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August 18,1856.] THE LEABEE, TOT
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BARBARIC PEARLS. Bhagavad-GUa ; or, the ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Adventures In The Province Of Assam. Tra...
minister would become the head of the clan , and consequently that from which the Sajahswould be selected ; but there can be little fear of any such contingency ^ , « . the peSon of the Rajah is held to be sacred . For instance , should two clans' go ^ war , Srmferior members on both side * might be kUled , but no , one would think of kJhng eitheVBajah . After the death of a Bajah his body ib kept in thia state ( smokedried ^ for two months before burial , in order that his family and clan may still have SeiatSfaSon of having him before them . He is then * at «^ ^ tt . gW *««« J cows and pigs being killed to feast the whole clan , and pieces of theur flesh sent to distant viUage * . The heads of the animals killed at Ms burial are placed on large piste ot 3 over his grave . His son , however young , is then elected Rajah , and looked up to with an almost superstitious respect .
August 18,1856.] The Leabee, Tot
August 18 , 1856 . ] THE LEABEE , TOT
Barbaric Pearls. Bhagavad-Gua ; Or, The ...
BARBARIC PEARLS . Bhagavad-GUa ; or , the Scared Lay . A New Edition of the Sanskrit . Text ; with a Vocabulaiy . By J . Cockbum Thomson . Hertford : Stephen Austin . The Bhagavad-Gitd . Translated , with Copious Notes , an Introduction on Sanskrit Philosophy , and other matter , by J . Cockbum Thomson . ^ ^^ ^^ The Private Life of an Eastern King . By a Member of the Household of h * late Majesty , Nussir-u-Deen , King of Oude . Hope and Co . Journal of a Tour in the Principalities , Crimea , and Countries Adjacent to the Bloc * Sea , in the Years 1835-36 . By Lord De Ros . . ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ Histoby and tradition are equally silent on the subject of the aboriginal tribes of India . Nothing is known , and very little even conjectured , regarding the ages antecedent to the irruption of the Aryans , or Hindoos , " a race of simple cowherds , who entered the Peninsula at the north-west corner , and Ion " dwelt on the banks of the Scinde ere they penetrated into the interior " ° So complete was the work of conquest , that the conquered were reduced to a state worse even than slavery . They were enrolled , without distinction , into a fourth , or lowest caste—the Shudras-and treated as beings of a lower order than human . The three other castes were the Brahmans , or priests ; the Kshatriyas , or warriors ; and the Vaishyas , or artisans ; who were all in some measure united by the common " pr . vilege of investiture with the Brahmanical thread at years of maturity . " Alone possessed of any pretensions to learning , the priesthood asserted their supremacy by declaring the murder of a Brahman to be a crime inexpiable , either fn the present life or in that to come . The warrior caste m like manner affirmed their superiority over the artisans , and after a time a divine origin was claimed for this absolute hierarchy , this arrogant nobility . But although the character of the native race was effaced by that of the more hardy invaders , the latter , in their turn , were subdued by the enervating influence of the climate . Mind and body being equally unemployed , both priest and warriors conceived a disgust for life , and founcT . t " necessary to seek consolation in a hidden and uncertain future . " Hence arose a system of philosophy based on the doctrine of metempsychosis , or the transmigration of souls . Polytheism and hero-worship , white they exalted men unto gods had reduced the gods to the level of men . At the same time the life of the jungle and the love of the chase" had taught the Indian to descry human attributes in many of the inferior animals : — Thus gods , animals , and even elements aud natural phenomena , were so to speak , humanised ; while , on the other hand , men and beasts were deified ; and hence the r ecognition of like souls in all three classes of beings . But the likeness of these souls to on ? another would immediately give rise to the idea that the same souTJ passed through certain grades of bodies , from animals to man , from man to gods . This idea onceimplanted , the belief in the eternity of the soul would immediately ensue , since U wouUuTsecn that in passing from one body to another the body , t quitted died , whereas the soul died not ; and this idea would be repeated to infinity llie eternity of th ^ Tou once esta blished , a certain number of individual souls would be suppose to exist , and to have existed , from the creation of matter which they occupy , anc Sus a common origin would have been easily asserted for them . This common ongu was Smrit which was later only identified with the Supreme Being ; and since th < Sdtvfdua eouhEmanated from it , they must also , at the dissolution of matter be reabsorbed into it . It therefore exists , and continues to exist and keeps up its connexion to a certain degree with the soul » which have emanated from it The creat problem of life , then , was to accelerate the process of rcabsorptioi by the Squisition of knowledge . Having passed from reptile to boast Iron beast to man , from man to inferior deity , and thence to superior deity , the soul attained the utmost limit of material bodies ; but the final cmancipation from matter could only be effected by perfect knowledge , the resuli Ot l £ rvhiTes \ t abli 3 hed the existence of the soul , the Aryan philosophers de duccd the existence of spirit . And in like manner having acknowledgec « the individual existence and connexion of material bodies , ' they interrec I the existence of a material essence . But then arose the question of the obi ject and reason of an arbitrary existence which few would accept had thej the option of refusing it . This inquiry Kopila undertook to answer b Kivinc to the material essence the will and power to decree the cmanatioi and Feabsorption of all matter . The material essence thus became , unde the name of Prakrit ! or Nature , " the plastic principle , and to a certau decree , the deity of his system . " Many of his followers , however , denie < the volition of mutter , and conceded it nlonc to the spiritual essence . A nev school was thus formed which found adherents among the vast majority o mankind whose timid intellect demands some palpable object of worship . It was the will of the Supremo that he himself should undergo this « lovcjopmon into individual soul and organic ! matter . It was his will that evil should ex j beside good , which alone existed in him ; and that the soul , placed ... a body tl . lowest in 110 Hcale , should gradually ascend till it reached that of man . lo jna alone was the choice between good aud evil granted , to him alone ™ » t gawMD t effect his emancipation from material life , by thoBa . no means which kapila had s « forward-perfection through knowledge ; or by the neglect of this mean , ^ tc . rise » \ the acalo of material bodies by obedience to the established religion , or to sink b , \ neglect of both . ... . . 1 It being agreed on all hands that perfect knowledge vrna md . snenauble fc
the final emancipation from , matter , it became an object of the highest moment to determine how this knowledge was to be obtained . According to Patanjali , who probably flourished several centuries before the Christian era , —though posterior to the revolution of Buddha—this desirable consummation could be achieved only by the most rigid asceticism , and the loftiest stage of mental abstraction . By these means , he maintained , the soul and even the mind would become invested with transcendental powers that would gradually effect the reabsorption into the universal spiritual essence . But a doctrine so seductive to the indolent and naturally contemplative Hindoo was fraught with great social dangers , for the counteraction of which a wise , sensible , and ingenious Brahman composed the sacred poem entitled Ehagavad-Gita . The object of the sacred Lay was to ladd the ethical element to the speculative and theological systems that then prevailed . It was the work of a Brahman , a philosopher , and a poet , united in one man . With unparalleled skill its author converted the very doctrines—which , originating with Patanjali , had seduced thousands from the active duties of the city , or the provinces , to the mo ' nastic seclusion of the jungle—to a means of recalling them to those duties , of setting a limit to the fanaticism and ambition of the nobility , of establishing the necessitv of restrictions of caste even under the most difficult circumstances , and of infusing into the hearts of all , a religious , a philosophic , and in some respects almost a Christian morality . This poem the most remarkable work belonging to the ancient literature of the Hindoos , has been ably translated and explained by Mr . Cockburn Thomson , whose intimate knowledge of his subject has enabled him to compress into a brief treatise the history of Sanskrit philosophy , and todlustrate in a particularly clear and lucid manner the distinctive tenets of the different SCh S contrast between the ascetic Hindoo and the sensual Mussulmaun strikes the most casual observer on his first arrival m the country And the more familiar he becomes with the habits and manners of the two peoples , the greater will be his commiseration for the conquered , and his Contempt for the conquering race . In the kingdom of Oude , for instance , he will observe the most gross debauchery practised by the court , the most abject servility among thl lower orders , and the J ^ V » " ^ P £ ?^ all classes . The anonymous author of the Private Life of ™ Jj % * r ** j *? —whom we take to have been portrait-pamter to his late Majesty Nmwrood-deen , of detestable memory-has drawn aside the thin veil that partially concealed from the public gaze the scenes of riotous excess daily enacted in the roval palace at Oude , Ld has furnished a strong argument to those who insist upo n the necessity of annexing that unhappy country . The king aocears to have been in a constant state of transition from one stage of fffietv to the next ; his two chief characteristics being drunkenness and cruel ^ In the one ' he was heartily joined by the retched European parasites who attach themselves to every native Court , and in ^ the other he was seldom checked even by a mild Remonstrance rhese creatures the author is pleased to speak of as " courtiers , " of whom * ™ ° fX 7 o 1 ^ Se the Barber , originally cabin-boy in a merchant-ship One day two of these « courtiers " -of whom the author was one—while driving through the streets of Lucknow , " came upon a trampled bloody mass bearing still ome resenTbknceT ; a human figure . " It was thecorpse of a to j ^ w tom they supposed to have been made " an example of by the king ' s orders , butrwhff Englishman ever cared for p rince or potentate when a jroman s wrongs were to be redressed ? Let this noble Briton , this Christian gentleman , tell his own tale . Apparently she was quite dead ; and we did not delay . A courtier . " ^ J ^ mte' - ; S ^ ed -we wert ^ ta ^ httnviction that the execution was by the king ' s orders . . : On another occasion , in a combat between a tiger and a hone , the latter I broke the jaw of his terrible foe , and came off proudly triumphant . 1 « Let another tiger be set at him I" shouted the king to the natives , after he had ¦ = fSSB- ~ Hs ™ iSSFSlS " most just , bowed , and awaited further sport . Faunrh ! But we will not insult our readers by delaying them amid the 1 , ii , ! ! si scenes so ilippantly described by this accomplished courtier , of 1 wSit g is sufficient to say that he xemained upwards of three years in 1 atSance ' ona " rch wno , in the words of the Calcutta Re ^ more i . than perpetuated the worst practices of his predecessors . ,,,. » . EnJSS i » every species of debauchery , and surrounded by wretches , Engh * , r It is quite refreshing to turn from the vulgarity and unredeemed'coarsei S ? S 2 ffi = S £ H ? S ^ 3 S ' jealousy , it seems , had arisen u > this country , in the jcars 1834 ami > with regard to the warlike preparations then being , ^ £ c ^ c Govem'J Black Sea , as if with some We designs against tl c 1-oite U ^^ * ment , therefore , despatched Lord de Ros and ^ T \ viri " justified by any J tain , by personal inspection , how far these rumoui . a were J t I appearance of unusual activity in ^/^ Ss ^ mKton is Sot very clearly , t the shores of the Euxine . The result of th i ""^™ eftdv facility afforded n discernible from his lordship ' s narrative but , from ^ jZy bo inferred that y by the Russians for the furtherance of the ! | ^ J Ml £ n agreoable view the two British officers were more deo r > ^ J ^ of Muscovite aggression . , r of Muscovite hospitality than alarmed by any * cai
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 18, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18081855/page/17/
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