1836] 



Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 



the practice of all their peculiarities. In the Dakshan, we have a general wor- 

 ship of deified heroes, as yet unnoticed, except in the most incidental manner. 

 Many curious classes of mendicants, of whom little or nothing is known*, are to 

 be found within the sphere of our peculiar observation. The religion of the 

 Jainas, on which most valuable manuscripts, procured by Mr, Wathen, are depo- 

 sited in our library, is still, in many respects, to be unfolded. Our Transactions 

 have only one paper, by Captain McMurdo, which refers to it. In the possession 

 of the Jainas, there are many works calculated to throw much light on. the religi- 

 ous history of India in general, with the use of which soma of them would not be 

 unwilling to favour a European student. I fondly trust and believe, that there 

 are among our members, those who will continue to contribute, as circumstances 

 may eall them, to the exposition of the systems of faith, which have so long exer- 

 cised their sway in this country, and the various literary works, which, though, 

 unlike those of Greece and Rome, they are of little or no use in the cultivation 

 of taste, are valuable as they illustrate the tendency of these systems in their con- 

 nexion with social and public life, and as they explain a language the most copi- 

 ous in its vocables, and powerful in its grammatical forms, in which any records 

 exist. Destitute of a knowledge of these systems, and the works in which they 

 are embodied, the native character, and the state of native society, will never 

 be sufficiently understood, a right key obtained to open the native mind, and all 

 desirable facilities enjoyed for the introduction among the people of a body of 

 rational and equitable law, and the propagation of the Gospel and the promotion 

 of general education. There are some respectable patrons of the latter supremely 

 important work, who overlook its importance; but their number is on the decrease. 

 They ought to consider that the situation of those to be instructed, is to be attended 

 to, as well as the instructions to be delivered. While divine truth must be propa- 

 gated with unwavering fidelity, and all hi pes of ultimate success rest on its own 

 potency, its suitableness to the general character of man, and the assistance of 

 divine grace, judgment ought to be employed in the mode of its application to those 

 who vary much in their creeds, and differ much in their moral practice. We have 



As the touch' d needle pointeth toward the pole ; 

 Thus unto thee inclines the holy soul : 

 It tremhleth and is restless till it come 

 Unto thy bosom where it is at home." 

 No person who is familiar with the Upanisliads can fail to mark the coincidence of the 

 the language of Baxter in the preceding passage, with that of the Transcendentalists of 

 India. This coincidence of language, however, does not warrant the inference that there 

 is the least agreement of statement. In proof of this position, we have merely to quote 

 the lines which follow those now given. 



" Yet no such union dare the soul desire 

 As parts have with the whole, and sparks to fire ; 

 But as dependent, low, subordinate, 

 Such as thy will of nothing did create. 

 As tendeth to the sun the smallest eye 

 Of silly virmin, or the poorest fiy. 

 My own salvation when I make my end, 

 Pull mutual love is all that I intend, 

 And in this closure though I happy be, 

 Its by intending, and admiring thee." 



* Of one of these, the Mdnbhavas, whom I had particularly in view in making this re- 

 mark, I have just received an interesting account from Captain A. Mackintosh, the 

 author of the History of the Rarnosbis. 



