BRA 



•(Ttn.bly of tlie inhabit.ints was called, who elefted a man 

 ctlcbntcJ for his virtue lo he their kin^r ; and lliat r.mi 

 thenceforward moiiarxrhv was eftabUhed u) that dchj;hltul 

 rcL'ion, The i.ame of ihc firft fLiccctTor to ibis kinjr, that 

 it mcmioiied, a Owiiguiid, contemporary vvilh Kiflicii ; re- 

 ferrcd by Dr. Buchanan to the year btfoie Mahomnud 

 «-o,orB. C.»48.'rhefe Dramuis, whom Kulhup brought to 

 C'.illimtre. could not. our author apprehends, bo the Biamin 

 fefi of priell», as they cultivated the earth, and were 

 the only inhabitants ok the country ; but tl.cy muft have 

 been one of the Brachnan nations, fcvcral of which, ac- 

 cording to Pliny, were difpcrfed over India ; a.-.d thefc again, 

 he conjeaurcs, are tlic fame with the Bianima oi the 

 Rabins, luppofed by them to Iiave been the hrtl inhabitants 

 of the earth. " That this muftbe the meaning of the hiftory 

 of Cafhmere (he fays) feems plain ; as wc are told, rajnli 

 Jennek tlie 45th prince, and who, aceordnig to my theory, 

 mull have Uved about the year of Chrill 202, eftablinud m 

 hi5 reign the I'rahraeny intcs. His fuccetTor Jelowk, the 

 moll powerful of the princes of Ca!hmere, tolerated the 

 doftrine of Bowdh ; and in that delightful valley it was not 

 till the reign of Ncrkh, the 5f>th prince, A. D. 342, that 

 the Brahn.ens got the beUer of the followers of Bowdh, and 

 humcd down their temples." In procefs of time, as the 

 Rahans, or priells of Godama in the Birman empire, were 

 entirely prohibited the lludy of aftrology, and as the people 

 were much addidcd to all kinds of divination, the Bramins 

 availed themfelvcs of their credulity, and tftabliflied them- 

 felves in confiderable numbers all over India beyond the 

 Ganges. It does not feem, however, that they have any 

 concern in the religion of thefe countries ; but they are 

 merely employed about the courts, and in the iioufes of the 

 great, as the Chaldeans were about the kings of Perfui, as 

 footh-faytrsand wifemen. They annually compofe almanacks ; 

 they perform incantations, under the throne of the king, 

 before an audience is given ou folemn occafions ; they are 

 confulted in all matters of importance, for determining the 

 fortunate hour or feafon in which thefe ought to be under- 

 taken ; and they btilow on their protcftors, amulets, charms, 

 and fuch trifles. By fuch means the Bramins have rendered 

 themfelvcs important and ufeful in the Birman empire, and 

 kave obtained many privileges, confirmed even by the 

 written law of the kingdom. However, their introdudlion 

 into the Birman kingdom is a very recent event. The 

 knowledge of the Birman Bramins is chiefly confined to 

 aftrology, and, it is faid, that they are very ignorant of 

 allronomy ; in fo much that, when they attempt to calcu- 

 late eclipfes, they do not pretend to afccrtain either the 

 hour of their commencement, or the extent of the obfcma- 

 tion. It is alfo affeited that the Bramins of Hindoftan are 

 BOt much farther advanced in fcience than thofe of Ama- 

 japura, notwithilanding the improvements they have intro- 

 duced from time to time, as they were able to procure 

 information from their conquerors, Mahommedans and Chrif- 

 tians. The lunar zodiac, in ufe among the Bramins, has 

 been exhibited by fir William Jones, (Af. Ref. vol. ii. 291, 

 Ice.) and is fuppofed by him to have been communicated to 

 the Birmans from Chaldsea by the intervention of the Bramins ; 

 iior is it unreafonable to imagine that the Bramins have 

 derived aftronomical knowledge from the Greeks and 

 Arabs. 



The religion of the Bramins, according to the opinions 

 maintained by Paiilinus and fir William Jones, is eflcntially 

 the fame with that of the Egyptians ; and M. Anquetil du 

 Perron concurs with the latter in fuppofing that Egypt was 

 the fource from whence the Bramin worlhip has been fpread 

 •ver a great pari of the Eaftcm world. The Bramin priefts 



BRA 



in India adopted and extended it, and, as we have already 

 obfervcd, gained a fuperiority over the priells ot Bouddha 

 about the time of Chrilt ; and about 900 years afterwards, 

 they totally overthrew his doclrine in its native country. 

 Tlie Veda--,' wliich are the okleft books of the Bramins, are 

 inferior in antiquity to the time of Bouddha, bccavife they 

 mention the name of that perfonage. Againll the Egyptian 

 origin of the Braminical worfiiip, the cofmography of the 

 Bramins has been adduced : this is neaily the fame with that 

 of the Rahans, and feems to have been framed in the north 

 of llindollan. However, we may re:ifonably fuppofc the 

 Bramins to have been a colony of Egyptians, who formed 

 their firll elUiblilTiment in the vicinity of Bombay ; as the 

 images in the caveat Eleplianta (which fee) fecm to be thofc 

 of the goJs of the Bramins. By degrees they engralted 

 their fuperllitlon on the ignorance of the Hindoos, adapt- 

 ing the .\friean deities and" mylUcal phihifophy to the Afia- 

 tic fables and heroes, and carefully introducing the Egyptian 

 call and ceremonies, with ull their dreadful conlequences. 

 Some have fuppofed, that the religion of the Bramins wa« 

 introduced from Egypt into India as early as the time of Se» 

 follri.s; but to this opinion it has been objefttd, that the 

 objed of his military expeditions, if indeed we allow their 

 reality (fee Sksostris), appears to have been plunder, and 

 the capture of flaves, rather than the propagation of reh- 

 gion or philofophy. The perfecntion of the Egyptian 

 priells by Cambyfes is an event more likely to have produced 

 an extenfive migration into India ; nor is it improbable that 

 the Egyptians, who before this time traded to India, might 

 have comniuuicated fome knowledge of their fcience to the 

 Hindoos. 



Whatever was tlie precife a:ra of the introduftlon of the 

 Bramins into India, it feems to be unquellionable, that, in 

 the ufualcourfe of human affairs, a contell arole, at fume pe- 

 riod or other after their fettlcmcnt, between the regal and ec- 

 clefiallical powers. The latter, inllead of being fubdutd, as 

 in China and Japan, acquired the fuperiority, as in Thibet. 

 But in Hitidoiian, from a moll relined and cunning policy, 

 the priefthood affertcd the divine inllitution of the feveral 

 cails (fee C,-\st), and, in the natural progrefs of their power, 

 pronounced their own to be the fiipreme, and pofleffed of 

 innate and hereditary fanftity. It feems to be alli>wed that 

 Boodh was a deified philofopher ; and it is alfo probable, 

 that Brahma was the lopliill who invented the new calls, 

 and was not only deified, but placed in the firft rank of the 

 gods, by the grateful priefthood, which affumcd the fole di- 

 reftion of the national mythology. The chief modern dei- 

 ties ot the Bramins are Brahma, Vilhnu, and Siva, i. e. the 

 creator, the preferver, and the deftroyer, corrcfponding to 

 the three charaflers under which the Greeks reprefented 

 their Zeus or Jupiter. But the fundamental principle of 

 the whole fabric of Indian mythology, conformable to the 

 univerfal fyftem of the eaft, was the belief in a fupreme cre- 

 ator, too inetlable and fublime for human adoration, which 

 was therefore addreffcd to inferior, but great and powerful 

 divinities. The names and attributes of the gods and god- 

 deffes (for the voluptuous Hindoos delight in female divini- 

 ties), are very numerous, and, as human ideas and wants are 

 almoft univerfally the fame, correfpond in many inllances 

 with the Greek and Roman polytheifra. The chief divinities 

 of the Hindoos arc well reprefented in Sonnerat's decorated 

 publication ; and we have an elaborate account of them in a 

 tradl " On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India," pubhfhcd 

 in the firft volume of the Afiatic Refearches, p. aa 1 — 275. 

 The Bramins of Hindoftan conftitnte the firft and chief 

 of the four orders or cafts (fee Cast) into which the whole 

 body of the people is diftributed. Their ©rder it deemed 



tbe 



