146 On the Introduction of Writing into India. [No. 2. 



arguments would not occur to people who were accustomed from 

 time immemorial to appeal to a book as the sacred authority of their 

 faith. When contemporaneously with our Reformation, Nanak 

 founded the religion of the Sikhs, we find in India, as well as else- 

 where, that a book, a real book, was considered as the firmest founda- 

 tion of a new faith. " At their assemblies, when the chiefs and 

 principal leaders are seated, the Adi-Granth (the first book) and 

 Das'ama Padshahka Granth are placed before them; they all bend their 

 heads before these scriptures, and exclaim, ¥a! Gurujika Khalsa! 

 Wa ! Gurujiki Fateh ! A great quantity of cakes, made of wheat, 

 butter, and sugar, are then placed before the volumes of their 

 sacred writings, and covered with a cloth. These holy cakes, which are 

 in commemoration of the injunction of Nanak, to eat and to give to 

 others to eat, next receive the salutation of the assembly, who then 

 rise, and the A calls pray aloud, while the musicians play. The 

 Acalis, when the prayers are finished, desire the council to be seat- 

 ed. They sit down, and the cakes being uncovered are eaten of by 

 all classes of Sikhs; those distinctions of original tribes, which are 

 on other occasions kept up, being on this occasion laid aside, in 

 token of their general and complete union in one cause. The 

 Acalis then exclaim, "Sirdars! (chiefs) this is a Gurumata" (a 

 great assembly) ; on which, prayers are again said aloud. The 

 chiefs, after this, sit closer, and say to each other : " The sacred 

 Granth (book) is betwixt us, let us swear by our scriptures to 

 forget all external disputes, and to be united."* 



Such a scene would be impossible among pure Brahmans. They 

 never speak of their granthas or books. They speak of their Veda, 

 which means " knowledge." They speak of their S'ruti, which 

 means what they have heard with their ears. They speak of 

 Smriti, which means what their fathers have declared unto them. 

 "We meet with Bralimanas, i. e. the sayings of Brahmans ; with 

 Sutras, i. e. the strings of rules ; with Veddngaa, i. e. the members 

 of the Veda ; with JPravachanas, i. e. preachings ; with S'dstras, i. e. 

 teachings ; with Dars'anas, i. e. demonstrations ; but we never meet 

 with a book, or a volume, or a page. 



If we take the ordinary modern words for book, paper, ink, 

 * Asiatic Researches, xi. 255. 



