With respect to the marks of the several suits, in the different packs of Hindostanee cards, previously described,--what objects they graphically represent, what they might have been intended to signify by the person who devised them, and what allegorical meanings may have assigned to them by others,--much might be said; and a writer of quick imagination, and hieroglyphic wit, like Court de Gebelin, might readily find in them not only a summary of all the knowledge of the Hindoos--theological, moral, political, and scientific--but also a great deal more than they either knew or dreamt of. As I feel my inability to perform such a task, or rather to enjoy such pleasures of imagination; and as the present work does not afford space for so wide a discursus, I shall confine my observations to such marks as appear to have, both in their form and meaning, the greatest affinity with the marks to be found on early European cards. The marks in the pack consisting of ten suits, representing the incarnations of Vichnou, I shall only incidentally refer to, as I am of opinion that those cards are not such as either are or were generally used for the purposes of gaming, but are to be classed with those emblematic cards which have, at different periods, been devised in Europe for the purpose of insinuating knowledge into the minds of ingenious youth by way of pastime.
In referring to any of the marks to be found in the three eight-suit packs of Hindostanee cards, which appear to be intended for the purposes of play only, it seems unnecessary to specify the particular pack to which they belong, as my object is merely to call attention to the apparent agreement between some of the marks of Hindostanee cards, and those which are either known to have been the marks of the earliest European cards, or are to be found on such old cards as are still preserved in public libraries, or in the collections of individuals.
In the early European cards, which have cups, swords, pieces of money, and clubs or maces for the marks of the four suits,[61] the sword and piece of money of the Hindostanee cards are readily identified; and if we are to suppose that in these cards certain emblems of Vichnou were formerly represented--but which are not to be found either on the ordinary Playing Cards, or on those displaying the ten incarnations of Vichnou--it would not be difficult to account for the cups, and clubs or maces; for, according to Dr. Frederick Creutzer,[62] the mace or war club is frequently to be seen in one of the hands of Vichnou; and Count von Hammer-Purgstal remarks, that "the sword, the club, and the cup, are frequent emblems in the Eastern Ritual."[63] As the marks in European suits, cups, or chalices, swords, money, and clubs, have been supposed to represent the four principal classes of men in a European state, to wit, Churchmen; Swordmen, or feudal nobility; Monied men, merchants or traders; and Club-men, workmen, or labourers,--it is just as easy to run a parallel in the four superior suits of one of the packs of Hindostanee cards, given in Plate I; there may be found _Taj_, a crown, royalty; _Soofed_, silver money, merchants; _Shumsher_, a sword, fighting men, seapoys; and _Gholam_, a slave, the coolies both of hill and plain. It may not be unnecessary here to observe that the four great historical castes of the Hindoos are, 1, Bramins, priests; 2, Chetryas, soldiers; 3, Vaisyas, tradesmen and artificers; and 4, Sudras, slaves, and the lowest class of labourers. Of these four castes the Bramins alone remain unmixed; the other three, as distinct castes, exist only in name, for they have become so intermixed, that the subdivisions can neither be ascertained nor reckoned by the learned pundits themselves.[64]