OR SACRED WRITINGS OF THE HINDUS. 495 



Other gods of Hindu mythology, are indeed men- 

 tioned, or at least indicated, in the Vidas. But 

 the worship of deified heroes is no part of that 

 S3^stem ; nor are the incarnations of deities sug- 

 gested in any other portion of the text, which I 

 have yet seen ; though such are sometimes hinted 

 at by the commentators. 



According to the notions, which I entertain of 

 the real history of the Hindu religion, the worship 

 of Ra'ma, and of Cr^shna, by the Vaishtia'vaSy 

 and that of Maha'deVa and Bhava'xi by the 

 Saivas and Sactas, have been generally introduced, 

 since the persecution of the Bauddltas and Jainas. 

 The institutions of the Vedas are anterior to 

 Budd'h.\, whose theology seems to have been 

 borrowed from the system of Capila, and whose 

 most conspicuous practical doctrine is stated to 

 have been the unlawfulness of killing animals, 

 which in his opinion were too frequently slain for 

 the purpose of eating their flesh, under the pre- 

 tence of performing a sacrifice or Yajnya. The 

 overthrow of the sect of Budd'ha, in India ^ has 

 not effected the full revival of the religious system 

 inculcated in the Vedas. Most of what is there 

 taught, is now obsolete : and, in its stead, new 

 orders of religious devotees have been instituted; 

 and new forms of religious ceiemonies have been 

 established. Rituals founded on the Puranas, and 

 observances borrowed from a worse source, the 

 Tantras, have, in great measure, antiquated the 

 institutions of the Vedas. In particular, the 

 sacrificing of animals before the idols of Ca'li *, 



* In Bi'Vs:aK and the contij^uous provinces, thousiuuls of ki(Js 

 and Imft.ilo rahes are sacriticed before the idoj, at evers' reUt- 

 biattd temple; and opuieiit persons make a similar destruction 



