Lieut.-Colonel Tod on the Religious Establishments of Mewar. 295 



Samoyede* of Siberia. There is not a petty retailer, professing the Vishnu 

 creed, who does not carry a tythe of his trade to the stores {Samgiri) of 

 Kaniya : and thus caravans of tliirty and forty cars, double-yoked, pass 

 twice or thrice annually by the upper road to Nat'hdwara. These pious 



Professor appears to have been ignorant of its use, as he does not name it. He has likewise 

 omitted to notice tlie representation of the sacred mount of Gird'hana, wliicli separates him from 

 the Hindu Jove and the turreted Cybele (Du'rga), his consort. The black stones are the 

 Saligramas, worshipped by all Vislmues. 



In the names of " N'handigana and GoRi," though the first is called a lion saddled, and the 

 other a male divinity, we easily recognize Nanda, the hvX\-aUendant (Gaim) of Siva, and his 

 consort GouHi. Were all travellers to describe what they see with the same accuracy as Pallas, 

 they would confer important obligations on society, and might defy criticism. 



It is with heartfelt satisfaction I have to record, from the authority of a gentleman who has 

 dwelt amongst the Hindi/as of Astracan, that distance from their ancient abodes lias not 

 deteriorated their character for uprightness. Mr. Mitchell, from whose knowledge of Oriental 

 languages the Royal Asiatic Society will some day derive benefit, says, tliat the reputation of these 

 Hindu colonists, of whom there are about five hundred families, stands very high ; and that they 

 bear a preference overall the merchants of other nations settled in this great commercial city. 



* Other travellers besides Pallas have described Hinduism as existing in the remote parts of 

 the Russian empire, and if nominal resemblances may be admitted, we would instance the strong 

 analogy between the Samoycdes and Tchoudes of Siberia and Finland, and the Sama- Yadils and 

 Joiides of India. The languages of the two former races are said to have a strong affinity, and 

 are classed as Hindu-Germanic by M. Klaproth, on whose learned work, " Asia Polyglotta," 

 M. Remusat has given the world an interesting critique, in his Melanges Asiatiques (torn. i. 

 p. 267), in which he traces these tribes to Central Asia ; thus approaching the land of the Gete 

 or Yuli. Now the Yutis and Yadus have much in their early history to warrant the assertion of 

 more than nominal resemblance. The annals of the Yadus of Jessulmer state, that long anterior 

 to Vicrama, they held dominion from Guzni to Samarcand : that they established themselves in 

 those regions after the Mahabharat, or great war ; and were again impelled, on the rise of 

 Islamism, within the Indus. As Yadus of the race of Sham or Sam (a title of Crishna) they 

 would be Sama- Yadus s in like manner as the B'hatti tribe are called Shama-b'hatti, the Asham- 

 belti of Abulfuzil. The race oijoude was existing near the Indus in the Emperor Baber's time, who 

 describes them as occupying the mountainous range in the first Do-ab, the very spot mentioned 

 in the annals of the Yadus as their place of halt, on quitting India, twelve centuries before 

 Christ, and thence called Jadu or Yadu-ca-dang, the " hills of Jadu or Yadu." The peopling 

 of all these regions, from the Indus to remote Tartary, is attributed to the race of Ai/u or Indu, 

 both signifying the moon, of which are the Hi/as, Asxvas {Asi), Yadus, &c., who spread a 

 common language over all Western Asia. Amongst the few words of Hindu-Germanic origin 

 which M. Rgmusat gives to prove affinity betwen the Finnish and Samoyede languages is " Miel, 

 Mod, dans le dialecte Caucasien, et Med, en Slave," and which, as well as mead, the drink of 

 the Scandinavian warrior, is from the Sanscrit Madhu, a bee. Hence intoxicating beverage is 

 termed Madhva, which supplies another epithet for Cuisiina, Madhu or Madhava. 



