44 OF THE ORIGIN OF 



the Society, it will be an inducement to me to con- 

 tinue the research. 



I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 

 • J. D. PATERSON. 



Dacca, the 4th January, 1803. 



III. 

 Of the Origin of the Hindu Religion. 



T 



BT J. D. PATERSON, ESQ. 



HE Hindu religion appears to me to have hcen 



'&' 



ipp 



originally a reform of existing systems, v/hen 

 the arts and sciences had arrived at a degree of 

 perfection ; that it was intended to correct the fe- 

 rociousness and corruption of the times, and to re- 

 duce mankind to an artificial order on a firmer base 

 of polit}' ; that it was the united effort of a society 

 of sages, who retained the priesthood to themselves, 

 and rendered it hereditary in their familes, by the 

 division of the people into separate casts ; that it. 

 was supported by the regal authority, which, while 

 it controlled, it supported in return : that it was 

 promulgated in all its perfection at once as a reve- 

 lation of* high antiquity, to stamp its decrees with 

 greater authority; and that it was founded on pure 

 Deism, of which the Gayatri, translated by Sir 

 William Jones, is a striking proof; but tocom- 

 ply with the gross ideas of the multitude, who re- 

 quired a visible object of their devotion, they per- 

 sonified the three great attributes of the deity. 



The first founders of the Hindu religion do not 

 appear to have had the intention of bewildering 

 their followers with metaphysical definitions ; their 

 description of the deity, was confined to those at- 

 tributes which the wonders of the creation so loudly 

 attest: his almighty, power to create; his prpvi- 



