BOOK II. OF THE HINDUS. CHAP. 1. CHAPTER I. Chronology and Ancient History of the Hindus. BOOK II. RUDE nations seem to derive a peculiar gratification from pretensions to a remote antiquity.' As a boastful and turgid vanity distinguishes remarkably the oriental nations, they have in most instances carried their claims extravagantly high. We are informed, in a fragment of Chaldaic history, that there were written accounts, preserved at Babylon, 1 Mr. Gibbon remarks (Hist. Decl. and Fall of the Roman Empire, i. p. 350), that the wild Irishman, as well as the wild Tartar, can point out the individual son of Japhet from whose loins his ancestors were lineally descended. According to Dr. Keating (History of Ireland, 13), the giant Partholanus, who was the son of Seara, the son of Esra, the son of Sru, the son of Framant, the son of Fathacian, the son of Magog, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, landed on the coast of Munster, the 14th day of May, in the year of the world 1978. The legends of England are not less instructive. A fourth or sixth son of Japhet, named Samothes, having first colonized Gaul, passed over into this island, which was thence named Samothia, about 200 years after the flood; but the Samothians being some ages afterwards subdued by Albion, a giant son of Neptune, he called the island after his own name, and ruled it forty-four years. See the story, with some judicious reflections, in Milton's History of England (Prose Works of Milton, iv. 3. Ed. 1806). The Athenians boasted that they were as ancient as the sun. The Arcadians pretended they were older than the moon. The Lacedemonians called themselves the sons of the earth, &c., such, in general, was the madness of the ancients on this subject! They loved to lose themselves in an abyss of ages which seemed to approach eternity." Goguet, Origin of Laws, v. i. b. 1, ch. 1, art. 5. See the authorities there quoted. 1 CHAP. 1. with the greatest care, comprehending a term of BOOK II. fifteen myriads of years. The pretended duration of the Chinese monarchy is still more extraordinary. A single king of Egypt was believed to have reigned three myriads of years.3 The present age of the world, according to the system of the Hindus, is distinguished into four grand periods, denominated yugs. The first is the Satya yug, comprehending 1,728,000 years; the second the Treta yug, comprehending 1,296,000 years; the third the Dwapar yug, including 864,000 years; and the fourth the Cali yug, which will extend to 432,000 years. Of these periods the first three are expired, and, in the year 1817, of the Christian era, 4911 years of the last. From the commencement, therefore, of the Satya yug, to the year 1817, is comprehended a space of 3,892,911 years, the antiquity to which this people lay claim.3 1 Eusebii Chronicon, p. 5. Syncelli Chronograph. p. 28. Bryant's Ancient Mythology, iv. 127, 8vo. edit. * Syncelli Chronicon, p. 51. Herodotus informs us (lib. ii. c. 2), that the Egyptians considered themselves as the most ancient of mankind, till an experiment made by Psammetichus convinced them that the Phrygians alone preceded them. But the inhabitants of the further Peninsula of India make the boldest incursions into the regions of past times. The Burmans, we are informed by Dr. Buchanan (As. Res. vi. 181), believe that the lives of the first inhabitants of their country lasted one assenchii, a period of time of which they thus communicate an idea: "If for three years it should rain incessantly over the whole surface of this earth, which is 1,203,400 juzana in diameter, the number of drops of rain falling in such a space and time, although far exceeding human conception, would only equal the number of years contained in one assenchii." 3 Sir William Jones's Discourse on the Chronology of the Hindus, (As. Res. ii. 111, 8vo. Ed.) also that on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India, (Ibid. i. 221.)—See too Mr. Bentley's Remarks on the principal Eras and Dates of the ancient Hindus, (Ibid. v. 315); and the Discourse of Captain F. Wilford on the Chronology of the Hindus, in the same volume, p. 24, BOOK II. The contempt with which judicious historians now treat the historical fables of early society, must be indulged with caution when we explore the ancient condition of Hindustan; because the legendary tales of the Hindus have hitherto, among European inquirers, been regarded with particular respect; and Consult also Mr. Marsden's Discourse on the Chronology of the Hindus, (Phil. Trans. lxxx. 568.) These authors, having all drawn from the same sources, display an appearance of uniformity and certainty in this part of the Hindu system. It is amusing to contemplate the wavering results of their predecessors. Mr. Halhed, in the preface to his Translation of the Code of Gentoo Laws, thus states the number of years, and thus spells the names of the epochs; 1. The Suttee Jogue, 3,200,000 years; 2. The Tirtah Jogue, 2,400,000 years; 3. The Dwapaar Jogue, 1,600,000 years; 4. The Collee Jogue, 400,000. Colonel Dow marks the Suttee Jogue at 14,000,000; the Tirtah Jogue at 1,080,000; the Dwapaar Jogue, 72,000; and the Collee Jogue, 36,000 years. (History of Hindostan, i. 2.) M. Bernier, whose knowledge of India was so extensive and accurate, gives, on the information of the Brahmens of Benares, the Satya yug at 2,500,000 years, the Treta at 1,200,000, the Dwapar at 864,000, and assigns no period to the Cali yug. (Voyages ii. 160.)-Messrs. Roger and le Gentil, who received their accounts from the Brahmens of the coast of Coromandel, coincide with Sir William Jones, except that they specify no duration for the Cali yug. Porte Ouverte, p. 179; Mém. de l'Académ. des Sciences pour 1772, tom. ii. part 1, p. 17.)-The account of Anquetil Duperron agrees in every particular with that of Sir W. Jones; Recherches Historiques et Géographiques sur l'Inde, Lettre sur les Antiquités de l'Inde.The four ages of the Mexicans bear a remarkable resemblance to those of the Hindus, and of so many other nations. "All the nations of Anahuac (says Clavigero, History of Mexico, B. vi. sect. 24,) distinguished four ages of time by as many suns. The first, named Atonatiuh, that is, the sun (or the age) of water, commenced with the creation of the world, and continued until the time at which all mankind perished in a general deluge along with the first sun. The second, Tlaitonatiuh, the age of earth, lasted from the deluge until the ruin of the giants, &c. The third, Ehécatonatiuh, the age of air, lasted from the destruction of the giants till the great whirlwinds, &c. The fourth, Tletonatiuh, commenced at the last-mentioned catastrophe, and is to last till the earth be destroyed by fire."-M. There is no other concurrence of the Hindu and Mexican systems than the number of four, which was common to all antiquity. The Hindu system is wholly mythological, and admits of a ready explanation; it originates in the descending arithmetical progression of 4, 3, 2, 1, according to the notions of diminishing virtue in the several ages, applied to a cycle of 12,000 CHAP. 1. because, without a knowledge of them, much of BOOK II. divine years, The reader will by and bye be prepared to determine for himself how far the tales of the Brahmens deserve exemption from the sentence which four great historians have, in the following passages, pronounced on the fanciful traditions of early nations. "The curiosity," says Mr. Hume, "entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring into the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much involved io obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction. The fables which are commonly employed to supply the place of true history ought entirely to be disregarded; or, if any exception be admitted to this general rule, it can only be in favour of the ancient Grecian fictions, which are so celebrated and so agreeable, that they will ever be the objects of the attention of mankind." (Hume's History of England, i. ch. 1.)-" Nations," says Robertson, as well as men, arrive at maturity by degrees, and the events which happened during their infancy or early youth cannot be recollected, and deserve not to be remembered. *** Every thing beyond that short period, to which wellattested annals reach, is obscure; an immense space is left for invention to occupy; each nation, with a vanity inseparable from human nature, hath filled that void with events calculated to display its own antiquity and lustre. And history, which ought to record truth, and teach wisdom, often sets out with retailing fictions and absurdities." (Robertson's History of Scotland, i. b. 1.)—Mr, Gibbon, speaking of a people (the Arabians) who in traditions and antiquity bear some resemblance to the Hindus, says, “1 am ignorant, and I am careless, of the blind mythology of the Barbarians." (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ix. 244, 8vo. edit.) Of a people still more remarkably resembling the Hindus, he says, "We may observe, that after an ancient period of fables, and a long interval of darkness, the modern histories of Persia begin to assume an air of truth with the dynasty of the Sassanides.” (Ib. i. 341.)-" Quæ ante conditam condendamve urbem, poeticis magis decora fabulis quam incorruptis rerum СНАР. 1. BOOK II. also the seventh Menu. He had escaped with his family from an universal deluge, which had destroyed the rest of the human species.1 Of his descendants were two royal branches: the one denominated the children of the sun; the other the children of the The first reigned at Ayodhya or Owde; the second at Pratisht'hana or Vitora. These families, or dynasties, subsisted till the thousandth year of the present or Cali yug, at which time they both became extinct; and a list of the names of the successive princes is presented in the Sanscrit books. moon. Satyavrata, the primitive sire, prolonged his existence and his reign through the whole period of the Satya yug, or 1,728.000 years. From this patriarchal monarch are enumerated, in the solar line of 3 gestarum monumentis traduntur ea nec affirmare nec refellere in animo est." Livii. Prefat-M. This disdain of the early records of nations may sometimes be suspected to veil a distate for dry, laborious, and antiquarian research. That it is much easier to depreciate than inquire we need not go beyond these pages for proof.-W. The coincidence in the tradition respecting Satyavrata, and the history of Noah, are very remarkable, and will be further noticed hereafter. Sir Wm. Jones, As. Res. ii. 119, 120, 127. 'Sir Wm. Jones, Ib. 126. He was the son of Surya, (or Sol), the son of Casyapa (or Uranus), the son of Marichi (or Light), the son of Brahma, "which is clearly," says Sir Wm. Jones, “an allegorical pedigree." The Hindu pedigrees and fables, however, being very variable, he is, in the opening of the fourth book of the Gita, called, not the son of the Sun, but the Sun himself. Sir Wm. Jones, Ib. 117. In a celestial pedigree the Hindus agree with other rude nations. There is a curious passage in Plato respecting the genealogy of the Persian kings. They were descended, he says, from Achæmenes, sprung from Perseus the son of Zeus (Jupiter.) Plat. Alcib. i.-M. There is no variability in the account of Vaivaswata's genealogy, nor is he confounded with the Sun in the Gita. Mr. Mill has evidently supposed Vivaswat, the Sun, to be the same name as Vaivaswata its patronymic derivative, in the passage to which he refers. With regard to the duration of the life of Vaivaswata, it must be remembered that the Manus are not men, although finite beings; they exist throughout a kalpa, a much longer period than that of a Satya yug.-W |