H I N D O O S T A N. 
lions of rupees.”— Yet let it be remembered, that the 
palace of Solomon required thirteen years in fini/hing; 
though many thoufands of men were employed in the 
work, i Kingjs vii. i. 
But a communication with the exterior parts of India 
had been carried bn for a prodigious length of time be¬ 
fore the invafion of the Greeks- under Alexander the 
Great. To ufe the authority of Holy Writ, our fureft 
guide on all creations, we find that king Solomon eila- 
bliftied a regular intercourfe with India ; and for that pur- 
pofe founded Hamath in the country of Galilee, and Tad-' 
mor in the wildernefs, or Palmira, with many other “ cities 
of ftore,” or emporia, for the rich productions of India, 
and Tyre, and Sidon, and other furrounding nations. See 
i Kings ix. 19. a Chron. viii. 4, 6. 
PRIMITIVE HISTORY. 
The five principal nations which have in different ages 
divided among themfelves, as a kind of inheritance, the 
vaft continent of Afia, with the ifiands depending on it, 
are the Indians,'the Chinefe, the Tartars, the Arabians, 
and the Perfians. Who they feverally were, whence they 
originally came, and at what period of the world they 
formed or founded thefe fettlements, are topics on which 
the pens of many ingenious writers have been exercifed ; 
yet terminating more or lefs in impenetrable obfcurity or 
vague conjecture. The deepeft refearclvthat has hitherto 
been made in this interfiling enquiry, re'fui ts from the 
pen of the learned prefident of the Aiiatic Society; who 
has endeavoured to mow, that the firit race of Perfians and 
Indians fpoke the fame language, and profelfed the fame 
popular faith, and confequently lprung from one and the 
lame Hock ; but the fecond Perlian race, or Parthians, who 
fpoke the Syriac tongue, muff have come from another 
diftindl race; that the fettlers in China and Japan had 
moll probably a common origin with the Hindoos; and 
that the'nation of Tartars were primarily of a third fepa- 
rate branch, totally differing from the two former in lan¬ 
guage, manners, and features. From analyfing the three 
languages of thefe diftinft people, and comparing them 
with the dialefts of the neighbouring countries, fir Wil- 
iiam Jones concludes thus: 
“ Although the inhabitants of Afia are formed into five 
diftinft nations, yet have they all fprung from the three 
branches above particularized; and thole branches from 
one parent Item. From the point wlfere the ark relied, 
■ mull the migrations of Ham, Shem, and Japhet, have taken 
place.” This point lies almoft equally on the confines of 
Perfia and India ; Pinkerton fays, mount Ararat belongs to 
Perfia; and is fituated at a very fmall diftance from mount 
Caucafus, in the centre of an adjoining plain. “ Thefe 
three fons of the juft and virtuous Noah, (continues the 
learned prefident,) travelled as they began to multiply, in 
three large divisions, varioufly fubdivided. The children 
of Japhet feem, from the traces of Sclavonian names, to 
have fpread themfelves far and wide, and to have produced 
the race, which, for want of a correfl appellation, we call 
Tartarian. The colonies formed by the fons of Ham and 
Shem appear to have been nearly fimultaneous; and, 
among thole of the latter branch, we find fo many names 
inconteftably-preferved at this hour in Arabia, that we 
cannot hefitate in pronouncing them the fame people with 
the Arabians ; while the former branch, the moll powerful 
and adventurous of whom were the progeny of Cufli, 
Mifr, and Rama, were, in all probability, the race which 
I call Indian ; but to which we may now give any other 
name that may feem more proper and comprehenfive. 
And from thefe three (hoots, namely, the Indian, Ara¬ 
bian, and Tartarian, branches, I conceive the whole earth 
to have been peopled.”—See Aiiatic Refearches, vol. iii. 
Difcourfe the Ninth. 
It is afferted, and probably with the ftricleft truth, that 
this extraordinary people carried with them into India the 
worfhip of the only true, eternal, and omnipotent, God ; r 
*ub, from the fingular mildnefs and benevolence of their 
charafler, they are even now believed, by fome writers, to 
pay the adoration of their hearts to the Supreme Being,which 
th.ev have attempted to perfonify in a triads by the images 
of Brahma, the firft Caufe or Creator of all things ; Vijhnu, 
.the preferver and upholder of ail things thus created; and 
Secva, the deftroyer or terminator of all things, and the 
avenger of thofe who fuffer wrong. Indeed lome writers 
have gone fo far, in their admiration of the theology of 
the Hindoos, as to fancy a Unking anafegy between this 
triad and the Holy Trinity of the Chriftian difpenfation; 
but with manifeft ablurdity, if not with infult to the Chrif¬ 
tian religion; for, howloever pure the worlhip of the Indian 
nation might originally have been, it is inconteftably fhowji, 
by the earlieft hiftorians, that from the time of the very 
firft intercourfe of foreign nations with the Hindoos, they 
were found funk in the moft deplorable Hate of idolatry. 
Their dodtrine then was, what it (till.is, founded on the 
errors and obfeenity of the Gymnofophifts, and a belief 
in the metempfyehofis, or tranfmigration of fouls. Yet 
this fame people have in all ages been celebrated for their 
great ingenuity in the mechanical arts, for their liberal 
hofpitality, morality, and love of truth; as well as for 
their great learning, their knowledge in altronom’y, and 
their progrefs in fcience and architecture, which their 
magnificent pagodas or temples, palaces, and choultries, 
abundantly demonftrate. It is from the number of thefe 
immenfe fabrics, and their fimilarity with the Egyptian 
temples, as well in their ftruclure as in the hieroglyphics 
which adorn them, that many writers have chofen to dif¬ 
fer from fir William Jones in defining the origin of this 
people ; rather fuppofing Hindooftan to have been peopled 
from Egypt, than that India gave birth to the learning 
and wifdom of the Pharaohs, and fplendour to the ancient 
Hierapolis, Tentyra, and Memphis. A very remarkable 
corroboration of this opinion occurred, when our troops 
crofted the Red Sea from India, to fupport the war in 
Egypt; which is noticed by captain Burr, in the Eighth 
Volume of the Afiatic Refearches, publilhed af Calcutta in 
1805.—Defcribing the temple of Tentyra, in Upper Egypt, 
he concludes thus : 
“ The dreftes, the utenfils, canoes, and many of the 
articles of the domellic economy, of the ancient Egyptians, 
are herein reprefented in the moft minute and plealing 
manner; and the entire ftate of thefe figures, not only in 
fiiape, but colouring, conveys the moft perfect idea of the 
habits of the times. A vail refemblance exifts in the 
dreftes with thofe at prefent worn in India; the cholie of 
the women, the moond, and many others, claiming a dire 61 
companion. It‘has often ftruck me, and never more for¬ 
cibly than in contemplating this temple and its fculptures, 
that there mult have exifted a much greater affinity in the 
cultoms of, and of courle a more friendly intercourfe 
amongft, the nations of the Eaft formerly, when they pur- 
fued one fyftem of worlhip, than fince the introduclion 
of Chriftianity and Mahometanifm. Our Indian follow¬ 
ers, who attended us here, beheld the feene before them 
with a degree of admiration bordering one nthufiafm; arif- 
ing not only from the affinity they traced in feveral of the 
figures to their own deities, but from their convidlion of 
its being the work of fome Racjhas, who they conceived 
had vifited the earth, to tranfmit to an admiring pofterity 
a teftimony of fupernatural talents.”—For a defeription of 
the temple of Tentyra, and the fculptures alluded to by 
captain Burr, fee the article Egypt, vol.vi. p.357, 358, 
and the correfpondent Engravings. 
The firft hijiorkal notices we have of India, are found 
in Herodotus, who wrote his work above a century before 
the invafion of Alexander the Great. His accounts, how¬ 
ever, convey but little information; for he appears only 
to have heard of the weftern part of the country, and that 
on account of its being then tributary to Perfia. He Hates 
that Darius Hyilafpes, about the year 508 before Chrift, 
had fent Scylax, the celebrated geographer of Caria, to ex¬ 
plore the courfe of the Indus, and the territory of Paflya, 
which major Renneil fuppofes to be the modern Pecheli. 
