Surat, Bombay, and the neighbourhood of Ispahan.

X. 2.

ADVANCING eastward from Persia, we immediately touch on HINDUSTAN, where, to use Mr. Lord's picturesque and accurate language, "a people present themselves to our eyes, clothed in linen garments, some"what low descending, of a gesture and garb, we may say, maidenly and well nigh

66

66

66

66

effeminate, of a countenance shy and "somewhat estranged, yet smiling out a glozed and somewhat bashful familiarity." The following lines may be found to give some notion, 1st, of the Geography; 2dly, of the Antient History of Hindustan; 3dly, of the Antient Philosophy of the Indians; 4thly, of the Vedas, the books accounted sacred by the Hindus, and of several Books held by them in great veneration; and 5thly, some mention of the supposed ages of these writings.

1st. Considering Hindustan, in the very largest sense, in which that word is used, it answers to the India infra Gangem of the Antients: or the country bounded on the north, by the Tartarian and Thibetian mountains; on the south, by the sea; on the west, by the Indus; on the east, by a supposed line extending to the north, from the Ganges. The country bordering on the eastern side of the Indus made a part of one of the Satrapies of Darius Hystaspes; but, speaking generally, the Indus was the easternmost boundary of the Persian empire, and all the country beyond it was divided into a number of kingdoms or

states.

2nd. Of the Antient History of Hindustan, or any other part of the country to the east of the Indus, we know little. About 160 years after the reign of Darius Hystaspis, Alexander the Great advanced, with his army, into India: that point of the Hyphasis or Beeyah, where it receives the Setlegè

or Setooder, was the scene of the memorable refusal of Alexander's army to follow him. On his death, Seleucus made himself master of the Persian empire; and, turning his attention to India, sent Megasthenes, in the character of ambassador, to Palibothra, the capital of the Prasii, or the country watered by the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges. After this, with the exception of some occasional mention of accidental circumstances, which show the nature of the commercial intercourse of the Romans with the east, from the time they established their dominion in Egypt, history is almost silent on the subject of India, till the conquest of it by the Mahometans.

To the antient and high civilization of the inhabitants of India, sacred and profane history bear ample testimony. The permanent singularity of their institutions is a circumstance peculiar to them; the most early and most modern writers agree in giving the same account of the classes of

society into which they are divided; of their religious opinions, of their habits, morals, and manners. The classes of society among them, are 1st, that of the Bramins, the most noble or sacred tribe, and the only persons allowed to officiate in the priesthood; 2d, that of the Khettre, or military men; 3dly, that of the Bise, or merchants or tradesmen; and 4thly, that of the Soodra, the husbandmen and menial servants. Beneath all these, are the Chandalahs; they are held in utter detestation by the other tribes, and are employed only in the meanest and vilest offices. A curious account of these distinctions and their subdivisions, is given by Mr. Colebrooke, in his enumeration of Indian classes, in the fifth volume of Asiatic Researches.

3. The Philosophy of the Indians was famous in Greece. From Strabo, Porphyry, Apuleius, Arrian, and Palladius, we learn, that the Antients supposed them divided into sects, of which the Brachmans and

Samanœans were the most famous. They. are described to have lived in retirement, to have avoided any intercourse with mankind, to have abstained from wine and animal food, to have practised great bodily austerities, and to have endeavoured, by assiduous prayer, meditation, and abstraction from terrene objects, to raise themselves to an incessant communion with the Deity. They probably were free from idolatry, and appear to have aimed at a sublime simplicity, above visible objects and natural feelings. At a time, probably not much more recent than the reign of Darius Hystaspis, an Indian philosopher of the name of Buddha arose in India, or some of the adjacent islands. Comparing what the Siamese, Chinese, and Japanese relate of Sommonacodom, Fohi, and Xaha, it is not improbable, that Buddha, Sommonacodom, Fohi, and Xaha, was the same person; that he was the author of a mythological system, which the initiated or adepts might,