FROM AGRA TO OUJEIN. 11 



To thefe political motives, were added the cali& of 

 fnperjtitlon, to which this chief, though in other re- 

 fpedls poUefling a vigorous mind, and an enlightened 

 underftanding, leems to have ever lent a willing ear. 

 Though born and educated in the Hindu religion, and 

 fcrupuloully obfervant of all the uiages which it en- 

 joins ; he lliewed a great complaifance towards the 

 inftitutions of Mahommed. And here, by the way, 

 we may obferve, that tlicfe two religions have exifted. 

 together in Himhjian, for fo long a time, the profef- 

 fors of both have acquired a habit of looking on each, 

 other with an eye of indulgence, unuiual in other 

 countries, between thole who maintain fuch oppofite 

 tenets. Thus, the Hindu is often fecn to vie with the 

 difciple of Ali, in his demonftrations of grief for the 

 iate of the two martyred, fons of that apoltle ; and ia 

 the I'plendor of the pageant annually exhibited in their 

 commemoration. He pays a refpe6l to the holidays 

 prefcribed by the Koran, or fet apart for the remem- 

 brance of remarkable events in the life of the prophet 

 or his apoftles. This degree of complaifance is per- 

 haps not furprizing in the dilciple of Brahma, whofe 

 maxim is, that the various modes of worfhip, prac- 

 tifed by the different nations of the earth, fpring alike 

 from the deity, and are equally acceptable to hirA'. 

 But, even they who follow the intolerant doclrines of 

 the Koran, are no longer thofe furious and fanguinary 

 zealots, who, in the name of God and his prophet, 

 marked their courfe with defolation and flaughter, de- 

 molijQiing the Hindu temples, and ere6ting mofques 

 on their ruins. They found the patient conftancy of 

 th-e Hindu fuperior to their violence ; that tlie fear of 

 torments and of death was unable to make him defert 

 the tenets which his anceftors had handed down to 

 him, from an unfathomable antiquity; but^ that if 

 left in the quiet pofleflion of thefc, he was a peaceable, 

 indultrious, and valuable fubjecf. Accordingly, we 

 obierve among the Mufulmans of Hindnjlan, a great de- 

 ference for the prejudices of their neighbours or de- 

 pendants, of the Hindu perfuafion. Particularly, in 



the 



