R A 



BRA 



enabled to fupporl by baviiij; a com..umd of ihciinuienle re- 

 venues Willi which the liberality of pruiccs, an.l the zeal ot 

 pll/runs and dc-v..t«s, have enriched thor pagodas. 1 he 

 nmibcr of their deities, the alt.ibules and characters they 

 afcribid to them, and the various rites by which th(.y ce e- 

 l.iaii-d their worlhip, arc fuch as indicate thtir origin in tlic 

 5 udcr .igc.= of focicty, aad fuch as are adapted, in their iia- 

 aad dcli?Q, to anfwer the purpofes of their introduaion 



world." Thelc refined feiitiinents the niOLicrn Bramins de. 

 rive from the writings of their ancient ruiidits, to whicli 

 they arc alfo indebted for the wifdom which the moll learned 

 members of tluir order now pofTcfs. The mott profound myf- 

 teries of the Hindoo theology, which had been long carefully 

 concealed by the art of the modern Bramins fro.ii the body 

 of the people, have been unveiled by the tranflations from 

 the Sanfcrit, or Shanscrit language lately pubhflied. 



'"d duSau" "The' mrnncrs''of"thV"indians7 though The principal defign of ^the Baghvat-Geeta, ahc'ady cited 



tcri-ihc forms By the knov.-n inflnencc of fuperlluion we which we derive from the Greek philolophers. Dov.', in 

 Drill be able to accour.t for the ellabhihmcnt of a ritual of his «' DifTertation," (p. 40.) quotes a pafTage from one of 

 worlhip fuited to the chnraaer of fucli deities, among a gen- the facred books of the Hindoos, from which we may infer 

 tie people Everv- aft of religion, performed in honour of what were the general fentiments of the lear.ied Bramins con- 

 iome of their gods, fcems to have been prefcribcd by fear ; cerning the divine nature and perfcftious : " As God is im* 

 ai'd a variety of mortifications and penances was introduced material, he is above all conception ; as he is uivifible, he 

 amouT them, the recital of which is accompanied with can have no form ; but from what we behold of his %yorks, 

 horror. Altliough it is repugnant to the feeii.igs of an we may conclude, that he is eternal, omnipotent, knowing all 

 Hindoo to flied the blood of any creature that has life, things, and prefent every where." To men capable of 

 many different animals, not c.^:cepting tlie moll ufeful, fuch forming fuch ideas of the deity, the public fervice in the pa- 

 as the horfe and'the cow, were offered up as viftims upon godas mull have appeared to be an idolatrous worfliip of 

 the altars of fome of their gods ; and their pagodas were even images, by a fuperftitious multiplication of frivolous or iramo- 

 po'.luted with human facrificcs, as well as the temples of the ral rites ; and they mull have perceived, that it was only by 

 Well. But religious inllitutious, and ceremonies of a lefs fe- fanftity of heart, and purity of manners, men could hope to 



"" ' gain the approbation of a I'eing perfeft in goodnefs. This 



truth is ftduloufly inculcated in the " Mahabarat ;" but, at 

 the fame time, with the prudent refcrve and artful precau- 

 tions natural to a Bramin, lludious neither to offend his 



vcre kind, were more adapted to the genius of a people, 

 formed, by the extreme fenlibility of tlicir mental and cor- 

 poreal frame, to an immoderate love of pleafure. Accord- 

 ingly, tlitre is no pari of the earth, in which a conneftion 



between the gratification of fenfual dtfires and the rites of countrymen, nor to diminiih the influence of his own order, 



public rclieiou is difplayed with more Ihameful indecency We find, however, a very lamentable mixture of ignorance 



than in India. In ever)' pa^^oda a band of women was fet and error in all the theories of the Bramins, in common with 



apart for the fervice of the idol honoured tliere, and devoted the fages of other countries, concerning the pcrfeftions and 



from their youth to a life of pleafure, for which the Bramins operations of the Supreme Being. As they held that the 



prepared them by an education, which addtd fo many ele- fylkem of nature was not only originalTy arranged by the 



cant accompiilhments to their natural charms, that what power and wifdom oi God, but that every event which hap- 



they gained by their profligacy often brought no iaconfider- pened was brought about by his immediate interpofition ; and 



able acctffion to the revenue of the temple. It is the office as they could not comprehend how a being could aft in any 



of thefe women, in eveiy fervice performed in the pagoda, place in which it was not prefent, they fuppofed the deity 



and in every public proccffion, to dance before the idol, and to be a vivifying principle diffufed through the whole crea- 



to Gng hymns in his piaife ; and it isdifiicult to fay, whether tion, an univeifal foul that animated each part of it. Every 



thev trefpafs moH againll decency by the gellure which they intelligent nature, particularly the fouls of men, they conceived 



exhibit, or by the verfes which ihey recite. T'he walls of to be portions fcparated from this great fpirit, to which, after 



the pagoda are covered with paintings in a ftyle no lefs in- fulfilling their delliny on earth, and attaining a proper degree 



delicate ;^and in the innennoll rectfs of the temple is placed of purity, they would again be re-united. In order to efface 



the *' Lingam," an emblem of produiltivc power, which it the llains with which a foul, during its refidence on earth,, 



would be improper to explain. has been defiled, by the indulgence of fenfual and corrupt 



If we advert to the theology of the Bramins, vpe fliall find appetites, they taught that it mull pafs, in a long fucceffiou 



that, amid all their polytheifm and fuperftiticn, they acknow- of tranfinigrations, through the bodies of different animals, 



ledge and reverence one Scpreme Being, the creator of all until, by what it fuffcrs and what it learns in the various 



tilings-, ar.d from whom all things proceed. " They all," forms of its exiftence, it (liall be fo thoroughly refined from 



f-iys Abul Fa/il (Ayecn Akbcry, vol. iii. p. ,^.) " believe all pollution, as to be rendered meet for being abforbed into 



lit the uiii:y of the godhead; and although they hold the divine cffcnce, and returns hke a drop into that un- 



bounded 



