1849.] Brahmans and Buddhists. 115 



to it,"* and if we look to the fact that the brahman tribes were most 

 probably subjects of the Greek kings of Bactriana who ruled, according 

 to Wilford, the countries on the banks of the Indus as far as Sirhind, 

 during a period of 129 years, — from 255 to 126 B. C, and if we also 

 advert to the intercouse the brahmans must have thus had with the peo- 

 ple of Egypt, and with all the ancient countries west and N. W. of India, 

 we shall have no difficulty in accounting for the mythological medly 

 which brahmanism, and, now, Hinduism present. 



The bent of the brahmans towards traffic in the early stages of their 

 progress in India shews that they were by no means a religious tribe. 

 It appears to me that it was from Surat and Gujerat or Bombay that the 

 first brahman merchants penetrated to China, which must have been, long 

 perhaps, antecedent to A. D. 414, when Fa Hian sailed with them to 

 that country. But the natives of India generally were attached to trade 

 although those who resided on the western coast of the peninsula, and 

 on the W. and N. W. frontier of India, doubtless became the first traders 

 with the western nations. 



The features which were common to the gods of Greece, Italy and 

 India, have been so forcibly delineated by Sir W. Jones, that speculation 

 as to their general identity seems quite superfluous. He has not decided 

 to which of all these the priority is due. But he himself, and many others, 

 have shewn the resemblance which the Egyptian deities had to the gods 

 of these three nations, — one which could hardly have been fortuitous, 

 and he was the first to disclose the close connexion which existed be- 

 twixt the ancient Persians and the brahmans. Persia too was well known 

 to the Greeks and Romans, — from all which, and from the consider- 

 ation also that we have every reason to believe that the Pantheons of 

 these two last nations were erected before the brahmans had fairly 

 plunged into the vortex of idolatry, it might be surmised that the 

 Greeks and Romans took the lead. But this would not prevent us 

 from also believing that an interchange took place in the gods of the 

 three people, or rather perhaps a reciprocal modification of them, after 

 the direct intercourse betwixt Greece, Italy, and India had been 

 established. It appears that the brahmans and Buddhists were always 

 ready to learn the arts, sciences and religious opinions of the Romans, 

 and the latter we know were ever prone to adopt and incorporate foreign 

 deities into their system. 



* Wilford, As. Res. Vol. X. p. 114. 



