[1] The title of it is: Viaggio alle Indie Orientali, umiliato alla Santità di N. S. Papa Pio Sesto, Pontefice Massimo, da Fra Paolino da S. Bartolomeo, Carmelitano Scalzo. Roma presso Antonio Fulgoni. L’anno 1796.
[2] Sidharùbam, seu Grammatica Samscredamica. Romæ, 1790.—He is the author also of the following works: Systema Brahmanicum; and, India Orientalis Christiana, continens fundationes ecclesiarum, seriem episcoporum, missiones, schismata, persecutiones, viros illustres. Romæ, 1794.
[3] Pondichery—Respecting the author’s orthography of names I have said a few words in the preface, to which the reader is referred. F.
[4] The passage, from England or France, to India is commonly reckoned to be six months; but it depends upon circumstances whether the voyage will be longer or shorter, and particularly on the season of the year and the situation of the place to which the ship is bound. As the monsoons, or mussongs, change every half year in the Indian seas, vessels bound to a certain place must often take a long circuitous course in order to fall in with the wind proper for conducting them to it. The change of the monsoons is always attended with violent storms, by which ships in the open sea often sustain great damage. The passage to India must, of course, be often prolonged. I, however, know instances of ships going thither from Europe in five months. F.
[5] In the original there is here an error, either of the author or of the press; for throughout the whole work this coast is always called afterwards Ciòlamandala (Tscholamandala). F.
[6] The southern extremity of India is, in all the European maps, called Cape Comorin; the author, however, gives it the proper Indian name, Comari. F.
[7] The eastern part is, without doubt, called the land of millet, because the Indians cultivate, in their fields, various kinds of that grain, such as the Holcus Sorghum, Holcus Durra, &c. F.
[8] When Bougainville returned from his voyage round the world, some conceited Parisian ladies asked him how the Chinese women were dressed. On his replying that he had never been in that country, they were much astonished, and could not comprehend how it was possible to sail round the globe without being in China. Questions have been asked me and my son George, at which we could not help laughing, at least afterwards. F.
[9] On the flat coast of Coromandel there are no harbours; and, for that reason, neither people nor goods can be conveyed on shore from ships, but in these shilingas. This labour is very dangerous even for such small vessels, as the flatness of the coast for so great an extent renders the breakers extremely violent. The English, in all their wars, have lost many of their ships for want of a harbour on the eastern coast; and therefore it is of the utmost importance to them to have possession of the excellent, safe, and spacious harbour of Trinconomale, on the east side of the island of Ceylon. F.
[10] See Sonnerat, Voyages aux Indes, vol. i. p. 1. p. 13. Sonnerat, who was an excellent draftsman, and possessed some knowledge of natural history, came very young to India, and was hotheaded because he conceived himself to be a man of importance on account of these talents.—Law de Lauriston was a descendant or relation of Law who made himself known by his speculations under the regency of the Duke of Orleans. F.
[11] We have here a striking instance of the truth of the observation, that travelling in distant countries, among people of different manners, customs, and religious opinions, tends to inspire men with more liberal sentiments, and to render them more tolerant. F.
[12] The fiction respecting Hayder Aly’s mean extraction, &c. has been long ago refuted. See Sprengel’s Hyder Ali, in the preface, p. 6. F.
[13] The most modern and authentic history of India shews that all the European East India Companies followed the example of the Dutch, and of merchants became warriors. F.
[14] See on this subject Guyon’s Histoire de l’Indostan, vol. iii. p. 220-224, and Recherches hist. et geograph. par Anquetil du Perron, part i. p. 174.—The author here delineates the state of the French trade with strong and ugly colours; but, it cannot be denied, with a considerable degree of truth. F.
[15] These animals are called improperly white ants. The appellation termites, from the Latin systematic name termes, is better. There are various kinds of them, but only in warm countries, which are all equally destructive, and occasion great devaluation, not only in sugar plantations, but also among furniture and clothes in habitations. F.
[16] About 2s. 6d. sterling.
[17] It is certain that the religion of Brahma has not the least similarity to the true Christian religion; it is also of such antiquity that it could not have borrowed any thing from it. Both are essentially different from each other: the principal object of the Christian religion is the moral formation and improvement of man, and it is totally spiritual; the doctrine of Brahma renders the first ideas of religion familiar to the senses by images, and allows to its followers a number of things which Christianity forbids. It cannot, however, be denied, that many of the old doctrines and practices generally adopted, particularly in the East, were received into the Catholic religion; such, for example, as the worshipping of images, solemn processions, monachism, the pretended great sanctity and the different degrees of the clergy, external pomp and magnificence, &c. The idea of the Pagan Indians, therefore, mentioned in the text, is extremely natural. F.
[18] It has been remarked by English travellers, who resided in India, that these falsehoods have been believed and taught by ignorant missionaries. But are there not people, even at Rome, who consider the Indians as Manicheans, and their religion as corrupted Christianity? It may, however, be readily comprehended, that such hypothesis-mongers never saw India, or studied the religion of the Indians. See, on this subject, the Asiatic Researches, printed at Calcutta in 1788, vol. I. p. 127, and Herbelot, Bibl. Orient., p. 203, where such ridiculous assertions are sufficiently refuted. A.
[19] They bear such marks in honour of Brahma, on the forehead; in honour of Vishnu, on the breast; and in honour of Shiva, on the arms. These are the three rulers of the elements—earth, water, and fire. In commemoration of the earth having been created by these three deities, and by means of these three elements, the Indians, in their lustrations, besprinkle themselves with three fingers. They take water also in the hollow of the hand, raise it upwards, and, in honour of the eight superior protecting spirits, sprinkle it towards the eight quarters of the world: they then throw it towards the heavens in honour of the Sun, whom they consider as the supreme divinity. These ablutions, with the marks on the forehead, are called Shudhamayaga; that is, purification, purity. The Bhasma, or colour with which the sacred marks are made, is supposed to represent the earth, from which the whole world, and consequently these colours, were produced. In this respect, however, the systems differ. A.
[20] The latitude is not always accurately determined, even by the moderns. Thus John Hamilton Moore, in his Practical Navigator, places Puduceri, or Pondichery, in 11° 56′ N. lat.; but M. De la Tour places it in 12° N. lat. and 68° of E. lon. De l’Isle and D’Anville also differ from each other in their maps. This difference arises partly from the expertness requisite in determining the latitude by means of a quadrant, partly from the greater or less acuteness of the observer’s eye, and partly from the perfection or imperfection of the astronomical instruments employed. A.
[21] See, on this subject, the second volume of Nieubuhr’s Travels, where the idols in the pagoda on the island of Elephanta are described.
[22] Responsa privatis dat (Apis) e manu consulentium cibum capiendo. Germanici Cæfaris manum aversatus est, haud multo post extincti.
[23] Whether the worship of the Egyptian Apis came from India, or the sacred ox of the Indians was carried from Egypt, cannot, as far as I am able to judge, be determined. The mode of worship in both countries has without doubt a great deal of similarity, though in many things different. The sacred ox of the Indians, for example, remains only three years in life; whereas that of the Egyptians, according to Plutarch, remained twenty-five, after which he was drowned, then embalmed and deposited in a subterranean burying-place destined for that purpose near the village of Abusir, the ancient Busiris, not far from Memphis. The coffin of the Apis ox was found there by Paul Lucas and Wortley Montague, the latter of whom carried away a stone with sculpture on it representing the embalming of Apis. This stone may be seen in the British Museum, to the keepers of which I first explained it. F.
[24] The temple at Cirangam, in the island Ciranga, which lies in the river Colaru, or Colram, and in M. De la Tour’s map is placed in 10° 45′ N. lat. and 76° 45′ E. lon. is a real master-piece of Indian architecture. This temple is surrounded by seven walls, each of a square form, which together inclose the whole edifice. They are entirely constructed of hewn stone; are twenty-five feet in height, and each is 350 feet distant from the other in a parallel direction. Each wall has four gates, and over each gate is a gobura, or high tower, which rests on the middle of the wall, and is at an equal distance from both ends. These gates and towers, which stand exactly opposite to each other, looking towards the four cardinal points, are ornamented with columns thirty-five feet in length, and five in thickness. In the centre of this temple, that is the sanctuary, stands the image of Vishnu, to whom it is dedicated. On the gates, towers, and walls may be seen various figures of men and animals, which all have a symbolical meaning. This temple is at least 2000 years old, and serves to shew how far advanced the ancient Indians were in the arts of architecture and sculpture. The learned Chevalier d’Agincourt at Rome has in his possession a drawing of this magnificent edifice, which was presented to him by M. Law de Lauriston, the governor of Pondichery. As this temple has been already described by English travellers, I shall say nothing further of it at present, than to call the reader’s attention to the mystic number seven, which is signified by the seven inclosures. A.
[25] The Egyptians, however, assert, that their king Sesostris, who lived about the time of Moses, or 1500 years before the birth of Christ, penetrated as far as India; but this is not probable. F.
[26] Cachemir is a beautiful province or lordship conquered by the Moguls. The capital, at the time Bernier was in India, between 1663 and 1668, was known also by the name of Cachemir; but at present it is called, as well as the whole province, Siri-Negor. The old Caspirus is not Cachemir, but a city lying nearer to Persia; perhaps Ghazna or Ghazmin. F.
[27] Cabul, one of the most northern cities of India, probably the old Argyræum. F.
[28] Hastinapuri, or Hastinagari, at present Ashnagur, was formerly the chief city of the Assakani, an ancient people of India. It is not improbable that the Assyrian and Persian kings may have extended their dominions thither. F.
[29] In the eighth part of his works, p. 210-218, according to the Venetian edition.
[30] The Greeks were accustomed to compare with their own all the divinities of the most distant foreign nations; and a similarity in the name, or in any thing else, made them immediately find in them Grecian deities. Thus the Deva-Nishi was Dionysius; the Neith of the Egyptians, Minerva or Athene; their Serapis, Jupiter; their Horus, Apollo, &c.—The river Allakantara in La Rochette’s map of 1788 is called Allaknanda, and in Mannert’s map Allaknandra. F.
[31] The village of Pallipatur lies quite close to Allahabad, the name of which is Persian, and which is of a much later origin. F.
[32] A description of this observatory may be found in the Philosophical Transactions.
[33] Above three millions sterling.
[34] It can, however, be proved, that the English draw much more from their Indian possessions than the author says. For, in the first place, oppression is not so general as the author pretends; and besides, many abuses were rectified by the marquis of Cornwallis. 2dly, In Bengal, from which the English derive their greatest incomes, there has properly been no war for a long time. 3dly, The East India Company has issued orders and formed regulations for reviving agriculture and manufactures. 4thly, The monopoly is not very prejudicial, as it extends only to a few articles. 5thly, The specie exported to China and England has been in part made good by the large sums which Tippoo Saib has been obliged to pay to the East India Company. In a word, the English, by their late conquests in India, Ceylon, Malacca, Amboina, Banda, &c. have considerably enlarged their revenue. F.
[35] Sir William Jones, in one of his anniversary discourses, says, “It seems agreed that the singular people called Egyptians, and by corruption Gypsies, passed the Mediterranean immediately from Egypt: and their motely language, of which Mr. Grellman exhibits a copious vocabulary, contains so many Sanscrit words, that their Indian origin can hardly be doubted. The authenticity of that vocabulary seems established by a multitude of Gypsy words; as angár, charcoal; cásth, wood; pár, a bank; bhû, earth; and a hundred more, for which the collector of them could find no parallel in the vulgar dialect of Hindostan, though we know them to be pure Sanscrit, scarcely changed in a single letter. A very ingenious friend, to whom this remarkable fact was imparted, suggested to me that those very words might have been taken from old Egyptian, and that the Gypsies were Troglodytes from the rocks near Thebes, where a race of banditti still resemble them in their habits and features; but, as we have no other evidence of so strong an affinity between the popular dialects of old Egypt and India, it seems more probable that the Gypsies, whom the Italians call Zingaros and Zinganos, were no other than Zinganians, as M. D’Anville also writes the word, who might, in some piratical expedition, have landed on the coast of Arabia or Africa, whence they might have rambled to Egypt, and at length might have migrated or been driven into Europe.” Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 8. E. Trans.
[36] See Montesquieu’s Works. London 1777, vol. i. p. 180.
[37] This nabob of Arcate or Arcot, is merely a nominal prince. His whole territories are beset with English troops; and he is suffered to exist, as is the case with many others, merely that it may appear as if the country were actually ruled by native Indian or at least Oriental princes. F.
[38] The author here means, without doubt, Mr. Christian Frederick Schwarz, missionary at Tanjaur, sent thither by the English Society for promoting Christian knowledge. This missionary, in the 51st part of the New History of the Evangelic Missionary Establishments in India, p. 275-284, has defended the newly-converted Christians there against the illiberal accusations of Secretary Montgomery Campbell, and clearly shewn that the avaricious British commissaries, by their oppression and extortion, are the cause of the poverty of the country and of the wretched state of agriculture.—The author calls Mr. Schwarz a Dane. He has probably been led into this mistake by his connection with the Danish missionaries at Tranquebar; for, as far as I know, Mr. Schwarz is a German. F.
[39] Tapissendis is a general name given to the cotton stuffs procured from India. They are partly painted and partly printed with wooden blocks. Gingam is properly the name given to those cotton stuffs which come from Bengal and the coast of Coromandel. They are distinguished by this particular circumstance, that a thread made from the bark of a tree is interwoven with the cotton. A.
This information respecting the difference between the Tapissendis and Gingams is new. It is, however, a pity that the author did not give the name of the tree which produces the bark employed in manufacturing the latter. Had he made it known, he would have deserved thanks from all naturalists and technologists.—In Madagascar, the inhabitants of the sea-coast manufacture, from the long leaves of a tree called by them Vattulala, but which is no farther known to botanists, a kind of very strong stuffs, sometimes as fine as the best camblet, and frequently employed by the women at the Cape of Good Hope to make under-petticoats. F.
[40] Tirunaveli, near the fortress Palamotta, is called also, on the modern maps, Tinivelly. F.
[41] It was a part of the political system of the ancient Indian kings, that they never entered the territories of their neighbours in a hostile manner but upon the most urgent occasions. If they could not possibly avoid it, they at least suffered the people employed in agriculture to remain at peace, and molested neither their temples nor their priests. We are told so by Strabo, and by Adrian in his History of Alexander’s Expedition to India. The policy of the Mahometan conquerors and their allies in India has, on the contrary, been, as far as they were able, to reduce the mightiest sovereigns and kingdoms to obedience, and to endeavour to govern the latter themselves; to leave on the throne only the weakest princes, and to render them tributary; to foment quarrels between them, or bring about a reconciliation according as it suited their interest; never to undertake more than one war at a time; to allow religious liberty in its full extent only to their allies, and to suffer them alone to retain their ancient usages and customs; to take part always with one or other of two contending parties, and in that manner to increase their power; lastly, to furnish their allies with officers to command their troops. Ossa vides regum vacuis exhausta medullis. In this manner they suck the very marrow from the bones of kings, says Juvenal in his eighth satire. A.
[42] The kingdom of Carnate must certainly have enjoyed a long state of peaceful prosperity under its native kings. This we have reason to conclude from the extensive pagodas, regularly built with art and a sort of magnificence, which are found in it; and also from the many old castles and fortified towns on the borders of the kingdom, and in the passes which conduct through the mountains called the Gauts. The duration of the ancient buildings, for so many centuries, may be explained by the nature of the mortar used in India, which is a mixture of oil and viscous substances, and by the dry warm climate. The Mahometan princes first brought poverty into this country, formerly so fortunate; and what they began the Europeans completed, by carrying thither as soldiers the refuse of all nations. F.
[43] See the bull of Clement VIII. of the year 1600, which begins thus: In supremo militantis ecclesiæ solio. Also that of Clement X. issued on the 7th of June 1674. A.
[44] This estimation of the number of the Roman Catholic Christians (48,000) is certainly too high, even if we should forget how the missionaries of the Romish church behave in regard to their so called converts. They insinuate themselves as physicians into the houses of the Indians; draw a wet cloth over the head and forehead of a sick person, even when at the point of death; mutter privately to themselves the baptism service; and think they have then made one Christian more, who is immediately added to their list.—The protestant missionaries have in the course of nineteen years baptised 19,340 persons. See Neuere Geschichte der evangelischen Missions-anstalten, 51st part, Halle 1797, 4to. p. 187. F.
[45] In warm countries sensuality is more active, and the imagination more lively; and therefore the usages of the Catholic church must have greater effect on the Indians, who, when they become members of it, imagine that they only leave one idolatrous worship to embrace another. F.
[46] The Tschuderies, or resting-places in India, are indeed beneficent establishments, but not to be compared with the large and elegant caravanseries in Persia and Turkey. Each, however, are suited to the nature of the country in which they are found. India is extremely populous, whereas in Persia and Turkey there are immense wilds and deserts, totally destitute of inhabitants. In the latter countries, merchants, for the sake of security, must travel in large bodies, and therefore require for themselves, their merchandize and cattle, resting-places of greater extent. F.
[47] I must, however, confess that I have been sometimes robbed: but the Kuli, or other poor Indians, never took any thing else from me than liquor or provisions, which they found necessary for their support. As they are always satisfied with little, it may be readily comprehended that what they purloined was of no great value. During a residence of thirteen or fourteen years in India I never heard of any traveller being robbed or murdered on the highway. A.——Travelling is not equally secure in every part of India. In the peninsula on this side the Ganges, Bengal and Oude, as far as the power of the English extends, there is nothing to be feared; but in the mountains, and farther towards the north-west, the same safety does not prevail. F.
[48] The Caida, or Kayda, is the Kenra of Forskäl, or the Pandamùs odoratissima of Linnæus. On account of the similarity in the leaves, it has been called also Bromelia. The natives of Otaheite cover their houses with it. The farina of the male flowers is used as a perfume. F.
[49] The Indians divide good works into Gnana and Karma: Under the former appellation they comprehend wisdom, meditation, and internal spiritual employment. Karma, on the other hand, signifies practice, external exercise. Meditation and spiritual works are the occupation of the philosophers, particularly the Budhists. The Karma, however, or external good works, such as prayer, lustrations, offerings, and the like, are confined by the Brahman priests merely to the common people. A.
[50] According to Stevens the Tical is equal to a Rupee. E. T.
[51] This sovereign died 56 years before the birth of Christ. A.
[52] A Paolo is worth about 6d. sterling; and ten Bajocchi make a Paolo.
[53] The author’s information respecting the coins, measures and weights in the different parts of India is without doubt useful, and of great importance to those who wish to be acquainted with the Indian trade; but a fuller account of them may be found in Stephen’s Guide to the Trade of India, and, if I am not mistaken, in a volume of the Transactions of the Batavian Society. F.
[54] It is very singular to find people in the eighteenth century bringing forward evidence to prove that the apostle Thomas was stoned to death and interred, seventeen hundred years ago, at Mailapuri or St. Thomas. The Mar Thomas, of whom there are so many traditionary accounts in India, was probably Thomas Cana, an Armenian, who must have gone to India before the sixth century, and have there diffused the doctrines of Christianity among his own followers. In the year 822 two Nestorian priests from Syria, called Mar Sapor and Mar Parges, went from Babylon to India, and landed at Coulan. The Indian princes granted extensive privileges to the Christians of Mar Thomas, and to the two priests from Babylon, by which they were raised above the Nairs, or Malabar nobility. These privileges were engraven on plates of copper, and it is believed were not long ago extant somewhere in India. The archbishop of Goa, Alexis de Menezes, a despotic enthusiast, endeavoured, in 1599, in a synod at Diamper, to unite the Nestorian Christians with the Romish church, and burnt all their books and papers; but they still exist as a distinct sect. See La Crozes View of the State of the Church in India. The German translation is fuller than the French original, because the author supplied the translator with a great many important improvements and additions. F.
[55] Some curious particulars respecting this practice may be seen in a paper on the duties of a faithful Hindu widow, by Henry Colebroke, Esq. in the 4th vol. of Dissertations and Miscellaneous Pieces relating to the History, Antiquities, &c. of Asia, reprinted for Vernor and Hood, 1798. E. T.
[56] See a full account of these sculptures and ruins by William Chambers, Esq. in the first volume Asiatic Researches, reprinted for Vernor and Hood, 1798. E. T.
[57] The oldest pagodas in India, and a great many of the ancient Egyptian temples, are cut out in the solid rock. This mode of architecture, peculiar to the oldest nations, was derived from the nature of their own dwellings. It is probable that the first men lived in mountainous districts, and that holes or cavities in the earth, partly natural and partly formed by art, were their earliest habitations. The Troglodytes, that is, the inhabiters of holes, dug out places of the like kind for performing their religious worship. At later periods they ventured to quit the mountains to reside on low hills and plains; and, that they might not suffer from inundations, to build houses and towns on artificial eminences, and to dig canals and ditches in order to procure earth for making these artificial mounts. In places destitute of stones they built habitations of brick dried in the sun, which they cemented together by means of lime, bitumen, and other substances. It was not till periods much later that burnt bricks and cut stone began to be employed for building temples and palaces. F.
[58] All rivers which have their sources in high mountainous districts generally flow with great impetuosity after heavy rains, so that it is sometimes dangerous, if not impossible, to cross them. Various instances of the truth of this observation may be found in Vaillant’s Travels into the interior Parts of Africa. F.
[59] It is, indeed, worthy of remark, that the many petty princes on the Malabar coast have maintained their independence, notwithstanding the great revolutions by which the whole face of India has been changed, and though each singly was not sufficiently powerful to withstand a formidable enemy, and though they are seldom in such a state of friendship with each other as to oppose with united forces any antagonist that might attack them from the north and the east. The author explains this phenomenon very properly. The conquest of these small states is, however, possible: 1st, by fomenting quarrels between the princes, and then espousing the cause of one of the parties: 2d, by establishing strong posts and erecting fortresses in the defiles of the mountains and places where the rivers are fordable: 3d, by employing artillery and troops acquainted with the European discipline. The last method was employed by Tippoo Saib, in order to reduce some places on the sea coast. F.
[60] The Mahometan Arabs, who, under the Caliph Valid, established themselves on the coast of Malabar, and in the northern part of India, are at present commonly called Moors. The Patans, or, as they are otherwise called, Afgans or Afguans, have nothing in common with these Arabs but their religion. They are a branch of the Albanians from Mount Caucasus, as has been already remarked by Gœrber and Dr. Reineggs, or Ehlich. The Armenians cannot pronounce the letter l in the middle of a word, and therefore they call the Albans or Alwans Aghwans. These aborigines of the Caucasian territories were known to the ancient writers, Strabo, Pliny, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Dio Cassius. According to the last-mentioned author they extended themselves from the Tanais (Don) to the Ganges. These people, who had thus wandered as far as India, were subdued by the Saracens, and converted to the Mahometan Religion by the sword, but they afterwards recovered their independence. Some of these Patan chiefs founded in the neighbourhood of Delhi small principalities; others penetrated into the Decan, and made themselves masters of small provinces, which have been since taken from them by Nizam Aly, the Marattas, and Tippoo Saib. Even the Rohillas are a race descended from the Patans. See Edwards’s Memoir of a Map comprehending the countries between the Black Sea and the Caspian. London 1788, p. 6. and M. C. Sprengel’s Allgem. Hist. Taschenbuch. Berlin 1786. F.
[61] This account of the Jews on the Malabar coast is partly incomplete, and partly doubtful. We know something more certain respecting the Jews at Cochin, by M. Adrian Moens, governor and director of the Dutch East India Company on that coast, which has been published in Busching’s Magazine, vol. xiv. p. 123-154. The Jews on the Malabar coast are distinguished into two kinds, white and black. The former, in their synagogue near Cochin, have two oblong square plates of copper, containing old Malabar writing in lines that run across them, and in a mixed dialect of the Malabar, Tamulic, and Tulengic languages. The subject of this writing is a charter granted to Isup Rabbaan at Cranganor, by Erawi Wanmara emperor of Malabar, in the year from Kalijogam 3481 (that is 426 after the birth of Christ), and in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, in virtue of which he confirmed to Isup Rabbaan (Joseph Rabbi) the same privileges as had been before enjoyed by the petty Malabar viceroys. “He and the seventy-two families (related probably to each other) were to enjoy them as long as the sun should illuminate the earth; but all other Jews and their descendants were to be obedient to his commands, and to those of his successors.”—In a Portuguese book, Notisias dos Judeos de Cochim, printed at Amsterdam in 1681, it is said: In the year of the world 4130, according to the Jewish mode of computation (that is 369 years after the birth of Christ), seventy or eighty thousand Jews were landed from the kingdom of Majorca on the coast of Malabar. Now, as the Balearic islands were subdued by the Vandals exactly in the year 425 after the birth of Christ, it is probable that the Jews who were settled there removed to Jerusalem and Egypt; and being supported by their Jewish brethren, were conveyed thence by sea to India, in the year 426 of the Christian æra. Their number, however, may perhaps not have been so great. These Jews established themselves in Cranganor and the neighbouring districts, and founded a small kingdom. They purchased slaves, particularly black ones, and converted them, as well as several more of the natives, to their religion. These new converts gave rise to the black Jews, who wished to enjoy the same privileges as the white, and to unite themselves with them by intermarriages. As their claims were not allowed, they disowned the authority of the white Jews and of their king; and a war was the consequence, in which the latter were almost destroyed. They were, however, assisted by the prince of the country, and the black Jews were again reduced to obedience. After that period the black and white Jews had distinct synagogues, and lived apart from each other. Two brothers of the royal race ruled in common; but they afterwards separated, and the native princes raised a violent persecution against the Jews. They were so much oppressed by the Portuguese at Cranganor, that they were obliged, in 1565, to solicit the protection of the king of Cochin, near which city they still reside. The ancient royal race, and the descendants of those who went to India before the year 1371, are totally extinct. The white Jews, who reside near Cochin at present, went to India at later periods, from Palestine, Persia, Constantinople, Bagdad and Egypt, and even from England, Poland, Germany, Spain and Holland. The black Jews are the descendants of the ancient race above mentioned. Their books are according to the Spanish ritual, and they procure them from Amsterdam. They have nine synagogues, and consist of about 460 families, who amount perhaps to 3000 or 4000 persons. F.
[62] A full account of the migration, incursions, wars, revolutions, laws and manners of those foreign nations who established themselves in India, may be seen in the writings of Hyde, Texeira, Renaudot, Barros, the Abbe Guyon, Raynal, St. Lubin, Anquetil du Perron, and in the lives of Tamerlane and Thamas Kuli Khan; also in the Persian books Vakiat-Babri, Monte-Keb-el-Tarik, Akbar Nama, and Magir-Gehan Guiri, which are to be found partly in the library at Paris, and partly in that of Mr. Samuel Guise. A.
[63] These philosophers are called properly Joqui; from Joga, community; under which name is understood people who have every thing in common. In the Samscred they are named Gòsuàmi, from Go a cow, and Suami a lord; consequently lords of the cow: for they are accustomed to besprinkle and paint their bodies with dried cow’s dung. They are known also by a more ancient Samscred name, viz. Samanà or Shamanà, that is, the Mild; for they kill no animal, cut no plants, and never eat fish, but feed merely on rice, wild herbs, roots and fruit. They live together in company, under a common chief or teacher, who in the Samscred is called Guru. As true gymnosophists, they go quite naked, and sleep on the ground, having nothing under them but mats made of palm leaves interwoven with each other. They avoid all intercourse with the world; study philosophy, theogony, botany and astronomy, and have written a great many treatises on these sciences in the Indian languages. They are real stoics, and often impose upon themselves the severest penances. They are mentioned by Cicero, Plutarch, Clemens of Alexandria, and Arrian. The last author says, besides other things respecting them, that they were accustomed to walk down into the sea at Cape Comari, in order to purify themselves;—a custom which they have retained to this day. A.——These Dschoqui or Jogui are therefore the followers of the old Indian philosophers called Samanæi. Because they went naked, they were called by the Greeks gymnosophists, that is, naked philosophers. F.
[64] This conduct of Fra Paolino seems rather unevangelical and harsh, and to have been somewhat in the style of a Boanerges, or those sons of thunder who wished to call down fire immediately from heaven. Our zealous monk procured full power from the magistrate in order to execute his inquisitorial sentence. This, no doubt, cost him a considerable sum of money, and must have been charged under the head of secret service. Instead of advice and admonition, the monk administered a sound beating! This may properly be called obeying the command: Compelle illos intrare! The other means by which the Indians are converted to the Catholic religion, are no doubt of the same kind as this church discipline. F.
[65] An account of the violent measures as well as arts employed by the Romish Church to make the Nestorians in India unite themselves to it, may be seen in the work published by the ingenious and learned La Croze on the state of Christianity in that country. The above-mentioned synod at Diemper or Udiamper, at which the violent, enthusiastic, and despotic Alexis de Menezes effected a pretended union of the Christians of St. Thomas, is a real and lasting monument of shame for the Romish Church. It is impossible to read the history of it without the most affecting sensations, and without being sensible that the spirit of enthusiasm is always combined with ignorance and the most striking barbarity. Since the reformation the Romish Church has exhibited very little of its former violence, and some of its members have learned to know the importance of ancient monuments, particularly those of Eastern Christianity. This is sufficiently shewn by Assemanni and Renaudot in their writings, and by the valuable collections of the noble Cardinal Borgia at Velitri. F.
[66] The decline of the Nestorian monasteries on the coast of Malabar was not occasioned merely by the establishment of the Portuguese in that country, but by the furious persecuting spirit and the violent conduct of the Portuguese clergy. The mild beneficent teachers of the Christians of St. Thomas were either compelled to join the Romish Church, or suffered to become extinct; as it was impossible for new ecclesiastics or monks to go to India from Persia, or the Persian gulph, where the Portuguese at that time had great power. Afterwards, indeed, when the Dutch got the better of the Portuguese, Syrian and Nestorian ecclesiastics went from Persia and Antioch to India; but these priests, who belonged to different sects, were always at variance with each other. See Relatio historica ad Epistolam Syriacam a Maha Thome, i. e. Magna Thoma Indo, antiquorum Syrorum in India Episcopo, ex Chaddenad in Malabaria scriptam ad Ignatium Patriarcham Antiochenum, et ipsa illa Episcopi Indi Epistola Syriaca, cum Versione Latina, &c. accurante Carolo Schaaf. Lugduni Batavorum, 1714. 4to. F.
[67] The two kinds of potatoes here mentioned by the author do not probably belong to the real species of the potatoe, solanum, but to some other vegetable production of the like kind, such as the Dioscorea alata L., the exterior skin of which is black, but the internal pulpy part, when roasted in the ashes, is white, or of a purple colour. The round potatoes may be a kind of the Spanish potatoes, Convolvulus Batatas, or the gold-coloured root of the Convolvulus Chrysorrhizus, which is not only cultivated, but grows wild also in the islands of the South Sea, and which has been described by my son George in his Treatise De Plantis Esculentis Insularum Maris Pacifici. The Convolvulus Batatas was carried from America by the Spaniards to the Philippines and neighbouring islands; and on that account the plant there is called Castile, because it was first introduced by the Castilians or Spaniards. F.
[68] That in the impenetrable forests of the Gauts there are wild elephants, is well known; but the people on the sea-coast content themselves with those of Ceylon, which are more docile, and easier to be tamed.—It may be readily seen by the wild buffaloes that this is the original country of these animals, which were first brought from India ta Italy in the time of Agilulph king of Lombardy, between the years 591 and 616.—The deer mentioned by the author form probably more than one kind. India produces, 1st, the Cervus Axis L. or the spotted deer, which is somewhat larger than our fallow deer. 2d, The porcine deer, Cervus Porcinus L. brown with round white spots, and from two feet four inches to three feet and a half in height. 3d, The elk, Cervus Alce L. Professor Zimmerman, however, in his Zoological Geography, does not allow the elk, or rein-deer, to be an inhabitant beyond the 50th degree of north latitude; but the former has been bold enough to overstep the boundaries which he has drawn on his chart, and has penetrated to the woody, marshy, solitary valleys of India. See Essais philosophiques sur les Moeurs de divers Animaux étrangers, par Foucher D’Obsonville, p. 115. In the same work much information may be obtained respecting the black and white kinds of apes, which inhabit the Indian forests in flocks of thousands.—The real Indian striped (not spotted) tyger, which is from nine to ten feet in length, and from four to four and a half in height, is not common even in India, and is to be found only in the thickest forests. He gives place to no animals but the lion, elephant, and rhinoceros.—The Indian parrots are, in a literal sense, almost innumerable, for every traveller brings home new kinds to Europe. The old Grecian name ψιττακη, seems to be of Egyptian origin: Π-ϹΙΤΤΑΚΗ. The Π is an article: the Germans, therefore, have omitted it, and converted the word into Sittich. F.
[69] Many instances may be found, both in ancient and modern history, of great changes having been produced on the surface of the earth, and on the coasts of the ocean, by hurricanes and earthquakes, as well as by the waters of the sea and by rivers. That piece of water, known by the name of the Dead Sea, arose by a fiery eruption from the earth; and in Egypt, along the northern bank of the Delta, and on both sides, there are large lakes, particularly the lakes Mœris and Serbau, which were indebted for their origin to storms, earthquakes, and inundations of the Nile. In Peloponnesus, or the present Morea, the cities of Helice, Bura, and some others in Achaia, were swallowed up by the sea, two years before the battle of Leuctra. Even in the eighteenth century, Callao in Peru was overwhelmed, and, with all its houses, inhabitants, and the ships in the harbour, became a prey to the waves of the ocean. The great changes effected by the earthquake in Calabria, are still fresh in the memory of every one: during that horrid catastrophe whole mountains and rocks were precipitated into the sea. F.
[70] The low inundated land at the bottom of the Gauts, which consists of marl or clay and strata of chalk, together with the higher strata where the mountains are steep towards the sea, being violently torn away in the rainy season by the streams and currents collected in the mountains, form, at their influx into the sea, banks and accumulations which are still raised higher, and are driven back by the sea towards the land. In this manner are formed plains, islands, and little hills; the origin of which can, in this manner, be very naturally explained. F.
[71] In the time of the Romans a freedman of Annius Plocanus experienced a similar fate. See Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vi. c. 22. A.
[72] More information respecting Cochin may be found in Philip Baldæus’s Description of the Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, Amsterdam 1672, fol. p. 111-136; Francis Valentin’s Beschryving van’t Nederlandsch Comptoir op de Kust van Malabar, Amst. 1726. fol. in the fifth part of his Oude en Niewe Oost-Indien; and in Hamilton’s New Account of the East Indies, from 1688 to 1723. Lond. vol. I. and II, 1739. 8vo. p. 321, &c. F.
[73] The reproaches thrown out by the Protestants against the celibacy of the Catholic clergy is so far right, as that state gives rise to immoral conduct and dissipation, of which too many instances may be found, both among the higher and lower clergy of the Romish church. The immorality, however, of the English and Dutch is no less worthy of censure. F.
[74] See Istoria della Vita e Fatti illustri del Ven. Monsign. Giuseppe di S. Maria de’ Sebastiani. Roma 1719. l. xi. p. 254. where these excesses are particularly described. A.
[75] In the map published by Faden, in 1788, entitled The Southern Countries of India from Madras to Cape Comorin, by Capt. Wersebe, this place is called Tripunctare.
[76] It is no wonder that the native princes should endeavour to lay the trade open to foreign nations, when the merchants of the neighbouring factories raise the price of their own goods, and pay as little as they can for those of India. These monopolies must, in the end, induce the petty princes of India to adopt wiser regulations, more conducive to the prosperity of their dominions. The English even, though so powerful at present in that country, must excite the hatred of the natives and princes if they do not alter their conduct. F.
[77] Respecting the ancient state of Cranganor, the reader may consult the before-mentioned works of Baldæus, Valentin, and Hamilton. In regard to its present condition, I know as little as the author. F.
[78] On the before-mentioned map of Capt. Wersebe this place is called Gnareca. F.
[79] On Wersebe’s map Palipuram is called Paliporto; Aycotta, Aicotta, or Chuvocat; and Paravur is named Parour. F.
[80] We know from various accounts, published by the English and the missionaries, with what cruelty the followers of the Brahman religion were treated by the inhuman Tippoo Sultan, and in what manner he endeavoured by the rack and famine to make them embrace the Mahometan faith. He was, however, deprived of a full third of his dominions, which he had enlarged by robbery; and he is now closely watched, to prevent him from entering into any treaty of alliance with the other Indian powers, or from disturbing the tranquillity of India. F.
[81] That pirates formerly resided in the neighbourhood of Mount Illi, which is mentioned by Ptolemy under the name of ΕΛΑΓΚΩΝ, or EΛIΓKΩΝ, as an emporium, or place of trade, and that even in the present century the pirate Angria had established himself on this coast, is well known. For an account of Angria, see Clement Downing’s History of the Indian Wars, with an Account of Angria the Pyrate. London 1737, 8vo. The appellation of Molandis given to these sea-robbers is to me entirely new. F.
[82] All the Indian languages and characters used on this side the Ganges, seem to be derived from the Samscred: and even the religious ideas of the natives are only here and there modified in a different manner. The Indian literature, branched out into so many languages, merely on account of the great extent of the country, was introduced at the same time as its religious worship. F.
[83] That the post has been introduced into India, and distinguished by the name of Angelà, was before unknown. A kind of post was established formerly in Persia. Certain persons, employed by the king for carrying letters, small articles, and dispatches, and who were called Αγγαροι (Angari), had a right to require of all those whom they met to remove out of their way; to take from them horses, ships, and carriages, &c.; and to compel the owners themselves to carry burdens. This compulsive service the Greeks distinguished by the name of Αγγαρειον, a word derived from the Persian, which is to be found in the New Testament, Matth. xxvii. This old Persian word, Angaros, seems to have an affinity to the Indian word Angelà; and it is not improbable that the Persians borrowed their establishment of the post from the Indians, or the latter theirs from the Persians. I am almost inclined to think that it was first introduced among the Indians. The above-mentioned couriers are called in Persia, at present, Tschaptar, that is, those who ride on a full gallop. F.
[84] This population, in a country so small as the coast of Malabar, or Malayala, is undoubtedly very great. About forty coss or Malabar miles make a degree. This coast, therefore, contains at most 450 geographical square miles, and to each of these there are consequently almost 3703 persons. In other parts of India a far greater number of persons live on a square mile; but we must take into consideration the mountains, forests, lakes and rivers in Malabar, and also the devastation occasioned in the country by the merciless Tippoo Saib. F.
[85] The author ought not to have called milk, butter and coco-nut oil food easy of digestion. The continual use of milk renders it at length very heavy for the stomachs of most people. The fat parts of butter and coco-nut oil are indigestible; and as the acid parts of fat separate from it, this acid attacks the stomach and the bowels. Now the Indians use no flesh, which contains abundance of alkaline parts, and therefore the acid cannot be neutralised by these parts. It is, however, true in general, that the great moderation of the Indians, though indeed often occasioned by want, contributes greatly to their healthfulness. That such moderation promotes the generative powers is very doubtful. F.
[86] Monogamy, the great care employed by parents to get their daughters married, the want of nunneries, the great honour in which marriage is held in India, and the little expence required for educating and clothing children, are the real causes of the increase of population in that country. Even among us the middle and lower classes would produce more children were they not afraid of the expences of education. F.
[87] I have, in general, observed, that the small-pox are malignant where the body, in order to prevent perspiration, is frequently rubbed over with fat or oily substances. Dirtiness, immoderation, or luxury in eating and drinking, and particularly the use of heating things, greatly increase the malignity of the disease. A confirmation of what I have here asserted, may be found in America, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa among the Negroes, and among the Calmucks in Russia. Among people who employ the warm bath, as the Russians, Turks, Persians, &c. the small-pox are less malignant. F.
[88] That the polygamy of the Mahometans and Indians of higher rank does not contribute to population is certain: for, 1st, polygamy deprives many a male of a female; 2d, it occasions more female children to be born, and consequently destroys the true proportion so well suited to monogamy.—Perhaps the polyandria of the women among the Nayrs causes more males to be brought into the world, and thus supplies the deficiency.
[89] It is well known, that the ancient Greek authors have observed, in regard to the Indian literati and persons of rank, that they lived in woods, and places planted with palm-trees.—The intelligent reader will here recollect Otaheite, where those who are under no necessity of exposing themselves to the sun and the sea air, have a pale-brown colour, inclining to yellow; and where the complexion of the most beautiful women approaches nearer to the colour of the Europeans than that of the men, so that an agreeable ruddiness can be seen to flush in their cheeks when they are animated. The Tautaus, or labouring class, are much browner; so that one might believe they belong to another race. F.
[90] Bruce also, during his travels through Arabia, observed that the women soon acquired every mark of old age, and that they left off child-bearing at an early period. This, perhaps, has given rise to polygamy in Arabia. F.
[91] There are various reasons which prevent the Indians from imitating the household furniture and cooking utensils of the Europeans. The poorer sort of people cannot do it, on account of their circumstances; and the rich will not, because they hate and detest the whites, by whom they are oppressed. Besides, many of the European customs, articles of furniture, &c. are not suited to the climate of India. The attachment of the Indians to every thing handed down to them by their ancestors, arises from that pride prevalent among all little cultivated nations, who, like the Chinese for example, consider what they themselves possess as the best in the world. F.
[92] The object of agriculture in India is almost exclusively rice, and that kind of it the growth and increase of which are particularly promoted by inundating the fields. As the chief point is to devise proper means for watering the land, the large rivers have been divided into small streams, and conducted by ditches and canals to the nearest plains. When the rivers are not swelled up by abundant rains, so as to overflow their banks, the water is raised by machines put in motion by men or oxen; or large reservoirs are formed, which the Europeans call Tangs or Tanks. In these reservoirs the rain water, which pours down in torrents during the time of the monsoons, is collected, and afterwards conveyed through different channels to the rice fields. A great deal of sesamum is sown on account of its oil; and poppies, particularly in Bengal, are cultivated, in order to produce opium. Millet, maize, and the kind of rice which grows in dry soil, are less generally cultivated. Rice, when freed from the husk, is called Nella. Every Indian has in his house a wooden mortar and pestle for reducing it to that state.—Horticulture, in India, consists only in planting certain portions of ground with palms and different kinds of fruit trees. The fruits are figs, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, &c. The coco, areca, and butter-palms are the trees most common in gardens: roses, jasmin, and different kinds of lilies, are reared on account of their smell.—Botany is comprehended only in the Upaveda books, written in the earliest periods, in the Samscred language; one division of which, the Adschurveda, gives an account of the uses of the Indian plants, together with the method of cultivating them. This part of the sacred books is, however, studied by very few of the learned Brahmans. It is not improbable that it contains a number of observations carefully made and collected in the most remote ages, though it may readily be supposed that a great deal of useless and superstitious matter must be interspersed throughout them; for every plant and flower is dedicated to one or more of the Indian deities. Lovers in India have the art, as may be seen in the play called Sacontala, to express various ideas by flowers, and by the method of arranging them, or interweaving them into garlands; and this art is, no doubt, taught in the before-mentioned work.—Hunting is the occupation of great men and princes, who employ, for that purpose, tamed leopards (Tschittahs), falcons, dogs, nets, and a great number of attendants.—Fishing is the employment only of the Mucoas, or persons of the meanest and lowest classes.—The architecture of the Indians, in their large public buildings, and particularly those devoted to religious worship, or the sciences, such for example as observatories, is far from being contemptible. Their cement, with which they mix oil, is durable, and almost indestructible. Their style in their oldest edifices, such as the temple of Elephanta at Bombay, has a great likeness to the Egyptian. Whether the Indians were taught architecture by the Egyptians, or the Egyptians by the Indians, will always remain doubtful, until better and more decisive proofs are produced to determine the question. F.
[93] The Teka wood (Tectona grandis Linn. Gmel.) employed in India for building houses and ships, is indeed strong and durable; but the dry climate of that country is one of the chief causes why edifices constructed of such timber stand so long. The common people in India build houses of mud and loam, the walls of which are infested by centipedes (Scolopendræ), scorpions, and snakes; so that it is not only unpleasant, but dangerous, to reside in them. F.
[94] Such readers as are acquainted with the different voyages to the South Seas, will here be struck with the similarity between the Indian manners and those of the natives of Otaheite. F.
[95] The great respect paid to superiors and preceptors among the Indian nations, shows that they possess a certain degree of cultivation, and a delicate sense of moral obligation and gratitude. F.
[96] Since the English have taken from the Dutch the island of Ceylon (Singhala), and got possession of the real cinnamon tree, Laurus cinnamomum Linn. they will make little or no use of the Malabar cinnamon, Laurus cassia Linn. which is perhaps only a variety of that of Ceylon. The Malabar cinnamon will in time be totally forgotten and banished from commerce; as the real cinnamon tree, as well as those which produce nutmegs and cloves, have been raised from the seed, and planted several years ago in the isles of Reunion and France (Bourbon and Mauritius), and also in the Sechelle isles, Guadaloupe, Jamaica, and the northern Circars. This much is certain, that the Malabar cinnamon has not so aromatic a smell, and does not contain so many particles of ethereal oil, as that of Ceylon. The former, hitherto, has been imported to England only through necessity, in order to prevent the sale of the latter. F.
[97] A lack amounts to about 12,500 l. sterling.
[98] Kings of the first, rank were, the Samuri, and Perumpadapil, or the king of Cochin. To the second rank belonged the kings of Tannur, Codungalur, Parpurangàri, Airur, Cannanur, Edapallì or Rapolim, Cajamcollam, Temàli, Parur, Punettur, Alangatta, Angamàli, and Ayanicurra, Those of the third rank were called Karttàva, that is, princes or lords. Such were the Karttàva of Panamucatta, Nandielette, Ciangracòtta, Puducòtta, Maprànam, Muriata, Cunateri, Codacèri, Cettatur, Puttenpidia, Curumbilaga, and Cettuà. Several of these petty princes and lords still existed at the time I arrived in Malabar. A.
[99] This information is of the utmost importance to the modern history of India; and the author is entitled to thanks for having communicated it to the public. F.