gal. lib. vi. cap. 13.
2 See Henry's Hist. of Great Britain, i. 149; and the authorities there
adduced.
3." Regnator omnium Deus; cætera subjecta atqne parentia." Tacit. de
Dor. Germ. cap. XXIV.
4 See a translation from the Edda in Mallet's Introduct. Hist. Denmark,
i. ch. 5, and ii. p. 7, 8.
5 Plutarch. de Iside et Osiride.
6 Euseb. Præp. Eyang. lib. i. p. 42.
7 Herodot. lib. iv. cap. 93, 94.
8 Robertson's Hist. Amer. ü. 197.
966 Ces peuples (les Romains) adorent un Dieu suprème et inique, qu'ils
appellent toujours Dieu très-grand, et très-bon; cependant ils ont bâti un
tem:!e une courtisauc nommée Flora, et les bonnes femmes de Rome ont
238
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. This important fact, however remarkable, is founded on
CHAP. VI. principles of very powerful operation in the nature of man.
The timid barbarian, who is agitated by fears respecting the :
unknown events of nature, feels the most incessant and eager
desire to propitiate the Being on whom he believes them to
depend. His mind works, with laborious solicitude, to
discover the best means of recommending himself. He
naturally takes counsel from his own sentiments and
feelings, and as nothing to his rude breast is more delight-
ful than adulation, he is led by a species of instinct to expect
the favour of his god from praise and flattery. In an uncul-
tivated mind, how strong this sentiment is, a very superfi-
cial knowledge of human nature may convince us. Mr.
Forster, in his Travels overland from India, was overtaken
by a storm in the Caspian Sea; and remarks that during
the danger "every man was imploring the Divine interpo-
sition in his own manner and language." "But my atten-
tion," says he,“was chiefly attracted by a Persian. His eja-
culations were loud and fervent; and the whole force of his
prayers was levelled at Ali; on whom he bestowed every title
that could denote sanctity or military prowess. He called :
on him, by the name of the Friend of God; the Lord of the
Faithful; the Brandisher of the invincible sword; to look
down on his servant, and shield him from the impending
evil. Thinking also to obtain the more grace with the
father, he would occasionally launch out into the praises of
his two sons."
When the belief is once admitted that the Deity is
pleased with panegyric, it is evident to what length the
agitated and ignorant votary will speedily be carried.
Whatever may be the phrases with which he begins; in a
short time, the ardour of his fears incites him to invent
new and stronger; as likely to prove more agreeable and
prevalent. Even these, by a short use, become familiar to
his mind. When they begin to be stale and feeble, he is
agaiñ prompted to a new invention, and to more violent :
exaggerations.
Exhausting quickly the powers of his language, he has
presque toutes chez elles de petits dieux penates hauts de quatre on cinq
pouces; iine de ces petites divinités est lil déesse de tetons, l'autre celle de
fesses; il y a un penat qu'on appelle le dieu Pet." Voltaire, Essai sur les
Maurs et l'Esprit des Nations, iy. 373.
i Forster's Travels, ii. 256.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
239
other expedients in store. The god, on whom his eulogies BOOK II
have been lavished, is that one, among the invisible CHAP. VI.
powers, on whom his interests seem more immediately to
depend. This deity is at first panegyrized on account of
those operations alone which belong to his owu depart-
ment. The sun is originally applauded only as the regent
of day: the bountiful giver of light, and of all its attendant
blessings. But when panegyric on this subject is ex-
hausted, the unwearied adorer opens a new fountain of
adulation. The operations of some divinity, whose de-
partment most nearly resembles that of the favourite
deity, afford some circumstance which, it is imagined,
might do honour to that patron god. It is accordingly, as
a very artful expedient, immediately detracted from the
one, and ascribed to the other. No sooner is the novel-
ty of this new attribute decayed, than the prerogative
of some other divinity is invaded, and the great object of
worship is invested with a new power or function of
nature. This, it is evident, is a fertile discovery. The
votary has many articles to add to his list of powers and
functions, before he exhausts the provinces of the whole
of the gods. He proceeds incessantly, however; adding to
the works and dominions of the great divinity one pro-
vince after another, till at last he bestows upon him the
power and functions of all the gods. He is now the su-
preme deity, and all the rest are subordinate. He is the
king of the celestial powers; or, what is still more sub-
lime, their author or father; He from whom their very
being and powers are derived. They still, however, retain
their ancient departments: and he who was god of the
winds remains the god of the winds: he who was god of
the waters remains god of the waters. But they are no
longer independent deities; they have now a superior,
and are regarded in the light of his ministers or agents.
The ingenuity of fear and desire sometimes invents a
higher strain of flattery still. The power, which is dele-
gated to so many extraordinary beings, is regarded as a
deduction from that which might otherwise be wielded by
the supreme. And happy is the man, who first imagines
he can inform the Divinity, that no such division and
diminution of his power exist: that those supposed agents
or ministers are not in reality beings endowed with the
240
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. powers of the Almighty; that they are those powers
CHAP. VI. themselves; the different modes in which he manifests
himself. After this, he is the one God. He is all in all:
from him everything begins, in him everything termi-
nates: he unites all possible attributes: like time, he has
no beginning, and shall have no end: all power belongs to
him, all wisdom, and all virtue. Such is the progress of
the language, not of knowledge and cultivated reason, but:
of the rude and selfish passions of a barbarian; and all
these high and sounding epithets are invented by men
whose ideas of the divine nature are mean, ridiculous,
gross, and disgusting.,
Some of the most enlightened of the Europeans who
have made inquiries concerning the ideas and institutions
of the Hindus, have been induced, from the lofty epithets
occasionally applied to the gods, to believe and to assert
that this people had a refined and elevated religion. No-
thing is more certain than that such language is far from
being proof of such a religion. Yet ingenious men, from
whom we have largely derived instruction, appear to have
thought that no other proof was requisite; and, as on this
evidence they adopted the opinion themselves, thought
that others ought to receive it on the same foundation.'
1 Among the similar proofs which might be produced, of sublime theolo,
gical notions, may be quoted the following remarkable passage from Garci-
Jasso de la Vega (Royal Commentaries, book II. chap. ii.). "Besides the sun,
whom they worshipped for the visible God, to whom they offered sacrifice and
kept'íestivals, the Irices, who were kings, and the Amautas, who were philo-
sophers, proceeded by the mere light of nature, to the knowledge of the true
Almighty God our Lord, Maker of Heaven and Earth, as we shall hereafter.
prove by their own words and testimonies, which some of them gave of the
Divinc Majesty, which they called by the name of Pachucanac, and is a word
compounded of Puchai, which is the universe, and Camac, which is the soul;.
and is as much as he that animates the world. *** Being asked who this
Pachacamac was, they answered that it was lie who gave life to the universe ;
sustained and nourished all things; but because they did not see him they
could not know him; and for that reason they erected not temples to him, nor
offered sacrifice, howsoever they worshippped in their hearts and esteemed
him for the unknown God." And in book VIII. ch. vii. he gives us the fol- :
lowing argument of an Inca, Topac Yupanqui, "Many say that the sun lives,
and that he is the maker of all things: not it is necessary that the thing.
which is the cause of the being of another, should be assistant and operate in
the production thereof; now we know that many things receive their beings
during the absence of the sun, and therefore he is not the maker of all things.
And that the sun hath not life is evident, for that it always moves in its circle,
and yet is never weary; for if it had life it would require rest, as we do: anc.
were it free, it would visit other parts of the heavens, into which it never in-
clines out of its own sphere: but, as a thing obliged to a particular station,
moves always in the same circle, and is like an arrow which is directed by the
hand of the archer." The Mexicans, too, as we are informed by. Clavigero,
Hist. of Mexico, book VI. sect. i. besides the crowd of their ordinary Deities,
believed in "a supreme, absolute, and independent Being, to whom they ac-
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS. -
241
Since the language employed by any people is a very BOOK II.
fallacious test of the ideas which they entertain concerning CHAP. VI.
the Divine Nature, it is necessary to investigate the cir- -
cumstances, in their religious practice or belief, which
enable us in any degree to define their vague expressions.
Those circumstances are few; but their evidence deter-
minate. They are the operations ascribed to the Divinity,
the services reputed agreeable to him, and the laws which -
he is understood to have ordained. If these correspond
with the ideas of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness,
we may believe with certainty that the sublime language
is the expression of corresponding conceptions; on the
other hand, where those operations, services, and laws, are
in the highest degree unworthy of a perfect nature, we
may be fully assured, that the sublime language is alto-
gether without a meaning, the effect of Aattery, and the
meanest of passions; and that it is directly suggested,
not by the most lofty, but by the most grovelling and
base, ideas of the Divine Nature.
Of the host of Hindu Divinities, Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva are the most exalted. Other nations have most fre-
quently carried on the applause of one favourite deity, till
they bestowed upon him alone all power in heaven and
earth. The Hindus have distributed the creation and
government of the universe among those three, denomi-
nating Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Siva
the destroyer.
Of the highest scene of operation in which the Divine
Being can be contemplated by mortals, the creation.of the
universe, the conception, formed by the Hindus, is so far
from corresponding with high and noble ideas of the
creating power, that it is consistent only with the meanest.
This itself is a criterion of a religious system from which
there is no appeal.
knowledged to owe fear and adoration. They represented bim in no external
form, because they believed him to be invisible; and named him only by the
cominon appellation of God, in their language Tcotl, a word resembling still
more in its meaning than in its pronunciation the Theos of the Greeks; but
they applied to him certain epithets which were highly expressive of the
grandeur and power which they conceived him to possess. They called hiin
Ipalnemoani, that is, "He by whom we live:" and Tloque Nahuaque. “He
who is all in himself." Clavigero adds, " But their knowledge and worship
of this Supreme Being was obscured, and in a manner lost, in the crowd of
deities invented by their superstition."
VOL. I.
R
242
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Of the peculiar functions of Vishnu and Siva no deter-
CHAP. VI. minate conception appears to have been formed. They.
are two beings of mighty power, by whom great actions
are performed; but there is no distinct separation of their
provinces. Whenever, indeed, we seek to ascertain the
definite and precise ideas of the Hindus in religion, the
subject eludes our grasp. All is loose, vague, wavering,
obscure, and inconsistent. Their expressions point at
one time to one meaning, and another time to another
meaning; and their will fictions, to use the language of
Mr. Hume, seem rather the playsome whimsies of monkeys
in human shape, than the serious asseverations of a being
who dignifies himself with the name of rational.3 Vishnu
is not unfrequently employed in the acts which properly
belong only to a destructive power; and Siva is so far
from answering to the title bestowed upon him, that he
is a divinity hardly less beneficent than Vishnu himself.
In the conception which the Hindus have formed of the
government of the world, the visible agency of the Deity
is peculiarly required. “I have passed,” says the pre-
serving God, “many births. Although I am not in my
nature subject to birth or decay, and am the lord of all
created beings, yet having command over my own nature,
I am made evident by my own power; and as often as
1 The confusion is not the fault of the system but of its expounders. In the
original scheme, Bralina, Vishnu, and Siva, were nothing more than mytho-
logical personifications of the power of the one first cause, to create, to pre-
serve, and to destroy. In the course of time, the Hindus did precisely what
the text asserts they did not: “they carried on the applause of one favorite
deity, till they bestowed upon him alone all power in heaven and earth."
Brahma, probably, Vishnu and Siva, certainly, bad their respective followers,
who naturally invested the deity of their preference with the attributes of all.
"The Vaishnavas, made Vishnu creator and destroyer, as well as preserver:
and the power of creating and preserving was assigned by the Saivas to Siva.
There is no confusion or contradiction of system in this. It is the opposition
of opposite sects. A person undertaking to give an account of the Christian
religion would make strange work if he were to amalgamate as orie undivided
faith, the conflicting tenets of Lutherans, Calvinists, and Romanists. With
equal ignorance do we confound Vaishnava, Saiva, and Sakta doctrines.-W.
2 This is admitted cven by those whom the occasional expressions of the
Hinduis have most strongly convinced of the sublimity of their'sentiments:
Mr. Colebrooke says, “There is indeed much disagreement and consequent
confusion in the gradations of persons interposed by Flindu theology between
the Supreme Being and the created world." Asiat. Research. viii. 442. Even
Sir William Jones is constrained to confess that the Hindu "scheme of the
logy is most obscurely figurative, and consequently liable to dangerous mis-
conception; that it is filled with idle superstitions, abounds with minute and
childish formalities, with ceremonies geuerally absurd, and often ridiculous.
Pref. to Institutes of Menii,
3 Hure's Essays, ii. 470.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
243
there is a decline of virtue, and an insurrection of vice BOOK II.
and injustice in the world, I make myself evident; and CHAP. VI.
thus I appear from age to age, for the preservation of the
just, the destruction of the wicked, and the establishment
of virtue." “Aty Sechen himself,” says another sacred
book," all-knowing as he is, could not number the meta-
morphoses and different forms under which the Vishnu
has appeared for the salvation of the universe."2 Such
are the Hindu ideas of the manner in which the power
of the Divine Being is exerted in the government of the
universe !
Of these visible appearances or incarnations of the
divinity, ten, known in the Hindu mythology under the
name of avatars, are peculiarly distinguished. The first,
which is denominated the avatar of the fish, is thus de-
scribed. At the close of the last calpa, there was a general
destruction, occasioned by the sleep of Brahma: his crea-
tures in different worlds being drowned in a vast ocean.
The strong demon Hayagriva came near him and stole the
Vedas, which had flowed from his lips. When the pre-
server of the universe discovered this deed, he took the
shape of a minute fish, called sap’hari. A holy king
named Satyavrata then reigned. One day as he was
making a libation in the river Critamala,. the little fish
said to him, How canst thou leave me in this river water,
when I ana too weak to resist the monsters of the stream,
who fill me with dread ? Satyavrata placed it under his
protection in a small vase full of water; but in a single
night its bulk was so increased, that it could not be con-
tained in the jar, and thus again addressed the prince: I
am not pleased with living in this little vase; make me a
large mansion where I may dwell in comfort. The king suc-
cessively placed it in a cistern, in a pool, and in a lake, for
each of which it speedily grew too large, and supplicated
for a more spacious place of abode; after which he threw
it into the sea, when the fish again addressed him: Here
the horned sharks and other monsters of great strength
will devour me; thou shouldest not, o valiant man, leave
me in this ocean. Thus repeatedly deluded by the fish,
Bagvat-Geeta, p.51, 52.
? Bagavadam, p. 11.
3 I have merely abriiged the account which is given by Sir William Jones
in a literal translation from the Bhagavat. Asiat. Res, i, 230.
244
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. who had addressed him with gentle words, the king said,
CHAP. VI. Who art thou that beguilest me in that assumed shape ?
Never before have I seen or heard of so prodigious an
inhabitant of the waters, who like thee has filled up, in a
single day, a lake a hundred leagues in circumference.
Surely thou art the great God whose dwelling was on the
waves. Salutation and praise to thee, O first male, the
lord of creation, of preservation, of destruction! Thou
art the highest object, o supreme ruler, of us thy adorers,
who piously seek thee. All thy delusive descents in this
world give existence to various beings; yet I am anxious
to know for what cause that shape has been assumed
by thiee. The lord of the universe, loving the pious man,
and intending to preserve him from the sea of destruction,
caused by the depravity of the age, thus told him how he
was to act: In seven days from the present time, I thout
tamer of enemies, the three worlds will be plunged in an
ocean of death; but in the midst of the destroying waves,
a large vessel, sent by me for thy use, shall stand before
thee. Then shalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all the
variety of seeds; and, accompanied by seven saints, en-
circled by pairs of all brute animals, thou shalt enter the
spacious ark, and continue in it secure from the flood on
one immense ocean, without light except the radiance of
thy companions. When the ship shall be agitated by an
impetuous wind, thou shalt fasten it with a large sea-
serpent on my horn; for I will be near thee, drawing the
vessel with thee and thy attendants. Thus instructed, the
pious king waited humbly for the appointed time. The
sea, overwhelming its shores, deluged the whole earth;
and it was soon perceived to be augmented by showers
from immense clouds. He, still meditating on the divine
command, and conforming to the divine directions, en-
tered the ship; when the god appeared again distinctly on
the vast ocean in the form of a fish, blazing like gold, ex-
tending a million of leagues, with one stupendous horn,
on which the king, as he had before been commanded,
tied the ship with a cable made of a vast serpent. After-
wards the god, rising, together with Brahma, from the
destructive deluge, which was abated, slew the demon
Hayagriva.
Such are the operations in the government of the universe,
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
245
which the religious ideas of the Hindus lead them to ascribe BOOK II.
to the Divine Being. The second appearance or avatar of CHAP. VI.
the Preserver is of the same character, and suggested by
similar views. Hiranicheren, a malignant and destructive
giant, who delighted in afflicting the earth, at last rolled it
up in a shapeless mass, and plunged down with it into the
abyss. On this occasion there issued from the side of
Brahma, a being shaped like a boar, white and exceedingly
small, which in the space of one hour grew to the size of an
elephant of the largest magnitude, and remained in the air.
This being, Brahma discovered to be Vishnu, who had as-
sumed a body and become visible. Suddenly, it uttered a
sound like the loudest thunder, and the echo reverberated,
and shook all the corners of the universe. Shaking the full-
flowing mane which hung down his neck on both sides, and
erecting the humid hairs of his body, he proudly displayed
his two most exceedingly white tusks: then rolling round
his wine-coloured eyes, and erecting his tail, he descended
from the region of the air, and plunged head foremost into
the water. The whole body of water was convulsed by the
motion, and began to rise in waves, while the guardian spirit
of the sea, being terrified, began to tremble for his domain,
and cry out for quarter and mercy. At length, the power
of the omnipotent having divided the water, and arriving
at the bottom, he saw the earth lying, a mighty and barren
stratum; then he took up the ponderous globe (freed from
the water) and raised it high on his tusk, one would say it
was a beautiful lotus blossoming on the tip of his tusk. In
a moment, with one leap, coming to the surface, by the all-
directing power of the Omnipotent Creator, he spread it,
like a carpet, on the face of the water, and then vanished
from the sight of Brahma.
Of the third avatar we have so particular and remarkable
a description, that it merits uncommon regard. The soors,
a species of angels, and all the glorious host of heaven, sat
on the summit of Mount Meru, a fictitious mountain, highly
celebrated in the books of the Hindus, meditating the disco-
I For an account of this avatar, see an extract from the Mahabarat, Asiat.
Research, i. 154 ; Bartolomeo's Travels, book ii. ch. vii. The peculiar descrip-
tion of the boar is taken from a translation by Mr. Halbed, of a passage in the
Puranas, published in Maurice's Hindustan, i.407.
2 It is a passage translated from the Mahabarat, by Mr. Wilkins, in one of
the notes to his translation of the Bagvat-Geeta, p. 145, 146, note 76.
246
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
1
BOOK II. very of the Amreeta, that is, being translated, the water of
CHAP. VI. immortality: when Narayan? said unto Brahma, Let the
ocean, as a pot of milk, be churned by the united labour of
the soors and assoors; and when the mighty waters have
been stirred up, the Amreeta shall be found. A great moun-
tain, named Mandar, was the instrument with which the
operation was to be performed; but the dews2 being unable
to remove it, they had recourse to Vishnu and Brahma.
By their direction, the king of the serpents lifted up that
sovereign of mountains, with all its forests and inhabitants;
and the soors and asoors having obtained permission of the
king of the tortoises, it was placed for support on his back,
in the midst of the ocean. Then the soors and asoors, using
the serpent Vasookee for the rope, the asoors pulling by
the head, and the soors by the tail, began to churn the ocean ;3
while there issued from the mouth of the serpent, a conti-
nued stream of fire, and smoke, and wind; and the roaring
of the ocean, violently agitated with the whirling of the
mountain, was like the bellowing of a mighty cloud. Mean-
while, a violent conflagration was raised on the mountain,
by the concussion of its trees and other substances, and
quenched by a shower which the lord of the firmament
poured down: whence an heterogeneous stream, of the con-
cocted juices of various trees and plants, ran down into the
briny flood. It was from this milk-like stream, produced
from those juices, and a mixture of melted gold, that the
soors obtained their immortality. The waters of the ocean,
being now assimilated with those juices, were converted
into milk, and a species of butter was produced, when the
churning powers became fatigued; but Narayan endued
them with fresh strength, and they proceeded with great
ardour to stir that butter of the ocean. First, arose from
it the moon; next, Sree, the goddess of fortune; then the
goddess of wine, and the white horse, Oochisrava; after-
wards the jewel Kowstoobh; the tree of plenty; and the
1 A name of Vishnu.
? Dew, written otherwise Dewa, or Deva, is a general name for a superior
spirit.
3 By twisting tlie serpent about the mountain, like a rope, and pulling it out
first towards the one end, and then towards the other; which affords us a
description of their real mode of chuuning. A piece of wood, so formed as
best to agitate the milk, was placed upright in the vessel, and a rope being
twisted round it which two persons pulled alternately, one at the one end, and
the other at the other, it was whirled round, and thus produced the agitation
required.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
247
cow that granted every heart's desire. Then the dew BOOK II.
Dhanwantaree, in human shape, came forth, holding in his CHAP. VI.
hand a white vessel filled with the immortal juice, amreeta;
which, when the asoors.beheld, they raised their tumultuous
voices, and each of them clamorously exclaimed, This of
right is mine! But as they continued to churn the ocean
more than enough, a deadly poison issued from its bed,
confounding the three regions of the world with its immortal
stench, until Siva, at the word of Brahma, swallowed the
fatal drug to save mankind. In the mean while a violent
-
--
-
goddess Sree, sprung up in the bosons of the asoors. But
Narayan, assuming the form of a beautiful female, stood
before them, whose minds becoming fascinated by her
presence, and deprived of reason, they seized the amreeta
and gave it unto her. But a dreadful battle arose between
the soors and asoors, in which Narayan, quitting the female
figure, assisted the soors. The elements and powers of
nature were thrown into confusion by the conflict; but
with the mighty aid of Narayan, and his weapon chacra,
which of itself, unguided even by a hand, performed mira-
culous exploits, the soors obtained the victory, and the
mountain Mandar was carried back to its former station.
The soors guarded the amreeta with great care; and the god
of the firmament, with all his immortal hands, gave the
water of life unto Narayan, to keep it for their use. This
was the third manifestation of the Almighty, in the preser-
vation and government of the world.
The fourth I shall describe with greater brevity. Hiri-
nacheren, the gigantic ruler, who rolled up the earth, and
plunged with it to the bottom of the abyss, left a younger
brother, Hirinakassup, who succeeded him in his kingdom,
and refused to do homage to Vishnu, but persecuted his
own son, who was an ardent votary of that god. I, said he
am lord of all this visible world. The son replied, that
Vishnu had no fixed abode, but was present everywhere. Is
he, said his father, in that pillar? Then let him come forth;
and rising from his seat, he struck the pillar with his foot;
upon which Vishnu, bursting from it, with a body like a .
man, but a head like a lion, tore Hirinakassup in pieces,
and placed his son upon the throne.
248
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. In the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh avatars, the Pré-
CIIAP. VI. serving Power appeared in human shapes for the destruc-
tion of impious and ferocious kings, performing many heroic
and many miraculous deeds. But, after the examples which
have already been given, a particular description of these
extravagant legends would poorly compensate the toil of a
perusal. The eighth, however, is one of the most celebrated
of all the incarnations of Vishnu. He was born the son of
Vasudeva and Devaci, of the royal family of Cansa, and
obtained the name of Crishna. But as it had been predicted
to Cansa, that one born of those parents would occasion his
destruction, whence he had decreed. the death of all their
children, Crishna was secretly withdrawn, and brought up
in the family of a shepherd or herdsman. Many and won-
derful were the transactions of his childhood, in which the
wanton pranks of the mischievous, but amiable boy, are not
less distinguished than the miraculous exploits of the god.
When he grew up to youth, the indulgence of licentious
love was his great occupation and enjoyment. It is a small
part of the picture which I can, or which I need, to expose
to view. The scenes with the young shepherdesses are
painted by the Hindus in all the glowing colours of oriental
poetry. A passage from a bymn, or divine song, translated
by Sir William Jones, is in the following words: “With a
garland of wild flowers, descending even to the yellow mantle
that girds his azure limbs, distinguished by smiling cheeks,
and by ear-rings that sparkle as he plays, Heri' exults in
the assemblage of amorous damsels. One of them presses
him with her swelling breast, while she warbles with exqui-
site melody. Another, affected by a glance from his eye,
stands meditating on the lotos of his face. A third, on
pretence of whispering a secret in his ear, approaches his
temples, and kisses them with ardour. One seizes his
mantle, and draws him towards her, pointing to the bower
on the banks of Yamuna, where elegant vanjulahs inter-
weave their branches. He applauds another who dances
in the sportive circle, whilst her bracelets ring, as she beats
time with her palms. Now he caresses one, and kisses
another, smiling on a third with complacency; and now he
chases her whose beauty has most allured him. Thus the
wanton Heri frolics, in the season of sweets, among the maids
1 A name of Vishnu.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
249
of Vraja, who rush to his embraces, as if he were pleasure BOOK II.
itself assuming a human form; and one of them, under a CHAP. VI.
pretext of hymning his divine perfections, whispers in his
ear: Thy lips, my beloved, are nectar." I shall select but
another instance, which is from the translation before us of
the Bhagavat. “Crishna, finding himself on the banks of
the Yamuna,2 began to play on his pastoral flute. All the
shepherdesses, filled with desire, ran in crowds to hear his
enchanting sounds. Crishna, beholding them burning with
desire, informed them that it was contrary to the order
established in the world, to quit their houses to seek the
embraces of a lover. He added that their families might
thus, if their husbands were jealous, be thrown into dis-
order, and disgrace come upon themselves. He advised
them accordingly to return. The women replied, that their
passion, it was true, were it for an ordinary man, would be
criminal; but desiring to unite themselves with the abso-
lute master of all things, they could not believe that such
an impulse was any other than meritorious. In regard to
their husbands, they could have no rights which tended to
the exclusion of God. Crishna, who saw the innocence of
their hearts, graciously gave them entire satisfaction; and
by a miracle continually renewed, in all that multitude of
women, each was convinced that she alone enjoyed the
Deity, and that he never quitted her an instant for the
embraces of another."3 “Crishna," says Sir William Jones,
"continues to this hour the darling god of the Indian
women. The sect of Hindus," he adds, “who adore him with
enthusiastic and almost exclusive devotion, have broached
a doctrine which they maintain with eagerness, and which
seems general in these provinces ;' that he was distinct from
all the avatars, who had only a portion of his divinity; while
Crishna was the person of Vishnu himself in a human form."5
“At a more advanced age," continues Sir William, "he put
to death his cruel enemy, Cansa: and having taken under
his protection the king Yudhist’hir and the other Pandus,
who had been grievously oppressed by the Curus, and their
1 Asiat. Research, i. 187.
2 This is spelt Emuney in the French translation.
3 Bagavadan, R. 60. This indeed was but a trifle : for with his 16,000 or
17,000 wives he could perform the same feat. See Halled's translation of the
Bhagavat, in Maurice's Hind. vol. ii.
- He means the provinces whicre he then resided, Bengal, etc.
5 Asiat. Research. i. 260.
250
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. tyrannical chief, he kindled the war described in the great
CHAP. VI. epic poem, entitled the Mahabharat, at the prosperous con-
clusion of which he returned to his heavenly seat in
Vaicontha, baving left the instructions comprised in the
Gita with his disconsolate friend Arjoon." He was after-
wards slain, being wounded bp an arrow in the foot?
The ninth incarnation of Vishnu, and the last, yet,
vouchsafed, of the Divine appearances, was in the person
of Buddha. The object of this avatar is described in the
derful, the whole Veda, when thou seest, o kind-hearted,
the slaughter of the cattle prescribed for sacrifice, O
Cesava,3 assuming the body of Buddha. Be victorious, O
Heri,' Lord of the universe !"5 But though Buddha is, by
the Hindus, regarded as a manifestation of the Divine
Being, the sect of Buddhists are regarded as heretical, and
are persecuted by the Brahmens. It is conjectured that,
at one time, a. great number of them had been compelled
to fly from the country, and spread their tenets in various
vail over the greater part of the East; in Ceylon, in the
further peninsula, in Thibet, in China, and even as far as
Japan. “The tenth avatar," says Sir William Jones, "We
T
.
1
1 Asiat. Research. i. 261. He sometimes, however, met with severe repulses. :
" Calijun, a prince who resided in tlie western parts of India, was very near
defeating his ambitious projects. Indeed, Crishna was nearly overcome and
subdued, after seventeen bloody battles; and according to the express words
of the Puranas, he was forced to have recourse to treacliery, by which means
Calijun was totally defeated in the eighteenth engagement." Wilford, on
Chron. of Hindus, Asiat. Research. y. 288.
2 Bagavadam, p. 13. "The whole liistory of Crishna," says Anquetil Da- .
perron, in his Observations on the Bhagavat, in the Recherches Historiques et
Géographiques sur l'Inde, “is a mere tissue of Greek and Ronian obscenities,
covered with a veil of spirituality, which, among the fanatics of all descrip-
tions, conceals the most abominable enormities." Speaking of a temple of
Vishnu at Satymangalam, in the Mysore, Dr. Buchanan says, “ The rath, or
chariot, belonging to it, is very large, and richly carved. The figures on it,
representing the amours of that god, in the form of Chirishina, are the most
indecent that I have ever scen." Buchanan's Journey through Mysore, etc.,
ii. 237.
3 A name of Vishnu.
4 Anotber name of Vishnu, vide supra, p. 247.
6 Asiat. Research. ii. 121.
6 “As to Buddha," says Sir William Jones (Disc. on the Gods of Greece,
Italy, and India)," he seems to have been a reforiner of the doctrines contained
in the Vedas; and, though his good-nature led him to censure tbese ancient
books, because they enjoined the sacrifices of cattle, yet he is admitted as the
ninth avatar, even by the Bralımens of Casi."
7 A controversy has been started, whether the religion of Buddha vas
There seems little chance that data will ever be obtained, to prore either the
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
25-1
are told is yet to come, and is expected to appear mounted BOOK II.
(like the crowned conqueror in the Apocalypse) on a white CHAP. VI.
horse, with a cimeter blazing like a comet, to mow down
all incorrigible and impenitent offenders who shall then be
on earth.”1
It will require the addition of but a few passages more of
this wild mythology, to convey a satisfactory idea of the
actions and qualities which the Hindus ascribe to their
supreme deities. “It is related,” says Mr. Wilford,2 "in
the Scanda,3 that when the whole earth was covered with
water, and Vishnu lay extended asleep in the bosom of
Devi,' a lotos arose from his navel. Brahma sprung from
that flower, and looking round without seeing any creature
on the boundless expanse, imagined himself to be the first-
born, and entitled to rank above all future beings. Re-
solving, however, by investigation, more fully to satisfy
himself, he glided down the stalk of the lotos, and finding
Vishnu asleep, asked loudly who he was. I am the first-
born, answered Vishnu, waking: and as Brahma contra-
dicted him, they had an obstinate battle, till Mahadeva, or
Siva, pressed between them in great wrath, saying, It is I
who am truly the first-born; but I will resign my preten-
sions to either of you who shall be able to reach and behold
the summit of my head, or the soles of my feet. Brahma
instantly ascended; but having fatigued himself to no pur-
pose in the regions of immensity, yet loth to abandon his
claim, he returned to Mahadeva, and declared that he had
attained the crown of his head, calling, as his witness, the
first-born cow. For this union of pride and falsehood,
the angry god ordained, that no sacred rites should be per-
. Clemens Alexandrinus would lead us to believe, that the
religiou of Buddha, in bis time must have been in high repute: Ecou de twy
Iydwv, says he (Strom. lib. i. p. 352), OL TOLS BOUTTA TTELOOMCVoc Tapayyeduaoi,
ov ÚTepBodyv ocvOTYTOS ús EOV TeThunnaol. (See also Hieronym. Cont.
Jovian. lib. i. cap. 26,) This divinity was not confined to the Asiatics. There
was a Butus, or Buto of Egypt, a Battus of Cyrene, and a Baotus of Greece.
(See Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, ii. 170.) One of the primitive
authors of the sect of Manicheans took the name of Buddas; another that of
Manes; both of them names identical with the names of gods and sacred beings
among the Hindus. Beausobre Hist. de Manich, liv.i. ch. i.-M.
Mich additional information has been collected since this was written, aud
the history of Buddhism is clearly made out. See Burnouf Histoire de Boud-
dhisine, and Harvey's Eastern Monachism and Manual of Buddhism, &.-W.
| Asiat. Research. i. 236, See also Ward's View, &c. of the Hindus, (i. 3.
London Ed.) for an account of the ten avatars.
2 Asiat, Research. iii. 374.
3 One of the Puranas.
5 This means literally the goddess.
252
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. formed to Brahma. When Vishnu returned, he acknow-
CHAP. VI. ledged that he had not been able to see the feet of
Mahadeva, confessed him to be the first-born among the
gods, and entitled to rank above them all."
After a passage such as this, who would expect to find
the following? “The patriarch Atterien retired into a
forest, and there performed rigorous devotion, having for
his nourishment nothing but the wind, and being exposed
his vows to the Eternal in these words: 0 thou who hast
created, and who preservest the universe; 0 thou by
whom it is destroyed ; give me the knowledge of thyself,
and grant me the vision of thee! Then a fire issuing from
and they had recourse to Vishnu, to Siva, and to Brahma.
companied by Lacshmi, Gunga, and Seraswati, their wives,
presented themselves before the saint. Prostrating him-
self, Atterien worshipped them, and uttered the following
words: O you three Lords, know that I recognise only one
God: inform me which of you is the true divinity, that I
may address to him alone my vows and adorations!' To
this application the three Gods replied; Learn, O devotee,
that there is no real distinction between us: what to you
appears such is only by semblance: the Single Being ap-
pears under three forms; by the acts of creation, of pre-
servation, and destruction: but he is One."i Yet this
“Single" Being, this ONE God, is thus again represented, a.
few pages after, in the same Purana: "Even Brahma, finding
himself alone with his daughter, who was full of charms and
knowledge, conceived for her a criminal passion.". Thus are
we tauglit by the Hindus themselves to interpret the lofty
phrases which the spirit of exaggeration and flattery so
frequently puts into their mouths.
Of the First-born Mahadeva, or the One, Eternal God,
under one of his forms, we have the following sacred story.
He was playing one day at dice with Parvati, when they
quarrelled, and parted in wrath to different regions. They
severally performed rigid acts of devotion, but the fires ,
which they kindled blazed so vehemently as to threaten a
1 Bagavadam, p. 96, et seq.
2 Ib. 178.
3 One of the names of his wife.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
253
general conflagration. The devas,? in great alarm, hastened BOOK II.
to Brahma, who led them to Mahadeva, and supplicated him CHAP. VI.
to recall his consort; but the wrathful deity only answered,
that she must come by her own free choice. They accor-
dingly despatched Gunga, the river goddess, who prevailed
on Paryati to return to him, on condition that his love for
her should be restored. The celestial mediators then em-
ployed Camadeva,? who wounded Siva with one of his
flowery arrows; but the angry divinity reduced him to
ashes with a flame from his eye. Parvati soon after pre-
sented herself before him in the form of a Cirati, or
daughter of a mountaineer, and seeing him enamoured of
her, resumed her own shape. Of the various passages of
a similar nature, presented to us in the history of this
God, I shall content myself with another, extracted by
Mr. Wilford from the Scanda Purana. "There had sub-
sisted," says he, "for a long time, some animosity between
Brahma and Mahadeva in their mortal shapes; and the
latter, on account of his bad conduct, which is fully
described in the Puranas, had, it appears, given much
uneasiness to Swayambhuya, and Satarupa. For he was
libidinous, going about stark-naked, with a large club iu
his hand. Be this as it may, Mahadeva, who was the
eldest, saw his claim as such totally disregarded, and
Brahma set up in his room. This intrusion the latter
wanted to support; but made use of such lies as pro-
voked Mahadeva to such a point, that he cut off one of his
heads in his divine form.” Such are the ideas which the
Hindus entertain of the actions and character of their
supreme deities; on whom, notwithstanding, they lavish
all the most lofty epithets of divinity which human
language can supply.5
1 A general name of the inferior gods.
2 One of the devas.
3 See this story as extracted from the Puranas, Asiat. Researches, üi. 402.
4 Ib. vi. 474.
6 Much of what has been cited in the text is sectarial, intended to exalt Siva
or Vishnu at the expense of the other, or of Brahma. A very great part is the
invention, also, of coinparatively modern times, when the manners of the
Hindus had received a taint from Mahomedan licentiousness. Many of the
faults, however, are, no doubt, inseparable from all mythological systems in
Which the passions and acts of men are attributed to divinities, It must be
remembered, however, that the gods of the Hindus are, even in the opinion of
the vulgar, finite beings, living for a long period, but destined to die. Nor is
this notion to be taken as a proof of their inworthy conception of the divine
nature; it is rather a proof that they attach the character of inferior divinity
to the objects of their worship. Eternity, and all the higher attributes of
godhead, are reserved for the one God, the origin of all things. If the language
of panegyric ascribes them to the personifications of liis power, it is less in:
254
· HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. This theology affords a remarkable instance of that pro-
CHAP. VI. gress in exaggeration and flattery which I have described
as the genius of rude religion. As the Hindus, instead of
selecting one god, to whom they assigned all power in
heaven and in earth, distributed the creation and admi-
nistration of the universe among three divinities, they
divided themselves into sects; and some attached them-
selves more particularly to one deity, some to another."
their own persons than as emanations from him, and identifiable with him.
This is always the prevailing idea of hymns and prayers addressed to the divi-
nities who are the subjects of praise.-W.
Mr. Paterson, in his Discourse on the Origin of the Hindu Religion, deli-
neates a terrible picture of this Hindu controversy. The people separated, he
tells us, “into sects, each selecting one of the triad, the particular object of
their devotion, in preference to and exclusive of the others: the followers of
Vishnu and Siva invented new symbols, each, to ascribe to their respective
divinity the attribute of creation. This contention for pre-eminence ended in
the total suppression of the worship of Brahma, and the temporary submission
of Vishnu to the superiority of Siva; but this did not last long; the sects
raised crusades against each other; hordes of arined fanatics, under the title
of Sanyasis and Vairagis, enlisted themselves as champions of their respective
faith; the former devotect their lives in support of the superiority of Siva;
and the latter were no less zealous for the rights of Vishnu: alternate
victory and defeat marked the progress of a religious war, which for ages conti-
nued to harass the earth, and infiame mankind against each other.". Asiat.
Research. viii, 45, 46. Dr. Buchanan informs us, " That the worshippers of the
two gods (Vishnu and Siva,) ivho are of different sects, are very apt to fall
into disputes, occasioning abusive language, and followed by violence; so that
the collectors have sometimes been obliged to have recourse to the fear of the
bayonet, to prevent the controversy from producing bud effects." Buchanan's
Journey through Mysore, &c., i. 13. The missionary Dubois observes, that
"we see the two sects striving to exalt the respective deities whom they
worship, and to revile those of their opponents. . . . . The followers of
all honour. . . . . The disciples of Siva, on the contrary, no less obsti-
nately affirm that Vishnu is nothing, and has never done any act, but tricks so
base as to provoke shame and indignation," &c. Description, &c. of the
People of India, p. 58. See too, the Missionary Ward's View, &c. of the Ein-
doos. Lond. Ed. Introd. p. 27.
The preface to (Bhagavadam) the French translation of the Bhagavat, by M.
D'Obsonville, says, “ The Indians are divided into two orthodox sects, which,
however, violently oppose one another; tlie one asserting the supremacy of
Vishnu, the other of Siya. . . . . The Puranas," it says, “differ in
their interpretations of the Vedas, some of them giving the supremacy to
Brahma, some to Vishnu, and some to Sira. These books are, properly
them, disputing to which of their three gods tho supremacy belongs, support
the pretensions of each by an enormous mass of mythological legends and mys-
supported by the authority of the Vedas:"
Mr. Colebrooke, describing the different sects of the Hindus, informs us that
“ Sancara Acharya, the celebrated commentator on the Veda, contended for
the attributes of Siva, and founded or confirmed the sect of Saivas, who wor-
ship Mahadeva as the Supreme Being, and deny the independent existence of
Vishnu and other Deities. Madhava Acharya and Vallabha Acharya have in
like manner established the sect of Vaishnavas. who adore Vishnu as God'.
The Suras (less numerous than the two sects above mentioned') worship the
sun, and acknowledge no other divinity. The Ganapatyas adore Ganesa, as
uniting in his person all the attributes of the Deity." Note A, on the Religious
Ceremonies of the Hindus. Asiat. Research. vii.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
255
TTT 1.
· Presently the usual consequence appeared. Whichever BOOK II.
of the three gods any votary selected for his peculiar CHAP. VI.
patron, he expected to perform to him one of the most
agreeable of all possible services, by representing him as
superior to the other two. This we find to have been the
practice, invariably and enthusiastically. In a passage
from the Scanda Purana, one of the sacred books in
honour of Siva, we have seen by what legends his votaries
endeavour to elevate him above Brahma and Vishnu;
while he cuts off the head of the one for contesting with
him the supremacy, and has it expressly yielded up to him
by the other. It is not, however, sufficient that the
favourite god should be only superior to the rest; what-
ever honour is derived from their actions, that too must
be claimed for him; and he is asserted to be himself the
author of all their achievements.?
A still higher strain of flattery succeeds. Not only must
he absorb their actions, it is accounted still nobler if he
can be asserted to absorb even themselves; if Siva, for
example, can be affirmed, not only to be Siva, and to be at
once creator, preserver, and destroyer, but can be declared
to be Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva themselves. Beyond even
this, a step remains. In the same manner as he absorbs
the gods, he is finally made to absorb everything. He is
asserted to be the universe itself. He is then all in all.
We shall find this process pursued with the Hindu divi-
nities, one after another. In another sacred book,” dedi-
cated to Siva, that god is made to declare, “I have always
been, and I always am, and I always will be. There is no
second of whom I can say that I am he, and that he is I.
I am the within of all the withins. I am in all surfaces.
Whatever is I am; and whatever is not I am. I am
Brahma; and I am also Brahme; and I am the causing
cause. Whatever is in the east I am ; and whatever is in
the west I am; and whatever is in the south I am; and
1 It is strange that tliis source of perplexity and contradiction did not sug-
gest' an explanation of the difficulties previously intimated. For a more
detailed view of the sects of the Hindus, see Asiat. Researches, vols. xvi.
and xvii.-W.
2 The Oupnekhat, of which an ancient version into the Persian language
has been found. Anquetil Duperron published first soire specimens of a
translation from this in the Recherches Historiques et Géographiques sur
l'Inde, and has since published a translation of the whole in Latin. There is
a translation of it likewise among the late Mr. Allein's manuscripts in the
British Museum,
256
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. whatever is in the north I am. Whatever is below I am;
CHAT. VI. and whatever is above I am. I am man, and not man, and
woman. I am the truth; I am the ox; and I am all other
animated beings. I am more ancient than all. I am the
king of kings. And I am in all the great qualities. I am
the perfect being. Whatever has been, Rudra? is; and
whatever is be is; and whatever shall be he is. Rudra is
life, and is death; and is the past, present, and future;
and is all worlds." But if the votaries of Siva, with
exaggerating devotion, thus infinitely exalt him above all ;
the same, or, if possible, still greater honours, do the
adorers of Vishnu lavish upon that divinity. “Let it not
be thought," says the Bhagavat, “that Vishnu is only one
. of the three divinities, or triple powers. Know that he is
the principle of all. It is he who created the universe by
his productive power; it is he who supports all by his
preserving power; it is he, in fine, who destroys all by his
destructive power. He creates under the form of Brahma,
and destroys under that of Siva. The productive power
is more excellent than the destructive, and the preserving
more excellent than the productive. To the name of
Vishnu, therefore, is attached the pre-eminence, since the
title of preserver or saviour is peculiarly attributed to
him.”3 In the Bhagvat-Geeta, Crishna is thus addressed :
“O mighty being! who, greater than Brahma, art the
prime creator! eternal god of gods! the world's mansion !
thou art the incorruptible being distinct from all things
transient! Thou art before all gods, and the supreme
supporter of the universe! Thou knowest all things! By
thee, O infinite form! the universe was spread abroad.
Thou art Vayoo the god of winds, Agnee the god of fire,
Varoon the god of oceans, Sasanka the moon, Prajapatee
the god of nations! Reverence be unto thee before and
behind, reverence be unto thee on all sides, O thou who
art all in all! Infinite is thy power and thy glory! Thou
includest all things, wherefore thou art all things.” In a
1 One of the many names of Siva, or Mahadeva.
2 Oupnekhat, ix.
3 Bhagavadam, p. 8, 9.
4 Blagyat-Geeta, p. 94: see similar strings of praises, Ibid. pr. 84 to 88 ;
pp. 78, 79; p. 70. At p. 80, he is denominated, “The father and the mother of
this world;" which affords another curious coincidence with the phraseology
of other religions. The orphic yerses trepi Ovocws make Jupiter the “father
and mother of all things."
Ilavtwv MEV OV matrp, unrhp, &c.—Hymn. ix, Fer. 18.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
257
Sanscrit inscription, taken from a stone at Buddha Gaya, BOOK JI.
Buddha is thus addressed: “ Reverence be unto thee, O CHAP. VI.
god, in the form of the god of mercy; the lord of all things,
the guardian of the universe. Thou art Brahma, Vishnu.
and Mahesa.? Thou art lord of the universe! Thou art,
under the proper form of all things, moveable and im-
moveable, the possessor of the whole."2
Among the numerous expressions of panegyric and
adoration which the Hindus apply to their divinities, none
seem to have made a deeper impression upon some of the
most intelligent of our English inquirers, than the epithet
ONE.3 This has so far prevailed as to impress them with a
belief that the Hindus had a refined conception of the
unity of the Divine Nature. Yet it seems very clear that
the use of such an epithet is but a natural link in that
chain of unmeaning panegyric which distinguishes the
religion of ignorant men. When one divinity has been
made to engross the powers of all the rest, it is the neces-
sary termination of this piece of flattery, to denominate
Valerius Soranus calls Jupiter " the father and mother of the gods."
Jupiter omnipotens, regum Rex ipse Deîmque
Progenitor, Genetrixque Deûm ; Deus unus et idem.
Apud Augustin. de Civitat. Dei, lib. iv. cap. xi. ct lib. vii, cap. ix.
Synesius uses_similar language:
EU Tamp, ou d'eoul L7Tnp,
. Ev & apony ou de naus.-Synes. Hymn. iii.
Even Martial, in a sort of a Hymn, or eulogy upon Mercury, beginning
Hermes Martia seculi voluptas,
Hermes, omnibus eruditus armis;
&c. &c., ends thus, -
Hermes onnia sorus, el ter unus--Mart. Ep. lib. iv. ep. 25.
" De Deo, ejusque cultu, ita Chaldæos tradicisse referunt; 1. Esse Deum
omnium regem, parentemque, cujus providentia universoruin ordo atque ornatus
fuctus est.-Bruckeri Hist. Crit. Philosophiæ, lib. i. cap. ii. sect. 18.
1 Another name for Siva.
2 Asiat, Rescarch. i. 284, 285.
3 Much of what follows on this subject is verbal quibbling, One, in San-
scrit, as in other languages, nay no doubt imply "chief," "principal," or meta-
phorically denote identity of persons; but it should have been proved that the
word was so used when applied to the “ One" Deity. It does not signify,
when so employed, the chief-or the same-but the one distinct from and
.above all, and from whom all things proceeded. What notions Mr. Mill would
have the term express he should have explained; it is evident that he has in
his instances confounded very different things; the notion of one of many with
one over many, and the simple ideas of unity and supremacy, with more com-
prehensive ideas of other attributes. Why should the belief of one God not
prevail amongst the Africans ? What do we understand of oneness more than
they? Why should not the Heathen nations have had some perception of this
truth, although it failed to influence their practice? "Tuc intelligent pagans
acknowledged only one God according to the plirase quoted by Laertius of
Thales. God is the oldest of all things, because he is unmade or unproduced,
and the only thing that is so."—i. 35. "The Pagans do often characterize the
Supreme God by such titles, epithets, and descriptions, as are incommunicably
proper to him, thereby plainly distinguishing him from all other inferior gods."
Cudworth, ii. 11.-W.
VOL, I.
258
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. him THE ONE. Oriental scholars ought moreover to have
CHAP. VI. reflected that one is an epithet of very common and vague
application in the languages of Asia; and is by no means
a foundation whereon to infer among the Hindus any con-
ception analogous to that which we denote by the term
« Unity of God.” The translation of the Institutes of Meni
affords us a very satisfactory example: “ Then only is a
man perfect when he consists of three persons united, his
wife, himself, and his son; and thus have learned Bralimens
announced this the husband is even ONE with his wife.”ı
Yet surely no unity of being was supposed in this triune
person, a mar, his wife, and his son. AD, we are informed
by Macrobius, was among the Assyrians a word which
signified one, and was a name conferred by them upon
their chief divinity. The Babylonians applied it to their
principal goddess. The god Rimmon, as we learn from
the Bible, had the same epithet. Mr. Bryant says it was
a sacred title among all the Eastern nations, and originally
conferred upon the sun. Even the Greek poets, who have
never been suspected of refined notions of the unity of
God, employ it to profusion. It is applied to Jupiter, to
Pluto, to the sun, to Dionysus. All the gods are affirmed
to be one.? “One power,” says the Orphic poetry, “one
divinity, Jupiter is the great ruler of all.”8 Plutarch in-
forms us that Apolo was frequently denominated the
monad, or the ONLY ONE;, and from the emperor Julian
we learn, that the people of Edessa had a god whom they
called MONIMUS, a word of the same interpretation.10 Few
1 Institutes of Menni, ch. ix. 45.
? Deo, quem summum maximumque, venerantur, Adad nomen, dederunt.
Ejus nominis interpretatio significat unus. Macrob. Satur. lib. i. cap. 23.
This reduplication Mr. Bryant, with good reason, supposes to be a superlative,
but is wrong in supposing it an ordinal. i. 29.
3 Ada, ydovn: kai Úto BoBuawviwv Hpa. Hesychius, ad verb. The Greeks
gave it, for a feminine application, a feminine terinination.
1 Zechariah, ch. xii. ver. 11. “As the mourning of Adad Rimmon, in the
valley of Megiddon."
j Analysis of Ancient Mythology, i. 29.
6 'Els Zevs, cis. Aions, eis 'Halos eis Alovvoos,
'Els Deos cv TTAVTECO.-Orph. Frag. iv. p. 364.
? IINOUTwv, Hepoedovn, Anjrtnp, Kumpus, EpwTES,
TplywvES, Nnpevs, Ty, Ous, kai KvavoXALTES,
“Ερμησθ', “Ηφαιστος τε κλυτος, Παν, Ζευς τε, και “Ηρη
ApteulS, 78 Ekdiepyos Aronwy, és OEOS EOTI.-Herinesianax.
& Orphic. Fragm. vi. 366.
9 TNV MONAAA Tous avopas ovojašelv Atollwva.-Plutarch. Isis et
Osiris, 354.
10 Orat. iv. p. 150. See note 2, in page 256, where Mercury is denominated
the Thrice-one.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
259
nations shall we find without a knowledge of the unity of BOOK II.
the Divine Nature, if we take such expressions of it as CIIAP. VI.
abound in the Hindu writings for satisfactory evidence.
By this token, Mr. Park found it among the savages of
Africa.
In pursuance of the same persuasion, ingenious authors
havo laid hold of the term Brahme, or Brahm, the neutor
of Brahma, the masculine name of the creator. This they
have represented as the peculiar appellation of the one
god; Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, being only names of the
particular modes of divine action. But this supposition
(for it is nothing more)3 involves the most enormous
inconsistency; as if the Hindus possessed refined notions
of the unity of God, and could yet conceive his modes of
action to be truly set forth in the characters of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva; as if the same people could at once be
So enlightened as to form a sublime conception of the
Divine Nature, and yet so stupid as to make a distinction
between the character of God and his modes of action.
The parts of the Hindu writings, however, which are
already before us, completely refute this gratuitous notion,
and prove that Brahme is a mere unmeaning epithet of
1 "The belief of ONE GOD," says he, “and of a future state of reward and
punishment, is entire and universal among them." Park's Travels in Africa,
1). 273.
2 Sir W. Jones says (Discourse on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India), “It
must always be remembered, that the learned Indians, as they are instructed
by their own books, in truth acknowledge only one supreme being, whom they
call Brahme, or the Grect One, in the neuter gender; they believe his essence
to be infinitely removed from the comprehension of any mind but his own ;
and they suppose liim to manifest his power by the operation of liis divine
spirit; whom they wame Vishnu, the Pervader, in the masculine gender,
whence he is often denominated the first male. * * * When they consider
the Divine Power exerted in creating, or in giving existence to that which
existed not before, they call the Deity Brahma, in the masculine gender also ;
they give him a thousand names, of which Siva, Isa or Iswara, Rudra, Ilara,
Sambliu, and Mahadeva, or Mahesa, are the most common." Mr. Wilford
(Asiat. Research. iii. 370) says that Brahma, Vishnu, and Diahadeva, "are
only the principal forms in which the Bralimens teach the people to adore
Brahm, or the Great One."
3 It is something more than supposition. “The attributes are affirmed by
the Vedas to be the creating, protecting, destroying, and the like, powers of
the Supreme Being. Their worship, under various representations by means
of consecrated objects, is prescribed by the scripture to the human race, who,
owing to the wavering nature of their minds, cannot without assistance fix the
thoughts on the incomprehensible and Alinighty Being." Defence of Ilindoo
Theism, by Sankara Sastri. Rammohun Roy, whilst he denies the necessity
of the worship, equally admits the character of personified attributes attached
by the Vedas themselves to Bralıme, Vishnu, and Siva. Translations from the
Vedas, p. 145.-W.
260
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. praise, applied to various gods ;' and no more indicative
CHAP. VI. of refined notions of the unity, or any perfection of the
Divine Nature, than other parts of their panegyrical devo-
tions. We have already beheld Siva decorated with this
title. Vishnu is denominated the supreme Brahme in.
the Bhagvat-Geeta. Nay, we find this Brahme, the great,
1 This is a specimen of most perverse reasoning. Brahme is said to be a
merc unmeaning epithet of praise, applied to various gods; but if it means
nothing, what lionour can it do them, why is it attached to them? It must have
some signification, or it would not be employed. It may be absurdly used;
but, undoubtedly, when God or man is called Brahme, it is intended to say,
that he is something of a more elevated nature than his ordinary nature that
he is, in fact, one with that being, who, according to particular doctrines, is
not only the cause of all that exists, but is all that exists. The reasonableness
of the Vedanta philosophy, the fitness of sectarial panegyric, are not in ques-
tiori. The eulogy of any individual god by identifying him with Brahme,
derives its weight entirely from the notion that besides the inferior divinities,
there is a God, one, uncreated and eternal, with whom to be identified, fign-
ratively or philosophically, is highest praise.-W.
2 Vide supra, 1). 316.
3 Bhagvat-Geeta, p. 84. The term Para Brahme, or Great Brahme, is ap-
plied, not once, but many times to Crishna, in the Bhagavat. See Halhed's
translation in Maurice's Hindostan, ii. 342, 351, 354, 360, 375, 377, 379, 380,
417, 444. “The Sri Vaishnavam Brahmens," says Dr. Buchanan (Journey
through Mysore, etc., i. 144), "worship Vishnu and the gods of his family
only, and all over the Deccan are almost exclusively the officiating priests iit
the temples of these deities They allegc Brahma to be a son of Vishnu, anch
Siva the son of Brahma. Vishnu they consider as the same with Para Brahma"
(thus Dr. Buchanan spells it instead of Brálime), " or the Supreme Being.".
Yet of this Supreme Being, this Para Brahma, they believe as follows: “One
of the Asuras, or demons, named Tripura, possessed a city, tlie inhabitants of
which were very troublesome to the inhabitants of Brahma Loka, the heaven
of Brahma, who attempted in vain to take the place; it being destined not to
fall, so long as the women who resided in it should preserve their chastity.
The angels at length offered up their prayers to Vishnu, who took upon himseif
the form of a most beautiful young man, and became Budha Ayatara. En-
tering then into the city, he danced naked before the women, and inspired
them with loose desires, so that the fortress soon fell a prey to the angels."
Ibid. Even Vach, the daughter of Ambhrina, is decorated with all the attri-
butes of divinity. Mr. Colebrooke gives us the following literal version of a
hymn in one of the Vedas, which Vach, he informs us,"speaks in praise of
herself as the supreme and universal soul” (the title which, it is pretended,
exclusively belongs to Brahme] _“I range with the Rudras, with the Vasus,
with the Adityas, and with the Viswadevas. I uphold both the sun and the
ocean (metra and varuna], the firmament, and fire, etc. * * Me, who am the
queen, the conferrer of wealth, the possessor of knowledge, and first of such
as merit worship, the gods render, universally, present everywhere, and per-
vader of all beings. He, who cats food through me, as he, who sees, who
hears, or who breathes, through me, yet knows me not, is lost; hear then the
faith which I pronounce. Even I declare this Self, who is worshipped by gods
and men. I make strong whom I choose; I make him Brahime, holy and wise.
For Rudra I bend the bow, to slay the demon, foe of Brahma : for the people
I make war on their foes ; and I pervade heaven and earth. I bore the father
on the lead of this universal mind; and my origin is in the midst of the ocean ;
and therefore do I pervade all beings, and touch this heaven with my form.
Originating all beings, I pass like the breeze: I am above this heaven, beyond
this earth; and what is the GREAT ONE, that am I.” Asiat. Research. viii.
402, 403. Mr. Colebrooke says that Yach signifies speech, and that she is
personified as the active power of Brahma, proceeding from him. Ibid. There
is a curious passage, descriptive of the universal soul, translated from the
Vedas by dir. Colebrooke. Several persons " deeply conversant with holy
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
261
the eternal ONE, the supreme soul, employed in rather a BOOK II.
subordinate capacity. “The Great Brahm," says Crishna, CHAP. VI.
“is my womb. In it I place my fætus; and from it is
the production of all nature. The great Brahm is the
womb of all those various forms which are conceived in
every natural womb, and I am the father who soweth the
seed." In one of the morning prayers of the Brahmens,
cited from the Vedas by Mr. Colebrooke, water is denomi-
nated Brahme,2 "The sun,” says Yajnyawalcya, " is Brahme;
this is a certain truth revealed in the sacred Upanishats,
and in various sac'has of the Vedas. So the Bhawishya
Purana, speaking of the sun: Because there is none greater
than he, nor has been, nor will be, therefore he is cele-
brated as the supreme soul in all the Vedas.''3 Air, too
receives the appellation of Bralıme. Thus, says a passage
in the Veda; “ That which moves in the atmosphere is
air, Brahme.". Thus again; “Salutation unto thee, O air!
Even thou art Brahme, present to our apprehension. Thee
I will call present Brahme: thee I will name - the right
one;' thee I will pronounce the true one. May that
Brahme, the universal being entitled Air, preserve me.'5
Food, too, is denominated Brahme; so is breath, and in-
writ, and possessed of great dwellings, meeting together, engaged in this dis-
quisition; What is our soul? and who is Brahme? Going together for inform-
ation to a profound sage, they addressed him thus: “Thiou well knowest the
universal soul, communicate that knowledge unto us.” The sage addressed
each of them, “whom he worshipped as the soul.” The first answered, "the
heaven." But the sage replied, that this was only the head of the soul. The
second declared that he worshipped “the sun as the soul." But the sage told
him, this was only the eye of the soul. The third said that he worslipped
"air as the soul;" and the sage answered, that this was only the breath of the
soul. The fourth declared that he worshipped “thie ethereal clement as the
soul." But the sage replied that this was only the trunk of the soul. The
Hifth answered, that he worshipped “water as the soul." But the sage re-
joined that this was only the abdomen of the soul. Tlie sixth informed him
that he worshipped "earth as the soul." But the sage declared that this was
only the feet of the soul. Tlie sage next proceeds to deliver his own explana-
tion; and utters a jargon, which has not even a semblance of meaning. “He
thus addressed them collectively: You consider this universal soul as it were
an individual being; and your partake of distinct enjoyments. But he who
worships as the universal sonl, that which is known by its manifested portions,
and is inferred from consciousness, enjoys nourishment in all worlds, in all
beings, in all souls : his head is splendid, like that of this universal soul; his
eye is similarly varied ; his breath is equally diffused ; his trunk is no less
abundant; his abdomen is alike full ; and his feet are thc earth; his breast is
the altar: liis hair is the sacred grass ; his heart the household fire; his inind
the consecrated flame; and his mouth the oblation."
1 Bhagvat-Geeta, p. 107.
2 Asiat. Research. v.349.
3 An extract from a Sanscrit Commentary by Dir. Colebrooke, Asiat. Re-
search. v. 352.
4 Asiat, Res. viii. 417.
.5 Ibid. 456.
262
HISTORY OF BRITISII INDIA.
BOOK II. tellect, and felicity. Nay, it is affirmed, as part of the
CHIAP. VI. Hindu belief, that man himself may become Brahme; thus.
in the Bhagvat-Geeta, Crishna declares: “A man being
endowed with a purified understanding, having humbled
his spirit by resolution, and abandoned the objects of the
organs; who hath freed himself from "passion and dislike,
who worshippeth with discrimination, eateth with moder-
ation, and is bumble of speech, of body, and of mind; who
preferreth the devotion of meditation, and who constantly
placeth his confidence in dispassion; who is freed from:
ostentation, tyrannic strength, vain-glory, lust, anger, and
avarice; and who is exempt from selfishness, and in all
things temperate, is formed for being Brahm."?
Such are the proofs on which the opinion has been:
adopted that sublime principles run through the religion
of the Brahmens. I know no' supposition which can be:
1 Extract from the Vedas by Mr. Colebrooke, Asiat. Research, viii.
455, 456.
2 Bhagvat-Geeta, p. 131, 132.
3 Sir W. Jones seems to have found proofs of a pure theism almost cvery
where. Speaking of the Arabs, he says, " The religion of the poets, at least,
seems to have been pure theism; and this we may know with certainty, be-
cause we have Arabian verses of unsuspected antiquity, which contain pious.
and elevated sentiments on the goodness and justice, the power and oinnipo:-
tence, of Allah, or the God. If an inscription said to have been found on
marble in Yemen be authentic, the ancient inhabitants of that country pre-
served the religion of Eber, and professed a belief in miracles, and a future:
state.” (As. Res. ii. 8.) Did Sir W. not know that the wildest religions
abound most in miracles, and that no religion is without a belief of a future:
state? Did it want an inscription in Yemen to prove to us this? Sir W. finds.
proofs of a pure theism as easily among the Persians as among the Arabs.
« The primeval religion of Iran," he says, “if we rely on the authorities ad-
duced by Molisani Fani, was that which Newton calls the oldest (and it may be:
justly called the noblest) of all religions: A firm belief that one supreme God
made the world by his power, and continually governed it by his providence;
a pious fear, love, and adoration of him; a due reverence for parents and aged
persons: a fraternal affection for the whole human race, and a compassionate .
tenderness even for the brute creation." Yet under Hushang, who, it would
appear, was the author of this primeval religion, he tells us, that the popular
worship of the Iranians was purely Sabian. (Ibid. p. 58.) At the same time
he assures us, that during his supposed Mahabadian dynasty, when this
Hushangism and Sabianism existed, a Brahmenical system prevailed, " wliich.
Muchanging sobicno windmappe
we can hardly," he says, “ doubt was the first corruption of the oldest and
purest religion." (Ibid. p. 59.) By this account three different religions.
must have all been the prevalent religions of Persia, at one and the same
time. Unless (which is not a theory with slight presumptions in its favours
We conclude that all three were originally one and the same. Even on the
most sober-minded and judicious men, the lofty language of a mean super-
stition is calculated to impose. The industrious and intelligent Harris, in his
account of the travels of William de Rubruquis, states it as his opinion, “after
all the pains that he had been able to take, in order to obtain some sort of cer,
tainty on this head," that the religion of the Tartars includes these three
points: “First,--that there is one God, the fountain of being, the creator of all
things, the ruler of all things, and the sole object of Divine worship. Second-
ly,--that all men in general are his creatures, and therefore ought to consider
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
263
employed to reconcile the inconsistencies, and to remove BOOK II.
the absurdities, which we have found this opinion to in- CHIAP. VI.
volve, unless it be assumed that the legends of the Hindus -
are all allegorical: and though, in their literal interpreta-
tion, they may be altogether unworthy of a perfect being
that:yet a recondite and enigmatical meaning may be ex-
torted from them, which will tally with the sublime hypo-
thesis it is wished to entertain. Undoubtedly, if we
assume to ourselves the licence of giving to the Hindu
mythology a meaning to suit our own views, we may form
out of it not only a sublime theology, but a sublime philo-
sophy, or any thing we please. It might, however, have
been imagined that the futility, the absurdity, of these
arbitrary interpretations had been too well exposed to
allow them to mislead such men as some of the advocates
for the allegorical sense of the Hindu scriptures. The
latter Platonists, and other refiners upon the mythology of
Greece and Rome, drew from it a pure system of theology, by
the very same process which is adopted and recommended
in regard to the fables of the Hindus. “Without a tedious
detail,” says Mr. Gibbon, “the modern reader could not
form a just idea of the strange allusions, the forced etymo-
logies, the solemn trifling, and the impenetrable obscurity
of these sages, who professed to reveal the system of the
universe. As the traditions of Pagan mythology were
variously related, the sacred interpreters were at liberty
to select the most convenient circumstances ; and as they
each other as bretliren descended from one common parent, and alike en-
titled to all the blessings he bestows; and that, therefore, it is great impiety to
abuise those blessings, or to injure each other. Thirdly, That in as much as
the common reason of mankind hath taught them to establish property, it is
necessary that it should be preserved, and that it is therefore the duty of every
man to be content with his own." (See Harris's Collection of Voyages, vol. i).
Les Moskaniens m'ont tous assurés unanimement, qu'ils n'avoient jamais eu
d'idoles, ni de divinités subalteries, mais qu'ils sacrifioient uniquement à un
être suprême et invisible. (Pallas, Voyage, i. 126.
| The advocates of this interpretation are not Europeans alone. The.
Hindus themselves give it, and not without good authority. “It is indispu-
tably evident that none of the metaphorical representations which arise from
the metaphorical style in which the Vedas are written, were desigued to be
viewed in any other light than a mere allegory."-Rammohun Roy, p. 12.
" Corresponding to the natures of different powers or qualities, numerous
figures have been invented for the benefit of those who are not possessed of
sufficient understanding."-Maliarnirvana, quoted by Raminoliun Roy. “For.
the benefit of those who are inclined to worship, figures are invented to serve
as representations of God, and to them. either male or female forms, and other
circumstances, are fictitiously assigned." --Jamadagni, cited by Ramınohun
Roy, p. 34. This allegorical representation is then avowed by the Hindus ;
themselves, as the source of thcir popular belief.-W.
264
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. translated an arbitrary cipher, they could extract from any
CHAP. VI. fable any sense which was adapted to their favourite
system of religion and philosophy. The lascivious form of
a naked Venus was tortured into the discovery of some
moral percept, or some physical truth; and the castration
of Atys explained the revolution of the sun between the
tropics, or the separation of the human soul from vice and
error.” But if a condemnation thus severe can be justly
man mythology, what judgment should be formed of those
by whom the same mode of interpretation is applied to
the fables of the Hindus ?? The Egyptian religion is
allowed on all hands to have possessed the same funda-
mental principles with the Hindu, and to have resembled
it remarkably in its outward features : yet, of all the
systems of superstition which were found within the Ro-
man empire, Mr. Gibbon pronounces this to be “the most
contemptible and abject." 3 There are satisfactory reasons
for supposing that improvement in the language of the
Brahmens, and refinement in the interpretations which
they put upon their ancient writings, not to speak of what
may have been done by their favourite practice of interpo-
lation have been suggested by the more rational and simple
doctrines of Mahomet. The natural effect of acquaintance
with a better creed is well described by Mr. Bryant. “It
is to be observed,” he says, “that when Christianity had
introduced a more rational system, as well as a more
1 Gibbon's Hist. of the Decl. and Fall of the Rom, Emp, iv, 71.
2 The Hindu ideas are so extremely loose, vague, and uncertain, that they
are materials unspeakably convenient for workmanship of this description.
"The Hindi religion," says an Oriental scholar of some eminence, " is so
pliant, that there is scIlrcely an opinion it will not countenance." A Tour to
Shiraz, by Edward Scott Waring, Esq. p. 3, note.-M.
Dir. Waring is no authority on Hindu subjects.W.
4 Besides the invincible reasons afforded by the circumstances of the case,
the artful pretences and crasions of the Brahmens are evidence enough.
Mr. Wilford, having stated the general opinion, that the three principal gods
of Egypt resolve them into one, namely, the sun, says, “The case was nearly
the same in ancient India; but there is no subject on which the modern Brah-
mens are more reserved; for when they are closely interrogated on the title
of Deva, or God, which their most sacred books give to the sun, they avoid a
direct answer, have recourse to evasions, and often contradict one another and
themselves. They confess, however, unanimously, that the sun is an emblem
or image of the three great divinities jointly and individually : that is of
Brahme, or the supreine one." Asiat. Res. iii. 372.-M.
These general assertions of Wilford are always to be received with great
caution. There is no reason why the Bralmans should make a mystery of
applying the word Dera to the Sun. The Sun is a god, a Deva, and Dera
properly means, that which shines.-IV.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
265
refined worship, among mankind ; the Pagans were struck BOOK II.
with the sublimity of its doctrines, and tried in their turns Char. N.
to refine. But their misfortune was, that they were
obliged to abide by the theology which had been trans-
mitted to them; and to make the history of the Gentile
gods the basis of their procedure. This brought them
into immense difficulties and equal absurdities : while they
laboured to solve what was inexplicable, and to remedy
what was past cure. Hence we meet with many dull
and elaborate sophisms even in the great Plutarch : but
many more in after-times, among the writers of whom I
am speaking. Proclus is continually ringing the changes
upon the terms, voos roepos, and vontos; and explains what
is really a proper name, as if it signified sense and intellect.
In consequence of this, he tries to subtilize and refine all
the base jargon about Saturn and Rhea and would persuade
us that the most idle and obscene legends related to the
divine mind, to the eternal wisdom, and supremacy of the
Deity. Thus he borrows many exalted notions from
- Christianity; and blends them with the basest alloy, with
the dregs of Pagan mythology." 1 Such are the opinions
of the greatest men respecting those attempts to allegorize
a rude superstition, which some of the most celebrated of .
our Indian guides so vehemently recommend.?
i Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, iii. 104, 105.
2 Mr. Halled very judiciously condemns the project to allegorize and refine
upon the Hindu mythology. “Many conjectural doctrines," says he, "have
veen circulated by the learned and ingenious of Europe upon the mythology
of the Gentoos; and they have unanimously endeavoured to construe tlie
extravagant fables with which it abounds into sublime and mystical symbols
of the most refined morality. This mode of reasoning, however common, is
not quite candid or equitable, because it sets out with supposing in those
people a deficiency of faith with respect to the authenticity of their own
scriptures, which, although our better information may convince us to be alto-
gether false and erroneous, yet are by them literally esteemed as the imme-
cliate revelations of the Almighty. ... It ipay possibly be owing to this
vanity of reconciling every other mode of worship to some kind of conformity
with our own, that allegorical constructions and forced allusions to a mystic
morality have been constantly foisted in upon the plain and literal context of
every Pagan niythology. ... The institution of a religion has been in every
country the first step towards an emersion from savage barbarism. ... The
vulgar and illiterate have always understood the mythology of their country
in its literal sense; and there was a time to every nation, when the highest
rank in it was equally vulgar and illiterate with the lowest. ... A Hindu
esteems the astonishing miracles attributed to a Brihma, a Raam, or a Kishen,
as ficts of the most indubitable authenticity, and the relation of them as most
strictly historical." Preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws, p. xiii. xiy. On the
religion of ancient nations, Voltaire says with justice'« On pourroit faire des
volumes sur ce sujet ; mais tous ces volumes se reduisent à deux inots, c'est
que le gros du genre humain a été et sera très long-temps insensé et imbécile ;
et que peut-être les plus insensés de tous ont été ceux, qui ont voulu trouver
266
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Of the pure and elevated ideas of the Divine Nature,
CHAP. VI. which are ascribed to the Hindus, or to any other people,
an accurate judgment may be formed, by ascertaining the
source from which they are derived. It will be allowed that
just and rational views of God can be obtained from two sour-
ces alone.: from revelation; or, where that is wanting, from
sound reflection upon the frame and government of the uni-
a comprehensive survey of this magħificent system, to ob-
serve the order which prevails, the adaptation of means to
ends, and the incredible train of effects which flow from
the simplest causes ; they may then form exalted notions.
of the intelligence to which all those wonders are ascribed.
If all the unrevealed knowledge which we possess respect-
ing God, the immediate object of none of our senses be
derived from his works, they whose ideas of the works are
un sens à ces fables absurdes, et mettre de la raison dans la folie. Voltaire,
Philosophie de l'Histoirc, Oeuvres Completes, à Gotha, 1785, tom.vi.p.22.
Mr. Wilkins, reprobating some other attempts at refinement on the Hindi
text. says," he has seen a comment, by a zealous Persian, upon the wanton
odes of their favourite poet Hafiz, whercin every obscene allusion is sublie
mated into a divine mystery, and the host and the tavern are as ingeniously
note 114.-M.
Every oriental scholar knows that the odes of Hafiz, as of many other
Persian poets, are allegorical, and that all the rapturous love of Sufi writers
is mystical philosophy relating to the separation of individualized soul from
the source from whence it emanated. It is very trile that explanation by alle-
gory may have been carried sometimes to excess, but to the composition of a
popular mythology many elements contribute, and none more copiously than
allegory. The greater number of the Hindu fables are obvious allegories, anci
the foundation of the whole system, in its popular shape, is eminently alle-
gorical. The three chief divinities are iepeatedly admitted to be nothing
more than personifications of the powers of God in action. With the vulgur
the personifications become realities--the types become the things typified.
This is the natural progress of all idolatry, even where it has been craftec
upon the simple truths of Christianity; and there is no difficulty in under-
standing how it should have taken this course in Hindustan.-W.
1 That the notions of the Hindus are irrational and erroneous, may be ad-
mitted, and they are therefore offensive to minds better informed; but the
subsequent designations of degrading, gross, and disgusting, are scarcely ap-
plicable; nor is any distinction here made between mythological and philoso-
phical views, the absurdity is restricted to the former ; the latter fully recog-
nises the order of the world as the necessary consequence of its mode of
development, and men are enjoined to study God in his works. “The Vedas,"
says Ranmohuni Roy, "hold out precautions against framing a deity after
human imagination, and recommend mankind to direct all researches towards
the surrounding objects, viewed eitlier collectively or individually, bearing in
inind their regular, wise, and wonderful combinations and arrangements."
Introd. to the abridgment of thc Vedant, viii. The philosophical doctrines,
which invariably enjoin disregard of all external, and merely temporal exista
ence, and the exclusive direction of the powers of mind to the study of a
inan's own soul, may be condemned as unwise and ill-directed, but they can
scarcely be termed, with justice, mear and degrading; the end is elevated,
though the means be mistaken.-W.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
267
in the highest degree absurd, mean, and degrading, cannot, BOOK II.
whatever may be the language which they employ, have CHIAP. VI.
elevated ideas of the author of those works. It is impos-
sible for the stream to ascend higher than the fountain.
The only question therefore is, what are the ideas which
the Hindus have reached concerning the wisdom and
beauty of the universe. To this the answer is clear and
incontrovertible. No people, how rude and ignorant so-
ever, who have been so far advanced as to leave us memo-
rials of their thoughts in writing, have ever drawn a more
gross and disgusting picture of the universe than what is
presented in the writings of the Hindus. In the concep-
tion of it no coherence, wisdom, or beauty, ever appears :
all is disorder, caprice, passion, contest, portents, prodi-
gies, violence, and deformity It is perfectly evident that
1 Even Mr. Maurice says; “ The Hindu notions of the mundane system ar
altogether the most monstrous that ever were adopted by any beings, who
boast the light of reason; and, in truth, very little reconcileable with those
sublinie ideas we have been taught to entertain of the profound learning and
renowned sagacity of the ancient Bralimens." Maurice, Hist. of Hindost. i.
490. I have met with nothing in Sanscrit literature in any degree to be com-
pared with the following reflection of a Peruvian Inca, “ If the heaven be so
glorious, which is the throne and seat of the Pachacamac, how much more
powerful, glittering, and resplendent must his person and Majesty be, who
was the maker and creator of them all. Other sayings of his were. these, If I
were to adore ceny of these terrestrial things, it should certainly be a wise and
discreet man, whose excellencies surpass all earthly creatures." Garcilasso de
Vega, Royal Commentaries of Peru, book iv. ch. 19. There is a passage which
I have read since this was written (which however may well be suspected of
flowing at a recent date from a foreign source) translated by Mr. Ward, from a
work by Chirunjeevu, in which the inference that a God exists because the uni-
verse exists, is very distinctly expressed. Ward's View, &c. ii. 305. Lond. Ed.
2 In my researches concerning the religious ideas of the Hindus, I was niuch
struck with the title of a chapter or lecture in the Bhagvat-Geeta, “ Display of
the Divine Nature in the form of the universe." I seized it with eagerness:
Here, I thought, will undoubtedly be found some reflections on the wisdom anc.
order of the universe; I inet with only the following monstrous exhibition :
“Behold," says Vislınız, in the form of Crislina, to Arjoon, “behold things won-
derful, never scen before. Behold in this my body the whole world animate
and inanimate, and all things else thou hast a mind to see. But as thou art
unable to see with these thy natural eyes, I will give thee a heavenly eye, with
which behold my divine connexion."-After this, Arjoon declares, " I behold, o
god, within thy breast, the dews assembled, and every specific tribe of beings.
I see Brahma, that deity sitting on his lotus-throne; all the Reeshees (saints]
and heavenly Ooragas (serpents). I see thyself, on all sides, of infinite shape,
formed with abundant arms, and bellies, and mouths, and eyes; but I can
neither discover thy beginning, thy middle, nor again thy end, o universal lord,
form of the universe! I see thee with a crown, and armed with club and
elacra (the martial weapon of Crislina, a sort of discus or quoit), a mass of
glory, darting refulgent beams around. I see thec, difficult to be seen, shining
on all sides, with light immeasurable, like the arcent fire or glorious sun.
Thou art the supreme being, incorruptible, worthy to be known! Thou art
prime supporter of the universal orb! Thou art the never-failing and eternal
guardian of religion! Thou art from all beginning, and I esteem the Pooroosh
[literally, man, but here meant to express the vital soul]. I see thee without
beginning, without middle, and without end ; of yalour infinite; of arms. innu-
268
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
CHAP. VI. nected and perfect system, governed by general laws, and
directed to benevolent ends; and it follows, as a necessary
consequence, that than their religionis no other than that pri-
mary worship, which is addressed to the designing and invi-
sible beings who preside over the powers of nature, accord-
ing to their own arbitrary will, and act only for some private
and selfish gratification. The elevated language, which
this species of worship finally assumes, is only the refine-
ment, which flattery, founded upon a base apprehension
of the divine character, ingrafts upon a mean supersti-
tion.1
merable; the sun and moon thy eyes, thy mouth a flaming fire, and the whole
world shining with thy reflected glory! The space between the heavens and
the earth is possessed by thee alone, and every point around : the three regions
of the universe, O mighty spirit! behold the wonders of thy awful countenance
with troubled minds. Of the celestial bands, some I see fly to thee for rcfuge;
whilst some, afraid, with joined hands sing forth thy praise. The Malarslees,
holy bands, hail thee, and glorify thy name with adorating praises. The
good ; Asween and Koomar, the Maroots and Ooshiapas; the Gandhars and
the Yakshas, with the holy tribes of Soors, all stand gazing on thee, and all
alike amazed, The winds, alike with me, are terrified to behold thy wondrous
form gigantic; with many mouths and cyes; with many arms, and legs, and
breasts, with many bellies, and with rows of dreadful teeth! Thus, as I see
thee, touching the heavens, and shining with sucli glory, of such various hues,
with widely opened mouths and bright expanded eyes, I am disturbed within
thy dreadful teeth, and gazed on thy countenance, emblem of time's last fire, I
know not which way I turn! I find no peacc! Have mercy, then, O god of
gods! thou mansion of the universe! The sons of Dreetarashtra, now, with all
those rulers of the land, Bheeshna, Drona the son of Soot, and even the fronts
of our army, seem to be precipitating themselves hastily into thy mouth, dis-
covering such frightful rows of teeth! whilst some appear to stick between
thy tecth with their bodies sorely inangled. As the rapid streams of full-flowing
rivers roll on to mcet the ocean's bed; even so these heroes of the liuman raco
rush on towards thy flaming mouths. As trooss of insects, with increasing
speed, seek their own destruction in the flaming fire; even so these people, with
swelling fury, seek their own destruction. Thou involvest and swallowest them
altogether, even unto the last, with thy flamiug mouths; whilst the whole world
is filled with thy glory, as thy awful beams, O Vislin, shine forth on all sides !"
Bhagvat-Geeta, p. 90, &c. Such is “ The Display of the Divine Nature in the
form of the universe !"
In the grant of land, translated from a plate of copper (Asiat. Res. iii. 45),
among the praises of the sovereign, by whom the donation is made, it is said,
• The gods had apprehensions in the beginning of time, that the glory of so
great a monarch would leave them without marks of distinction; thence it was,
that Purari assumed a third cye in his forehead; Pedmachsa, four arms; At-
mabhu, four faces; that Cali held a cimeter in her hand; Rama, a lotos flower;
and Vani, a lyre.” Sir Willam Jones, in the note, says, “ The six names in the
Durga, Lacshmi, Seraswati." So that the three supreme deities, with their
wives, were afraid of being eclipsed by an earthly king, and were obliged to
assume new distinctions (of a very ingenious aud imposing sort!) to prevent so
lamentable an occurrence.--M.
No one but the author would have pressed into the support of his theory the
extravagance of adulation; he could not have supposed that the writer of the
panegyric himself believed in the apprehensions which he ascribes hyperboli-
cally to the gods.-W.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
269
If it be deemed necessary to inquire into the principle of BOOK II.
the Hindu superstition; or which of the powers of nature. CHAP. VI.
personified into gods, they exalted in the progress of hyper-
bolical adoration to the supremacy over the rest, and the
lordship of all things; the question is resolved by copious
evidence; and on this point inquirer's generally coincide.
Sir William Jones has written a discourse to prove that the
sufficiently proved, that the Greek and Roman deities ulti-
mately resolve themselves into the sun, whose powers and
provinces had been gradually enlarged, till they includeci
those of all nature. It follows that the sun, too, is the prin-
ciple of the Hindu religion. “We must not be surprised,"
that the characters of all the Pagau deities, male and female,
melt into each other, and at last into one or two; for it seems
a well-founded opinion, that the whole crowd of gods and
goddesses, in ancient Rome and modern Varanes, mean only
the powers of nature, and principally those of the sun, ex-
pressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful
names."1 He says, too, that “the three Powers Creative,
Preservative, and Destructive, which the Hindus express by
the triliteral word Aum, were grossly ascribed by the first
idolaters to the heat, light, and flame of their mistaken
divinity the sun.". Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, were there-
fore, the heat, light, and flame of the sun; and it follows as
a very clear deduction, that Brahme, whose powers were
shadowed forth in the characters of those three gods, was
the sun himself. This conclusion, too, is established by
many express tests of the Hindu scriptures, as well as by
the most venerated part of the Hindu ritual. “The sylla-
ble Om (Aum) intends," says a passage from the Veda
translated by Mr. Colebrooke, “every deity: It belongs to
Paramesh'ti, him who dwells in the supreme abode: it
appertains to Brahme, the vast one; to Deva, god; to Ad-
hyatma, the superintending soul. Other dcities belonging
to those several regions, are portions of the three gods; for
they are variously named and described, on account of their
different operations: but in fact there is only one deity, THE
1 On the Gods of Greece, &c., Asiat. Research.i. 267.
2 Asiat. Research, i. 272.-M.
There is no authority for this; the notion is employed as an illustration
only.-W,
270
BOOK II. GREAT SOUL. He is called the SUN; for he is the soul of all
CHAP. VI. beings. Other deities are portions of him.". I have already
of the highest of all authorities, in which the sun is directly
asserted to be Brahme, and to be the supreme soul, as is
declared in all the Vedas? Another passage, translated
from a Veda by Mr. Colebrooke, says: Fire is THAT ORIGINAL
CAUSE, the sun is that; such too is that pure Brahme. Even
he is the god who pervades all regions; he, prior to whom
nothing was born; and who became all beings, himself the
lord of creatures."3 A passage in the Veda, translated by
Sir William Jones, says, “That Sun, than which nothing is
higher, to which nothing is equal, enlightens the sky, the
earth, the lower worlds, the higher worlds, other worlds, en-
lightens the breast, enlightens all besides the breast."! In
the Bhawishya Purana, Crishna himself says; “The sun is
the god of perception, the eye of the universe, the cause of
day: there is none greater than he among the immortal
powers. From him this universe proceeded, and in him it
will reach annihilation; he is time measured by instants."
I shall add but one instance more. There is a passage in
the Vedas, which is regarded by the Hindus with unspeak-
able veneration. It has a distinctive appellation. It is
called the Gayatri, and is used upoil the mightiest occa-
sions of religion. It is denominated the holiest text in the
Vedas. This extraordinary,this most sacred, this most won-
derful text, is thus translated by Sir William Jones: “Let us
adore the supremacy of that Divine Sun, the godhead, who
illuminates all, who re-creates all, from whom all proceed,
to whom all must returp, whom we invoke to direct our
understandings aright in our progress towards his holy
seat.” Another version of it, and somewhat different in
its phraseology, is given by Mr. Colebrooke, in his account
of the first of the Vedas: “I subjoin,” says he, "a transla-
tion of the prayer which contains it, as also of the preceding
1 Ibid. viii. 397.-M.
This does not prove the converse ; viz., that the Sun was ever called the
Great Soul. Brahme, the Great Soul, was, according to the Vedantas, identical
with the sun and with fire, as with all things, and they mutually are identical
with him ; but each is individually the oljject which is seen or worshipped,
and not solely Brahime, or to be confounded with God.-W.
2 Vide supra, p. 323.
3 Asiat. Research. Tiü. 431, 432.
. 4 Asiat. Research. ii. 400.
5 Sir William Jones's Works, vi. 417.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS,
271
one, (both of which are addressed to the sun), for the sake BOOK II.
of exhibiting the Indian priests' confession of faith with its CHAP. VI.
context:-“This new and excellent praise of thee, Osplendid,
playful Sun! is offered by us to thee. Be gratified by this .
my speech: approach this craving mind as a fond man seeks
a woman. May that sun who contemplates and looks into
all worlds be our protector ! Let us DIEDITATE ON THE
ADORABLE LIGHT OF THE DIVINE RULER; MAY IT GUIDE OUR
INTELLECTS!1 Desirous of food, we solicit the gift of the
splendid Sun, who should be studiously worshipped. Vene-
rable men, guided by the understanding, salute the divine
Sun with oblations and praise."2 Constrained by these
and similar passages, Mr. Colebrooke says: “The ancient
Hindu religion, as founded on the Indian Scriptures, re-
cognises but one God, yet 220t sufficiently discriminating the
creature from the Creator':''3 This is an important admission,
from one of the most illustrious advocates of the gublimity
of the Hindu religion. Had he reflected for one moment,
he would have seen that between 120t sufficiently, and 120t-
Eit-all, in this case, there can be no distinction.
1 This particular passage it is, which is. pointed out by Mr, Colebrooke as
the gayatri,
2 Asiat. Research, viii, 400.
3. Ibid. 397.
Nations, not behind the Hindus in civilization (the most enthusiastic of
their admirers being judges) agree in these ideas. « Les nations savantes de
l'Orient," says Dupuis (Origine de tous les Cultes, i. 4.).“ les Egyptiens et les
Phéniciens, deux peuples qui ont le plus influé sur les opinions religieuses du
reste de l'univers, ne connoissoient d'autres dieux, chefs de l'administration du
monde, que le soleil, la lune, les astres, et le ciel qui les renferine, et ne chan-
toient que la nature dans leurs hymnes et leurs théogonies." The following is
a curious passage: "Eutychius, après avoir pris le Sabiisme en Chaldée, De
là, dit il, il est passé en Egypte, de l'Egypte il fut porté chez les Francs, c'est à
dire en Europe, d'où il s'étendit dans tous les ports de la Méditerranée. Et,
comme le culte du Soleil et des Etoiles, la vénération des ancêstres, l'érection
des statues, la consécration des arbres, constituèrent d'abord l'essence du Sa-
biisme, et que cette espèce de religion, toute bizarre qu'elle est, se trouva assez
vite répandue dans toutes les parties du monde alors connu, et l'infecta jusqu'
à l'Inde, jusqu'à la Chine : de sorte que ces vastes empires ont toujours esté
pleins des statues adorées, et ont toujours donné la créance la plus folle allx
visions de l'astrologie judiciaire, preuve incontestable de Sabiisme, puisque c'en
est le fond, et le premier dogme; la conclusion est simple, que soit par tra-
dition, soit par imitation et identité d'idées, le monde presqu'entier s'est vu, et
:Se voit encore Sabien." Ibid. 25. Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions,
&c. xii. 25.-M.
Assertions in favour of a theory are here cited, as if they were authentic his-
tory. What proof is there of the progress of Sabæism here so confidently
described ? But as concerns the Hindus, Mr. Colebrooke's opinion needs no
qualification. The want of discrimination between the creature and the
Creator, is the usual progress of idolatry. The type becomes mistaken for the
prototype: nor is sufficient allowance made for the mysticism that evidently
pervacles much of the Vedas, and gives a character other than literal to their
phraseology. In truth, we are even yet too imperfectly acquainted with those
works, to appreciate their doctrines correctly. W.
272
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. In the natural progress of religion, it very frequently
CHAP. VI. happens, that the spirit of adulation and hyperbole exalts
admired or powerful individuals to the rank of gods. The
name of the sun, or of some other divinity, is bestowed as
a title, or as an epithet of inflated praise, upon a great
prince, or conqueror.? Immediately the exploits of the
hero are blended with the functions of the god; and, in
process of time, when the origin of the combination is for-
gotten, they form a compound mass of inextricable and
inconsistent mythology. Mr. Colebrooke is of opinion,
that in the Vedas the elements and the planets alone are
cleified ; that the worship of heroes was introduced among
the Hindus at a later period; and makes a remarkable
figure in the Puranas.?
Among the false refinements to which the spirit of a
rude religion gives birth, it is worthy of particular remark,
that abstract terms are personified, and made to assume
the character of gods, such as, Health and Sickness ; War
and Peace; Plenty; Famine, Pestilence. When the most
general abstractions, too, begin to be formed, as of space, of
time, of fate, of nature, they are apt to fill the mind with
a kind of awe and wonder; and appear to stretch beyond
all things. They are either, therefore, apprehended as
new gods, and celebrated as antecedent, and superior, to
all the old ; or if any of the old have taken a firm posses-
sion of the mind, they are exalted to the new dignity, and
receive the name of the abstract idea which most forcibly
engages the attention. Thus, among the Greeks and the
Romans, Fate usurped a power over all the gods. The
Parsee books represent Ormusd and Ahriman, the Good
Principle and the Evil Principle, sometimes as indepen-
dent beings; sometimes as owing their existence to some-
thing above them; in a manner extremely resembling the
language of the Sanscrit books respecting Brahma, Vishnu,
and Siva. At times, however, the Persians express them-
selves more precisely. “In the law of Zoroaster," says one
of their sacred books, " it is positively declared that God
[Ormusd] was created by Time along with all other beings :
1 Adad, the name of the chief Assyrian deity, was held by ten Syrian kings
in succession. Nicol. Dainas. ap., Joseplum, Antiq. lib. xii. cap. 5. Even
among Christians, kings and great men have received all the general titles of
the deity, lord, majesty, highness, excellence, grace.
2 Asiat. Research, viii. 398, note.
RELIGION OF ;THE HINDUS.
273
and the creator is Time; and time has no limits; it has BOOK II.
nothing above it; it has no root : it has always been, and CHAP. VI.
always will be. No one who has understanding will ever ----
say, Whence did Time come? In that grandeur wherein
Time was, there was no being who could call it creaton,
because it had not yet created. Afterwards it created fire
and water, and from their combination proceeded Ormusd.
Time was the creator, and preserved its authority over the
creatures which it had produced. ***I said in the beginning
that Ormusd and Ahriman came both from Tinae: The
Brahmens, on the other hand, rather appear to have ac-
vanced the dignity of the acknowledged divinities so far
as to make it embrace the extent of the abstract ideas ;
and to have regarded them as the abstract ideas . them-
selves. Thus Mr. Wilkins supposes, that Brahme repre-
sents nature ; Brahma, matter ; Vishnu, space ; Siva, time.
But this is a refinement which is very sparingly, if at all,
introduced in any writings of the Brahmens, which have
yet been laid open to European eyes. Direct contradic-
tions of it, though plentifully diffused, are no proof that
it is not at all à Hindu doctrine. Thus Crishna, in the
Geeta, says, “I am nevertheless failing Time, the Pre-
server, whose face is turned on all sides”;2. a point of view
in which it well agrees with the peculiar attributes of
Vishnu. But in the very same discourse, Crishna says
again, “I am Time, the destroyer of mankind,"3 in which
case it agrees only with the character of Siva. But it is
still more remarkable that Brahma is said to have given
being to time, and the divisions of tinie”;4 and that space
is said to have been produced from the ear of the first
victim immolated by the Gods. Nay, there are passages
in which the Hindus acknowledge a destiny or fate which
over-rules the Supreme Beings themselves. “The future
condition of great beings is destined with certainty, both
the nakedness of Mahadeva, and the bed of Vishnu, on a
vast serpent. What is not to be, that will not be; and if
an event be predoomed, it cannot happen otherwise."6
Anquetil Duperron, Zendaresta, ii. 344.
- 2 Bhagvat-Geeta, p..87.
3.Ibid, p. 93.
Institutes of Menu, ch. i. 24.
· .5 :A passage translated from the Veda by Mr. Colebrooke, Asiat. Research,
.vii. 254.
6 Hetopadesa, book I., Sir William Jones's Works, vi. 7. A personification,
VOL. I.
274
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. When the exaggerations of flattery are in this manner
CHAP. VI. ingrafted upon the original deification of the elements and
powers of nature; and when the worship of heroes and of
abstract ideas is incorporated with the whole ; then is pro-
duced that heterogeneous and monstrous compound which
has formed the religious creed of so great a portion of the
human race; but composes a more stupendous mass in
Hindustan than any other country; because in Hindustan
a greater and more powerful section of the people, than in
any other country, have, during a long series of ages,
been solely occupied in adding to its volume, and aug-
menting its influence.
So little do men regard incoherence of thought; so little
are they accustomed to trace the relations of one set of
nomeans unnatural to rude nations. It is remarkable that the Scandinavians
had a notion of some mysterious power, superior to their gods ; for, after the
great catastrophe, in which Odin, Thor, and the other deities, lose their lives,
comes forth THE POWERFUL, TUE VALIANT, HE WHO GOVERNS ALL THINGS,
from his lofty abodes, to render divine justice. In his palace the just will in-
habit, and enjoy delights for evermore.” (See extracts from the Edda, the
Sacred book of the Scandinavians, in Mallet's Introduct. to the Hist. of Den-
mark, vol. i. ch. vi.)
Watt, 10:, :,!!!
That historian observes, in a style which almost appears
woan
w or
to be copied by those to whom we owe the specimens of the Hindu religion,
that a capital point among the Scythians was, the pre-eminence of “One only,
all-powerful and perfect being, over all the other intelligences with which
universal nature was peopled." The Scandinavians, then, were on a level witli
all that is eren claimed for the Hindus. But these same Scandinavians draw
terrible pictures of this perfect ONE; describing him as a being who even
delights in the sheading of human blood ; yet they call him, the Father and
creator of men, and say, that "he liveth and governeth during the ages ; he
directeth every thing which is high, and every thing which is low; whatever
is great, and whatever is small; he hath made the heaven, the air, and man
who is to live for erer; and before the heaven or the earth existed, this
god lived already with the giants.” Ibid. But what this god was, whe-
ther matter, or space, or time, the Scandinavian monuments are too imper-
fect to determine.
1 Bernier, one of the most intelligent and faithful of all travellers, who
spent a number of years in great favour at the court of Aurengzebe, formed an
opinion of the religion of the Hindus, with which respect was little connected,
for one of his Letters he thus entitles," Lettre, &c. touchant les superstitions,
étranges façons de faire, et doctrine des Indous ou Gentils de l'Hindoustan.
D'où l'on verra qu'il n'y a opinions si ridicules et si extravagantes dont
l'esprit de l'homme ne soit capable." (Bernier, Suite des Mémoires sur l'Empire
du Grand Mogol, i. 119.) He appears to have seen more completely through
the vague language of the Brahmons respecting the divinity (a language so
figurative, and loose, that if a man is heartily inclined, he may give it any
interpretation) than more recent and more credulous visitors. After giving a
very distinct account of the more coinmon notions entertained of the three
deities, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, he says, Touchant ces trois Estres j'ai vu
des Missionaires Européens qui prétendent que les Gentils ont quelque idee du
mystère de la Trinité, et qui disent qu'il est expressement porté dans leurs
livres que ce sont trois Personnes un scul Dieu ; pour moy j'ai fait assez dis-
courir Jes Pendets sur cette matière, mais ils s'expliquent si pauvrement que
je n'ai jamais pu comprendre nettement leur sentiment ; j'en ai même vú
quelques-uns qui disent que ce sont trois véritables créatures très parfaites
qu'ils appellent Deutas; comme nos anciens idolatres n'ont à mon avis jamais
275
opinions to another, and to form on any subject a consis- BOOK II.
tent and harmonious combination of ideas, that while CHAP. V!.
many persons of eminence loudly contand for the correct-
ness and sublimity of the speculative, there is an uni-
versal agreement respecting the meanness, the absurdity,
the folly, of the endless ceremonies, in which the practical
part of the Hindu religion consists. For the illustration
of this part of the subject, I shall content myself with a
reference to the documents in the appendix.1 Volumes
· would hardly suffice to depict at large a ritual which is
more tedious, minute, and burdensome; and engrosses a
greater portion of human life, than any which has been
human race.
No circumstance connected with a religious system
more decidedly pronounces on its character, than the
bien expliqué ce qu'ils entendoient par ces mots de Genius, et de Numina, qui
est, je pense, le même que Deuta chez les Indiens ; il est vrai que j'en ai vu
d'autres, et des plus sçavans, qui disoient que ces trois Etres n'estoient effec-
tivement qu'un même consideré en trois façons, à sçavoir, en tant qu'il est
Producteur, Conservateur, et Déstructeur des choses, mais ils ne disoient rien
des trois personnes distinctes en un seul Dieu. Ibid. p. 173.-" The history of
these gods," says Mr. Ormc (Hist. of the Milit. Trans. etc. in Indostan, i. 3),
" is a heap of the greatest absurdities. It is Eswara twisting off the neck of
Brahma; it is the Sun who gets his teeth knocked out, and the Moon who has
her face beat black and blue at a feast, at which the gods quarrel and fight
with the spirit of a mob." In the Zendavesta, as translated by Anquetil
Duperron, many passages are as expressive to the full of just ideas of the
Divine Nature as any in the Vedas. The absurdities, too, with which they aro
mixed, are certainly not greater, they are many degrees less, than those with
which the sublime phrases in the Vedas are mingled. The ancient magi, we
are told, had a most sublime theology.--Nunquam adorabant solem : et mox
addiderunt, se non adhibere aliquam adorationem soli, aut lunæ, aut planetis,
sed tantum erga solem se convertere inter orandum. Hyde, p.5.' Je vois, na
sour, says the Guèbre in Montesquieu (Lettres Persannes, Let. lxvii.), que
vous avez appris parmi les Musulmans à calomnier notre sainte religion. Nous
n'adorons ni les astres ni les élemens; et nos pères ne les ont jamais adorés.
..... Ils leurs ont seulement rendu un culte religieux, mais inférieur, comme
à des ouvrages et des manifestations de la divinité. Beausobre, with his usual
critical sagacity, said, in regard to the pictures drawn by Hyde, Pococke, and
Prideaux, of the religious system of the magi, Rien de plus beau, rien de plus
orthodoxe que ce système. Je crains seulement qu'il ne le soit un peu trop
self: "On ne peut lire deux pages de l'abominable fatras attribué à ce. Zo-
roastre, sans avoir pitié de la nature humaine. Nostradamus et le médecin des
urines sont des gens raisonnables en comparaison de cet energumène. Et
cependant on parle de lui, et on en parlera encore." He had, however, re-
marked a little before, that the book contained good precepts of morality, and
asked, “Comment se pourrait-il que Zoroastre eut joint tantd'énormes fadaises
à ce beau précepte de s'abstenir dans les doutes si on fera bien ou mal?"
Dictionnaire Philosophique, Mot Zoroastre.
:] Sec note C. at the end of the volume.
276
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. ideas which it inculcates respecting merit and demerit,
CHAP. VI. purity and impurity, innocence and guilt. If those qua-
lities which render a man amiable, respectable, and useful;
if wisdom, beneficence, self-command, are celebrated as the
chief recommendation to the favour of the Almighty; if
the production of happiness is steadily and consistently
represented, as the most acceptable: worship of the Creator;
no other proof is requisite, that they who framed, and
they who understand this religion, have arrived at high
and refined notions of an All-perfect being. But where,
with no more attention to morality, than the exigencies
and laws of human nature force upon the attention of the
rudest tribes, the sacred duties are made to consist in fri-
volous observances, there, we may be assured, the religious
ideas of the people are barbarous. The train of thought
which tends to this conclusion is extremely similar to
that which gives birth to other deformities in the religious
system of ignorant minds. From the imbecilities which
usually accompany exalted station, it is found, even when
the society is considerably improved, that assiduous at-
tendance upon the person of the great man or prince, and
unwearied contrivances for the expression of devotion and
respect, are the path which leads the most surely to his
attention and favour. To the rude mind, no other rule
suggests itself for paying court to the Divine, than that.
for paying court to the Human Majesty; and as among a
barbarous people, the forms of address, of respect, and
compliment, are generally multiplied into a great variety
of grotesque and frivolous ceremonies, so it happens with
l'egard to their religious service. · An endless succession
of observances, in compliment to the god, is supposed to
afford him the most exquisite delight; while the common
discharge of the beneficent duties of life is regarded as
1 That one campaign in the court is better than two in the field, has passed
into a proverb under the monarchies of modern Europe.
2 The leading feature in the Hindu ceremonial is throughout overlooked or
misstated. There are no observances "in compliment to the god," there is no
form of worship prescribed in the law-books for any one divinity; the obsery-
ances are all personal and domestic; they involve much less waste of time
than they would appear to do, and are of a less offensive character than the
public worship of Greece and Rome. This applies to the primitive system.
In the actual state of the Hindu religion, public observances have been in a great
degree substituted for domestic; but, even now, if the objects were worthy,
the amount of time dedicated to them would not be excessive.-W.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
277.
an object of comparative indifference. It is unnecessary BOOK HI.
to-cite instances in support of a representation, of which CHAP. VI:
the whole history of the religion of most nations is a con- -
tinual proof.
Even those inquirers who have been least aware of the
grossness of the Hindu religion, have seen that; wretched
ceremonies constituted almost: the whole of its practical
part. The precepts, which are lavished upon its ceremo-
nies, bury, in their exorbitant mass, the pittance bestowed
upon all other duties taken together. On all occasions ce= .
remonies meet the attention as the pre-eminent duties of
the Hindu. The holiest man, is always be by whom the
ceremonies of his religion are more strictly performed.
Never among any other people did the ceremonial part of
religion prevail over the moral. to a greater, probably to an
equal extent. Of the many rules of conduct prescribed to.
the householder, almost the whole concern religious ob-
servances. Beside the general strain of the holy text,
many positive declarations ascribe infinite superiority to
rites and ceremonies, above: morality. “Devotion," says
Menu, “is equal to the performance of all duties; it is
divine knowledge in a Brahmen; it is defence of the people
in. a Cshatriya ; devotion is the business of trade and agri-
culture in a Vaisya ; devotion is dutiful service in a Sudra.
By reading each day as much as possible of the Veda; by
performing the five great sacraments, and by forgiving all
injuries, even sins of the highest degree shall soon be
effaced.” 3 In the following list of conditions, a small.
„space is allotted to useful virtue. “By injuring nothing
animated, by subduing all sensual appetites, by devout
rites ordained in the Veda, and by rigorous mortificationst
men obtain, even in this life, the state of beatitude.”'
1 The predominance given to devotional duties in Manu, follows from the
character of the work. It is a text-book of religion and law; the particular
subject of “morals" is considered by the Hindus as forming a branch of lite-
rature of its own ; and is therefore consistently enough only occasionally ad-
verted to in writings dedicated to other subjects; the great duties of morality,
however; are few' and simple, and are not unfrequently commanded by Manu,
and other legislators.-W.
2. The performance (e.g.) of the five daily sacraments, of which no one, not
even that which is falsely rendered hospitality, has, properly speaking, any.
reference to the cluties of humanity. A few general precepts respecting the
acquisition of the means of subsistence, in the modes prescribed to the different
orders of the Hindus, are, in fact, of the ceremonial and religious cast: Laws
of Menu, ch. iii. and iv., where the duties of the householder are described.
3 Laws of Menu, ch. xi. 236, etc.
4 Ibid. ch. vi. 75.
278
HISTORY TN
OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. “It is through sacrifices,” says the Calica Purana, “ that
CHAP, VI. princes obtain bliss, heaven, and victory over their ene-
mies.” 1
In conceiving the honours with which the divine powers
should be treated, it is supposed that there are certain
qnalities with which it is holy or unholy to approach
them. As there are certain pollutions with which it would :
be held disrespectful to approach an earthly superior, the
same sentiment, as usual, is transferred to the heavens ;
and the notion of a religious impurity is engendered. This
is a circumstance of considerable importance. By the na-
ture of the particulars; to which the belief of religious
purity and impurity is attached, a criterion is afforded of
the mental qualities which the Divine Being is supposed
to possess. The causes of impurity among the Brahmens
are exceedingly numerous ; that they are proportionally
strange, a few instances will evince. “When a child has
teethed,” says the law of Menu, “and when, after teething,
his head has been shorn, and when he has been girt with
his thread, and when, being full grown, he dies, all his
kindred are impure: on the birth of a child the law is the
same." 2 Among a variety of other instances it is declared,
that he who has touched a' Chandala, a woman in her
courses, an outcast, a new-born child, a corpse, or one who
has touched a corpse, is impure.3 A Brahmen who has
touched a human bone is impure. The rules of purifica-
tion, which form a remarkable part of this subject, are not
less exorbitant in their number, or extravagant in their
forms. On the death of a kinsman, the modes of purifica-
tion are various, according to various cases : one, which we
may select as an example, is prescribed in the following
words : "Let them eat vegetable food without factitious,
(that is, only with native) salt; let them bathe for three
days at intervals ; let them taste no flesh-meat; and let
them sleep apart on the ground.” 4 “Should a Brahmen.
touch a human bone moist with oil, he is purified by bath-
ing; if it be not oily, by stroking a cow, or by looking at
the sun, having sprinkled his mouth with water." 5 All
those functions of the body, by which its offensive dis-
1 Asiat. Res. v. 371.
2 Institutes of Menu, ch. v. 58.
5 Ibid. 87.
3 Ibid. 85, 87.
4 Ibid. 73.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
279
charges are effected, or its vital powers communicated, BOOK II.
afford occasion for the ceremonies of purification. “Oily CHAP. VI.
exudations, says the law of Menu, “seminal fluids, blood,
dandruff, urine, feces, ear-wax, nail-parings, phlegm, tears,
concretions on the eyes, and sweat, are the twelve im-
purities of the human frame, and for cleansing these, earth
and water must be used.” 2 “He who carries in any man-
ner an inanimate burden, and is touched by any thing im-
pure, is cleansed by making an ablution, without laying his
burden down." 3 “He who has been bitten by a dog, a
shakal, or an ass, by any carnivorous animal frequenting a
town, by a man, a horse, a camel, or a boar, may be purified
by stopping his breath during one repetition of the gaya-
tri." ¢ After the rules for the purification of living bodies,
follow precepts for the purification of things inanimate.
For each of a great many species, a separate mode is pre-
scribed. Land, for example, is cleansed by sweeping, by
smearing with cowdung, by sprinkling with cows' urine, by
Scraping, or by letting a cow pass a day and a night on it. 5
“The purification ordained for all sorts of liquids, is by
stirring them with cusa grass; for cloths folded, by sprin-
kling with ballowed water; for wooden utensils, by planing
them. The purification by sprinkling is ordained for grain
parcels, such as a man may easily carry, they must be
washed.”.6 These instances, selected merely as a small
specimen of a great whole, will suffice to show what moral
ideas are conveyed and inculcated in the notions of purity.
and impurity comprised in the religion of the Hindus.
· As the purifications, so likewise the penances, prescribed
1 The Hindus, among whom the idea of delicacy, in regard either to plıysical
or moral subjects, appears never to have taken rise, describe these occasions
is a long series of precepts about voiding the excrements (Laws of Menu,
ch. iv. 45 to 52): And for purification afterwards, “Let each man,” says the
law,“ sprinkle the cavities of his body, and taste water in due form, when he
bas discharged urine or feces: First, let him thrice taste water; then twice
let him wipe his mouth, but a woman or servile man may once respectively
let him bathe and taste clarified butter: for him who has been connected
with a woman, bathing is ordained by law." Ibid. 144. In one instance there
is a curious contrariety : it is declared (Ibid. 180), “A woman whose thoughts
have been impure is purified by her monthly discharge." Yet this same pecu-
liarity of the female constitution is a cause of impurity, from which she is
separated by bathing. Ibid. 66.
2 Laws of Menii, ch. y. 134, 135,
3 Ibid. 143.
. 4 Ibid. xi. 200.
5 ibid. v. 124.
6 Ibid. 115, 118.
250
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II, by the various systems of religion, afford a remarkable in-:
CITAP. VI. dication of the qualities really ascribed to the object of
worship. All penance consists in suffering. In the same
degree in which the object of worship is supposed to be
delighted with penance, in the same degree he is delighted
with human suffering; and so far as he delights in suffering,
for its own sake, so får he is a malignant: being: whatever
epithets, in the spirit of flattery, his votaries may confer
upon him. It is natural to a rude and ignorant mind to
regard the object of its worship as malignant. Things
appear great or little by comparison. Amid the incessant:
efforts which are made to ascend another step in adulation,
after all the epithets of greatness and honour are lavished
upon the god; to make his greatness and honour still
higher, by contrast, every epithet of meanness and con-
tempt is heaped by the worshipper upon himself and his
kind. The same is the case with his happiness;. which
will appear the greater, the higher it is raised above that
of other beings; of course, the deeper the misery of other
beings. Hence it is, that the prayers and praises, ad-
dressed to the deity by rude nations, abound with the most
hyperbolical expressions of human misery as well as buman
depravity; that, in the religion of rude minds, pleasure in
general bears a strong mark of reprobation, and the volun-
tary creation of pain is the strongest of all recommenda-
tions to him on whom the issues of life depend. In the
language of the Greeks and Romans, the gods were. envious
of human happiness;t just as the proud and baughty
mind of the earthly despot, the archetype and model
according to which, in certain stages of knowledge, the
idea of the heavenly is regularly formed, likes not that the
happiness of other people should approach to that of him-
self, and reaps a pleasure from their pain, both as enhan-
cing the idea of his own happiness, and lessening the sense
of his misery.” “A sin, involuntarily committed,” says
: 1 Solon asks Croesus why he interrogates him about human happiness-
Kpolre; ETLOTAJEVOV: LUE TO BELOV Tav' cov.plovepov Kal Tapaxwdes.; Herod.
lib. i. cap. xxxii.
· 26'Tis evident we must receive a greater or less satisfaction or uneasiness
from leflecting on our own condition and circumstances, in proportion as they
appear more or less fortunate: or unhappy; in proportion to the degrees of
riches and power, and merit, and reputation, which we think ourselves pos-
sessed of. Now, as we seldom judge of objects from their intrinsic value, but
form our notions of them from a comparison with other objects,-it.follows,
that according as we observe a greater or less share of happiness or misery in
KELIGION OF THE HINDUS..
281-
the sacred text of Menu, “is removed by repeating certain . BOOK II..
texts of the scripture; but a sin committed intentionally, CHAP VI.
by harsh penances of different. sorts."I The following **
account of the reason for performing penances, has the
effect of exposing to religious antipathy. all triose persons
who are affected with a bodily infirmity. “Some evil-
minded persons," says the same sacred volume, "for sins
committed in this life, and some for: bad.actions in a pre-
ceding state, suffer a norbid change in their bodies: a.
stealer of gold from a Brahmen bas whitlows on his nails;
à drinker of spirits, black teeth; the slayer of a Brahmen,
a marasmus; the violator of his preceptor's bed, a de-
formity in the generative organs; a malignant informer;
fetid. ulcers in his nostrils; a false detractor, stinking
breath; a stealer of grain, the clefect of some limb;. a.
mixer of bad wares with good, some redundant member; a.
stealer of dressed grain, dyspepsia; a stealer of holy words,
or an unauthorized reader of the scriptures, dumbness; a.
stealer of clothes, leprosy; a horse-stealer, lameness; the
stealer of a lamp, total blindness; the mischievous extin-
sentient creatures; perpetual illness; an adulterer, windy
swelling in his limbs. Thus, according to the diversity
of actions, are born men despised by the good, stupid,
dumb; blind, deaf, and deformed. Penance, therefore,
must invariably be performed for the sake of expiation,
since they who have not expiated their sins, will again
spring: to birth with disgraceful marks:"5. “Any twice-
born man who has drunk spirit of rice through perverse
delusion of mind, may drink more spirit in flame, and
atone for his offence by severely burning his body; or be
may drink boiling hot, until he die, the urine of a cow; or
pure water, or milk, or clarified butter, or juice expressed
others, we must make an estimate of our own, and feel a consequent pain or
pleasure. The misery of another gives us a more lively idea of our happi-
ness, and his happiness of our misery. The former, therefore, produces
delight; and the latter uneasiness.” HI-ume's Treatise of Human Nature, ii.
174. If this principle have a real existence in human nature; and if the rude
mind invariably fashion the divine mind after itself, the belief, so wonderfully
common, that the Divine being is delighted with the self-inflictec. torment of
bis. worshippers, is sufficiently accounted fur.
. i Institutes of Menu, ch, xi. 46.
• 29 Ibid. 48 - 54.
282
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
.
BOOK II. from cow-dung."I A curious reason is assigned for the
CHAP. VI. heinous guilt assigned to the drinking of intoxicating
liquors by a Brahmen; because, “stupified by drunken-
ness, he might fall on something very impure, or might
even, when intoxicated, pronounce a secret phrase of the
Veda, or might do some other act which ought not to be
done.'2 "If a Brahmen kill by design a cat, or an ich-
neumon, the bird chasha, or a frog, a dog, a lizard, an owl,
or a crow, he must perform the ordinary penance required
for the death of a Sudra ;"3 as if the crime of killing a
man were the same with that of killing a frog. “Should
one of the twice-born eat the food of those persons with
whom he ought never to eat, or food left by a woman, or a
Sudra, or any prohibited flesh, he must drink barley gruel
only for seven days and nights.” “Having taken goods
of little value from the house of another man, he must
procure absolution by performing the penance santapana,
or by eating for a whole day the dung and urine of cows
mixed with curds, milk, clarified butter, and water boiled
with cusa grass, and then fasting entirely for a day and a
night." The penances for venereal sin, and the descrip-
tion of its various species, are unfit to be transcribed.“
Something might be said for penances, if they were attached
solely to moral offences, and proportioned in painfulness
to the motives to offend; because the efficacy of the
punishment which is reserved to a subsequent life is com-.
monly annihilated by remoteness. How much of this
useful character belongs to the penances of the Hindus, a
few passages will disclose. “He, who has officiated at a
sacrifice for outcasts, or burned the corpse of a stranger,
or performed rites to destroy the invocent," (a strange
association of crimes !) “may expiate his guilt by three
prajapatya pedances."7 “A total fast for twelve days and
nights, by a penitent with his organs controlled, and his
mind attentive, is the penance named paraca, which ex-
piates all degrees of guilt.''8 .“He who for a whole month
a. 13 instituibera
1 Institutes of Menu, cl. xi. 91, 92.
2 Ibid. 97..
Ibid. 153.
5 Ibid. 165, 213.
6 Sce the Institutes of Menu, ch. xi. 171 to 179, where every species of sexual
abomination is deliberately specified.
? Institutes of Menu, ch. xi. 198. “When a twice-born man performs the
penance prajapati, he must for three days eat only in the morning, for three
days only in the evening ; for three days food unasked, but presented to him;
and for three more days, nothing." Ibid. 212.
8 Ibid. 210.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
283
eats no more than thrice eighty mouthfuls of wild grains, BOOK II.
as he happens by any means to meet with them, keeping CHAP. VI.
his organs in subjection, shall attain the same abode with
the regent of the moon.”ı “ Sixteen suppressions of the
breath, while the holiest of texts is repeated with the
three mighty words, and the triliteral syllable, continued
each day for a month, absolye even the slayer of a Brahmen
from his hidden faults."26: A priest who should retain in
his memory the whole Rigveda would be absolved from
guilt, even if he had slain the inhabitants of the three
worlds, and had eaten food from the foulest hands." To
such a clegree are fantastic ceremonies exalted above moral
duties; and so easily may the greatest crimes be compen-
sated, by the merit of ritual, and unmeaning services.
But the excess to which religion depraves the moral
sentiments of the Hindus is most remarkably exemplified
in the supreme, the ineffable merit which they ascribe to
the saint who makes penance his trace.
Repairing to a forest, with no other utensils or effects,
than those necessary in making oblations to consecrated
fire: and leaving all property, and all worldly duties be-
hind him, he is there directed to live on pure food, on
certain herbs, roots, and fruit, which he may collect in the
forest, to wear a black antelope's hide, or a vesture of bark,
and to suffer the hairs of his head, his beard, and his nails
to grow continually. He is commanded to entertain those
who may visit his hermitage with such food as himself
may use, to perform the five great sacraments, to be con-
stantly engaged in reading the Veda ; patient of all extre-
mities, universally benevolent, with a mind intent on the
Supreme Being; a perpetual giver, but no receiver of gifts ;
with tender affection for all animated bodies. “Let him
not eat the produce of ploughed land, though abandoned
by any man, nor fruits and roots produced in a town, even
though hunger oppress him.--Either let him break hard
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. xi. 221.
2 Ibid, 214.
3 Ibid. 262.
4 C'est une superstition très dangereuse que le pardon des crimes attaché à
certaines cérémonies....... Vous pensez que Dieu oubliera votre homicide, si
vous vous baignez dans un fleuve, si vous immolez une brebis noire, et si on
prononce sur vous des paroles. Un second homicide vous sera donc pardonné
au même prix, et ainsi un troisième, et cent meurtres ne vous couteront que
cent brebis noires et cent ablutions ! Faites mieux, misérables humains, point
de meurtres, et poiut de brebis noires. Voltaire, Dict. Philos. au mot Super-
stitivil.
284.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA..
BOOK II: fruits with a stone, or let his teeth serve as a péstle.-Let
WITAP. VI. him slide backwards and forwards on the ground; or let
him stand a whole day on tiptoe; or let him continue in
motion rising and sitting alternately, but at sunrise, at
noon, and at sunset, let him go to the waters, and bathe.
In the bot season let him sit exposed to five fires, four
blazing around him with the sun above; in the rains let
him stand uncovered, without even a mantle, where the
clouds pour the heaviest showers; in the cold season, let
him wear humid vesture; and enduring harsher and barsher
mortifications, let him dry up his bodily frame. Let him
live without external fire, without a mansion, wholly silent,
feeding on roots and fruit, sleeping on the bare earth,
dwelling at the roots of trees. From devout Brahmens
let him receive alms to support life, or from other house-
keepers of twice-born classes, who dwell in the forest. Or;
if he has any incurable disease; let him advance in a
straight path, towards the invincible north-eastern point,
feeding on water and air, till his mortal frame totally decay,
and his soul become united with the Supreme."'!
. In conformity with these principles are formed those
professors of mortification and piety, who are known under
the modern name of Fakeers, and presented to Europeans
a spectacle which so greatly surprised them. Of all the
phenomena of human nature, none appears at first view
more extraordinary than the self-inflicted torments of the
holy saints of Hindustan. Some of them keep their hands
closed till they are pierced through by the growth of the
nails. Others hold them above their heads, till the power
of the arms is extinguished. They make vows to remain
in the standing posture for years. Three men were seen
by Fryer, whose vow extended to sixteen years. One of
them had completed his dreadful penance; of the rest,
one had passed five years •in torment, the others, three.
i Institutes of Menn, ch. vi. 3 to 8, and 16 to 32. There is a certain stage in
the progress from extreme barbarity to some degree of intellectual improve-
ment, in which worship by self-inflicted torments seems naturally to suggest
itself. Thus, the priests and people of Mexico come next, perhaps, to the
Hindus, though certainly at a prodigious distance behind them, in the devotion
of pain and suffering. “It makes one shudder" (says Clavigero, book vi.
sect. 22), “ to read the austerities which they exercised on themselves. They
mangled their flesh, as if it had been insensible, and let their blood run in
such profusion, that it appeared" to be a superfluous fluid of the body;" Their
fastings, watchings, and other efforts of abstinence, were pushed to the great-
cst extremities. lbid.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
285
* Their legs were prodigiously swelled, and deeply ulcerated ; BOOK F.
and became at last too weak to support their bodies, wheu CHAP. VI.
they leaned on a pillow suspended from a tree. Others,
turning their heads to gaze at the heaven over their
no longer be restored to its natural position, and no aliment
except in the liquid state, can pass down their throats.
The ceremony, commanded by Menu, “of sitting, in the
hot season, between five fires," cannot be conceived with-
out horror. A yogee, or penitent, actually seen by Fryer,
had resolved to undergo this penance for forty days, at a
18
seated himself on a quadrangular stage he fell prostrate,
and continued fervent in his devotions, till the sun began
to have considerable power. He then rose, and stood on
one leg, gazing stedfastly at the sun, while fires, each large
enough, says the traveller, to roast an ox, were kindled at
the four corners of the stage; the penitent counting his
beads, and occasionally, with his pot of incense, throwing
combustible materials into the fire to increase the flames.
He next bowed himself down in the centre of the four
fires, keeping his eyes still fixed upon the sun. After-
wards, placing himself upright on his head, with his feet
elevated in the air, he stood for the extraordinary space of
three hours, in that inverted position; he then seated
himself with his legs across, and thus remained sustaining
the raging heat of the sun and of the fires till the end of
the day. Other penitents bury themselves up to the neck
in the ground, or even wholly below it, leaving only a
little hole through which they may breathe. They tear
themselves with whips; they repose on beds of iron
spikes ;t they chain themselves for life to the foot of a
tree: the wild imagination of the race appears in short to
have been racked to devise a sufficient variety of fantastic
modes of tormenting themselves. The extent to which
they carry the penance of fasting is almost incredible.
They fix their eyes on the blazing sun till the power of
vision is extinguished. The following description, in the
1 See a curious description in the Asiat. Res. T.:19, of a fakeer, seen at
Benares. by Mr. Duncan, who had used this bed for thirty-five years.
2 See Fryer's Travels, pp. 102, 103.- Sonnerat's Voyage,.i. 121, 1:49,153,:176.
Hamilton's Voyage to the East Indies, i. 274.-Voyage de Tavernier, iv, 118.
286
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. drama entitled Sacontala, how much soever partaking of
CHAP. VI. the hyperbolical character of oriental poetry, conveys a
most remarkable image of the length of time, the patience,
and steadiness, with which the devotees of the forests
must have remained immoveable in their solitary positions.
“You see,” says one of the personages of the drama, “in
that grove a pious Yogee, motionless as a pollard, holding
his thick, bushy hair, and fixing his eyes on the solar orb.
Mark; his body is covered with a white ants' edifice, made
of raised clay; the skin of a snake supplies the place of
his sacerdotal thread, and part of it girds his loins; a
and surrounding birds' nests almost conceal his shoulders.”ı
The same venerable character is thus further described in
the Bhagvat-Geeta; “ The Yogee constantly exerciseth the
spirit in private. He is recluse, of a subdued mind and
spirit; free from hope, and free from perception. He
planteth his own seat firmly on a spot that is undefiled,
Mr. Richardson, in his Arabic and Persian Dictionary, under tlie word Fakcer,
says, “Every invention of perverted ingenuity is exhausted in deforming and
distorting nature." And Mr. Wilkins (Note 113, subjoined to his translation
of the Bhagvat-Geeta) says, "The word zeal, in the yulgar acceptation, signi-
fies the voluntary infliction of pain, the modes of doing which, as practised
to this day by the zealots of India, are as various as they are horrible and
astonishing." Pernier, who describes most of the penances alluded to in the
text, mentions their standing on their hands, with the liead down and the feet
up: “D'autres qui se tenoient les heures entières sur leurs mains sans branler,
la tête en bas et les pieds en haut, et ainsi de je ne sçai combien d'autres sortes
de postures tellement contraintes et tellement difficiles, que nous n'avons de
Dâteleurs qui les pussent imiter; et tout cela, ce sèmble, par dévotion comine
j'ai dit, et par motif de religion, où on n'en sçauroit seulement découvrir
l'ombre." Lettre des Gentils de l'Hindoustan, p. 153, 154.
medan travellers, wliose voyages are described by Renaudlot, says of these
reclusos, " They for the most part stand inotionless as statues, with their faces
always turned to the sun. I formerly saw one in the posture here described,
and returning to India about sixteen years afterwards, I found him in the very
saine attitude, and was astonished he had not lost his eyesight by the intense
heat of the sun." Renaudot's ancient Account of India and China, p.32.
Bernier describes them thus: “On en voit quantité de tout nuds assis out
couchés les jours et les nuits sur les cendres, et assez ordinairement dessous
quelques uns de ces grands arbres, qui sont sur les bords des Talabs où réser-
voirs, ou bien dans des galeries qui sont autour de leur Deuras ou temples
d'idoles...... Il n'y a Megère d'enfer si horrible à voir que ces gens-là tout
nuds avec leur peau noire, ces grands cheveux, ces fuseaux des bras dans la
posture que j'ai dit, et ces longues ongles entortillés." Lettres des Gentils de
l'Hindoustan, p. 151. Orme accounts in part, at least, and that very satisfac-
torily, for these astonishing efforts of paticnce and self-denial. “The many
temporal advantages which the Brahmens derive from their spiritual authority,
and the impossibility of being admitted into their tribe, have perhaps given
rise to that number of Joguces and Facquires, who torture themselves with
such various and astonishing penances, only to gain the same veneration which
a Brahmen derives from his birth.” Orme's Hist. Dlilit. Trans. Indostan, i.4.
m itted into their triben piritual authority.
to that number of Jom
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
287
neither too nigh, nor too low, and sitteth upon the sacred BOOK II.
grass which is called coos, covered with a skin and a cloth. CHAP. VI.
There he, whose business is the restraint of his passions,
should sit, with his mind fixed on one object alone, in the
exercise of his devotion for the purification of his soul,
keeping his head, his neck, and his body, steady, without
motion, his eyes fixed on the point of his nose, looking at
no other place around. The man who keepeth the out-
ward accidents from entering his mind, and his eyes fixed
in contemplation between his brows; who maketh the
breath to pass through both his nostrils alike in expiration
and inspiration, who is of subdued faculties, mind, and
understanding; the Yogee, who thus constantly exerciseth
his soul, obtaineth happiness incorporeal and supreme."1
This pure state of meditation, which obtains the name of
devotion, is even more exalted than that of penance. “The
Yogee,” says Crishna, “is more exalted than Tapaswees,
those votaries who afflict themselves in performing penance,
respected above the learned in science, and” (which is
worthy of peculiar regard,) “superior to those who are
attached to moral works."2 6 Be thou at all times," says
this supreme god to Arjoon in another place, “employed
in devotion. The fruit of this surpasseth all the rewards
of virtue pointed out in the Vedas, in worshippings, in
mortifications, and even in the gifts of charity.”3
It is abundantly ascertained that the Hindus at one
time, and that a time comparatively recent, 4 were marked
with the barbarity of human sacrifices. It even appears
1
i Bhagvat-Geeta, p. 60, 63.
2 Ibid. p. 67.
3 Ibid. p. 76.-M.
Some confusion appears here between the Ascctic, whose penance is only
passive, and he whose penance is active. The Yogi merely suffers the priva-
tions incident to intensity of abstraction. The Tapaswi inflicts upon himself
bodily inconveniences and sufferings, practices discouraged by Danu and the
Gita.-W. .
It is agreed among the Sanscrit scholars that the Puranas are modern,
compared with the Vedas and other ancient monuments of the Hindus. Mr.
Colebrooke is of opinion that the worship of heroes is altogether unknown to
the author of the Vedas; though it was evidently part of the popular belief at
the time the Puranas were composed. A sacrifice, therefore, onjoined in the
Puranas, must have prevailed at a pretty late period.
5 See a translation of what is denominated “The Sanguinary chapter" of
the Calica Purana, by Mr. Blaquiere, Asiat. Res. V. 371, and Wilkins's Heto-
.padesa, note 249, and p. 211. In the Bhawishya Purana, it is declared that the
head of a slaughtered man gives Durga a thousand times more satisfaction
than that of a buffalo. This sacrifice, however, is forbidden in the Brahma
and the Bhagawat Puranas. Asiat. Res. iii. p. 260.11.
The Calica and Bhavishya Puranas are not included in the lists of the
288
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. that the remainder of that devotional service is now iş
CHAP. VI. existence. When it is proposed to resist, as exorbitant,
the demands of government, the Brahmens erect what.
they denominate: a koor, which is a circular pile of wood.
with a cow, or an old woman on the top of it. If urged to
extremity they set fire to the pile, and consume the victim,
a sacrifice by which they are understood to involve their
oppressor in the deepest guilt. The British Government
has interfered to prevent the sacrifice of children by
throwing them to the sharks in the Ganges,
Though the progress of improvement has brought into
comparative disuse the mode of seeking divine favour by
the sacrifice of a fellow-creature, horrid rites, which have
too near an affinity with it, are still the objects of the
highest veneration. It is one of the grandest achieve-
ments of piety, for individuals to sacrifice themselves in
honour of the gods. There are solemn festivals, in which
the images of certain deities are carried in procession in
vast ponderous machines denominated raths, or chariots,
drawn by a multitude of devotees and priests; when it is
customary for numbers of the congregated people3 to throw
themselves under the wheels, and even fathers and mothers
with their children in their arms. The chariot passes on,
as if no impediment existed, and crushing them to death,
is supposed to convey them immediately to heaven. The
Puranas which are given in authentic works, and are sectarial compilations
belonging to the Sakta form of worship-a form not hinted at, it is believed, in
the Vedas--and taught in works alone which are undoubtedly of comparatively
recent origin. These sanguinary rites seem to have been borrowed from the
practices of the wild tribes bordering upon India, amongst whom human sacri-
fices are described by Hindu writers of the middle ages, and have been recently
known to have been attempted.-1.
1 An instance of this, in which an old woman was the victim, was attempted
at Benares, so late as the year 1788. See the account by Lord Teignmouth,
Asiat. Res. v. 333.
2 Papers relating to East India affairs, ordered by the House of Commons to
be printed, June 3, 1913, p. 127.
3 It is no little cxaggeration to say that, “ numbers of the congregated people
throw themselves under the chariot wlieels." Mr. Stirling, who was resident
in Orissa for four years, mentions, that during that period there were no more
than three such immolations; and of them one l'as possibly unintentional,
whilst the other two were cases of painful and inclirable disease. But this
practice is modern. Jagannath himself is modern, and has no place even in
The Vaishnara Puranas. It is not improbable that the present shrine attainer?
reputation as a place of pilgrimage no longer ago than a century.-W.
4 A distinct description of this liuman sacrifice, performed at the feast of
'Juggernaut, is to be found in the voyage (i. 121) of Sonnerat, who was an eye.
witness. It is also described by that faithful traveller Bernier, Lettre sur les
Gentils de l'Elindoustan, p. 128. It attracted, in a peculiar degree, the atten-
tion of the Rev. Dr. Buchanan : see his work, entitled Christian Researches in
Asia. The missionaries have given us several descriptions, published in the
Transactions of tlie Missionary Societies.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
practice of sacrificing themselves in the flames is a noted BOOK II.
ceremony of the Hindus. It is sometimes executed with CHAP. VI.
circumstances of studied atrocity; the victim striking
himself in front with his sabre, so as to lay open his
bowels to the spectators, tearing out part of his liver,
cutting it off with his sabre, giving it to a relation or
bystander, conversing all the time with indifference appa-
rently complete, then with unchanged countenance leaping
into the flames, and expiring without a movement. In
some parts of India a Brahmen devotes himself to death,
by eating till he expires with the surfeit.? On great
solemnities, the votaries strike off their own heads, as a
sacrifice to the Ganges, and many crown themselves in
the hallowed streams. Of the modes adopted by the
Hindus of sacrificing themselves to the divine powers,
none, however, has more excited the attention of Euro-
peans, than the burning of the wives on the funeral piles
of their husbands. To this cruel sacrifice the highest
virtues are ascribed. “The wife who commits herself to
the flames with her husband's corpse, shall equal Arund-
hati, and reside in Swarga; accompanying her husband,
she shall reside so long in Swarga, as are the thirty-five
1 Such was the instance witnessed by one of the Arabian travellers of Re-
naudot. See Ancient Relations, p. 80.--M.
Mr. Mill is not scrupulous in his choice of authorities, when they serve his
purpose, nor slow to believe what is incredible, when it is to the disadvantage
of the Hindus. The Arabian travellers are witnesses whose evidence is to be
received with caution, on all occasions; and it is not being very sceptical to
as souvenirs to his friends. In the instances that follow, he quotes from equally
questionable authorities, and when he says, “tliat inany drown themselves in
hallowed streams," he improves upon his original, who only mentions that
"some" annually drown themselves, at the confluence of the Juna and
Ganges. All these practices are prohibited by the Hindu law, except in the
case of incurable disease, and then self-immolation is allowablc only at Prayaga.
Even penance, which endangers life, is prohibited. Nirnaya Sindhi..-V.
2 Orme, on the Government and People of Indostan, p. 434.
See Richardson's Dictionary, at the word Fakeer.
4 The place where the Jumna and the Ganges meet, is a spot of peculiar
sanctity. “Some of the victims of superstition," says Dr. Tennant, "annually
drown theinselves at the junction of the streams; and this being the most
acceptable of all offerings, it is performed with much solemnity. The rapidity
by the god of the river. To secure the good inclination of the deity, they carry
out the devoted person to the iniddle of the stream, after having fastened pots
of earth to his feet. The surrounding multitude on the banks are devoutly
contemplating the ceremony, and applauding the constancy of the victim, who,
auimated by their admiration, and the strength of his own faith, kecps a steady
and resolute countenance till he arrives at the spot; when he springs from the
boat, and is instantly swallowed up, anidst universal acclamations." Indian
Recreations, ii. 250.
VOL. I.
290
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. millions of hairs on the human body. As the snake-
CHAP. VI. catcher forcibly drags the serpent from his earth, so, bear-
ing her husband from hell, with him she shall enjoy the
delights of heaven, while fourteen Indras reign. If her
husband had killed a Brahmana, broken the ties of grati-
tude, or murdered his friend, she expiates the crime."?
Though a widow has the alternative of leading a life of
chastity, of piety, and mortification, denied to the plea-
sures of dress, never sleeping on a bed, never exceeding
one meal a day, nor eating any other than simple food, it
is held her duty to burn herself along with her husband;
and “the Hindu legislators," says Mr. Colebrooke, “ have
shown themselves disposed to encourage” this barbarous
sacrifice.3
Such are the acts, by which, according to the Hindu re-
ligion, the favour of the Almighty power is chiefly to be
gained; such are the ideas respecting purity and merit,
which it is calculated to inspire. Yet, if any one concludes
that the Hindus were unacquainted with the ordinary pre-
cepts of morality, he will be greatly deceived. “By Brah-
mens," says the law of Menu,"placed in the four orders, a
ten-fold system of duties must ever be sedulously prac-
tised; Content; returning good for evil; resistance to
sensual appetites; abstinence from illicit gain; purifica-
tion; coercion of the organs; knowledge of the scripture.
1 The Brahmens are always andacious enough to form a peremptory opinion.
We have seen, before, that they never hesitated to assign a fixed number to the
veins and arteries of the luman body, though they are totally unacquainted with
Clissection. They here assign, with perfect confidence, a determinate nunber to
the hairs on the human body.
2 Sanscrit text, quoted by Mr. Colebrooke, in his discourse on the duties of a
faithful Hindu wife, Asiat. Res. iv. 208. The custom of burning wives on the
funeral piles of their husbands, was common to the Hindus with the Northern
zations. See Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, ad verb, Bayle Fire.--The prin-
cipal among the wives of a Scandinavian chief accompanied him to the funeral
"pile. Mallet. Introd. Hist. Denmark, vol. i. c. 13.--The Scandinavians did not
scruple to expose their children. Ibid.-Robertson, who informs us that the
wives of the chiefs of the Natchez, an American tribe, were burnt along with
them at their death, says that the custom arose from the excessive veneration
in which they were held, as brothers of the sun, and representatives of the
deity; and that from this impulse, the wires, as well as the domestics, who
:shared the same fate, welcomed death with exultation. Hist. of America,
ii. 130.
3 Asiat. Res. iy. 210. See the whole of that discourse, where a number of
authorities are collected. The circumstances of the transaction can be so easily
conceived, that, horrid as they are, I have not thought proper to describe them.
The prayers and ceremonies are exactly of the usual character. See an account
by Bernier, of several cases of which he was an eye-witness (Lettre sur les Gen-
tils de l'Hindoustan, p. 131); and a variety of cases in the works of the Missionaries
Ward and Dubois.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS,
291
knowledge of the supreme spirit; veracity; and freedom BOOK IL
from wrath.”1 In this enumeration of duties, though a CHAP. VI.
large proportion is allowed to acts purely ceremonial and
useless: get some of the noblest virtues are included.
Action," says the same sacred code, “is either mental,
verbal, or corporeal. Devising means to appropriate the
wealth of other men, resolving on any forbidden deed, and
conceiving notions of atheism, or materialism, are the
three bad acts of the mind: scurrilous language, falsehood,
indiscriminate backbiting, and useless tattle, are the four
bad acts of the tongue: Taking effects not given, hurting
sentient creatures without the sanction of the law, and
criminal intercourse with the wife of another, are three
bad acts of the body; and all the ten have their opposites,
which are good in an equal degree... Though there is some-
thing extremely whimsical in the consequence ascribed to
the following acts of injustice, yet they are with great pro-
priety forbidden: “He who appropriates to his own use,
the carriage, the bed, the seat, the well, the garden, or the
house of another man, who has not delivered them to him,
assumes à fourth part of the guilt of their owner.”3 The
following observations are in a pure and elevated strain of
morality: “Even here below an unjust man attains no feli-
city; nor he whose wealth proceeds from giving false evi-
dence; nor he, who constantly takes delights in mischief.
Though oppressed by penury, in consequence of his righ-
teous dealings, let him never give his mind to unrighteous-
ness; for he may observe the speedy overthrow of
iniquitous and sinful men. Iniquity, committed in this
world, produces not fruit immediately, but, like the earth,
in due season; and advancing little by little, it eradicates
the man who committed it. Yes; iniquity, once commit-
ted, fails not of producing fruit to him who wrought it.
He grows rich for a while through unrighteousness; then
he beholds good things; then it is that he vanquishes his
foes; but he perishes at length from his whole root up-
wards. Let a man continually take pleasure in truth, in
justice, in laudable practices, and in purity: let him chas-
tise those, whom he may chastise, in a legal mode; let him
keep in subjection his speech, his arm, and his appetite:
1. Institutes of Menu, ch. vi. 91, 92,
2 Ibid. ch. xii. 3, 5, 6, 7.
: 3 nic..ch. iv...202.
292
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. wealth and pleasures, repugnant to law, let him shun; and
CHAP. VI. even lawful acts, which may cause future pain, or be offen-
sive to mankind.”ı
Sir William Jones, whom it is useful to quote, because
his authority may have influence with those whose opinions
I am constrained to controvert, observes, that "the prin-
ciples of morality are few, luminous, and ready to present
themselves on every occasion." Descanting on the rude-
ness and ignorance of the Scythian nations; "of any
philosophy,” he says, “except natural ethics, which the
rudest society requires, and experience teaches, we find no
more vestiges in Asiatic Scythia, than in ancient Arabia.':3
He was not surprised to find natural ethics, where not a
vestige of philosophy was found; because “natural ethics,"
are what “the rudest society requires and experience teaches."
If we search a little further, we shall discover that nations
and of its obligations (the rules of morality have been
taught in all nations in a manner remarkably similar), than
in the degrees of steadiness, with which they assign the
preference to moral, above other acts. Among rude nations
it has almost always been found, that religion has served to
degrade morality, by advancing to the place of greatest
honour, those external performances, or those mental. er-
ercises, which more immediately regarded the deity; and
with which, of course, he was supposed to be more pecu-
liarly delighted. On no occasion, indeed, has religion
obliterated the impressions of morality, of which the rules
are the fundamental laws of human society: morality has
has it been celebrated in more pompous strains, than in
places where the most contemptible, or the most abomi-
nable rites, have most effectually been allowed to usurp its
honours. It is not so much, therefore, by the mere words
1 Institutes of Memu, ch.iv. 170 to 177.
2 Discourse on the Philosophy of the Asiatics. Asiat. Res. iv. 166.
3 Discourse on the Tartars. Asiat. Res. ii. 33.
4 Few states of society are more low and degraded than that of the Mussul-
les principaux chefs de la religion, nommés cn Egypte cheiks de la loi, l'astuce
commune à tous les prêtrcs, qui, pour micux dominer, cherchent à s'emparer
de l'esprit des hommes. Leur conversation est remplic de belles sentences
morales, et de grandes images poétiques qu'ils pillent dans les livres Arabes,
c'est tout leur savoir ; on ne doit pas chercher en eux d'autres connoissances
sur la politique, les scicnces, &c. ; ils n'en soupçonnent pas plus l'existence que
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
293
in which morality is mentioned, that we are to judge of BOOK IL.
the mental perfections of different nations, as by the place CHAP. VL
which it clearly holds in the established scale of meritorious
acts. In a moment of hyperbolical praise, it may even
receive a verbal preference to ceremonies; as in one pas-
sage of the Institutes of Menu: “A wise man should con-
stantly discharge all the moral duties, though he perform
not constantly the ceremonies of religion; since he falls
low, if, while he performs ceremonial acts only, he discharge
not his moral duties."1 Yet in the entire system of rules
concerning duty, the stress which is laid upon moral acts,
may, as we see in the case of the Hindus, bear no com-
parison to the importance which is attached to useless or
pernicious ceremonies. Such a maxim as that which has
just been quoted, can be regarded as but of little value,
when it is surrounded by numerous maxims of the fol-
lowing tendency; "Not a mortal exists more sinful than
he, who, without an oblation to the manes or gods, desires
to enlarge his own flesh with the flesh of another creature."2
“From the three Vedas, the lord of .creatures, incomprehen-
sibly exalted, successively milked out the three measures
of that ineffable text beginning with the word tad and
entitled, savitri, or gayatri; whoever shall repeat, day by
day, for three years, without negligence, that sacred text
l'utilité.” (De l'Egypte par le Gén. Reynier, p. 63.) Voltaire remarks, with
that felicity with which he sometimes touches an important truth; " La religion
de ce Siamois nous prouve que jamais législateur n'enseignapune mauvaise
morale. Voyez, lecteur, que celle de Bruna, de Zoroastre, de Numa, de Thaut,
de Pythagore, de Mahomet, et même du poisson Oannos, est absolument la
mệine. J'ai dit souvent qu'on jeterait des pierres à un homme qui viendrait
prêcher une morale relâchée." Dictionnaire Philosophique, an mot SAMMO-
NOCODON.
Garcilasso de la Vega gives us a list of the moral sayings of a celebrated
Inca of ancient Peru, named Pachacatec, of which the following are a spe-
cimen :
“Better is it, that thou shouldst be envied by others for being good, than that
thou shouldst envy others because thou art bad.
" Envy is a cancer, which cats and gnaws into the bowels of the envious. ..
“Drunkenness, anger, and folly, are equally mischievous; differing only in
this, that the two first are transient and mutable, but the third permanent and
continuing.
"Adulterers, who take away the good reputation and honesty of another
family, are disturbers of the common peace and quiet, and are as båd as thieves
and robbers, and therefore tu be condemned to the gallows without mercy.
" A truly noble and courageous spirit is best tried by that patience which he
shows in the times of adversity.
" Impatience is the character of a poor and degenerate spirit, and of one that
is ill-taught and educated." Royal Commentaries, book IV. ch. Xxxvi.
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. iy. 204.
2 Ib. v. 52.
294
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. shall hereafter approach the divine essence, move as freely
CHAP. VI. as air, and assume an ethereal form.” “Studying and
comprehending the Veda, practising pious austerities, ac-
quiring divine knowledge, command over the organs of
sense and action, avoiding all injury to sentient creatures,
and showing reverence to a natural and spiritual father,
are the chief branches of duty which ensure final happi-
ness.”2 “Even three suppressions of breath made according:
to the divine rule, accompanied with the triverbal phrase,
and the triliteral syllable, may be considered as the highest
devotion of a Brahmen; for as the dross and impurities of
metallic ores are consumed by fire, thus are the sinful acts
of the human organs consumed by suppressions of the
breath."3 If we examine that highest degree of merit
to which the imagination of the Hindu can ascend, that of
the Sanyassi, or professor of austere devotion, we shall
find it to consist in an absolute renunciation of all moral
duties, and moral affections. "Exemption from attach-
ments, and affection for children, wife, and home;"'4 nay,
“the abandonment of all earthly attachments,"s form a
necessary part of that perfection after which he aspires. i
It is by no means unnatural for the religion of a rude
people to unite opposite qualities, to preach the most
harsh austerities, and at the same time to encourage the
loosest morality. It may be matter of controversy to what.
degree the indecent objects employed in the Hindu wor-
subjects to the eyes of its yotaries the grossest images of
sensual pleasure, and renders even the emblems of gene-
ration objects of worship; which ascribes to the supreme
God an immense train of obscene acts; which has them
engrayed on the sacred cars, portrayed in the temples, and
presented to the people as objects of adoration, which pays.
worship to the Yoni, and the Lingam, cannot be regarded
as favourable to chastity. Nor can it be supposed, when
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. ii. 77, 82. 2 Ibid. xii. 83. 3 Ibid. vi. 70, 71;
4 Bhagvat-Geeta, p. 102.
5 Institutes of Menu, ch. vi. 81.
· 6 See a fanciful account of the origin of this worship by Mr. Paterson, Asiat.
Res. viii. 54. His escription of the moral effects of this superstition is more
to our purpose: "It is probable," says he," that the idea of obscenity was not
originally attached to these symbols; und, it is likely, that the inventors them.
selves might not have foreseen the disorders which this worship would occasion
amongst mankind. Profligacy eagerly embraces what flatters its propensities,
and ignorance follows blindly wherever example excites: it is therefore ng
RELIGION OF THE HINDUSTT
· 295
.
to all these circumstances is added the institution of & BOOK II.
number of girls, attached to the temples, whose business CHAP. VI.
is dancing and prostitution, that this is a virtue encou-
raged by the religion of the Hindus.
proportion as the distance of time involved the original meaning of the symbol
in darkness and oblivion. Obscene mirth became the principal feature of the
popular superstition, and was, even in after-times, extended to, and intermingled
with, gloomy rites and bloody sacrifices. An heterogeneous mixture which
appears totally irreconcileable, unless by tracing the steps which led to it. It
will appear that the ingrafting of a new symbol upon the old superstition, occa-
sioned this strange medley. The sect of Vishnu was not wholly free from the
propensity of the times to obscene rites; it had been united in interest with that
of Siva, in their league against the sect of Brahma, as was expressed by an
image, called Har-Heri, half Siva, and half Vislinu. This union seems to have
· erected into an object of worship, introduced a revolution in religion, whiclı
had a violentand extended effect upon the manners and opinions of mankind. It
: was then that a gloomy superstition arose, which spread with baneful rapidity
amongst mankind; which degraded the Deity into an implacable tyrant';
which filled its votaries with imaginary terrors; which prescribed dreadful rites;
and exacted penances, mortifications, and expiatory sacrifices." (Ibid. p. 55.)
See also a picture of these religious immoralities, by Bernier, Lettre sur les
Gentils, pp. 129, 130. But the writer, wlio, above all otliers, has furnished
superabundant evidence of the immoral influence of the Hindu religion, and
the deep depravity which it is calculated to produce, is Mr. Ward, in his “ View
of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos." From the facts which
he records in great detail, the following are the results: “The characters of
the gods, and the licentiousness which prevails at their festivals, and abounds
in their popular works, with the enervating nature of the climate, have made
the Hindoos the most effeminate and corrupt people on earth. I have, in
the course of this work, exhibited so many proofs of this fact, that I will not again
disgust the reader by going into the subject. Suffice it to say, that fidelity to
marriage vows is almost unknown among the Hindoos; the intercourse of the
to know the Hindoo idolatry as it is, a person must wade through the filth of the
thirty-six pooranus, and other popular books-he must read and hear the
modern popular poems and songs-he must follow the Brahmen through his
midnight orgies, before the image of Kulee, and other goddesses; or he must
accompany him to the nightly revels, the jatras, and listen to the filthy dialogues
which are rehearsed respecting Krishnu and the daughters of the milkmen; or
he must watch him, at midnight, choking with the mud and waters of the
Ganges a wealthy relation, while in the delirium of fever; or, at the same hour,
while murdering an unfaithful wife, or a supposed domestic enemy; or lie must
look at the Brahmen hurrying the trembling hall-dead widow round the funeral
pile, and throwing her like a log of wood by the side of the dead body of her
husband, tying lier, and then holding her down with bamboo levers, till the fire
has deprived her of the power of rising and running away. . . . . . This
perfections, supplies no one motive to holiness while living, 110 comfort to the
atricted, 110 hope to the dying ; but, on the contrary, excites to eyery vice, and
hardens its followers in the most flagrant crimes." (Introductory Remarka
pp. 94, 95.)
INotwithstanding this inference and the exaggerated pictures quoted from
Mr. Ward, it may be confidently asserted that the Hindu women are most
exemplary in their conduct in this respect. Even in large towns, the profligacy
bears no comparison with that of London and Paris; and in the country, want
of conjugal virtue is alinost unknown. The form under which the Lingam is
worshipped, that of a column, suggests no impure ideas, and few of the unedu-
cated Hindus attach any other idea to it, than that it is Siva ; they are not aware
of its typical character Dancing girls are not known in Hindustan ; they are
.confined to the temples of the south, and are not so bad or so numerous as the
figurantes in European theatres. The cars, with the indecencies upon them,
296
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Another contrast to the tortures and death which the
CHAP. VI. religion of the Hindus exhorts them to inflict upon them-
selves, is the sacredness which it imprints upon the life of
animals. Not only are the Hindus prohibited the use of
animal food, except at certain peculiar sacrifices ; even the
offerings to the gods consist almost entirely of inanimate
objects; and to deprive any sensitive creature of life, is a
heinous transgression of religious duty. Many of the in-
ferior creatures, both animate and inanimate, are the ob-
jects of religious veneration; such, in particular, are the
cow, the lotos, and cusa grass. Nor, in this enumeration,
must the dung and urine of the cow be forgotten ; things
so holy as to be of peculiar efficacy in the ceremonies of
purification. To whatever origin we may ascribe this
strange application of the religious principle, it has at
least been very widely diffused. It is known that many
negro tribes worship animals and reptiles ; and that they
carry the solicitude for their preservation to a still more
extravagant pitch than even the Hindus ; punishing with
death those who hurt them even casually. The sacred
character in Egypt of the ox, and of many other animals,
is too familiarly known to require any proof. The cow was
oracular, and sacred among the Ammonians. Not only
cows, but horses, eagles, lions, bears, were divine animals
among the Syrians.3 The Egyptian priests respected as
sacred the life of all animals, and animal food seems to
have been interdicted not less in Egypt than in Hin-
dustan. At an early period, the Greeks, and even the
Romans, punished with death the killing of an ox. The
are almost restricted to Bengal and Orissa, and the temples in Hindustan are
quite free from the gross representations which disgrace some of those in the
south. It is not just, therefore, to accuse the Hindu religion of employing in its
worship objects that imply depravity of manners. They are not necessarily or
primitively comprised in its ceremonial; they have no warrant, either in the
Vedas, or the Puranas, they are not to be traced in writings of an early date,
they belong to a part of the prevailing system, which las spring out of, rather
than given rise to, depravity of ideas in some, not in all parts of India: and, there
is every reason to believe, they are as foreign to genuine Hinduism, as to any
other religion.- .
I Eilwards' Hist, of the West Indies, ii. 77. 4to. Ed.
2 Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, i. 323.
3 Lucian, De Syria Dea.
4 The priests of Egypt, says Herodotus, account it unholy to kill any thing
which has life, saving what they use in sacrifice; Herod. Hist. lib. i. cap. 140:
and Porphyry informis us that it was not till a late period of their history that
animal sàcrifices were introduced. De Abstin. lib. ii, et iv.
5 Ab hoc antiqui manus ita abstinere voluerunt, ut capite sarxerint, si quis
occidisset. Varro. De Re Rustiça, lib. i. cap. 5.
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
297
worship of this species of quadrupeds appears indeed to BOOK II.
have been common to all the idolatrous nations from CHAP. VI.
Japan to Scandinavia.' That, in India, it was a worship
directed to no moral end, is evident upon the slightest
inspection. To renounce the benefits which the inferior
animals are fitted by nature to render to man, is not hu-
manity, any more than swinging before an idol, by an iron
hook, forced through the muscles of the back, is the virtue
of self-command. And that this superstition took not its
rise from a sensibility to the feelings of animated crea-
tures, is evident from the barbarous character of several of
the nations where it prevails; from the proverbial cruelty
suffered by the labouring animals of Hindustan ; and from
the apathy with which human beings are left to expire by
hunger and disease while reptiles are zealously tended and
fed.*
1 See the satisfactory proofs adduced in the very learned and instruc-
tive, though erroneous work, of Dupuis, Origine de tous les Cultes. liv. iii.
ch. viii.
2 The worship of the cow by the Hindus is a popular error. It is held in
respect for its own merits, and the bull is reverenced as the vehicle of Siva,
but the latter reason is modern and sectarial. There is no trace of any form
of worship for the cow in the primitive system.-W.
3 Neither the one nor the other belong to the Hindu religion originally.
The Hindus were not prohibited from eating flesh-even the flesh of the
CONY.
The Vedas which enshrine our holy law,
Direct the householder shall offer those
Who in the law are skilled the honied meal,
And with it fiesh of ox, or calf, or goat.-See Hin. Th., i. 340.
The long note that presently follows is a series of mistakes. The practices of
hospitals for insects and the like are not Hindu, they are Jain. The cruel treat-
ment of beasts of burden or draught, by bullock or carriage drivers, is no more
an illustration of national character, than the necessity of a "society for pre-
venting cruelty to animals” in England, is indicative of general brutality
amongst ourselves.-W.
4“ Although the killing an animal of this" (the ox) "kind is by all Hindus
considered as a kind of murder, I know no creature whose sufferings equal
those of the labouring cattle of Hindustan." (Buchanan, Journey, &c. i. 167.)
See also Ward on the Hindus, Introd. p. xliii. An hospital for the sick poor,
sayy Dr. Tennant, was never known in India, before the cstablishment of the
British ; though there were for dogs, cats, &c. (Indian Recreations, i. 73.)
The authors of the Universal History inforın us gravely, on the authority of
Ovington, that the Hindus have a care for the preservation of feas, bugs, and
other vermin, which suck the blood of man: for in an hospital near Surat,
built for their reception, a poor man is hired now and then to rest all night
upon the kot or bed where the vermin are put; and, lest their stinging should
force him to take his flight before morning, he is tied down to the place, and
there lies for them to glut themselves with human gore." (Modern Univ. Elist.
vi. 262.) Anqueti] Duperron, who describes a temple near Surat, full of those
sacred animals, adds : “ La vue de l'hôpital des animaux, entretenu par des
êtres raisonnables avec tout l'ordre, le soin, le zèle même que l'on pourroit
exiger d'eux, s'il étoit question de leur semblable, et cela même dans un pays,
où il n'y a d'établissemens publics, ni pour les malades, ni pour les vieillards;
la vue d'un pareil hôpital auroit de quoi étonner, si l'on ne sçavoit pas que la
298
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Religion consists of two great doctrines ; that concern-
CHAP. VI. ing the nature and service of God; and that concerning
the nature and destination of the human soul. In the
nature se plaît aux disparates en Asic comme en Europe. (Voyages aux
Indes Orient. ; Disc. Prelim. Zendavesta, i. ccclxii.) “The Gentoos, througla
they will not kill their meat, make no conscience to work them to death, allow-
ing them hardly. food to keep them alive. Neither are they less inhuman
towards their sick, a woman being brought to die among the tombs in my
sight." Fryer's Travels, ch. v. sect 3. See to the same purpose, the Abbé
Dubois, p. 132; Ward on the Hindoos, Introd. p. ly. It is worth observing.
that Milton, the universality of whose knowledge is not the least remarkable
particular of his wonderful mind, was acquainted with the disgusting super-
stition of letting the vermin devour the man: “ Like the vermin," says he,
“ of an Indian Catharist, which his fond religion forbids him to molest." Te-
trachordon, Milton's Prose Works, ü. 122, 8vo. Edit. Tenderness to animals.
was a part of the religion of Zoroaster. We are informed in the Sadda, that he
obtained from God a view of the regions of infernal torment, where he sawia.
number of kings, and among the rest one without a foot. He begged to know
the reason, and God said to him ; “ That wicked king never performed but
one good action in his life. He saw, as he was going to the chase, à drome-
dary tied at too great a distance from its provender, endeavouring to eat, but
unable to reach it: he pushed the provender towards it with his foot. I have
placed that foot in lieaven; all the rest of him is liere." Voltaire, Essai sur
les Mæus et l'Esprit de Nations, ch. v. The following, Porphyry tell us (De
Abstin. lib. iv. p. 431), were laws of Triptolemus: 1. To honour our parents ;
2. To offer nothing to the gods but the fruits of the earth; 3. Never to hurt
animals. “The inhabitants of Miniana," (a place not far from Sego, in the.
heart of Africa) “ eat their enemies, and strangers, if they die in tlie country.
They eat the flesh of horses. But such is their veneration for the cow, that she
is never killed." Park's last Mission to Africa, p. 166.
Mr. Richardson (see his Dissertation on Eastern Manners, p. 16) denies the
authenticity of the fraginents of the Zendavesta collected by Anquetil Duperron,
on account of" the uncommon stupidity," as he is pleased to express it," of
the work itself." Yet it is in a strain remarkably resembling that of the
Vedas; the same sublime praises bestowed upon the Divinity ; superstitions
equally gross; discourses equally childish. We must not, however, on this
account question the authenticity of the Vedas and the Puranas, though we:
must renounce the vulgar belief of the great wisdom of the Brahmens. In:
truth, the stupidity, as Mr. Richardson calls it, of the Zendaresta, and its re-
markable similarity to the sacred books of the Hindus, is the most striking
proof of its authenticity. There is the strongest reason to conclude that the
ancient Magi, and the ancient Brahmens, were people very much upon a level;
and that the fame of Zoroaster for wisdom is no better founded than that of the
Indian sages. There is a radical difference, he says, between the language of
the Zendavesta, and the modern Persian. (Ibid.) But the same is the case
with the Sanscrit, which Sir Willian Jones thinks, from this circumstance,
can never have been vernacular in Hindustan. (See Disc. on the Hindus,
Asiat. Researches, i. 422.) The language, he says, of the Zendavesta has many
words, which a modern Persian could not pronounce, but there are many
words in the German language which an Englishman or Frenchman cannot
pronounce, though the German is the basis of the languages of both. The
Zendavesta, he says, contains Arabic Words; but it contains Arabic only as:
the Greek contains Sanscrit. In fact, the identities which can be traced in all
languages is one of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of speech.
Of the Vedas, a man who had unrivalled opportunities of information informs
us, " They contain nothing important or rational. In fact, they have nothing
but their antiquity to recommend them. As to any thing further, they include
all the absurdities of Hindu paganisın, not only such as it has originally been,
but also the pitiful details of fables which are at present current in the country,
relating to the fantastical austerities of the Hindu hermits, to the metamon-
phoses of Vishnu, or the abominations of the lingam. The fourth of them,
called Atharyana-veda, is the most dangerous of all for a people so entirely
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
299)
complicated superstition of the Hindus, the first presented BOOK II.
..many questions which it needed a considerable accumu- CHAP. VI.
lation of evidence to solve. Of the latter a just idea maysia
be speedily conveyed.
• It is well known that the metem psychosis, or the trans-
migration of the soul into various orders of being, reviving
in one form, when it ceases to exist in another, is the
tenet of the Hindus. This is a theory well calculated to
present itself to the mind of the rude inquirer, when first
excited to stretch his views beyond the present term of
sensation and action. The vegetable : life, which expires
in the plant in autumn, revives in the seed in spring. The
sluggish worm, which undergoes a species of death, and
buries itself in a tomb of its own formation, springs again
to life, a gay and active creature, as different in appear-
ance, as in appetites and powers. Every thing on earth is
changed, nothing annihilated ; and the soul of the man
who expires to-day, revives in something else, to which
life is at that instant imparted.
Some very obvious and very impressive appearances
must have suggested the notion of the metempsychosis,
since it is one of the most ancient, and one of the most
general of all religious opinions. “No doctrine," says
Dupuis, “was ever more universally diffused; none claims
an origin so. ancient. It reigned in the East, and in the
West, among rude nations and polished nations : and it
ascends to antiquity so high, that Burnet ingeniously de-
clares, one would believe it to be descended from heaven;
so much it appears without father, without mother, and
without descent.”] The Brahmens grafted upon it, in
their usual way, a number of fantastic refinements, and
gave to their ideas on this subject, a more systematic
form than is usual with those eccentric theologians. They
describe the mind as characterized by three qualities; good-
9
sunk in superstition, because it teaches the art of magic, or the method of
injuring men by the use of witchcraft and incantation." (Description, &c. of
the people of India, by the Abbé Dubois, p. 102. Even the gayatii, the most
holy of all holy things, is an assemblage, says the Abbé, of unmeaning terms,
" unintelligible to the Brahmens themselves. I have never met with any one
who could give me a tolerable explication of it.” Ibid. p. 79.
Dupuis, Origine de tous les Cultes, tom. ii. par. 2, p. 181; where the reader
will find authorities to prove the antiquity and diffusion of this peculiar doc-
trine. See, too, the learned Beausobre, Hist. de Manich. tom. ii, liv. vii. ch.
5, sect. 4. For iti existence among the Mexicans, see Clavigero, book yi.
sect. I.
300
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. ness, passion, darkness. According as any soul is distin-
CHAP. VI. guished by one or another of those qualities in its present
life, is the species of being into which it migrates in the life
to come. Souls endued with goodness attain the condition
of Deities; those filled with passion receive that of men;
those immersed in darkness are condemned to that of
beasts. Each of these conditions, again, is divided into
three degrees, a lower, a middle, and a higher. Of the
souls distinguished by darkness, the lowest are thrust
into mineral and vegetable substances, into worms, rep-
tiles, fishes, snakes, tortoises, cattle, shakals ; the middle
pass into elephants, horses, Sudras, Mlec'hchas (a word of
very opprobrious import, denoting men of all other races
not Hindu), lions, tigers, and boars; the highest animate
the forms of dancers, singers, birds, deceitful men, giants,
and blood-thirsty savages. Of the souls who receive their
future? condition from the quality of passion, the lowest
pass into cudgel-players, boxers, wrestlers, actors, those
who teach the use of weapons, and those who are addicted
to gaming and drinking; the middle enter the bodies of
kings, men of the fighting class, domestic priests of kings,
and men skilled in the war of controversy ; the highest
become gandharves (a species of supposed aërial spirits,
whose business is music), genii attending superior gods,
together with various companies of apsarases, or nymphs.
Of the souls who are characterized by the quality of good-,
ness, the lowest migrate into hermits, religious mendi-
cants, other Brahmens, such orders of demigods as are
wafted in airy cars, genii of the signs and lunar mansions,
and Daityas, another of their many orders of superior
spirits; the middle attain the condition of sacrificers, of
holy sages, deities of the lower heaven, genii of the Vedas,
regents of stars, divinities of years, Pitris, and Sadhyas,
two other species of exalted intelligences; the highest
ascend to the condition of Brahma with four faces, of
creators of worlds, of the genius of virtue, and the divi-
nities presiding over the two principles of nature. Besides
this general description of the future allotment of different
souls, a variety of particular dooms are specified, of which
a few may be taken as an example. “Sinners in the first
degree,” says the ordinance of Menu, “having passed
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. xii. 24, 40 to 51.
.
TITUT
WILLI
Il
RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.
301
through terrible regions of torture, for a great number of BOOK II.
years, are condemned to the following births at the close CIIAP. VT."
of that period. The slayer of a Brahmen must enter the -
body of a dog, a boar, an ass, a camel, a bull, a goat, a
sheep, a stag, a bird, a Chandala, or a Pucassa. He, who
steals the gold of a priest, shall pass a thousand tinies
into the bodies of spiders, of snakes, and camelions, of cro-
codiles, and other aquatic monsters, or of mischievous
blood-sucking demons. He who violates the bed of his
natural or spiritual father, migrates a hundred times into
the forms of grasses, of shrubs with crowded stems, or of
creeping and twining plants, carnivorous animals, beasts
with sharp teeth, or cruel brutes.". After a variety of
other cases, a general rule is declared, for those of the
four castes who neglect the duties of their order: “ Should
a Brahmen omit his peculiar duty, he shall be changed
into a demon, with a mouth like a firebrand, who devours
what has been vomited ; à Cshatriya, into a demon who
feeds on ordure and carrion; a Vaisya, into an evil being
who eats purulent carcases; and a Sudra, who neglects
his occupations, into a foul embodied spirit, who feeds on
lice."'? The reward of the most exalted piety, of the most
profound meditation, of that exquisite abstemiousness
which dries up the mortal frame, is peculiar: such a per-
fect soul becomes absorbed in the Divine essence, and is
for ever exempt from transmigration.3
We might very easily, from the known laws of human
nature, conclude, notwithstanding the language held by
the Hindus on the connexion between future happiness
and the virtue of the present life, that rewards and punish-
ments, very distant and very obscure, would be wholly
impotent against temptations to crime, though, at the
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. xi. 54 to 58.
2 Ib. 71, 72.
3 Ib. ch. xii. 125.
4 According to Mr. Warl, as presently cited, the Hindus are in this respect
not dissimilar from other people, whatever be their religious faith. This is a
question we are not called upon to discuss, but as far as it bears upon the
Hindus, it may be remarked, once for all, that Dr. Ward, notwithstanding the
epithets bestowed upon him in the text, is neither an experienced nor an ac-
mirable witness; his experience was limited to Bengal, in which the best
specimens of the Hindu character are comparatively rare, and his station and
circumstances brought him into contact chiefly with bad specimens even of
Bengalis. Although an intelligent man, lie was not a man of comprehensive
views, and his views were necessarily still more narrowed by his feelings as a
missionary; his testimony, therefore, although not without value, must be
received with considerable distrust, and admitted only with constant qualifica-
tion and correction.-W.
.302
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. instigation of the priests, they might engage the people in
CHAP. VI. a ceaseless train of wretched ceremonies. The fact: corre-
· sponds most exactly with the anticipation. An admirable
witness has said, “The doctrine of a state of future re-
wards and punishments, as some persons may plead, has
always been supposed to have a strong influence on public
morals: the Hindoos not only have this doctrine in their
writings, but are taught to consider every disease and
misfortune of life as an undoubted symptom of moral
disease, and the terrific appearance of its close-pur-
suing punishment. Can this fail to produce a dread of
still further," he adds, “assist the objector ; and inform
him, that the Hindoo writings declare, that till every im-
moral taint is removed, every sin atoned for, and the mind
has obtained perfect abstraction from material objects, it
is impossible to be re-united to the great spirit; and that,
to obtain this perfection, the sinner must linger in many
hells, and transmigrate through almost every form of mat-
ter.” Our informant then declares ; “Great as these ter-
lors are, there is nothing more palpable than that, with
most of the Hindoos, they do not weigh the weight of a
feather, compared with the loss of a roopee. The reason
is obvious : every Hindoo considers all his actions as the
effect of his destiny; he laments, perhaps, his miserable
the malefactor in a condemned cell.” This experienced
observer adds, which is still more comprehensive, that the
doctrine of future rewards and punishments has, in no
situation, and among no people, a power to make men vir-
tuous.
1 " To this," he says, "may be added, what must have forced itself on the
Observation of every thoughtful observer, that, in the absence of the religionis
principle, no outward terrors, especially those which are invisible and future,
not even bodily sufferings, are sufficient to make men virtuous. Painful ex.
perience proves, that even in a Christian country, if the religious principle.
does not exist, the excellence and the rewards of virtue, and the dishonour
and misery attending vice, may be held up to men for ever, without making a
single convert." Ward, “View, &c. of the Hindoos,” Introd. p. lxxxiv. Here,
however, Mr. Ward ought to have explained what he meant by the “religionis
principle," by which different persons mean very different things. This was
the more necessary, that, having taken away all efficacy from the doctrine of
future rewards and punishments, he strips religion of all power over the lives
and actions of men, except in so far as good effects inay be expected froni the
"religious principle," which, whatever else it may not be, is at any rate, in
The whole of this review of the religion, as of the laws of the Hindus, is full
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS,
303
BOOK II:
. CHAP. VII.
CHAP. VII.
Manners.
By the manners of a nation are understood the peculiar
modes in which the ordinary business of human life is car-
ried on. The business itself is everywhere essentially the
same. In all nations men eat and drink ; they meet, con-
verse, transact, and sport together. But the manner in
which these and other things are performed is as dif-
ferent as the nations are numerous into which the race is
divided.
So much of the entire business of life, among the Hin-
dus, consists in religious services, that the delineation of
their religion is a delineation of the principal branch of
their manners.
The singular distinctions, attached to the different
classes, present another remarkable feature in the man-
ners of this people. The lower orders, in other countries,
are often lamentably debased ; in Hindustan they are de-
graded below the brutes. With the single exception of
the Vaisya caste, to whom is appropriated the business of
agriculture and of barter, the whole of the productive
classes, according to the standards of law and religion, are
vile and odious, unworthy to eat, to drink, or to sit with a
member of the classes above them.
of very serious defects, arising froin inveterate prejudices and imperfect know-
ledge. Every text, every circunstance, that makes against the Hindu cha-
racter, is most assiduously cited, and every thing in its favour as carefully
kept out of sight, whilst a total neglect is displayed of the history of Hind!l
belief. The doctrines of various periods and of opposing sccts, have been
forced into one time and one system, and the whole charged with an incon-
gruity, which is the creation of the writer. Had he been more impartially
disposed, indeed, it would not have been easy to have given an unobjection-
able account of the Hindu religion, as his materials were exceedingly defective.
Manu is good authority for the time to which it refers, and Mr. Colebrooke's
essays furnish authentic details of particular parts of the ritual, but the
different travellers who are given as authorities of equal weight, are utterly
unworthy of regard. A word more on the subject of Fate, as understood by
the Hindus; as it is something very different from that of other people. It is
necessity, as the consequence of past acts--that is, a man's station and for-
tunes in his present life are the necessary consequences of his conduct in his
pre-existence. To then he must submit, but not from despair. He has his
future condition in his own power, and it depends upon liimself in what capa-
city he shall be born again. He is not therefore the helpless victim of an ir-
resistible and inscrutable destiny, but the sufferer for his own misdeeds, or the
possessor of good which his own merits have secured him.-W. .
: 1 A very mistaken view is here taken of the condition of the productive
classes ;" and on all the most important occasions of social life, they hold quite
as independent and respectable a position as they do in Europe. That they
304
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. There are four remarkable periods into which, with
CHAP. VII. respect to the three honourable classes, human life is
divided. Of these periods, or orders, as they are deno-
minated by the Hindus, the first is that of the student;
the second, that of the householder; the third, that of the
man who performs penance or other religious acts, resid-
ing continually in a forest! the fourth, that of the San-
nyasi, or the ascetic absorbed in divine contemplation.
The period of the student commences at the era of in-
vestiture. Prior to this age, the situation of children is
remarkable : even those of a Brahmen are not held supe-
rior in rank to a Sudra.3 The condition of the student
much more closely represents that of an European appren-
tice than that of a pupil in literature. He dwells in the
house of his preceptor, and tends him with the most
respectful assiduity. He is commanded to exert himself
in all acts useful to his teacher ;4 and of course performs
the part of an assistant in all the offices of religion. “As
he who digs deep with a spade comes to a spring of water,
so the student, who humbly serves his teacher, attains the
knowledge which lies deep in his teacher's mind." Upon
the student of the priestly order a peculiar burden, or
distinction, is imposed : to acquire daily his food by beg-
ging:
The gift of sacred instruction is not bestowed indiscri-
minately; but the text, which regulates the choice of pu-
pils, is so vague as to leave the selection nearly at the
discretion of the master. “Ten persons," it is declared,
may not eat, drink, or intermarry with the castes above them, is no hardship
to races who would not avail themselves of the privileges of such intercourse
with many of the castes who are their equals. These laws of segregation are,
in their case, self-imposed. European writers can little understand the pre-
vailing feeling of the Hindus in these matters. It is pride--not shame of caste,
that animates them down even to the meanest; and the sweeper is much more
tenacious of his caste than the Brahman. As to “ sitting" with them, let a
blacksmith acquire wealth, and he will have lis levee well attended by Brah-
mans of the most respectable descent. Instances are not wanting of this, at
all the principal towns in India.--W.
i See Laws of Menui, ch. ii. iii. and vi.
? See the account of this æra, in another part of this volume.
3 Institutes of Menu, ch. ii. 173.
Ibid. 491.
5 “ Let hina carry water-pots, flowers, cow-dung, fresh earth, and cusa grass,
as much as may be useful to his preceptor." Ibid. 182.
O" The subsistence of a student by begging is held equal to fasting in reli-
gious merit.” Ibid. 218. There are numerous precepts respecting the niceties
of begging. Ibid. 18 to 50, and 183 to 190.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
305
“may legally be instructed in the Veda ; the son of a spi- BOOK I.
ritual teacher; a boy who is assiduous; one who can impart CHAP. VII.
other knowledge; one who is just; one who is pure; one who
is friendly ; one who is powerful; one who can bestow
wealth; one who is honest; and one who is related by
blood. Where virtue and wealth are not found, or diligent
attention proportioned, in that soil divine instruction
must not be sown ; it would perish like fine seed in barren
land.” 1
The instruction which is bestowed may soon be de-
scribed. “The venerable preceptor, having girt his pupil
with the thread, must first instruct him in purification, in
good customs, in the management of the consecrated fire,
and in the holy rites of morning, noon, and evening." 2
The grand object of attention and solicitude is the reading
of the Veda. 3 Some classes of the Brahmens have united
with their religious doctrines certain speculations concern-
ing the intellectual and material worlds; and these specu-
lations have been dignified with the name of philosophy;
but the holy rites, and the Veda, form the great, and on
most occasions the exclusive object of that higher instruc-
tion which is bestowed on the pupil of the Brahmen.
On this important occasion, as on other occasions, the
attention of the Hindu is much more engaged by frivolous
observances, than by objects of utility. While the direc-
tions laid down respecting the instruction of the pupil
are exceedingly few and insignificant, the forms, according
to which he must pay his duty to the master, are nume-
rous, minute, and emphatically enjoined:*
4 Institutes of Menu, ch. ii. 109, 112.
2 Ibid. 69.
3 Ibid. 70.
4 When the student is going to read the Veda, he must perform an ablution,
as the law ordains, with his face to the north; and at the beginning and enc
of each lesson, he must clasp both the feet of his preceptor, and react with both
his hands closed. “In the presence of his preceptor let him always eat less ;
and wear a coarser mantle, with worse appendages : let him rise before, and
go to rest after his tutor. Let him not answer his teacher's orders, or converse
with him, reclining on a bed; nor sitting, nor eating, nor standing, nor with
an averted face: But let him both answer and converse, if his preceptor sit,
standing up; if he stand, advancing toward him ; if he advance, meeting him;
if he run, hastening after him; if his face be averted, going round to front
him, from left to right: if he be at a little distance, approaching him; if re-
clined, bending to him; and if he stand ever so far off, running toward him,
When his teacher is nigh, let his couch or his bench be always placed low:
when his preceptor's eye can observe him, let him not sit carelessly at his ease.
Let him never pronounce the mere name of his tutor, even in his absence : by
censuring his preceptor, though justly, he will be born an ass. He must not
serye his tutor by the intervention of another, while himself stands aloof; nor
VOL. I.
306
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. The duration of the period of study is very indefinite.
CHAP. VII. "The discipline of a student in the three Vedas may be
continued for thirty-six years, in the house of his precep-
tor; or for half that time, or for a quarter of it, or until he
perfectly comprehend them. A student, whose rules have
not been violated, may assume the order of a married man,
after he has reacł in succession à sac'ha, or branch from
each of the three Vedas, or from two or from any one of
them." i It is even permitted to pass the whole period of
life in the state of a pupil; and to this, merit so exalted is
ascribed, that the very highest rewards of religion are
bestowed upon it. If a student anxiously desire to pass
his whole life in the house of a sacerdotal teacher, he must
serve him with assiduous care, till he be released from his
mortal frame. That Brahmen who has dutifully attended
his preceptor till the dissolution of his body, passes di-
rectly to the eternal mansion of God.”? Should the tea-
cher die, the student must attend upon his widow, his son,
or one of his paternal kinsmen, with the same respect as
to the deceased preceptor. Should none of these be living,
be occupies the seat of the preceptor himself.3.
must he attend him in a passion, nor when a woman is near; fi'om a carriage
or a raised seat he must descend to salute his heavenly director. Let him not
sit with his preceptor to the leeward, or to the windward of him; nor let him
say anything which the venerable man cannot hear.” Institutes of Menu,
ch. ii. 70, 71 to 199, and 201 to 203. Even to the sons and wives of the pre-
ceptor must numerous tokens of profound respect be shown. Ibid. 207 to 219.
For his general conduct, “ these following rules," says Menu, “must a Brah-
machari, on student in theology, observe, while he dwells with his preceptor';
keeping all his members under control, for the sake of increasing bis habitual
devotion. Day by day, having bathed and being purified, let him offer fresh
water to the gods, the sages, and the manes; let him show respect to the
images of the deities, and bring wood for the oblation to fire. Let him abstain
from loncy, from flesh-mcat, from perfumes, from chaplets of flowers, from
sweet vegetable juices, from women, from all sweet substances turned acid,
and from injury to animated being's ; from unguents for his limbs, and from
black powder for his eyes; from wearing sandals and carrying an umbrella,
from sensual desire, from wrath, from covetousness, from dancing, and from
vocal and instrumental music : from gaming, from disputes, from detraction,
and from falsehood; from embracing, or wantonly looking at women, and
from disservice to other men. Let him sleep constantly alone." Next are
forbidden several acts of sensual impurity, which are too gross to be described ;
and the holy text thus again proceeds: “Let him carry water-pots, flowers,
COW-dung, and cusa grass, as much as may be useful to his preceptor. Having
brought logs of wood from a distance, let him place them in the open air ; and
with them let him make an oblation to fire, without remissness, both evening
and morning. Let the scholar, when commanded by his preceptor, and even
when he has received no command, always exert himself in reading. Let not
the sun ever rise or set while he lies asleep in the village." Institutes of
Menu, ch. ii. 175 to 183, 186, 191, 219.
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. iii, 1.
2 Institutes of Menu, ii. 243, 244.
3 Ibid. 247, 248. The following modes of living are pointed out to the Bralı-
men : 1. lawful glcaring and gaihering; 2. what is given wasked; 3. what is
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
307
To the state of the student succeeds that of the married BOOK IT.
man or the housekeeper. It is at this epoch that the CHAP. VII.
Hindu begins to sustain 'a part as a member of Society.
Marriage is a religious duty; and a duty of the highest
order. Except for some grand plan of devotion, as that of
remaining a student, or of becoming a fakeer, no man ne-
glects at an early age to fulfil this sacred obligation. As
the sacrament of obsequies to the manes of ancestors can
be performed only by a male descendant, and as any failure
in these obsequies deeply affects the spirits of the dead, to
die without a son is regarded as one of the greatest of all
calamities.
asked as alms; 4. tillage; 5. traffic and money lending: even by these two
last, when distressed, he may live; but service for hire is named dog-living,
which he must always avoid, iv. 4, 5, 6. His hair, nails, and beard being
clipped ; his passions subdned; his mantle white; his body pure; let him
diligently occupy himself in reading the Veda. Let him carry a staff of Venu,
a ewer with water in it, a handful of cusagrass, or a copy of the Veda; with
pair of bright golden rings in his ears. He must not gaze on the sun, whether
rising or setting, or eclipsed, or reflected in water, or advanced to the middle of
the sky. Over a string to which a calf is tied, let him not step ; nor let him
run while it rains; nor let him look on his own image in water ; this is a
settled rule. By a mound of earth, by a cow, by an idol, by a Brahmen, by a
potof clarified butter or of honey, by a place where four ways meet, and by large
trees well known in the district, let him pass with his right hand toward them.
35, 36, 37, 38, 39.
Let hun neither eat with his wife, nor look at her eating, nor sneezing, or
yawning, or sitting carelessly at her ease, 43.
Some precepts are ludicrous. "Let him noteat his food, wearing only a single
cloth, nor let him bathe quite naked : nor let him eject urine or fæces in the
highway, nor on ashes, nor where kine are grazing, nor on tilled ground, nor
in water, nor on wood raised for burning, nor, unless he be in great need, on a
mountaia, nor on the ruins of a temple, nor at any time on a nest of white ants,
nor in ditches with living creatures in them, nor walking, nor standing, nor on
the bank of a river, nor on the summit of a mountain : nor let him ever eject
or at water, or at cattle: but let him void his excrements, having covered the
earth with wood, potherbs, dry leaves and grass, or the like, carefully sup-
pressing his utterance, wrapping up liis breast and his head: by duy let him
void them with his face to the north; by night, with his face to the south; at
sunrise and sunset, in the same manner as by day; in the shade of darkness,
whether by day or by night, let a Brahmen ease nature with his face turned as
lie pleases; and in places where he fears injury to life from wild beasts or from
reptiles." 45 to 51.
"Let not a man, desirous to enjoy long life, stand upon hair, nor upon
ashes, bones, or potsherds, nor upon seeds of cotton, nor upon husks of
grain," 78.
An infinite number of things relative to food are to be attended to, 207
to 225.
.1 A man is nevertheless forbidden to marry before his elder brother. Ibid.
172. But if among several brothers of the whole blood, one have a son born,
Menu pronounces them all fathers of a male child, by means of that son. Ibid.
182. There is a singular importance attached to the having of a son: “By a
tality; and afterwards by a son of that grandson he reaches the solar abode."
Ivid, 137. Kinsmen, as ainong the Jews, were allowed to raise up seed to one
another. Not only was & widow, left without children, permitted to conceive
308
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
The ceremonies of marriage, entirely religious, have
BOOK II.
eight kinds : of which one half are honourable, and differ
from one another only in some minute circumstances; in
the fifth, the bridegroom bestows gifts upon the bride, her
father, and paternal kinsman; the last three are rather
species of unlawful connexion, than forms of nuptial con-
tract; one being voluntary and by mutual consent; the
other forcible when a woman is seized, “while she weeps.
and calls for assistance, after her kinsmen and friends have:
been slain in battle ;” the last, “when the damsel is:
sleeping, or flushed with a strong liquor, or disordered
in her intellect.”With the grand rule to prevent the
intermixture of the castes, the reader is already acquainted..
“For the first marriage of the twice-born classes," says the:
law of Menu, “a woman of the same class is recommended;
but for such as are impelled by inclination to marry again,
ferred : a Sudra woman only must be the wife of a Sudra;
she and a Vaisya of a Vaisya ; they two and a Cshatriya, of
a Cshatriya ; those two and a Brahmani, of a Brahmen.” 2;
The Hindu law-givers, who commonly mistake minute-
ness for precision, and are apt to be most particular
where it is least required, make rules for the choice
of a wife. “In connecting a man's self with a wife. Let
him,” says Menu, “studiously avoid the ten following:
families, be they ever so great, or ever so rich in kine,
goats, sheep, gold, and grain. The family which has
omitted prescribed acts of religion; that which has
produced no male children; that in which the Veda.
has not been lead; that which has thick hair on the
body; and those which have been subject to hemor-
rhoids, to phthisis, to dyspepsia, to epilepsy, to leprosy
by a kinsman of her husband ; but even before his death, if he was supposed to
be attacked by an incurable disease. Ibid. ix. 59, 162, 164. A daughter, too,
when a man had no sons, might be appointed for the same purpose. Ibid. 127.
In Egypt, in the same manner, a widow left without children cohabited with
the brother of the deceased. Recherches Philosoph, sur les Egyptiens et les
Chinois, i. 70.
i Institutes of Menu, ch.ju. 27 to 34. The crimes implied in the last two cases
must have been frequent, to make them be distinguished formally in books of
sacred law as two species of marriage.
2 Ibid. 12, 13.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
309
and to elephantiasis. Let him not marry a girl with reddish BOOK II.
hair, nor with any deformed limb; nor one troubled with CHAP. VII.
habitual sickness; nor one either with no hair, or too
much ; nor one immoderately talkative; nor one wita in-
flamed eyes ; nor one with the name of a constellation, of
a tree, or of a river, of a barbarous nation, or of a moun-
tain, of a winged creature, a snake, or a slave; nor with
any name raising an image of terror. Let him choose for
bis wife a girl, whose form has no defect; who has an
agreeable name; who walks gracefully like a phenicopteros,
or like a young elephant; whose hair and teeth are mode-
rate respectively in quantity and in size ; whose body has
exquisite softness.” 1
The condition of the women is one of the most re-
markable circumstances in the manners of nations. Among
rude people, the women are generally degraded ; among
civilized people they are exalted. In the barbarian, the
passion of sex is a brutal impulse, which infuses no ten-
derness; and his undisciplined nature leads him to abuse
his power over every creature that is weaker thana him-
self. The history of uncultivated nations uniformly
represents the women as in a state of abject slavery,
from which they slowly emerge, as civilization advances.
Among some of the negro tribes on the coast of Africa,
the wife is never permitted to receive any thing from the
hands of her husband, or even to appear in his presence,
except on her knees. In the empire of Congo, where the
people are sufficiently advanced to be united in a large
community; and in most of the nations which inhabit the
southern regions of Africa, the women are reckoned un-
worthy to eat with the men. In such a state of society
property is an advantage which it may naturally be sup-
posed that the degraded sex are by no means permitted to
enjoy. Not only among the African and other savage
tribes, and the Tartars of the present day, but among
the ancient inhabitants of Chaldea and Arabia, and all the
nations of Europe in their ancient uncivilized state, the
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. iii. 6 to 10.
2 This important subject is amply and philosophically illustrated by Professor
Millar, in his Inquiry into the Distinction of Ranks, ch. i.
3 Histoire Générale des Voyages, tom. v. liv. x. ch. iii.
4 Ibid. tom. vi. liv. xiii. ch. ii. sect. 2, and tom. iy. liv. yii. ch. xiii.
sect. 1.
310
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. women were excluded from the inheritance of the family.?
CHAP. VII. Being condemned to severe and perpetual labour, they are
themselves regarded as useful property. Heuce a father
parts not with his daughter but for a valuable considera-
tion; hence the general custom, among barbarous nations,
as in Pegu, in Siberia, among the Tartars, among the ne-
groes on the coast of Guinea, among the Arabs, and even
among the Chinese, of purchasing the bride by a dower.?
It is only in that improved state of property and security,
when the necessities of life have ceased to create perpetual
given to its pleasures; that the women, from their influence
on those pleasures, begin to be an object of regard. As
society refines upon its enjoyments, and advances into that
state of civilization, in which various corporeal qualities
become equal or superior in value to corporeal 'strength,
and in which the qualities of the mind arc ranked above
the qualities of the body, the condition of the weaker sex
is gradually improved, till they associate on equal terms
with the men, and occupy the place of voluntary and useful
coadjutors.
A state of dependence more strict and humiliating than
that which is ordained for the weaker sex among the
Hindus cannot easily bc conceived. “Day and night,” says
Menu,“must women be held by their protectors in a state
of dependence."3 Who are meant by their protectors is
immediately explained: “ Their fathers protect them in
childhood; their husbands protect them in youth; their
sons protect them in age: a woman," it is added, “is never
fit for independence. Let husbands consider this as the
supreme law, ordained for all classes; and let them, how
weak soever, diligently keep their wives under lawful
I See Inquiry into the Distinction of Ranks, cli.i. sect. l. They were admittech
to inheritance among the Jews plainly as a lovelty, and an institution unknown
to their neighbours. Numbers ch. xxvii.-M.
We have seen that this was not the case amongst the Hindus, but that
their right to property is fully recognised and carefully secured. See
pp. 172-3.-1.
2 See the authorities quoted by Millar, Distinction of Ranks, ch. i. sect. 1 ;
and Goguet, Origin of Laws, i. 25, 26.-M.
Here also the law of the Hindus is the reverse of that described - if
the practice sovietimes conforms to it, it is apparently of modern growth,
and a violation of the law. Rammohun Roy, Ancient Rights of Females,
P. 278,-.W.
3 Institutes of Menui, ch, ix, 2.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS..
311
restrictions."i “By a girl, or by a young woman, or by a BOOK II.
woman advanced in years, nothing,” says the same code, chaP. VII.
“must be done, even in her own dwelling-place, according
to her mere pleasure. In childhood must a female be
dependent on her father; in youth, on her husband; her
lord being dead, on her sons: a woman must never seek
independence."2 The deference which is exacted towards
her husband is without limits. “Though inobservant of
approved usages, or enamoured of another woman, or de-
void of good qualities, yet a husband must constantly be
revered as a god by a virtuous wife. No sacrifice is allowed
to women apart from their husbands, no religious rite, no
fasting: as far only as a wife honours her lord, so far she
is exalted in heaven."3 “She who neglects her lord, though
addicted to gaming, fond of spirituous liquors, or diseased,
must be deserted for three months, and deprived of her
ornaments and household furniture." To every species of
ill-usage, she is bound to submit; “neither by sale nor
desertion," says the ordinance of Menu, “can a wife be
released from her husband : thus we fully acknowledge
a remarkable law; for it indicates the power of the hus-
band to sell his wife for a slave, and by consequence
proves, that her condition, while in his house, as not
regarded as very different from slavery. A law is even
made to direct the mode in which she is beaten; “A wife,
a son, a servant, a pupil, and a younger whole brother,
may be corrected, when they commit faults, with a rope,
or the small shoot of a cane; but on the back part only of
Nothing can exceed the habitual contempt which the
Hindus entertain for their women. Hardly are they ever
mentioned in their laws, or other books, but as wretches
of the most base and vicious inclinations, on whose nature
no virtuous or useful qualities can be ingrafted. “Their
husbands," says the sacred code, “should be diligently
careful in guarding them; though they well know the
disposition with which the lord of creation formed them;
Menu allotted to such women a love of their bed, of the
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. ix.
3 Ibid, v. 154, 155.
of Ibid. ix. 78.
5 Ibid. 16.
6 Ibid. ch. viii. 299, 300. Beating their wives is a common discipline. See.
UNUI
312
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. seat, and of ornament, impure appetites, wrath, weak flexi-
CHAP. VII. bility, desire of mischief, and bad conduct."1 "Be there
no place, be there no time, be there no one to tempt them,"
says the Hetopadesa, “then, O Narada, doth women's
chastity appear. Women at all times have been inconstant,
even among the celestials, we are told. In infancy the
father should guard her, in youth her husband should
guard her, and in old age her children should guard her;
for at no time is a woman proper to be trusted with
liberty." The same author declares again; “Unto woman
no man is found to be disagreeable, no man agreeable.
They may be compared to a heifer on the plain, that still
longeth for fresh grass. Infidelity, violence, deceit, envy,
extreme avariciousness, a total want of good qualities,
with impurity, are the innate faults of womankind.”3
They are held, accordingly, in extreme degradation.4
I Institutes of Menu, ix. 16, 17.-M.
This is a specimen of unfair citation. It is made to appear as if Manu was
speaking of women in general, which is not the case. He speaks of "such"
women; that is, of such women as are guilty of drinking, idleness, keeping
evil company, and other practices disgraceful to a married woman, iv. 13.
Difficult as it is to keep "suchı” women under restraint, yet their husbands
sliould be diligent in guarding them. These precepts and reflections are
not directed to tlie conduct of the sex in general, but only of the vicious por-
tion of it.-W.
2 Wilkins' Hetopadesa, p. 54.
3 Ibid. p. 78. In Halled's Code of Gentoo Laws, the character of women is
depicted in terms which, were they not strong evidence to an important point,
delicacy would forbid to be transcribed : “A woman,” says the law,"is never
satisfied with sensual pleasures no more than fire is satisfied with burning
fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with
the dying men and animals : in these cases therefore a woman is not to be
relied on." (Gentoo Code, ch. XX.) "Women have six qualities: the first, an
inordinate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes, and nice
victuals ; tlie second, immoderate list; the third, violent anger; the fourth,
deep resentment; the fifth, another person's good appears cvil in their eyes;
the sixth, they commit bad actions." (Ibid.) Six faults are likewise ascribed
to women, in the Institutes of Menu, but they are differently stated : " Drink-
ing spirituous liquor's, associating with evil persons, absence from her husband,
rambling abroad, unseasonable sleep, and dwelling in the liouse of another,
are six faults which bring infamy oli a married woman. Such women cxamine
not beauty, nor pay attention to agc ; whether their lover be handsome or
ugly, they think it enough that he is a man, and pursue their pleasures.
Through their passion for men, their mutable temper, their want of settled
affection, and their perverse nature (let them be guarded in this world ever so
well,) they soon become alienated from their husbands." Institutes of Menu,
cli. ix. 13, 14, 15.-M.
The literature of most countries, even in modern times, would furnish pas-
sages abusive of the weaker sex; but no one would think of quoting occasional
sarcasm as the language of universal opinion.-W.
1 In all this, our author's usual practice prevails, of quoting every passage
in favour of his own theory, and excluding every one that makes against it.
A reluctant admission is subsequently made, that the Hindus have some
general precepts, recommending indulgence and humanity in favour of the
weaker sex; but they are passe l over very lightly. If, instead of the lan-
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
313
ve
.
They are not accounted worthy to partake of religious, BOOK II.
rites but in conjunction with their husbands. They are CHAP. VII.
entirely excluded from the sacred books; “Women have
no business with the texts of the Veda; thus is the law
fully settled: having, therefore, no evidence of law, and no
knowledge of expiatory texts, sinful women must be as
foul as falsehood itself. To this effect many texts, which
may show their true disposition, are chanted in the
Vedas.” “A minor," says the law, “one single person, a
woman, a man of bad principles, &c., may not be wit-
nesses.''3 We have already seen, as in the most barbarous
nations, that the women among the Hindus are excluded
from sharing in the paternal property. They are, by
system, deprived of education. That remarkable proof of
barbarity, the wife held unworthy to eat with her husband,
is prevalent in Hindustan.
guage of law or satire, we look to the portraits of women painted by the
Hindus themselves, in their tales, their plays, and poems, we shall find them
invariably described as amiable, high-principled, modest, gentle, accom-
plished, intelligent; as exercising a very important influence upon men,
and as treated by them with tenderness and respect. The English reader
will find ample proofs of this in the Cloud Messenger and Hindu Theatre,
and in Mr, Milman's Nala; and it may be confidently asserted, that in
no nation of antiquity were women lield in so much esteen, as amongst the
Hindus.-W.
1 See Institutes of Menui, quoted in note 3, p. 311.
2 Institutes of Menu, ch. ix. 18, 19,
3 Hallied's Gentoo Code, ch, iii. sect. 8.
See ch. iv. p. 214; Menu, ch. iv, 43.-M.
The reference is incorrect; so is the law; as the passage in the first volume
adverted to might have showni, had the writer remembered it. For, after
stating in the text, in the same unqualified manner, that daughters are alto-
gether debarred from a share, it is mentioned in a note, that those who are
uomarried, are to receive portions ont of their brothers' allotinents. It is mere
quibbling, therefore, to say they have no shares. But the more important
question, as affecting the position of women in society, is not merely the shares
of daughters; although this is artfully put forward, as if it was decisive of
the rights of the whole sex; but, what rights women have in regard to pro-
perty; and, as we have already showil, the laws do not very materially differ
in this respect from those which are observed in the civilized countries of
modern Europe.--W.
6 The Hindu women, savs Mír. Forster, (Travels, i. 59,) are debarrech
the use of letters. The Hindus hold the invariable language, that acquired
accomplishments are not necessary to the domestic classes of the female
sex.
O « The husband and wife never eat together; for the Indians consider it as
indecent, and contrary to that respect which is due to the former." Bartolo-
meo's Travels, book i. ch. 7. Sonnerat says, “ The women are ugly, slovenly,
and disgusting. The husband does not permit them to eat with him. They
are honourable slaves, for whom some regard is entertained." Voy. liv. ii.
ch. 7. "So indelicate are the men with respect to the women," says Mr.
Motte, speaking of the province of Sumbhulpoor," that I have been introduced
and obliged to show respect to a man of consequence in the morning, wliose
wife has, in the afternoon, brought a load of wood of her own cutting, as
314
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. An almost unlimited power of rejection or divorce ap-
CHAP. VII. pears to be reserved to the husband. In the code of
Gentoo laws, among various other ordinances to the same
purpose, it is declared that, "a woman who dissipates cr
spoils her own property, or who procures abortion, or who
quarrelling with everybody, and who eats before her hus-
band eats, such woman shall be turned out of the house."?
On grounds like these, a man can never be without a pre-
tence for dismissing his wife. But on the other hand we
have seen that no species of barbarous treatment, not
even desertion and sale, ever absolves the wonian from
her obligations to her lord.?
much as she could stagger under, and sold it me for a penny.” Motte's
Journey to Orissa, Asiatic Annual Register, i. 76. In another part of the
same Journcy, P. 67, Mr. Motte says, "I was first struck with the sight of
women ploughing, while their female children drove the oxen ; but this
is the practice through the whole mountainous country, while the men,
strolling through the forests with a spcar and hatchet, plunder every thing
they can master. This abuse of the fair sex is characteristic of a barbarous
people."
in Mysore, &c. i. 247, 249. Women in Karnata carry out the dung to the
fields, in baskets on their lieads. Ibid. 135, 42. The Abbé Dubois describes
the following, as the common, the standard condition of conjugal liſe : "the
young wife, beaten by her husband, and harassed by her mother-in-law, who
treats her as a slave, finding no remedy for ill.usage but in flying to her
father's house --recalled by fair promises of kinder treatment-thic Worci
broken-recourse had to the same remedy--but at last the children which
she brings into the world, and other circumstances, compelling her to do
her best, by remaining in her husband's house, with the show of being con-
tented with lier lot......... The object for wlich a Hindu marries is not to
gain a companion to aid him in enduring the erils of life, but a slave to bear
children, and be subservient to his rulc," Description, &c. of the People of
India, p. 145.-M.
The people amongst whom Vr. Motte travelled, as above noticed, were wild
and barbarous tribes; whose usages afford no illustration of those of more
civilized parts of India. Thc Abbé Dubois speaks also of the lower orders of a
Village community. Instances of brutal treatment of their women by the
peasantry and lower classes in Europe, are no rarities. Europeans have
never been admitted into the interior of the houses of respectable Hindoos,
and are not qualified to speak of the manner in which they behave to their
wives. It has happened in a few cases, that elderly women, widows and mo-
tliers, have been personally known to us; and it has generally been found,
that they received great attention and deference from their sons and relations;
at the same tiinc it seems likely that the women have declined in the social
scale, and that partly through fear, and partly through imitation, the rule of
the Mohammedans has had a prejudicial effect upon the feelings and practices
of the Hindus in all that regards the female sex.-W.
1 Halled's Gentoo Code, ch. XX.
2 See above, p. 449. Even after the death of her husband, if she did not
and, besides other penances and mortifications of the severest kind, was cx-
pressly forbidden to accept a second husband. Institutes of Menu, ch. v. 157.
158, 162, 163. The same mark of bondage and inferiority was imposed on the
Athenian women during the barbarous times of Greece. Goguet, Origin
of Laws, ii. 59. Mr. Richardson, who is one of the most nervous in asscrtion,
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS. .
315
That polygamy was an established custom of the Hindus, BOOK II.
we learn from various documents, and among others from CILAP. VII.
the following story, which at the same time conveys no
evidence of their domestic gentleness:--"In the city of
Devee-kotta, there was a Brahman, whose name was Deva-
Sarma. One lucky evening he found a curious dish, which
he took with him into a potter's warehouse full of earthen-
ware, and throwing himself upon a bed which happened to
be there, it being night, he began to express his thoughts
upon the occasion in this manner :-'If I dispose of this
dish, I shall get ten kapardakas (cowries) for it; and with
that sum I may purchase many pots and pans, the sale of
which will increase my capital so much that I shall be
able to'lay in a large stock of cloth and the like; which
having disposed of at a great advance, I shall have accut-
mulated a fortune of a lack of money. With this I will
marry four wives; and of these I will amuse myself with
her who may prove the handsomest. This will create
jealousy; so when the rival wives shall be quarrelling,
then will I, overwhelmed with anger, hurl my stick at
them thus! Saying which, he flung his walking-stick
out of his hand with suchi force, that he not only broke
his curious dish, but destroyed many of the pots and pans
in the shop."
and the most feeble in proof, of all oriental enthusiasts, maintains that the
women enjoyed high consideration among the Arabians and Persians, nay,
among the very Tartars; so generally was civilization diffused in Asia. In
proof, he tells us that the Arabian women “had a right by the laws to the en-
joyment of independent property, by inheritance, by gift, by marriage settle-
ment, or by any other mode of acquisition.” The evidence he adduces of these
rights is three Arabian words; whiclı signify a marriage portion, paraphernalia
in the disposal of a wife, a marriage settlernent. (See Richardson's Disser-
tations on the Languages, Literature, and Manners of Eastern Nations, pp.
198, 331, 479.) But surely a language may possess three words of the signifi-
cation which lic assigns, and yet the women of the people who use it be in a
state of melancholy degradation. In the times of Homer, though a wife was
actually purchased froin her father, still the father gave with her a dower.
Iliad. lib. ix. vcr. 147, 148. If the Tartars carry their women with them in
their wars, and even consult them, “the north American tribes, says Mr.
Millar, "are often accustomed to admit their women into their public councils,
and even to allow then the privilege of being first called to give their opinion
upon every subject of deliberation......... Yet," as he adds immediately
after, " there is no coiwtry in the world where the female sex are, in
general, more neglected and despised." See Distinctions of Ranks, ch. i.
sect. 2. From insulated expressions, or facts, no general conclusion can
sarely be drawn.
1 Wilkins' Hetopadesa, r, 248.-II. Mr. Mill here deserts his usual guide;
he had better have adhered to Menu, than taken his illustration of the law or
the practice froin a fable intended to ridicule absurd expectations. Although
permitted, polygamy is not encouraged by the ancient law, and from its being
sanctioned in particular cases only, as of misconduct, aversion, or barrenness;
:316
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
ti
BOOK II. The Hindus were, notwithstanding, so far advanced in
CHAP. VII. civilization, except in the mountainous and most barbarous
tracts of the country, as to have improved in some degree
upon the manners of savage tribes. They have some pre-
cepts, recommending indulgence and humanity in favour
of the weaker sex. “Married women," says the law of
Menu, “must be honoured and adorned by their fathers
and brethren, by their husbands, and by the brethren
of their husbands, if they seek abundant prosperity.
Where female relations are made miserable, the family
of him, who makes them so, very soon wholly peri-
shes."1 When particulars indeed are explained, the in-
dulgences recommended are not very extensive. It is
added, “Let those women, therefore, be continually sup-
plied with ornaments, apparel, and food, at festivals, and
at jubilees, by men desirous of wealth.” 2 When it is com-
manded by law, as an extraordinary extension of liberality,
to give them ornaments, and even apparel and food, at
festivals and jubilees; this is rather a proof of habitual
degradation than of general respect and tenderness. The
idea, however, of purchasing a wife, as a slave, from her
relations, had become odious; and though it is stated as
one of the eight species of nuptial contract, it is classed
among the dishonourable species, and forbidden. As the
necessity of such a law indicates a state of society but one
l'emove from that in which the unhappy bride is purchased
and sold ; so the customary, and original purchasing gift,
the bull and the cow, still remained ; but it had acquired a
religious character, and was at last commanded to pass by
another name. “Some say," observes the law of Menu,
" that the bull and cow given in the nuptial ceremony of
the Rishis, are a bribe to the father, but this is untrue :
a bribe indeed, whether large or small, is an actual sale of
Menu, ix, 77, 81, it is evident that it was not without restriction. Even the
consent of the first wife seems to have been necessary. “She (the wife), who
though afflicted with illness, is amiable and virtuous, must never be dis-
graced, though she may be superseded by another wife, with her own consent;
Ix. 82. By being disgraced, means the loss of consideration in the family.
The first wife seems always to have held the principal rank, and to have been
mistress of the houschold.-W.
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. iii. 55, 57.
2 Ib. 59.
3 “Let no father who knows the law receive a gratuity, however small, for
giving his daughter in marriage, since the man who through avarice, takes
a gratuity for that purpose, is a seller of his offspring." Institutes of
Menu, ch. iji. 51.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
317
the daughter." There are texts, however, which directly BOOK II.
recognise the transaction as a purchase : “He who takes CHAP. VII.
to wife," it is said, “a damisel of full age, shall not give a
nuptial present to her father; since the father lost his do-
minion over her, by detaining her at a time when she might
have been a parent.” 2 The obligation of the marriage
contract is stated in the Institutes of Menu, under the
head of purchase and sale; and it is expressly said, “If,
after one damsel has been shown, another be offered to the
bridegroom, who had purchased leave to marry her from
her next kinsman, he may become the husband of both for
the same price: this law Menu ordained.” 3 The same un-
doubtedly is the purport of the following sacred text: “The
recitation of holy texts, and the sacrifice ordained by the
lord of creatures, are used in marriages for the sake of
procuring good fortune to brides; but the first gift by the
husband is the primary cause of marital dominion.” ! It
is to be observed, besides, that the women have no choice
in their one destiny ; but are absolutely at the disposal of
their fathers, till three years after the nuptial age. If,
until that period, the father have neglected what is rec-
koned one of his most sacred duties, to place his daughter
in a situation to become a parent, he forfeits, through his
sin, the dominion over her, and she may choose a husband
for herself.5
It has been doubted whether immuring the women was
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. iii. 53.
2 Ibid. ch. ix. 93,
3 Ibid. ch. viii. 204. Our travellers ſind direct and avowed purchase still
in practice in many parts of India. See Buchanan's Journey through
Mysore, &c., i. 247. 249. "To marry, or to buy a wife, are synonymous
terms in this country. Almost every parent makes his daughter an ar-
ticle of traffic. This practice of purchasing the young women whom they
are to inarry, is the inexhaustible source of disputes and litigation, particil-
larly amongst the poorer people. These, after the marriage is solemnized,
not finding it convenient to pay the stipulated sum, the father-in-law com-
mences an action," &c. Description, &c. of the Hindus, by the Abbé Dubois,
p. 137. "Apud plerasque tamen gentes dotem maritus uxori, non uxor marito
offerebat. Ista sane consuetudo viguit inter Germanos, teste Tacito (de B[or.
Germ. cap. 18) - Assyrios, teste Æliano (Hist. Vur. iv. 1) Babylonios, testo
Heroclot. (i. 116) -et Armenios, ceu patet ex Nou. xxi. Heineccii Antiquit.
Roman, lib. ii. tit. viii. sect. 2,
4 Institutes of Menu, ch. v. 152. The Commentator Culluca, after the words
first gift, by his usual plan, of trying to graft the ideas of a recent period, im-
provedl a little by external intercourse, upon the original text, has foisted in
the words or froth plighted, as if that was a gift, or, as if, had that been meant,
the legislator would not have rather said troch plighted, than first gilt. See
what I have observed on the interpolating practices of Cullca, Note A. at the
end of the voluune, p. 499.
5 Ibid. ch. ix. 88, 90, 93.
318
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. an original part of Hindu manners, or adopted in conse-
CHAP. VII. quence of the intercourse and dominion of the Moha.
medans. But they have been found in a state of seclusion
and confinement beyond the range of Mohammedan in-
fluence. The practice is fully recognised in the ancient
writings. We are told in the Bhagavat, that on the day of the
yug of Judishter, “the women who, buried in harams, were
seldom permitted to see the sun, came out, on that day, to
view rajah Judishter." 2 The monarch who forms the
hero in the drama entitled Sacontala had many wives, and
they are represented as residing in the secret apartments
of the palace. The whole spirit of the Hindu maxims in-
dicates confinement: there are numerous precepts with
respect to the guarding of women: and the punishment for
vitiating those who are not guarded is always less thanı
the punishment in the case of those that are. Among
these proofs of confinement are also appearances of free-
dom. The law of seclusion is made only for the few.
Among the jealous Ottomans themselves, the great body
of the community must leave their women at large, be-
cause an indigent man can neither dispense with the useful
services of his wife, nor afford the cost of retaining her in
confinement. In the earlier and ruder states of society,
when men are in general poor, few can afford the expense
of confinement; but among the Hindus, as in general
among the nations of Asia, since their emerging from
the rudest barbarism, it seems to have been the practice
for every man, who possessed sufficient means, to keep his
women guarded, in a state of seclusion.5
I Mr. Forster dcclares himself to have been at one time of opinion, " that
thie Hindoos had secluded their women from the public view, that they might
not be exposed to the intemperance of the Mohammedan conquerors; but after
perceiving," says he, “the usage adopted among the sequestered mountaincers,
and also among the various independent Mahrattah states, I am induced to
think that the exclusion of women from society prevailed in India before the
period of the Afghan, or Tartar invasions." Forster's Travels, i. 310. ::
2 See a translation of part of the Bhagavat by Mir. Halhed, in Maurice's
Hist. of Hindostan, ii. 438.
3 See Sacontala in Sir William Jones's Works, vi. The Rajah of Beejan uga
gur's harem was kept so close, that not even the nearest relations of the
women received in it were ever again permitted to see them. Ferishta's
Deccan, by Scott, i. 83. Nor is this incntioned as any thing wusual.
* Institutes of Menu, ch. viii. 374 to 385.
5 It has, no doubt, been always the custom for the women of Hindus of
rank and respectability to live in some degree apart, but not in scclusion, nor
guarded with the same jealousy as by the Mohammedans. Menu provides for
their being properly decorated at“ festivals and jubilees;” and many of the
poems and plays describe thcir appearance openly in public at religious and
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
319
On the coast of Malabar, where the manners differ con- BOOK II.
siderably from those of the rest of the Hindus, and where CHAP. VII.
the people have not reached a state of society altogether
so perfect as that in some other parts of Hindustan, it
would appear that the institution of marriage has never
been regularly introduced. The peculiar mode in which
the intercourse of the sexes is here carried on has not yet
been satisfactorily explained to us; and from the differences
which appear in the accounts of different authors, it pro-
bably exhibits considerable variety; but in its general
character it is pretty evidently a relic of the period in
which there is no law for the association of the seres ;
when their intercourse is casual; when the father of the
offspring is by consequence uncertain; and when the
children of necessity belong to the mother. The nearest
male relations of the female, her father being in this case
unknown, are her brothers; who, never having children
whom they can recognise as their own, naturally contract
an affection for those of their sister, whom they support,
and with whom they live; by consequence regard them as
in some measure their own; and vest them with the pro-
perty which they leare at their death. In the family of a
Nair there is no wife; all the brothers and sisters live
under the same roof; their mother, the only known pa-
rent, during her life, and after her death the eldest sister,
manage the domestic affairs ; the sisters cohabit with the
men of their choice, subject only to the sacred restriction
of a class not inferior to their own; the children are by
the brothers regarded as their own, and inherit the pro-
perty of the family. This is the exact description of a
people among whom the institution of marriage is un-
known, and the order into which things will run of their
own accord, wherever the intercourse of the sexes is ca.
other festivals and at public games, and the admission of men other than their
immediate kinsmen to their presence 012 various occasions. Malábharata.
Rám:lyana, Vishnu Purina, Málati Mádhava, Ratnávali, &c. Even still the
wives of respectable Hindus leave the inner--there is no such term as secret
apartments at pleasure, and go to bathe in the Ganges and other sacred
streams.-W.
1 Such is the account which Dr. Buchanan received from a number of the
inost respectable Nairs themselves, whom he assembled for the purpose of in-
quiring into their manners. See his Journey through Mysore, &c. ii. 411, 412.
It was a practice, the continuance of which was highly convenient for the
Brahmens, whose power among the inhabitants of that coast was peculiarly
great. Ibid. 425. See also Mr. Thackeray's Report, Fifth Report of she Com-
mittee on India Affairs, 1810, p. 802.
320
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. sual.: The Nairs, however, are said to have added a kind
CHAP. VII. of refinement to this established custom. They contract.
a marriage with a particular woman. But this is entirely
nominal. The woman never leaves her mother's house ;
her intercourse with other men is not restricted; her
children belong to her brothers; and the arrangement of
society is the same as if no such marriage existed. If it
really takes place, and the absurdity of the thing may
support a suspicion of some mistake in our informants,
it must be the effect of imitation, and of the reproaches
which this people have sustained from other nations.
These circumstances move them to contrive a semblance
of a marriage, though not in the least degree to alter the
established system of manners, to which it adheres as a
useless excrescence. The Nairs are only one of the castes;
and there appears to be some diversity in the mode of
intercourse between the sexes in the several castes. The
fashion among the Nairs is the standard to which they
all approach. Our information, however, of these diver-
sities, even if they merited a fuller elucidation, is too
imperfect for minute description.?
1 This is not a satisfactory solution of the peculiarity. If the Nairs could
be traced to the mountain regions of the Himalaya, where a similar plurality
of husbands exists; it might be imagined to have originated in the circum-
stances by which apparently it is there continued; the difficulty of procuring
food for a family in such cold and unproductive countries, and the self-imposed
check, in consequence, upon population.-W.
2 The reader will find some observations, but evidently incorrect, taken from
an Arabian author, by Mr. Duncan, Asiat. Research. v. 12, 13, 14. Dr. Bucha-
nan, too, makes some remarks on the inodes of the Brahmens. Journey, ut
supra, ii. 425 ; and mentions certain diversities between the manners of the
Vairs themselves in the south, and in the north of Malabar, Ibid,513. See, too,
Bartolomeo's Travels, book ii. ch. ii. and Anquetil Duperron, Zendavesta, Dis-
cours Préliminaire, P. cxcvi. Vestiges of the same order of affairs are very widely
diffused. Cecrops first instituted marriage among the Greeks; Menes, among
the Egyptians. Among the Lycians, and even among the ancient inhabitants
of Attica, children took their names from their mother, and not from their
father. The domestic community of women among the Celtic inhabitants of
Britain was a diversity, to which something very similar is said to exist among
some of the castes on the coast of Malabar. “There is in the province of
Madura," says the Abbé Dubois p. 3, "& caste called the Totiyars, in which,
brothers, uncles, and nephews, and other kindred, when married, enjoy the
wives in cominon." Indications of the same state are preserved by the Roman
lawyers. In the island of Torinosa, where the women contract a marriage for
any stipulated period, the husband, during the time of the contract, passes into
the family of the wife ; a custom, likewise found among the people called Moxos
in Peru. In the Ladrone islands, the wife is mistress of the family, turns off
the liusband when she chooses, and retains the children and property. In the
ancient Median empire we are told that the women had several husbands;
and the same is the case in some cantons of the Iroquois in North America.
Seo the autliorities quoted by Millar, Distinction of Ranks, ch. i. sect. 2, where
this part of the subject is illustrated with the usual sagacity of that eminent
author. Sec, too, Goguet's Origin of Laws, book i. ch. i. art. i. We are told by
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
321
It is not surprising, that grossness, in ideas and lan- BOOK II.
guage, respecting the intercourse of the sexes, is a uniform CHAP. VII.
concomitant of the degraded state of the women. Super-
ficial contemplators have, in general, contented themselves
with remarking, that it was a diversity of manners; or
was the effect of a diversity of climate ; and that what in
one place was gross bore a different interpretation in an-
other. Inquiry discovers, that grossness in this respect is
a regular ingredient in the manners of a rude age; and
that society, as it refines, deposits this, among its other
impurities. The ancient inhabitants of our own country
were as indelicate as those of the hottest regions of Asia.
All European witnesses have been struck with the indelicacy
of the Hindus. The gross emblems and practices of their
religion are already known). To the indecent passages in
the books of law, and the practices which they describe,
exceedingly numerous, and exceedingly gross, we can here
only allude. Both the writings and conversation of the
Hindus abound with passages which are shocking to Euro-
pean ears. Even in the popular and moral work, entitled
Herodotus, that the Massagetæ had their women in common; and a man, when
he desired to be private, hung up his quiver at the door of the wagon or travel-
ling tent. Herodot. i. 210. A people in Africa, whom he calls Nasamones
were in like manner, without the rite of marriage, and a staff stuck in the
ground before the tent was the signal of retirement. Ibid. iv. 172. The reader
will probably not be surprised to hear, that the tradition of the casual inter-
course of the sexes was preserved among the Indians of Peru. “In short,"
(says Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries, book i. ch. vii.) 6. they were
altogether savage,” (meaning the inhabitants in their ancient state,)“ making
use of their women as they accidentally met, understanding no property or
single enjoyment of them."-A woman, not married to an individual, but com-
mon to all tlie brothers of a family, is described as the custom of Tibet. See
Turner's Embassy.-M.
It has been showii by Col. Vans Kennedy, that the charge of incorrectness
attached to Mr. Duncan's observations on extracts from an Arabian author, in
the beginning of this note, has been very inconsiderately preferred. Tran, Lit.
the beginningay, iii. 129, anter on the marine rudeness and ine (if they were
· 1 Dr. Henry, in his chapter on the manners of the Anglo-Saxons, says, “It
would be easy to produce many examples of rudeness and indelicacy, that were
established by law, and practised, even in courts of justice (if they were not
unbecoming the purity which history ought to preserve), which would hardly
be believed in the present age.” Henry's Hist. of Great Britain, iv. 344. He
then quotes the following specimeu in a note : Si mulier stuprata lege cum viro
agere velit, et si vir factum pernegaverit, mulier, membro virili sinistra pre-
henso, et dextrâ reliquiis sanctorum imposita, juret super illas, quod is, per vim,
se isto membro vitiaverit. Leges Wallicæ, p. 82.
2 Naked fakeers travel in pilgrimage about the country, and swarm around the
principal temples. It is customary for women to kiss, and as it were to adore,
their secret, or rather public parts.
3 See the whole Section in Halleil's Gentoo Code, De digito in pudendun
muliebre inserendo, or the various passagos de concubitu virili, vel ctiam con-
cubitu bestiali.
VOL. I.
322
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Hetopadesa, there are parts which M. Wilkins could not
CHAP. VIL, translate ; and he thus expresses himself on this characte-
ristic of society among the Hindus; “The translator has
carefully refined a great many indelicate expressions, which
a Hindu lady, from grosser habits, might hear without a
blush; and even omitted whole passages when that could not
be effected but by a total change of the author's meaning.”?
Another Oriental scholar, as well as eye-witness. of the
manners he describes, affords us a passage which at once
portrays this part of the Hindu character, and traces one
of those remarkable resemblances, which run through the
principal nations of Asia. "The Persian women," says
Mr. Scott Waring, “like the Indian, are totally devoid of
delicacy ; their language is often gross and disgusting, nor
do they feel more hesitation in expressing themselves be-
fore men, than they would before their female associates.
Their terms of abuse or reproach are indelicate to the
utmost degree. I will not disgust the reader by noticing
any of them ; but I may safely aver that it is not possible
for language to express, or the imagination to conceive,
more indecent or grosser images.” ?
Much attention has been attracted to the gentleness of
1 Wilkins' Hietopacesa. note 82.-M. If the popularity of the Hitopadesa is
an indication of a low state of moral feeling amongst the Hindus, it proves the
same amongst all the nations of Europe, as it has been translated into al lan-
guages. We may observe, too, that several of these stories, which are most
indelicate, have been the especial favourites of European writers, and have been
reproduiced in a variety of forms. See Analysis of the Panchatantra. Tr. R.As.
Society, vol. i. p. 155.-W.
2 A Tour to Sheeraz, by Edward Scott Waring, Esq. p. 62. He further says:
" The same may be observed of the inhabitants of India, nor will the plea, that
the false delicacy of refinement, which disqualifics is froin judging of the lan-
guage of nature, exempts them from censure. If the nakedness of a prostitute
be more disgusting than that of an Indian, it must be allowed that their lan-
guage is infinitely chaster and more refined. There are certain images which
must always create disgust and aversion; and altiiough they are familiar in the
East, it is by no means evident that they are the images of nature. There may
be a refinementon grossness of vice as well as an excess of delicacy, and it does
not follow that the onc is natuural and the other unnatural." Ibid. See the
Missionaries Ward and Dubois, passim,-M.
It is quite impossible that Mr. Waring could have known any thing of Persian
women, except of the lower orders; and probably he knew little more of Indian
women of respectability. The Missionaries are so on the watch for vice, that
tlicy often discover it where it cloes not exist; and their instances again are
drawn from the practices of the vulgar. Without denying the charge of much
that offends our notions of decency, and of much that is really rcprchensible,
allowance should be made for a state of society which consists of men alone.
The decorum of European manners is mainly indebted to the influence of
females ; at the same time few Europeans have found, in their intercourse
with respectable natives, any violation of delicacy cither in language or
behaviour.-W.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
323
manners in this people. They possess a feminine softness BOOK II.
both in their persons and in their address. As the inha- CHAP. VII. .
bitants of Europe were rough and impetuous, in their rude –
and early state, and grew mild only as they grew civilized,
the gentleness of Hindu manners has usually impressed
their European visitors with a high conception of their
progress in civilization. It is, perhaps, a ground of pre-
sumption, but fallacious if taken as a proof. One of the
circumstances which distinguish the state of commencing
civilization is, that it is compatible with great violence, as
well as great gentleness of manners. Nothing is more
common than examples of both. Mildness of address is
not always separated even from the rudest condition of
human life, as the Otaheitans, and some other of the
South-Sea islanders, abundantly testify. “The savages of
North America are affectionate in their carriage, and in
their conversations pay a mutual attention and regard,"
says Charlevoix, “ more tender and more engaging than
what we profess in the ceremonial of polished societies.”2
The causes which seem to account for these effects are
partly physical and partly moral. Where the commodities
of life, by a happy union of climate and soil, are abundant,
1 Dr. Forster, in a note to Father Paolino's (Bartolomeo) Travels, remarks a
great similarity, in many respects, between the manners of the Hindus and those
of the Otaheitans.
2 Ferguson's Essay on Civil Society, part ii. sect. 2, "The Russians" (says
Mr. Forster, Travels, ii.296) “observe to their superiors an extreme submis-
sion, and their deportment is blended with a suavity of address and language,
which is not warranted by their appearance, or the opinions generally formed
of them." "The common people in Russia," says Lord Macartney (Account
of Russia by Lord Macartney, in Barrow's Life of that lord, ii. 30), "are hand-
some in their persons, easy and unaffected in their behaviour ; and though free
and manly in their carriage, arc obedient and submissive to their superiors,
and of a civility and politeness to their equals, which is scarcely to be paral-
leled." The following passage is from a work entitled "Travels into the
Crimea, fand) a History of the Embassy from St. Petersburgh to Constanti-
nople in 1793, by a Secretary of the Russian Embassy." "In the course of
my rambles I have had frequent occasions of experiencing the politeness of the
Turks, which proves to me that this nation is extremely well-disposed and
inclined to oblige, and that the climate alone is the cause of the idleness and
indifference with which they are reproached. The Turk, when otfended, or
provoked to jealousy, becomes terrible, and nothing but the blood of liis ad-
Tersary can calm the passion which transports him. During my excursions in
the environs of Constantinople I was frequently a witness of the obliging end
hospitable propensities of this people. The first Turk I applied to when I
wanted directions in regard to the road I was to take, always offered himself
as a guide, and with the same readiness presented to me a part of his food or
refreshment.” “The more the Turks are known, the more they are beloved
for their cordiality, their frankness, and their excessive kindness to strangers.
· I am not afraid to assert, that, in many respects, they may serve as models to
my countrymen.”-pp. 201, 237.
324
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA,
I'
BOOK II. gentleness of manners, as appears by the traditions l'e-
CHAP. VII. specting the golden or pastoral age, is by no means un-
natural to men in the earliest period of improvement.
The savage, involved in a continual struggle with want,
who sees himself and his children every day exposed to
perish with hunger, is, by a sort of necessity, rapacious,
harsh, unfeeling, and cruel. The species of polity under
which the national character is formed is, perhaps, to a
still greater degree, the cause of the diversity which we
now contemplate. Where the mind is free, and may vent
its passions with little fear, the nation, while ignorant and
rude, is also fierce and impetuous. Where slavery prevails,
and any departure from the most perfect obsequiousness
is followed with the most direful consequences, an insinu-
ating and fawning behaviour is the interest, and thence
becomes the habit of the people.
With the same causes are connected other leading fea-
tures in the character of the Hindus. They are remark-
ably prone to flattery; the most prevailing mode of
address from the weak to the strong, while men are still
ignorant and unreflecting. The Hindus are full of dissi-
mulation and falsehood, the universal concomitants of
oppression. The vices of falsehood, indeed, they carry to
a height almost unexampled among the other races of
men. Judicial mendacity is more than common; it is
almost universal. "Perjury," said Sir William Jones, to
the Grand Jury at Calcutta, “seems to be committed by
the meanest, and encouraged by some of the better sort
1 It would be easy to produce many testimonies to the propensity of the
natives to adulation. Bernier, who speaks of it in the strongest terms, gives
us the following amusing instance: "Un Pendet Brahmen que j'avois fait
mettre au service de mon Agab, se voulut mêler, en entrant, de faire son
panegyrique ; et, après l'avoir comparé au plus grands conquérans qui furent
jamais, et lui avoir dit cent grossières et impertinentes flatteries, concluoit
enfin sérieusement par celle-cy: 'Lorsque vous mettez le pied dans l'estrier,
Seigneur, et que vous marchez à cheval avec votre cavalerie, la terre tremble
sous vos pas, les huit élephans qui la supportent sur leurs têtes ne pouvant
soutenir ce grand effort. Je ne pus me tenir de rire là dessus, et je tachois
de dire sérieusement à mon Agah, qui ne pouvoit aussi s'en tenir, qu'il seroit
donc fort à-propos, qu'il ne montât à cheval que fort rarement pour empescher
les tremblemens de terre qui causent souvent de si grands malheurs; Aussi
est-ce pour cela même, me répondit-il sans hésiter, que je m'en fais ordinaire-
ment porter en paléky.'" Bernier, Suite des Mémoires sur l'Empire du Grand
Mogol, i. 12.
2 For a strong testimony to the extent to which dissimulation pervades the
Hindu character, see Orme, on the Government and People of Hindustan,
p. 428. “L'Indien qui vit sous ce gouvernement en suit les impressions.
Obligé de ramper il devient fourbe." Anquetil Duperron, Voy. aux Indes
Orien. Zenday, i. ccclxii.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
325.
among the Hindus and Mussulmans, with as little remorse BOOK II.
as if it were a proof of ingenuity, or even a merit.”l.—" I CHAP. VII.
have many reasons to believe, and none to doubt, that
affidavits of every imaginable fact may as easily be pro-
cured in the streets and markets of Calcutta, especially
from the natives, as any other article of traffic,”? Speak-
ing of the forms of an oath among the Hindus, he says,
“ But such is the corrupt state even of their erroneous
religion, that if the most binding form on the consciences
of men could be known and established, there would be
few consciences to be bound by it."'3
I have not enumerated the religion of the Hindus as one
among the causes of gentleness which has been remarked
in their deportment. This religion has produced a prac- i
tice which has strongly engaged the curiosity of Euro-
peans ; a superstitious care of the life of the inferior
animals. A Hindu lives in perpetual terror of killing even
an insect; and hardly any crime can equal that of being
unintentionally the cause of death to any animal of the
more sacred species. This feeble circumstance, however,
is counteracted by so many gloomy and malignant princi-
1
1 Sir Wm. Jones's Charge to the Grand Jury at Calcutta, June 10, 1787.
2 Id. June 10, 1785.
3 Id. 1787.-"La facilité que le peuple de l'Orient ont à mentir," is given
by P. Paolino, as the cause of the trial by ordeal, so common in Hindustan.
Voyage aux Indes Orient. par le P. Paolino (the French edition of Bartolomeo),
ii. 103. Mr. Orme says, “The Geutoos are infamous for the want of generosity
and gratitude in all the commerces of friendship; they are a tricking, deceitful
people, in all their dealings.” On the Government and People of Hindustan,
p. 434.
Dr. Buchanan ridicules the expression of Sir William Jones, when he talks
of the simple Pandits: a race whose chief characteristic is deceit and cunning.
Asiat. Res. vi. 185.-M.
Most of these are exceptionable witnesses : the missionaries by their calling,
and Orme and Buchanan by strong prejudices. With regard to perjury in the
courts of justice, it was in some degree our own work. The form of oath im-
posed--the taking of an oath at all, was so repulsive to the feelings of respect-
åble Hindus, that they have ever avoided as much as possible giving evidence
at all; and their place has been supplied by the lowest and most unprincipled,
whose testimony bas been for sale. “The dread of an oath prevents men of
credit from giving testimony at all, even to the loss of a just cause." Treatise
on swearing Hindus by the waters of the Ganges, by Kasinath Tarkapancha-
nana. See Oriental Magazine, March, 1826.-W.
6. What is a Brahman?' I was one day asked, in a jocular way, by one of
that caste, with whom I was intimately acquainted: 'He is an ant's nest of lies
and impostures. It is not possible to describe them better in so few words.
All Hindus are expert in disguising the truth ; but there is nothing in which
the caste of Brahmens so much surpasses them all as in the art of lying. It
has taken so cleep a root among them, that so far from blushing when detected
in it, many of them make it their boast.” Dubois, p. 177. On their propensity
to adulation, see the same author, p. 178. On the fraud and perjury of the
Hindus, consult Ward, ut supra, Introd. lix, and xciii.
326
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. ples, that their religion, instead of humanizing the charac-
CHIAP. 111. ter, must have had no inconsiderable effect in fostering
that disposition to revenge, that insensibility to the suffer-
ings of others, and often that active cruelty which lurks"
under the smiling exterior of the Hindu. “Although the
killing of an animal of the ox kind," says Buchanan, “is
by all Hindus considered as a kind of murder, I know no
creature whose sufferings equal those of the labouring
cattle of Hindustan.”ı No other race of men are perhaps
so little friendly and beneficent to one another as the
Hindus. “Dysenteries," says Dr. Tennant, speaking of the
salt manufacturers, “are, at one season, peculiarly fatal.
The unhappy victims of this disorder are avoided as infec-
tious by their companions, and suffered to pine without
receiving either that aid or consolation which compassion
usually pays to the wretched.”? “The Bengalese," says
another traveller, “will seldom assist each other, unless
they happen to be friends or relations, and then the ser-
vice that they render only consists in carrying the sufferer
to the water of the Ganges, to let him die there, or be
carried away by the stream."3 Le Couteur remarks, that
“men accustomed from their infancy to abstain from every
kind of cruelty towards brutes, ought naturally to be
humane and benevolent towards their own species; and
this would infallibly be the case, if the same religion had
not hardened the hearts of the superior castes; for they
hold those that are born their inferiors as beings below
i Buchanan's Journey through Mysore, etc. i. 167.
? Indian Recrcations, ii. 329.
3 Stavorinus' Voyage, 1768 to 1771: Wilcock's Translation, London, 1798,
p. 153. Dr. Tennant explains more fully, that only species of assistance which,
according to Stavorinus, a Hindu receives even from his relations. When a
sick person's life is despaired of, he is carried by his relations to the bank of
the river; and there, exposed to the storm, or the licat of the sun, he is per-
mitted, or ratlier forced, to resign his breatlı. His inouth, nuse, and ears, are
closcly stopped with the mud of the river; large ressels of water are kept
pouring upon him; and it is amidst the agonies of discase, and the convulsive
struggles of suffocation, that the miserable Hindu bids a:iieu to his rcations,
and to his present cxistence." Indian Recreations, i, 108. Describing the
apáthy with which, during a famine, the Hindus beheld one another perishing
of hunger, Stavolinus says, “In the town of Chinsurah itself, a poor sick Ben-
galese, who had laid himself down in the strcet, without any assistance being
offered to him by anybody, was attacked in the night by the jackals, and though
le had strength enough to cry out for help, no one would leave his own abode
to deliver the poor Wretch, who was found in the inorning half-acroured and
dead." Stavorinus, ut supra, p. 153. It is highly worthy of attention, that
the same inhumanity, hard-heartedness, and the greatest insensibility to the
feelings of others, is described as the chiaracter of the Chinese. See Barrow's.
China, p. 164.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
. 327 :
even the most worthless animals : they take away the life BOOK II.
of a man with less scruple than we kill a fowl. To strike CHAP. VII.
a cow would be sacrilege ; but a Brahmen may put a man
to death when he lists."1
It commonly happens that in a rude period of society, the
virtue of hospitality, generously and cordially displayed,
helps to cast into the shade the odious passions which
adhere to man in his uncultivated state. The unhappy
circumstances, religious and political, of the Hindu, have
tended to eradicate even this, the virtue of a rude age,
from his breast. After noticing, in various parts of his
journey, the striking instances which he witnessed, of the
want of hospitality, Dr. Buchanan says in one passage, “I ·
mention these difficulties, which are very frequently met
with by travellers in all parts of India where Europeans
have not long resided, to show the inhospitable nature of
its inhabitants." For one of his sepoys, who was seized
with an acute disease, and left in agony by the side of the
road, he could not, except by force, in a large village,
obtain a cot, though he was assured there was one in every
house.?
1 Le Coutcur's Letters from India. London, 1790, p. 320. When the exac-
tions of government press hard, Dr. Tennant says: “the ryuts (husbandmen),
driven to despair, are forced to take up robbery for a subsistence; and when
once accustomed to this wandering and irregular life, it becomes ever after
impossible to reclaim them to industry, or to any sense of moral duty. We
had yesterday a melancholy example of the daring profligacy of which they
are capable: An officer who rode out only a mile beyond the piquets, was at.
tacked by a party of five horsemen ; in the midst of a friendly conversation,
one stabbed him in the breast with a spear, which brougiit hiin to the ground;
then the others robbed him of his watch, his horse, and every article of his
clothing. In this naked state he arrived at the piquet, covered with blood;
and had be not been able to walk thus far, he inust have fared worse than
the man who, between Jerusalem and Jericho fell among thieves,' since
here there is no one good Samaritan' to pity the unfortunate." (Indian
Recreations, ii. 375.)-M.
The gross exaggerations of his authorities should have made Mr. Will more
careful in his citations. It is not true, nor could it ever have been true,
that a “ Brahman may put a man to death, when he lists." What Dr.
Tennant's evidence is to prove, except that there are robbers and murderers
in India, as well as elsewhere, is not very clear.- 1.
2 Buchanan, ut supra, i. 53; ii. 201, 202 ; iii. 300. Destitute persons, or
persons in a famine, become the property of those who feed them. (Tennant's
Ind. Recr. i. 131.)-M.
As Dr. Buchanan could not converse with the natives, le might liave
mistaken the purport of the assurances, and the case of his sepoy might
have found a parallel in every village in Europe. Where would the people
have endured the “ forcible" abduction of their own beds for the accommo-
dation of even a dying soldier ? Dr. Tennant's exposition of the law con-
firms the judgment of the Edinburgh Reviewer, who states, that the facts
of his book are all taken from others, and that when he endeavours to give
any information from himself, he is sure to be inaccurate and contradictory.
Ed. Rev. iy. p. 314.- IV.
328
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. The ancient literature of the Hindus affords many proofs :
CHAP. VII. that no inconsiderable degree of ferocity has at all times
been mingled with the other ingredients of their character.
The Yadavas, a sacred race, the kindred of Crishna, in a
· drunken fray, took arms and butchered one another, to the
utter extinction of the race. One of the most remarkable
stories in the celebrated book, called Hetopadesc, is that of
a man who cut off his wife's nose, because she would not
speak to him. As the performance of that great religious
ceremony, called a Jug, is sufficient to extort from the
divinity whatever boon the true performer demands, the
following law makes provision against the most cool, in-
tense, and persevering malignity of which human nature
appears to be susceptible. “If a man performs a jug to
procure the death of any innocent person, the magistrate
shall fine him 200 puns of cowries."'3 If the gentleness,
too, of the punishment, about ten shillings, be a sign, the
indignation, which so atrocious a purpose excites, is far
from remarkable. That maurder by the most odious means,
by poison, is looked upon in the same venial light, the fol-
lowing law bear's equal testimony: “If a man, to procure
the death of any innocent person, by any contrivance,
causes him to drink a potion, or otherwise meditates his
death, the magistrate shall fine him 200 puns of cowries.” 5
The cool reflection which attends the villany of the Hindu,
has often surprised the European. Mr. Holwell informs
i See á celebrated passage of the Mahabharat, translated by Mr. Halled,
in Maurice's Indian Hist. ii. 468.
2 Wilkins' Hetopadesa, p. 131.--M. Mr. Mill does not state the circum-
stance quite correctly. To infer the general prevalence of ferocity from the .
narrative of a single instance is scarcely justifiable ; but what is more to the
purpose, is, that the same furnishes: a proof of the ferocious nature of every
people in Europe, for this particular story has been more popular than any.
other in the collection, if we may judge from its frequent repetition. Analysis
of Panchatantra. Trans. Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 162.-W.
3 Gentoo Code, ch. xxi. sect. 1.0.
4 Grant on the Hindus, p. 51. Printed by order of the House of Commons.
1812.
5 Gentoo Code, ch. xxi. sect. 10. A Fery intelligent servant of the East
India Company, speaking of the Hindus in a situation where they had hardly
ever been exposed to the influence of strangers, Suunbhulpoor, says, " The men
are low in stature, but well-made, lazy, treacherous, and cruel. But to these
ill qualities of the tiger, the Almighty has also, in his mercy, aclded the
cowardice of that animal; for had they an insensibility of danger, equal to
their inclination for mischief, the rest of mankind would unite to hunt them
down." (Motte's Journey to Orissa, Asiat. An. Reg. i. 76.) 6 Pestilence
or beasts of prey," says Dr. Buchanan, " are gentle in comparison with
Hindu robbers, who, in order to discover concealed property, put to the
torture all those who fall into their hands." (Travels through Mysore, &c.
iii. 206.)
. MANNERS OF THE HINDUS:
329
us, that, when he sat as a judge at Calcutta, he had often BOOK II.
heard the most atrocious murders avowed and defended CHAP. VII.
by the criminals, on the ground of its being now the Cali
age, when men are destined to be wicked.
Notwithstanding the degree to which the furious pas-
sions enter into the character of the Hindu, all witnesses
agree in representing him as a timid being. With more
apparent capacity of supporting pain than any other race
of men.; and, on many occasions, a superiority to the fear
of death, which cannot be surpassed, this people run from
danger with more trepidation and eagerness than has
been almost ever witnessed in any other part of the
globe.
It is the mixture of this fearfulness with their antisocial
passions, which has given existence to that litigiousness of
character which almost all witnesses have ascribed to this
ancient race. As often as courage fails them in seeking a
more daring gratification to their hatred or revenge, their
malignity finds a vent in the channel of litigation. «That
pusillanimity and sensibility of spirit,” says Mr. Orme,
“which renders the Gentoos incapable of supporting the
contentions of danger, disposes them as much to prosecute
litigious contests. No people are of more inveterate and
? Remarquez que les tems les plus superstitieux ont toujours été ceux des
plus horribles crimes. (Voltaire, Diction. Philos. Article Superstition.)
2 La lacheté accoinpagne ordinairement la mollesse. Aussi l'Indien est-il
cxvii.) This timidity admits of degrees. It is in its greatest perfection in
Bengal. In the upper provinces, both the corporeal and the mental frame are
more hardy. Those of the race who are habituated to the dangers of war,
acquire, of course, more or less of insensibility to them. Still the feature is.
uor only real, but prominess of insensibility to the monedangers of war.
svo vitu natred or revenge? We should b
3 Surely having recourse to law for the protection of their rights or per-
sons, instead of taking the law into their own hands, is no proof of want of
civilization. What would Mr. Mill have said if the case had been reversed,
and if the Hindus had been possessed of courage enough to seek a more daring
gratification of their hatred or revenge? We should have had the old and
new world ransacked, for instances to exemplify the savage manners of the
Hindus.-W.
4 The fact has by no means been established, and is denied by much higher
authority than Mr. Orme, who knew nothing of the people of India. Sir
Thomas Munro says, “I have had ample opportunity of observing them iil
every situation, and I can affirm, that they are not litigious." The opinion
has been hastily formed from a few instances in the Supreme courts, and froni
the great number of suits in the Provincial courts: the former do not warrant
a general conclusion, and the latter, to be duly estimated, require the numbers
of the population, and the fewness of the judges to be taken into account. The
circumstances of the country are also to be considered ; and the result will be,
that which has been advocated in a sensible tract upon the subject, that the
multitude of suits is referrible to the structure of society and state of property
in 'India, and to the imperfection of our own systeins of finance and judicature, .
330
HIISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK H. steady resentments in civil disputes. The only instance
CHAP. VII in which they seem to have a contempt for money, is their
profusion of it in procuring the redress and revenge of in-
juries at the bar of justice. Although they can, with great
resignation, see themselves plundered to the utmost by
their superiors, they become mad with impatience, when
they think they are defrauded of part of their property by
their equals. Nothing can be more adapted to the femi-
nine spirit of a Gentoo, than the animosities of a law-
suit."I
A modification of the same passions gives rise to an-
other, and seemingly a strong ingredient in the Hindu
character, a propensity to the war of contentious tongues.
The following picture, if not finely, is at least clearly
drawn. “The timidity of the Hindu may, in general, pre-
vent his fighting, boxing, or shedding of blood ; but it by
no means restrains him from scolding and upbraiding his
neighbours. In this respect they are the most litigious
and quarrelsome of all men. Have two persons a misun-
derstanding ?. Let them meet in the street, and they will
upbraid each other for an hour together, with every fou}
epithet of abuse which their imagination can suggest, or
their language supply. A few natives engaged in one of
these bickerings display a furious gesticulation : a volu-
bility of words, and coarseness of expression, which leave
the eloquence of Billingsgate far behind." ?
and not to any inherent difference in the moral character or natural disposition:
of the people.” Inquiry into the alleged proueness to litigation of the natives
of India. London, 1830.-W.
1 Orme, on the Government and People of Indostan, p. 443.- In the con-
mittee of the House of Commons, 1781, on the petition of John Toucliet, &c.,
Charles W. Boughton Rousc, Esq. testified that "there cannot be a race of
men upon the earth more litigious and clamorous than the inliabitants of
Dacca." Mr. Park takes 110tice of the passion of the negrocs in Africa for
law-suits, and adds: “If I may judge from their harangues which I frequently
attended, I believe that in the forensic qualifications of procrastination and
cavil, and the arts of confounding and perplexing a cause, they are not always
surpassed by the ablest pleaders in Europe.” Park's Travels in Africa, p. 20.
Dr. Robertson was sadly mistaken, when he considered the litigious subtlety
of the Hindus as a sign of hiylı civilization. See Robertson's Historic. Disa-
concerning India, p. 217. Travellers have remarked that no where is this
subtlety carried higher than among the wildest of the Irish.
? Tennant's Indian Recreations, i. 123. The following character drawn by a
missionary, a man who knew them well, unites most of the particulars which
I have bitherto described of the character of this remarkable people. "Les
Indious sont agiles, adroits, d'un caractère doux, d'un esprit pénétrant ; ils
aiment les plirases et les locutions pittoresqlies; ils parlent avec élégance,
font de longs discours, se décident, dans leurs affaires, avec une lenteur ex-
trême, examinent attentivement, et conçoivent avec facilité; ils sont modestes
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS. -
331
The physical temperament of the Hindus, though an BOOK II.
effect of some of the circumstances which have operated CHAP. VII.
to the formation of their minds, has reflected a strong
influence on their character. Their make is slender and
delicate. Their shapes are in general fine. The female
form, in particular, frequently attains in India its most
exquisite proportions; and “their skins," says Mr. Orme,
speaking of the Hindu women, “are of a polish and soft-
ness beyond that of all their rivals on the globe.” The
muscular strength, however, of the Hindus is small; even
less, according to the same accurate observer, than the
appearance of their bodies, though expressive of weak-
ness, would lead the spectator to infer. Their stature is
in general considerably below the European standard ;
though such inferiority is more remarkable in the south,
and diminishes as you advance toward the north.
The extreme simplicity and lightness of the aliments
used by the Hindu, and the smallness of his consumption,
must, undoubtedly, have been among the causes of the
lightness and feebleness observable in his frame. His
food consists almost wholly of rice; and his drink is 10-
thing but water: while his demands are satisfied with a
pittance which appears extreme to the people of almost
every other part of the world. The prohibition, by the
dans lcurs discours, inconstans dans leurs paroles, faciles à promcttre ct difii-
ciles à tenir leurs promesses, importuns dans leurs demandes, et ingrats après
qu'ils les ont obtenii ; liunble et soumis quand ils craignent, orgueilleux et
hautains quand ils sont les plus forts; paisibles et dissimulés quand ils ne
peuvent se venger, iimplacables et vindicatifs dès que l'occasion s'en lilésente.
J'ai vu beaucoup de famllles se ruiner par des procès devant les tribunaux,
seulement par esprit de vengeance." (Voyage aux Indes Orientales, par le P.
Paolino, i. 293.) “Their utmost feuds," says Fryer, "are determined by the
dint of the tongue : to scold lustily, and to pull one another's puckeries or
turbans off, being proverbially turmed a banyan figlit. Nevertheless they are
implacable till a secret and sure revenge fall upon their adversary, either by
maliciously plotting against their life, by clancular dealing; or estate, by un-
lawful and unjust extortions," (Fryer's Travels, let. iii. ch. iii.)
i Orie, on the Effeminacy of tlie Inhabitants of Indostan, p. 461 to 465.
Stavorinus' Voyages, p. 407. There is, however, considerable variety, as in
the stature, so in the strength of the Hindus; and the one, as might be ex-
pected, follows the other. The following is a striking and important fact:
(In Indostan, the common people of all sorts are a diminutive race, in com-
parison with those of higher castes and better fortunes; and yield still more
to them in all the advantages of physiognomy. There is not a handsomer
race in the universe than the Banians of Guzerat: the Haramcores, wliose
business is to remove all kinds of filth, and the buriers and burners of dead
bodies, are as remarkably ugly," Orine, ut supra, p. 463. There cannot be
more convincing proof, that a state of extreme oppression, even of stunted
subsisterice, has at all times been the wretched lot of the labouring classes i
Hindustau.
332.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. Hindu religion, of the flesh of animals for food, has been
CHAP. VII. sufficiently remarked. It is not such as to have produced
by any means a total abstinence, but the quantity con-
sumed is, no doubt, small. The great luxury of the Hindu
is butter, prepared in a manner peculiar to himself, and
called by him, ghee.
But though the body of the Hindu is feeble, it is agile
in an extraordinary degree. Not only in those surprising
contortions and feats, which constitute the art of the
tumbler, do they excel almost all the nations in the world;
but even in running and marching they equal, if not sur-
pass, people of the most robust constitutions. “Their
messengers will go fifty miles a day, for twenty or thirty
days without intermission." Their infantry, if totally
unincumbered with burdens, which they could by no means
support, will march faster, and with less weariness, than
European.3
The delicacy of their texture is accompanied with great
acuteness and sensibility in all their organs of sense.
This not only gives them great advantages in some of the
finest of the manual arts, as weaving, for example; the
pliant fingers and exquisite touch of the Hindu being so
peculiarly adapted to the handling of the finest threads:
but it communicates a remarkable susceptibility to the
mental organs. The Hindu is a sort of a sensitive plant.
His imagination and passions are easily inflamed; and
he has a sharpness and quickness of intellect which seems
strongly connected with the sensibility of his outward
frame.
Another remarkable circumstance in the character of
the Hindus; in part, too, no doubt, the effect of corporeal
i There was no such prohibition: and abstinence from flesh upon principle
is restricted to some tribes of Brahmans. Nor is it true, that the food of the
Hindu consists almost wholly of rice. In Hindustan, his food is wheat; and
rice is almost unknown. In many places wheat, or other grains, take the
place of rice.-W.
2 Orme, on the Government and People of Indostani, p. 470. Forster's
Travels, i. 40. The demand of the American tribes for food was very like that
of the Hindus, in point of quantity. Robertson's Hist. of America, ii. 63.
The contrivances of the American Indians for food were far more ingenious,
and productive of more variety, than those of the Hindus. Ibid. p. 118. It
would appear from Sacontala, that anciently much scruple was not used in
eating fiesh. Madhavya, complaining of the hardships he sustained in the
hunting party of the king, says, “ Are we hungry? We must greedily devour
lean venison, and that commonly roasted to a stick."
3 Orme, on the Effeminacy of the Inhab. of Indostan, ubi supra.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
333
weakness, though an effect in some sort opposite to that BOOK II.
excitability which we have immediately remarked, is the CHAP. VII.
inertness of disposition, with which all men have been so
forcibly struck in observing the conduct of this peculiar
race. The love of repose reigns in India with more
powerful sway, than in any other region probably of the
globe. “It is more happy to be seated than to walk; it
is more happy to sleep than to be awake; but the happiest
of all is death.” Such is one of the favourite sayings,
most frequently in the mouths of this listless tribe, and
most descriptive of their habitual propensities. Phleg-
matic indolence pervades the nation. Few pains, to the
mind of the Hindu, are equal to that of bodily exertion ;
the pleasure must be intense which he prefers to that of
its total cessation.2
This listless apathy and corporeal weakness of the na-
tives of Hindustan, have been ascribed to the climate
under which they live. But other nations, subject to the
influence of as warm a sun, are neither indolent nor weak;
the Malays, for example, the Arabians, the Chinese. The
savage is listless and indolent under every clime. In
general, this disposition must arise from the absence of
the motives to work; because the pain of moderate labour
is so very gentle, that even feeble pleasures suffice to
overcome it; and the pleasures which spring from the
fruits of labour are so many and great, that the prospect
of them, where allowed to operate, can seldom fail to pro-
duce the exertions which they require. There is a state
of barbarity and rudeness which implies, perhaps, a weak-
1 It is not true that this is a favourite saying. I never heard it uttered
during a long residence in Bengal, and doubt its genuineness.-W.
2 Tennant's Indian Recreations, i. 15, 55, 102,215. Forster's Travels, i. 192.
"L'Indien est naturellement doux, mais d'une douceur de nonchalance et de
paresse." Ang. Duperron, Zendavesta, Disc. Prelim. p. cxvii.
3 The Birmans, robust and active, present a striking contrast with the feeble
indolence of the Hindus. Vide Symes' Einbassy to Ava. "Having witnessed,"
says Mr. Forster, “the robust activity of the people of this country (Northern
Persia) and Afghanistan, I am induced to tliink, that the human body may
sustain the most laborious services, without the aid of animal food. The
Afghan, whose sole aliment is bread, curdled milk, and water, inhabiting a
climate which often produces in one day extreme heat and cold, shall undergo
as much fatigue, and exert as much strength, as the porter of London, who
copiously feeds on flesh-meat and ale; nor is he subject to the like acute and
obstinate disorders. It is a well-known fact, that the Arabs of the shore of
the Red Sea, who live, with little exception, on dates and lemons, carry burdens
of such an extraordinary weight, that its specific mention to an European
ear would seem romance." Forster's Travels, ii. 142, 143.
334
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. ness of mind too great to be capable of perceiving, with a
CHAP. VII. clearness sufficient to operate upon the will, the benefits of
- labour. This, however, is a state beyond which the Hindus
have long since passed; and there is but one cause, to
which, among the Hindus, the absence of the motives for
labour can be ascribed; their subjection to a wretched
government, under which the fruits of labour were never
secure.1
The lauguid and slothful habits of the Hindu appear to
· hare prescribed even his amusements and diversions.
They are almost all of the sedentary and inactive kind.
The game of pucheess, which bears a resemblance to
chess and draughts, and is played by two natives, reclining
on their sides, with a small chequered carpet placed be-
tween them, is the favourite amusement of this indolent
race. Wonderful is the patience and interest with which,
we are told, they watch and plan the evolutions of this
languid game. The mind in vacuity droops and pines;
even where the body is most gratified by repose; and in
the rude state of society, when interesting objects seldom
occur, the passion for play is a general resource. The
Hindus, accordingly, appear to have been at all times
deeply infected with the vices of gaming. In that cele-
brated poem, the Mahabharat, Judishter, though celebrated
as a model of kingly wisdom, and his four brothers, all
eminent men, are represented as losing their fortunes, and
1 There is a curious passage, quoted by Volney, (Travels in Syria, ch. xi.) from
Hippocrates, in his Treatise de Aere. Locis, et Aquis. “As to the effeminacy
and indolence of the Asiatics,” says the ancient, “if they are less warlike and
more gentle in their manners than the Europeans, no doubt the nature of their
climate, more temperate than ours, contributes greatly to this difference. But
we must not forget their governments, which are all despotic, and subject every
thing to the arbitrary will of their kings. Men who are not permitted the
enjoyment of their natural rights, but whose passions are perpetually under the
guidance of their masters, will never be found courageous in battle. To them
the risks and advantages of war are by no means equal. But let them combat
in their own cause, and reap the reward of their victory, or feel the shame of
their defeat, they will no longer be deficient in courage. Volney remarks that
the sluggishness and apathy visible among the Hindus, ncgroes, &c., is
approaclicd, if not equalled, by what is witnessed in Russia, Poland, Hungary,
&c. Ibid. "The lower classes of people in India," says Dr. Buchanan, "are
like childreri; and except in the more considerable places, where they meet
with uncommon encourageinent to industry from Europeans, are generally in
such a state of apathy, that without the orders of Government, they can hardly
do any thing." Buchanan's Journey through plysore, &c. i. 270. 6. If we con-
template a savage nation in any part of the globe, a supine indolence, and a
carelessness of futurity, will be found to constitute their general character."
Gibbon, i. 356.
? Tennart's Indian Recreations, i. 367.
· MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
335
. their very kingdoms, at dice. The laws, as usual, are BOOK II.
ambiguous and contradictory. All gaming is pronounced CIAP. VII.
unlawful; yet, according to the Gentoo Code, parties may
game before an agent of the magistrate, to whom in that
case a half of the winnings belongs.!
A fondness for those surprising feats of bodily agility
and dexterity which form the arts of the tumbler and the
juggler, is a feature in the character of the Hindu. It is
a passive enjoyment which corresponds with the passive-
ness of his temper: and it seems in general to be adapted
to the taste of all men in a similar state of society. Our
Saxon ancestors were much addicted to this species of
amusement; and their tumblers and jugglers had arrived
at great proficiency. The passion of the Chinese for those
diversions is known to be excessive, and the powers of
their performers almost incredible. This was one of the
favourite entertainments of the ancient Mexicans; and
their surprising dexterity and skill seem hardly to have
yielded to that of the Hindus and Chinese. Clavigero con:
cludes a minute and interesting account of the astonishing
feats of the Mexican performers, by remarking, that “the
first Spaniards, who were witnesses of these and other
exhibitions of the Mexicans, were so much astonished at
their agility, that they suspected some supernatural power
assisted them, forgetting to make a due allowance for the
progress of the huinan genius when assisted by application
and labour."4
A taste for buffoonery is very generally a part of the
character of a rude people; as appears by the buffoons,
who, under the name of fools, were entertained by our
Gothic ancestors in the courts of princes and the palaces
i Gentoo Code, chap. i. sect. i. "So relaxed are the principles eren of the
richier natives, that actions have been brought by an opulent Hindu for money
advanced solely to support a common gaming-louse, in the profits of which he
had a considerable share, and the transaction was avowed by him with as much
confidence, as ifit had been perfectly justifiable by our laws and his own." Charge
to the Grand Jury of Calcutta, Dec. 4, 1788.. Gaming is remarked as a strong
characteristic of the Chinese. See Barrow's Life of Lord Dacartney, ii. 415.
Travels in China, p. 157. It is a remarkable passion among the Malays. See
Marsden's Sumatra
2 Turner's Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, book viii. ch, vii.-M. Jugglers and
tumbler's find encouragement in civilised, as well as uncivilised nations; and
our Saxon ancestors would find, on many occasions, their descendants enjoying
the exhibition with quite as much interest as themselves,W.
3 See Barrow, and other travellers. Bell's Travels, ii. 30.
4.Clavigero, Hist. of Mexico, book vii. sect. 46.
336
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. of the great.' Among the Hindus, this source of amuse-
CHAP. VII. ment was an object of so much importance, as to become
the subject of legislative enactment. “The magistrate,"
says the Gentoo Code, “shall retain in his service a great
number of buffoons, or parasites, jesters, and dancers, and
athletics.":2
Story-telling, which entirely harmonizes with the Hinduz
tone of mind, is said to be a favourite diversion. The
recitations of the bards with which the people of Europe
were formerly so much delighted, afforded an entertain-
ment of the same description. The stories of the Hindus
consist of the wildest fictions; and as almost all their
Tritten narratives are in verse, their spoken stories, it is
probable, like the effusions of the bards, contained occa-
sionally more or less of the measure and elevation of
verse. Music and dancing form a part of their entertain-
ments; the latter, however, they enjoy as spectators chiefly,
not performers. .
Notwithstanding the indolence and inactivity of the
Hindus, hunting, which is in general so favourite a sport
of man in his uncivilized state, is capable of calling forth
thếir most strenuous exertions. The different classes
seem not only to forget their habitual languor and
timidity, but their still more inveterate prejudices of
caste, and join together in pursuing the tenants of the
woods and mountains with an ardour, enterprise, and
patience, which no other people can surpass.5
It is curious that avarice, which seems but little con-
sistent with sloth, or that insecurity with regard to pro-
1 Buffoons, under the name of fools, were retained in Euopean courts, long
subsequent to the days of Gothic princes; and in days when Mr. Mill would
probably admit that civilization had made some advance.-W.
2 Gentoo Code, p. 118.
53 Tennant's Indian Recreations, i. 367.-M. Story-telling is not a Hindu
diversion. If in use amongst them, it has been borrowed from the Moham.
medans, amongst whon it takes the place of dramatic performances. What is
presently said of the 'wild fictions' which these stories relate, and the probabi-
lity of their being in verse, is wholly gratiuitous. In ancient times, it seems
likely that their heroic poems were recited, as was practised in Greece, even in
polished times.-W.
stories," says Mr. Park, “bear some reseinblance to those in the Arabian Nights
Entertainments; but, in general, are of a more ludicrous cast." Park's Travels
in Africa, p. 3]. ..
5 Tennant's Indian Recreations, i. 367, and other travellers. Hunting,
which delights other men chiefly in their ignorant and uncivilized state, seems
to delight kings in all states.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
337
perty which so bad a government as theirs implies, forms BOOK II.
a more remarkable ingredient in the national character of CHAP. VII.
the Hindus, than in that of any other people. It is a
passion congenial to a weak and timid mind, unwarmed
by the social affections. They are almost universally
penurious;' and where placed in situations in which their
insatiable desire of gain can meet with its gratification, it
is not easy to surpass their keenness and assiduity in the
arts of accumulation. “Slavery," says Mr. Orme, “has
sharpened the natural fineness of all the spirits of Asia.
From the difficulty of obtaining, and the greater difficulty
of preserving, the Gentoos are indefatigable in business,
and masters of the most exquisite dissimulation in all
affairs of interest. They are the acutest buyers and sellers
in the world, and preserve through all their bargains a
degree of calmness, which baffles all the arts that can be
opposed against it.” The avaricious disposition of the
Hindus is deeply stamped in their maxims of prudence
and morality. Thus, they say: “From poverty a man
cometh to shame. Alas! the want of riches is the foun-
dation of every misfortune. - It is better to dwell in a
forest haunted by tigers and lions, than to live amongst
relations after the loss of wealth."4
i Dr. Buchanan, who bears strong testimony to the prevalence of this dis-
position among the Hindus, says, the Nairs are a sort of an exception. He
ascribes tliis peculiarity to the peculiar form given among them to the associa-
tion of the sexes. Journey through Mysorc, &c. ii. 411.
2 The following acute observation of Helvetilis goes far to account for it:
“ Ce que j'observe, c'est qu'il est des pays où le désir d'immenses richesses
devient raisonnable. Ce sont ceux où les taxes sont arbitraires, et par consé-
quent les possessions incertaines, où les renversemens de fortune sont fréquens;
où, comme en Orient, le prince peut impunément s'emparer des propriétés de:
ses sujets.-Dans ce pays, si l'on désire les trésors de Amboulcasant, c'est,
que toujours exposé a les perdre, on espère ait inoins tirer des débris a'une:
grande fortune de quoi subsister soi et sa famille. Partout où la loi sans force:
ne peut proteger le foible contre le puissant, on peut regarder l'opulence.
comme un moyen de se soustraire aux injustices, aux vexations du fort, au.
mépris enfin, compagnon de la foiblesse. On désire donc une grande fora.
tune comme une protectrice et un bouclier contre les oppresseurs." De
l'Homme, scct. viii. chap. v.
3 Orme, on the Government and People of Indostan, p. 431.." L'Indien qui
vit sous ce gouvernment en suit les impressions. Obligé de ramper, il devicnto
fourbe. * * * Il se permet l'usuure et la fraude dans le commerce." An..
quet. Duperron, Zendavesta, Disc. Préliin. p. cxvii.-" The chief pleasure of
the Gentiles or Banyans, is to cheat on another, conceiving therein the
highest felicity." Fryer's Travels, let, iii. chap. iii.
4 Wilkins' Hetopadesa, p. 63. The last of these maxims is not less expressive
of that want of generosity, which is so strong a feature of the Hindu cha-
racter. In the ethics, however, of the Hindus, as well as their jurisprudence
and theology, contradiction is endless. In the same page with the foregoing
VOL. I.
388
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
*
BOOK II. The mode of transacting bargains among the Hindus is.
CHAP. vii. sufficiently peculiar to deserve description. By a refine-
ment of the cunning and deceitful temper of a rude people,
the business is performed secretly, by tangible signs. The
buyer and seller seat themselves opposite to one another,
and covering their hands with a cloth, perform all the
most subtle artifices of chaffering, without uttering a
word, by means of certain touches and signals of the
fingers, which they mutually understand.1
The simplicity of the houses, dress, and furniture, of the
Hindus corresponds with that of their diet..“ The Indian
houses," says Sonnerat, "display nothing of oriental mag-
mud, sometimes of brick, and thatched. “ Brahmens and
religious people plaster the pavement, and sometimes the
walls, with cow-dung; and although this act proceeds
from a spirit of religion, yet it is of use in keeping out
insécts.”3 The furniture, which is almost nothing in the
houses of the poor, is in the highest degree scanty and
floor, on which they are accustomed both to sit and to lie,
with a few earthen and other vessels for the preparation
of their victuals and for their religious ceremonies, form
the inventory in general of their household goods.4
· From the frequency and care with which the Hindus
is the following maxim : “ He who, in opposition to his own happiness, de
lighteth in the accunlation of riches, carrieth burdens for others, and is the
vehicle of trouble." Ibid.
1 Tennant's Indian Recreations, ü, 232, Lord's Banyan Religion, chap. xxii.
The same, or a similar mode of transacting bargains, is followed in Persia.
Chardin, Voyage en Perse, iii. 122. « The merchants, besides being frequently
very dexterous in the addition and subtraction of large sums by memory, have
a singular method of enumeration, by putting their hands into each other's
: sleeve, and there, touching one another with this or that finger, or with such
a particular joint of it, will transact affairs of the greatest value, without
:speaking to one another, or letting the standers by into the secret.” Shaw's
'Travels in Barbary, p. 267.
:9 Sonnerat, Voyages, liv. iii. chap. I.
3 Ibid. ; Fryer's Travels, let. iv. chap. 6.
4 P. Paolino, Voy. Indes Orient. liv. i. ch. 7. Fryer, who represents the
houses of the Moors, or Mussulmen, at Surat, as not deficient even in a sort of
magnificence, says, humorously, that "the Banyans" (Hindu merchants, often
extremely rich, is for the most part live in bumble cells or sheds, crowding
three or four families together into a hovel, with goats, cows, and calves, all
chamber-fellows, that they are almost poisoned with vermin and nastiness ; so
stupid, that, notwithstanding chints, fleas, and musketoes, torment them
every minute, they dare not presume to scratch when it itches, lest some rela..
tion should be untenanted from its miserable abode." Fryer's Travels, let. iii,
chap. i.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
339
perform religious ablutions, the Europeans, prone from BOOK II.
partial appearances to draw flattering conclusions, painted CHAP. VII.
them, at first, as in the colours of so many other virtues,
so likewise in those of cleanliness. Few nations are sur:
passed by the Hindus, in the total want of physical purity,
in their streets, houses, and persons. : Mr. Forster, whose
long residence in India, and knowledge of the country;
render him an excellent witness, says of the narrow streets
of Benares; “ In addition to the pernicious effect which
must proceed from a confined atmosphere, there is, in the
hot season, an intolerable stench arising from the many
pieces of stagnated water dispersed in different quarters
of the town. The filth also which is indiscriminately
thrown into the streets, and there left exposed, (for the
Hindus possess but a small portion of general cleanliness)
adds to the compound of ill smells so offensive to the
European inhabitants of this city.”. Dr. Buchanan in-
forms us, that “the earthen pots in which the Hindus
boil their milk, are in general so nasty, that after this
operation no part of the produce of the dairy is tolerable
to Europeans, and whatever they use, their own servants
must prepare."2 «The Hindoo,” says Mr. Scott Waring,
“who bathes constantly in the Ganges, and whose heart
equals in purity the whiteness of his vest, will allow this
same white robe to drop nearly off with filth before he
thinks of changing it. Histories, composed in the closet,
of the manners of extensive nations may possess every
beauty; for as facts do not restrain the imagination, nor
impose rules on poetic license, the fancy of the historian
enjoys an uninterrupted range in the regions of fiction."3
| Forster's Travels, i. 32. Of Lucknow, too, he remarks, the streets are
narrow, weven, and almost choked up with every species of filth. Ibid. p. 82,
Speaking of Serinagur, he says, “ The streets are choked with the filth of the
inhabitants, who are proverbially unclean." Ibid. See to the same purpose,
Rennel's Descriptiou of an Indian Town, Memoir, p. 58.
2 Buchanan's Journey through Mysore, &c. ii. 14. He remarks, too, iii. 341,
that the unwholesomeness of the water in many places is “ in part, to be attri-
buted to the common nastiness of the Hindus, who wash their clothes, bodies,
and cattle, in the very tanks or wells from which they take their own drink;
and, wherever the water is scanty, it becomes from this cause extremely dis-
gusting to a European."
3 Tour, to Sheeraz, by. Ed. Scott Waring, p. 58, note.-" Their nastiness,"
says Dr. Buchanan, “is disgusting; very few of the inhabitants above the
Ghats being free from the itch; and their linen, being almost always dyed, is
seldom washed.” Travels through Mysore, &c. i. 135.-Sec, too, Capt. Hard..
Wicke, Asiat. Res. vi, 330. The authors of the Universal History describe
with pure and picturesque simplicity one pretty remarkable custom of the
310
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK II. To a superficial view, it appears surprising that over-
CILAP. VII. strained sentiments in regard to the ceremonial of beha-
viour are a mark of the uncivilized state of the human
mind. The period when men have but just emerged from
barbarism, and have made the first feeble steps in improve-
ment, is the period at which formalities in the intercourse
of social life are the most remarkably multiplied, at which
the importance attached to them is the greatest, and at
which the nice observance of them is the most rigidly
exacted. In modern Europe, as manners have refined,
and knowledge improved, we have thrown off the puncti-
lious ceremonies which constituted the fine breeding of
our ancestors; and adopted more and more of simplicity
in the forms of intercourse. Among the inhabitants of
Hindustan, the formalities of behaviour are multiplied to
excess; and the most important bonds of society are
hardly objects of greater reverence. Some of their rules
breathe that spirit of benevolence, and of respect for the
weak, which begins to show itself partially at an early
period of society, and still wants much of its proper
strength at a late one. The distinctions of giving way on
the road are thus marked in the Gentoo code; a man with
sight to a man blind; a man with hearing to a man deaf;
a man to a woman; a man empty-handed to a man with a
burden; an inferior person to a superior; a man in health
Hindus. "The women scruple no more than the men to do their occasions in
the public streets or highways: for which purpose at sun-rise and sun-set,
they go out ini droves to some dead wall, if in the city; and in case any pass
be in the interim, they turn their bare backsides on them, but hide their faces.
When they have done their business, they wash their parts with the left hand,
because they eat with the right. The men, who exonerate apart from the
women, squat like them when they make water. Although their food is
nothing but vegetables concocted with fair water, yet they leave such a stink
behind them, that it is but ill taking the air, either in the streets, or without
the towns, near the rivers and ditches.". vi. 265. Yet these authors, witli tho
same breath, assure us that the Hindus are a cleanly people, becausc, and this
is their sole reason, they wash before and after meals, and leave no hair on
their bodies. Ibid. · See to the same purpose, Fryer's Travels, let. iv. chap.
vi.-M.
Notwithstanding all that is here said, or the observations cited in the text,
which are cither exaggerated or applicable to the poorest classes, the Hindus
are a cleanly people, and may be compared, with decided advantage, with the
nations of the south of Europe, both as regards thcir habitations and their
persons. There are many of their practices which might be introduced even
into the north with benefit.-W.
1 See a curious description of the excess to which the minute frivolilies of
behaviour are carricd both among the Moors and Hindus, by Mr. Orine, on
the Government and People of Indostan, pp, 425 and 431. Sce, also, Laws of
Menu, ch. ii. 120 to 139.
MANNERS OF THE HINDUS.
311
to a sick person; and all persons to a Brahmen. Not a BUOK II.
few of their rules bear curious testimony to the unpolished CHAP. VII.
state of society in which they were prescribed. “If a
man," says one of their laws, “having accepted another's
invitation, doth not eat at his house, then he shall be
obliged to make good all the expense that was incurred in
consequence of the invitation.". When a Hindu gives an
entertainment, he seats himself in the place of greatest
distinction; and all the most delicate and costly of the
viands are placed before him. The company sit according
to their quality, the inferior sort at the greatest distance
from the master, each eating of those dishes only which
are placed before him, and they continually decreasing in
fineness, as they approach the place of the lowest of the
guests.3
The attachment which the Hindus, in common with all
ignorant nations, bear to astrology, is a part of their
manners exerting a strong influence upon the train of
their actions. “The Hindus of the present age," says a
partial observer,“ do not undertake any affair of couse-
quence without consulting their astrologers, who are always
Brahmens."4 The belief of witchcraft and sorcery con-
C
that Brahmens, tried for murder before the English judges,
assigu as their motive to the crime, that the murdered
i Gentoo Code, ch. xxi. sect. 10.
i ant
2 Ibid.
3 Tennant's Indian Recreations, i. 254,-M. Dr. Tennant speaks confidently
of many things of which he must have been utterly ignorant. In a prcceding
passage, he compares the eloqucnce of Hindu vituperation to that of Billings-
gate; it is very doubtful if he ever understood & syllable uttered on such an
occasion. Here he describes the particulars of a Hindu entertainment, as it
he had witnessed one, although it is wholly impossible that he should ever
have dined with a Hindu, or been present on any such occasion ; yet he is one
of Mr. Mill's principal authorities.-W.
: principal science of the Bralımen is magic and theology. Travels, let. iv.
ch. vi. Of the astonishing degree to which the Indians of all descriptions are
devoted to astrology, see a lively description by Bernier, Suites des Mémoires
sur l'Empire du Grand Mogol, i, 12 à 14. "Les rois, et les seigneurs," says
ne, " qui l'entreprendroient la moindre chose qu'ils n'eussent consultés les
astrologues, leur donnent de grands appointements pour lire ce qui est écrit
dans le ciel." Ibid. "The savages," says Mallet (Introd. to the Hist. of
Denmark, i. ch. i.)," whom the Danes have found on the coast of Greenland,
live with great union and tranquillity. They are neither quarrelsome, nor
mischievous, nor warlike; being grcatly afraid of those that are. Theft,
blows, and murder, are almost unknown to them. They are chaste before
marriage, and love their children tenderly. Their simplicity hath not been
able to preserve them from having priests, who pass among them for en-
chanters; and arc, in truth, very great and dexterous chcats."
342
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
-BOOK II. individual had enchanted them. No fewer than five uni
CHAP, VII. happy persons in one district were tried and executed for
witchcraft, so late as the year 1792. The villagers them-
selves assume the right of sitting in judgment on this
imaginary offence; and their sole instruments of proof
are the most wretched of all incantations. Branches of
the Saul tree, for example, one for each of the suspected
individuals, inscribed with her name, are planted in water.
If any of them withers within a certain time, the devoted
female, whose name it bears, suffers death as a witch.2
1 It is not so long since belief in witchcraft and astrology ceased to pre-
vail in Europe, that we need to be very severe upon similar absurdities in
Asia. ---W.
2 See an account of this shocking part of the manners of the Hindus in the
Asiat. An. Regist, for 1901, Miscellaneous Tracts, p. 91.-M.
For some additional remarks on the tone and spirit of this chapter, s
D. in the Appendix.-W.
NOTES.
.
NOTE A. p. 233.
“5. This universe existed only in the first divine idea yet unex-
panded, as if involved in darkness, imperceptible, undefinable,
undiscoverable by reason, and undiscovered by revelation, as if it
were wholly immersed in sleep;
.“6. Then the sole self-existing power, himself undiscerned,
but making this world discernible, with five elements and other
principles of nature, appeared with undiminished glory, expand-
ing his idea, or dispelling the gloom.
“7. He, whom the mind alone can perceive, whose essence
eludes the external organs, who has no visible parts, who exists
from eternity, even he, the soul of all beings, whom no being
can comprehend, shone forth in person.
“8. He, having willed to produce various beings from his
own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters,
and placed in them a productive seed:
69. The seed became an egg bright as gold, blazing like the
luminary with a thousand beams; and in that egg he was born
himself, in the form of BRAHMA, the great forefather of all
spirits.
5 10. The waters are called nara, because they were the pro-
duction of NARA, 0? the Spirit of God; and, since they were
his first ayana, or place of motion, he thence is named NARA-
YANA, or moving on the waters.
“11. From THAT WHICH IS, the first cause, not the object of
· sense, existing every where in substance, not existing to our per-
ception, without beginning or end, was produced the divine male,
famed in all worlds under the appellation of BRAHMA.
*““ 12. In that egg the great power sat inactive a whole year
of the Creator, at the close of which, by his thought alone, he
caused the egg to divide itself.
.: «13. And from its two divisions he framed the beaven above
. and the earth beneath: in the midst he placed the subtile ether,
the eight regions, and the permanent receptacle of waters.
“ 14. From the supreme soul he drew forth mind, existing
314
NOTE A.
substantially though unperceived by scnse, immaterial; and
before mind, or the reasoning power, he produced consciousness,
the internal monitor, the ruler:
“ 15. And, before them both, he produced the great principle of
the soul, or first expansion of the divine idea ; and all vital forms
endued with the threc qualities of goodness, passion, and dark-
ness; and the five perceptions of sense, and the five organs of
sensation.
"16. Thus, having at once pervaded, with cmanations from
the Supreme Spirit, the minutest portions of six principles im-
mensely operative, consciousness and the five perceptions, he
framed all crcatures;
“ 17. And since the minutest particles of visible nature have:
a dependence on those sir emanations from God, the wise have
accordingly given the name of sarira or depending on six, that is,
the ten organs on consciousness, and the five elements on as many
perceptions, to his image or appearance in visible nature.
“ 18. Thence proceed tie great elements endued with pecu-
liar powers, and mind with operations infinitely subtile, the un-
perishable cause of all apparent forms.
“ 19. This universe, therefore, is compacted from the minute
portions of those seen divinc and active principles, the great
soul, or first emanation, consciousness and five perceptions; a
mutable universe from immutable ideas.
“ 20. Among them each succeeding element acquires the
quality of the preceding: and, in as many degrees as each of
them is advanced, with so many properties is it said to be en-
dued.
“21. He too first assigned to all creatures distinct names,
distinct acts, and distinct occupations; as they had been re-
vcalcd in the pre-existing Veda.
" 22. He, the supreme ruler, created an assemblage of inferior
deities, with divine attributes and pure souls; and a number of
genii exquisitely delicate: and ho prescribed the sacrifice or-
dained from the beginning.
- 23. From fire, from air, and from the sun he milked out, as
it were, the three primordial Vedas, named Rich, Yajush and
Saman, for the due performance of the sacrifice.
“ 24. He gave being to time and the divisions of time, to the
stars also, and to the planets, to rivers, occans, and mountains,
to level plains, and uneven valleys.
“ 25. To devotion, speech, complacency, desire, and wrath,
and to the creation, which shall presently be mentioned; for
he willed the existence of all those created things.
.60 26. For the sake of distinguisling actions, he made a total
NOTE Α.
345
difference between right and wrong, and enured these sentient
creatures to pleasure and pain, cold and heat, and other opposite
pairs.
:- 27. With very minute transformable portions, called matras,
of the fire elements, all this perceptible world was composed in
fit order;
.6 28. And in whatever occupation the supreme lord first ein-
ployed any vital soul, to that occupation the same soul attaches
itself spontaneously, when it receives a new body again and
again:
.“ 29. Whatever quality, noxious or innocent, harsh or mild,
unjust or just, false or true, he conferred on any being at its
creation, the same quality enters it of course on its future births;
“ 30. As the six seasons of the year attain respectively their
peculiar marks in due time, and of their own accord, even so.
the several acts of each embodied spirit attend it naturally.
"31. That the human race might be multiplied, he caused
the Brahmen, the Cshatriyu, the Vaisya, and the Sudra (so
pamed from the scripture, protection, wealth, and labour) to pro-
ceed from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and his foot..
"32. Having divided his own substance, the mighty Power
became half male, half female, or nature active and passive; and
W VIRAT
from that female he produced VIRAJ:
" 33. Know me, 0 most excellent of BRAHMENS, to be that
person, whom the male power VIRAJ, having performed austere
devotion, produced by himself; me, the secondary framer of all
this visible world.
“ 34. It was I, who, desirous of giving birth to a race of men,
performed very difficult religious duties, and first produced ten
lords of created beings, eminent in holiness,
< 35. Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Cratu, Pra-
chetas, or Dacsha, Vasislitha, Bhrigu, and Narada:
“ 36. Tbey, abundant in glory, produced seven other Menus,
together with deities, and the mansions of deities, and Ma-
harshis, or great Sages, unlimited in power.
:“ 37. Benevolent genii, and fierce giants, blood-thirsty
savages, heavenly quiristers, nymphs and demons, huge serpents,
and snakes of smaller size, birds of mighty wing, and separate
companies of Pitris, or progenitors of mankind;
“ 38. Lightnings and thunderbolts, clouds and coloured bows
of Indra, falling metcors, earth-rending vapours, comets, and
luminaries of various degrees; ..
“ 39. Horse-faced sylvans, apes, fish, and a variety of birds,
tamc cattle, deer, men, and ravenous beasts with two rows of
teeth;
346
NOTE A.
· " 40. Small and large reptiles, moths, lice, fleas, and common
flies, with every biting gnat, and immoveable substances of dis-
tinct sorts.” (Institut. of Menu, ch. I.)
Such is the account of the creation which is contained in one
of the principal standards of Hindu faith; such is one of the
chief documents from which we can draw precise ideas respect-
ing the religious principles of the Hindus. The darkness, the
vaguieness, and the confusion, which reign in it, need not be re-
- marked; for by these the Hindu mythology is throughout dis-
tinguished. The first of the propositions, as it now stands, can
sense; the ideas are heterogeneous, and incompatible. « This
universe," it is said, “existed only in the first divine idea.”
When anything is said to exist in idea, the meaning is, that it is
idea in the mind. This universe then, according to the above
passage, was conceived by the divine mind before it was actually
produced, or, in other words, it was an idea in the divine mind.
· This idea existed in the divine mind, “yet unexpanded." But
what are we to understand by an idea in the divine mind “un-
expanded ?" In regard to human thought an idea may be said
to be unexpanded, when something is conceived very generally
and obscurely; and it may be said to be expanded, when the
thing is“conceived minutely, distinctly, and in all its parts. Are
we then to understand by the idea of the universe being unex-
panded in the divine. mind, that the universe was conceived by
it only generally, obscurely, indistinctly, and that it was not till
creation was actually performed, that the divine idea was clear,
full, and precise? How infinitely removed is this from the
sublime conception which we entertain of the Divine Being; to
whose thoughts all his works past, present, and to come, and
every thing in the universe from eternity to eternity, are present
always, essentially, perfectly, in all their parts, properties, and
relations! This divine idea is still further described: it existed
"as if involved in darkness." When an idea is involved in
darkness, it is an idea not perfectly understood; an apprehension
only compatible with the most imperfect notions of the divine
· nature. It existed “imperceptible.” If this means by the
senses, all ideas are imperceptible; if it means by the mind, it is
perceived by the mind. It existed “undefinable, un discoverable
by reason, undiscovered by revelation, as if it were wholly im-
mersed in sleep." What sort of an idea could that be in the
--divine mind which the divine mind could not define, that mind
by which it was formed? If the meaning be, that it could not
NOTE Α..
347
be defined by any other mind; neither can the idea, not yet ex-
pressed, which exists in the mind of the most foolish of men.
. Not discoverable by reason;" does this mean that the divine
reason did not discover the divine idea, or does it mean that
human reason could not discover it? An idea in the mind of
another being is not discoverable to man by reason, but by enun-
.ciation. The last expression is the most extraordinary; “ as if
immersed in sleep:" "an idea immersed in sleep!” An idea too
in the divine mind immersed in sleep! What notion can be
formed of this?
But it must be explained that this incohérence and absurdity
is not the work of Menu, or of the author, whoever he was, of
the treatise which goes by his name. It is a common plan in
India, for a commentator who is explaining a book, to insert
between the words of the text such expressions as to him appear
necessary to render the sense of the author clear and distinct.
This has been done by a commentator of the name of Culluca,
in regard to the ordinances of Menu; and his gloss or com-
mentary, interworded with the text, Sir William Jones has
translated along with his author. As he has, very judiciously,
however, printed the interwoven expressions of the commentator
in italics, it is easy for the reader to separate them, and to behold
the sense of the original unadulterated. According to this ex-
pedient, the words of Menu appear thus: “ This existed only in
darkness, imperceptible, undefinable, undiscoverable, undisco-
vered, as if it were wholly immersed in sleep. It seems re-
markably the genius of the ancient Sanscrit writings.to be ellip-
tical, and the adjective pronouns especially are very frequently
used without a substantive. .“ This,” in the passage which we
are now examining, is in that situation. The mind of the reader
.is left to supply the word which the sense of the context de-
mands. This--every thing; this—whole; this universe; such
: is the manner in which the mind easily here suggests the requi-
site idea; and when this is done, the incoherence and absurdity
-- yyhich the supplement of Culluca engendered, is entirely dis-
pelled. The passage presents clearly and unambiguously, a de-
scription, a very vague and unmeaning description, it must be
owned, of that chaos of which the Greeks and Romans drew so
: striking and awful a picture, and of which the belief appears to
have been so widely and generally diffused. The notion which
Culluca endeavoured to engraft, is remarkable. It is no other
than the celebrated Platonic principle of the pre-existence of all
- things in the divine mind, which Culluca, it is evident, neither
... understood nor could apply, and with which he made such
: hayoc on the genuine sense of his author. It is probable that
348
NOTE A.
he borrowed the idea from some foreign source, that it pleased
him as preferable to the more rude conception of a chaos, and
that he resolved, according to the invariable rule of the Brah-
mens, to give his own order the credit of it, by incorporating it
with the doctrines of the sacred authors. .
discrepancy, between this passage in the Institutes of Menu, and
the following at the beginning of the book of Genesis: “ In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the
earth was without form and void, and darkness vas upon the
face of the deep.” The coincidence appears in the chaotic de-
scription here applied to the earth: the discrepancy consists in
this, that the Jewish legislator informs us of the previous crea-
tion of the shapeless mass, the Hindu legislator describes it as
antecedent to all creation.
This chaos, this universe, then, in its dark, imperceptible, un-
tion. This too was the idea of the Greeks and Romans, who
thence believed in the eternity of matter. It is doubtful, from
the extreme vagueness of the Hindu language, whether they had
carried their thoughts so far as to conceive the question respect-
ing the origin of matter: but as its eternity is implied in several
of their doctrines, so it appears to be recognised in some of their
expressions. It appears, indeed, that they were unable to make
any clear distinction between matter and spirit, but rather con-
sidered the latter to be some extraordinary refinement of the
former. Thus even the Divine Being, though they called him
soul and spirit, they certainly regarded as material. In the
passage already quoted, it is said, “ that he willed to produce
be meant by substance, if not material substance? Besides,
from material substance alone can material beings be produced.
But the first thing which we are told was produced from the
divine substance, was water. It is worth remarking, at the same
time, that in other places water appears to be spoken of as un-
created, and as the material out of which all other. things were
produced. A passage describing the creation, translated from
the Yajur Veda by Mr. Colebrooke, commences thus: “ Waters
alone there were; this world originally was water. In it the
lord of creation moved, having become air.” [Asiat. Res. viii.
452.]-M.
If the incoherence and absurdity occasioned by the use of such
an expression as existing in idea, is referable to the commenta-
tor, much of the previous criticism might have been spared, and
the text of Menu acquitted, notwithstanding the charge with
NOTE B.
349
which it was first assailed, of being 6 nonsense.” It is here
admitted to be clear and unambiguous. But neither is the com-
mentator open to cavil. The demerit of the confusion is Sir
William Jones's. Not a syllable is said by Culluca about “idea,"
and the translator has misled the critic, both being influenced by
European ideas, and unacquainted with the Hindu system. One
of the philosophical schools, the Sankkya, which is chiefly fol-
lowed by Menu, whose cosmogony, however, is by no. mcans
carefully described, maintains the eternity of matter or Prakriti.
“ This matter' existed, but without form, invisible, undefinable,
inert, as if in sleep.” There is nothing vague, ambiguous, or
incoherent in this description. Culluca belongs to a different
school, the Vedanta, that which maintains the unity of tliings;
the identity of the elements of matter with its cause--and he
explains the text agreeably to his doctrines. This' elementary
matter existed, 'unseparated' from the divine cause. We may
think what we please of the philosophy, but the notions are
intelligibly expressed by both text and comment.-W.
NOTE B. p. 234.
Another and a very remarkable account of the creation of
living creatures is found in the Vedas, and translated by Mr.
Colebrooke. “ This variety of forms was, bəfore the production
of body, soul, bearing a human shape. Next, looking round,
that primeval Being saw nothing but himself; and he first said,
I am I. Therefore his name was I: and thence cven now, when
called, a man first answers, it is I, and then declares any other
name which appertains to him. — Since he, being anterior to all
this which seeks supremacy, did consume by fire all sinful obsta-
cles to his own supremacy, therefore does the man, who knows
this truth, overcome him, who seeks to be before him. He felt
dread; and, therefore, man fears, when alone. But he reflected,
• Since nothing exists besides myself, why should I fear?' Thus
bis terror departed from him; for what should he dread, since
fear must be of another ? —He felt not delight; and, therefore,
man delights not when alone. He wished the existence of ano-
ther; and instantly he became such as is man and woman in
mutual embrace. He caused this his own self to fall in twain;
and thus became a husband and a wife. Therefore was this
body, so separated, as it were an imperfect moiety of himself:
for so Yajnyawalcya has pronounced it. This blank, therefore,
is completed by woman. He approached her; and thence were
human beings produced. - She reflected, doubtingly; How can
he, having produced me from himself, incestuously approach
350 .
. NOTE C.
me? I will now assume a disguise. She became a cow; and
the other became a bull and approached her; and the issue were
kine. She was changed into a mare, and he into a stallion; one
thus did he again approach her, and the one-hoofed kind was
the offspring. She became a female goat, and he a male one;
she was a ewe, and he a ram: thus he approached her, and
goats and sheep were the progeny. In this manner, did he
create every existing pair whatsoever, even to the ants and
minutest insect." See a curious discourse of Mr. Colebrooke oui
the Vedas, or Sacred Writings of the Hindus, Asiat. Research,
viii. 440, 441.-M.:
It is evident that from a very remote period different illus-
trative, rather than descriptive traditions of the origin and crea:
before the Vedas were compiled. Some of them, such as this
cited from the Veda, were clearly allegorical -- others were mys-
tic, mythological and philosophical, and each should be consi-
dered by itself, for its character to be rightly understood. To
attempt to force them into one system, is to place them in a
condition to which they never pretended; and the confusion and
contradiction that ensue is our work, not the error of the Hindus.
W.
NOTE C. p. 275.
DAILY CEREMONIES OF THE BRAHMENS.
As he rises from sleep, a Brahmen must rub his teeth with a
prayers. Should this sacred duty be omitted, so great a sin is
incurred, that the benefit is lost of all religious rites performed
by him. The next circumstance of importance is, the deposit of
the vithe after it has done its office. It must be carefully thrown
away in a place free from impurities; that is, where none of
those religious stains, which arc so multiplied among the Hin- .
dus, and must infect so many places; have been imprinted.
When the business of the teeth and of the twig is accomplished,
ablution next engages the attention of the Brahmen. The duty
of the bath, particularly in the months of Magha, Phalguna, and
Cartica, is no less efficacious than a rigid penance for the expia-
tion of sin. Standing in a river, or other water, the worshipper,
sipping water, which is a requisite preliminary to all rites, and
sprinkling it before him, recites inaudibly the gayatri, or holiest
text of the Veda, with the names of the seven worlds. He next
throws water eight times on his head, or towards the sky, and at
NOTE C.,
351
last upon the ground, to destroy the demons who wage war with:
the gods, reciting prayers, of which the first may be received as
a specimen: “O waters, since ye afford us delighit, grant us pre-
sent happiness, and the rapturous sight of the supreme God.”
When these ceremonies and prayers are performed, he plunges.
three times into the water, and each time repeats the expiatory.
text which recites the creation, and having then washed his:
mantle, the morning ablution is finished. If he is a house-
holder, it is his duty to bathe again at noon; and if he belongs.
to an order of devotion, both at noon and in the evening, with
ceremonies, differing somewhat in the words and forms, but the
same in spirit and substance.?
An important part of the worship of the Brahmen then suc-
ceeds. Coming out of the water, and putting on his mantle, he
sits down to worship the rising sun. This great duty is per-
formed by first tying the lock of hair on the crown of his head,
while he holds much cusa grass in his left hand, and three blades
of it in his right, or wears a ring of it on the third finger of that.
hand, reciting at the same time the gayatri. He then sips water
three times, repeats the mysterious names of the seven worlds,
recites again the gayatri, rubs his hands as if washing them,
touches with his wet hand his feet, head, breast, eyes, ears, nose
and navel, and again three times sips water. If, however, he
should sneeze, or spit, he must obey the text which says, "after":
sneezing, spitting, blowing his nose, sleeping, putting on appa-.
rel or dropping tears, a man should not immediately sip water',
but first touch his right ear.” The sipping, however, being at
last performed, he passes his hand filled with water, briskly
round his neck, while he prays: “May the waters preserve me!"
He then shuts his eyes and meditates in silence. Till we got.
better information, very wonderful ideas were formed of the sub-
limity of the Brahmen's meditations. On this, one of the most
sacred and solemn of all occasions, while he meditates in silence,
with his eyes shut, and every mark of intense thought, we are
informed, that he is only “figuring to himself, that Brahma, with
five faces and a red complexion, resides in his navel; Vishnu
rrith four arms and a black complexion, in his heart; and Siva,
with five faces and a white complexion, in his forehead.” Nor
is this the whole of his meditation. He ponders next on the
holiest of tests; and this sublime duty is performed in the fol-
lowing manner. Closing the left nostril with the two longest
fingers of the right hand, he draws his breath through the right
3Colebrooke on the Religic
Colebrooke on the Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, Asiat. Research. y.
345, 346,
352
NOTE C.
nostril, -and then closing it with his thumb, and suspending his
breath, he repeats to himself the gayatri, the mysterious names
of the worlds, and the sacred text of Brahmc; after which, rais-
ing his fingers from the left nostril, he emits the breath which he
had suppressed, and thus ends one part of his meditation. The
same process is repeated three times, and the whole is then con-
cluded. This meditation, says Yajnyawalcya, “implies, Om,
(aum,) earth, sky, heaven, middle region, place of births, man-
sion of the blessed, abode of truth. We meditate on the adorable
light of the resplendent generator which governs our intellects,
which is water, lustre, savour, immortal faculty of thought,
Brahme, earth, sky, and heaven."! He then stands on one foot,
resting the other against his ancle or heel, and looking towards
the east, while his hands are held open before himn in a hollow
form, and in that posture he recites prayers to the sun, of which
the following is one of the most remarkable: “ Thou art self-
existent, thou art the most excellent ray; thou givest effulgence,
grant it unto me.” When all these ceremonies are performed,
the oblation or offering is the next part of the service. It con-
sists of tila, flowers, barley, water, and red sanders wood; it is
put into a vessel of copper in the shape of a boat, and placed on
the head of the votary, who presents it with fresh prayers and
holy texts. In the last place comes the invocation of the gayatri.
It is first addressed in these words: “Thou art light; thou art.
seed; thou art immortal life; thou art effulgent; beloved by the
gouls, defamed by none, thou art the holiest sacrifice." It is then
recited measure by measure; next the first two measures are
recited as one hemistich; and the third measure as the other;
lastly; the thrce measures are repeated without interruption. It
is addressed again in the following words: “ Divine text, who
dost grant our best wishes, whose name is trisyllable, whiosc im-
port is the power of the Supreme Being; come, thou mother of
the Vedas, who didst spring from Brahme, be constant here."
It is then, along with the triliteral monosyllable, and the names
of the three lower worlds, pronounced inaudibly a hundred, or a
thousand times, or as often as practicable, while the repetitions
are counted upon a rosary of wild grains, or of gems set in gold.
Additional prayers are recited, and the morning worship of the
sun is thus terminated.?
The religious duties which fill up the remaining portion of the
day, are chicfly comprised in what are denominated the five
sacraments. In a passage of the Institutes of Menu these are
i Colebrooke on the Religious Ceremonies of the Einlus. Asiatic Research.
V. 348.
2 Ibid. 347 to 358.
NOTE C.
353
thus described: - Teaching and studying the scripture is the
-sacrament of the Veda; Offering cakes and water, the sacrament
of the manes; An oblation to fire, the sacrament of the deities; .
Giving rice or other food to living creatures, the sacrament of
spirits; Receiving guests with honour, the sacrament of men."}
I shall endeavour, by a very short illustration, to convey an idea
of each.
Preparatory to the study of the Veda must ablution be per-
formed. Of this some ceremonies not yet described may be here
introduced. "Let a Brahman at all times perform the ablution,"
says the law of Menu, “ with the pure part of his hand, denomi-
nated from the Veda, or with the part sacred to the Lord of
creatures, or with that dedicated to the gods; but never with the
part named from the Pitris: The pure part under the root of the
thumb is called Brahma; that at the root of the little finger,
Caya; that at the tips of the fingers, Daiva; and the part between
the thumb and index, Pitrya. Let him first sip water thrice;
then twice wipe his mouth, and lastly touch with water the six.
hollow parts of his head, (or his eyes, ears, and nostrils,] his
breast and his head. He who knows the law, and seeks purity,
will ever perform the ablution with the pure part of his hand,
and with water neither hot nor frothy, standing in a lonely place,
and turning to the east or the north. A Brahmen is purified by
water that reaches his bosom; a Cshatriya, by water descending
to his throat; a Vaisya, by water barely taken into his mouth;
à Sudra, by water touched with the extremity of his lips." ?
Having concluded this part of the ceremony, and walked in a
circle beginning from the south, he proceeds to the pronuncia-
tion of the syllable Aum. “A Brahmen, beginning and ending
a lecture on the Veda, must always pronounce to himself the
syllable Aum; for unless the syllable Aum precedes, his learniúg
will slip iway from liim; and unless it follow, nothing will be
long retained. If he have sitten on culms of cusa grass, with
their points toward the east, and be purified by rubbing that
holy grass on both his hands, and be further prepared by three
suppressions of breath, each equal in time to five short vowels, he
may then fitly pronounce Aum. Brahma milked out, as it were,
from the three vedas, the letter A, the letter U, and the letter M,
which form by their coalition the triliteral monosyllable, together
with three mysterious words, earth, sky, heaven.”3 Turning his
* face towards the east, with his right hand toward the south, and: .
his left hand towards the north, he then sits down, having the
cusa grass before him, holding two blades of it on the tips of his
· left fingers, and placing on them his right hand with the palm
i Institutes of Menu, ch. ii. 70.
2 Ibid. ch. ii. 58 to 62.
3 Ibid. ii. 74, 75, 76.
VOL. I.
A A
354.;
NOTE C.
turncd upwards, and in this sacred position he ineditates the
gayatri. He then recites the due prayers and texts, and is thus
prepared to begin the daily perusal of the Veda.”
The sacrament of the manes, which occupies the second place
in the above text of Menu, is described at great length in that
sacred volume. “Let the Brahmen smear with cow-dung a
purified and sequestered piece of ground ; and let him with
great care select a place with a declivity toward the south.
Having duly made an ablution with water, let him place with
reverence the invited Brahmens, who have also performed their
ablutions one by one, on allotted seats purified with cusa grass,
honouring them with fragrant garlands and sweet odours, and
bringing for them water, with cụsa grass and tila; then let him
pour the oblation of clarified butter on the holy fire, and after-
wards proceed to satisfy the manes of his ancestors. Having
walked in order from east to south, and thrown into the fire all
the ingredients of his oblation, let him sprinkle water on the
ground with his right hand. From the remainder of the clarified
butter having formed three balls of rice, let him offer them, with
fixed attention, in the same manner as the water, his face being
turned to the south: Then having offered those balls, after due
ceremonies, and with an attentive mind, to the manes of his
father, his paternal grandfather, and great grandfather, let him
wipe the same hand with the roots of cuisa, which he had before
used, for the sake of his paternal ancestors in the fourth, fifth,
and sixth degrees, who are the partakers of the rice and clarified
butter thus wiped off. Having made an ablution, returning to-
ward the north, and thrice suppressing his breath slowly, let him
salute the gods of the six seasons, and the Pitris. Whatever
water remains in his civer, let him carry back deliberately near
the cakcs of rice; and with fixed attention let him smell those
cakes, in order as they were offered, and give part of them to the
Brahmens. Having poured water, with cusa grass and tila, into
the hands of the Brahmens, let him give them the upper part of
the cakes, saying Swadha to the manes. Next, having himself
brought with both hands a vessel full of rice, let him, still medi-
tating on the Pitris, place it before the Brahmens without
precipitation. Broths, potherbs, and other eatables accompany-
ing the rice, together with milk and curds, clarified butter and
honey, let him add spiced puddings, and milky messes of various
:sorts, roots of herbs and ripe fruits, savoury meats and sweet-
Smelling drinks: then being duly purified, and with perfect pre-
sence of mind, let him take up all the dishes one by one, and
present them in order to the Brahmens, proclaiming their qualities.
2 Colebrooke on the Religious Ceremonics of the Hindus. Asiatic Research.
V. 363.
NOTE C.
355.
Himself being delighted, let him give delight to the Brahmens,
and invite them to eat of the provisions by little and little;
attracting them often with the dressed rice and other eatables.
Let all the dressed food be very hot. Let not a chandala, a
town boar, a cock, a dog, a woman in her courses, or an eunuch
see the Brahmens eating." These, with a variety of prayers,
and several other observances, are the obsequies to the manes of
ancestors.
The oblations to fire, which are a most important part of the
duties of the Hindu, are dignified with the title of the sacrament
of the gods. I shall here premise the ceremonies attending the
consecration of the fire, and the sacramental implements, though
to all religious rites these may be regarded as introductory. In
order to prepare the ground for the reception of the holy fire,
ceremonial impurities, covered with a shed, and this he smears
with cow dung. Next, having bathed and sipped water, he sits
down with his face towards the east, and placing a vessel of water
with cusa grass on his left, dropping his right knee, and resting
on the span of his left hand, he draws, after an established rule,
five consecrated lines, and gathering up the dust from the edges
was herein bad is thrown away." Having, also, sprinkled the
lines with water, and the ground being now prepared, he takes a
lighted ember out of the vessels wherein he preserves the fire,
and, throwing it away, cries, “ I dismiss far away carnivorous
fire: May it go to the realm of Yama, bearing sin hence."
Then, placing the fire before him, he exclaims, “ Earth! sky!
heaven !” and adds, “This other harmless fire only remains
here ; well knowing its office, may it convey my oblation to the
gods." He now bestows upon it a name, conformable to the
purpose for which he prefers it, and concludes this part of the
ceremony by silently burning a log of wood one span long,
smeared with clarified butter. The placing of the superintending
priest is the next part of the duty. On very solemn occasions
this is a real Brahmen; but in general a substitute is made for
him of a bundle of cusa grass. He by whom the sacrifice is per-
formed takes up the vessel of water, and keeping his right side
towards the fire, walks round it: then he pours water near it, in
an eastern direction, and spreads on it cusa grass: then he crosses,
without sitting down, his right knee over his left; then takes up
a single blade of grass between thc thumb and ring-finger of his
left hand; next throws it away towards the south-west, saying,
:- What was hercin bad is cast away:" then he touches the water,
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. iii. 206 to 264.-Colebrooke on the Religious Cere-
monies of the Hindus, Asiat. Res. V. 364.
356
NOTE C.
resting the sole of his right foot on his left ankle, sprinkles the
grass with water, after which he places on it lis Brahmen, made
of cusa, saying to it, “Sit on this seat until thy fee be paid
thee;" he then returns round the fire the same way by which
he went, and sitting down again with his face towards the cast,
names the earth inaudibly. If no profane word should hitherto
have been spoken, for which atonement is requisite, he must
next spread leaves of cusa grass on three sides of the fire; he
begins with the eastern side, and lays three rows of leaves in such
a manner that the tip of the one shall cover the root of the other;
after this be blesses the ten regions of space, and rising a little
puts some wood on the fire with a ladle of clarified butter, while
he meditates in silence on Brahma, the lord of creatures: next
he takes up two leaves of the grass, and with another cutting off
the length of a span, and saying, “ Pure leaves be sacred to
Vishnu," he throws them into a vessel of copper, or other metal;
he then takes up other two leaves, and holding the tips of them
between the thumb and ring-finger of his right hand, the roots
between the thumb and ring-finger of his left, he takes up, having
the one hand crossed over the other, clarified butter in the curva-
ture of the leaves, and throws some of it three several times into
the fire. He then sprinkles the leaves with water, and throws
them away; next, having sprinkled the vessel containing the cla-
rified butter, he puts it on the fire and takes it off again three
several times, when, having recited the proper prayers with cusa
grass in both his hands, the ceremony of hallowing the butter is
finished. That of hallowing the wooden ladle is performed by
describing three times with the tip of his fore-finger and thumb
the figure 7 on the inside of it, and the figure 9 on the outside,
by sprinkling water, having first dropped on one knee, from the
palms of his hands, on the whole southern side of the fire, from
west to east; on the western side from south to north; on the
northern side, and then all around the fire, reciting prayers ånd
sacred texts. Having next recited an expiatory prayer with cusa
grass in both his hands, and having thrown the grass away, he
has then finished the consecration of the sacrificial implements.
It is only after all this is accomplished that he is prepared to
begin the oblation to fire, of which the following is one of that
variety of forms which it receives according to the rite intended
to succeed. First, the priest burns silently a log of wood, smeared
with clarified butter: next, he makes three oblations, by pouring
each time a ladleful of clarified butter on the fire, and pronounc-
ing severally the following prayers; “ Earth! be this oblation
efficacious."_“Sky! be this oblation efficacious."-"Heaven! be
this oblation efficacious.” On some occasions the oblation is made
a fourth time, and he says, “ Earth! Sky! Heaven! be this obla-
.NOTE C.
357
tion efficacious." An offering of rice, milk, curds, and butter, is
next performed, and the oblations accompanied with the names
of the three worlds are repeated. “In his domestic fire, for
dressing the food of all the gods," says the law of Menu, “ let a
Brahmen make an oblation each day to these following divinities;
first, to Agni, god of fire, and to the lunar god, severally; then,
to both of them at once; next, to the assembled gods; and after-
wards to Dhanwantari, god of medicine; to Cuhu, goddess of
the day, when the new moon is discernible; to Anumati, goddess
of the day after the opposition; to Prajapati, or the lord of
creatures; to Dyava and Prithivi, goddesses of sky and earth;
and lastly, to the fire of the good sacrifice. Having thus,
with fixed attention, offered clarified butter in all quarters, pro-
.ceeding from the east in a southern direction, to Indra, Yama,
Varuna, and the god Soma, let him offer his gift to animated
creatures."
The fourth sacrament, or that of spirits, in the Institutes of
Menu, is thus described: " Let him, saying, I salute the maruts
or winds, throw dressed rice near the door: saying I salute the
water gods, let him throw it in water; and let him throw it on
his pestle and mortar, saying, I salute the gods of large trees.
Let him do the like in the north-east, or near his pillow, to Sri,
the goddess of abundance; in the south-west, or at the foot of
his bed, to the propitious goddess Bhadracali: in the centre of
his mansion, to Brahma, and his household god; to all the gods
assembled, let him throw up his oblation in open air; by day, to
the spirits who walk in light; and by night, to those who walk
in darkness: in the building on his house-top, or behind his
back, let him cast his oblation for the welfare of all creatures;
and what remains let him give to the Pitris with his face towards
the south."3
.. Of those diurnal sacraments, which constitute so great a part
of the duty of the Hindus, receiving guests with honour, which
is denominated the sacrament of men, is the fifth. This is com-
monly, by English writers, interpreted “hospitality.” But we
shall form a very erroneous notion of this sacramental service, if
we confound it with the merely human and profane duty of re-
ceiving strangers beneficently from motives of humanity. This
is a duty purely religious, confined to the twice-born and conse-
crated classes; and principally contrived for the benefit of the
Brahmens; that for them, in all places, and on all occasions,
every door may be open, and every table spread. “A Brahmen,
coming as a guest, and not received with just honour, takes to
* 1 Colebrooke on the Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, Asiat. Res. yii
232 sp 239.
? Institutes of Jenu, ch. iii. &4 to 87.
3 Ibid. cliü: 88: to 91.
358
NOTE C.
himself all the reward of the housekeeper's former virtuc, even
though he had been so temperate as to live on the gleanings of
harvests, and so pious as to make oblations in five distinct fires."'1
A guest, in the Hindu sense, is not every man who may claim,
or may stand in need of your hospitalities: A guest, according
to the commentator, whom Mr. Colebrooke follows as his guide,
is " a spiritual preceptor, a priest, an ascetick, a prince, a bride-
groom, a friend."2 “In the house of a Brahmen," says the law
of Menu, “a military man is not denominated a guest; nor a
man of the commercial or scrvile cast;"3 so that a Brahmen, to
whom are devoted the hospitalities of all the classes, is bound to
return them to Brahmens alone. Among the religious ceremo-
nies with which this sacrament is celebrated, a cow is tied on the
northern side of the apartment, and a stool and other furniture
placed for the guest, when the householder, rising up to bid him
welcome, recites the prayer: “May she, who supplies oblations
for religious worship, who constantly follows her calf, and who
was the milch cow when Yama was the votary, abound with
milk, and fulfil our wishes year after year.” The guest then sits
down on the stool or cushion prepared for him, reciting the text
of the Yajurveda, which says: “I step on this for the sake of
food or other benefits, on this variously.splendid footstool." His
host next presents to him a cushion made of twenty leaves of
cusa grass, holding it up with both hands, and exclaiming,
“The cushion! the cushion! the cushion!” which the guest ac-
cepts and places it on the ground under his feet, reciting prayers.
This done, a vesscl of water is presented to him, the host thrice
exclaiming, “ Water for ablutions!” Of this the guest declares
his acceptance, and looking into the vessel crics, “Generous
water! I view thee; return in the form of fertilizing rain fron
him from whom thou dost proceed.” He then takes some of it
in the palms of both hands joined together, and throws it on his
left foot, saying, "I wash my left foot, and fix prosperity in this
realm;" in the same manner on the right foot, with a similar
declaration; and lastly, on both feet, saying, “ I wash first one
and then the other; and lastly both feet, that the realm may
thrive, and intrepidity be gained.” With similar formalities is
next presented and received, an arghya; that is, a vessel shaped
like a boat, or a conch, filled with water, rice, and durva grass;
when the guest, pouring the water on his head, says, “ Thou art.
the splendour of food ; through thee may I become glorious.”
The host again presenting water, three times exclaims, “ Take
water to be sipped!" the guest, accepting it, says, “ Thyu art
glorious, grant me glory!” These ceremonies being finished,
1 Institutes of Menu. ch. iii. 100.
2 Asiat. Res. yii. 289.
3 Ibid. ch. ii. 110.
NOTE C.
359
the host fills a vessel with honey, curds, and clarified butter,
and, covering it with another vessel, presents it to his guest, ex-
claiming three times, " Take the Madhuparca !" He, receiving,
places it on the ground, and looking into it, says, “ Thou art
glorious, may I become so:" he tastes it three times, saying,
" Thou art the sustenance of the glorious; thou art the nourish-
ment of the splendid; thou art the food of the fortunate; grant
me prosperity;" and then silently eats until he be satisfied.
When this is done he sips water: and touching his mouth and
other parts of his body with his hand, he says, “ May there be
speech in my mouth; breath in my nostrils; sight in my eye-
balls; hearing in my ears; strength in my arms; firmness in my
thighs: may my limbs and members remain unburt together with
my soul.” Presents are then presented to him, suitable to the
rank of the parties: and a barber who attends for the purpose,
now exclaims, “ The cow, the cow.” The guest then pronounces
the following text: “ Release the cow from the fetters of Varuna.
May she subdue iny foc. May she destroy the enemies both of
my host and me. Dismiss the cow that she may eat grass and
drink water.” At this intercession she is released, and thus the
guest addresses her: "I have earnestly entreated this prudent
person, saying, Kill not the innocent, harmless cow, who is
mother of Rudras, daughter of Vasus, sister of Adityas, and tic
source of ambrosia.”l. Such is the mode in which the ceremo-
nial duty of entertaining guests is celebrated, and such is an idea
of the ceremonies which are included in the five daily sacraments
of the Hindus.
As the daily ceremonies, however, in their full detail, arc suffi-
cient to engross the whole time of the votary; for those on whom
the functions of society devolve, some alleviation of the burden,
or rather, in the Hindu notion, some restriction of the privilege,
was necessarily devised ; anil while the sanctity of entire accom-
plishment is reserved for the holy men who maintain perpetual
fires, those who are engaged in the affairs of life are obliged to
content themselves with a rite, called Vaiswadeva, in which all
the daily sacraments, excepting that of the Veda, are comprised.
It consists of oblations to the manes, to the gods, and spirits, and
of donations to guests, all out of the food prepared for the daily
meal; and is thus performed. Sitting down in a place free from
impurities, and setting a vessel containing fire on his right hand,
the worshipper hallows the ground by throwing away a lighted
piece of cusa grass, while he recites the appropriate text," and
then places his fire on the consecrated spot, repeating the prayer
1 Colebrooke on the Religious Coremonies of the Hindus. Asiat. Res. vii.
288 to 293.
2"I dismiss far away carnivorous fire,” &c. quoted above, p. 355.
360
NOTE C.
which is used, when the household and sacrificial fires are kin-
dled by the attrition of wood. He next lays cusa grass on the
eastern side of the fire, with its tips pointed towards the north,
exclaiming, “I praise divine fire, primevally consecrated, the
efficient performer of a solemn ceremony, the chief agent of a
-Sacrifice, the most liberal giver of gems." He spreads it on the
southern side, with its points towards the east, reciting the com-
mencement of the Yajurveda. 1. “I gather thee for the sake of
rain. 2. I pluck thee” (at this he is supposed to break off the
branch of a tree) “for the sake of strength. 3. Ye are” (he
touches calves with the branch he has pulled off) “like unto air.
4. May the liberal generator of worlds make you” (here he
touches, or is supposed to touch, milch-cows with the same
branch)" happily reach this most excellent sacrifice.”3 Iu like
manner he lays grass on the two other sides of the fire, on the
Western side with the tips to the north, crying, “Fire! approach
to taste my offering; thou who art praised for the gift of obla-
tions; sit down on this grass, thou, who art the complete per-
former of the solemn sacrifice; "4 and on the northern side with
the tips pointed to the east, saying, “May divine waters be aus-
picious to us, &c." When all these ceremonies are completed,
he stirs the fire, and sprinkles water upon it, after which, having
his hands smeared with clarified butter, he offers food three seve-
ral times, repeating, “Earth! sky! heaven!” Five similar obla-
tions are next performed: one to the regent of fire; one to the
god of medicine; one to the assembled deities; one to the lord of
crcated beings; and one to the creator of the universe. Six
more oblations are then offered with six prayers, every oblation
Having its separate prayer. 1.“ Fire! thou dost expiate a sin
against the gods; may this oblation be efficacious. 2. Thou dost
expiate a sin against man. 3. Thou dost expiate a sin against
the manes. 4. Thou dost expiate a sin against my own soul.
5. Thou dost expiate repeated sins. 6. Thou dost expiate every
sin I have committed, whether wilfully or unintentionally: may
this oblation be efficacious.” He next worships the fire, making
an oblation with the following prayer: “Fire! seren are thy
fuels; seven thy tongues; seven thy holy sages; seven thy be-
loved abodes; seven ways do seven sacrificers worship thee; thy
sources are seven; be content with this clarified butter; may this
oblation be efficacious.” As the sacred lamp was lighted for the
i“Fire! this wood is thy origin, which is attainable in all seasons; whence'
being produced, thou dost shine. Knowing this, seize on it, and afterwards
augment our wealth,"
* This is the first verse of the Rig Veda, with which it is customary to begin the
daily perusal of that Veda.
3 A lecture of the Yajush is always begun with this text.
4 The text with which a lecture of the Sanayeda is begun,
5 The prayer which precedes a lecture of the Al'herran.
· NOTE C.
361
repulsion of evil spirits, before the oblations to the gods and the
manes were presented, it is now extinguished, while recitation is
made of the following text: “ In solemn acts of religion, what-
ever fails through the negligence of those who perform the cere-
·mony, may be perfected solely tbrough meditation on Vishnu."
The oblations to spirits are next offered: the performer deposit-
ing portions of food in the several places prescribed for it, having
previously swept each place with his hand and sprinkled it with
water. Near the spot where the vessel of water stands, he makes
.three offerings, saying, “Salutation to rain! to water! to the
earth!” He makes them at both doors of his house to Dhatri,
and Vidbatri, or Brahma, the protector and creator. He pre-
sents them toward the eight points of the compass, adding salu-
tation to them, and to the regents of them. To Brahm, to the
sky, and to the sun, he makes oblations with salutation in the
middle of the house. He then offers similar oblations to all the
gods; to all beings; to twilight; and to the lord of all beings.
After the sacrament of spirits thus performed, the worshipper,
shiſting the sacramental cord, and looking toward the south,
drops upon one knee, and presents an oblation to the manes of
ancestors, saying, “Salutation to progenitors: may this ancestral
.food be acceptable." Having performed a lustration, he should
then present food to his guests. “When he has thus," says Mr.
Colebrooke," allotted out of the food prepared for his own re-
past, one portion to the gods, a second to progenitors, a third to
all beings, and a fourth to his guests, he and his family may
then, and not before, consume the remaining portion of the food.?
This ceremony must be regularly performed in the forenoon, by
those to whom the full celebration of the five sacraments is im-
practicable; and by some persons it is repeated again in the
evening
After this tedious though greatly abridged account of the daily
ceremonies of the Hindus, we come to those which are performed
at certain great and chosen epochs. On these, however, I shall
content myself with some very general notices.
The Brahmens wait not for the period of birth to commence
the ceremonies which pertain to each individual. “With auspi-
cious acts,” says the holy text, "prescribed by the Veda, must
ceremonies on conception, and so forth, be duly performed, which
purify the bodies of the three classes in this life, and qualify
them for the next." Oblations to fire are required during the
mother's pregnancy, and holy rites are commanded on the birth
of the child. “Before the section of the navel-string, a ceremony
'is ordained on the birth of a male child: he must be made, while
1 Colebrooke on the Religious Ceremcn:es of the Hindus. Asiat. Res. vii.
271 to 275.
362
NOTE C.
sacred texts are pronounced, to taste a little honey and clarified
butter from a golden spoon.”] The ceremony of giving a name
is ordained to be performed on the tenth or twelfth day after
the birth: “or on some fortunate day of the moon, at a lucky
hour, and under the influence of a star with good qualities."2
The ceremony of the tonsure, which is one of the distinguishing
marks of the first three classes, is a rite of great solemnity, com-
manded to be performed in the first or third year after birth.3
But of all the ritual ordinances of the Hindus, none are reckoned
more essential or important than those relating to the investiture.
“In the eighth year from the conception of a Brahmen," says
the law of Menu, “in the eleventh from that of a Cshatriya, and
in the twelfth from that of a Vaisya, let the father invest the
child with the mark of his class: Should a Brahmen, or his father
for him, be desirous of his advancement in sacred knowledge, a
Cshatriya of extending his power, or a Vaisya of engaging in
mercantile business, the investiture may be made in the fifth,
sixth, or eighth years respectively. The ceremony of investiture,
hallowed by the gayatri, must not be delayed, in the case of a
priest, beyond the sixteenth year; nor in that of a soldier, be-
yond the twenty-second; nor in that of a merchant, beyond the
twenty-fourth. After that all youths of these three classes, who
have not been invested at the proper time, become vratyas or
outcasts, degraded from the gayatri, and contemned by the vir-
tuous. With such impure men let no Brahmen, even in distress
for subsistence, ever form a connexion in law, either by the study
of the Veda, or by affinity.". The investiture, or institution, is
usually denominated the second birth; and it is from this cere-
mony that the three highest classes are denominated the twicc-
born. It consists chiefly in bestoving upon the object of the
rite, a mantle, a girdle, a sacrificial cord, and a staff, with nume-
rous ceremonies, prayers, and holy texts. “Let students of the
Veda," says the law of Menu, “ wear for their mantles, the hides
of black antelopes, of common deer, or of goats, with lower vests
of woven sana, of cshuma, and of wool, in the direct order of
their classes. The girdle of a priest must be made of munja, in
a triple cord, smooth, and soft; that of a warrior must be a bow-
string of murva; that of a merchant, & triple thread of sana.
T'he sacrificial thread of a Bralımen must be made of cotton, so
as to be put on over his lead in three strings; that of a Csha-
1 Institutes of Menu, ch. ii. 26, 27, 29.
2 Ibid. 30.
3 Ibid. 35.
Ibid. 36 to 40.
5 " The first birth is from a natural mother; the second, froin the ligution
of the zone; the third, from the due performance of the sacrificc ; such ure tlia
births of him who is usually called twice-born." Ibid. 169.
6 Ibid. 41 to 18, and 64, 65, 68.
NOTE C.
363
triya, of sana thread only; that of a Vaisya, of roollen thread.
A priest ought by law to carry a staff of Bilva or Palasa; a sol.
dier, of Bata or C’hadira; a merchant, of Venu or Udumbara.
The staff of a priest must be of such a length as to reach his
hair; that of a soldier to reach his forehead; and that of a mer-
chant to reach his nose. Let all the staves be straight, without
fracture, of a handsome appearance, not likely to terrify men,
with their bark perfect, unhurt by fire. His girdie, his leathern
mantle, his staff, his sacrificial cord, and his ewer, he must throw
into the water, wlien they are worn out or broken, and receive
others hallowed by mystical texts. The ceremony of cesanta, or
cutting off the hair, is ordained for a priest in the sixteenth year
from conception; for a soldier, in the twenty-second; for a mer-
chant, two years later. Such is the revealed law of institution
for the twice-born, an institution in which their second birth
clearly consists, and which causes their advancement in holi-
ness.”
The ceremonies of marriage, which next call for our attention,
are extremely numerous. The bridegroom is first of all received
by the father of the bride with all the ceremonies of hospitality
which we have already described; and during this timc the bride
is bathed. When these rules are finished, the hand of the bride
is placed in that of the bridegroom, both having been previously
rubbed with some auspicious drug, and a matron binds them
with cusa grass amid the sound of cheerful music. The father
of the bride then bidding the attendant priests begin their accla-
mations, pours water from a vessel containing tila and cusa grass,
upon the hands of the united pair, and uttering the words,“ God
the existent," and pronouncing the names and designations of
the bridegroom, the bride, and himself, says, “I give unto thee
this damsel, adorned with jewels, and protected by the lord of
creatures." The bridegroom replies, “ Well be it.” The bride-
groom then having received from the father of the bride a piece
of gold, and recited an appropriate text, the parties are affianced,
and walk forth, while the bridegroom thus addresses the bride:
1 The Persians also had a cincture which was given tliem as a grand
religious emblem, about the period of manliood. See the Sadda in Hyde,
p. 441.
2 Three vessels of water are poured severally upon her head, and at each
time one of the following prayers is in order pronounced : 1. “ Love! I know
thy name. Thou art called an intoxicating beverage. Bring the bridegroom
happily. For thee was framed the inebriating draught! Fire! thy best
origin is here. Through devotion wert thoil created. May this oblation be
efficacious." --2. “ Damsel, I anoint this thy generative organ with honey, be-
cause it is the second mouth of the Creator : by that thou subduest all males,
though unsubdued; by that thou art lively, and dost hold dominion. May this
oblation be effi cacious.”_-3. "May the primeval ruling sages, who framed the
female organ, as a fire that consumeth flesh, and thereby framed a procreating
juice, grant the prolific power that proceeds from the three-horned bull, and
from the sun."
-.
364
NOTE C.
"May the regents of space, may air, the sun, and fire, dispel that
anxiety which thou feelest in thy mind, and turn thy heart to me.
Be gentle in thy aspect, and loyal to thy husband; be fortunate
in cattle, amiable in thy mind, and beautiful in thy person: be
mother of valiant sons; be fond of delights; be cheerful, and
bring prosperity to our bipeds and quadrupeds."1 A libation of
water is afterwards made; and the father of the bride, having
meditated the gayatri, ties a knot with the skirts of the mantles
of the bridegroom and bride, saying, “Ye must be inseparably
united in matters of duty, wealth, and love." The bridegroom
next attires the bride, with a variety of ceremonies, of which the
following are the most remarkable. Going to the principal
apartment of the house, he prepares a sacrificial fire, and hallows
the implements; when one friend of his bearing a jar of water,
walks round the fire, and stops on the south side of it; ancano-
ther, performing the same ceremony, places himself on the right
of the first. The bridegroom then casts four double handfuls of
rice, mixed with leaves of Sami, into a flat basket; and placing
near it a stone and mullar, which with formality he had pre-
viously touched, he causes the bride to be clothed with a new
waistcloth and scarf, while he himself recites a variety of prayers.
This being done, the bride goes to the western side of the fire,
and recites a prayer, while she steps on a mat made of virana
grass, and covered with silk. She then sits dowu on the edge of
the mat, and the bridegroom makes six oblations of clarified
butter, reciting a prayer with each.” After this he names the
three worlds separately and conjointly, presenting oblations; and
makes four or five oblations to fire and to the moon. After these
he rises up with the bride, and passing from her left to her right,
makes her join her hands in a hollow form. The rice, which
was previously put in the basket, being then taken up, and the
stone which was laid near being placed before the bride, sbe
treads on it with the point of her right foot, while the bride-
groom recites this prayer: “ Ascend this stone; be firm like this
stone; distress my foe, and be not subservient to my enemies."
He then pours on her hands a ladleful of clarified butter; ano-
ther person gives her the rice; two ladlefuls of butter are poured
over it; when she separates her hands, and lets fall the rice on
1 The latter part of this address Mr. Colebrooke thinks proper to veil in a
Latin dress, and certainly with good reason: for, if it be considered that this
is a speech of a bridegroom to his virgin bride, while the marriage ceremony
is yet in the act of performance, it is an instance of grossness to which there
is probably no parallel : The speech is as follows. Illa redamans accipito fas-
cinun meuin, quod ego peramans intromittam in eam, multæ quâ illecebræ
sistunt.
2 Of these the first may be taken as a specimen; may fire come first among
the gods;. Day it rescue her offspring from the fetters of death ; may Varuna,
king of waters, grant that this woman should never bemoan a calamity be-
fullen her children.
NOTE C.
365
the fire, while a holy text is recited. She treads again on the
stone, again makes an oblation of rice, again a prayer is recited,
again walking is performed round the fire, again four or five
oblations are made with similar ceremonies and prayers, when
the bridegroom pours two ladlefuls of butter on the edge of the
basket, and then rice out of it into the fire, saying, “ May this
oblation to fire be efficacious." After the ceremony of ascending
the stone and throwing the rice into the fire, the bride is con-
ducted to the bridegroom, and by him directed to stop success-
ively into seven circles, while seven texts are repeated. This is
the most emphatical part of the ritual; for no sooner is the
seventh step of the bride performed, than the nuptial bond is
complete and irrevocable. The bridegroom then in appropriate
texts addresses the bride, and the spectators, dismissing them;
after which his friend, who stood near the sacrificial fire, bearing
a jar of water, advances to the spot where the seventh step was
completed, and, while a prayer is recited, pours water on the
head, first of the bridegroom and then of the bride. Upon this,
the bridegroom, putting his left hand under the hands of bis
bride, which are joined in a hollow posture, takes her right hand
in his, and recites six holy texts; after which he sits down with
her near the fire, and makes oblations, while severally and con-
jointly he names the three worlds. On the evening of the same
day, when the stars begin to appear, the bride sits down on a
bull's hide of a red colour, placed with the neck towards the east,
and the hair upwards; and the bridegroom, sitting down beside
her, makes oblations, naming the three worlds as usual; then six
other oblations, pouring each time the remainder of the clarified
butter on her head, and reciting prayers. After rising up, and
contemplating the polar star as an emblem of stability, matrons
pour upon them water mixed with leaves, which had been placed
upon an altar prepared for that purpose, and the bridegroom
again makes oblations with the names of the worlds. He then
eats food, prepared without factitious salt, reciting prayers during
the meal: and when he has finislied, the remainder is given to
the bride. During the three subsequent days, the married couple
must remain in the house of the father of the bride, must abstain
from factitious salt, must live chastely and austerely, sleeping on
the ground. On the fourth day the bridegroom carries her to
his house, reciting texts when he ascends the carriage, and when
they come to cross-roads. Leading her into his own house he
chants a hymn, when matrons hail, and seat her on a bull's hide
1 As these prayers have something in then characteristic, they had better
here be presented: 1. "I obviate by this full oblation all ill marks in the line's
of thy hands, in thy eye-lashes, and in the spots of thy body. 2. I obviate by
this full oblation all the ill marks in thy hair; and whatever is sinful in thy
looking or in thy crying. 3. I ovviate by this full oblation all that may be sin-
366
NOTE C.
'as before, and the bridegroom recites a prayer. They place next
a young child in her lap, putting roots of lotus, or fruits, into his
hand; when the bridegroom takes him up, and preparing a
sacrificial fire with all the usual ceremonies, makes eight different
oblations, with as many prayers. The bride then salutes her
father-in-law, and the other relations of her husband. The bride-
groom prepares another sacrificial fire, and sits down with the
bride on his right hand: when with the usual preliminary and
concluding oblations to the three worlds, he makes twenty obla-
tions, with as many prayers, throwing the remainder of each
portion of the consecrated butter into a jar of water, which is
afterwards poured on the head of the bride.
If the ceremonies prescribed for marriage are thus multiplied,
trivial, and tiresome, those allotted to funerals are in point of
number still more exorbitant and oppressive. After a specimen,
however, of the Hindu ceremonies, there is something exceed-
ingly monotonous in the detail of the rest; and hardly anything
is more ungrateful than to be obliged to go through them. The
reader is, therefore, spared the task of stndying the funeral rites
of the Hindus, of which, notwithstanding, he may form a sufli.
cient conception, as, in point of character, they exactly resemble
those which have already been described.'
Of the monthly ceremonies, one may suffice to afford an idea
of the whole. “From month to month,” says the law of Menu,
" on the dark day of the moon, let a twice-born man, having
finished the daily sacrament of the Pitris, and his fire being still
blazing, perform the solemn sraddha."? Of the sraddhas, which
are numerous but very similar, the following is exhibited as a
specimen. The person who is to perform the ceremony having
purified the place by smearing it with cow-dung, raises on it an
altar of sand of certain dimensions and form, washes his hands
and feet, sips water, and puts a ring of cusa grass on the ring-
finger of each hand. He then sits down on a cushion of cusa
grass, and lights a lamp, reciting a prayer. He next places the
utensils and materials in order, sprinkles water on himself and
all around, meditates on Vishnu, surnamed the Lotos-eyed, me-
ditates the gayatri, and after some ceremonies proceeds to invite
ful in thy temper, in thy speaking, and in thy laughing. 4. I obviate by tuis
full oblation all the ill marks in thy teetli, and in the dark intervals between
them; in thy hands and in thy feet.. 5. I obviate by this full oblation all the
ill marks on thy thighs, on thy privy part, on thy haunches, and on the linea-
ments of thy figure. 6. Whatever natural or accidental evil marks were on all
thy limbs, I have obviated all such marks by these full oblations of clarified
butter. May this oblation be efficacious."
See a very full delineation of these funeral rites in Mr. Colebrooke's
Second Essay on the Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, Asiat. Res. vii.
239 to 264.
Institutes of Blenu, ch. ii. 122.
Second ass
S
NOTE C.
367
and to welcome the assembled gods and the manes. Two little
cushions, of three blades of cusa grass, he places on one side of
the altar for the Viswadevas, and six in front of it for the Pitris,
and strewing on them cusa grass, he asks, “ Shall I invoke the
assembled gods?" Do so; is the answer; upon which he ex-
claims, “ Assembled gods! hear my invocation: come and sit
down on this holy grass." After scattering barley and medita-
ting a prayer to the gods, he invites the manes of ancestors with
similar invocations; and welcomes the gods and manes with
oblations of water, &c. in vessels made of leaves. He puts cusa
grass into the vessels, and sprinkles them with water, while he
recites the prayer, beginning, “ May divine waters be auspicious
to us;" he next throws barley into the vessels intended for the
gods, and tila into those intended for the manes, with a prayer
appropriate to each. The vessels are then taken up in suc-
cession, a prayer being repeated for each; the cusa grass placed
on the vessels is put into the land of a Brahmen; that which
was under them is held in the hand of the person by whom the
sraddha is performed; and he pours through it, on the hand of
the Brahmen, the water which the vessels contained, then piles
up the empty vessels in three sets, and overturns them, saying,
while he reverses the first, “ Thou art a mansion for ancestors.”
Taking up food smeared with clarified butter, he next makes two
oblations to fire, with two corresponding prayers. The residue
of the oblation, the performer having consecrated it by prayers
and other ceremonies, having sweetened it with honey and sugar,
and having meditated the gayatri with the names of worlds, is
distributed among the Brahmens; and when they have eaten till
they have acknowledged that they are satisfied, he gives them
water to rinse their mouths. He then offers the cakes, consisting
of balls or lumps of food, mixed with clarified butter, observing
the reqnisite ceremonies. In the next place, he makes six liba-
tions of water from the palms of his hands, with the salutation
to the seasons; then places with due ceremonies and texts, a
thread on each funeral cake, to serve as apparel for the manes.
After this he takes up the middle cake and smells it, or his wife,
if they are desirous of male offspring, eats it, while they recite a
correspondent prayer. He takes up the rest of the cakes, and
smelling them one after another, throws them into a vessel;
which done, they are given to a mendicant priest, or a cow, or
else cast into the water. He then dismisses the manes, reciting
å holy text, and having walked round the spot, and recited a
prayer, departs. “Formal obsequies," says Mr. Colebrooke,
“arc performed no less than ninety-six times in every year."2
I Colebrooke on the Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, Asiat. Res. vii.
264 to 270.
? Ivid, 270.
3:68
NOTE D.
NOTE D. BY H. H. W
Very grave faults disfigure the whole of this review of the
manners and character of the people of India, and they not only :
render it valueless as authority, but expose it to the imputation
of want of liberality and candour.
That the Hindu character is not without blemishes is unde-
niable, but it is not such a monstrous mass of vice as is here
depictured; nor is it so utterly devoid of all redeeming virtues.
If the picture were faithful, it would be impossible, as Colonc!
Vans Kennedy justly observes, for society to be held together.
“ Rend asunder the ties which unite husband and wife, parent
and child, banish faith, honesty, and truth, and be the indul-
gence of every furious and malignant passion fostered and sanc-.
tioned by religion, and then by what bonds and what relations
can society be maintained.”—Trans. Literary Society of Bom-
bay, ii. 124.
Mr. Mill's unjust representation of the Hindu character has
arisen from his unfortunate choice of guides, and, in some
respects, uncandid use of them. At the time at which Orme
was in India, the opportunities of acquiring any knowledge of
the Hindus were exceedingly defective, and his account of them
is short and imperfect: it was also posthumous, and was possibly
not intended by him for publication. Buchanan could not
learn the language, and was prejudiced against the people be-
cause they did not understand him. Tennant is evidently a
superficial, iguorant, and self-sufficient observer. Another of
his authorities, Mr. Tytler, is of more weight, but he was a
young and active magistrate of police, and his opinions were
naturally biassed by his professional occupations. He had little
leisure or opportunity to form a knowledge of the natives, ex-
cept as they came before him in the course of criminal pro-
ceedings. Yet he bears testimony to the possession by the.
Hindus of virtues as well as vices, although hs is unfairly quoted
only as a witness of the latter. “ The natives," he says, “have
in their character many faults and many excellencies: at pre-
sent they have, at least, the following good qualities, patience,
mildness, obedience, hospitality, sobriety, temperance."
In like manner the testimony of Dubois is cited whenever it.
is hostile to the Hindus ; but it is not noticed, that as a set-off
to meet that which he censures, the Abbé pronounces the highest
possible panegyric upon them. “ The Hindus," he remarks,
“ are not in want of improvement in the discharge of social du-
ties amongst themselves. They understand this point as well as
and perhaps better than Europeans." To the Abbé, however, as
well as to Ward, and other witnesses of the same class, there.
NOTE D.
369
are obvious objections. As Missionaries, and therefore it is to
be concluded, persons of much moral and religious sensitive-
ness, they see the errors and rices of a heathen people through
a medium by which they are exaggerated beyond their natural
dimensions, and assume an enormity which would not be as-
signed to the very same defects in Christians. All the evidence
then upon which Mr. Mill solely and implicitly relies is good
for little: it is either partially quoted, or it is influenced by false
views, or it is palpably erroneous. It must be wholly set aside,
and we must look to an estimate of the Hindu character from
other sources. These are not deficient, and, as might be ex-
pected, they are utterly at variance with Mr. Mill's incompetent
guides.
Men equally eminent in wisdom as in station, remarkable for
the extent of their opportunities of observation, and the ability
and diligence with which they used them, distinguished for
possessing by their knowledge of the language and literature of
the country, and by their habits of intimacy with the natives,
the best, the only means of judging of the native character, and
unequalled for the soundness of their judgment, and the com-
prehensiveness of their viows—these men have left upon record
opinions highly favourable to the character of the Hindus. To
none of these has Mr. Mill made any allusion whatever, and as
there is reason to think that some of them were accessible,
having been published in 1813, and being for other purposes
actually quoted by him, the omission reflects seriously upon
either his industry or his candour. It is to be hoped that they
escaped his research, and it is possible that the early pages of
the history were written prior to the date of the parliamentary
investigation, by which the opinions referred to were called
forth. In the evidence given before parliament in 1813, many
of the witnesses were interrogated respecting the Hindu cha-
racter; the answers were very remarkable, both for the opinions
which were uttered, and the persons by whom they were ex-
pressed. To a chapter like the present they furnish a whole-
some correction, and they deserve to be perpetuated along with
the history of British India. They were the following:-
Mr. Græme Mercer, who, during a period of twenty-fivo
years, had filled important political stations in distant parts of
India, thus pronounces the result of his experience. “ It is
difficult to form a general character of the natives of an empire
which extends from near the equinoctial line to thirty-one de-
grees of north latitude: if called upon for a general character-
istic of the natives of that empire, I would say, that they are
mild in their dispositions, polished in their general manners; in
their domestic relations kind and affectionate-submissive to
VOL. I.
в в
370
NOTE D.
authority, and peculiarly attached to their religious tenets, and
to the observance of the rites and ceremonies prescribed by those :
tenets. In referring to any distinction in this general charac-
teristic, I should say, that the inhabitants of the northern pro-
vinces of Hindustan, were of a more bold and decided character,
and less submissive to authority than those of the southern pro-,
vinces, but equally attached to the observance of their religious
Captain Sydenham, who had also held high political appoint-
ments, thus answers the question of the committee, regarding
the moral character of the Hindoos. “It is really very difficult
to give the character of so large a portion of the human race,
who, although they possess many qualities in common, are of
course distinguished by strong shades of difference in different
parts of India, arising from the climate under which they live;
the government to which they are subject; the distinction of
castes which prevails more in some parts of India than in
others; their habits and occupations, and other circumstances,
which in all countries produce a difference in the moral character
of men- To define the moral character of so extensive a
nation within the compass of any answer which it is in my power
to give to the committee, will be of course extremely difficult;
but I think the general character of the Hindoo is submissive,
docile, sober, inoffensive, as long as his religious prejudices and
habits are not violated: capable of great attachment and loyalty,
as long as they are well treated by their governors and masters; .
quick in apprehension, intelligent, active, generally honest, and
performing the duties of charity, benevolence, and filial affeetion
I am acquainted.”
Sir John Malcolm speaks in similar terms as the preceding,
of a difficulty which never occurs to the calumniators of the
people of India, that of giving a general character of the differ-
ont races subject to the British government, who vary as much,
if not more, than the nations of Europe do from each other.
The people of Bengal he describes as weak in body and timid in
mind, and those below Calcutta, to be in character and appear-
ance among the lowest of our Hindu subjects, but “from the
moment you enter the district of Bahar, the Hindoo inhabitants
are a race.of men, generally speaking, not more distinguished by
their lofty stature and robust frame, than they are for some of
the finest qaalities of the mind—they are brave, generous, hu-'
mane, and their truth is as remarkable as their courage.” At a:
subsequent examination he bears witness to the favourable cha-
racter of the natives generally, for veracity, fidelity, and honour. -
“I have hardly ever known," he observes, " where a person did:
NOTE D
371
understand the language, or where a calm communication was
made to a native of India, through a well-informed and trust-
worthy medium, that the result:did not prove, that what had at
first been stated as falsehood, had either proceeded from fear, or
from misapprehension. I by no means wish to state, that our
Indian subjects are more free from this vice than other nations
tive that they are not more addicted to untruth. With respect
to the honour of our native subjects, it is, as that feeling is un-
derstood in this country, chiefly cherished by the military tribes,
among whom I have known innumerable instances of its being
carried to a pitch that would be considered in England more fit
for the page of a romance than a history: with regard to their
fidelity, I think, as far as my knowledge extends, there is,
generally speaking, no race of men more to be trusted-
I should state, that there are few large communities in the world,
whose dispositions are better, or (speaking to the virtues de-
scribed in the question) more praiseworthy: it may also be stated
as a general proof of their possessing those qualities, the attach-
ment which almost all European masters who reside in India feel
for their native servants. This feeling amongst those who un-
derstand the language, and who are of good temper and cha-
racter, is almost without an exception.”
Sir Thomas Munro, when asked if he thought the civilization
of the Hindoos would be promoted by the trade with England
being thrown open, replied, "I do not exactly understand what
is meant by the civilization of the Hindus. In the higher
branches of science, in the knowledge of the theory and practice
of good government, and in an education, which by banishing
prejudice—and superstition -opens the mind to receive instruc-
tion of every kind from every quarter, they are much inferior to
Europeans. But if a good system of agriculture, unrivalled
manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever can con-
tribute to either convenience or luxury, schools established in
every village for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, the
general practice of hospitality and charity amongst each other,
and above all, a treatment of the female, sex, full of confidence,
respect, and delicacy, are among the signs which denote a civil-
ized people-then the Hindoos are not inferior to the nations of
Europe, and if civilization is to become an article of trade be-
tween the two countries, I am convinced that this country will
gain by the import cargo."
Being asked if he could give the committee any general descrip-
tion of the national character of the people of India, as con:
rasted with that of the English, he replied, “In answering 'to.
372
NOTE D.
this question, it will not be easy to divest my mind of certain
circumstances connected with it, which do not relevantly pertain
to the question itself. Great pains have been taken to inculcate
into the public mind, an opinion, that the native Indians are in a
state of complete moral turpitude, and live in the constant and
unrestrained commission of every vice and crime that can dis-
grace human nature. I affirm, by the oath that I have taken,
that this description of them is untrue, and wholly unfounded.
What I have to add must be taken as my belief, but a belief
impressed by a longer and more intimate acquaintance with the
people than has fallen to the lot of many of my countrymen.
In speaking of the people, it is necessary to distinguish the
Hindoos, who form the great portion of the people of India,
from the Mohammedans, who are intermixed with them, but
generally live in separate communities; the former are gentle,
benevolent, more susceptible of gratitude for kindness shown
them than prompted to vengeance for wrongs inflicted, and as
exempt from the worst propensities of human passion as any
people upon the face of the earth; they are faithful and affec-
tionate in service, and submissive to legal authority; thcy are
superstitious, it is true, but they do not think ill of us for not
thinking as they do. Gross as the modes of their worship are,
tho precepts of their religion are wonderfully fitted to promote
the best ends of society, its peace and good order; and even
from their theology, arguments may be drawn to illustrate and
support the most refined mysteries of our own." . He then
alludes to their unanimous and voluntary testimony in his own
behalf when known to be the object of an iniquitous prosecution
in England, and justly observes, “this effort of theirs affords as
strong a proof as can be afforded or conceived, that they them-
selves possess in a very high degree the principles of gratitude,
affection, honour, and justice.” Minutes of Evidence before
Committees of both Houses of Parliament, March and April,
1813.
To the high authorities here cited, no additional testimony can
be required; but the opinions they have placed on record, have
been since repeated by other witnesses, all of a very different
stamp from the flippant travellers and prejudiced missionaries
upon whom Mr. Mill depends, and who have contemplated Indian
manners and the character of the people under very different
aspects, and with very various qualifications. The opinions of
Col.Vans Kennedy, a distinguished scholar in both Mohammedan
and Hindu literature, and a man of extraordinary reading and
research, have been already cited, as given in a paper in the
Bombay Transactions, written for the express purpose of exposing
Mr. Dill's mistakes. Of a no less active and cultivated mind was
NOTE D.
373
the lamented Bishop Heber, and he repeatedly bears favourable
testimony to the manners and character of the people of India.
essential feature of a civilized people, is an assertion which I can
scarcely suppose to be made by any who have lived with them;
their manners are at least as pleasing and courteous as those in
the corresponding stations of life among ourselves.” Journal ii.382.
“I do not by any means assent to the pictures of depravity and
general worthlessness which some have drawn of the Hindoos.
They are decidedly by nature, a mild, pleasing, and intelligent
race; sober, parsimonious; and where an object is held out
to them, most industrious and persevering." Ibid. ii. 329.
“Of the people, so far as their natural character is concerned, I
have been led to form on the whole a very favourable opinion,
They have unhappily, many of the vices, arising from slavery,
systems of religion. But they are men of high and gallant cou-
rage, courteous, intelligent, and most eager after knowledge and
improvement; with a remarkable aptitude for the abstract sciences,
geometry, astronomy, &c.; and for the imitative arts, painting
and sculpturc. They are sober, industrious, dutiful to their parents,
and affectionate to their children; of tempers almost uniformly
gentle and patient, and more easily affected by kindness and at-
tention to their wants and feelings than almost any men I have
met with.” Ibid. ii. 369. And in his charge to his clergy at
Calcutta in 1824, he observes, “I have found in India, à race of
gentle and temperate habits, with a natural talent and acuteness
beyond the ordinary level of mankind.” A third witness is of a
. very different description from all who preceded him; a Hindu,
one, the great object of whose life was to elevate the moral and
intellectual character of his countrymen, and who was little in-
clined to veil or palliate their faults. Rammohum Roy's opinions
on the moral condition of the people of India, are thus recorded
in the first appendix to the Third Report of the House of Com-
mons, 1831, p. 293, and they are well entitled to consideration for
their modest, moderate, and candid spirit.
The question put to him was, “ will you state your general views
with respect to the moral condition of the people?” — to which he
answered: “a great variety of opinions on this subject has been
already afloat in Europe, for some centuries past, particularly
in recent times; some favourable to the people of India, some
against them. Those Europeans who, on their arrival in India,
happened to meet with persons whose conduct afforded them
.satisfaction, felt prepossessed in favour of the whole native popu-
lation; others again, who happened to meet with ill-treatment :
and misfortunes, occasioned by the misconduct or opposition,
374
NOTE D.
social: or' religions, of the persons with whom they chanced to
bave dealings or communication, represented the whole Indian
race in a corresponding light; while some, even without being in
the country at all, or seeing or conversing with any natives of
India, have formed an opinion of them at second-hand, founded
on theory and conjecture. There is, however, a fourth class of
persons, few indeed in number, who, though they seem unpreju-
diced, yet have differed widely from each other in many of their
inferences, from facts equally within the sphere of their observa-
tion; as generally happens with respect to matters not capable of
rigid demonstration. I therefore feel great reluctance in offering
an opinion on a subject on which I may unfortunately differ from
a considerable number of those gentlemen: however, being called
.upon for an opinion, I feel bound to state my impression, although
I may perhaps be mistaken.
"From à careful survey, and observation of the people and in-
habitants, of various parts of the country, and in every condition
in life, I am of opinion, that the peasants or villagers, who reside
, away from large towns, and head-stations, and courts of law, are
as innocent, temperate, and moral in their conduct, as the people
of any country whatsoever; and the further I proceed towards
the north and west, the greater the honesty, and simplicity, and
independence of character, I meet with. The virtue of this class,
however, rests at present chiefly on their primitive simplicity, and
a strong religious feeling which leads them to expect reward or
punishment, for their good or bad conduct; not only in the next
world, but like the ancient Jews-also in this. 2nd. The inha-
.bitants of the cities, towns, or stations, who have much intercourse
, with persons employed about the courts of law, by Zemindars, &C.,
: and with foreigners and others, in a different state of civilization,
·and generally imbibe from them their habits and opinions:
hence, their religious opinions are shaken, without any other
principles being implanted to supply their place; consequently
a great proportion of these are far inferior in point of character
to the former class, and are very often even made tools of, in
the nefarious work of perjury and forgery. 3rd. A third class
consists of persons who are in the employ of Zemindars, or
dependent. for subsistence on the courts of law, who much
depend for their livelihood; upon their shrewdness; anduyho not
having generally, sufficient means to enter into comerce or
business, these are, for the most part, worse than the second class.
But I have met, I must confess, a great number of the second
class, engaged in a respectable line of trade, who were men of
· real merit, worth, and character. Even among the third class, I
have known many who had every disposition to act uprightly,
and some actually honest in their conduct; and if they saw, by
NOTE D.
375:
experience, that their merits were appreciated; that they might:
hope to gain an independence by honest means; and that just and:
honourable conduct afforded the best prospect of their being
ultimately rewarded, by situations of trust and respectability,
they would learn to feel a high regard for character and recti- :
tude of conduct, and from cherishing such feelings, become more.
and more worthy of public confidence; while their example would
powerfully operate on the second class before noticed, which is
generally dependent on them, and under their influence.”
. If to the opinions thus cited I venture to add my own, it is
not with the notion that any weight can or need be added to
their incontestable preponderance over the authorities on which
reliance has been exclusively placed in the text ; but under the
impression, that it may be expected of me to give the result of a
long and intimate acquaintance with the natives of Bengal under
circumstances of a peculiar nature. I lived, both from necessity
and choice, very much amongst them, and had opportunities of
becoming acquainted with them in a greater variety of situations,
than those in which they usually come under the observation of
Europeans. In the Calcutta mint, for instance, I was in 'daily
personal communication with a numerous body of artificers,
mechanics, and labourers, and always found amongst them cheer-
ful and unwearied industry, good humoured compliance with the
will of their superiors,"and a readiness to make whatever exer-
tions were demanded from them: there were among them no
drunkenness, no disorderly conduct, no insubordination. It
would not be true to say, that there was no dishonesty, but it was
comparatively rare, invariably petty, and much less formidable,
than, I believe, it is necessary to guard against in other mints in
other countries. There was considerable skill and ready docility.
So far from there being any servility, there was extreme frank-
ness, and I should say, that where there is confidence without
fear, frankness is one of the most universal features in the Indian
character. Let the people feel sure of the temper and good-will
of their superiors, and there is an end of reserve or timidity, with-
out the slightest departure from respect. In these same workmen,
and in all the natives employed in the mint, from the highest to
tlie lowest, I invariably witnessed grateful attachment to those :
by whom they were treated with merited consideration.
The studies which engaged my leisure brought me into con-
zexion w a very different class of natives, the men of learning,
and in them I found the similar merits of industry, intelligence,
cheerfulness, frankness, with others, peculiar to their avocation.
A very common characteristic of these men, and of the Hindus
especially, was a sinplicity truly childish, and a total unacquaint-
ance with the business and manners of life; where this feature
376
NOTE D.
was lost, it was chiefly by those who had been long familiar with
Europeans. Amongst the Pundits, or the learned Hindus, there
prevailed great ignorance and great dread of the European
character. There is, indeed, very little intercourse between any
class of Europeans and Hindu scholars, and it is not wonderful,
therefore, that much mutual misapprehension should prevail.
Taking an active part in the education of the natives, both in
their own and in English literature, I had many opportunities
of witnessing the native character developing itself in boyhood
and in youth, and the object was one of profound interest.
There can be little doubt, that the native mind outstrips in early
years the intellect of the Europeans, and generally speaking;
boys are much more quick in apprehension, and earnest in
application," than those of our own schools -- they are also more
amiable, more easily controlled, more readily encouraged, more
anxious to deserve the approbation of their masters and
examiners. The early age at which they are married and enter
into active life, is unfavourable to the full improvement of their
moral and intellectual faculties; but during the greater part of the
period of tuition, there is a strikingly interesting manifestation
of right feeling and of comprehensive intellect in native youth.
Occasions of public and private intercourse with another class
. of natives, men of property and respectability, were not unfre-
quent during a residence of twenty-four years in Calcutta, and
they afforded me many opportunities of witnessing polished man-
ners, clearness and comprehensiveness of understanding, liberality
of feeling, and independence of principle, that would have
stamped them gentlemen in any country in the world. With
some of this class I formed friendships which I trust to enjoy
through life.
Without pretending to deny, then, that there are many and
grave defects in the native character, some inseparable from
human nature, and others ascribable to physical constitution, to
political position, and to an absurd and corrupt religion, my own
experience satisfies me that it also presents many virtues, and
that the natives of India are an estimable and amiable people,
who deserve and will requite with attachment and improvement
the kindness and justice, which they have a right to demand from
the strangers who rule over them.
THE END.
TERTHEIMER AND CO., PRINTERS, CIRCUS PLACE, FINSBURY.

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GRADUATE LIBRARY
DATE DUE
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APR 25 1976
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