854 Historical Geography of Hindustan^ ^c. [No. 104. 



to contain historical materials of some value; and accounts of recent 

 events, greatly exaggerated by allegorical references to ages long past, 

 and to mysteries in religion, that were little remembered, or imperfectly 

 understood. Such is, I think, the correct supposition, and from thence we 

 may trace, as among other nations, the origin of fable, and the genealogy 

 of their gods. 



The Brahmans did not long follow the astronomical religion of the Vedas 

 without speculating on the divine nature, and that of celestial spirits. 

 They personified the elements and the planets as the types of that unap- 

 proachable God whom they worshipped ; and as Mr. Colebrooke says, 

 " peopled heaven and the world below with various orders of beings." 

 Their wonder at contemplating the infinite glory of the heavens, made 

 them vent their sentiments in allegory. Their allegories, leading them 

 astray from the great First Cause, gave rise to varied existences of the divini- 

 ty, and these yet farther distracting their attention from the unity of God's 

 nature, led to a system of meditation and mysticism, in regard to spirit, of 

 which the promised benefit was to obtain liberation from this life, and union 

 with the great Eternal Cause. This, which was common to the East, existed 

 alike among the ancient Arabs and the Hindus ; and though some are 

 inclined to believe that the Sufyism of the Mohammedans derived its 

 origin from the Yoga, or abstraction of the latter, yet we may trace it to a 

 more remote system oi Deism, the Kaballa of the Jews.* 



A few extracts from the Sanscrit authorities, will shew us that this 

 view of a very obscure subject is strictly deducible from the order of opini- 

 ons as there made apparent. The prayer of the Veda, called Gayatri, con- 

 cludes with these words — " Let us meditate on the Divine Ruler, (Savi- 

 tri ;) may it guide our intellects. Desirous of food, we solicit the gift of 

 the splendid sun, (Savitri) who should be studiously worshipped. Vener- 

 able men, guided by the understanding, salute the divine sun, (Savitri) with 

 oblations and praise, "t This bears evident traces of Sabeism; which are 



* According to Selden, the Kaballa of the Jews was a belief in the doctrines of the 

 traditional law, held in almost equal reverence with the written one. It treated of 

 divine things, of the more abstruse parts of their faith, of angels, and various symbols. 

 The appellation Kabala, H/^p- iw Hebrew, bears nearly the same interpretation 

 as Kiblah tx3" i"^ Arabic, signifying any thing that is before one, or the altar ; and 

 the Jews, by meditating on this, promised themselves a superior knowledge of celestial 

 existences. The doctrines of this worship, combined with natural magic, became the 

 foundation of what is believed by the Sufis, or followers of the truth. The authors of 

 the middle ages, and the modern Greeks, who enumerate the different tribes situated 

 west of the Indus, speak of those called Hakak, or those adoring the truth. These 

 were free, and worshipped the sun and stars, as did the ancient Arabs. See dissertation 

 on the travels of two Mohammedans, p. 176. 



t Ward on the Hindus, vol. iv. p. 93. 



