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the mod facred ; and to them belongs the province of ilu- 

 dying the principles of religion, performing its funftions, 

 and ciihivatin^ the fciences. They have been fur a long 

 time, wliatfocvtr be their origin, and whether it be more an- 

 cient or raor^ modern, the prieds, the inftruilors, and the 

 phiiofophcrs of the nation. Such is the fuperioritv of their 

 call or urJer, even to that of the monarchs of India, vvitli 

 regard both to rank and fanftity, that they wonld deem it 

 degradation and pollution, if they were to eat of the fame 

 food with their fovereign. Their perfons are facred, and 

 even for the moil lieinons crimes thcv cannot be capitally 

 pvinilhed ; their bh)od mufl never be flied. On important 

 occafionp, it is the duty of fovereigns to confnlt them, and 

 to be direclcd bv their advice, as was the cafe with refpeift 

 to the ancient Brachmans. Their admonitions, and even 

 their cenfures, muil be received with fubmiffiverefpeft. From 

 feme accounts preferved in India of the events which have 

 happened in their own country, wc find, that princes, wiio 

 violated the privileges of the calls, and difregardtd the re- 

 monlirances of the Bramins, have been depoied by their an- 

 thiirity, and put to death. The difcoveries of modern 

 times, procured and furniUv.-d by thole who have vifitcd 

 India during the courfe of the tliree lall centuries, afford us 

 a confiderahie degree of authentic information concerning 

 the ftate of fcience among the Bramins. The dillinclion 

 between matter and Ipirit appears to have been known at an 

 early peiiod by the phiiofophers of India ; nor can any de- 

 fcription ot the human foul be more fiiited to the dignity of 

 its nature than that given by the author of the " Maiia- 

 barat," an epic poem, in high clUmation among the Hin- 

 doos, compoled, according to their account, by Kreefhna 

 Cwypayen Vtias, the moll eminent of all their Bramins, 

 above 3000 years before the Chrillian a:ra. This poem con- 

 fids of more than four hundred thoufand lines. Mr. Wil- 

 kins has tranflatcd above a third part of it ; but only a (hort 

 epifode, entitled " Baghvat-Geeta," is publilhed. " Some," 

 fays the author, " regard tlie loul as a wonder ; others 

 hear of it with allonifhment ; but r.o one knovveth it. The 

 weapon divideth it not ; the fire burnetii it not ; the water 

 corrupteth it not ; the wind drieth it not away ; for it is 

 indivilible, inconfumable, incorruptible ; it is eternal, uni- 

 vcrfal, permanent, i:nmoveable; it is indivilible, inconceiv- 

 able, and unalterable." With regard to the knowledge of 

 logic and metaphyfics for which the Bramins have been ce- 

 ' lebrated, we learn from Abul Fazil's compendium of the 

 philofophy of the Hindoos in the Ayeen Akbery (vol. iii. 

 p. 95, &c.) ; from the fpecimen of their logical difcuffions 

 contained in that portion of the Shastek, pubhflifid by 

 colonel D«w (Differtation, p- 59, &c.) ; and from many 

 paffages in the Baghvat-Geeta; that the fame fpecnla- 

 tions which occupied the phiiofophers of Greece had 

 engaged the attention of the Indian Bramins ; and the the- 

 ories of the former, either concerning the quahties of ex- 

 ternal objects, or the nature of our own ideas, were not 

 more ingenious than thofe of the latter. That fceptical 

 philoCophy, wlilch denies the exillence of the material world, 

 and aflcrts nothing to be real but our own ideas, feems to 

 have been known in India as well as in Europe ; and the 

 fages of the Ead, as they were indebted to philofophy for 

 the knowledge of many truths, and were able to deline with 

 accuracy, to dillinguilh with acutenefs, and to reafon with 

 fubtlety, were not more exempt than thofe of the Well from 

 ks delufions and errors. To the iubjeft of ethics the Bra- 

 mins bad dirtfted particular attention ; and their fentiments 

 feem to have been various ; fo that, like the phiiofophers of 

 Greece, thsiy were divided into feels, dillinguilhed by max- 

 ims and tenets otten diametrically oppofite. From feveral 

 paffages that occur in the Baghvat Gecta wc may infer, that 



BRA 



the diHIngiilfhlng dotSlrines of the Stoical fchool were taught 

 in India many ages before the birth of Zer.o, and inculcated 

 with a pcrluafive earncftnefs nearly refembling that of Epic- 

 tetus. From India the wcftern world derived llieir know- 

 ledge of the modern mode of notation by 10 cyphers or 

 figures, which have been univerfally adopted, and fourtd fo 

 convenient for performing every operation in arithmetic with 

 the greatcll facility and expedition. (See Akithmetic.) 

 The allronomy of the Indians affords a proof Rill more con- 

 fpicuo IS of their extraordinary progrefs in fcience. To M. 

 de la Lonbcre, on hli return from an emball'y to Siam, 

 A. p. 168;, we are indebted for an extraft from a Siamefc 

 MS. which contained tables and rules for calculating the 

 places of the fun and moon. The epoch of thefc tables 

 correfponds to the 2 ill of March, A.l). 6;!l. Another fct 

 of tables was tranfmitted from Chrifnabouram, in the Car- 

 natic, the epoch of which anfwers to the icth of March, 

 A.D. 1491. A third fet was brougnt from Narfapour, 

 the epoch of wliich is between the 17th and i8th of March, 

 A.l). I5i'i9. The fourth and moll curious fet of tables 

 was publilhed by M. Le Gentil, who received them from 

 a learned Brahmin of Trivalore, on the Coromandel coaft. 

 The epoch of thefc lall tables is very ancient, and coin- 

 cidts with the beginning of the celebrated sera of the Coi- 

 lee Jogue, which, according to the Indian account, com- 

 menced .5 102 years before the birth of Chriil. The calcuJa. 

 tions of M. Bailly, founded on thefe fourfets of tables, liave 

 been verified by Mr. Play fair, who has alfo lUuflraten and 

 extended his reafonings, in a learned differtation publilhed in 

 the Tranladions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ii. 

 p. v; 5. From the inquiries, reafonings, and calculations that 

 relate to Indian adronomy, it has been inferred, tiiattlie motion 

 of the heavenly bodies, and more particularly their fituatioii 

 at the commencement of the different epochs to which the 

 four fets of tables refer, are afcertained with great accuracy ; 

 and that many of the elements of their calculations, efpeci. 

 ally for very remote ages, are verified by a furprifing coin- 

 cidence with the tables of the modern adronomy of Europe, 

 when improved by the latell and mod nice deduflions from 

 the theoi-y of gravitation. The Indian Bramins annually 

 circulate a kind of almanack, which contains adronomical 

 prediftions of feme of the mod remarkable phenomena in the 

 heavens, fuch as new and full moons, the eclipfes of the 

 fun and moon ; and they feem to poffefs certain methods of 

 calculation, that involve a very extenfive fydem of adrono- 

 mical knowledge. M. Le Gentil, while in India, had an 

 opportunity of obferving two eclipfes of the moon, which 

 had been calculated by a Bramin ; and he found the error in 

 either to be very inconfiderable. The method of calculatuig 

 eclipfes, adopted by the Bramins, is very different from that 

 which was praftifed among rude nations in the infancy of 

 adronomy, and founded on an analyfis of the motions of the 

 fun and moon, which indicate a confiderable acquaintance 

 with thefe motions. Indeed, the modern Bramins, though 

 they are guided in their calculations by fcientific principles, 

 do not underdand them ; nor are they acquainted with the 

 methoo of condrufling the tables, to which they recur in 

 their computations. Of courfe the ancient Bramins, who 

 condrudled the tables and rules now in ufe, mud have pof. 

 fcfled an extenfive and tolerably accurate acquaintance with 

 the elements of geometry, and alfo with the principles of 

 plain and fpherical trigonometry. See Bekarts. 



With regard to the rehgious inftitutions of the Bramins, 

 they feem to be artfully contrived with a view of extending 

 their own authority, and maintaining their influence over the 

 people. They form^ indeed, a regular and complete fyftcm 

 of fupcr.lition, ftrengthened aiid upheld by every circum- 

 Ilance that caa excite the veneration, and fecuie the attach- 

 A a 2 meut 



