HINDOOS, or HINDUS, otherwise called Gentoos, the original inhabitants of Hindoostan or Indostan and the bramins are their priests. They pretend that their legislator, Brama, bequeathed to them a book, called the vedas, containing his doctrines and instructions. The shanscrit language, in which the vedas are written, was, for many centuries, concealed in the hands of the bramins; but has at length been brought to light, by the indefatigable industry of the late learned and ingenious Sir Wm. Jones and others.
The Rev. Mr. Maurice, a learned writer of the present day, has, in an elaborate work, entitled, " A history of the antiquities of India," traced the origin of the Hindoo nation, and developed their religious system. The following imperfect sketch of the religion of Hindostan, is taken from that author.
He supposes that the first migration of mankind took place before the confusion of tongues at Babel, from the region of Ararat, where the ark rested. By the time the earth was sufficiently dry for so long a journey, either Noah himself, or some descendant of Shem, gradually led on the first journey £o the western frontiers of India; that this increasing colony flourished for a long succession of ages in primitive happiness and innocence; practised the purest rites of the patriarchal religion, without images and temples, till at length the descendants of Ham invaded and conquered India, and corrupted their ancient religion.
According to the Hindoo theology, Brahme, the great being, is the supreme, eternal, uncreated God. Brama, the first created being, by whom he made and governs the world, is the prince of the beneficent spiits. He is assisted by Vishnu, the great preserver of men, who, nine several times, appeared upon earth, and under a human form, for the most beneficent piurposes. Vishnu is often styled Crishna, the Indian Apollo, and in his character greatly resembles the Mithra of Persia. This prince of the benevolent Deutas has for a coadjutor Mahadeo, or Siva, the destroying power of God. And this three-fold divinity, armed with the terrours of almighty power, pursue through the whole extent of creation the rebellious Deutas, headed by Mahasoor, the great malignant spirit who seduced them, and dart upon their flying bands the fiery shafts of divine vengeance.
The nine incarnations of Vishnu, represent the Deity descending in a human shape to accomplish certain awful and important events, as in the instance of the three first; to confound blaspheming vice, to subvert gigantic tyranny, and to avenge oppressed innocence, as in the five following; or finally, as the ninth to abolish human sacrifices.
The Hindoo system teaches the existence of good and evil genii, or, in the language of Hindostan, debtas, dewtas, or devitas. These are represented as eternally conflicting together; and the incessant conflict which subsisted between them filled creation with uproar, and all its subordinate classes with dismay.
The doctrine of the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, is universally believed in India, from which country it is supposed to have originated many centuries before the birth of Plato, and was first promulgated in the geeta of Uyasa, the Plato of India. This doctrine teaches that degenerate spirits, fallen from their original rectitude, migrate through various bobuns, in the bodies of different animals.
The Hindoos suppose that there are fourteen bobuns, or spheres; seven below, and seven above the earth. The spheres above the earth are gradually ascending. The highest is the residence of Brahma and his particular favourites. After the soul transmigrates through various animal mansions, it ascends up the great sideral ladder of seven gates, and through the revolving spheres, which are called in India, the bobuns of purification.
It is the invariable belief of the bramins that man is a fallen creature. Their doctrine of the transmigration of the soul is built upon this foundation. The professed design of the metempsychosis was to restore the fallen soul to its pristine state of perfection and blessedness. The Hindoos represent the Deity as punishing only to reform his creatures. Nature itself exhibits one vast field of purgatory for the classes of existence. Their sacred writings represent the whole universe as an ample and august theatre for the probationary exertion of millions of beings, who are supposed to be so many spirits degraded from the high honours of angelical distinction, and condemned to ascend, through various gradations of toil and suffering, to that exalted sphere of perfection and happiness which they enjoyed before their defection.