452 Mr. CoLEBROOKE on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 



Usage generally prevalent among good men, and by them practised as 

 understanding it to be enjoined and therefore incumbent on them, is me- 

 diately, but not directly, evidence of duty : but it is not valid if it be con- 

 trary to an express text. From the modern prevalence of any usage, there 

 arises a presumption of a correspondent injunction by a holy personage, 

 who remembered a revelation to the same effect. Thus usage presumes 

 a recollection, which again presupposes revelation. Authors, however, have 

 omitted particulars, sanctioning good customs in general terms : but any 

 usage which is inconsistent with a recorded recollection is not to be prac- 

 tised, so long as no express text of scripture is found to support it. 



In like manner, rituals which teacli the proper mode of celebrating reli- 

 gious rites, and are entitled Calpa-sutra or GrViija-granCha, derive their 

 authority, like the Dharma-sdstra, from a presumption that tbeir authors, 

 being persons conversant with the veda, collected and abridged rules which 

 they there found. The Calpa-sutras neither are a part of the veda, nor 

 possess equal nor independent authority. It would be a laborious enter- 

 prise to prove a superhuman origin of them ; nor can it be accomplished, 

 since contemporaries were aware of the authors being occupied with the 

 composition of them.* Whenever a siitra (whether of the calpa or grihya) 

 is opposed to an extant passage of the veda, or is inconsistent with valid 

 reason, it is not to be followed : nor is an alternative admissible in regard 

 to its observance in such case, unless a corroborative text of the veda can be 

 shown.t 



Neither are usages restricted to particular provinces, though certain 

 customs are more generally prevalent in some places than in others : as the 

 Holdcci (vulg. Hiili) or festival of spring, in the east ; the worship of local 

 tutelary deities hereditarily, by families, in the south ; the racing of oxen 

 on the full moon of Jyeshfha, in the north ; and the adoration of tribes of 

 deities {mdtri-gan'a), in the west. Nor are rituals and law institutes confined 

 to particular classes : though some are followed by certain persons prefera- 

 bly to others ; as Vasisht'ha, by the Bahvrich sac'hd of the Rigveda ; 

 Gautama, by the Gobhiliya of the Sdmaveda ,- Sanc'ha and Lic'hita, by 

 the Vdjasant'yi ; and Apastamba and Baudhayana, by the Taittiriya of the 

 Yajurveda. There is no presumption of a restrictive revelation, but of one 

 of general import. The institutes of law, and rituals of ceremonies, were 



• Guru on Mim. 1. 3. 7. -J- Chanda-deva. 



