H I N D O 
RELIGION and MYTHOLOGY of the ABORI¬ 
GINAL INHABITANTS of HINDOOSTAN. 
It is a lamentable fa£t, that the aborigines of India, or 
race of Hindoos, are even at the prefent day idolaters. 
And notwithftanding the great progrefs of Ifiamifm, in¬ 
duced by the example, and' enforced by the laws, of their 
Mogul conquerors, for eight hundred years pa ft, and in 
fpite ol their intercourfe with fo many enlightened nations, 
and the utmoft exertions of the Chriftia’n miflionaries, 
there are ftill to be found at leaft fifty idolatrous Hindoos to 
one perfbn of any other faith in their country. And it 
is extraordinary, that, fo far from being foiicitous to make 
profelytes to their religion, if a foreigner were to re quaff 
the indulgence of being admitted to worfhip their gods, 
his propolal would be rejected with contempt. Yet they 
neither hate, defpife, pity, nor perfecute, any of thofe 
who follow a different perluafion. 
But, howfoever general the worfhip of idols is every 
where found among the Hindoos, there is not the final leu; 
doubt but their religion was originally pure, and their 
faith and adoration direfted, as they ought, to the Supreme 
Being. This- feems abundantly evident from various 
paflages of their Vedas, and other Indian feriptures; as 
well as from the mild and exemplary charafter of this 
people throughout all their caffs; and from commu¬ 
nications made with various learned perfons among their 
different fefts, who profefs to adore and believe in the 
one only true God; although they bend before thofe 
molten images, which were only at firft intended, as they 
fay, to convey to unlettered' minds the divine attributes 
of the Almighty Power and Perfection. To enquiries 
made by Chriitian miflionaries among the Hindoo priefts, 
“ why they did not inftrutt their people to direft their 
adoration mentally to the Supreme Being, of whole exif- 
tence and over-ruling power they profeffed themfelves to 
be convinced;” they anfwered, “ that God was a Being 
without Ihape, incomprehenfible, of whom no precife 
idea could be formed; but that their prostration before 
idols, being vifible, and capable of imprefling folemnity 
and awe, would inltil piety and devotion into the minds 
of the people, which God would receive, and confider as 
adoration offered .to himfelf. Befides, heaven is a palace 
with many doors of admifiion into it; and the Supreme 
Being could never intend that ail the nations of the earth 
were to enter by one and the fame gate. See p. 35 of this 
article. 
It is, however, too obvious, that the common people, 
whofe underftandings are exercifed in no higher purluits 
than thofe of their rcfpeCtive callings; and the worldly- 
minded and groi’s among the higher cafts, who have little 
ambition but that of acquiring worldly riches; have no 
chance for fpiritual reflections, but naturally fix their 
attention upon external objeCts, making unto themfelves 
gods of wood and ftone, of copper and brafs, of filver and 
gold. Before thefe they proftrate themfelves, offer up 
their incenfe, and perform various facrifices; whence to 
pollute thefe images, or violate their fanctuaries, is con- 
fidered as the higheft infult that can be offered to a 
Hindoo. To revenge inch a facrilege, they value not 
their lives, but will encounter almoft fmgle-handed a hoft 
of foes, and meet death in every ihape and form. This 
faCf was ftrikingly verified by the prieft of Sumnaut, who 
led Mahmood’s army to perifh in the defert for infulting 
his god, as noticed in p. 11 of this volume; and alfo by 
the narrow efcape of colonel Heron from the defile of 
Natam, after plundering the temple of Coilgoody of its 
idols, as mentioned in p. 85 ; where he himfelf, and his 
army, mult inevitably have perifhed, had not another offi¬ 
cer appealed the wrath of the Hindoos by refloring to them 
their ftolen gods. 
Sir William Jones, in the firft volume of the Afiatic 
Refearches, has given the outline of the Hindoo mytho¬ 
logy, with figures of their principal deities, in order to 
alhmilate them with the gods and goddeifesof the ancient 
Greeks; and demonltrate that the religious ceremonies 
O S T A N. 115 
of the two nations had the fame origin. The fcheme of 
the Indian mythology he introduces thus : 
“ It muff always be remembered, that the learned Indians, 
as they are inflruCted by their own books, acknowledge 
only One Supreme Being, whom they call Brahme, or 
the Great One, in the neuter gender: they believe his 
eiTence to be infinitely removed from the comprehenfion 
of any mind but his own; and they fuppofe- him to 
manifeft his power by the operation of his divine fpirit, 
whom they name Viflinu, the Pervader, and Narayan, or 
Moving on the. Waters, both in the maleuline, gender, 
whence he is often denominated the' Firjl Male ; and by 
this power they believe that the whole order of nature is 
prelerved and lupported. But the Vedantis, unable to form 
a diltinct idea of brute matter independent of mind, or 
to conceive that the work of Supreme Goodnefs was left 
a moment to itfelf, imagine that the Deity is ever prefent 
to his work, and conftantly fupports a feries of perceptions, 
which, in one fenfe, they call illufory, though theycannot 
but admit the reality of all. created forms, as far as the 
happinefs of creatures can be affeefed by them. When 
they confider the Divine Power exerted in creating, or in 
giving exiftence to that which exifted not before, they 
call the Deity Brahma, in the mafeuline gender alfo; and 
when they view him in the light of Dejlroyer, or Changer 
of forms, they give him a thoufand names, of which Siva, 
Ifwara, liudra, Heri, Sambku, and Mahadeva, or Mahefa, 
are the moll: common. The firft operations of thefe three 
Powers are varioully deferibed in the different Puranas 
by a number of allegories, and from them we may deduce 
the Ionian philofophy of primeval water, the doftrine of 
the Mundane Egg, and the veneration paid to the Nymph a a. 
lotos, or water lily, which was anciently revered in Egypt, 
as it is at prefent in Hindooftan, Tibet, and Nepal. 
“ That water was the primitive element, and firft work 
of the Creative Power, is the uniform opinion of the 
Indian philolophers ; but, as they have a particular ac¬ 
count of the creation,' as well as of the general deluge, it 
can never be admitted that their whole fyftem arofe from 
traditions concerning the flood only, a'nd muft appear 
indubitable, that their doftrine is in part borrowed from 
the opening of Birajit, or Genefis ; than which a fublimer 
paflage, from the firft_ word to the laft, never flowed, o=r 
will flow, from any human! pen. But the Mofaic account 
of the creation is confiderably diminifhed by the Indian 
piaraphrafe of it, with which Menu begins his defeription 
of the formation of the univerfe. “ This world (lays he) 
was .all darknefs, undifcernable, undiftinguilhable, alto¬ 
gether as in a profound fleep; till the lelf-exiftent invi- 
fible God, making it manifeft with five elements and 
other glorious forms, perfectly difpclled the gloom. He, 
defiring to raife up various creatures by an emanation 
from his own glory, firft created the waters, and impreffed 
them with a power of motion: by that power was pro¬ 
duced a golden egg, blazing like a thoufand funs, in 
which was born Brahma, lelf-exifting, the great parent 
of all rational beings. The waters are called nara, lince 
they are the offspring of Nera, or Ifwara; and thence was 
Narayana named, becaufe his firft ayana, or moving, was 
on them. That which is, the invifible caufe, eternal, 
lelf-exifting, but unperceived, becoming mafeuline from 
neuter, is celebrated among all creatures by the name of 
Brahma. That God, having dwelled in the Egg through 
revolving years, Himfelf meditating on Himl'ell, divided 
it into two equal parts; and from thofe halves formed 
the heavens and the earth, placing in the midlt the fubtil 
ether, the eight points of the world, and the permanent 
receptacle of waters.” From this eternally-exifting Great 
Firft Caufe, fprung the two Eftences, Vijhnu and Siva ; 
and thus the Hindoo triad or triple godhead was formed. 
“ Very refpeftable natives (continues the learned pre- 
fident) have allured me, that one or two miflionaries 
have been abfurd enough, in their zeal for the converfion 
of the Gentiles, to urge, ‘ that the Hindoos were even 
now almoft Chriltians, becaufe their Brahma, Vilhnu, 
and 
