INDIA, OR IIINDOSTAN. 



947 



or menials. But the number of mixed castes is very great, and it is by no means true, as is 

 generally asserted, that the individuals of each caste are strictly limited to a particular occupa- 

 tion. Almost every occupation is, indeed, regularly the profession of a particular class, but with 

 some exceptions it is also open to those of other castes. Thus there are three duties or priv- 

 ileges exclusively Braminical ; leaching the vedas or sacred books, officiating at a sacrifice, and 

 receiving presents from a pure giver ; but a Bramin in distress may have recourse to employ- 

 ments of the lower castes for subsistence ; and so with the other castes, each in general being 

 excluded from the professions belonging to superior castes, but being at liberty to follow those 

 of the inferior ; the sudras, however, and the mixed classes or burren-sunker are permitted to 

 exercise all sorts of handicraft, trade, and agriculture. 



Beside these are the outcastes, or unhappy individuals who have, by misconduct, or even by 

 the most trivial act of inadvertence, lost caste ; to swallow a morsel of beef, though involunti- 

 rily, to hold communication with persons of an inferior caste, &c., converts the most revered Bra- 

 min at once into a despised outcaste, who forfeits his patrimony, is excluded from the society of 

 his family, and from all the courtesies and charities of life. There is a class of hereditary out- 

 castes in India called pariahs^ whose origin is unknown ; even their approach is considered 

 pollution, and they are required to give notice of their presence by uttering certain cries, which 

 may warn the pure of the danger. 



The sacred books of the Hindoos, called the Vedus^ constitute the holy word or Shastra, 

 which was derived from Vishnu ; they are written in the Sanscrit or Holy language, long since 

 a dead language, but probably spoken at a remote period, and arc in the devanagari or sacred 

 alphabet. According to the Braminical doctrines, the supreme mind or Brahm, acts in the 

 three great operations of creating by Brama, of preserving by Vishnu, and of destroying by 

 Siva ; these three powers or energies constitute the Braminical trinity or trimourti, and have 

 interposed in various characters and under various names in the afi'airs of men. By the com- 

 mon people all these manifestations of the supreme mind are considered as so many divine be- 

 ings or gods, but the philosophers consider them only as attributes or metamorphoses of Brahm. 

 The ten avatars or descendants of Vishnu, upon earth, constitute one of the most fertile themes 

 of Hindoo mythology ; under various forms, human, monstrous, or brutal, he has repeatedly ap- 

 peared on earth, destroying giants, monsters, &c. The 10th avatar, when he will come to root 

 out evil from the earth, is yet expected. The veneration of brute animals, particularly the 

 cow, monkeys, &c., is derived from this doctrine of the divine incarnation in different forms. 



Metempsychosis or the transmigration of souls is also a leading feature of the Braminical re- 

 ligion ; according to this belief, the soul of man after death passes into other bodies, human or 

 brute ; and the nature of the change depends upon the moral chaiacter of the individual. The 



good rise into higher states of existence, while 

 the souls of the wicked animate the most vile 

 and degraded animals. The rites of Bramin- 

 ism are chiefly of an irrational or of a revolting 

 nature ; pilgrimages, penances, ablutions, hon- 

 ors paid to images or sacred animals, and cere- 

 monies of the most indecent or cruel natui'e, 

 make up its ritual. Pagodas are numerous. 



There are many wandering fakeers, and 

 many devotees live in solitude, who consider it 

 meritorious to torture themselves. Some hold 

 their hands in a perpendicular posture till they 

 are withered, and others clench their hands to- 

 gether, till their nails grow into the flesh. 

 Others are swung round with a hook passed 

 under the muscles of the back, attached to a 

 line which is made fast to a pivot on a post. 

 The most grotesque as well as repulsive means 

 of self-torturing are followed. The great rivers 

 are favorite objects of Hindoo veneration, and 

 the waters of the Ganges are used in the courts 

 to swear the witnesses upon ; many seek a vol- 

 untary death in its sacred bosom, and the pa- 

 Pagoda. rent often devotes his child to an early doom in 



