F.

Different Hindoo Sects in Bengal.

THE discrepancy of religious belief in the province of Bengal alone (which province has been accounted the strong hold of the Brahminical superstition,) will illustrate the general state of the other provinces of Hindostan.

In Bengal there are five classes of natives who are adverse to the Brahminical system; and who may be termed Dissenters from the Hindoo practices and religion.

1. The followers of Chytunya of Nuddeea. This philosopher taught that there is no distinction of cast; a tenet which alone undermines the whole system of Hinduism.

2. The followers of Ram Doolal, who is now living at Ghosepara, near Sookhsagur. These are computed to be twenty thousand in number, and are composed of every denomination of Hindoos and Mussulmans. They profess a kind of Deism. Of this sect some have already embraced the Christian faith.

3. A third great body were lately followers of Shiveram Doss, at Jugutanundu Katee. This man, who is yet alive, was believed to be a partial incarnation of the Deity. They have addressed several letters to the Protestant missionaries, and are ready to abjure idolworship and other errors.

4. Another class of Hindoo sceptics is to be found at Lokephool in Jessore. Their representative at this time is Neelo, surnamed the Sophist. Some of these have repeatedly visited the missionaries and invited them to go amongst them. They have received the Bible and other religious books in the Bengalee language, which they now teach in a school established for the instruction of children.

5. The fifth class, which is very numerous, profess respect for the opinions of a leader named Amoonee Sa, residing in Muhummud Shawi. They have lately sent two deputations to the Christian missionaries, request

ing a conference with them on the doctrines of the Gospel.

Now "what forbids that these men should be baptized?" We do not offer them a religion, but the people themselves, awake to their own concerns, come to us and ask for it. What policy, what philosophy is that, which forbids our granting their request? It must certainly have been an ignorance of facts which has so long kept alive amongst us the sentiment, that religion is not to be mentioned to the natives.

That which prevents the sects above mentioned from renouncing (even without our aid) all connection with Hindoos or Mussulmans, is the want of precedent in the North of India of a community of native Christians, enjoying political consequence, as in the South. The ignorance of the people is so great that they doubt whether their civil liberties are equally secure to them under the denomination of Christian, as under that of Hindoo or Mussulman; and they do not understand that we have yet recognised in our code of native law, any other sect than that of Hindoo and Mussulman.*

* [The opinion of Rev. George Lewis, chaplain at Fort St. George in 1712, was decidedly in favor of the Protestant Mission. His local situation, unconnected as he was with any mission, entitles his judgment to respect. "The Missionaries at Tranquebar ought and must be encouraged. It is the first attempt the Protestants ever have made in that kind. As to converting the Natives in the dominions of the Rajahs, and the great Mogul, I believe it may be done in either without notice taken, provided we do not sound a trumpet before us. In the Mogul's dominions, eight parts in ten, in most of the provinces, are Gentoos, and he never troubles his head what opinion they embrace. But to tamper with his Mussulmen is not safe. But to give you my sentiments in the matter; I think we ought to begin at home: for there are thousands of people, I may say some hundreds of thousands, who live in the settlements, and under the jurisdiction of the Honorable Company, at Bombay, Fort St. David, Fort St. George, Calcutta in Bengal, on the West Coast, &c. who may be converted to Christianity without interfering with any country government whatsoever." What additional strength has this argument received by the vast accession of territory and population to the British dominions in the East, during the last century! Nearly twenty years ago, Sir William Jones gave it as his judgment, founded on an actual enumeration in one collectorship, "that in all India there cannot be "fewer than THIRTY MILLIONS OF BLACK BRITISH SUBJECTS." Amer. Edit.]

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G.

Ancient civilization of India.

THE Constant reference of some authors to what is termed the ancient civilization of the Hindoos, gives currency to an opinion in Europe, that the natives of India are yet in an improved state of society.

It is probable that the Hindoos were once a civilized people, in the sense in which the ancient Chaldeans and ancient Egyptians are said to have been civilized. The result of the most accurate researches on this subject, appears to be the following.

From the plains of Shinar, at the time of the disper sion, some tribes migrated toward the East to India, and some toward the West to Egypt, while others remained in Chaldea. At an early period, we read of the "wisdom and learning of the Egyptians," and of the Chaldeans; and it is probable that the "wisdom and learning" of the Hindoos were the same in degree, at the same period of time. In the mean while patriarchal tradition (which had accompanied the different tribes at the beginning) pervaded the mythology of all.

It may be presumed further, that the systems of the Hindoos would remain longer unaltered with them, by reason of their remote and insulated situation; from which circumstance also their writings would be more easily preserved.

We collect from undoubted historical evidence, that during a period of twelve hundred years, a free intercourse subsisted between India, Egypt, Greece, and Chaldea. Of course the "wisdom" of each of these nations respectively must have been common to all, and their systems of theology and astronomy would have been allied to each other; as we know in fact they were. How it happened, by the mere operation of natural causes, that Greece and Rome should have left Egypt and India so far behind, is yet to be accounted for; though the purpose of it in the designs of the divine providence is very evident.

But now the wisdom of the East hath passed away with the wisdom of Egypt; and we might with equal

justice attribute civilization to the present race of Egyptians, as to the present race of the Hindoos.

Historians have been at great pains to collect vestiges of the ancient civilization of the Hindoos; and with some success; for these vestiges are as manifest as those of the early civilization of Egypt or of Chaldea. Doctor Robertson says, that he prosecuted his laborious investigation with the view and hope, "that, if his account of the early civilization of India should be received as just and well established, it might have some influence upon the behavior of Europeans towards that people.' "This was a humane motive of our celebrated historian. But as it is difficult for us to respect men merely for the civilization of their forefathers, a more useful deduction appears to be this; that since the Hin'doos are proved on good evidence, to have been a civilized people in former days, we should endeavour to make them a civilized people again. Doctor Robertson seems to think that the Hindoos are even now "far advanced beyond the inhabitants of the two other quarters of the globe in improvement." Such a sentiment indeed is apt to force itself on the mind, from a mere investigation of books. But to a spectator in India the improvement alluded to will appear to be very partial; and the quality of it is little understood in Europe. It is true that the natives excel in the manual arts of their cast; and that some of them, particularly those who are brought up amongst Europeans, acquire a few ideas of civility and general knowledge. But the bulk of the common people, from Cape Comorin to Thibet, are not an improved people. Go into a village, within five miles of Calcutta, and you will find an ignorance of letters and of the world, an intellectual debility, a wretchedness of living, and a barbarism of appearance, which, by every account, (making allowance for our regular government and plentiful country) are not surpassed among the natives in the interior of Africa or back settlements of America.† On

* Dissertation on India, page 335.

† See Park and Mackenzie. [Justice requires, that the aborigin al people on the Malabar coast be distinguished from most of those inhabiting "from Cape Comorin to Thibet." The country, deno

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the principle of some late philosophers, that those men are most civilized, who approach nearest to the simplicity of nature, it might be expected perhaps that the Hindoos are a civilized people. But even this principle fails them. For an artificial and cruel superstition debases their minds, and holds them in a state of degradation, which to an European is scarcely credible.

minated Proper Malabar, comprehends a tract of land, beginning at Mount Dilly, in the latitude of 12 north, and extending to Cape Comorin, and is bounded inland by that vast chain of mountains which separates the Malabarian coast from the Coromandel. The inhabitants of this region differ extremely, in their manners and customs, from those of the more northern parts, though separated from them but by an imaginary line. "Here the whole government and people wear a new face and form." This country is divided into a multitude of petty kingdoms, through which are diffused nearly the same modes of religion, manners and policy. An author who visited the East Indies about half a century ago, having mentioned some of the peculiar customs of this people, observes: "From such strange customs one would naturally enough conclude, that nothing but such a barbarism reigns in the Malabar as among the savages of America; yet this is far from being the case. The Malabars have in general even a certain politeness, and especially a shrewdness of discernment of their interests, which those who deal or treat with them are sure to experience. Like most of the Orientalists, they are grave, know perfectly well how to keep dignity, and are great observers of silence, especially in their public functions. They despise and distrust all verboseness in the mangement of state affairs. Their harangues are succinct and pathetic. A king of Travancore, for example, on two ambassadors being sent to him by the Naick of Madura, a neighboring prince, and one of them having made a prolix speech, and the other preparing to take it up and proceed in the same manner, where the other had left off, austerely admonished him in these few words, " Do not be long, life is short." Grose's Voyage to the East Indies, i. 245.The art of writing on palm leaves, where there no other evidence, would alone prove the ingenuity and former cultivation of the Malabarians. When the Protestant Missionaries first visited Malabar, this art was familiar to the natives. The orders for the Synod of Diamper were issued on palm leaves, written after the manner of the country, and styled Ollas. “L' Archidiacre envoya de tous cotes des Ollas, ou Lettres ecrites a la maniere du Pays avec des stilets de fer sur des feuilles d Palmier." La Croze. Many of the people take down the discourses of the missionaries on Ollas, that they may read them afterward to their families at home. As soon as the minister has pronounced the text, the sound of the iron style on the palm leaf is heard throughout the congregation. This art, it appears, is not confined to the Malabarian coast, but is practised at Tanjour. "The natives of Tanjour and Travancore can write down what is spoken deliberately, without losing one word. They seldom look at their ollas while writing, and can write in the dark with fluency." Appendix to Star in the East. A late missionary says, that they write in Tamul short hand;" and that "the sermon of the morn

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