Chap. 11. cf/feEis 
In tlie Accounts that has been publifhed of Sir Tho- 
mas Roe s Voyage to the Indies , Which was drawn up by 
his Chaplain, we have the original Rule delivered to the 
Indians by Brama , in relation to fparing the Lives 'of 
Animals : It runs thus ; 4 Thou J, halt not kill 'any living 
4 Creature , whatfoever it be, having Life in the fame 
4 for thou art a Creature , and fo is it thou art indeed with 
4 Life , and fo is it thou fhalt not therefore j pill the Life 
4 of any of thy fellow Creatures that live. Other Precepts, 
4 they fay, were delivered unto them by their Law-giver, 
4 about their Devotions in their Walkings and Worlliip- 
* ings •, v/ herein they are commanded to obferve Times for 
* Falling, and Hours for Watching, that they may be the 
‘ better fitted for them. Other Directions they have about 
4 their Ft Rivals *, wherein they are required to take their 
4 Food moderately, not pampering their Bodies. Con- 
4 cerning Charity, they are farther commanded to help die 
s Popr, as far as they are poffibly able. Other Precepts 
4 they fay were likewife given them in Charge, as, Not to 
4 tell falfe Tales , nor to utter any Thing that is untrue ; 
4 not to fte'al any thing from others , be it never fo little ■, 
‘ not to defraud any by their Cunning in Bargains or Con- 
5 trails \ not to opprefs any , when they have Power to do it. 
This Writer farther informs us, that fome of the Bramins 
had told him, 4 They acknowledged one God, Whom they 
4 defcribed with a thoufand Eyes, with a thoufand Hands, 
4 and as many Feet •, that thereby they may exprefs his 
4 Power.; as being all Eye to fee, and all Foot to follow, 
4 and all Hand to finite Offenders. The Confideration 
4 whereof makes that People very exaft in the Performance 
4 of all moral Duties, following clofe the Light of 
4 Nature in their Dealings with Men ; moft carefully ob- 
4 ferving that royal Law, in doing nothing to others, but 
4 what they would be well contented to fuffer from others.’ 
There is a very curious Piece, relating to this Subjeft, 
that has been preferved by the Royal Society, written by 
Mr. John Mafhall , who lived long in the Indies , and had 
taken a great deal of Pains to make himfelf perfectly ac- 
quainted with the Notions of the modern Bramins and 
what he fays is fo conclufive, that the Reader mult be 
fatisfied, that what the Antients have delivered to us con- 
cerning the Religion and Philofophy of the Brachmahs , 
44 was ftriftly true a . Upon what Ground, fays he, fome 
44 Travellers have ftiled tliefePeoplePolytheifts, or Atheifts, 
44 I cannot tell. It is very obfervabie here, that their Priefts 
44 or Bramins , and holy Men, whom they call Jagees , or 
44 Gioghis , when they haveOccafion to write any thing, they 
44 always put a Figure of One in the firft Place, to fhew, a 
44 they fay, they acknowledge but One God, who, they 
44 fay, is Burme , that is, immaterial. When they preach to 
44 the People, and inftruft them, which is commonly eveey 
44 Feaft-day, Full Moon, or the time of an Eclipfe of either 
44 Luminary, they tell the common People much of God, 
• 44 Heaven and Hell, but very imperfeCtly, obfcurely and 
44 myftically : They fay, that when God thought of making 
44 the "World, he made it in a Minute. They account this 
: 44 World the Body of God : For all that, they fay he is im- 
44 material j and fay, that the higheft Heavens are his Head, 
44 the Fire his Mouth, the Air his Breath and Bread, the 
44 Water his Seed, and the Earth, and the Mountains there- 
44 of, his Legs and Feet ; but affert, in general, that 
44 God is the Life of every Thing ; yet is the Thing nei- 
Wther greater or lefs for him. 
44 They hold, that God dwelt in a Vacuity before that he 
44 created the World •, and that, as he dwelt in the Vacuity, 
44 he created feveral Beings out of himfelf : The firft were 
44 Angels, the fecond Souls, the third Spirits, all differing 
’ 44 in Degrees of Purity , the firft being more pure than the 
! 44 fecond, and the fecond than the third. The Angels, they 
■ 4U fay, neither aft Good or Evil ; the Souls either Good or 
!4C Evil j but the Spirits, or Dewtas , as they call them, aft 
44 icarce any Thing but Evil. They have a good|Opinion 
44 of the Angels, and think their State mighty happy, hoping, 
when they die, they fhall be made Partakers of the fame 
Bills and Pleafure. They believe, that every thing that 
hath Lite hath a Soul, but efpecially Man and they, ac- 
44 cordingly, affirm, that as thefe Souls behave themfelves in 
* Mfafanta Curiofa , moh 3, p. 257, »* Extraft from a Ma: 
T I N D I E Si . 
44 their pre-exiftent State, fo are their Actions in tills World 
44 either good or bad, by a fort of fatal Neceffity, which is 
44 very hard to conquer or overcome. Hence it is, fay they* 
44 that there are fo many different Humours and Difpofitions 
44 of Men j for their Souls, before their Entrance into their 
44 Bodies, being tainted with different Afteftions* caufe the 
44 like Differencefin the Parties, whole Bodies are their Vehi- 
44 cles fo that if a Man happens to have a fudden or tiM 
44 rtunate Death, they immediately afcribe the fame to die 
44 Pafyts own Wickednefs, or the bad Life that his Soul led, 
44 before that it entered into his Body : For, fay they, the 
44 aforeafted Evil that his Soul did in its other Life, brought 
44 thefe Accidents upon him, by getting the upper Hand of 
44 him, and by beingtoo powerful and ftrong : And thefe, that 
44 die thus, they believe their Souls turn into Devils. 
44 They maintain Pythagoras's Transmigration, or Me- 
44 tempyfcofis , but in a groffer Senfe than he did : For they 
44 believe that Mens Souls, that have not lived fo well as 
44 they ought, go, as foon as the Body dies, not only into 
44 the Birds and Beafts, but even into the bafeft Reptiles, 
44 Infects, and Plants ; where they fuffer a ftfong fort of 
44 Purgation to expiate their former Crimes. But as for 
44 the Souls of the Jogees or Gioghis , that is, of religious 
44 Men and Saints, they fancy that they go and inhabit, 
44 with the good Dewtas or Angels among the Stars, 
44 As for the Spirits, or inferior Angels, they believe that 
44 they are very evil, and have a hand in all Wickedneffes, 
44 Murders, Wars, Storms and Tempefts j fo that when 
44 they folemnize the Funeral of thofe that are dead, they 
44 always prefent Tfilhes of Meat as Offerings to thofe 
44 Spirits, and fometimes facrifice unto them, that they 
44 may not hurt the Souls of the Dead. 
44 As they acknowledge the Being of a mighty God, 
44 fo they hold, that he created the World, and every 
44 Thing therein. They believe, that there are almoft in- 
44 finite Numbers of Worlds ; and that God has often- 
44 times annihilated, and re-created the fame ; but how 
44 he came firft to create the World, and Mankind, they 
44 relate to have been thus : Once, on a time, (fay they) 
44 as he was fet in Eternity, it came into his Mind to 
44 make fomething ; and immediately, no fooner had 
44 he thought the fame, but the fame Minute was a 
44 perfeft beautiful Woman immediately prefented before 
44 him, which he called Adea Sukt'ee ; that is, the firft 
44 Woman .* Then this Figure put into his Mind the Fi- 
44 gure of a Man ; which he had no fooner conceived in 
44 his Mind, but that he alfo ftarted up, and reprefen ted 
44 himfelf before him • this he called Manapuiffe , that is* 
44 the firft Man: Then, upon a Refleftion of thefe 
44 Things, he refolved further to create feveral Places for 
44 them to abide in ; and, accordingly, affuming a fubtil 
44 Body, he breathed in a Minute the whole Univerfe, 
44 and every tiling therein, from the leaft to the greateftM 
A Divine of the Church of Rome , who had refided Jong 
in the Indies , and filled there with great Dignity a very 
high Poll b , in a Relation which is not yet printed, and 
therefore the more curious, gives us the following Ac- 
count : 44 The Bradmans are, at this Day, the only 
44 People among the Indians that have a Right to cultivate 
44 the Sciences and of this Right they are fo jealous, 
44 that they fuffer fcarce any of thofe Rays to ftfine upon 
44 the World, which might be expefted from Perfons, 
44 boafting themfelves in Poffeffion of fo much Light. 
44 Their Caft is the moft noble and the moft confiderable 
44 of all, and is even looked upon to be as much ftiperior 
44 to Princes, as Wifdom, and ufeful Knowledge, are, 
44 in their Nature preferable to Grandeur and Poway which 
44 Kings fo eafrly abufe, 
44 i he Sciences cultivated by thefe Brachmms , and in 
which they make a greater or lefs Progrefs, in propor- 
44 tion to their Parts and Application, may be reduced to 
44 eighteen. The firft is a kind of Grammar, ( which contains 
the Rules neceffary for the underftanding of that Lan- 
guage, which they call Grandham ; in which they con- 
44 verfe amongft themfelves, and wherein ail their Books 
44 are written : From hence their Sciences afcend in a 
44 very regular Scale, from the more fimpie and eafy, to 
tfcript written by Dom Irmcijca Root, Arehbifhop of Cranganor. 
44 thofe 
