530 ARCHITECTURE-PAINTING. lar form. They are distinguished by a variety of symbols, representing the attributes of the deities worshipped, or the actions of the heroes here celebrated. The most remarkable object consists of three colossal heads, supposed to be different representations of Siva. form the roof are still larger. In the inmost enclosure are many chapels. The pagoda of Tanjore also presents features which may rival the most splendid of those found in other Oriental empires. Temples erected even in the small Rajpoot principalities display a beauty rivalling those of ancient Egypt, and even of Greece. It has been thought by some that Hindoo architecture has undergone a progressive degeneracy, and the more ancient the specimens are, the more valuable they may be deemed as works of art. Since the sway of the Mahometans was established in India, all the finest The caves of Kenneri, on the Island of Salsette, in this neighborhood, and those of Carli, on the opposite shore of the continent, present objects equally striking. The mountain of Kenneri appears to have had a city hewn in its rocky sides, capable of containing many thousand inhabitants. There are tanks, terraces, flights of steps, and every thing to accommo- structures have been reared by them, and in their own date a large population. Yet the ground is now never peculiar style. The mosques and tombs constructed trodden by a human footstep, except that of the curi- by Acbar, Shah Jehan, and Aurungzebe, rank with ous traveller. There is a cavern-temple, the interior of which, though less spacious than that of Elephanta, is loftier. At Elora, one hundred miles north-east of Bombay, are very remarkable ruins of this kind. Their the most splendid specimens of Saracenic art. palaces also are magnificent, yet built in a light and airy style, rather resembling pavilions. They are contrived for the admission of air from every point of the compass. They have spacious halls, long galleries, projecting roofs, and terraces open to the sky, with accommodations for sleeping there when the weather permits. They enclose shaded courts, gardens full of trees, marble baths, fountains, arbors, and every thing to create coolness. The great display of wealth is in the furniture, particularly in the fabrics of silk and cotton, ornamented with gold, which are either spread on the floor and seats, or hung round the walls. The temple of Ajmeer, one of the oldest now existing in India, is remarkable for the elegance of its columns, so very different, in their character, from the excavated works, and which seem to indicate a totally different period of art. They are about forty in number, and no two are alike. The ceiling is enriched with square panels, containing other panels in the form of lozenges, enriched with foliage and sculpture. When the Hindoos first began to build their pagodas above ground, it appears that they preserved, to a certain extent, the cavernous character of the original The houses of the ordinary class of people are of structures. The primitive pagodas were extremely the humblest description, rudely composed of canes simple, being merely pyramids, with no light internally, except what came in at the door. After having long been accustomed to perform the rites of religion in subterraneous abodes, they were naturally led to consider the solemn darkness of such a spot as sacred. Some of the pagodas of this style of building still remain. In proportion as wealth and refinement increased, the structure of the Hindoo temples gradually improved. From plain buildings, they became highly ornamental fabrics, and, both by their extent and magnificence, are monuments of the power and taste of the people by whom they were erected. Of this highly finished style, there are pagodas of great antiquity in Hindostan. The entrance to the pagoda of Chillambrun, on the coast of Coromandel, is by a stately gate, under a pyramid one hundred and twentytwo feet in height, built of square stones forty feet long, and more than five feet square. This pyramid is entirely covered with plates of copper, and adorned with an immense variety of figures, neatly executed. The whole structure is thirteen hundred and thirty-two feet long, and nine hundred and thirty-six broad. Some of the ornamental parts are finished with an elegance which has excited the admiration of the most ingenious artists. The great pagoda of Seringham even surpasses this in grandeur. It comprises seven square enclosures, one within the other, the walls of which are twenty-five feet high and four feet thick. These enclosures are three hundred and fifty feet distant from one another, and each has four large gates, with a high tower, which are placed one in the middle of each side of the enclosure, and opposite the four cardinal points. The outward wall is nearly four miles in circuit. The gateway to the south is ornamented with pillars, several of which are single stones, thirtythree feet long and five in diameter. Those which and earth, and roofed with thatch. Irregular collections of these hovels, like clusters of villages crowded together, form the main composition of the greatest Mogul capitals, the splendor of which generally consists in a few great streets or squares, formed by the houses of the grandees. The ancient military structures of the Hindoos are very remarkable. From the immense plains of Hindostan arise, in different parts, eminences and rocks formed by nature to be places of strength. Of these the natives took early possession, and, fortifying them with works of various kinds, rendered them almost impregnable stations. There seems to have been, in some distant age, a period of great turbulence and danger in India, when such retreats were deemed essential to the public safety. Among the duties of a magistrate, described by the sacred books, one is that "he shall erect a strong fort in the place where he chooses to reside, and shall build a wall on all the four sides of it, with towers and battlements, and shall make a full ditch around it." Of these fortresses many remain, which, both from the appearance of the structures and from the traditions of the natives, must have been erected in very remote times. Some of them are stupendous piles, standing on the tops of almost inaccessible mountains. The art of painting was employed in the very earliest ages by the Hindoos, to ornament their temples with symbolical designs. Compared with the same art as it exists in modern Europe, it was, of course, very inferior. Yet it has never been improved by these people beyond its ancient condition. The principal defect in the Hindoo pictures is in the drawing and perspective. Of the latter, indeed, they seem to || have known no more than the Chinese. The use of firearms appears to have been of great antiquity in Hindostan. They are prohibited by a code 1 1 of laws, in the native language, of a very ancient date. | Their books, of course, are chiefly in manuscript. The Hindoo books ascribe the invention of firearms to Beshkookerma, a mythological person, who is said to have formed all the weapons employed in a war between the good and evil spirits. Fireworks appear also, to have been an ancient Hindoo invention. From the earliest ages, they have constituted a principal article of amusement among the people. Fire-balls, or blue-lights, which are employed in besieged places, in the night time, in order to observe the motions of the besiegers, are met with every where throughout Hindostan, and are manufactured in as great perfection as in Europe. In many places of the East, which have never been visited either by Europeans or Mahometans, rockets are used as weapons of war. It is impossible to say in what age they were invented; but they are very ancient. Gunpowder, or a composition nearly resembling it, is found in many places in the East, to which it was not carried by the Europeans or the Saracens, particularly in Pegu and Siam. But there is reason to believe that the invention belongs to Hindostan. The music of the Hindoos existed in as great perfection in ancient times as it does at present. The use of cymbals and trumpets seems to have been borrowed from this country by the Greeks. The drum is also a Hindoo invention. In the mathematical sciences, the Hindoos possess a considerable share of genuine merit. Algebra, in particular, had advanced farther with them than with the nations of Europe, till very recently. Their astronomy has been famous. In the observatory at Benares are to be seen astronomical instruments, the use of which is not known to the Brahmins of the present age. But they afford ample evidence that the Hindoos possessed the knowledge of ascertaining the motions of the heavenly bodies in very ancient times. It is certain that they were better acquainted with astronomy than the Greeks and Romans, and that the rule for computing the circumference of a circle was first known in India. The most learned Brahmin of the present day, however, can hardly calculate an eclipse. CHAPTER CCLXIV. Language, Literature, &c., of the Hindoos. A GREAT variety of dialects are spoken in Hindostan. The court and fashionable language is the Persian. The learned language is the Arabic. The language of trade is Portuguese, which serves as the Lingua Franca of this part of the world. It is mixed up with many native words, and so corrupted as to differ much from the European original. The English also prevails to a considerable extent. The most widely spread of the native tongues is called the Hindostanee, which is more or less known throughout the peninsula. It is derived from the Sanscrit, and comprises many Persian and Arabic words. Its accent varies in different parts of the country. In the south of the peninsula, the Tamul, Telinga, and Malabar dialects prevail. In Orissa, the Ooreah dialect is spoken; in Bengal, the Bengalee, &c. The Hindoos have but recently had any printed books in their own language, and these have been furnished by the European and American missionaries. They write with an iron style, or bodkin, on leaves of the cocoa or palm-tree. They have also a thin, shining species of paper, in sheets of ten feet long and a foot broad. This is written upon with a reed, and a long sheet, rolled up, constitutes a book. When they write a letter or petition to a prince, the whole surface of the paper is gilt. For the security of such letters of consequence as are sent to court, they are rolled up close, and enclosed in a hollow cane or bamboo, the ends of which are sealed up, that no wet may injure them. The literature of Hindostan rests, like its social state, almost entirely on religion. To all the classical Hindoo books a divine origin is ascribed. The four Vedas, the grand basis of their learning, are believed to have issued simultaneously from the mouth of Brahma, though they are strangely enough supposed to have required the labors of Vyasa, a learned Brahmin, to bring them into a state fit for perusal. They consist, in a great measure, of invocations or addresses to the multifarious deities worshipped throughout India. Many of these invocations, when duly repeated, are supposed to have the power of charms, calling down good on the worshipper and his friends, and the most dreadful evils upon his enemies. They contain also precepts for the conduct of life, various in character and merit, with a full exposition of the national creed respecting the origin of the gods, the creation of the world, a future state, and the transmigration of souls. They are illustrated by the Sastras, and other commentaries, all of which, like the original, are supposed to be the result of inspiration. This primary fountain of Hindoo knowledge is carefully shut, except to the Brahmins; no other person can lawfully throw his! eyes on these sacred pages, or even understand the language in which they are written. Next are the Puranas, which, like the Vedas, are composed almost entirely in verse. The ten Puranas contain nearly half a million of stanzas. They form a strange and heterogeneous medley of sound precept, useful doctrine, wild fable, and directions for puerile observances. I The narrative part relates rather to gods than to men Below the Puranas in celebrity and sanctity are the Mahabarat and the Ramayana, two great epics, or rather wild metrical romances, similar in strain to the Puranas; they are, at least, as ancient as the poems of Homer. The Mahabarat treats of a long civil war between two dynasties of ancient India, and is interwoven with a great variety of episodes, consisting of ancient traditions, moral reflections, poetical descriptions, and popular stories of every kind. It is a most ample storehouse of antiquarian lore, and contains a great quantity of valuable historical material. The subject of the Ramayana is the descent of Vishnu, for the purpose of averting the threatened destruction of the world by the prince of demons, Ravana. The historical fact which forms the foundation of this poem seems to be the introduction of the Brahminical worship into Hindostan. The wild aborigines, being the opponents of Brahminism, are made to appear in the character of demons. History can hardly be said to find a place in the literature of the Hindoos. Their wild legends are plausibly supposed to have a foundation in the story of some celebrated early kings or conquerors. But it is impossible, through the mist of fable, even to conjecture any thing precise respecting their real exist 532 ence. FOOD, DRESS, MODE OF TRAVEL OF THE HINDOOS. Every thing in the shape of true history that Hindostan possesses is due to her Mahometan conquerors. In the lighter and more elegant branches of literature, the Hindoos display greater excellence. The fables of Pilpay, interspersed with moral maxims, possess the highest merit of which that species of composition can boast, and have been translated into all languages. The dramatic literature of the nation is very extensive, and may almost compare with that of England in quantity. The Hindoo plays, though defective in plot, and destitute of the varied merits which characterize the works of Shakspeare, present many passages distinguished for sweetness, pathos, and humor. The Hindoo drama seems to have originated in the sacred dances and solemnities of the national religion. It resembles the modern opera, and makes no distinction between tragedy and comedy. Many of the plays are of prodigious length, and the earlier performances were very rude. The whole Hindoo drama is, however, strikingly original, and gives a representation of Indian manners not to be found in any other species of composition. Many of the pieces are executed with the utmost elegance of style and harmony of parts, without extravagance or affectation. Love, too, forms a copious theme; and the amatory poets of India are eminent, though no one of them has attained to the celebrity of the Persian Hafiz. These compositions are deficient in the genuine language of passion, but they are distinguished by splendid imagery. All the valuable literature of Hindostan is ancient. The Sanscrit language, in which most of it is written, has long ceased to be spoken. There are few Hindoo authors of the present day who have attained any distinction. The Brahmins, who, by virtue of their character, ought to be learned, are now almost wholly illiterate. The only tincture of learning appears to exist among the higher classes in the great cities, who have, in some degree, caught the temper of the Europeans who have visited them, particularly the missionaries. greatest favorites. They handle every thing with their fingers, having at table neither knife, fork, nor spoon. The times for eating are chiefly in the morning and evening, for, as the middle of the day is generally very hot, it is devoted to sleep. The Europeans, however, eat at noon, and take a nap afterward. When they give an entertainment, it is usually in the evening. A dining-hall is always furnished with a punkah, or huge fan, suspended from the ceiling, and kept in motion by pulling a string. Hindostan is a hot country, and the dress of the inhabitants is suited to the climate. In general, it consists of long, flowing robes of cotton. In some of the higher and cooler regions, coarse woollens, of native manufacture, are worn. A pretty uniform style prevails among the higher classes; but the rank of the wearer is indicated by a profusion of jewels, embroidery, and gilding, the display of which caused the Mogul court, in its glory, to be regarded as without a parallel for magnificence in the world. The fallen princes and soobahs, who now exist upon its ruins, console themselves by maintaining as much of this parade as their reduced revenues will support. Great numbers of the common Hindoos go without any dress, except the smallest possible covering round the waist. The women who are seen abroad wear generally a small skirt of white calico, reaching from the waist to the knees. Their hair is made up into a roll, adorned with jewels and toys; they have also jewels in the ears and nose, and make a great display of bracelets, rings, &c. CHAPTER CCLXV. Food, Dress, Travelling, Manners, Customs, and Character of the Hindoos. THE Hindoos are abstemious in diet beyond almost every other nation. This arises from feelings not only of duty, but of pride. Among the higher castes, the man who tastes animal food, or strong liquors, is regarded as an impure and degraded being, who must be thrust out from among his associates, and doomed to mingle with the vilest of his race. Rice and water suffice for the food of the purest classes, and scarcely any, who have the slightest pretensions to caste, will admit within their lips a morsel of beef. The scruple diminishes as we descend from rank to rank; but it is only among absolute outcasts that intemperance is found to prevail. With the Mahometans of India the case is different. Few of them abstain from wine when it is offered to them by Europeans, and they are still fonder of strong cordials and drams. They are, however, so cautious in this indulgence, that the hardest drinkers are never seen in public disordered with liquor. They eat flesh meat freely, and are fond of high-seasoned dishes. Curries and pillaus are the Family of Hindoos - Coolies. The dress of the Mahometans is very becoming. They preserve the original Indian manner of wearing turbans of fine muslin, the folds of which form a covering to the head at once light and cool, at the same time defending it completely from the sun. The folding of the turban admits of a great variety of forms, which serve to distinguish tribes, professions, and diversities of rank. Sashes constitute a prominent article of finery. They are worn on the outside of a long vest, and are richly embroidered with gold and silver. To these are hung daggers and cimeters, the handles of which are set with precious stones. Of all the methods of travelling, the most common is that of the palanquin: it is specially adapted to the constitutional indolence of the Hindoos. The palan " 11 1 MANNERS, CUSTOMS, CHARACTER OF THE HINDOOS. quin is a portable bed, or litter, with a large canopy, under which a person lies, bolstered with pillows, so that he may either sit up, or lie down and sleep. It is borne by four men, sometimes six. The usual time for travelling is in the morning and evening, to avoid the noontide heat. The roads are generally very bad, consisting of a deep sand, which is so hot in the daytime that it would burn the feet of the travellers, if they were not, by constant exposure, hardened like sole leather. Shoes cannot be worn upon these roads. When a man of any substance goes upon a journey, he usually hires eight or ten coolies, or porters, to carry his palanquin. Four of these run with it at the rate of four or five miles an hour, and their companions relieve them at certain distances. Besides these, it is usual to hire as many musketeers or pikemen, for a guard against wild beasts and robbers. On the great roads, at the distance of every ten or twelve miles, are buildings called choultries, where travellers stop for rest and refreshment. They are entirely open on the side next the road, and generally consist of two rooms, in one of which the travellers spread their carpets and sleep, while their attendants prepare food in the other. The erection of these houses for the accommodation of travellers, is esteemed by the Hindoos a laudable act of charity. There is commonly a supply of water near them, and the people of the neighboring villages generally take care that fire shall be provided for cooking provisions. Travelling in the rainy season is very difficult: the immense plains of this country are overflowed, and the mountainous regions are swept by rapid torrents. The common people, however, who are very expert in swimming, are not deterred by these dangers, and will cross the rivers with passengers upon their backs. 533 ness and quietude which are so conspicuous on the surface of the Hindoo character. Deadly feuds reign in the interior of villages. Yet the Hindoos possess many good qualities, and the unfavorable pictures given of them have, perhaps, been drawn chiefly from the populace of great cities, and from individuals otherwise placed in situations trying to human virtue. It is admitted that, in fidelity to their masters or chiefs, from whom they have received kind treatment, they are equalled by very few nations. The habits of Hindoo life are preeminently domestic. Respect for old age is carried to a great height, and, when parents are no longer capable of labor, they are supported by their children, and never allowed to become a burden on the public. Marriage is regarded as an indispensable part of life, without which a man would not possess a regular place in society, or be qualified to hold any important office. Hindostan has been for many successive ages the theatre of absolute empire, exercised by foreign military potentates. It presents, however, many peculiarities, distinguishing it from mere ordinary despotism. The basis of its population still consists of that remarkable race of men, who, during a subjection for thousands of years, have retained quite unaltered all the features of their original character. They preserve in full force that earliest form of government, - the village constitution, - and their attachment to it seems to have been rendered stronger by the absence of every other political right and distinction. The village, considered as a political association, includes all the surrounding territory, from which the inhabitants draw their subsistence. Not only the public services, but all trades, with the exception of the simple one of cultivating the ground, are performed by individuals! who hold them usually by hereditary succession, and who are paid with a certain portion of the land and by fixed presents. The principal of these officers are, the potail or head man of the village, the police with their servants, an officer to decide disputes respecting land and boundaries, the superintendent of watercourses, the Brahmin, the astrologer, the village register, the smith, the carpenter, the poet, the musician, and the dancing-girl. So deep is the principle of this association, and so strong the feeling of the rights connected with it, that it has remained unaffected by all the storms of revolution that have passed over India. Even after the inhabitants of a village have been obliged to flee before the devastation of an invading army, they have never failed, on the return of peace, to seek their native habitation, and have been allowed, without controversy, to resume their old possessions. Infant potails, the second and third in descent from the emigration, have, in many cases, been carried at the head of these returning parties. When they reach their villages, every wall of a house and every field is taken possession of by the owner or cultivator, without dispute or litigation among themselves or with the government, and, in a few days, every thing is in progress, as if it had never been disturbed. The manners of the Hindoos indicate a high degree of refinement and social cultivation. They are in a remarkable degree polished, graceful, and engaging. In the whole intercourse of society, a politeness and urbanity exist much beyond what is observed in the most cultivated nations of Europe. The first impression which a stranger receives of the Hindoos is that of a benevolent and amiable people. A more intimate acquaintance, however, considerably changes the first impression. The outward politeness, so prepossessing at first, soon resolves itself into the smooth and interested servility which men acquire in courts and under despotic governments, by habitual intercourse with those on whom they are dependent. It seems to be entirely prompted by self-interest, which forms the basis of the Hindoo character. These people are entirely broken down by the influence of that despotism which has prevailed throughout the country from the earliest ages of which we have any knowledge. A propensity toward the deliberate and systematic violation of truth seems to be deeply rooted in the Hindoo character. It is the business and study of all to conceal and deceive. Perjury, the most deliberate and studied, marks every deposition made in a Hindoo court of justice. The greatest perplexity in these tribunals arises from the fact that even those who mean well, and have the truth on their side, imagine they cannot do enough unless they enforce it by an addition of falsehood. It would thus be impossible for the courts of justice to carry on their investigations if they should reject evidence because it was combined with the most palpable falsehoods and perjuries. On a close inspection, also, much disappears of the mild-prosperity they are interested. They never converse The Hindoos have been accustomed quietly to behold all the high offices of their government in the possession of any people, however strange or foreign, with whom rests the power of the sword. They have no conception of political rights or privileges, or of a country or nation of their own, in whose glory and 534 BRITISH SLAVERY IN INDIA-CASTES. on such subjects, and can scarcely be made to comprehend what they mean. Their only political bond is a chief, who possesses popular qualities, and attaches them by pay and promotion. To such a person they often manifest singular fidelity, but they are strangers to every other public feeling. Despotism is not only established by long precedent, but is rooted in the very habits and minds of the community. Such habits naturally predispose the people of a fertile region, bordered by poor and warlike tribes, to fall into a state of regular and constant subjection to a foreign yoke. Slavery exists to a great extent in British India. The number of slaves has never been ascertained, but is estimated at from twelve to twenty millions. The number is kept up, not only by propagation, but by parents selling their children. In times of scarcity, the poor people from the interior resort to the seaports, and sell their offspring into slavery without scruple. The most prominent and strongly-marked feature in Hindoo society is the division of the people into castes, or separate ranks. The Greek writers enumerate a great variety of these distinctions as existing in ancient times, but at present there are only four prominent castes. These are forbidden, by perpetual usage, from intermarrying, eating or drinking together, or associating in any intimate manner whatever, except at the worship of Juggernaut, when it is held a crime to make any distinction. The first caste is that of the Brahmins, who are superior to all other Hindoos in dignity and authority, and are, in fact, regarded by the three other castes with profound veneration. They alone can officiate in the priesthood, like the Levites among the Jews; yet no public provision is made for supplying them with the means of subsistence. Their ordinary dependence is upon alms, and to this mode of support they have given such a lustre, that throughout all India, he who receives alms is considered as ranking higher than he who bestows them. The bestowal of gifts upon a Brahmin, and his consequent benediction, are represented as effacing every sin, and securing the most ample blessings. His curse is the forerunner of the most dreadful evils, and is even thought to possess the power of striking a man dead upon the spot. A prince or eminent man reckons it indispensable to keep near him some distinguished Brahmins as counsellors. They are strictly prohibited by law from all menial offices, but not from trade, government, or agriculture. They derive their name from Brahma, who, according to the Hindoo allegories, produced the Brahmins from his head when he created the world. tively said to have sprung from the stomach of Brahma, the name signifying a nourisher, or provider. The fourth caste is that of the Sudras, or Sudders, whose office it is to be menial servants, as they are believed to have sprung from Brahma's feet. It is contrary to the laws of the Hindoos that any person should rise from an inferior to a superior caste. When an individual, therefore, loses caste, or is excommunicated from the rank in which he was born, he is forever shut out from the society of all people except a body of outcasts called Harries, or Pariahs, who are held in utter detestation by the pure ranks, and are employed only in the meanest and vilest offices. But, notwithstanding prohibitions, there have been mixtures of the castes, and these have so increased in process of time, that their relations to each other cannot now be settled with any precision. The Hindoos are very scrupulous in regard to diet, and the Brahmins much more so than the rest. They eat no flesh, and shed no blood. This was their characteristic in ancient times, as we learn from Porphyry and Clemens Alexandrinus. The food which they most esteem is milk, as coming from the cow, an animal which they hold in the highest veneration. The Chandalahs are one of these mixed castes, and are found all over Hindostan. They arose originally, it is said, from the marriage of a Sudra with a female Brahmin. A Chandalah is esteemed a most impure and degraded being. His occupation is generally that of a fisherman or day-laborer. He carries the dead to their graves, officiates as public executioner, and performs all those deeds of abject drudgery that in other countries devolve upon slaves and criminals. On the Malabar and Coromandel coast, such is the abomination in which this unfortunate class is held, that if one of them were to touch a Rajpoot, the person touched would instantly put him to death. Even the shadow of a Chandalah falling upon an individual of another class is considered as polluting him. The second caste is called Katry, Kittry, or Kshatriya. Those who belong to this rank are required to follow the military profession, though, in practice, this has not always been observed. Brahma is said to have produced these from his heart. This caste has always been viewed with great jealousy by the Brahmins, and the institutions which the latter have imposed upon it, have been little calculated to nourish a warlike spirit. Hence the reason why Hindostan has so frequently been the prey of foreign conquerors, for the priestly caste made it their policy to humiliate and weaken the caste of warriors. The Katry have in consequence declined, and are regarded by some as nearly extinct. The third caste is called Bhyse or Vaisya. This includes the higher industrial classes, comprising merchants, bankers, and shopkeepers. They are figura-The sacred books describe this unfortunate race in |