INDIA (SACRED LITERATURE.) 



59 



from its first germ. Mental culture begins before 

 literature. The latter, in India, appears first in theo- 

 logy : afterwards, when the occupations of life be- 

 came more distinct, it became also a profane art, a 

 vehicle for historical or natural knowledge, down to 

 the time when poetry was written, which naturally 

 returned to mythology. This general division into 

 sacred and profane literature we intend to observe. 

 We first remark, in respect to the arts of writing 

 among the Hindoos, that they are acquainted with 

 paper, though it is not made of cotton, but from the 

 bark of a shrub whose fibres are carefully separated. 

 The former discovery is of later date, being first made 

 after the invasion of the country by the Mongols. 

 When this coarse paper cannot be had, a white crayon 

 is used, with black tablets. The usual material, how- 

 ever, is the leaf of the fan-palm, which, being about 

 three fingers broad and two feet long, contains seven 

 or eight lines ; and, as it is thicker, stronger, and 

 stiffer than double paper, it admits of writing on both 

 sides. This is done with an iron style, six inches in 

 length, and sharpened at the upper end to make the 

 leaves very smooth. The leaf rests on the middle 

 finger of the left hand, and is held between the thumb 

 and forefinger. The right hand does not move over 

 tile leaf, but, after a writing a word or two, the 

 writer presses the style deeper into the last letter, 

 and moves the leaf from the right to the left. The 

 Hindoos are so accustomed to this method, that they 

 write while walking. As these marks are very fine, 

 the leaf is rubbed with fresh cow-dung, in such a 

 manner that only the finest particles of it adhere to 

 the lines, and it is then done over with black. The 

 Hindoos do not write-on paper with a quill, but with 

 a reed (calamus), which is split like our pen, but is 

 stronger. To form a number of palm leaves into a 

 book, a hole is made through both ends of the leaves, 

 and they are fastened together by a small thread. 

 Two thin pieces of wood, of the size of the leaves, 

 are then placed above and below ; a hole is made at 

 each end, and pegs of wood or iron are passed through 

 the whole, to fasten all the parts together. A long 

 string is fastened to the peg, which is wound round 

 the book a number of times. We now proceed to 

 the literature of the Hindoos. 



1. Sacred Literature. We possess this under the 

 general names of Shastra, Shaster, Sistra, Shasta 

 (the different forms of this word are unquestionably 

 merely differences of dialect) ; i. e., holy, ordinances 

 given by God. They can be read only by the three 

 first, or regenerated castes. The Hindoo has received 

 the sacred writings as religious documents, as the 

 word of God, from God, from Vishnu, the metamor- 

 phosed Vyasa, and the books themselves are called 

 Vedas. Both these words, vyasa and veda, belong 

 to the same family, the members of which signify 

 knowledge, wit, law, ordinance, and are derived from 

 a root whose original signification is light and fire. 

 Vyasa, however, found the word of God already 

 existing, and was, consequently, only a collector of 

 the Vedas, which he reduced to four divisions, called 

 Rigor, Ritsch, Jayush, Saman, and Atharvana. The 

 first division is metrical, the second in prose, and the 

 third consists of prayers, designed to be sung. The 

 last are prayers to be used with purifications, expia- 

 tory sacrifices and maledictions, and differ materially 

 from the others, on which account their genuineness 

 has. been doubted. These Vedas are properly the 

 original text, which has given rise to several exposi- 

 tions : the latter, in turn, are esteemed holy, like the 

 Talmud among the Jews. Each Veda consists of two 

 parts the Mantras, or prayers, and the Brahmanas, 

 or commandments. The whole body of hymns, 

 prayers, and invocations in one Veda is called San- 

 Ma. The commandments inculcate religious duties, 



moral maxims, and theological doctrine*. The proper 

 Hindoo theology is contained in the part which un- 

 folds Upnaishada's revelations (of the same family as 

 the Low German open, the Greek , an opening), 

 and consists of explanations of mysteries. Anquetil 

 du Perron has published these, under the name of 

 Oupnekhat, in a Latin translation of a Persian ab- 

 stract, which was itself corrupted, and which he also 

 misunderstood (Strasburg, 1801, 2 vols., 4to.) The 

 Vedas are in Sanscrit, in the Devanagari. (See In- 

 dian Languages.) A British officer, who lived a 

 long time in India, enriched the British museum with 

 a complete copy of the Vedas, in eleven volumes. 

 A second class of sacred books are the Vpavedas, 

 in four parts (Ayush, Gandharva, Dhanush, and 

 Sthapatya), treatises on surgery, medicine, music, 

 dancing, war, architecture, and many mechanical arts. 

 The third class are the Angas, or Bedangas, in six 

 parts (Sicsha, Calpa, Vyacarana, Ch' handes, lyotish, 

 and Niructi), treating of language and grammar, 

 prosody, poetry, astronomy, the ritual, and difficult 

 words in the Vedas. The fourth class are the Upan- 

 gas. They are divided into three classes the Pura- 

 nas, Dhermashastras, and Dersanas. The Puranas, 

 to the number of eighteen, with as many Upapuranas, 

 supplements and explanations, treat of mythical phi- 

 losophical subjects, viz., cosmogony, theogony, &c., 

 a more extensive series of legends, which sometimes, 

 of course, represent the great relations of the world 

 and time, under a contracted view, but cannot be 

 rashly rejected. We will merely enumerate the 

 Puranas : 1. Kalika Purana, a history of the god- 

 dess Kalika Parvadi, Bhavani, the wife of Siva ; 2. 

 Abhiatma Ramayana, a fragment of the Brahmanda 

 Purana, a history of Ramatshandra; 3. Brahma Vai- 

 vartika Purana, the origin of the gods, and the history 

 of Ganesa, Crishna, Durga ; 4. Pedma Purana, in 

 praise of the lotus (pedma), and a history of Lakshmi, 

 the wife of Vishnu, in 55,000 stanzas ; 5. Agru Pu- 

 rana, a sketch of all Indian science, in 15,500 stanzas; 

 6. Vishnu Purana, in 23,000 stanzas; 7. Siva Pu- 

 rana, in 24,000 stanzas; 8. Linga Purana, in 11,000 

 stanzas; 9. Scanda Purana, of the god Scanda, the 

 son of Siva and Bhavani; 10. Haritalika and Savriti 

 Bat a relate to religious customs; 11. Ontkal Khanda 

 and Kan Khanda, the former a description of Orissa 

 and the old religious rites of the Vishnu worship at 

 Juggernaut, here Poursatim; the latter a history of 

 the city of Kasi or Varanasi, now Benares, the prin- 

 cipal city of the Sivaites; 12. Nuradeya Purana, the 

 history of Nereda, god of music, in 25,000 stanzas; 

 13. Markandeya Purana; 14. Bhawisia Purana; 

 15. Vayu Purana, the history of Vayu, god of the 

 winds; 16. Matsya Purana, the history of Vishnu, as 

 the fish in the first deluge, in 1 4,000 stanzas ; 17. 

 Narasingha Purana, Vishnu as a man-lion ; 18. 

 Vhagavata Purana, the work of Vyasa, the history 

 of Crishna, or rather of Vishnu, in twelve books, 

 containing 18,000 stanzas, which have been published 

 in French and German. The two oldest and most 

 important epic poems are 19. Ramayana, the his- 

 tory of Ramatshandra, king of Ayodyia, the seventh 

 great incarnation of Vishnu a work of Valmiki ; 

 20. Mahabharata, the war of the Pandus and Kurus, 

 two lines of descendants of the old Indian king Bha- 

 rata, in eighteen books, and more than 100,000 

 stanzas. Wilkins, Parraud, Proben, Herder, Schle- 

 gel, and Mnjer have translated an episode from this 

 work, called Bhagavat Gita. Another, entitled 

 Nalus (published at Paris and Strasburg, in the 

 original, with a Latin translation), has been trans- 

 lated into German by Bopp and Kosegarten (Jena, 

 1820). To the Dherma Shastras, as the second 

 division of the Upangas, belongs the Munava Dhar- 

 matastra, or the ordinances of Menou (English, by 



