Indian wisdom

Front matter

Glass Book

OR

EXAMPLES

Preface

v to exist as one of the principal religions of the Non- Christian world \

It cannot indeed be right, nor is it even possible for educated Englishmen to remain any longer ignorant of the literary productions, laws, institutions, religious creed, and moral precepts of their Hindu fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, The East and West are every day being drawn nearer to each other, and British India, in particular, is now brought so close to us by steam, electricity, and the Suez Canal, that the condition of the Hindu community — mental, moral, and physical — forces itself peremptorily on our attention. Nor is it any longer justifiable to plead the difficulty of obtaining accurate official information as an excuse for ignorance. Our Government has for a long period addressed itself most energetically to the investigation of every detail capable of throwing light on the past and present history of the Queen's Indian dominions.

A Literary survey of the whole of India has been recently organized for the purpose of ascertaining what Sanskrit MSS., worthy of preservation, exist in public and

1 See the caution, last line of p. xxxi, and p. 2. Although European nations have changed their religions during the past eighteen centuries, the Hindus have not done so, except very partially. Islam converted a certain number by force of arms in the eighth and following centuries, and Christian truth is at last creeping onwards and winning its way by its own inherent energy in the nineteenth ; but the religious creeds, rites, customs, and habits of thought of the Hindus generally have altered little since the days of Manu, five hundred years B. c. Of course they have experienced accretions, but many of the same caste observances and rules of conduct (acara, vyavahara, see p. 217) are still in force ; some of the same laws of inheritance (daya, p. 270) hold good; even a beggar will sometimes ask for alms in words prescribed by the ancient lawgiver (bhikshcim dehi, Manu II. 49, Kulluka) ; and to this day, if a pupil absents himself from an Indian college, he sometimes excuses himself by saying that he has a prayas-citta to perform (see p. 278, and Triibner's Eeport of Professor Stenzler's Speech at the London Oriental Congress), vi

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private libraries. Competent scholars Lave been appointed to the task, and the result - of their labours, so far as they have hitherto extended, has been published.

Simultaneously, an Archaeological survey has been ably conducted under the superintendance of Major-General A. Cunningham, and we have most interesting results published and distributed by the Indian Governments in the shape of four large volumes, filled with illustrations, the last issued being the Eeport for the year 1871-72.

An Ethnological survey has also been set on foot in Bengal, and a magnificent volume with portraits from photographs of numerous aboriginal tribes, called Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, by Colonel Dalton, was published at Calcutta in 1872. This was preceded by a valuable guide to the Ethnology of India, written by Sir George Campbell.

Even an Industrial survey has been partially carried out under the able direction of Dr. Forbes Watson, who proposes that a new Museum and Indian Institute shall be built and attached to the India Office.

Moreover, Sir George Campbell caused to be prepared, printed, and published, during his recent administration in Bengal, comparative tables of specimens of all the languages of India — Aryan, Dravidian, and aboriginal — the practical benefit of which requires no demonstration on my part.

But there are other official publications still more accessible to every Englishman who will take the trouble of applying to the proper authorities.

Those. whose horizon of Eastern knowledge has hitherto been hopelessly clouded, so as to shut out every country beyond the Holy Land, have now a clear prospect opened out towards India. They have only to study the Eeport of the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India during 1872-73, published by the India Office, and edited by Mr. C. R. Markham. At the risk of being thought impertinent, I must crave permission to

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Vll record here an opinion that this last mentioned work is worthy of a better fate than to be wrapped in a blue cover, as if it were a mere official statement of dry facts and statistics. Its pages are full of valuable information on every subject connected with our Eastern Empire — even including missionary progress — and the carefully drawn maps with which it is illustrated are a highly instructive study in themselves, The revelation the Eeport makes of what is being done and what remains to be done, may well humble as well as cheer every thoughtful person. But emanating as the volume does from the highest official authority, it is in itself an evidence of great advance in our knowledge of India's needs, and in our endeavours to meet them, as well as an earnest of our future efforts for the good of its inhabitants.

The same must be said of Sir George Campbell's exhaustive Report on his own administration of Bengal during 1872-73. This forms a thick 8vo volume of about nine hundred pages, and affords a mine of interesting and valuable information 1 .

Most significant, too, of an increasing interchange of Oriental and Occidental ideas and knowledge is the circumstance that almost every number of the Times newspaper contains able articles and interesting communications from its correspondents on Indian affairs, or records some result of the intellectual stir and ferment now spreading,

1 Another very instructive publication, though of quite a different stamp from the official documents mentioned above, is M. Garcin de Tassy's Annual Review (Revue Annuelle) of the literary condition of India, which is every year kindly presented to me, and to many other scholars, by that eminent Orientalist. It is delivered annually in the form of a discourse at the opening of his Hindustani lectures. Though it deals more particularly with the development of Urdu and other linguistic studies, it gives a complete and reliable account of the intellectual and social movements now going on, and of the progress made in all branches of education and knowledge.

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as it has never done before, from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya mountains.

Another noteworthy indication of growing inter-community of thought between the East and West is the fact that every principal periodical of the day finds itself compelled to take increasing account of the sayings and doings — wise or unwise — of young Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. Our attention is continually drawn by one or another publication to the proceedings of native religious societies — such as the Brahma-samaj, Sanatana-dharmasamaj, Dharma-sabha, &c. 1 — or to the transactions of literary and scientific clubs and institutions ; while not unfrequently we are presented with extracts from vernacular journals 2 , or from the speeches of high-minded Hindus, who occasionally traverse India, not as Christian missionaries, but seeking, in a spirit worthy of Christianity itself, to purify the Hindu creed and elevate the tone of Indian thought and feeling. All this is a sure criterion of the warm interest in Oriental matters now taking possession of the public mind in Western countries.

But still more noteworthy as an evidence of increasing personal intercourse between England and India is the presence of Hindus and Muslims amongst us here. Many of the more intelligent and enlightened natives, breaking through the prejudices of caste and tradition that have

1 There appear to be two sections of the Brahma-samaj or Theistic society established in India. One clings to the Veda and seeks to restore Hinduism to the pure monotheism believed to underlie the Yeda. These theists are followers of the late Rammohun Roy. The other society rejects the Veda and advocates an independent and purer theism. Its present leader is Keshab (Sandra Sen.

2 The increase in the number of journals and newspapers in the vernacular languages, conducted with much ability and intelligence by native editors, is remarkable. An Urdu and Hindi paper called Mawgala-samdccira-patra, printed and published at Besvan, by Thakur Guru Prasad Sinh, is, through his kindness, regularly transmitted to me.

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ix hitherto chained them as prisoners to their own soil, now visit our shores and frequent our Universities to study us, our institutions, laws, and literature. Some of them, too, have already received a thorough English education at Indian colleges. It is even asserted that they sometimes come amongst us knowing our language, our history, and our standard authors better than we know them ourselves. Be this as it may, thus much, at least, is clear that Englishmen and Hindus are at length holding out the right hand of fellowship to each other, and awaking to the consciousness that the duty of studying the past and present state — intellectual, moral, and physical — of their respective countries can no longer be evaded by educated men, whether in the East or in the West.

In truth, it cannot be too forcibly impressed upon our minds that good laws may be enacted, justice administered, the rights of property secured, railroads and electric telegraphs laid down, the stupendous forces of Nature controlled and regulated for the public good, the three great scourges of war, pestilence, and famine averted or mitigated — all this may be done — and more than this, the truths of our religion may be powerfully preached, translations of the Bible lavishly distributed ; but if, after all, we neglect to study the mind and character of those we are seeking to govern and influence for good, no mutual confidence will be enjoyed, no real sympathy felt or inspired. Imbued with the conciliatory spirit which such a study must impart, all Englishmen — whether resident in England or India, whether clergymen or laymen — may aid the cause of Christianity and good government, more than by controversial discussions or cold donations of guineas and rupees. Let us not forget that this great Eastern empire has been entrusted to our rule, not to be the Corpus vile of political and social experiments, nor yet for the purpose of extending our commerce, flattering s

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our pride, or increasing our prestige, but that a vast population may be conciliated, benefited, and elevated, and the regenerating influences of Christianity spread through the length and breadth of the land. How, then, have we executed our mission % Much is now being done ; but the results effected are mainly due to the growth of a more cordial feeling, and a better understanding between Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and Musalmans. And these good results may be expected to increase if the true character of the three principal systems of religion opposed to Christianity, and now existing in India, British Burmah, and Ceylon, are fairly tested by an impartial examination of the written documents held sacred by each ; if the points of contact between Christianity, Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Islam become better appreciated, and Christians while loyally devoting themselves — heart and soul, body and mind — to the extension of the one true faith, are led to search more candidly for the fragments of truth, lying buried under superstition and error,

Be it remembered, then, that Sanskrit literature, — bound up as it has ever been with all that is sacred in the religion and institutions of India, — is the source of all trustworthy knowledge of the Hindus ; and to this literature Englishmen must turn, if they wish to understand the character and mind of nearly two hundred millions (or about five-sixths) of India's population (see pp. xvi-xx of Introduction) .

Some departments of Sanskrit literature have been fully described of late years by various competent and trustworthy scholars. Good translations, too, of isolated works, and excellent metrical versions of the more choice poems have from time to time been published in Europe, or are scattered about in Magazines, He views, and ephemeral publications. But there has never hitherto, so far as I know, existed any one work of moderate dimensions like the present — accessible to general readers — composed

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xi by any one Sanskrit scholar with the direct aim of giving Englishmen who are not necessarily Sanskritists, a continuous sketch of the chief departments of Sanskrit literature, Yedic and Post-vedic, with accompanying translations of select passages, to serve as examples for comparison with the literary productions of other countries K

The plan pursued by me in my endeavour to execute

a novel and difficult task in a manner likelv to be useful to

Oriental students, yet intelligible to general readers, and especially to those men of cultured minds who, not being Orientalists, are desirous of accurate information on subjects they can no longer ignore, will be sufficiently evident from a perusal of the lectures themselves, and their appended notes. To avoid misapprehension and exaggerated ideas of my scope and aim, as well as to understand the extent of my obligations to other scholars, let the reader turn to pp. 1-4 with notes, p. 15, note 2. I will merely add to what is there stated, that as Vedic literature has been already so ably elucidated by numerous scholars in Europe, and by Professor W. D. Whitney and others in America, I have treated this part of the subject as briefly as possible. Moreover, my survey of so vast and intricate a field of inquiry as Indian philosophy, is necessarily a mere sketch. In common with other European scholars, I am greatly indebted to Dr. Fitz-Edward Hall for his contributions to this and other departments of Sanskrit literature, and especially for his translation of Nehemiah Nilakantha's 'Rational Refutation of the Hindu Philosophical Systems.'

I should state that, although the present volume is intended to be complete in itself, I have been compelled to reserve some of the later portion of the literature for fuller treatment in a subsequent series of lectures.

1 Great praise is, however, due to Mrs. Manning's valuable compilation called ' Ancient and Mediaeval India,' published by W. H. Allen and Co.

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PKEFACE..

It is possible that some English readers may have given so little attention to Indian subjects, that further preliminary explanations may be needed by them before commencing the perusal of the following pages. For their benefit I have written an Introduction, which I hope will clear the ground sufficiently for all.

Let me now discharge the grateful duty of tendering my respectful thanks to the Governments of India for the patronage and support they have again accorded to my labours. Let me also acknowledge the debt I owe to two eminent Sanskritists — Dr. John Muir of Edinburgh, and Professor E. B. Cowell of Cambridge — for their kindness in reading the proof-sheets of the present series of lectures. These scholars must not, however, be held responsible for any novel theories propounded by me. In many cases I have modified my statements in accordance with their suggestions, yet in some instances, in order to preserve the individuality of my own researches, I have preferred to take an independent line of my own. Learned Orientalists in Europe and India who are able adequately to appreciate the difficulty of the task I have attempted will look on my errors with a lenient eye. As I shall welcome their criticisms with gratitude, so I shall also hope for their encouragement ; for, often as I have advanced in my investigations, and have found an apparently interminable horizon opening out before me, I have felt like a foolhardy man seeking to cross an impassable ocean in a fragile coracle, and so have applied to myself the well-known words of the great Sanskrit poet : —

Oxford, May 1875.

M. W.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction xv

Sketch of the past and present condition of India . . xvi