CHAP. 1. If we suppose that India began to be inhabited at BOOK II. a very early stage in the peopling of the world, its first inhabitants must have been few, ignorant, and rude. Uncivilized and ignorant men, transported, in small numbers, into an uninhabited country of boundless extent, must wander for many ages before γενους διασεσωμενα -Και δη τους τοιούτους γε αναγκη που των αλλων απειρους ειναι τεχνων, και των εν τοις αστεσι προς αλληλους μηχανων.-Ούκουν οργανα τε παντα απολλυσθαι, και ει τι τεχνης ην εχομενον σπουδαιας Ευρημένον, η πολιτικής, η και σοφίας τινος ἑτερας, παντα ερρειν ταυτα εν τῳ τοτε χρονῳ φήσομεν. (Plat. p. 804.) The Hindus appear to have had similar opinions, though without the reasons. "We read in the Mahad-himalaya-c'handa, that after a deluge, from which very few of the human race were preserved, men became ignorant and brutal, without arts or sciences, and even without a regular language." Wilford on Egypt and the Nile, As. Res. iii. 394. There is nothing more remarkable in the traditions of nations, than their agreement respecting the origin of the present inhabitants of the globe. The account of the deluge in the religious books of the Jews may very well be taken as the archetype of the whole. On this subject I willingly content myself with a reference to a book of singular merit, The Analysis of Ancient Mythology, by Jacob Bryant, in which, after making ample allowance for some forced etymologies, and much superstition, the reader will find an extent of learning, a depth of research, and an ingenuity of inference, unrivalled among the inquirers into the early history of the human race. Sir William Jones, who regretted that Mr. Bryant's knowledge of Oriental literature had not enabled him to bring evidence more largely from its stores, and that he had not pursued a plan more strictly analytical, has prosecuted the same inquiry, in a series of Discourses, addressed to the Asiatic Society, on the Hindus, the Arabs, the Tartars, the Persians, the Chinese, &c., and on the Origin and Families of Nations; and by a different plan, and the aid of his Oriental literature, has arrived at the same conclusions. All inquirers have been struck with the coincidenee between the story of Noah, and that of the Hindu primeval sire Satyavrata. We may suspect that there has been a little Brahmenical forcing to make it so exact as in the following passage:-Mr. Wilford says, "It is related in the PadmaPuran, that Satyavrata, whose miraculous preservation from a general deluge is told at length in the Matsya, had three sons, the eldest of whom was named Jyapeti, or Lord of the Earth. The others were C'harma and Sharma, which last are, in the vulgar dialects, usually pronounced C'ham and Sham, as we frequently hear Kishn for Crishna. The royal patriarch BOOK II. І. CHAP. I. any great improvement can take place. Till they have multiplied so far as to be assembled in numbers large enough to permit the benefits of social intercourse, and of some division of labour, their circumstances seem not susceptible of amelioration. We find, accordingly, that all those ancient nations, whose history can be most depended upon, trace themselves up to a period of rudeness. The families who first wandered into Greece, Italy, and the eastern regions of Europe, were confessedly ignorant : (for such is his character in the Puráns), was particularly fond of Jyapeti, to whom he gave all the regions to the north of Himalaya, in the snowy mountains, which extend from sea to sea, and of which Caucasus is a part. To Sharma he allotted the countries to the south of those mountains: But he cursed C'harma; because when the old Monarch was accidentally inebriated with a strong liquor made of fermented rice, C'harma laughed and it was in consequence of his father's imprecation that he became a slave to the slaves of his brothers." (As. Res. iii. 312, 313.) The following statement by the same inquirer is confirmed by a variety of authorities:-"The first descendants of Swayambhava (another name for Satyavrata) are represented in the Puranas as living in the mountains to the north of India, toward the sources of the Ganges, and downwards as far as Serinagara and Hari-dwar. But the rulers of mankind lived on the summit of Meru, towards the north: where they appear to have established the seat of justice, as the Puranas make frequent mention of the oppressed repairing thither for redress." Wilford on Chron. of Hind., As. Res. v. 260. The Mexicans," (says Clavigero, Hist. of Mexico, b. vi. sect. 1.) "had a clear tradition, though somewhat corrupted by fable, of the creation of the world, of the universal deluge, of the confusion of tongues, and of the dispersion of the people; and had actually all these events represented in their pictures (their substitute for writing). They said that when mankind were overwhelmed with the deluge, none were preserved but a man and woman, named Coxcox and Xochiguebzal, who saved themselves in a little bark, and landing upon a mountain, called Colhuacan, had there a great many children, who were all born dumb; but that a dove at last, from a lofty tree, imparted to them languages; all, however, differing so much, that they could not understand one another." -M. It is scarcely fair to cite Wilford, for what he has himself taken pains to particularise as unworthy of credit; the whole story of the patriarch and his sons being the pure invention of his Pandit, as he has explained. As. Researches, v. viii. p. 254.-W. 66 CHAP. 1. and barbarous. The influence of dispersion was BOOK II. no doubt most baneful, where the natural disadvantages were the greatest. In a country overgrown with forest, which denies pasture to cattle, and precludes husbandry, by surpassing the power of single families to clear the land for their support, the wretched inhabitants are reduced to all the hardships of the hunter's life, and become savages. The difficulties with which those families had to struggle who first came into Europe, seem to have thrown them into a situation but few degrees removed from the lowest stage of society. The advantages of India in soil and climate are so great, that those by whom it was originally peopled might sustain no further depression than what seems inherent to a state of dispersion. They wandered probably for ages in the immense plains and valleys of that productive region, living on fruits, and the produce of their flocks and herds, and not associated beyond the limits of a particular family. Until the country became considerably peopled, it is not even likely that they would be formed into small tribes. As soon as a young man became, in his turn, the head of a family, and the master of cattle, he would find a more plentiful subsistence beyond the range of his father's flocks. It could only happen, after all the most valuable ground was occupied, that disputes would arise, and that the policy of defence would render it an object for the different branches of a family to remain united together, and to acknowledge a common head.' There is a short, but not irrational, sketch of the progress of society, in some of the Puranas. See Vishnu Purana, 44.-W. BOOK II. When this arrangement takes place, we have arrived at a new stage in the progress of civil society. The condition of mankind, when divided into tribes, exhibits considerable variety, from that patriarchal association which is exemplified in the history of Abraham, to such combinations as are found among the Tartars, or that distribution into clans, which, at no distant period, distinguished the people of Europe. The rapidity with which nations advance through these several states of society chiefly depends on the circumstances which promote population. Where a small number of people range over extensive districts, a very numerous association is neither natural nor convenient. Some visible boundary, as a mountain or a river, marks out the limits of a common interest; and jealousy or enmity is the sentiment with which every tribe is regarded by every other. When any people has multiplied so far as to compose a body, too large and unwieldy to be managed by the simple expedients which connected the tribe, the first rude form of a monarchy or political system is devised. Though we have no materials from the Hindus, which yield us the smallest assistance in discovering the time which elapsed in their progress to this point of maturity, we may so far accede to their claims of antiquity, as to allow that they passed through this first stage in the way to civilization very quickly; and perhaps they acquired the first rude form of a national polity at fully as early a period as any portion of the race1 It was probably The cautious inquirer will not probably be inclined to carry this era very far back. "The newness of the world," says the judicious Goguet, CHAP. 2. at no great distance from the time of this important BOOK II. change that those institutions were devised, which have been distinguished by a durability so extraordinary; and which present a spectacle so instructive to those who would understand the human mind, and the laws which, amid all the different forms of civil society, invariably preside over its progress. CHAPTER II. Classification and Distribution of the People. THE transition from the state of tribes to the more regulated and artificial system of a monarchy and laws is not sudden; it is the result of a gradual preparation and improvement. That loose independence, which suits a small number of men, bound together by an obvious utility, scattered over an extensive district, and subject to few interferences of inclination or interest, is found productive of many inconveniences, as they advance in numbers, as their intercourse becomes more close and compli (vol. iii. dissert. 3.) "is proved by the imperfection of many of the arts in the ancient world, and of all the sciences which depend upon length of time and experience." By the newness of the world, he means the newness of human society. In examining the remains of organized bodies which have been extricated from the bowels of the earth, vegetables are found at the greatest depth; immediately above them small shell-fish, and some of the most imperfect specimens of the animal creation; nearer the surface quadrupeds, and the more perfectly organized animals: lastly man, of whom no remains have ever been found at any considerable depth. The inference is, that compared with the other organized beings on this globe, man is a recent ereation. See Parkinson's Organic Remains. |