﻿ON THE CHINESE. 369 



f* Many tamilies of the military class having gra- 

 *' dually abandoned the ordinances of the Veda, and 

 " the company of Brahmens, lived in a state of degra- 

 " dation ; as the people of Pundraca and Odra, those 

 *' ot Dravira and Camboia, the Yavanas and Sacas, 

 t( the Paradas and Pahla-vas, the Chinas, and some 

 " other nations." A full comment on his text would 

 here be superfluous ; but, since the testimony of the 

 Indian author, who, though certainly not a divine per- 

 sonage, was as certainly a very ancient lawyer, mora- 

 list, and historian, is direct and positive, disinterested 

 and unsuspected, it would, I think, decide the ques- 

 tion before us, if we could be sure that the word China 

 signified a Chinese, as all the Pandits, whom I have se- 

 parately consulted, assert with one voice. They assure 

 me, that the Chinas of Menu settled in a fine country 

 to the north-east of Gaur, and to the east of Camarup 

 and Nepal.', that they have long been, and still are, 

 famed as ingenious artificers ; and that they had them- 

 selves seen old Chinese idols, which bore a manifest 

 relation to the primitive religion of India before Bud- 

 dha's appearance in it. A well-informed Pandit showed 

 me a Sanscrit book in Cashmirian letters, which, he 

 said, was revealed by Siva himself, and entitled Sac- 

 tisangama : he read to me a whole chapter of it on the 

 heterodox opinions of the Chinas, who were divided, 

 says the author, into near two hundred clans. I then 

 laid before him a map of Asia ; and, when I pointed 

 to Cashmir, his own country, he instantly placed his 

 finger on the north-western provinces of China, where 

 the Chinas, he said, first established themselves ; but 

 he aided, that Mahachina, which was also mentioned 

 in his book, extended to the eastern and southern 

 oceans. I believe, nevertheless, that the Chinese em* 

 pire, as we now call it, was not formed when the laws of 

 Menu were collected; and for this belief, so repugnant 

 to the general opinion, I am bound to offer my reasons. 

 If the outline ot history and chronology for the last 

 two thousand years be correctly traced ^and we must 



