Translation. 7 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1843-| Gymnosophists, and were in general totally 1851. ignorant that the institutes of that discipline 27. The Vishnu Purana; a System of Hindu and the records of that philosophy had been Mythology and Tradition. Translated handed down intact from an age long prior from the original Sanskrit, and illustrated to that of Alexander. Since the time of by Notes derived chiefly from the other Sir William Jones, however, the recesses of Puranas. By H. H. WILSON, &c. Lon- this venerable literature have been more don, 1840. and more thrown open, till at length we 28. Le Bhagavata Purana; ou, Histoire Poéti- have acquired a complete general knowledge que de Krichna, Texte Sanscrit et Tra- of its character and value. Still very much duction Française. Par E. BURNOUF. 3 remains to be done; and the field of invesvols. 4to. Paris, 1840-1847. (Incom-tigation is so vast that it cannot be accurately plete.) surveyed and delineated except by the com29. Illustrations of the Literature and Reli- bined exertions of many scholars and philosogion of the Buddhists. By B. H. HODG-phers. For three thousand years the mind SON, Esq., B.C.S. Serampore, 1841. of India, prolific as her own all-productive 30. Introduction à l' Histoire du Buddhisme soil, has been pouring itself forth in the ef Indien. Par EUGENE BURNOUF. 1 vol. fusions of devotion, or in speculations on 4to. Paris, 1844. the Divine nature, and the origin of the uni 31. Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi, Traduit de verse. Metaphysics, physics, logic, rhetoric, Sanscrit, accompagné d'un Commentaire, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, poetry, et de vingt et un Mémoires relatifs au and mythology, have all employed the pens of Buddhisme. Par E. BURNouf. 1 vol. a long series of writers, till Sanskrit Litera4to. Paris, 1852. ture has assumed a very formidable magni32. A Manual of Budhism, in its Modern tude. And many of these books are comDevelopment. By R. SPENCE HARDY. posed in an obscure and elliptical style, London, 1853. abounding in technical phraseology, which, 33. Du Bouddhisme. Par M. J. BARTHELEMY joined to the novelty and peculiarity of the ST. HILAIRE. Paris, 1855. thoughts, renders it a matter of great diffi34. The Bhagavad-Gita; a Sanskrit Philo-culty for the European investigator to divine sophical Poem. Translated, with copious their meaning. Indian researches, however, notes, an Introduction on Sanskrit Philosophy, and other Matter. By J. COCKBURN THOMSON. Hertford, 1855. have happily proved congenial to the taste of French and German scholars, whose attention has been particularly directed to the new character given to comparative philology THE list of books at the head of this Ar- by the study of Sanskrit grammar, and to ticle is sufficient to evince the extraordinary the fresh light which the Vedas throw on the activity with which the study of Indian lit- religious and metaphysical systems of the erature and antiquity has of late been pro- ancient world, and the relations of the races secuted in Western Europe. It is about who professed them. Our own countrymen, seventy years since Sanskrit became the too, have not been idle, though we cannot subject of particular and scientific inquiry. but wish that more of them were engaged The Jesuit missionaries had, indeed, from on this important field of investigation, which, an early period, been acquainted with that from the close connexion of Britain with Inlanguage, and one of their number had writ-dia, would seem to be peculiarly our own, ten in it a religious treatise, which, conform and to deserve greater prominence than it ably to the habitual tactics of that politic has yet received in the arrangements of our order, and to give it greater currency among British Universities and other institutions the Brahmans, was entitled Yajur Veda, and for learning. composed in the form of a dialogue in which The Sanskrit is in itself a language emiChristian sentiments were put into the nently worthy of attention, from the perfecmouths of the most celebrated of the Hindu tion and beauty of its structure; while its sages. Though it had been long known that affinity both in roots and in forms of inflexthe science and literature of the Brahmans ion with Greek, Latin, and the other Indowere locked up in a language which few of Germanic tongues, is at once a fact of the them understood, and which they refused to highest interest, and establishes the mutual teach to strangers, yet a very imperfect relationship of the races by which those idea could have been entertained of the con- forms of speech were originally employed. tents of these Sanskrit books. The learned | An examination of this language, so, comof Europe possessed, in fact, little more than plete in its formation, so precise and so cothe classical traditions regarding the contem- pious an exponent of thought, and of its rich plative philosophy and rigid discipline of the and varied literature, throws an entirely new 1856. Indian Literature. of the miraculous displays by which he con- light on the ancient people who have elaborated the one and created the other. This But while we present these aspects of study thus enlarges our knowledge of the varieties of civilized humanity, of its habits Indian literature as interesting to the general propose of thought, its moral and active character, student, we are especially anxious that the young theologians, who and its spiritual life. If, in the Indo-Arian attention of or Hindu race, we desiderate that robust to devote themselves to the work of Christnature and that practical mind which distin-ian missions in India, should be drawn This guish the nations of Western Europe, we to the importance of mastering the Sanskrit shall at least be compelled to allow to it the language and Indian metaphysics. merit of extraordinary subtilty and acute- knowledge has not, indeed, been hitherto reness, of lofty aspirations after perfection, cognised as essential for a missionary; but and of that heroic endurance and self-sacrifice which drew forth from the Stoic poet the expression of his fervent admiration : Quique suas struxêre pyras, vivique calentes Conscendêre rogos. Pro! quanta est gloria genti Imposuisse manum fatis, vitâque repletos, Quod superest, donâsse deis! The study of Indian literature will, in a remarkable degree, extend our view of the phenomena of natural religion, and of the influence wich its several modifications can exercise, for good or evil, on those who hold them. In the Hindus we find a people more devout and contemplative than any of the western nations. Moreover, the study of their mythology and theosophy, independently of its general interest, will be discovered to bear relation in various ways to Christianity and its progress in the world. In confronting Christianity with other creeds, with the view of displaying its superior claims, the range of comparison has been generally restricted to the products of a European soil-the religions of Greece and Rome; or has included at most the systems of Arabia or China, which but inade. quately represent, the workings of the Oriental mind on divine things. The religious history of India introduces us to new pheno mena. juster views are now beginning to prevail. learning. These general considerations derive additional force from the character of the We there find natural religion at- learned classes in Hindostan. Literature, tended by conditions which we may have science, philosophy, and theology, have been hitherto imagined to belong to the Christian largely cultivated by the Mohammedan narevelation alone. We see in Brahmanism tions; and this culture has extended to the a system professing to be founded on writ Mussulmans of India, many of whom are These Mohammedan doctors ten records, alleged to be of unfathomable profoundly versed in their own classical antiquity and inspired origin. In Buddhism we encounter a system which, though no have shewn themselves acute and obstinate doubt sharply discriminated from Christ- defenders of their own creed, and vigorous ianity by other circumstances, yet offers a assailants of Christianity. remarkable parallel to it in the fact that it Brahmans are not less accomplished. Such sprang up as a new form of belief in the are their logical skill, their metaphysical midst of a nation pre-occupied by an ancient subtlety, their pride of learning, of caste, and deeply-rooted faith, and spread in spite and of ceremonial purity, that they are of the resistance of a powerful hierarchy, scarcely at all accessible to the influence of whose claims to exclusive consideration and Christian doctrine, unless it be recoma divine prerogative it repudiated. We mended to them by one who can command further find, in the earliest known books of their respect by his mastery of their own this same creed, an assertion of the super- sacred language and literature, as well as by natural powers of its founder, and narratives familiarity with metaphysics and specula The learned tive theology. As this learned class is ture is also of great importance to the highly influential, and leads native Indian members of the Indian Civil Service. We society, it cannot safely be neglected; and do not allude merely to the facility which a if any considerable number of its members familiarity with Sanskrit will give them in could be won over to Christianity, their ex-mastering those vernacular dialects of India ample would go far to determine the course of which it is the parent. We refer yet of the other classes. This is true even of more to the greater degree of kindly interthe Presidency cities of Calcutta and Bom- est which a civil servant who knows somebay, but it applies still more strongly to the thing of the sacred language of the Hindus, Provinces, to which the enlightening in- and the remarkable literature which it confluences of English education have extended tains, would take in the people over whom in a more limited degree. he is sent to rule, and the greater respect he would entertain for their character. It need scarcely be observed, of what consequence it is to the welfare of the people of India that civilians should entertain for them such feelings of interest and respect; and should leave England with a high sense of the true dignity of their future vocation, not considering that they will satisfy its requisitions by the discharge, however effective, of their primary official duties, but looking on themselves as charged with the improvement of the people in all its branches-physical, moral, and intellectual. It is on grounds such as these that, while we earnestly desire to see all Christian missionaries well trained, highly educated, and large-minded men, we are especially anxious that a select portion of them should be profoundly versed alike in the Metaphysics of Europe and in the sacred languages and lit erature both of the Mohammedans and Hindus. Especially in the strongholds of Islam and of heathenism, the cause of Christianity should be represented by persons whose learning, logical power, and philosophic spirit might command the respect of their antagonists, and whose scientific training and highly disciplined reason might teach them how to set most effectively to work in clearing away deeply-rooted and complicated systems of error, which appeal to reason and have maintained their ground for ages. A knowledge of Sanskrit and its litera *We happen to have received, just before writing this, a letter from a converted Brahman lately in England, who must be presumed to have a tolerably correct notion of the state of his countrymen, in which he gives the following view of the mental condition of the learned class. He is speaking of the obstacles to the reception of Christianity, and expresses himself thus in terms which we render from the original:-"The Pundits [doctors] of that city [Benares] are so conceited, that though one should assert the fact to them on oath, yet they will never believe that there is any science or learning among the English, or any excellence in their creed. It is, therefore, very difficult to lead them to a consideration of the Christian Scriptures. Besides, their caste and religion altogether debar them from any social intercourse with foreigners. Further, the Nyaya [one of the Hindu philosophical schools] and other systems of the Hindus are so replete with false reasonings, that, for depraving the human intellect, they are a manifest poison; the result of which is, that these persons are altogether incapable of tical reasoning." This is the estimate of his learned countrymen's condition formed by one who has not very long ago escaped from the fetters of the false systems in which they are still bound: and who, therefore, is perhaps somewhat prone to exaggerate the bad effects of the Hindu philosophy on the intellect of its followers, and to underrate its value in exercising and sharpening their powers. There can be no doubt, however, that there is but too much truth in what he says, and that the false principles of these systems have taken strong hold of the minds of those learned men, prac We propose in this article to offer our readers some account of the present state and recent progress of Indian studies. As the literature of India is theological and philosophical in its distinctive character, any account of it must relate chiefly to the religious ideas of the people, the rise and formation of their theological and metaphysical systems, and the principal mutations of belief which these have induced in the popular mind in the course of ages. It is a mere vulgar error to suppose that the Hindus, any more than any other people, have remained unchanged and stereotyped throughout all the stages of their history. On the contrary, their whole national life has, from its commencement, exhibited one continued course of development, and also, up to a certain point, of progress. The Hindus, as is well known, claim for their nation an unfathomable antiquity, and an origin immediately divine. They would scornfully repudiate the idea that their race ever had any other abode than their own Holy Land, the only pure and fitting seat of twice-born and civilized men. The other classes of people resident in India or the adjacent countries, who were known to their early legislators, were considered either to have sprung from the unlawful intermarriages of members of the four original castes, or to have become degraded by falling away from Brahmanism. Traces are not, however, wanting, even in the more popular books of the Hindus, of one particular portion of their country being re 1856. Indian Literature. garded as more holy than the rest, and as The Indo-Arians partake largely in all the the cradle of their religion. While the higher qualities of the Indo-Germanic race, legislator Menu speaks of the whole tract in their capacity of self-development, their lying between the Himalaya and Vindhya intellectual power, their love of science, ranges as Arya-àvärtta-the land of the their tendency to metaphysical speculation, Aryas or respectable men, he styles the their aspirations after ideal and spiritual narrow strip which lies "between the divine perfection, their tastes for the fine arts, and rivers Sarasvati and Drishadvati," (i.e. the for elegant literature. And yet they are country adjacent to the modern Umballa,) distinguished by marked characteristics of as Brahma ávärtta-the land of Brahma, their own, corresponding to their position as They do not possess "fashioned by the gods." It would seem to an Asiatic nation. While follow from this, either that the primitive the masculine nature of the kindred tribes seats of the Hindus in Hindostan were in who migrated to the north-west. this neighbourhood, or, at least, that their the Greeks, with all their speculative genius, religious system was here matured. By and exquisite sense of the beautiful, were a European scholars, it is at present generally restlessly active, energetic, and practical held that at an early period the progenitors people, the Hindus, on the other hand, have of the Brahmans immigrated into India, but manifested a strong tendency to repose, and were not the first occupants of the country. These immigrants are considered, on good grounds, derived chiefly from comparative philology, to be a branch of the Arian race, which itself is a member of the great IndoGermanic stock.* While the to dreamy contemplation. Greeks sought, as far as possible, to realize their conceptions of ideal good and truth in the outward world, in forms of visible beauty, or of political organization, the Hindus, rejecting the material universe as a theatre or permanent instrument of perfection, came *While the distinction of language and race be- soon to regard the world of the senses as, on tween the Arians and the earlier inhabitants of In- the contrary, the necessary source of all dia, and the close affinity of the former to the Indo- evil and disorder, and to seek their chief Germanic stock are commonly admitted by recent scholars, there is not the same unanimity in regard good in a purely spiritual state, emancipated to the direction from which the Arians penetrated from all mundane relations, and from ordiinto Hindostan. Augustus von Schlegel and Lassen nary human feelings and interests. Their think, that after their separation from the Persian or Philosophy, properly so called, has all a Western Arians, the Indo-Arians traversed the passes of the Hindukush range, by the same route religious aim; every branch of it professes which all the foreign conquerors who have invaded to unfold a scheme of knowledge of which India by land have taken, and gradually diffused the declared end is to enable its possessor to themselves to the east and south, driving before free himself from the bondage of worldly exthem, or incorporating into their community, the ori-istence. Its logical and metaphysical sysginal inhabitants, till they reached the eastern portions of the Punjab; where, and on the banks of tems, while displaying wonderful acuteness and subtlety, are too much concerned with the Ganges, their political and religious system was gradually developed and matured. Professor Roth abstruse and unpractical niceties, and with considers that the bulk of the Arian immigrants at the controversial anticipation of all possible or impossible objections. Gifted with a first dwelt nearer to the Indus than the Jumna, but were impelled by some shock, occurring at a period later than the composition of most of the Vedic luxuriant imagination, with tenderness of hymns, to quit their abodes in the Punjab, and to feeling, with sensibility to natural impresadvance more to the south. We are not aware, however, that he has expressed any opinion as to the direction from which they entered India. Professor Benfey, (Ersch and Grüber's Encyclopædia, article "Indien,") on the other hand, thinks that this view of Schlegel and Lassen is rendered unlikely by the fact, that it is the country immediately west of the Jumna which is regarded by the Hindu writers as their Holy Land; that the Ganges, not the Indus, is revered by them as the holiest of rivers; and that the most ancient city celebrated in Indian story is Indraprastha on the Jumna. His own view is, that the Perso-Arian and Indo-Arian races had probably their original and common seats in little Tibet, and that the HindoArians crossed over thence by the passes of the Himalayas, rather as peaceable colonists, than as warlike invaders, into the southern plains. The opinion of Professor Max Müller is different from both these. While he agrees with Benfey that the Arians did not come from the north-west, he holds, in opposition to the prevailing view, (viz., that the two eastern branches of the Arian stock separated from each other in Persia, and that "the dissenting Brahmans immigrated afterwards into India,") that it is established, "even by geographical evidence, that the Zoroastrians had been settled in India before they immigrated into Persia ;" and that the proof of their having "started from India during the Vaidik period" is "as distinct as that the inhabitants of Massilia started from Greece."—(Turanian Researches, p. 340; Persian Researches, p. 113, in Bunsen's Cutlines of the Philosophy of Universal History, vol. 1. * A story (for the truth of which, however, he does not vouch) is reported by the peripatetic philosopher Aristocles, (Euseb. præp. Evang. xi. 3,) of an Indian who met with Socrates at Athens: and on being informed, in answer to his inquiry regarding the nature of the Socratic Philosophy, that it had reference only to human life, rejoined with a smile, that no one could rightly comprehend things human, if he were ignorant of things divine. sions, with a delicate perception of the nicest and manifest a different character from shades of thought, and of the harmonies of the most primitive pieces in the first collec language, the Hindus are yet deficient in tion. The correct taste, and in a sense of the true sub- The language in which these Vedic hymns lime; their poetical power is wasted on are composed, is a "rustic and irregular tasteless refinements or jingling alliterations; dialect," differing from the later Sanskrit, and when dealing with the vast or the terri- more than Homeric does from Attic Greek. ble, they are prone to mistake exaggeration Their style is, moreover, extremely elliptiand aggregation of magnitudes and numbers cal; and the meaning of many of the words for forcible and impressive representation. can now be only imperfectly divined. These general features of mental character real sense and reference of these ancient are illustrated in their literature, and espe- effusions, has not been uninterruptedly precially in their sacred books. served. Gradual alterations in the language, as well as the belief and observances of the Hindus, have caused the descendants of the ancient bards to lose, if not wilfully to misinterpret, the original meaning of the sacred songs. "The Brahmanas," (i. e. liturgical books,) says Professor Müller, "though nearest in time to the hymns ་ The oldest and most sacred records of the Hindus are, as is well known, the VEDAS. There are four Vedas: the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Atharva Veda. Each of these consists generally of two parts-mantras or hymns, and brahmanas or precepts. Of these, the hymns are, of course, the most ancient, indulge in the most frivolous and ill-judged forming, in fact, the essential portion of the interpretations. When the ancient Rishi (auVedas. These hymns were composed by thor of the hymn) exclaims, with a troubled ancient Rishis, or priestly bards, to be pro- heart, 'Who is the greatest of the gods?' nounced at the performance of sacrifices, or. the author of the Brahmana on other occasions of domestic worship. sees in the interrogative pronoun' Who,' Their composition, no doubt, extended over some divine name, a place is allotted a long series of centuries. Mention occurs, to a god Who,' and hymns adeven in the hymns themselves, of some dressed to him are called Who-ish' hymns." more ancient bards and their effusions, and Yàska, the author of the Glossary of obsolete different hymns are ascribed by the earliest terms styled Nirukta, lived still later; (Mül authorities to successive generations of the ler sets him in the fourth century, B.C.) same priestly race. These hymns were It appears that among his predecessors there doubtless preserved with care by the de- had been a grammarian named Kautsa, of a scendants of the original authors, till at rationalistic turn, to whom he alludes as length the time came when the increase of objecting that the hymns were often without their number, combined with a growing meaning, and contained many things which opinion of their sanctity, induced the differ- were absurd and impossible. It is clear ent sacerdotal families to combine their from this, that even at that early period the various collections into one great body of hymns were very difficult of comprehension. sacred song. The Rig Veda contains the This difficulty must have increased with the most ancient hymns in their complete and lapse of time, and the still greater change original form. The Sâma Veda consists which had occurred in the ideas of the Hinalmost entirely of excerpts from the Rig dus, when Sáyana, our great authority for Veda, the 1472 verses, of which the former the interpretation of the Rig Veda, compiled consists, being all found with the exception his voluminous, and (as far as the attempt of 71, in the latter, but severed from their to explain everything goes) exhaustive comoriginal connexion, and thrown together for mentary. It may easily be supposed, thereliturgical purposes. What has been said of fore, that this commentary is not admitted the Sâma, is true also, in part, of the Yajur by modern scholars as a final authority in Veda, viz., that it contains many verses determining the original sense of the Vedas, borrowed from, or, at least, common to it however gladly they welcome the helps which with the Rig Veda, though it also embraces it affords. Notwithstanding, however, the a mass of liturgical formulæ in prose. The great and frequent difficulties which arise in fourth, or Atharva Veda, which is the most the interpretation of particular phrases or modern of the whole, has also many hymns common to it with the last book of the Rig Veda. It is a sort of complement to the earlier Vedas, and contains those compositions (mostly formulæ of deprecation or imprecation, and so forth) which appear, for the most part at least, to be of later date, passages in the hymns, their general character and purport are sufficiently evident. We find in them the simple and natural expression of the religious emotions and ideas which were current among the Hindus in the earliest ages of their history. "Without insisting on the fact," says Professor |