1 90 come a convert, he is expected to submit himself implicitly to the guidance and instruction of an experienced Saadh, for a considerable time. If, in the course of this probationary trial, just reason shall appear to approve his motives and his conduct, he is publickly presented with a cup of cold water, a draught from which constitutes him a Saadh. He still retains his own name; but is thenceforward admitted into the fellowship of their communion. The Saadhs are very scrupulous concerning meats, eat no animal food, drink no spirits, and will only receive water from the hands of a Saadh. They dress like the Hindoos; the men always wearing a white turban. The Hindoos generally seem to know very little about these people; and, indeed, to every body, to whom I have mentioned them, they appear quite a new object of interest and attention. They have been erroneously supposed to be a branch of the Joinus. It is evident that the Saadhs are familiarly acquainted with the numbers and places of residence of their people; so that a frequent intercourse among them probably takes place. Jysingh, from memory, mentioned about thirty villages and towns where Saadhs reside, and particularized the various families of each place. In the direction of Bengal, there are not, so far as he can tell, any Saadhs below Mirzapore. has heard that some few are to be found in the Deccan, but cannot speak with any certainty. He Three or four years ago, (Anund heard, in the Tope, five or six,) a copy or two of the Serampore Translation of some of the Gospels were brought from Hurdwan, by some of their persuasion, who had visited the Fair. Of the spirit or proper meaning of the contents of these books, however, they knew very little; till, about ten months ago, some passages were read to them and explained by Anund Messeeh. At first a good deal of superstitious apprehension deterred them from meddling with religious matters; a fanciful persuasion also having taken possession of their minds, that, if they should shew any willingness to listen to Christian Instruction, we should, in propagating our tenets, use like instruments and [FEB. whom they retain a rooted antipathy. means with the Mahomedans, for As they have, however, obtained further information, their prejudices are considerably abated; so much so, indeed, that they are very ready to receive and to use and to listen to Anund's comments. our books, Jysingh stated his readiness to undertake, with assistance, to read to, and to teach to read, the children of the Saadhs; who are all very anxious any opportunity presents itself. Jyto learn to read and write, whenever singh is also of opinion, and indeed has no doubt, that many Saadhs will attend, when leisure from their agricultural or other pursuits will allow, places, where they have the books, to hear the Gospels read; as in some has been already done. nications, (the whole of which I had In consequence of these commugreat pleasure in laying before Mr. Metcalf, and who himself conversed a good deal both with Anund and with Jysingh,) our new friend was engaged School in the village of Kowaly, to set about the establishment of a where he resides; I undertaking to send Anund to assist in the outset ; and purposing to be guided by cirfuture. On Anund's arrival, in the cumstances, as to its continuance in first week of January, he found that Jysingh, true to his engagements, had commenced his little School. It there being only seven young chilwas, however, but thinly attended, dren, daily Scholars, who learn the their fingers in the sand: but when Alphabet, tracing the letters with evening affords an opportunity, by respite from their labours, both Saadhs and Jats assemble, to the to hear the old Saadh read aloud a amount of thirty men and children, Chapter from one of the Gospels; after which they generally apply themselves to learn their own mode of Multiplication. of Kowaly, a Jat, has given a shed The Tumeendu for their assemblies. Anund informs us, that the opening of the School was considered an im sperity and permanency, the inhabi portant event. To ensure to it proants had, previous to Anund's arrival, consulted an astrologer, that the commencement of the School might be under the auspices of a happy con some of the people having taken up an idea, that unworthy and interested motives have prompted this plan of education; and that, so soon as the children may be found qualified for their destined occupation and employment, the parents will be forcibly deprived of them. Time, however, will shew the folly of such imagina. tions. In the mean while, we try to go quietly forward. As Anund has been repeatedly cautioned, not to let his warm imagination delude him into any exaggerated representations of what he may deem worth observing and communicating, I have no hesitation in believing this statement. Miscellanies. HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. SIR William Jones, in his learned Essay " On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India," has opened a view of the Mythology of the East, which may be very serviceable, both to Missionaries and the great body of our Readers. As opportunities, therefore, may offer, we shall give engravings of the principal Hindoo Gods, with Sir W. Jones's account of the Fables concerning them, enlarged by the remarks of other Writers. It is our object herein, to make the Missionary himself, who labours among these benighted Idolaters, better acquainted with the source and the nature of their errors; and, at the same time, to awaken the commiserations and the prayers of Christians. CHIEF SOURCES OF IDOLATRY. We cannot justly conclude, by arguments preceding the proof of facts, that one idolatrous people must have borrowed their deities, rites, and tenets from another; since Gods of all shapes and dimensions may be framed by the boundless powers of imagination, or by the frauds and follies of men, in countries never connected: but, when features of resemblance, too strong to have been accidental, are observable in different systems of Polytheism, without fancy or prejudice to colour them and improve the likeness, we can scarce help believing, that some connection has immemorially subsisted between the several nations, who have adopt ed them. It is my design, in this Essay, to point out such a resemblance between the popular worship of the old Greeks and Italians and that of the Hindoos. Nor can there be room to doubt of a great similarity between their strange religions and that of Egypt, China, Persia, Phrygia, Phoenice, and Syria; to which, perhaps, we may safely add some of the southern kingdoms and even islands of America: while the Gothic System, which prevailed in the Northern Regions of Europe, was not merely similar to those of Greece and Italy, but almost the same in another dress, with an embroidery of images apparently Asiatic. From all this, if it be satisfactorily proved, we may infer a general union or affinity between the most distinguished inhabitants of the Primitive World, at the time when they deviated, as they did too early deviate, from the rational adoration of the Only True God. Mr. Faber, in his late great work on the "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," which will amply reward the study of every intelligent Missionary, ascertains, both from historical testimony and circumstantial evidence, the truth of the inference above drawn by Sir William Jones; and shews, by a learned and copious induction of particulars, that the Persons and Circumstances connected with the Creation and the Deluge form the ground-work of the Mythology of all the Pagan Nations. Sir W. Jones also has stated the perversion of History and Nature as the leading source of Idolatry; and has connected with it, as may be seen in the following extract, three subordinate causes, which would rapidly augment the darkness and confusion of Heathen Mythology. There seem to have been four principal sources of all Mythology. 1. Historical or Natural Truth has been perverted into Fable, by ignorance, imagination, flattery, or stupidity: as a King of Crete, whose tomb had been discovered in that island, was conceived to have been the God of Olympus; and Minos, a Legislator of that country, to have been his son, and to hold a supreme appellate jurisdiction over departed souls. Hence, too, probably flowed the tale of Cadmus, as Bochart learnedly traces it. Hence, beacons or volcanoes became one-eyed giants and monsters vomiting flames! and two rocks, from their appearance to mariners, in certain positions, were supposed to crush all vessels attempting to pass between them: of which idle fictions, many other instances might be collected, from the Odyssey and the various Argonautic Poems. The less we say of Julian Stars; deifications of princes or warriors, altars raised, with those of Apollo, to the basest of men, and divine titles bestowed on such wretches as Caius Octavianus, the less we shall expose the infamy of grave senators and fine poets, or the brutal folly of the low multitude: but we may be assured, that the mad apotheosis of truly great men, or of little men falsely called great, has been the origin of gross idolatrous errors in every part of the Pagan World. 2. The next source of them appears to have been a wild Admiration of the Heavenly Bodies; and, after a time, the Systems and Calculations of Astronomers. Hence came a considerable portion of Egyptian and Grecian Fable; the Sabian Worshipin Arabia; the Persian Types and Emblems of Mihr or the Sun; and the far extended adoration of the Elements, and the powers of Nature: and hence, perhaps, all the artificial Chronology of the Chinese and Indians, with the invention of Demigods and Heroes to fill the vacant niches in their extravagant and imaginary periods. 3. Numberless Divinities have been created solely by the Magic of Poetry, whose essential business is, to personify the most abstract notions, and to place a Nymph or a Genius in every grove, and almost in every flower. Hence, Hygieia and Jaso, Health and Remedy, are the poetical daughters of Esculapius, who was either a distinguished physician, or medical skill personified; and hence Chloris, or Verdure, is married to the Zephyr. 4. The Metaphors and Allegories of Moralists and Metaphysicians have been also very fertile in Deities; of which a thousand examples might be adduced from Plato, Cicero, and the inventive Commen tators on Homer, in their pedigrees of the Gods and their fabulous lessons of mo rality. Hence also the Indian Maya, or, as the word is explained by some Hindoo Scholars, " the first inclination of the Godhead to diversify himself," such is their phrase," by creating worlds," is feigned to be the mother of Universal Nature, and of all the inferior Gods; as a Cashmirian informed me, when I asked him, why Cama, or Love, was represented as her son: but the word Maya, or " de. lusion," has a more subtile and recondite sense in the Vedanta Philosophy, where it signifies the systems of perceptions, whether of secondary or primary qualities, which the Deity was believed, by many, to raise, by his omnipresent spirit, in the minds of his creatures; but which had not, in their opinion, any existence independent of mind. PARALLEL BETWEEN THE GODS OF THE INDIAN AND EUROPEAN HEATHENS. In drawing a parallel between the Gods of the Indian and European Heathens, from whatever source they were derived, I shall remember, that nothing is less favourable to inquiries after truth than a systematical spirit; and shall call to mind the saying of a Hindoo Writer, that, "whoever obstinately adheres to any set of opinions, may bring himself to believe that the freshest sandal wood is a flame of fire." This will effectually prevent me from insisting, that such a God of India was the Jupiter of Greece; such, the Apollo; such, the Mercury: in fact, since all the causes of Polytheism contributed largely to the assemblage of Grecian Divinities (though Bacon reduces them all to refined Allegories, and Newton to a poetical disguise of true History), we find many Joves, many Apollos, many Mercuries, with distinct attributes and capacities; nor shall I presume to suggest more, than that, in one capacity or another, there exists a striking similitude between the chief objects of worship in ancient Greece or Italy, and in the very interesting country which we now inhabit. GANESA. Sir W. Jones gives the follow- lemnity by the Consuls inaugurated in his ing account of this Deity. Having no system of my own to maintain, I shall not pursue a very regular method, but shall take all the Gods of whom I discourse, as they happen to pre. sent themselves; beginning, however, like the Romans and the Hindoos, with JANUS OF GANESA. The titles and attributes of this old Italian Deity are fully comprised in two Choriambic Verses of Sulpitius; and a farther account of him from Ovid would here be superfluous: Jane pater, Jane tuens, dive biceps, biformis, O cate rerum sator, O principium deorum! "Father Janus, all-beholding Janus, thou divinity with two heads, and with two forms; O sagacious planter of all things, and leader of deities!" He was the God, we see, of Wisdom; whence he is represented on coins with two, and, on the Hetruscan Image found at Falisci, with four faces; emblems of prudence and circumspection. Thus is Ganesa, the God of Wisdom in Hindoostan, painted with an Elephant's Head, the symbol of sagacious discernment, and attended by a favourite Rat, which the Indians consider as a wise and provident animal. His next great character (the plentiful source of many superstitious usages) was that, from which he is emphatically styled "the Father," and which the second verse before cited more fully expresses, 66 The origin and founder of all things." Whence this notion arose, unless from a tradition that he first built shrines, raised altars, and instituted sacrifices, it is not easy to conjecture: hence it came, however, that his name was invoked before any other God-that, in the old sacred rites, corn and wine, and, in later times, incense also, were first offered to Janus-that the doors or entrances to private houses were called Januæ; and any pervious passage or throroughfare, in the plural number, Jani, or" with two beginnings"-that he was represented holding a rod as guardian of ways; and a key, as opening, not gates only, but all important works and affairs of mankind-that he was thought to preside over the morning or beginning of day-that, although the Roman Year began regularly with March, yet the eleventh month, named Januarius, was considered as first of the twelve: whence the whole year was supposed to be under his guidance, and opened with great so fane, where his statue was decorated on that occasion with fresh laurel; and, for the same reason, a solemn denunciation of war, than which there can hardly be a more momentous national act, was made by the Military Consul's opening the gates of his temple with all the pomp of his magistracy. The twelve altars and the twelve chapels of Janus might either denote, according to the general opinion, that he leads and governs twelve months; or that, as he says of himself in Ovid, all entrance and access must be made through him to the principal Gods, who were, to a proverb, of the same number. We may add, that Janus was imagined to preside over infants at their birth, or the beginning of life. The Indian Divinity has precisely the . same character. All sacrifices and religious ceremonies, all addresses even to superior Gods, all serious compositions in writing, and all worldly affairs of moment, are begun with an invocation of GANESA ; a word composed of isa, the Governor or Leader, and gana, or a Company of Deities. Instances of opening business auspiciously by an ejaculation to the Janus of India (if the lines of resemblance bere traced will-justify me in so calling him) might be multiplied with ease. Few books are begun without the words "Salutation to Ganes;" and he is first invoked by the Brahmins, who conduct the trial by ordeal, or perform the ceremony of the" homa" or sacrifice to fire. Mons. Sonnerat represents him as highly revered on the Coast of Coromandel; "where the Indians," he says, "would not, on any account, build a house, without having placed on the ground an image of this deity, which they sprinkle with oil, and adorn every day with flowers. They set up his figure in all their temples, in the streets, in the high roads, and in open plains at the foot of some tree: so that persons of all ranks may invoke him, before they undertake any business; and travellers worship him, before they proceed on their journey." To this I may add, from my own observation, that, in the commodious and useful town which now rises at Dharmaranya or Gaya, under the auspices of the active and benevolent Thomas Law, Esq. Collector of Rotas, every new-built house, agreeably to an immemorial usage of the Hindoos, has the name of Ganesa superscribed on its door; and, in the Old Town, his image is placed over the gates of the temples. We quote a further account of Ganesa from M. Sonnerat (Voyage aux Indes Orientales, tome I. pp. 181, 182.) who speaks of him under the name of Pollear, by which appellation he is known in the Carnatic. Siva had four sons, the first and greatest of whom was Pollear. It is he who présides over marriages. If the Natives do not invoke him before they enter on any business, they believe that he will deprive them of all recollection of what they are about, and frustrate their labour. He is represented with the head of an elephant, and mounted on a rat: but, in the pagodas, he is placed on a pedestal, with his legs nearly crossed, and his rat set before the door. The Indians, in their adoration of this God, cross their arms, close their fists, and in this manner strike themselves on their temples: then, still with their arms crossed, they take hold of their ears, and make three inclinations in bending the knee; after which, with the hands joined, they address to him their prayers, striking on their foreheads. Mr. Moor, in his "Hindoo Pantheon," says of Ganesa He is the Hindoo God of Prudence and Policy. He is the reputed eldest son of Siva and Parvati; and is represented with an elephant's head, an emblem of sagacity; and is frequently attended by a rat, sometimes riding on one, the conduct of that animal being esteemed by the Hindoos as peculiarly marked by wisdom and foresight. He has generally four hands; but sometimes six, or eight, or only two. He is invoked by a Hindoo, I believe of all sects, in the outset of any business. If he build a house, an image of Ganesa is previously propitiated, and set up on or near the spot. If he write a book, Ganesa is saluted at its commencement, as he is also at the top of a Letter. Be. ginning a journey, Ganesa is implored to protect him; and for the accommodation of travellers, his image is occasionally seen on the road-side, especially where two roads cross; but sometimes it is little else than a stone, rudely chiselled into something like an elephant's head, with oil and red ochre daubed over it, decorated, perhaps, with a chaplet of flowers It is by some neighbour or traveller. common to see a figure of the God of Prudence in or over bankers' and other shops; and, upon the whole, there is perhaps no Deity in the Hindoo Pantheon so often seen and addressed. There are five* grand divisions of Hindoos who exclusively worship a single divinity: one of these divinities is Ganesa; and the sectaries who thus worship him are called Ganapatyas. Ganapati is the name commonly given to this deity on the western side of India. On one reputed character of Ganesa, Mr. Ward remarks, in his "View of the Hindoos" Sir W. Jones calls Ganesa the God of Wisdom; and refers, as a proof of it, to his having an elephant's head. I cannot find, however, that this god is considered by any of the Hindoos as properly the God of Wisdom; for though he is said to give knowledge to those who worship him to obtain it, that is what is ascribed also to other gods. The Hiudoos in general, I believe, consider the elephant as a stupid animal; and it is a biting reproof to be called "as stupid as an elephant." Of the worship paid to this Idol, Mr. Ward says No public festivals in honour of Ganesa are held in Bengal. At the full moon, in the month Maghu, some persons make or buy a clay image, and perform the worship of Ganesa; when the officiating Brahmin performs the ceremonies common in the Hindoo Worship, presenting offerings to the Idol. Great numbers, especially from the western and southern provinces, celebrate the worship of Ganesa on the 4th of the new moon in Bhadru, when several individuals in each place subscribe and defray the expense. Many persons keep in their houses a small metal image of Ganesa, and worship it daily. At other times, a burnt-offering of clarified butter is presented to this Idol. Stone images of Ganesa are worshipped daily in the temples by the sides of the Ganges at Benares; but I cannot find that there are any temples dedicated to him in Bengal. Legendary Tales abound among the Hindoos, by which they pretend to account for the different circumstances and attributes of their Gods. We shall extract some which relate to Ganesa, that our Readers by what absurd stories the benighted may see . These Five Sects are-1. The Saivas, who worship Siva; 2. The Vaishnavas, who worship Vishnoo; 3. The Suras, who worship Surya, or the Sun; 4. The Ganapatyas, who worship Ganesa; and, 5. The Sactas, who worship Bavani, |