On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    minister would become the head of the clan , and consequently- that from which the Rajahs would be selected ; but there can be little fear of any such contingency , as the person of the Rajah is held to be sacred . For instance , should two clans go to war , the inferior members on both sides might be killed , but no one would think of killing either Rajah . .... After the death of a Rajah his body ia kept in this state ( smokedried ) for two months before burial , in order that his family and clan may still have the satisfaction of having him before them . He is then interred with grand honours , cows and pigs being killed to feast the whole clan , and pieces of their flesh sent to distant villages . The heads of the animals killed at his burial are placed on large posts of wood over his grave . His son , however young , is then elected Rajah , and looked up to with an almost superstitious respect .

    Untitled Article

    BARBARIC PEARLS . Bhagavad-Gita ; or , the Sacred Lay . A New Edition of the Sanskrit Text ; with a Vocabulary . By J . Cockburn Thomson . Hertford : Stephen Austin . The Bhagavad-Gita . Translated , with Copious Notes , an Introduction on Sanskrit Philosophy , and other matter , by J . Cockburn Thomson . Hertford : Stephen Austin . The Private Life of an Eastern King . By a Member of the Household of his late Majesty , Nussir-u-Deen , King of Oude . Hope and Co . Journal of a Tour in the Principalities , Crimea , and Countries Adjacent to the Black Sea , in the Years 1835-36 . By Lord De Ros . John W . Parker and Son . 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 long 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 " privilege

    of investiture with the Brahmamcal 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 in the present life or in that to come . The warrior caste in 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 priests and warriors conceived a disgust for life , and found"it " necessary to seek consolation in a hidden and uncertain futm-e . " Hence arose a system of philosophy based on the doctrine of metempsychosis , or the transmigration of souls . Polytheism and hero-worship , while 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 and natural phenomena , were , so to speak , humanised ; while , on the other hand , men and beasts were deified ; and hence the recognition of like souls in all three classes of beings . But the likeness of these souls to one another would immediately give rise to the idea that the same soul ? passed through certain grades of bodies , from animals to man , from man to gods . This idea once implanted , the belief in the eternity of the soul would immediately ensue , since it would be seen that in passing from one body to another , the body it quitted died , whereas the soul died not , and this idea would be repeated to infinity . The eternity of the soul once established , a certain number of individual souls would be supposed to exist , and to have existed , from the creation of matter which they occupy , and thus a common origin would have been easily asserted for them . This common origin was Spirit , which was later only identified with the Supreme Being ; and since the individual souls emanated 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 souls which have emanated from it .

    The great problem of life , then , was to accelerate the process of rcabsorption by the acquisition of knowledge . Having passed from reptile to beast , from 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 emancipation from matter could only be effected by perfect knowledge , the result of con tc in pi ati on . Having established the existence of the soul , the Aryan philosophers deduced the existence of spirit . And in like manner having acknowledged " the individual existence and connexion of material bodies , " they inferred

    the existence of a material essence . But then arose the question of the object and reason of an arbitrary existence which few would accept had they the option of refusing it . This inquiry Kapila undertook to answer by giving to the material essence the will and power to decree the euiunation and reabsorption of all matter . The material essence thus became , under the name of Prakrit ! or Nature , " the plastic principle , and to a certain degree , tho deity of his 6 ystem . " Many of his followers , however , denied the volition of matter , and conceded it nlone to the spiritual essence . A new school was thus formed which found adherents among tho vast majority of mankind whose timid intellect demands some palpable object of worship .

    It was the will of tho Supremo that he himself should undergo this development into individual soul and organtaed matter . It was his will that evil should exist beside good , which alone existed in aim ; and that tho soul , placed in a body tho lowest in the Hcale , should gradually ascend till it reached that of man . To man alone was tho choice between good aud evil grunted , to him alone was it possible to effect hia emancipation from mutcriul life , by tho same means which Kapila had set forward—perfection through knowledge ; or by tho neglect of thia means , to riao in the scale of material bodies by obedience to tho established religion , or to sink by neglect of both . It being agreed on all hands that perfect knowledge was indispensable for

    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 nourished 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 . B y 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 Bhagavad-Gttd . The object of the sacred Lay was to fcdd 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 monastic 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 necessity 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 to illustrate in a particularly clear and lucid manner the distinctive tenets of the different schools .

    The contrast between the ascetic Hindoo and the sensual Mussulmaun strikes the most casual observer on his first arrival in 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 niost gross debauchery practised by the court , the most abject servility among the lower orders , and the vilest corruption pervading all classes . The anonymous author of the Private Life of an Eastern King •—whom we take to have been portrait-painter to his late Majesty Uussirood-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 royal palace at Oude , and has furnished a strong argument to those who insist upon the necessity of annexing that unhappy country . The king from of

    appears to have been in a constant state of transition one stage inebriety to the next ; his two chief characteristics being drunkenness and cruelty . In the one he was heartily joined by the wretched European parasites who attach themselves to every native Court , and in the other he was seldom checked even by a mild remonstrance . These creatures the author is pleased to speak of as " courtiers , " of whom the most powerful was 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 some resemblance to a human figure . " It was the corpse of a female , whom they supposed to have been made " an example" of by the king ' s orders : but what Englishman ever cared for prince or potentate when a woman ' 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 must not interfere with the vengeance of a king ; so that , even had we seen signs of life , I candidly confess I do not think , we should have descended from the vehicle to succour her , impressed as we were with the conviction that the execution was by the king's

    orders . On another occasion , in a combat between a tiger and a horse , the latter broke the jaw of his terrible foe , and came off proudly triumphant . " Let another tiger be set at him 1 " shouted the king to the natives , after he had watched him for a moment or two . " Damn him ; I will have my revenge for his destroying Burrhea . " The latter observation was addressed to us , the attendant European courtiers , and was in English . We rubbed our hands , smiled , said it was most just , bowed , and awaited further sport . Fau"h ! But we will not insult our readers by delaying them amid the disgusting scenes so ilippantly described b y this accomplished courtier , of whom it ° is sufficient to say that he . xemained upwards of three years in attendance on a monarch who , iu the words of the Calcutta Review , " more thnn perpetuated the worst practices of his predecessors . "

    Engaged in every species of debauchery , and surrounded by wretches , English , Eurasian , and Native , of the lowest description , his whole reign was one continued satire upon the subsidiary and protected system . Bred in a palace , nurtured by women and eunuchs , he added tho natural fruits of a vicious education to » those resulting from his protected position . His Majesty might one hour be seen in a state of drunken nudity with his boon companions ; at another he would parade the streets of Lucknow , driving one of his own elephants . In hia time all decency , all propriety , was banished from the Court . Such more than once was his conduct , that Colonel Lowe , the Resident , refused to see him , or to transact business with hia minions .

    It is quite refreshing to turn from the vulgarity and unredeemed coarseness of the anonymous " courtier , " to the unpretending and inoffensive little volume from the pen of Lord de Ros . If his lordship ' s Diary has no other merit , it possesses in an eminent degree that of brevity . Considerable jealousy , it seems , had arisen ii > this country , in the years 1834 and 193 *> , with regard to the warlike preparations then being made by Russia in tuo Black Sea , as if with some hostile designs against the Porte . I he trovernment , therefore , despatched Lord de Ros anu Captain Drinkwat or jo ascwtain , bv nersonal inspection , how far these rumours were just . iieaoy any

    appearance of unusual activity in the fortresses , ports , *™*™ Z ™ £££ the shores of the Euxine . Tho result of tins mission is not vw , ' « J « gg discernible from his lordship ' s narrative , but , from ^ f . ^ K ^^ fiJ by the Humans for the furtherance of their object , " ^ " ^ n aVrec ^ ble vie ^ tho two British oflicers were more deeply luipro ^ sed with an agiecable vievr of Muscovite hospitality than alnrmod by any tears of Muscovite aggression .

    Untitled Article

    August 18 , 1855 . ] THE L 1 ADEE . 797

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 18, 1855, page 797, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2102/page/17/